Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson Easy Bib
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Review (just for the title story) first posted on Fantasy Literature. This short story won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1990/91, and it's now free online here at Lightspeed:
I was delighted to find that "Bears Discover Fire," a much-anthologized short story by Terry Bisson, was republished in 2014 by Lightspeed. The narrator, referred to by his nephew Wallace Jr. as "Uncle Bobby," is a sixty-one year old, down-to-earth man, deliberately removed from the fast pace of modern life. While driving h
Review (just for the title story) first posted on Fantasy Literature. This short story won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1990/91, and it's now free online here at Lightspeed:
I was delighted to find that "Bears Discover Fire," a much-anthologized short story by Terry Bisson, was republished in 2014 by Lightspeed. The narrator, referred to by his nephew Wallace Jr. as "Uncle Bobby," is a sixty-one year old, down-to-earth man, deliberately removed from the fast pace of modern life. While driving his old '56 Caddy to visit his aged mother with his brother Wallace and Wallace Jr., they pull into the median to fix a flat tire. In a scene that encapsulates their characters and values, Uncle Bobby teaches Wallace Jr. how to fix a flat while Wallace chides him for not using new puncture-resistant radial tires that can be instantly repaired with a spray of FlatFix. And then the bears show up, holding torches aloft while Bobby finishes fixing the tire as fast as humanly possible. "Looks like bears have discovered fire," Wallace blandly comments as they drive away.
Bobby is doing his best to help his dying mother, who is ready to be done with life, as well as his nephew, who seems to be short-changed by his busy parents, too preoccupied with selling real estate under the "Revolving Equity Success Plan" to pay much attention to raising their son. The fact that Wallace is a minister who "makes two-thirds of his living in real estate" is one of many ironies in the tale. Another is the gradual loss of honor, values and decency among humans, while the bears are developing a nascent civilization and exhibit decency and sharing, despite their inability to speak. It's a rather quiet, memorable and moving story told with dry humor that, perhaps unsurprisingly, reveals more about humanity than it does about the bears.
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Bears Discover Fire is a mixture of humor and pathos, that tells us more about the narrowness of people than the progressiveness of bears. The opening scene is a 60-some year old man changing a tire when two bears come out of the woods with torches and light his work area for him. Just the mental image made m
Terry Bisson is a terrific short story writer. Initially, I wrote this review for the title story only, but I have since finished the entire book, so this review is now updated and complete.Bears Discover Fire is a mixture of humor and pathos, that tells us more about the narrowness of people than the progressiveness of bears. The opening scene is a 60-some year old man changing a tire when two bears come out of the woods with torches and light his work area for him. Just the mental image made me laugh. What is serious about this story is buried in its humor. The bears are enlightened, most of the people are not.
Thanks to my friend, Lynn, for the recommendation and my introduction to this writer.
The Two Janets, a humorous tale about a girl who moves to the city from her provincial town to pursue a publishing career, while, ironically, all the famous writers move to her hometown.
Over Flat Mountain - Great sci-fi story about a truck driver who picks up a hitchhiker in a much changed post-Apocalyptic Appalachia.
George - What if your child is different, very different, and will not be like others and you could change that?
Next Appears to be a simple story about two young people who want to marry, but morphs into something far beyond that. The couple are both black and there is a law, African Americans cannot marry one another. Bisson has definitely dealt with bureaucracy somewhere along the line.
"It's because I want to marry Yusef."
"Who just happens to be black? Let's get real, girl. There's nothing subtle about you same-race couples. The way you strut around, as if daring the world to rain on your disgusting little intraracial parade."
Necronauts This is almost a novella and the best story in the bunch. It is about a blind painter who is pulled into an experiment designed to kill a person, bring him back and have him paint what is on the other side. It is eerie, gruesome, and fascinating. I hung on every word. Sci-fi lovers shouldn't miss this one.
Two Guys from the Future - Super cute time warp story. Again, very sci-fi in content and style, but just captivating.
