Avon Books, $27.50

Review by L.D. Meagher

June 30, 1999
Web posted at: 6:02 p.m. EDT (2202 GMT)

(CNN) -- The marketing of science fiction these days seems motivated by the axiom "Familiarity breeds success." Bookstore shelves are lined with covers bearing familiar brand names like "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" as well as seemingly endless series of novels that recycle well-known imaginary vistas and characters. This marketing strategy is rooted in a tradition that dates back to the mist-enshrouded dawn of the genre.

Science fiction -- perhaps more than any other type of literature -- has always welcomed the sequel, the trilogy, the series. It has long recognized that a good idea is worth a second look. Even the giants of the field have returned to their earlier works to re-examine issues they raised but did not have the time to explore. From the pioneering "Skylark" series by E.E. Smith through the Foundation and Robot novels of Isaac Asimov and Lazarus Long books by Robert Heinlein, right up to the "2001" sequels from Arthur C. Clarke, writers have revisited the worlds they have created to develop new ideas.

Robert Silverberg, who has written his share of series novels, invited some of his friends to take another look at the universes that they imagined. The results are collected in "Far Horizons," an anthology of new stories set against familiar backgrounds. The eleven tales allow the authors to explore elements of their creations they haven't dealt with before.

The variety of stories included is nothing short of breathtaking. Their scope ranges from the intimate to the mind-boggling. They deal with issues as diverse as figuring out how to pay taxes (the problem facing Orson Scott Card's Ender Wiggins) and finding a way to prevent the destruction of an interdimensional artificial universe (the challenge presented to Greg Bear's Olmy Ap Sennen).

The writers who contribute to "Far Horizons" are a "Who's Who" of contemporary science fiction: Ursula K. Le Guin, Frederick Pohl, Gregory Benford, Joe Haldeman, Anne McCaffrey, David Brin, Nancy Kress and Dan Simmons, in addition to Card, Bear and Silverberg himself. Each contributes a story that re-examines an issue or character introduced in his or her series of novels.

Some offer "lost episodes" -- incidents that were skipped over in the novels. Thus, Card is allowed to show the first meeting between Ender and his cyber-companion Jane, and Haldeman can explain what Marygay was doing during her separation from William in "The Forever War." Other stories fill in other kinds of blanks. Pohl describes the first human contact with the Heechee from his "Gateway" series, while Kress explores the relationship between The Sleepless and their non-augmented fellow humans.

The variety of writing styles is as vast as the variety of subjects. Le Guin offers her typically elegant prose, while McCaffrey's is seemingly stripped down to the bare essentials. While most of the entries come from that portion of the genre known as "hard science fiction," the stories generally don't dwell on the nuts and bolts of the future. Benford, one of the "hardest" of the "hard s-f" writers, even takes a poetic turn when he describes a character's arrival at a planet named Isis.

"Isis beckoned with its dry beauties. At the dawn line, arid valleys lay sunk in darkness while snowy mountains gleamed above, crowned by clouds that glowed red-orange like live coals. Mountaintops cleaved the sheets of clouds, leaving a wake like that of a ship. Brooding thunderheads, lit by lightning flashes, recalled the blooming buds of white roses."

There are many reasons to cheer a collection like "Far Horizons." First and foremost, it brings together some of the top writers in the field. It also can serve as an introduction to some of the more imaginative science fiction series ever written. A short introduction by each author sets the stage, though some are easier to understand than others. Simmons tries to compress the four novels of his "Hyperion Cantos" -- which cover 1,300 years -- into three and a half pages. The result is more than a bit confusing. The story that follows more than makes up for the deficiency.

All of the offerings in "Far Horizons" work, on one level or another. There may be minor quibbles -- the Le Guin tale seems terribly prosaic for such a richly imagined universe, and Bear is more successful if his contribution is read as a sort of tone poem rather than as storytelling. On the whole, however, Silverberg has compiled a thoroughly enjoyable anthology that serves as an antidote to the ceaseless, often mindless, retreading of ideas that dominates the bookshelves. As he puts it in the introduction to the book, "A great science fiction concept ... is inexhaustible -- the infinite always is."

L.D. Meagher is a senior writer at CNN Headline News. He has worked in broadcasting for 30 years.