Gordon R. Dickson. The Stranger (1987) It seems our obsession with extra-terrestrial life has needed assuaging for centuries. One of the earliest fantasy fictions was written in the 1600s. The traveller used geese to fly him to the moon, where he encountered aliens. Of course, in that century Europeans encountered many new peoples. Travellers’ tales were very popular. Extending the itch for exploration stories to the Moon was I think an inevitable step, even though the technology of the time mean it was speculative fiction.
Dickson, like most SF writers, riffs on the Alien, and does so better than most. Some are stranded on Earth, some are sought by Earthlings, some are denizens of the far future, one is a machine that manages global life (and tolerates no opposition). Like all tales about encounters with the Stranger, they tell us as much about the teller as the told. Dickson has a generally optimistic view of humankind: his protagonists usually prevail. The dangers come from human hybris, stupidity, or moral lethargy.
The collection includes work from the 1950s to the 80s. The earliest stories can be read as expressions of the Western fear of Communist domination: the Stranger disguises appearance and intention. The later stories explore the notion of “stranger” in the widest sense: we humans are the strangest critters we know. Worth reading. ** to ****
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