Stable Strategies and Others

September 27, 2004
Hugo-nominee Eileen Gunn's collection, Stable Strategies and Others, showcases tales with fresh, unusual perspectives on ordinary life, including "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," based on the author's experiences as advertising director at Microsoft Corporation. William Gibson provides a foreword. Agent, Linn Prentiss. .

September 15, 2004
Beginning with "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," which addresses the matter of extreme modification of self for advancement in the corporate world, and concluding with the collaborative effort "Green Fire," which details the alternative careers of Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, the stories in Gunn's first collection bespeak a first-rate writer with a knack for a certain timelessness. "Stable Strategies," first published in 1989, still sounds disturbingly likely. Equally perdurable seem such divergent and bizarre gems as "Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp," a truly inclusive recipe from the " Tiptree Bakesale Book"; "The Sock Story," which considers the deeper implications of losing socks; and "Coming to Terms," an examination of the scraps and marginalia of a dead man's life. Besides Gunn's work, there are William Gibson's introduction to it, Michael Swanwick poetically cheering for it, and Howard Waldrop's closing words on Gunn's motley career and glacial writing pace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)