THE UNIVERSE BOX

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

The Universe Box collects nineteen of Michael Swanwick's stories, originally published between 2012 and 2026, including two original stories. The book offers an introduction to Swanwick's short fiction for those who mostly know him through his novels and a welcome addition to his short story collections for those who already know of his writings at that length.

"The Year of the Three Monarchs" is the story of power and hubris as King Xingool begins the year looking over his assembled armies in preparation to wage a war which goes in an unexpected direction (for King Xingool, the story's title gives the reader a pretty good idea where things are heading). The second monarch, King Kangor, having seen Xingool's fate, takes all possible measures to protect himself, eventually falling into paranoia. His successor, Slythe, doesn't take over for three years, yet manages to become a king in the same year as Xingool and Kangor. The story is a look at different types of hubris for each monarch and is an entertaining, if slight, story.

The title of "Ghost Ships" refers to a brief story the narrator has heard about something that may, or may not, have happened to friends in college. The primary focus of the story is the nostalgia that arises when an old friend has died. The narrator has returned to his college for a memorial service for a friend, Rabbit, and it brings back memories, not only of Rabbit, but of other friends and pranks that were pulled in college. Swanwick examines the transitory nature of life and experience while also reminding us that people live on in unexpected ways as long as people remember them.

In "The White Leopard," Swanwick offers up a man in an unhappy marriage who injects some joy into his life by purchasing an army surplus drone shaped like a white leopard. He uses it to escape from his problems and, in the process, comes across another drone. Although he and the other drone operator, a woman, haven't met, they form an emotional attachment and begin to plot a way to murder his wife, but things don't turn out the way they expect. The story, told from his point of view, is a study in the idea that a story can have an unreliable narrator who is too caught up in his own perceptions to fully understand what is happening.

Science fiction is often a discussion with earlier stories, and the title of Swanwick's "The Warm Equations" immediately puts it into the conversation with Tom Godwin's 1954 short story "The Cold Equations," although Swanwick's story is quite different from Godwin's. Set on Mercury, Dr. Charles Magnus Osbourne sees himself as better than his colleagues and he has been careful to build barriers between himself and them. When his journey outside the laboratory results in a crash during a solar storm, he realizes nobody will come and rescue him, if he is to survive, and there is no doubt in his hubristic mind that he will, he will need to rescue himself. Just as Swanwick reversed the title of Godwin's story, so, too, is the outcome of Dr. Osbourne's ordeal flipped on its head to provide a more optimistic view of the universe than either Godwin or Osbourne have.

Luke is a homeless man who goes through life trying to make it through the day, occasionally receiving visits from Reverend Howe and his silent disciple "Cthulhu" in "Dreadnaught." Putting up with Howe because he brings doughnuts and coffee to go along with his preaching, Luke occasionally has run ins with people, like the rabbi whose secret he learns or the guy who Luke is convinced holds a woman captive in his basement, but he is realistic enough to know that his homelessness means he has no power to effect change. The story takes unexpected twists, although in hindsight, Swanwick does an excellent job of setting them up.

"Grandmother Dimetrodon" offers a time travel story. Douglas has used a loophole in the law to escape murder charges by traveling to the Permian period, technically before the murder was committed. He builds a life for himself raising Dimetrodons in order to sell their meat to the restaurants in Xanadu, a time traveler tourist city in the Permian. Swanwick focuses on a five day period in which Douglas agrees to show his Dimetrodon ranch to Mariupal, a traveler from the far future, despite his better judgement. As with many of the stories in The Universe Box, there is an underlying threat of violence, mostly from the wild Dimetrodons Douglas raises, but also in the threatening aspect of Mariupal and Douglas's own reason for being in the Permian.

"Reservoir Ice" is Swanwick's answer to the time travel question "If time travel exists, why don't we see more time travelers?" After a relationship falls apart, Matt, who is researching chrononeurodynamics, figures out a way to travel in time. He uses it to re-meet Laura, continuing to travel into the past to restart their relationship every time in blows up. Eventually, he finds himself facing other time travelers, including a colleague, a future wife, and a friend of his lover, each trying to influence how the future turns out. The colleague even goes as far as to tell Matt that he is generally protected from most time travelers who want to change things. Even protected, Matt sees the world of time travel to be one of chaos, and it is hinted that the chaos and constant state of timeline flux go well beyond him.

"Huginn and Muninn--And What Came After" is an Alice in Wonderland inspired story in which a woman, named Alice, steps through a mirror to another, strange world, where she hopes to find happiness. What she finds is a threatening place in which some things are reversed, but a place that also offers powers. Alice finds herself relying on strangers, but at the same time gaining a sense of independence she hadn't had before going through the mirror. She also learns that going through the mirror can reverse the aging process, so using it judiciously can result in immortality. The ending, however, seems to be untelegraphed, which makes it more shocking, but it feels unearned.

"Timothy: An Oral History" is set in a world where men no longer exist, until a scientist manages to have arrange to have a boy born into the world. The story is told with short paragraphs representing the reminiscences of several women who played a role in Timothy's story, from his mothers who raised Timothy to individuals who came into contact with Timothy, to the childhood friend who grew to love Timothy. Timothy's uniqueness in the world and the language that the characters use to discuss Timothy make the reader reconsider gender roles, eventually culminating in Timothy's own thoughts and revisiting the scientist who created Timothy and her real motivation.

The Universe Box collects nineteen stories which display Swanwick's breadth as an author. The stories range from fantasy to science fiction, exploring the way humans relate to each other and how the changes in their world impact them, not always in predictable ways.

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