Was "The Last Evolution" really only fifteen minutes long? It felt like it went on forever. I would've thought "Knotwork" was the shorter story. I've read Wikipedia entries more engaging than "The Last Evolution."
Ok, that isn't really fair. A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou kicked off with a reading of "Who Goes There" that was really cool and scary. In contrast, "The Last Evolution" was more of an abstract recitation of facts. Also, bad science. And I don't mean atomic theory, which was a product of the time.
I'm talking about the underlying concept of the story: Orthogenesis. The idea that evolution makes progress toward a goal. It's a really basic misunderstanding of modern evolutionary theory, and it dampens my enjoyment of the story. Orthogenesis is a pet peeve of mine.
"Knotwork," on the other hand, was creepy. The characters were real people, and I cared about all of them. Nina Kiriki Hoffman makes the most mundane stuff seem weird and sinister. I don't think it's really fantasy; assume an alien with utterly alien technology, and it works just as well. It didn't have a Campbellian twist at the end because it didn't need one. Overall, it was much more fun to listen to than "The Last Evolution."
Not that I mind classics. I feel that I must make that clear. Classics can be awesome. This, however, was not my idea of an awesome piece of classic SF.
time that I find particularly agreeable is that there are now quite a number of really good female sci-fi writers getting their work published.