Also included, but not 5-star material, as all the above were (still, not a bad story among them):
They're Made Out of Meat
Press Ann
The Coon Suit
Are There Any Questions?
The Toxic Donut
Cancion Autentica de Old Earth
Partial People
Carl's Lawn & Garden
The Message
England Underway
By Permit Only
The Shadow Knows
That's how Terry Bisson's story Bears Discover Fire (and this collection) begins, wit
You're parked on the verge of a thick copse of trees, a flat tire marooning you on the side of the road. You're just working the nuts off the wheel in preparation for swapping in the spare when you hear a rustle from the bushes and look up. A wild bear is staring at you. A huge, upright, completely normal bear, other than the fact that like some furry Indiana Jones he is holding a burning torch in his right paw.That's how Terry Bisson's story Bears Discover Fire (and this collection) begins, with the revelation that the bears of North America have discovered fire and ceased hibernating for the winter, instead gathering around campfires for warmth. It's a great introduction to Bisson's imaginative style, where fantastic concepts are spun with compelling writing and a subtle sense of warmth that I really like.
Even the odd story with a less-than-amazing concept underpinning it is mostly carried by Bisson's deft handling of character and pace, and the great majority of the works in this compilation are real winners.
They're Made of Meat is deservedly a classic SF short story, and it's the story that drew me to Bisson's work. If you haven't read it, Google it now. No really - stop reading this review and find it online. It's only a page or so long, and it's a great, great piece of very short SF.
Necronauts is a real stand out- a fantastically compelling story about a blind artist who is drawn into experiments where people explore the boundaries between life and death, a realm where his sight is restored to him. While the idea is not a new one - the film Flatliners preceded Bisson's story by three years - the direction the story takes is novel, and far more interesting than take that made it to the big screen. It's a real winner.
England Underway is another standout, a story where a single lonely old Englishman's impossible desire to visit his granddaughter in the USA results in the entire nation of England, Scotland and Wales detaching from its moorings and slowly powering away from Europe and across the Atlantic. The way protagonist Mr. Fox deals with this monumental occurrence, and the way British society adjusts to their home suddenly becoming the world's largest boat is both hilarious and plausible.
The final story The Shadow Knows Rounds things off nicely, with a satisfying first contact story led by an aged astronaut called in to speak with an alien entity that will only speak to the elderly.
There are, of course, a few bum notes - no short story collection is perfect. The Coon Suit fails to be either surprising or horrifying (which seems it's intention) and Partial People is a little weak too. By Permit Only is also weak – it just didn't work for me at all, and carried a sour hint of that made it an uncomfortable read, in a bad way.
Other than these few however, Bears Discover Fire And Other Stories is a fantastic short story collection, with a much higher strike rate of good stories than many, many other SF compilations I've read. Bisson seems criminally unappreciated to my reader's eye (I only heard of him recently myself), and he's really worth your time.
I'm hopeful that more people will read his work - that in time, Readers Discover Terry Bisson.
Four furry stars.
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I really enjoyed the rather super-short, interlude kind of stories such as "Partial People" or "Are There Any Questions?" but my absolute favorite is an emotional piece, "George", which is about a baby who is born with wings.
I will definitely try to read more Bisson in the future, really enjoyed the experience! Plus, all three narrators were simply great! ...more
This collection was interesting, but not the best I've seen from Bisson. I've enjoyed the novels of his I've read thus far, and the best stories in this collection conveyed the kind of feeling of his longer works. Weird, yet recognizable, worlds, with backstories not fully described. Strange people you definitely know, too. Surreal normality.
Also, there were some short punchy stories with little twists and jokes. Those didn't do it for me, but they weren't terrible either
I don't write reviews.This collection was interesting, but not the best I've seen from Bisson. I've enjoyed the novels of his I've read thus far, and the best stories in this collection conveyed the kind of feeling of his longer works. Weird, yet recognizable, worlds, with backstories not fully described. Strange people you definitely know, too. Surreal normality.
Also, there were some short punchy stories with little twists and jokes. Those didn't do it for me, but they weren't terrible either. (But they're made of meat!)
