Children of the Wind: Five Novellas

Though Kate Wilheim is considered one of the leading SF writers of the 70's and 80's decades, I have only previously read her Hugo winning novel, _Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang_ (about a clone community rebuilding a post-apocalyptic earth), and that didn't make much of an impression on me. But this collection of five novellas, came across by chance recently, was a pleasant surprise; their strengths are not the fantastic elements, which are used very sparingly -- and in one or two stories can be arguably said not to exist at all -- but in Wilheim's assured grasp of characterization, the delineation of the benefits and aggravations of very close relationships, and her vivid eye for "everyday" landscape details which seems to present them in a new alien light, especially the Kansas prairies of the Nebula award winning piece, "The Girl Who Fell Into the Sky." The other four pieces are: "Children of the Wind," a chilling tale about two very smart and mischievous 6 year-old twins; "The Gorgon Field," a minor but still fairly intriguing take on geographic spiritual centers; "A Brother to Dragons, A Companion of Owls", a powerful tale (and my favorite) of survival and choice in a postapocalyptic city when the last senior citizens meet a band of wild children; and "The Blue Ladies", a backward homage (I think) to Wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" featuring a Picasso-like crazed artist.