Adventures in Tourism: Five SFF Stories About Travel
Adventures in Tourism: Five SFF Stories About Travel
The world exhibiting as it does a marvellous diversity of cultures, the question arises of how best to appreciate them. Unimpeachable experts1 assure us that the answer is “in person.” Pictures in magazines and dense text in hefty tomes are fine, but neither can replace reality.
Perhaps examples of the wonders awaiting travellers are in order. Here are the first five that came to mind.
“Coming Attraction” by Fritz Leiber (1950)
World War III failed to destroy either the United States or their Russian rivals. The nuclear exchange only inflamed the rivalry. Both sides spare no effort preparing for the next, quite possibly final, nuclear war. Thus, Englishman Wysten Turner’s purpose for visiting what remains of New York: trading American grain for British electronics that will no doubt find their way into the proposed American moon base.
Carefree hot-rodders provide Turner with an unexpected meet-cute, as he pulls an American woman out of the path of a fish-hook-festooned car. Although her name is as much a mystery as her face—no decent American woman would appear in public without her mask—Turner is enchanted. Too bad for poor Turner, who might have been better off remaining in England.
There’s nothing horrific under the mask; just a perfectly normal, if unadorned, face. This isn’t one of those atomic mutant stories. It’s more of a romance… just not for Turner.
“Nobody’s Home” by Joanna Russ (1972)
The Kamarovs revel in utopia. Every need is a whim away, whether food, global travel or delightfully convoluted romantic lives. Even better, every member of the family is a well-adjusted genius. The Kamarovs are the sort of people with whom one might want to share utopia. Just ask the Kamarovs!
Enter the stranger. Leslie is hard-working and diligent, but she isn’t as pretty, clever, or as delightfully witty as the Kamarovs. Is there a place in the Kamarov orbit for someone so relentless ordinary as Leslie… or are there limits to the Kamarov inventiveness?
It’s a bit unclear how many people like Leslie share this world with the Eloi at its center, as under usual circumstances, the Kamarovs would never sully their consciousness acknowledging someone like Leslie.
Seven American Nights by Gene Wolfe (1978)
Hassan Kerbelai quests after news of young Nadan Jaffarzadeh, who vanished during a trip to America. Of Nadan himself, no sign can be found. However, Hassan is in possession of Nadan’s journals, which document his experiences in the America of tomorrow. Perhaps these will provide a clue…
Although much reduced from its golden age, backward America is not quite so impoverished as tales would have it. Or at least, the polluted wreck of a once-great nation still offers delights to wealthy visitors. But as Nadan belatedly realizes, it also offers dreadful revelation.
It’s not entirely clear what Nadan discovered. What is obvious is that Nadan could teach a masterclass in stubbornly refusing to correlate all of the information at hand, because the conclusion would be unpleasant.
Pillars of Salt by Barbara Paul (1979)
Mid-21st-century America never invented physical time travel. They have something even better. They can project their minds as passive observers into the bodies of people in the past. This allows the travellers to experience the wonders of the past without any risk of changing history or suffering personal injury. Or so they believed.
Angie Patterson witnesses Queen Elizabeth’s brush with death due to smallpox. To Angie’s surprise, Elizabeth dies… then is resurrected thanks to some as yet mysterious consequence of hosting out-of-time visitors. The past is not immune to future tampering! And as Angie will discover, the future is not immune to the past.
The book doesn’t detail the full range of regulation applied to time travel. Judging by the manner in which it is used—for everything from sex education to entertainment—whatever controls these people have in place are not nearly enough…even ignoring Angie’s discoveries about causality and body-hopping.
“The Feast of Saint Janis” by Michael Swanwick (1980)
Post-collapse America2 may be impoverished, but its medical schools are still the finest on the planet. New Africa is wealthy and powerful, but in this one field, they lag behind the US. New Africa can offer advanced technological services if the US agrees to train African medical students. It’s Wolfgang Hans Mbikana’s task to convince uncooperative American officials to agree.
Life isn’t all negotiations with pricky Americans. Wolf is drawn into the orbit of Maggie Horowitz, Janis Joplin impersonator. Or rather, he is careful guided. Maggie represents a truth about America that the American government very much wants New Africa to understand.
People have been telling stories about the joys of visiting unfamiliar, far-off lands throughout all of written history. The above is a very small sample. No doubt you have your favourites—don’t everyone mention Xenophon’s Anabasis!—which you are invited to mention in comments below.
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