In the Wake of Man

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It can be said of Man that wherever he goes, he brings trouble with him. And after he leaves, his place of visitation is never the same again. Is Man capable of influencing a specific environment for the better, or is he doomed to ruining whatever he touches, as has been true from Eden onward? Will he continue to do the same as he journeys outward to the stars? The three stories in this triad explore the theme of Man and what he leaves in his wake. Each is entirely different from the others. Walter Moudy's "The Search for Man" can be called a traditional kind of science fiction short novel, traditional but engrossing. His anti-hero conducts a search for the Anti-Man in a compassionate parable. R. A. Lafferty's "From the Thunder Colt's Mouth" is a delightful tale, once again not in the least bit stylistically related to the others, but grafted to them by their common theme. People and animals are mostly papier-mache or Styrofoam. History is remembered through a valuable tome entitled "The History of Cook County in the Early Days," plus a memo to the effect that the Black Sea has disappeared because it never was. Gene Wolfe's "Tracking Song" is the most sentimental of the three short novels in the book. Wolfe depicts a grim yet beautiful silent world of snow, where life is lived on enormous sleighs. Warm and evocative, it is a dazzling work by one of the most important authors in science fiction.