My two favourite stories were Necronauts (blind painter brought in to a life after death experiment to paint the world beyond this one) England Underway (old man in Brighton has his world literally and physically turned around as Britain starts moving across the ocean). Both of these, though completely different in tone and imagery, stayed with me. And I think they'll take up permanent residence in the Bisson neighbourhood in my brain. Welcome!
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They're Made out of Meat, Two Janets, Partial People, Press Ann, and The Toxic Donut are all fun in their own right.
The rest of the stories didn't stick out for me, but weren't painful to read. They may have felt a touch dat Find a way to read Bears Discover Fire, Over the Top, and Necronauts. Each one of those stories is nearly perfect. You get an interesting world with the edges blurred just enough that you need to squint and consider for yourself what might be going on underneath the action.
They're Made out of Meat, Two Janets, Partial People, Press Ann, and The Toxic Donut are all fun in their own right.
The rest of the stories didn't stick out for me, but weren't painful to read. They may have felt a touch dated, or may have missed the emotional impact that Bisson tries to set up—The Coon Suit is one example of this.
Great collection overall. Fun to read, interestingly crafted (the title story is better than advertised, and if anyone is interested I'll dig up some criticism that swayed me), and full of heart.
4 stars ...more
The only thing consistent is some form of weirdness, although almost each one has a distinct vibe. Some are just plain crazy failed experiments, but a few are gems.
⑤ Bears Discover Fire — Although I'm more fond of They're Made Out of Meat, I can understand why this one won the 1991 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best short story. This is the best story in the collection. It's a gentle tale of how a
This set of short stories makes me wonder if the author was working on a Philip K. Dick homage.The only thing consistent is some form of weirdness, although almost each one has a distinct vibe. Some are just plain crazy failed experiments, but a few are gems.
⑤ Bears Discover Fire — Although I'm more fond of They're Made Out of Meat, I can understand why this one won the 1991 Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best short story. This is the best story in the collection. It's a gentle tale of how a phlegmatic fellow deals with problems and surprises, while most around him act with an absence of empathy or wisdom.
③ The Two Janets — Er, a very curious wish fulfillment fantasy? Amusing, but not too deep. Or maybe it's just deeper than I can detect.
⑤ They're Made Out of Meat — As I said, this is my personal favorite. It isn't touching like the titular story, but it is more famous, because it has been filmed and reprinted repeatedly. Check that film out; it's not quite word-for-word from the short story, but it's close enough, and the film is a brilliant little seven-minute jewel that adds to the bizarreness of the story. Hopefully someday someone will find a higher-resolution version than this one. (Here's the IMDB link. Actually, it was filmed several times, but that's the best of them.) Briefly, the story is about aliens investigating these strange creatures that call themselves "human", but they're pretty disgusted by what they discover. It is provocative for reversing our anthropocentrism as well as positing a tragic answer to the Fermi Paradox, and commenting on the Chinese Room philosophical question. It was nominated for a Nebula the year after "Bears" won it; I think it deserved it more.
③ Over Flat Mountain — Strange. Appalachia uplifts beyond Earth's atmosphere. Then what? This is where I started to see the PDK similarity: Bisson occasionally seems to just create a very strange idea, and just play it out to see what happens, hit or miss.
④ Press Ann — Points for being amusing. ATMs getting a little too assertive, even judgmental?
② The Coon Suit — Nope. It starts off a lot like "Bears Discover Fire", then goes… nowhere.
⑤ George — Playful and thoughtful, kind of like "Bears", but more sweet. Wings on babies instead of bears with fire.
④ Next — If that hole in the ozone layer had gotten worse, so that being out in the sun is actively harmful to pale people, how would a racist society deal with the fact that folks with extra melanin had an "unfair" advantage?
② Necronauts — Ick. Innovative and experimental, but not in a way I found at all appealing. But at least the idea was interesting. It was also nominated for a Nebula award.
