Visual Journeys

Visual Journeys
Edited by Eric T. Reynolds
Hadley Rille Books
ISBN: 978-0978514839
Fiction, Science Fiction, Anthology
Reviewed by Chris Gerrib

I attended a science fiction convention in early June. At the convention Nebula-winner Richard Chwedyk read his short story Where We Go which is in the new anthology Visual Journeys, edited by Eric Reynolds of Hadley Rille Books.
Based on the impressive reading, I ordered the book. My first reaction to the book was Wow! The book’s concept is unusual - authors write stories based on pieces of space art they’ve seen. The art - full color - is printed next to the story that inspired it. It’s a very impressive package, and chock full of great stuff. There’s not a bad story in the bunch, but some of the real highlights are:
* Cruising on Io (visual art by Bob Eggleton) and Io, Robot (short story by Tobias S. Buckell). It’s the leadoff story, about robotic explorers of Io waiting for humans to return. The question becomes, what is a human?
* Ron Miller, a Hugo award-winning artist, takes a Chesney Bonestell painting, Funeral on Mars (American astronauts burying one of their own) and turns in a crackerjack story called The Funeral. It’s somewhat of a mystery story, but to help you solve it, here is a hint- Ron is very big on 19th Century SF writers.
* Frank Wu, another visual artist, gives us his first published short story, Worlds in Collusion based on the painting Impact by Joe Tucciarone. It’s an unusual dual romance. You’ll have to read it to see who is doing the romancing.
* G. David Nordley takes Wolf Read’s painting Hell Orbit and gives us an interesting short story of the same name. It’s a mix of romance and coming-of-age, set in a star system 30 light years from Earth.
* Bob Eggleton (artist) and Jay Lake (writer) team up (in a virtual way) in a quirky but interesting short story called After Bonestell. Bob also teams up with James Van Pelt, who uses Bob’s Of Late I Dreamt of Venus to create an interesting story of obsession, also titled Of Late I Dreamt of Venus.
* Richard Chewdyk’s story Where We Go isn’t so much science fiction as about science fiction, notably the history of it in Chicago of the 1940s. It is, however, quite touching. The artwork for this story, Kronos Jazz Quartet by Delphyne, was actually created for the story, the only case like that in this book. Richard dedicates his story to his father, Joseph, who was a painter and artist.
* Ron Miller contributes a painting, Jupiter Cloudscapes, to the book. It’s used by Christopher McKitterick to write the wonderful story Jupiter Whispers, which is about the exploitation of Jupiter.
Hadley Rille is a new publishing house, and this is only their second book. It’s a real home run, and I look forward to their next effort, a two volume set called Ruins.