DARK STARS AND OTHER ILLUMINATIONS

by Thomas F. Monteleone ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 24, 1981

A trudging and derivative collection of nine stories and a one-act play garnered from various magazines and anthologies over the past seven years. Two stories are consciously patterned after other writers: the thoroughly predictable ""The Star-Filled Sea is Smooth Tonight"" (the adjustment problems of a cyborg spaceship pilot returned to planetbound human existence) after Loren Eiseley, and ""Taking the Night Train"" (a Ratso Rizzo type discovering something nasty on a downtown New York subway) after Harlan Ellison. Also excessively familiar: aliens-among-us variations, a time-travel anecdote, heavily thematic handling of eyes and photography and transplants. And the slightly better stories here--""Where All the Songs are Sad"" (Sicilian witch) and ""The Dance in the Darkness""-aren't really science fiction. Like Monteleone's novels (cf. Guardian, 1980): pretentious, hackneyed work.

Pub Date: April 24, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1981

Categories: FICTION