Iterations and other stories

by Robert J. Sawyer

Dedication

For

Andrew Weiner

friend and mentor throughout my first career as a nonfiction writer and my second one as a fiction writer

with thanks

Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to the editors who originally published these stories, especially Martin H. Greenberg (who bought seven of them—every year, Marty is one of my nominees for the Best Editor Hugo Award; he is the driving force behind short-fiction publishing today, and richly deserves the honor), Edward E. Kramer (who bought four of them), and Mike Resnick (who bought three), plus Isaac Asimov, Cathrin Bradbury, Terry Carr, Lesley Choyce, John Robert Colombo, Peter Crowther, Julie E. Czerneda, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Marcel Gagne, Dr. Henry Gee, Ed Greenwood, John Heifers, Brad Linaweaver, Sally McBride, Shawna McCarthy, the On Spec editorial collective, Patrick Lucien Price, Victoria Schochet, Larry Segriff, Robert Sheckley, Josepha Sherman, Dale Sproule, Sally Tomasevic, and Edo van Belkom.

Thanks doubled to Edo van Belkom, who brought this book to Quarry Press; to Quarry publisher Bob Hilderley; to Susan Hannah, also of Quarry; to David G. Hartwell of Tor Books; to my agent Ralph Vicinanza; to James Alan Gardner for the wonderful introduction; and to those who were always there for me when these stories were being written, especially Ted Bleaney, David Livingstone Clink, Terence M. Green, Andrew Weiner, and, most of all, my lovely wife, Carolyn Clink.

Introduction

First things first:

If you’re browsing through this book in a bookstore, rush to the checkout immediately and BUY THE BOOK.

If you’ve already bought the book, don’t just leave it on the coffee table to impress your friends—SIT DOWN AND READ EVERY STORY.

There: I’ve fulfilled my obligations as an introduction writer. Now I can relax and just generally burble on about the glories of Robert J. Sawyer.

Also known as the Rob-Man.

Or the Robster.

Or R.J.

Or the Dean of Canadian Science Fiction.

Or the Man Who Really Deserves A Cool Nickname But No One Has Quite Found Anything That Clicks. It’s hard to come up with a short snappy sobriquet that combines talented writer, inspired visionary, and good friend all in one tight verbal package.

I’ve known Rob for more than a decade, and I’m honored to be the person who gets to gush up front about Rob’s first collection of short stories. It’s my chance to repay him for all the support and advice he’s given me over the years, not to mention the pleasure of reading his work.

Of course, Rob is best known in science-fiction circles for his novels: from his earliest book, Golden Fleece

(told mostly from the viewpoint of a serial-killing computer), through his Quintaglio trilogy (featuring dinosaur versions of Galileo, Darwin, and Freud), to the space opera of Starplex and on into his near-future pieces (The Terminal Experiment, Frameshift, Factoring Humanity, Calculating God, et al.), which are balanced mixes of thriller-adventure stories, well-researched speculation, and philosophical musings. You owe it to yourself to get your hands on those books, too… but in the meantime, the book you’re holding now is an admirable microcosm of Rob Sawyer’s interests and concerns.

You’ll see, for example, Rob’s ongoing fascination with What Might Have Been, often embodied in multiple realities showing alternative ways in which one person’s life might have unfolded: what would have happened if you made a different decision at some crucial moment, if you turned left instead of right? There’s also the theme of simulated life, found in several of his novels—human intelligence copied into a computer, usually as a way of cheating death, but sometimes as a technique for understanding who a man or woman truly is. Several of the pieces in this book also reveal a covert inclination toward fantasy; Rob will probably deny it, but hey, there are three stories featuring the devil, one with vampires, and another that literally sends someone to hell. (And he keeps claiming to be a “hard science fiction” writer!)