Good-Bye Robinson Crusoe and Other Stories
by John Varley
This collection by John Varley contains eleven stories and novellas. None of them are currently available in any other book. Some have been unavailable in any form for twenty-five years or more.
The bulk of these stories comprise what the author calls a “Grand Tour of the Solar System,” moving from one setting to another. “The Funhouse Effect” is a tale of mystery, intrigue, and illusion that takes place on a mechanized comet moving toward the sun’s corona. “Retrograde Summer” is an account of gender reversals and family secrets set against the backdrop of Mercury. “Bagatelle” pits a recurring Varley character—Police Chief Anna-Louise Bach—against a living bomb that threatens to devastate Luna’s Dresden City. Other stories range from Venus (“In the Bowl”) to an underground “disneyland” on Pluto (“Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe”) to the unexplored reaches of deep space (“The Black Hole Passes”).
The collection ends with two stories. “The Unprocessed Word” is a reflection on one writer’s relationship with technology, while “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)” is a meditation on the consequences of nuclear proliferation.
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This collection by John Varley contains eleven stories and novellas. None of them are currently available in any other book. Some have been unavailable in any form for twenty-five years or more. The bulk of these stories comprise what the author calls a “Grand Tour of the Solar System,” moving from one setting to another. “The Funhouse Effect” is a tale of mystery, intrigue, and illusion that takes place on a mechanized comet moving toward the sun’s corona. “Retrograde Summer” is an account of gender reversals and family secrets set against the backdrop of Mercury. “Bagatelle” pits a recurring Varley character—Police Chief Anna-Louise Bach—against a living bomb that threatens to devastate Luna’s Dresden City. Other stories range from Venus (“In the Bowl”) to an underground “disneyland” on Pluto (“Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe”) to the unexplored reaches of deep space (“The Black Hole Passes”). The collection ends with two stories. “The Unprocessed Word” is a reflection on one writer’s relationship with technology, while “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)” is a meditation on the consequences of nuclear proliferation.