Insistence of Vision (47 page)

Afterword & Book Notes

ᚖ

About a third of these stories… maybe a quarter of the words… appeared in a limited print-run (1000 copies) special collection called
Tomorrow Happens,
published in 2003 by NESFA Press, to raise funds for the New England Science Fiction Association. I intend to recycle that title for a nonfiction book.

It’s been a very long time since my last collection,
Otherness
.
The variety of themes and styles in this volume reflect a period of changes for me, my family, nation and civilization, as we embark on a century that is both brimming and fraught with possibilities. I hope you’ll be part of making good ones come true.

Drop by to visit my WebLog at
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/
… or my official site
http://www.davidbrin.com
.

Acknowledgments

ᚖ

My appreciation to the many who read or critiqued earlier versions of these stories and essays. The list includes Lou Aronica, Mark Grygier, Stefan Jones, Steve Jackson, Joe Miller, Vernor Vinge, Robin Hanson, Steinn Sigurdsonn, Wiliam Calvin, Nick Arnett, Stanley Schmidt, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Wil McCarthy, Joseph Carroll, and David Hartwell…along with members of the Caltech, UCLA, UCSD and the University of Chicago and New England Science Fiction Associations, including Deb Geisler who edited the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
for NESFA Press, which contained some of the stories in this volume. Above all to Cheryl Brigham who assembled the stories for this edition and corrected so many blunders, prodding it into presentable shape.

And to all of you out there who let me do this for a living. Gee, thanks. Right or wrong, I’ll try to be interesting.

David Brin

Publication History

ᚖ

“Insistence of Vision” appeared in
Twelve Tomorrows
,
Technology Review’s
Science Fiction Edition, July 2013.

“Stones of Significance” first appeared in a special edition,
Lamps on the Brow
, then in the special January 2000 edition of
Analog
magazine.

“Transition Generation” appeared in
Project Hieroglyph
,
2014.

“Chrysalis” appeared in
Analog
, August 2014.

“News from 2025: A Glitch in Medicine Cabinet 3.5” first appeared in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
,
NESFA Press, 2003. It also appeared in the
Starship Sofa Collection
, Volume 3, 2011.

“Mars Opposition” first appeared in
Analog/Astounding Science Fiction
, January 2005.

“A Professor at Harvard” appeared in
Analog/Astounding Science Fiction
, July 2003.

“I Could’ve Done Better” appeared online on Jim Baen’s Universe, ed. Eric Flint, 2006.

“Paris Conquers All” was originally published in the anthology
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches
, ed. Kevin J. Anderson (Bantam, Doubleday, Dell) 1989, and in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
.

“The Logs” appeared in
Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe
,
ed. Bill Fawcett and J.E. Mooney, Tor, 2013

“Eloquent Elepents Pine Away for the Moon’s Crystal Forests” appeared in
Space Cadets
, the special printing for the Los Angeles World Science Fiction Convention, ed. Mike Resnick, SCIFI press, 2006.

“The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss” appeared in
Old Venus
,
ed. by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, 2015.

“Fortitude” first appeared in
Science Fiction Age
, January 1996, and in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
.

“An Ever-Reddening Glow” first appeared in
Analog
, February 1996, then in
The Hard SF Renaissance
,
ed. By David C. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, Orbit Books, 2003, as well as in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
,
NESFA Press, 2003.

“Diplomacy Guild” first appeared in the collection
Isaac’s Universe Volume 1: The Diplomacy Guild
,
ed. Martin H. Greenberg (Grafton) 1990, as well as in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens
,
NESFA Press, 2003.

“The Other Side of the Hill” first appeared in Science Fiction Age, November 1994, and in a limited edition of
Tomorrow Happens
,
NESFA Press 2003.

“Avalon Probes” appeared in
Analog
, 2013.

“Six-Word Tales” appeared as “Very Short Stories” in
Wired
magazine, Issue 14.11 November 2006.

“Reality Check” appeared in the March 16, 2000, issue of the science journal
Nature
and was selected for the
Year’s Best SF 6
anthology
,
edited by David G. Hartwell. It also appears in the limited edition,
Tomorrow Happens.

“Waging War With Reality” appeared in
Styles of Creation,
edited by George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin 1992.

About the Author

David Brin is a scientist, New York Times bestselling author, and tech-futurist. His novels include EARTH, THE POSTMAN (filmed in 1997) and Hugo Award winners STARTIDE RISING and THE UPLIFT WAR. A leading commentator and speaker on modern trends, his nonfiction book THE TRANSPARENT SOCIETY won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. INSISTENCE OF VISION is his third story collection.