STEVEN POPKES “The Ice.” Novella. First appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2003. Reprinted in The 12 months’s Greatest Science Fiction: twenty first Annual Assortment, edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s, commerce paperback, July 2004).
Phil Berger was a highschool hockey participant within the Boston space, and a fairly good one, when an area reporter information a narrative about him that modifications his life eternally. Because the story goes, he’s the cloned son of Gordie Howe. [Sidebar here: Gordie Howe was the greatest hockey player of all time, playing for the pros from 1946 to 1971, one Wayne Gretsky notwithstanding. We could argue about that. I saw him play twice, once in Detroit and once here in Hartford. Gordie Howe, that is.]
The circumstances are imprecise, however one doesn’t argue with DNA testing. It’s numerous strain on a younger boy. He makes it to taking part in in school, nevertheless it doesn’t final lengthy. It additionally seems that he was not the one results of no matter experiments someone was operating. The opposite boy, Phil’s age, was not as profitable.
This can be a lengthy story, filled with small highlights and plenty of valleys. He strikes the American southwest, will get a job barkeeping, then a greater one. He will get married, has a son, and lives his life one of the best he can. That is barely science fiction, till the tip, when the story lastly makes it rounds and comes round to the purpose, which is a major one. However whereas it’s being advised, it’s one you can’t put down, even in case you are not a hockey fan.
I’ve not learn the rest by Steven Popkes, who appears to have made a dwelling doing actual jobs, not relying on writing SF for a dwelling. He wrote a few novels within the late Eighties/early 90s, then a dozen or so extra from 2016 to now. These look like largely self-published.
He did proceed writing shorter work all by way of this era. This not an unusual profession path for a lot of SF writers. Primarily based on this pattern of measurement one, although, he appears to have performed high-quality, however in my view, he may have been an actual contender.
