Subject: Review: "Think Like A Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: 24 Jun 1998 15:16:45 -0400

"Think Like A Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly
	A Postview, copyright 1998 p-m agapow
	
A short story collection, including: "Mr Boy," where a deliberately
stunted boy has to cope with his transhuman mother and an tenacious
investigator chasing down a security intrusion; "Breakaway, Backdown,"
when a recruit hears about the true cost of going into space; "Pogrom,"
depicting a world where a few privileged old are the envy of the young and
unemployed.

It is de rigueur for collections to have a foreword by some respected
authority who at length praises the author and tells you how lucky you
are. It is less usual for these forewords to actually be informative and
interesting, which is the case for John Kessel's introduction to "Think
Like A Dinosaur." For my money, he gets it exactly right when dissecting
Kelly's stories and career, with the collection as an apt illustration of
his theses. Irritatingly and strangely, he assumes you have already read
the stories. Caveat lector.

Kelly regularly garners praise and award nominations, but has a relatively
low profile.  As Kessel points out, Kelly has yet to break with a major
novel.  His recent "Wildlife," although interesting, is more a collection
of good bits than a good whole.  Short fiction may get you praise but not
mass-market fame.

To this I might add that Kelly is not a stylist.  You never know that
you're reading a Kelly story, the way you can pick one from William
Gibson, Connie Willis or Iain Banks. That's just not his style.  It is
this point that may scare people away from "Think Like A Dinosaur."  While
the book opens with the hard-headed SF title piece, this rubs shoulders
with "Heroics" (about a middle-aged father beset with self-doubt) which is
in no telling way a work of genre.  This is not a snobby "it ain't SF, it
ain't good" stance, just recognition that Kelly is reluctant to play the
same trick twice.  In cases like this, expectations are easy to
disappoint.

Having said this, "Think Like a Dinosaur" is very good.  The title piece
presents a precarious scenario that ranks with "The Cold Equations."  Our
narrator is faced with a nasty situation in which he has no choice but to
think like a dinosaur.  In this case, the dinosaurs are not primitive
creatures but aliens far advanced from us.  "The First Law of
Thermodynamics" is by contrast (and against its title) remote from any
taste of science, following a group of tripping students in the heights of
the 60s.  Without being nostalgic, it draws a remarkably evocative picture
of the period.  Zig-zagging again, we end up in "Itsy-bitsy Spider," a
touching picture of a daughter confronting a once-neglectful father who
has since descended into a senile old age, sustained only by technology.
"Rat," should also be mentioned, solely for its scenario of a drug-
smuggling intelligent rat.  Intriguing, but I just didn't get this one.
The book ends in "Mr Boy," set in Kelly's oft-trod world of widespread
body modification and genetic engineering.  In a previous review, I
described this setting as "wonderfully sick," adrift with children shaped
as dinosaurs and one parent as a building (to wit, a .75 scale replica of
the Statue of Liberty).  It's sassy, creative and a lot of fun.

Regretfully, the mix of styles, the non-SF content, and the high price of
this hardback will work against this book. People should adjust the
ratings accordingly. But it otherwise comes highly recommended and I hope
Kelly gets another novel or collection out soon; there must be enough
stories for it.  [***/interesting] and arthouse cinema on the Sid and
Nancy scale.

%A James Patrick Kelly
%T Think Like A Dinosaur
%I Golden Gryphon Press
%C Illinois
%D 1997
%P 275pp
%G ISBN 0-9655901-94
%O hardback, Aus$27.95

Paul-Michael Agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
"There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."