Anyway, Michael Bishop is represented in the ambitious anthology Epoch with the story “Blooded on Arachne.”
I have to admit that, based on the
title and my limited experience with Bishop's work, I thought maybe this was a story about a guy having sex with a giant
spider. Instead, it is about the rite of
passage/final exam that sixteen year old trainee space pilots must endure on a
planet inhabited by giant spiders. This
planet, Arachne, is very windy, and once a year a swarm of baby giant spiders (each
the size of a pony or horse, I guess) stands on a cliff, where each shoots a web
canopy into the air which acts like a balloon or kite, so all the spiderlings
are then carried aloft. This vast cloud
of spiders flies for some days; many of the spiders die or get lost during the
flight. The challenge which the space
pilot candidate must overcome is to hitch a ride with the flying spiderlings,
an arduous ordeal.
This is a decent adventure story, and Bishop adds some
emotional heft to the proceedings, effectively conveying the changing feelings
of the teenage pilot candidate as he endures the difficult test. There is also an allusion to Alexander of Macedon which all you classical scholars will enjoy. An above average story, then, which I feel comfortable
recommending. I will definitely keep an
eye open for other Michael Bishop stories.
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