The Last Science Fiction Writer

While The Last Science Fiction Writer consists of stories I wrote during a relatively short period of time, in some ways it also represents a cross-section of my career thus far. Moreau2 and High Roller are later entries in the Near-Space series not included in Sex and Violence in Zero-G; The War of Dogs and Boids is a stand-alone episode of the Coyote cycle. Take Me Back To Old Tennessee and Hail to the Chief are related to one another; An Incident of the Luncheon of the Boating Party shares the same background as an earlier story, ...Where Angels Fear to Tread (along with its novel-length expansion, Chronospace). World Without End, Amen is the latest in a loosely-linked series that includes Agape Among The Robots and Jake and the Enemy (both in my previous collection, American Beauty) while continuing the same thematic concerns of my novel The Jericho Iteration.

Other stories stand on their own. Escape From Earth was originally intended to be a young-adult novel until Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois invited me to contribute a novella to an anthology of YA science fiction. The Teb Hunter is straight-out satire, a comment on hunters and hunting; The Last Science Fiction Writer is much the same, although this time the target is science fiction itself, in particular some of its beloved and well-worn tropes.

Contents:

9 • Introduction: A Space Cadet Turns Fifty • essay by Allen Steele

13 • Escape from Earth • (2006) • novella by Allen Steele

103 • The War of Dogs and Boids • shortstory by Allen Steele

125 • An Incident at the Luncheon of the Boating Party • (2005) • shortstory by Allen Steele

135 • The Teb Hunter • (2003) • shortstory by Allen Steele

145 • Moreau 2 • [Near Space] • novella by Allen Steele (variant of Moreau² 2004)

203 • High Roller • [Near Space] • (2004) • novelette by Allen Steele

227 • World Without End, Amen • (2006) • novelette by Allen Steele

257 • Take Me Back to Old Tennessee • (2006) • shortstory by Allen Steele

279 • Hail to the Chief • (2005) • shortstory by Allen Steele

293 • The Last Science Fiction Writer • (2006) • shortstory by Allen Steele