Visual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Artists, edited by Eric T. Reynolds

Sometimes, if you look at a picture long enough, it will tell you its story. One of them, anyway—every picture contains the essence of many stories, depending on the imagination of the beholder. Contained in Visual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Artists, edited by Eric T. Reynolds, are eighteen pieces of space art, chosen by the authors, and the stories they inspired.

You’re probably familiar with Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics, including the one that says a robot cannot allow a human to come to harm. But just what defines a human? For a semi-autonomous machine (Sam), a Mars-rover-type, data-gathering machine, the answer may not be obvious. In “Io, Robot” (visual art, “Cruising on Io” by Bob Eggleton), Tobias S. Buckell speculates on the possible reasoning process such a machine might follow. “Sam” has already managed to survive long past its expected lifetime, adapting its original programming in order to fulfill its primary mission of passing on its accumulated knowledge to its creators. But the scientists are long overdue. Now, at last, humans have landed on Io again. Or so they claim. I don’t think the good doctor anticipated this scenario.

In a far-off corner of the galaxy lies a virtually forgotten planet, one whose history is remarkable in its almost total lack of distinguishing events. Almost, except for one brief moment of glory. In “Monuments of Flesh and Stone” by Mike Resnick (visual art, “Ad Astra” by Frank Wu) we see the planetary equivalent of a tiny, isolated farm town hoping to reclaim its one moment of fame. Once, four hundred years ago, their basketball team almost won the championship. Once, four hundred years ago, they had a star player who was almost unbeatable, until a deliberate foul put him out of action. And now, when they finally have another player to rival the legendary Damika of four centuries past, will he be stolen away by a big-time recruiter? What would you do, if you were the off-world coach?

As a girl growing up with three brothers and their friends, not to mention my even wilder boy cousins, I was subjected to a lot of teasing and harassment. My mom’s advice, in all such situations, was “just ignore them.” Sometimes that wasn’t possible, but generally it worked. It’s no fun bullying someone who just doesn’t care. “Indifference” by Paul E. Martens (visual art, “Indifference” by Frank Wu) carries Mom’s solution to new heights when robotic invaders turn an entire planet’s population into a forced labor pool. Enter Bob, an unlikely and unintentional hero. Bob doesn’t choose to be a leader. Bob doesn’t choose to do anything, doesn’t care about anything. Apparently deciding he’s of no use to them, the robots very wisely leave him alone. So what happens when others begin emulating Bob’s indifference? Resistance may be futile, but how do you control people who ignore everything you do?

Artist Frank Wu turns author for “Worlds in Collusion: A Planetary Romance” (visual art, “Impact” by Joe Tucciarone). Take a close look at the title. Perhaps influenced by the illustration, I initially misread “collusion” as “collision.” But this is a different story altogether. Can a xeno-archaeologist, a formerly sheltered graduate student devoted to books and study, find happiness and true love sharing adventures with a semi-reformed space pirate? Should Kurt stay with the beautiful captain, or return to peaceful academia? Should he make a commitment and risk getting hurt or run away and live with regret? Searching for a sign to help with his decision, he somehow expects to find an answer as he observes what he thinks will be the death throes of the planet known as Claire’s world. Of course he gets his sign, and of course there’s a happy ending—this is a romance, after all. But you may find the details both surprising and charming.

“The Funeral” by Ron Miller (visual art, “Burial on Mars” by Chesley Bonestell) is partially a tribute to earlier stories of Mars. It also presents a rather scary possible future in which a new theocracy proves as efficient as earlier ones in burying inconvenient facts and scientific speculations that don’t fit the orthodox mold. I won’t give away the ending, but I had strong suspicions as to the identity of the mysterious bodies fairly early in the story, and I doubt that it will come as a surprise to most longtime science fiction readers.

“Derelict” by Jude-Marie Green (visual art, “Derelict” by Frank Wu) refers to both a human derelict and the ship she’s sent to repair. Benederet is living, if you could call it that, in the back alleys of Denver; her only concern is acquiring the drugs that purchase sweet oblivion. But at some time in her muddled past, she was a computer expert and a math whiz capable of doing complicated calculations in her head. Kidnapped by an intelligent spaceship, she’s cleaned up and transported to a currently derelict, human-inhabited “generation ship” that she’s expected to get up and running again. Result: new life for Benederet as well as the people of the ship. As for the true motivations of the ship that brought her there, perhaps such knowledge would be counter-productive.

