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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reasonable but unspectacular collection, 2 Dec 2003
Paul J McAuley’s first collection features 8 short stories, the majority of which tie in to the future history of Earth used as the background for his first 3 novels.The title story is a fantasy tale of a young boy possessed by the spirit of King Arthur to throw off the shackles of American occupiers in an alternate Cold War. It’s a simple story but well told, and manages to be a lot less silly than it sounds. ‘Karl and the Ogre’ looks as though it’s heading even more into outright fantasy fiction with a fairly generic Ogre-hunting quest, before it becomes apparent that the setting is actually a future Earth transformed by science. A nice twist rescues this from being standard sword and sorcery fare, making this the best story in the collection. After two quasi-fantasy tales ‘Transcendence’ finds McAuley back in more familiar science fiction mode, in a moving story concerning a possible crystal life form on Venus – a strong story that remembers to focus as much on characterisation as science. Besides a few references to the universe of Four Hundred Billion Stars and Secret harmonies, ‘The Temporary King’ seems to be just a straight love triangle drama. With no central sf idea driving the plot this is the first poor story of the collection. ‘Exiles’ is another character-based piece set in McAuley’s future history, but again the plot in this tale of migrant spacers is so slight as to be almost non-existent. ‘Little Ilya and Spider and Box’ is a superior variation on the previous tale, dealing this time with the attempts of an abused child to hitch a lift off of Earth. A fairly enjoyable if unspectacular thriller. The mid-book slump is firmly dispelled with ‘The Airs of Earth’, a perceptive look at the culture clash between the near immortal Goldens and their ephemeral human cousins. Finally ‘The Heirs of Earth’ continues the theme of culture clash, this time between a spacer and the degenerate inhabitants of Earth. All in all a fairly average collection, with the couple of superior stories balanced out by a couple of aimless pieces. The King of the Hill adds a little background colour to readers of the shared universe of McAuley's 1st three novels, but there isn’t enough variation or invention to make this a truly successful anthology.
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