Run for the Stars/Echoes of Thunder

My reaction to reading these stories in 1991. Spoilers follow.

"Run for the Stars", Harlan Ellison -- Ellison proves, in this story, that he can write an action adventure story. This story has a cowardly junkie turned into a time bomb by his fellow humans so they can flee a world beseiged by the Kyben. (This story is part of the same series as his Outer Limits episode "Demon with a Glass Hand."). The plan is for the junkie, Benno Tallant, to try to preserve his pathetic life as long as possible and provide distraction for the Kyben. Tallant does, but he's a little too successful. He survives long enough to put the implanted bomb under his control and become leader of the Kyben fleet against Earth. Tallant's development from pathetic whiner to confident survivor bent on conquest is realistically handled, but I'm not sure what the point is. Tallant loses the urge for vengeance against the men who planted the bomb; indeed he comes to admire them for taking what they wanted. He seems to engage in conquest at story's end for the sheer desire for power, to become "God on his own". I suspect Ellison might be trying to make the point that the actions, necessary actions for all humanity's survival, of Commander Parkhurst and his men somehow are responsible for turning Tallant into a would-be conqueror at the head of an alien arm. It's the "Now look at what you've made me do." school of defense.

"Echoes of Thunder", Jack Dann & Jack C. Haldemann II -- This was a competently done tale of corporate intrigue and Indian mysticism rationalized by visions hinted to be the result of Earth receiving alien transmissions, but it didn't do much for me. And I still don't buy, in this age of growing "tribalism", the almost cliche sf default future of corporate domination or a one-world government. The background setup of snatching satellite weapons and sentries was interesting as was the corporate competition to cash in on secretly received alien transmissions. (In an ironic comment, corporations, unlike nation-states, are said to be concerned with long-term planning. Certainly not true of American corporations.) The corporations are working on "deep-sleep" research so they can send crews to meet possible alien civilizations. The tugging of two worlds, white and Indian shamanism, on protagonist John Stranger was fairly well-done. It's just the story didn't gel to a particularly interesting whole for me. ( )