Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack Mcdevitt
Subterranean Press is proud to announce a mammoth (38 stories, over 200,000 words) Best of Volume by SF Best-Seller Jack McDevitt.
Jack McDevitt loves a good mystery. And he enjoys baffling his readers with enigmas like why, after so many years of listening with no results, would a SETI director hear an artificial signal and keep it quiet? Why might an astronomer at a space station, facing imminent death from a solar radiation blast, send off a frantic message that he had discovered a Clyde Tombaugh Special? Tombaugh, of course, was the discoverer of Pluto.
What really happened to Christopher Sim, the George Washington of the war against the Ashiyyur? Why had a beloved artist at the top of his profession, with everything to live for, killed himself? Why had a brilliant young biologist discovered how life got started on Earth, but neglected to tell anyone?
And there are of course other anomalies to be encountered in McDevitt's work: A computer threatens the literary world, while a time traveler worries the churches. One artificial intelligence runs for president, and another claims to be a Catholic and demands access to the sacraments. Two friends discover that whenever they get together, shuttles crash, wars break out, or tidal waves hammer a coastline.
A researcher watches endless fighting on another world and finally rebels against the Academy's hands-off doctrine. Meantime, a crewman stranded light-years from Earth, entertains himself by intercepting radio broadcasts from home, originally transmitted during World War II.
Among other questions these tales will answer: What might happen when people in a research lab literally try to play God. Why you don't ever, ever, want to turn out the lights at Bolton's Tower in the Dakotas. Why someone might want to blow up a star. And why it would be a really good idea if Hatch kept his hands off the mallet. These, and twenty-three other cosmic rides, await the reader.
Table of Contents:
Part I: Unlikely Connections
- Cryptic
- The Fort Moxie Branch
- Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City
- Tweak
- Melville on Iapetus
- Lighthouse (with Michael Shara)
- Cool Neighbor (with Michael Shara)
- Whistle
- In the Tower
Part II: Lost Treasures
- Ignition
- Indomitable
- Last Contact
- Never Despair
- Windows
- Dutchman
- The Tomb
- Promises to Keep
- To Hell with the Stars
- The Mission
Part III: Out There
- Report from the Rear
- Black to Move
- The Far Shore
- Sunrise
- Kaminsky at War
Part IV: Touching the Infinite
- Fifth Day
- Deus Tex
- Gus
- Welcome to Valhalla (with Kathryn Lance)
- Tyger
- Auld Lang Boom
Part V: Inventions and Fallout
- Cruising through Deuteronomy
- The Candidate
- Act of God
- Ellie
- Time's Arrow
- Dead in the Water
- Henry James, This One's for You
- Time Travellers Never Die
From Analog:
"...McDevitt... is surely one of the best writers of SF alive today. His
novels are enough to support the statement, but if he had never written
the novels, his short fiction could do the job almost as well. If you
doubt me, get a copy of Cryptic...
The book has
thirty-nine tales, and I am not about to go through them all for you!
Suffice it to say that you should have no trouble finding plenty to
enjoy."
Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt (born 1935) is an award-winning American science fiction author.
HeĀ is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. His work has been on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards for 12 of the past 13 years. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award. In 1991, McDevitt won the first $10,000 UPC International Prize for his novella, "Ships in the Night." The Engines of God was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and his novella, "Time Travelers Never Die," was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.