Often associated with the loosely defined “New Space Opera,” his work is exuberantly imaginative, often violent adventure SF, and displays a flair for the creation of believable aliens. He has in particular invented some of the most astonishing monsters in SF in recent years. This last talent is well-displayed in “Strood,” a tale in which hyperintelligent aliens have revolutionized human society—up to a point. It is a story about the surprising uses to which species, even sentient ones, put one another. STROOD Like a Greek harp standing four meters tall and three wide, its centercurtain body rippling in some unseen wind, the strood shimmered across the park, tendrils groping for me, their stinging pods shiny and bloated. Its voice was the sound of some bedlam ghost in a big empty house: muttering, then bellowing guttural nonsense. Almost instinctively, I ran toward the nearest pathun, with the monster close behind me. The pathun’s curiol matrix reacted with a nacreous flash, displacing us both into a holding cell.
What do You think about 21st Century Science Fiction?
