Marusek, who hitchhiked his way to Alaska from Santa Barbara in the 1970's and now lives on the outskirts of Fairbanks, may have a relatively modest body of work (just 10 short stories in print over the span of 13 years), but each of these pieces has so far proven to be as concentrated and potent as a dwarf star. In "The Wedding Album," a story first published in 1999, he fashions an ominous and surprisingly moving tale about a bride and groom who repeatedly discover, forget and rediscover that they are merely computer-generated re-creations of a flesh-and-blood newlywed couple, fated to watch as their living counterparts, their marriage and civilization itself decay over the centuries.

In an earlier short work from 1995 entitled "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy," Marusek writes just as vividly about another married couple in the year 2092, whose blissful union begins to unravel after they are granted a rare and precious license that gives them permission to conceive their own child.

Marusek, showing a potentially volatile synergy of technology and human foibles, is a writer who gives the impression that he's been to the future, seen it work, and has come back to tell us all about it.

Marusek's 'shiny ideas'--cloned laborers, electronic 'proxies,' the 'boutique economy'--sparkle, but these assured stories also draw on core SF themes: in the face of change, what does it mean to be human, and where do we draw the line between helping ourselves and hurting others?