The Last Science Fiction Writer

In Steele's fifth collection of short science fiction stories, the adventurers who look outward are rewarded with learning where they truly belong, be they canines transplanted off Earth (“The War of Dogs and Boids”), prospectless teens who stumble across a time-travel repair mission (“Escape from Earth”) or a virtual author breaking free of marketing straitjackets (“The Last Science Fiction Writer”). Staying too close to home, in contrast, leads nowhere, as the savage survivors of the next Ice Age find out in “Take Me Back to Old Tennessee.” If Steele (Galaxy Blues ) could resist the tendency to pick on the easy targets in obvious ways, he would make his points more convincingly, but even his more unsubtle stories are written in a direct, entertaining style, with morals many readers will share and appreciate. (Nov.)