Virginia Kidd (1921–2003)

A slightly strange collection as I expected short stories and got about four of those, one novelette (Joan D Vinge's Phoenix in the Ashes, and one actual novel 'Eye of the Heron' by Ursula K Le Guin. I didn't find the short stories at all memorable, but I did enjoy the two longer works.

The Vinge is set after a (probable nuclear war) event has cut off communities into small enclaves, some of which are less technological than others. A man from one that still has powered flight is prospecting for sites where metal can be dug out of ruins and crashes in a community where such things are looked on as works of the devil. He is lucky to survive, helped by a woman who has been disowned by her father for refusing to marry the man her father picked out.

The Le Guin novel is set on a planet where two communities have grown up, descendants from people sent out from Earth to get rid of them - the first a city dwelling people whose ancestors were criminals, the second a country and farming dwelling group who are descending from people who were non violent protestors and believers in peace. The city dwellers exploit the country folk who have sent out an expedition to find out if there is somewhere they can set up another community away from the 'bosses' in the city. The novel centres around the character of the boss' daughter, and a young man of the peace/farming community, against a backdrop of the city folk using increasingly violent means to subjugate the farmers.… (mais)

Set in the very earliest 20th century Congo, this white man at home among Africans tale is almost worse because it is trying not to be racist af while still basically racist af - after all it was written for a market of white men. There are dinosaurs, hidden valleys, a python that takes our hero as a pet, a witch doctor that conjures a storm, but the most outrageous piece of fantasy is that a man would be expelled from the US for an affair with a 14yr old girl, and have to live his life as a king in the Congo. Yes, there is the compulsory red haired green eyed beauty for our hero.… (mais)