The surprise ending of course is Kress' link to O. Henry, whose twist finales have fallen into disfavour with writers. Of course, the average reader still loves them; only he has to go to the theatre to find them now. Maybe this is one reason why magazine readership has fallen...?

But, of course, there was a bonafide reason for why they'd fallen into disfavour: abuse. Pick up any genre collection of short shorts and read tale after bad tale -- the twist for twist's sake. There has to be a potent meaning behind the twist, a playing upon assumptions for a reason. Harry Bates' moving "Farewell to the Master" plays upon such reader assumptions for its finale, but it doesn't matter whether you guessed the surprise. The ending still retained emotional impact and meaning. The saying -- a good story is one a reader will read even should the last page be missing -- has been attributed to Raymond Chandler. The same is true for O. Henry tales. If the story's purpose includes the journey and not merely the destination, it satisfies.

Kress' "Savior" falls into this category of story. That is, it does when one knows what Kress is driving at. One Locus reviewer said it was "less than the sum of its parts." True enough if one does not question who it is that needs saving. The plot unravels an episodic future history where industrial technology finally breaks civilization down but where human ingenuity through quantum computers and nanotechnology turns civilization back around. The episodic drama is more reminiscent of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy than the standard story plot. The episodes don't always seem to direct the reader toward a deeper understanding of the story's thematic goal. Kress appears to misdirect the reader even here... except when, between the episodes, we receive the bold voice of the alien announcing, "Transmission: There is nothing here yet. Probability of occurrence: 67%." The percent fluctuates with the falling and rising of technology. Unfortunately, the theme gets buried and doesn't always arise to let the reader know what it is driving at. But perhaps this is by design; neither do humans know what other humans are driving at, let alone aliens.

While the storytelling language rarely emerges from the functional -- Flannery O'Conner asked why anyone would need more -- character realism is Kress' strong suit and perhaps is what makes her so appealing to those who enjoy strong characterization. For example:

"'A man has to believe in something,' he said in a gruff voice, quoting a recent bad movie, swaggering a little to point up the joke. It fell flat. Ann went on staring..."

Back to falling magazine subscriptions for a brief digression, apart from the more obvious aspects of societal alliteracy (to borrow a neologism from the first lady, meaning people who choose not to read), perhaps the genre's greater tendency toward shorthand or simply stringent reading protocols has blocked out potential readers. For example, though Kress uses Fermi's Paradox which has been bounced around the SF block for years, a new reader may stumble over such an undefined term and feel lost, putting down the book. Perhaps, arguably, older SF assumed less shorthand than it does today; hence, the older generation of non-SF readers knew who Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke and Bradbury were. Maybe SF writers should be more cognizant of such terms and try to provide the context that would define the terms without insulting the intelligence of those who already are aware of them. Again, to appropriate another Chandlerism (from "Notes on the Mystery Story"):

"It is arguable, although not certain, that inferences arising from special knowledge... are a bit of a cheat, because the basic theory of good mystery writing is that at some stage not too late in the story the reader did have the materials to solve the problem."

The best was saved for last. What's all this hyperbole comparing one of Kress' episodes (the second) to the incomparable banquet scene in Dune? Though there are more characters and intrigue to juggle in the Dune scene, Kress works similar yet subtler magic -- more akin to the literary works of manners in Jane Austen. The egg has permeated the culture so thoroughly that they've taken to prefixing statements with "O." The scene tension builds through a goat herder's perceptions or misperceptions of his wife. The goat herder cannot reveal what he does not know, so what the reader learns is completely by inference, requiring only a knowledge of human nature. I won't spoil the sly yet potent revelation. (Hint: Kress has built up enough little details that what the character thinks has happened, the reader knows otherwise. "On the journey home...")

If you missed the June 2000 issue of Asimov's, don't despair. "Savior" has been reprinted exactly where it belongs: in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction, 18th Annual Collection.