In “Inheritance” by Willis Couvillier (visual art, “Kulper Planet” by Michael Carroll), a micrometeorite rips through an exploratory ship headed for Pluto. Too fast for the safety systems to kick in, it wreaks the maximum possible damage: two of the three crewmembers killed, the computer systems heavily damaged, much of the air lost. The ships AI makes what repairs it can, then wakens the remaining crewman. The situation is basically hopeless…or is it? Communications are out and fuel is low. Commander Lohan can’t call home, can’t complete the mission or go back. The best he can do is put the ship in orbit around a chunk of rock and return to cryogenic sleep, hoping he may someday be found. Time for a miracle.

“Resurrection Man” by Will McDermott (visual art, “Resurrection Man” by Frank Wu) conjures up a strange and disturbing future in which zombies, mostly resurrected suicides, are sent out to explore the universe. It seems a ridiculously wasteful system. The explorers are given no training or testing, and returns are low. Even if the zombie slave explorers are cheap and expendable, one wonders at the cost in ships and other hardware. So there’s a certain lack of credibility, but it’s still a nifty little horror story.

“Hell Orbit” by G. David Nordley (visual art, “Hell Orbit” by Wolf Read) covers a lot of territory. It illustrates, from both points of view, the problem of a rebel in a super-conservative society. Can or should a society control disruptive elements for the sake of the greater good? What about the rights of the individual to think and act independently? Where do you draw the line? Who decides? It also comments in passing on the victimization of women by some religious groups, one of the dangers inherent in too much reliance on authority. But this is also a love story. It depicts a teenage love affair that turns out to be true, enduring love: tragic ending and all. It also has some really cool stuff in the form of “spaceboards” which are sort of like surfboards in space. It all adds up to a bittersweet coming-of-age story.

“After Bonestell” by Jay Lake (visual art, “After Bonestell” by Bob Eggleton) is a dreamy vignette. A sentient being, maybe an individual man or Man in the abstract, awakens to find that Earth has acquired consciousness and a voice. They converse, puzzling over the situation, speculating on the identity and meaning of the huge ringed planet in the sky, wondering where they are, and reaching a conclusion of sorts.

“Exile’s Child” by Justin Stanchfield (visual art, “16 Cygni B at Aphelion” by Ron Miller) takes us forward into a future in which control of a mega-corporation, MacNamara Enterprises, is genetically linked to its Chairman and CEO, Gavin MacNamara the Second. Jackson Dornier, acting Vice President of Operations, has actually been running the company for years as Gavin’s health declined. With Gavin comatose and on life support, Jackson arranged Gavin’s “marriage” to Adele Vacon, a young woman who was a temp employee, and the marriage was consummated with the assistance of Dr. David Kim. The group escaped in a corporate spaceship with pilot Cody Garret, evading the lawyers and private security dispatched by the Board of Directors when they learned of Gavin’s condition, and went into hiding in some distant corner of the galaxy. Gavin’s son, Gavin MacNamara the Third, was born on the ship. Jackson’s plan is to remain hidden until young Gavin is old enough to take control of the corporation, with Jackson’s guidance of course.

Nearly five years later, a star ship is sighted, heading toward them. It appears the corporate powers have found them; their intentions are subject to speculation. What follows is some fine, character-driven action. Cody, addicted to flying in N-space, as are many pilots, only wants to fly again, but fears the approaching ship will overtake and destroy them. He tries to work out a plan of escape. Jackson wants to maintain his power, and will do anything, use anyone, to achieve that end. Adele thinks only of her own survival. Dr. Kim is focused on protecting young Gavin, age four, with whom he has formed a close bond. Gavin senior, only “alive” by the grace of machinery, has no say in the matter. As the situation plays out, Cody, who has tried to remain emotionally neutral, has some choices to make.

On one level, “Where We Go” by Richard Chwedyk (visual art, “Kronos Jazz Quintet” by Delphyne) is a conversation between a man and his granddaughter, sharing a bit of family history. It also manages to be a compelling commentary on the power of the science fiction stories, and especially the art, that inspired a generation of space pioneers to make it come true. We see a harsh, old-world father catching some of the enthusiasm and sense of wonder from his son, until it becomes a bond between them and is passed on as a legacy to generations yet to come.

