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pabba, in his "Books Read in 2008" thread, reviewed Asimov's Choice: Extraterrestials & Eclipses, a paperback anthology published WAAAAY back in 1978, and which contained a story I'd previously published in Asimov's SF Magazine.
He had nice things to say about the story, though. "A collection of lighthearted tales about aliens, alternate time-worlds, and in-jokes, Asimov's Choice: Extraterrestrials & Eclipses edited by Isaac Asimov has a few winners, as well as some duds. The winners--namely that by Stephen Leigh--carry the book... "When We Come Down" by Stephen Leigh does not belong in this book. It is, without a doubt, the strongest story here--a novelette, actually--and not one bit silly. I've even forgiven Leigh for the phrase "FTL transmitters" since it was published in 1978. Cripples are put to use as BPs, bio-pilots, and the normals hate them for it, for their half-metal bodies and limping forms. They travel from city to city, hanging out in empty space, doing jobs only they can do, and when they try to mingle in local bars and clubs they get nothing but buckets of hate. Jairg, the reasonable one of his BP team, is determined to see things changed. It's a take on the common feeling of being unaccepted, of being lost and confused and hurt, and the characters here are just so likable that there was no reason not to want to see them get in from the outside."
I always liked that story. Glad to know that, thirty years on, someone else did as well!
pabba, in his "Books Read in 2008" thread, reviewed Asimov's Choice: Extraterrestials & Eclipses, a paperback anthology published WAAAAY back in 1978, and which contained a story I'd previously published in Asimov's SF Magazine. He had nice things to say about the story, though. "A collection of lighthearted tales about aliens, alternate time-worlds, and in-jokes, Asimov's Choice: Extraterrestrials & Eclipses edited by Isaac Asimov has a few winners, as well as some duds. The winners--namely that by Stephen Leigh--carry the book... "When We Come Down" by Stephen Leigh does not belong in this book. It is, without a doubt, the strongest story here--a novelette, actually--and not one bit silly. I've even forgiven Leigh for the phrase "FTL transmitters" since it was published in 1978. Cripples are put to use as BPs, bio-pilots, and the normals hate them for it, for their half-metal bodies and limping forms. They travel from city to city, hanging out in empty space, doing jobs only they can do, and when they try to mingle in local bars and clubs they get nothing but buckets of hate. Jairg, the reasonable one of his BP team, is determined to see things changed. It's a take on the common feeling of being unaccepted, of being lost and confused and hurt, and the characters here are just so likable that there was no reason not to want to see them get in from the outside."
I always liked that story. Glad to know that, thirty years on, someone else did as well!