ASH/HCC: Coherent Super Stories #25 - The Sod Men

[Scott Eiler]

Andrew Perron wrote:
> On Feb 7, 3:22 pm, dvan... at eyrie.org (Dave Van Domelen) wrote:
> 
>>      As a final historical note, recent archaeological evidence suggests that
>> the Kansas prairie is the result of man-made ecological disaster that played
>> out maybe a thousand years ago, overfarming in the region that left things
>> pretty messed up, and they'd only recovered as far as grasslands by the time
>> European explorers arrived.  But I don't recall any evidence of fens, I made
>> that up for the story.
> 
> I've always found ecological changed caused by ancient humans
> endlessly interesting.  It really shows how much we're plugged into
> the whole system, and how much things can change even with a small
> force multiplier.

I see someone's setting the bar high for stories involving zombies and 
ecological collapse.  Just as well.

I also liked the Alan Moore backstory, and the phrase "Look.  This isn't the 
1870s."  Real Kansans of that era would have said Seventies, and Alan Moore 
would have insisted on saying exactly that, but his editor probably changed the 
phrase to be explicit.  Alan Moore's resultant snit is left as an exercise for 
the imagination.

-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Only their myths concerned peace and contentment, and that in such a
coercive, sullen package it was obvious that the Earth humans resented
the very idea.

- from "Passing" by Elaine Radford, Aboriginal SF, May/June 1987.