“You Can Be Replaced” by Trent Walters (visual art, “Cover Art for the November 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories” by Frank R. Paul) is a delightful bit of tongue-in-cheek pulp fiction, laden with subtle, or not-so-subtle, twists of irony and humor that remind me a little of Douglas Adams. Read slowly, or you’ll get POV whiplash as you bounce from one character to another. There’s Bailey, a former employee of the Last American Mafia, now conscripted into the Alien Repulsive Forces. Sicgurney, tough as nails and also in the ARF, appears briefly. Chelsea, another member of ARF and a former scriptwriter for sci-fi horror movies, is unaware of her larger role in the whole alien invasion mess. 516, one of the slug-like invaders, has only peaceful intentions, but is hampered by a defective translator supplied by the more warlike Captain Bomb. And then there’s Willy, a dark-energy/matter vorwhale who is obviously misunderstood and underappreciated.

“Of Late I Dreamt of Venus” by James Van Pelt (visual art, “Of Late I Dreamt of Venus” by Bob Eggleton) follows an elaborate project of terraforming Venus over a millennium. Elizabeth Audrey, wealthy entrepreneur, arranges to spend long periods of time in deep sleep, awakening periodically to check on the progress of her dream world. Elizabeth thinks she knows exactly the results she wants, both from the planetary modifications and the modifications she orders her doctors to make on her assistant, Henry. The results, in both cases, are not quite what she expected.

“A Buffalito of Mars” by Lawrence M. Schoen (visual art, “Terraforming Survey Team” by Michael Carroll) is another terraforming tale, but very different. This time it’s Mars, with some odd animals that look like miniature bison but can eat any solid matter, rocks included, and expel oxygen instead of methane. With training, they can be made to eat only the materials you want eaten, making them invaluable for even the finest excavation work. Add the discovery of an alien artifact, plus rival teams of “buffalitos” (a.k.a. buffalo dogs), and compound it with a mystery when the alien artifact disappears, and you have the setup for a surprising and creative conclusion.

“Lost Galaxy” by Tom Dupree (visual art, “Lost Galaxy” by Bob Eggleton) imagines a young girl, a princess and perhaps a goddess-in-training, applying the skills learned from her parents to create a thing of beauty, which may be a galaxy. She takes her work seriously, but she still has much to learn. Creation can be painful. This short tale is very visual, almost a painting done with words.

What if humans weren’t the first intelligent beings to evolve on this planet? What if, millions of years ago, an intelligent race evolved from dinosaurs and developed a technology more advanced than ours? What if that race, predicting the imminent strike of a killer asteroid, evacuated Earth and went out into the galaxy, where they eventually became one of the founding races of a galactic civilization? What if they returned home millions of years later to discover humans running the place? What if they offered humans a membership in the Galactic Union, with all the benefits that includes? Oh yes, there’s a catch: they want their planet back. “Moving Day” by Michael A. Burstein (visual art, “Masters of the Earth” by Joe Tucciarone) offers a glimpse of how that scenario might play out. It should come as no surprise that not all the humans agree on how to handle the situation.

“Jupiter Whispers” by Christopher McKitterick (visual art, “Jupiter Cloudscape” by Ron Miller) carries us into a possible future in which private companies as well as governments are financing space exploration, and JoveCorp has an eight-thousand-kilometer-long pipeline sucking up hydrogen and other elements to an orbital pumping station. Their operation is critical to exploration of the outer solar system as well as providing fuel for asteroid mining.

Enter Mike Finn, a computer programmer who has dreamed all his life of traveling into space, especially to Jupiter. Since true artificial intelligence has never been achieved, the term AI now means “adaptive intelligence” and refers to computers that can learn and do much on their own, but still need human guidance from programmers like Mike, when encountering new situations. Mike is the one chosen to ride the little maintenance climber down the pipeline to investigate the mysterious obstructions that are slowing the transmission of materials up the line. What Mike discovers leads him to a moral dilemma, which he resolves through some impressive engineering detective work.

Publisher: Hadley Rille Books (June 2007)
Price: $24.95
Trade paperback: 388 pages
ISBN: 0978514831