The Strange Redemption of Sister Mary Ann

'The Strange Redemption of Sister Mary Ann,' by Mike Moscoe

This haunting eight page tale of a woman looking back on a full, long life while suffering through the terminal stages of cancer barely qualifies as science fiction, at least on first glance. What science there is gets developed as she questions some of the choices she made to delay childbirth through birth control and have children through in-virtro fertilization. Her culminating life choice of joining a convent in her twilight years definitely challenges prevailing notions of the role of traditional religion in modern society. Yet author Mike Moscoe provides no easy answers, instead preferring to let us live with the tension the questions evoke. As such 'The Strange Redemption of Sister Mary Ann' is a beautiful, evocative and wistful tale that stirs the emotions and supports further reflection.

Mary Ann's life, up until the end, has been full, rich, and rewarding. A successful career, wonderful husband, happy children, and satisfying sex life symbolize the American dream and all that scientific and material abundance promise. It isn't until her husband dies and she is diagnosed with cancer that Mary Ann starts to question the potential cost of these choices, and starts to be haunted by the images of her unborn children in her dreams. Perhaps hoping to resolve the tension between her faith and her life actions, Mary Ann joins a convent where she leads a life of inward and outward piety, all the while struggling with ethical, philosophical, and theological questions. Where does life begin? What is the nature of existence after death? Do theologians have anything meaningful to offer?

I'm continually impressed by good efforts to integrate broader sociological, spiritual, and psychological questions into science fiction. Roscoe is not an author I remember reading before, but I'll be sure to be on the lookout for his works in the future.

PUBLISHER: Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding); Dell Publishers; ISSN: 10592113 (November, 2004)

Dibs

'Dibs', by Brian Plante

If I didn't realize it already, I'm now gaining an even greater awareness that it is a real talent to write a good science fiction short story. In just a few pages an author must flesh out believable characters, motives, and settings. Then there is the added ingredient that makes the story SF --a compelling ethical, philosophical, or physical issue that is raised by or solved with science or technology.

I thought Brian Plante did a fine job of using these elements artistically in 'Lavender in Love', which I reviewed last January. That story dealt with robots and artificial intelligence. This time, Plante tackles the ethical issues raised by organ donation --both voluntary and involuntary. If three people's lives would be saved, is it justified for doctors to kill you and harvest your organs to save them? Shouldn't a truly moral person be willing to sacrifice themselves if they know they will do greater good dead than alive? Is it ever morally justified for someone in need to call "dibs" on your heart, liver, skin, or spleen? When do the needs of the many truly outweigh the needs of the few?

Plante imagines a near-future world in which available organs and needy recipients can be matched with computer precision, --and the sick can lay claim on the organs of the healthy under the right circumstances! Told in the first person from the point of view of David Danila, a government employee whose organs are in risk of being involuntarily harvested, we are taken on an emotional and ethical roller coaster ride. David struggles both for survival and with the ethical issues surrounding organ donation --all in just six pages!

Brian Plante is definitely an author to watch, both in the pages of Analog and elsewhere.

PUBLISHER: Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding); Dell Publishers; ISSN: 10592113 (April, 2004)