① Are There Any Questions? — one of the failed experiments: an idea that wasn't worth running with, even that far.
④ Two Guys from the Future — Another clever and sweet one. Not quite as good as the earlier five-star ones. Guys from the future, retrieving art that otherwise would be lost. Good idea, right?
① The Toxic Donut — Nope. The second failed experiment. Just a bit too arbitrary.
② Canción Auténtica de Old Earth — Almost failed; there's a despairing sadness behind this weak story that may have developed into something more powerful, but didn't.
① Partial People — The third failed experiment.
① Volunteer — The fourth failed experiment; almost makes it into the same "despairing sadness" as "Canción", but never get quite as close.
③ The Message — Like "Coon Suit", but funnier, with a satisfying thump at the end. Still, since the whole thing is just a setup, it isn't really satisfying.
④ England Underway — Almost five. Like "Over Flat Mountain" in that it is built around an absurd geological anomaly, but this time it's sweet and thoughtful, like "George". The characters are fleshed out briefly but fully, and the narrative is natural and satisfying. Definitely at the summit of his craft.
③ By Permit Only — Yet another environmental skit. Short and overplayed, like the others, but a little sharper and a little nastier, and just a little more satisfying.
⑤ The Shadow Knows — Wow, that was unexpected. The longest and most complex was saved for last, and it's a serious dive into science fiction. Not perfect — the alien's odd method of communication was pretty silly (and the stoner's explanation worse) and the end was a little anticlimactic, but it was still a very well-made story.
Recommended, if only for the best ones.
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Take the story the collection gathers it's name from, "Be
Though the plots and backdrops of his stories range from the fantastic to the straight up bizarre, Bisson has a skill for crafting believable, down to earth characters, avoiding the pitfall many science fiction and fantasy short story writers fall into of making the characters involved almost incidental to the gimmick. With Bisson you get both, complete with a touch of good ol' Southern country love (he does hail from Kentucky, after all.)Take the story the collection gathers it's name from, "Bears Discover Fire." You could say it is about bears, well... discovering how to use fire. Which would, on a technical level, be true. But you could also say it is about the lead (human) character, his relationships with his brother and their ailing mother, and the insensitivity of the average man in the modern age.
The collection overall has a bit of a hit and miss feel, though most of them hit. Worth checking out if you want a bit more heart in your fantasy and science fiction.
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Bears Discover Fire (1990)
In the audio book I heard, this story was read by Stefan Rudnicki. I like Rudnicki's rich, deep, baritone, but it seemed somehow too somber for this tongue in cheek story. Actually, the story itself wasn't that light and in fact had a sad ending, but it involved bears with torches, and bears sitting around a bo
Bears Discover Fire (1990)
In the audio book I heard, this story was read by Stefan Rudnicki. I like Rudnicki's rich, deep, baritone, but it seemed somehow too somber for this tongue in cheek story. Actually, the story itself wasn't that light and in fact had a sad ending, but it involved bears with torches, and bears sitting around a bonfire.
The Two Janets (1990)
Famous authors are moving to a small Kentucky town and are seen by the townspeople at various local spots
They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
A conversation between two extraterrestrials in which one tries to convince the other that they've discovered a planet with sentient beings made of meat, impossible as that may sound.
Over Flat Mountain (1990)
In which a trucker and a hitchhiker cross up and over the eighteen-mile-high flat topped mountain that has uplifted where the Appalachians once were.
Press Ann (1991)
In which a couple trying to withdraw cash for a birthday date encounters an ATM machine with an attitude.
The Coon Suit (1991)
In which a fellow stops in his pickup to watch hunters baiting their dogs with raccoons.
George (1993)
In which a new father is encouraged by a doctor and a minister to have his baby boy's wings surgically removed.
Next (1992)
In which a black couple applies for a marriage license and ultimately is sentenced for conspiracy to break the law prohibiting same-race marriage.
