Starting off the collection is one of Marusek's best received, and indeed best pieces of short fiction, “The Wedding Album.” A fractured narrative for a fractured reality, it is the story of Ann and Benjamin, ostensibly a newly married couple. Set in the late 23rd century, the couple have been making virtual copies of themselves at various points in their lives, and now that they are married, have agreed to make the copies available to one another. The variety of virtual selves covering a span of evolved technology, some pass sentience tests while others do not, and each is only half-certain of the difference between the virtual world they live in and the actual happenings in the original’s life since the last time they were copied or reset. A splintered view of life the result, Ann and Benjamin’s personal lives collide in virtual reality to the point their lives in reality are affected. Perception of identity and self-identity fractured enough as it is, the story is brilliant commentary on personality and identity in the digital age. (Longer review here.) A companion piece to “The Wedding Album” found in this collection is “A Boy in Cathyland”. An age-old human story about suppression (regardless by tech or something else), it is a brief tale but packs a proportional punch.
A spot of flash fiction, “The Earth Is on the Mend” tells of a hunter deep in snowy woods who is forced to make a hard decision in the face of resource scarcity. Forgettable. From forgettable flash fiction to a touch of self-indulgence/market commentary, “Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz” is a semi-clever story with Marusek as the main character. It begs to be read given Marusek's clarity of style and way of building mystery, but only once. At the conlusion, the gig's up. Delightful, but ultimately a one-off off about immortality, Alaska-style.
“VTV” is a jaded, cynical take on media (if only Marusek knew how truly subjective mass media would become). It tells of an up and coming content producer who suddenly finds himself on the road covering a live story. And it's a dangerous one. Staking out the house of a likely assassination victim, he does nothing to help. Ultimately a story at odds with itself/too complex for its own good, Marusek plays with the story's inflection points in a way that detracts from his point. The shock value could have been higher. “Listen to Me” is a disturbing, brief vignette of a man on a generation starship having trouble with his live sex doll. The trouble is, naturally, in his own head on the interminable voyage. Dark, so dark.
If “The Wedding Album” is one of the novellas that put Marusek's name on the map, then “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” pinned it there. Brilliant, it tells of a successful architect named Sam who falls in love with an ambitious socialite, El, in a future where gene editing and regular doses of medication render human biology virtually immortal. Like Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire, the story keenly relays the human trappings of such a situation through the eyes of an easily duped man. Marusek's prose silky, the tale unfolds itself smooth and engaging.
Another story in the same setting as “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” is “Cabbages and Kales, or, How We Downsized North America”. It is about an identity crisis the Vice President goes through while debating a ban on procreation due to overpopulation—the effect of the aforementioned extension of human life. With people existing in holo form, recorded holo form, and fake holo form, the crisis is real. And the last story in the “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy“ setting is the title story, “Getting to Know You”. A story that (unintentionally) remains relevant given recent advances with AI, it tells of a woman named Zoe who goes to visit her invalid sister and brings a new digital helper (virtual assistant) with her. The helper slowly acclimatizing itself to the woman Zoe, in the end it proves, in fact, to know her too well.
In the end, Getting to Know You is a decent, occasionally superb collection. A few of the shorter pieces are forgettable, but when Marusek invests his energy in something longer and more substantial, it bears fruit. There are three, possibly four, pieces here that are highly recommended: The Wedding Album”, “We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy”, and “Getting to Know You” among them. For connoisseurs of early 21st century science fiction (so long ago, yes?), “The Wedding Album” and “We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy” are required reading.
The following are the ten stories collected in Getting to Know You:
The Wedding Album
The Earth Is on the Mend
Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz, Yurek Rutz
A Boy in Cathyland
We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy
VTV
Cabbages and Kales, or, How We Downsized North America
Getting to Know You
Listen to Me
My Morning Glory
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