Counting Tadpoles

"The sturdy and scintillating speculative fiction of Uncle River is a national treasure. Whether applying his unique worldview to aliens or humans, to the present, the past or the future, he exhibits an authentic wisdom at once primeval and sophisticated, personal and cosmic, full of both gravitas and humor. These wonderful stories limn nearly every aspect of the human condition, while also delivering thrills both intellectual and physical." —Paul Di Filippo, author of Vangie's Ghosts "If science fiction is the literature of outsiders, no one is better suited to writing it than Uncle River, a hermit who uses the solitude and small towns of the American Southwest as the wellspring for these thoughtful, often optimistic stories of depopulated and low-tech futures. A scientist learning from silence to hear what is happening around and inside him ('Counting Tadpoles'), a Hawaiian mariner dream questing to derelict radio telescopes in New Mexico ('Geronimo's Buttons') find hope in turning to Nature's rhythms and requirements and away from the material world. River's slow-paced perspective will challenge readers to stop and reflect on just what kinds of worlds are worth building." —Publishers Weekly Starred Review "These stories, wise, witty and off-beat takes on the stranger 'what-ifs' of human nature, come from the pen of Uncle River, hermit and occasional prophet of the SF world. Conceived in the sparsely populated American Mountain Southwest, where loners, rugged individuals, and small eccentric communities live close to nature and formulate alternative, sometimes surreal codes of existence, River's tales are narratives of laconic power, visionary yet saturated with the colours and sounds of real places, real people, the dreamers of New Mexico." —GoodReads "For a large portion of his life, Uncle River has lived as a hermit in the American Southwest, a milieu that recurs often in his unusual short fiction. As editor Stanley Schmidt observes in the volume's introduction, River's self-imposed isolation has undeniably nourished his fertile imagination to yield dreamlike tales that range widely across the speculative fiction universe. 'The Dashing About Flying Box People' regards 'flying box' human space explorers from the viewpoint of apparently primitive extraterrestrials whose planet they've landed on and exposes the humans' arrogance and xenophobia. The title story follows an environmentalist doing a backwoods tadpole census into the remote cabin of an elderly, government-bashing recluse, who may or may not be a ghost. Other pieces recount a visit from telepathic aliens to rural New Mexico and the rambling adventures of a self-aware military saber. Although many of the stories are more mainstream than speculative fiction, all share River's penchant for letting his quirky creativity guide each tale to its often surprising denouement, with mostly engaging results." —Carl Hays, Booklist