Necronauts (1993)
In which a researcher, accompanied by her blind artist associate, searches for her lost love in the LAD (Life After Death)
Are There Any Questions? (1992)
A sales spiel for real estate made from recycled garbage
Two Guys from the Future (1992)
In which an artist's not-yet-famous famous paintings are rescued from a holocaust by two guys from the future. The most famous of her paintings is a nude of one of the guys from the future.
The Toxic Donut (1993)
A strange TV award presentation
Canción Autentica de Old Earth (1992)
This one I drew a complete blank on.
Partial People (1993)
Instructions on how not to deal with partial people
Carl's Lawn & Garden (1992)
Gaia is a landscape man's assistant.
The Message (1993)
In which dolphins speak to man
England Underway (1993)
In which the British Isle, due to plate tectonics according to King Charles, sails to New York for a brief visit.
By Permit Only (1993)
A woman's boss has a license for sexual assault, her husband has authorization to beat his wife, the KKK has a permit for a lynching, and her story has no plot.
The Shadow Knows (1993)
One of the longest stories in the collection, this first contact science fiction story is about the only one not written tongue in cheek.
These stories by Terry Bisson put me in mind, just a little bit, of Neil Gaiman with a distinct Dickian twist. I'm not at all averse to reading more.
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A surprisingly uneven collection of short stories by Terry Bisson. The two standouts are Bears Discover Fire and They're Made Out of Meat—the rest range from very poor to OK.
A number of the stories reminded me of weak versions of possible JG Ballard stories (I noticed some other reviews mentioned PKD in a similar fashion). However, Ballard was a much better writer, both in use of language and his willingness to dive deeper into ideas.
I don't think this is a collection worth r
3rd book for 2022.A surprisingly uneven collection of short stories by Terry Bisson. The two standouts are Bears Discover Fire and They're Made Out of Meat—the rest range from very poor to OK.
A number of the stories reminded me of weak versions of possible JG Ballard stories (I noticed some other reviews mentioned PKD in a similar fashion). However, Ballard was a much better writer, both in use of language and his willingness to dive deeper into ideas.
I don't think this is a collection worth reading.
2-stars.
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pp. 11-23: title story, a droll, sad masterpiece
pp. 24-33: "The Two Janets," where America's great writers move to Owensboro, Indiana, and Thomas Disch moves to Evansville — or at least attends the speedboat races. This story reminded me of the terrific kids' show from decades ago, "Eerie, Indiana."
pp. 34-37: "They're Made of Meat," a classic short-short (well, it is four pages), a high concept joke, really, about aliens and visitations.
I am going to cheat. This is not a review of this entire book but of the title story alone. (Since I have not actually read most of the book, I will not give a rating.)
"Bears Discover Fire" is one of my favorite short stories of any kind, not just in science fiction or fantasy. It is not principally about bears discovering fire. To me, this is a story about the narrator, Bobby, a sixty-one year old man, unmarried an
The sequel to the less well-known Terry Bisson story, "Bears Discover Matches."*I am going to cheat. This is not a review of this entire book but of the title story alone. (Since I have not actually read most of the book, I will not give a rating.)
"Bears Discover Fire" is one of my favorite short stories of any kind, not just in science fiction or fantasy. It is not principally about bears discovering fire. To me, this is a story about the narrator, Bobby, a sixty-one year old man, unmarried and childless, and members of his family, his brother, his twelve year old nephew, and his mother. They all live in western Kentucky.
I don't think that Bobby is intended to be an unreliable narrator. If I'm right about that, then he is a very nice guy. His mother is in a nursing home and Bobby visits her three times a week. He frequently takes care of his nephew and they seem to be close.
During the course of the story, people find out that bears have indeed discovered fire. Bears also seemed to have mellowed out and are not a threat to people.
Bobby and his family have several encounters with the bears as the story goes on.
This is a very sweet and charming story. It's no wonder that it won every award in sight.
*Joke, in case you couldn't tell. But how do the bears light fires? And how do they carry torches?
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These were okay. I really only read the book for the short story in the title, which was a clever idea that had much more potential.
