Status Updates From Starswarm

On an earth populated by the resurrected recreations of extinct animals, a megatherium (giant sloth) named Dandi Lashadusa wanders around riding a baluchitherium (giant hornless
rhinoceros) and communicating telepathically with a blind Mentor who we later learn is a dolphin. She fights a bear, abandons her relics that came from humans, and turns herself into music. This story is so dumb.

The planet Tandy Two’s entire equator is ringing with a braking system for FTL spaceships. It’s an ingenious idea, and the poignant, sad story that Aldiss writes about the people who live in its shadow is the best story I’ve read all year.

Stranded on the backward planet Glumpalt, a trader must escape from slavery, find his way to Ongustura and catch the only spaceship headed off-planet. On the way he encounters raiders, magicians, antigravity rocks, a warlord and his daughter, and of course the Black Sun whose dark rays smother all light from Glumpalt’s three other suns.

Six pages of incomprehensible dribble about creatures in Mudland is explained in the final two pages: this is an experiment to adapt humans to live as aquatic creatures so they can infiltrate a group of invasive, aggressive aquatic aliens who have take up residence in Western Ocean and threaten the human residents of the planet.

On the planet Kakakakaxo, cayman-headed natives keep two kinds of pets, dubbed bears and pekes. But who is the real intelligent species on Kakakakaxo?

Saton and Corbis, immigrants from
Istinogurzibeshilaha, arrive on the planet Dansson, where nobody is ever unhappy. They are inoculated against unhappiness by the immigration agent and taken to live in Little Istino, where—being happy—they don’t realize they are basically preserved specimens in a cage. The planet Dansson is museum/zoo, collecting all endangered species in the galaxy.

A colonel in an eternal war dreams of going on a mission and returning to meet a woman. But there is no woman and he is only a sergeant.

Derek is an Abrogunnan which means he’s brave and competent, enough to make first contact with an alien life form and win the admiration of the elites of the Starswarm—but he’s an Abrogunnan which means his life is ruled by a matriarch who he serves as little more than a slave.

The Rift - Old Hundredth

The final story resolves Starswarm with a melancholic recollection of endings and transformations. A ghostly, contemplative eulogy which tugs at the symbols and theming employed across the rest of the collection to arrange them into new forms

Old Hundredth (1960) is collected here and the short story collections "The Airs of Earth" and "Who Can Replace a Man?".

Sector Azure - O Moon of My Delight!

The scenery, perspective and science of this story are vivid with clarity and color. Our narrator, on the other hand, holds a certain contempt for much of the cast, and none moreso than its women. Perhaps commentary is being given on the romantic dehumanization thrust at women; women as objects, especially poor women, seems to be on this story's mind

An update regarding the two sector stories I never reviewed:

Vermillion - A Kind of Artistry: Might resolve to be my favorite. The somewhat haunting wonders contained here give way to a formal exploration of suppression and evolution

Gray - Hearts and Engines: Dreary oneirism within a war story. Contains pulses of action -- though its more sad than thrilling; ultimately kept me at arms length

Sector Yellow - Legends of Smith's Burst

A whimsical, sidelong outwandering of something like "Science-Mythology"; picaresque and grimy. Set in a curdling world of contradictions, and weaving a tall-tale of known disrepute. The rather eye-rolling inclusion of a doting love interest feels tone-accurate yet questionable

Legends of Smith's Burst (1964) is collected here and the short story collection "The Saliva Tree"

Sector Green - Shards

Poetical, discursive and bawdy. A curious exercise in mystery and irony. One of the more comical in the collection so far; one of the more unsettling. Also, rather bite-sized

I've heard it theorized that hiccups are a remnant of our fish-brained ancestors. I got hiccups immediately after reading...true story

Shards (1962) is included here and the short story collection "The Airs of Earth"

Sector Diamond - The Game of God.

I've been impressed with Aldiss' skewering of certain oppressive systems and trends so far. This anti-colonialist novelette doesn't quite compare. A valiant attempt for 1958, which ultimately resolves with merely some trivial naval-gazing.

The Game of God (or "Segregation", "Planet of Death"), appears here, as well as in the collections Equator and The Airs of Earth by Aldiss.

Sector Violet - The Underprivileged.

Was very wowed by this one... a tense, uncertain tour through a Twilight Zone-esque cityscape. Any perceived dullness came from my underestimating the ferocity of the upcoming twist. Here we have a chilling, intricately woven parable.

The Underprivileged was published in 1963 and is included here, as well as in the short story collection Cities of Wonder edited by Damon Knight.