Solstice

by James Patrick Kelly

It was while he was developing Focus that the famous drug artist, Cage, decided he needed someone to help him spend his money. He felt no particular urge to contract a marriage. None of the women he was sleeping with at the time mattered to him. He knew that they had been drawn by that irresistible pheromone: the smell of success. He wanted to share his life with someone who would be bound to him by ties no lawyer could break. Someone who would be uniquely his. Forever. Or so he imagined. Wynne was carried in an artificial womb. All it took was a tissue culture from a few of Cage's intestinal epithelial cells and some gene sculpturing to change the "Y" chromosome to an "X." This and one-point-two-million new dollars. She was not his daughter. Nor was she exactly his clone. This story is a cyberpunk classic on two audio CDs.

Genres: Short Stories

Audio CD

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

James Patrick Kelly (please, call him Jim) has had an eclectic writing career. He has written novels, short stories, essays, reviews, poetry, plays and planetarium shows. His short novel Burn won the Science Fiction Writers of America's Nebula Award in 2007. He has won the World Science Fiction Society’s Hugo Award twice: in 1996, for his novelette “Think Like A Dinosaur” and in 2000, for his novelette, “Ten to the Sixteenth to One.” His fiction has been translated into eighteen languages. He produces two podcasts: James Patrick Kelly's StoryPod on Audible and the Free Reads Podcast (Yes, it’s free). His most recent publishing venture is the ezine James Patrick Kelly’s Strangeways. His website is www.jimkelly.net.

Reviews

[Severian Aviam Amans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk anthology edited by Bruce Sterling.

SPOILERS AHEAD

It's a very weird, really messed up story about a famous (and very wealthy) drug designer (Tony Cage), in a world where drugs are legal. There is a lot about stonehenge, but the reality is that it's more a backdrop and the place where he eventually comes to his big realization.

Cage is a selfish degenerate, who spends half the year sleeping in cryosleep for taxation reasons. Is high constantly. While working for the corpos creating drugs, he stumbles upon a drug that becomes a massive hit. This propels his career. In the process he screws over his boss / mentor figure, becomes his boss and then assigns his former boss to do some research he knows will go nowhere, sabotaging his career and any chance he has to create anything good.

I .. really tend to like books about lowlife degenerates like Tony. One of my most favorite Gibson stories is dogfight. Because the protagonist is such a vile pos.

One day, Cage, lonely and high decides to have himself cloned, a female version of himself .. that he plans to raise as his perfect girlfriend / companion. Yes .. raise. So he raises this child, like any parent would and one day (as a teenager I believe, I've read the story in two chunks because I quit weed halfway through and couldn't really enjoy anything, including reading for a while) she comes to his bedside. And this starts a relationship between the two.

But she meets this kid called Tod. Ambitious kid who likes making music videos. Cage absolutely detests Tod. Sees him as this pathetic loser and poser. Tod meanwhile doesn't seem to like Cage much. Terrified he's stealing Wynne (his clone) from him, Cage starts to try and sabotage Tod.

One day he's called in by his retiring former mentor. He's worked on this drug his entire life just before retirement he has cracked it, created this new drug. He gives Cage a couple of doses.. Cage thinking so little of this man just takes the drugs, not considering any alterior motives.

In this ruse to trick Tod into "exposing himself" as a poser who doesn't really love Wynne and just cares about the fame he tries to convince the kid to take the drug with him and Wynne during the solistice celebration at Stonehenge. But the kid ends up palming the drugs and both Cage and Wynne end up overdosing. It's a strong hallucigen and during his trip he kinda connects with Wynne on another level. At one point he's convinced he's about to die and that Wynne will die too .. and he thinks "what does it matter, I've lost her already anyway." and death doesn't seem so bad to him, like a forever cryosleep. Then he sees how much she's hurting .. how she's using drugs to surpress her pain. How lonely she was. How selfish he's been.. above all he realizes, that Wynne, is his daughter. That she sees him as her father. He feels a profound shame about his actions, after recovering from the drugs, while Wynne is still in the hospital. He flees without saying goodbye, realizing it's another selfish act. Too afraid to confront his own actions, the pain he caused her and decides to go into cryo for 100 years.


I feel weird saying I really enjoyed this story. Because it's about such an extremely touchy subject. But I really like weird cyberpunk stories and real cyberpunk is so rare. Mirrorshade has been a gem of incredible stories so far. Except, ironically Gibson. Whose story gernsback continuum is one I already read in Burning Chrome and was my least liked story. It's also not at all cyberpunk.