I don't know what it is about short story collections, I guess liberals say "I've only got a couple of paragraphs to prove I'm an extreme Social Justice Warrior" and so you end up with dialog like this (in a story about the earth having dangerous UV levels): "Leaving white kids born doomed to twice the chance of skin cancer or God knows what else!" "Nobody
3.5 starsThese were okay. I really only read the book for the short story in the title, which was a clever idea that had much more potential.
I don't know what it is about short story collections, I guess liberals say "I've only got a couple of paragraphs to prove I'm an extreme Social Justice Warrior" and so you end up with dialog like this (in a story about the earth having dangerous UV levels): "Leaving white kids born doomed to twice the chance of skin cancer or God knows what else!" "Nobody was ever worried about white kids being born with twice as much everything before"
Oooooooo! Oh no he di'int!
Narration was well done.
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Half through the book I can't say I found more of it. What I've found thus far are flavorful short stories that are generally catchy and have a punchline somewhere towards the end. The styles I've identified range from funny to dry, ironical (on behalf of the modern society) to downright creepy. However, all of them maintain a common I started reading it after having thoroughly enjoyed his short story "They're made out of meat" which in me generated the organic reaction of 'I want more of this.'
Half through the book I can't say I found more of it. What I've found thus far are flavorful short stories that are generally catchy and have a punchline somewhere towards the end. The styles I've identified range from funny to dry, ironical (on behalf of the modern society) to downright creepy. However, all of them maintain a common element, namely the presence of the supernatural or sci-fi, in various degrees and intensities. Regardless of the measure in which science fiction is involved, the general atmosphere is still one that wraps you up, one that makes you feel like you are within the story.
Bears discover fire is a cool, calm story about - well - bears not only discovering fire, but re-discovering it. They actually learnt how to make it centuries ago, but would forget the technique during hibernation. What with global warming came the lack of need for hibernation, so bear can now remember the technique from a year to the next one. The story is actually a relaxed telling of natural daily occurrences like changing a tire, visiting your old mother, spending some quality time with your 10 year old nephew and sitting all night by the fire with a bunch of bears and the said mother, who is actually dying right there and then. The bears are nice guys.
I didn't get much from "The Two Janets" other than a bunch of author names that I want to check out. "Over Flat Mountain" presents an alternate/futuristic reality in which an above-the-atmosphere mountain has been artificially erected in the middle of the US and the side-effects of that. The plot spins around a heart warming short interaction between a truck driver carrying goods from one side of a mountain to the other and a teenager whose family has been ripped apart by the construction of the Flat Mountain.
"Press Ann" is flavorful and really funny along the same lines as "They're made out of meat" and it shows a sentient ATM who plays matchmaker and rearranges the people in two couples in such a way that the nice ones end up together while the arseholes have no other choice than to choose each other.
"The Coon suit" is just a sketch, a short funny/sad image of a man who for reasons unknown ends up being around a raccoon hunt while also wearing a raccoon suit himself.
"George" is a great, very nice and heartwarming story in which two parents whose child is born with glowing huge wings do the sound minded thing and do not have the wings surgically removed. They retreat to their cliff home instead and have another child, a girl, who has fiery wings.
"Next" captures incredibly well the inhumanity of a bureaucracy-ruled society as well as the crass discrimination based on people's utility. In this alternative of the world, the Ozone layer is practically nonexistent which suddenly makes people with high melatonin levels invaluable. Yet again black people are being discriminated, though this time in an allegedly positive sense: they are being asked to share their resource with other people by never marrying or having children among themselves. Those cases in which 'outlaws' decide that they still want to marry interracially, are treated with cruelty: the woman is sentenced to a 'prison' which is in fact a mixed-race baby factory while the man is treated as a resource and offered various opportunities (i.e. white women to couple with). Oh, the layers of discrimination!
