Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction

SF often focuses on an unintrospective middle class and would-be aristocrats while ignoring the blue-collar workers whose skilled labor keeps the infrastructure of civilization functioning. This collection of 17 short stories attempts to address that oversight, but the well-intentioned authors often feel distant from the workers whose struggles they comment on, and their conceptions of labor and related issues are not terribly creative. A.J. Fitzwater’s “Diamond in the Rough” looks at workplace harassment but suffers from a white-knight hero. Margaret M. Gilman’s “All in a Day’s Work” and Kevin Bennett’s “The Belt” cover industrial mishaps. A.D. Spencer’s “Carnivores” introduces developmentally disadvantaged workers while Barbara Krasnoff’s “The Didibug Pin” features willfully neglectful management. The anthology’s heart is in the right place, but it never recovers from a tepid start. (Jan.)