"Necronauts" is the creepy one, showing a couple's experiment with sending people into the realm of death. With the purpose of visually capturing it, they contract a blind painter who is still able to paint, and send him to 'The Other Side', along with one of the scientists (who later also becomes his lover). The story slowly shows that there actually used to be three scientists involved in the experiment, one of which went too far in the other side to be able to come back. His partner, the scientist left behind, has been trying to reunite with him for twenty years and used both the painter and her colleague in order to attain that. She succeeds, and police attributes her death to her scientist colleague.
"Are there any questions" presents a pitch for a better real estate material - a composition made of garbage, human waste and polymers. This material is supposed to perfectly emulate nature while having all of the advantages of a well-controlled environment.
In "Two guys from the future", out of the two guys who returned to retrieve and save valuable pieces of art, only one manages to go back to his time because the other one is trapped by falling in love with the artist and becoming himself the muse for one of the famous paintings. ...more
The are made of meat is funny, and I'll quote that forever
NEXT about the marriage license was disturbing. The one about permits was also disturbing and sad. Sexual harassment permits, lynching permits. That's fucked up.
The one about England moving was quirky and funny. Here is a giant island moving on its own, bumping Into NYC, and the guy just wants life to be normal a
Bears Discover Fire I found uplifting and hopeful. I like that there isn't an explanation on why or how but just that they did.The are made of meat is funny, and I'll quote that forever
NEXT about the marriage license was disturbing. The one about permits was also disturbing and sad. Sexual harassment permits, lynching permits. That's fucked up.
The one about England moving was quirky and funny. Here is a giant island moving on its own, bumping Into NYC, and the guy just wants life to be normal and to see his family. Like England moved so he could have a days visit with his niece. Also he named his dog after himself. What?
The dolphin one was cool. Different take on original sin. Maybe. What do dolphins have to say. It makes you wanna cry.
Lad space was creepy and also weird to think of what's after death. We're all dead now. This life is a dream.
An angel is born and people just want to cut his wings off? No. Fly George
Plastic mountains made from garbage does sound like good real estate development. I want in.
The trucker leaving the atmosphere was cool. The earth hitting out above the atmosphere and the technology created to combat it for travel was cool.
If lions could talk, we wouldn't understand them. "aliens" contactrd us and we have no idea what is being said. But a dark side moon base sounds cool
There was an atm that could talk. That one was not that good.
All the authors moved to some small town in Kentucky. Not sure about that one either. Like, okay. Eh
I'm sure I'm forgetting some. But I liked each story. They were all unique and well written. So well written. So human. So creative with little details. The slang the features the explanations without explaining.
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My favourite story from the entire collection (not including of course the classic "They're Made Out Of Meat" was Necr
I started this collection with such high hopes, having read "They're Made Out Of Meat" online previous and been utterly determined after that to search out all of Terry Bissons work. My feelings for the book over all are mixed as there are some great stories and some utterly dissapointing stories...or perhaps I just do not understand those stories in the way the author intended.My favourite story from the entire collection (not including of course the classic "They're Made Out Of Meat" was Necronauts, previouslys mentioned in another review as been done already by Flatliners, which I agree with despite how well Flatliners was done, the book is always better! Do not be disconcerned by the title! Give it a go.
Next up a short list of other titles I enjoyed in this collection:
Over Flat Mountain
Press Ann (this short was hilarious to read, almost the same type of humour as the namesake of the book)
Next
Carls Lawn & Garden
England Underway
By Permit Only (This short was quite humourous but thought prevoking at the same time)
Lastly a few of the let downs:
Bears Discover Fire
George
The Old Earth
The Toxic Donut (Almost made it but just felt it was lacking something...a bit more doom and gloom perhaps or understanding of what would happen...perhaps there in lies the mystery but the run up to the end of the story I found quite interesting.)
Now Im not saying any of these stories are terrible or need to be never read again but just my personal opinion of how I felt reading them. The book is still a keeper for the few that I enjoyed and will still be giving any of his other work a go.
...moreAdapted from Wikipedia.
Terry Ballantine Bisson is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire" (1990), which which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as They're Made Out of Meat (1991), which has been adapted for video often.Adapted from Wikipedia.
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Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411877.Bears_Discover_Fire
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