The volume contains a short sequence of tales featuring the Chuurka, an Alien civilization long resident on Earth, which ultimately "enlists" Homo sapiens as a client species whose role is to serve in the Chuurkas' stead in the exploration of deep space some humans experience Transcendence, but most suffer profoundly. The stories assembled in Terminal Visions (coll 2000) darken the picture again, several of them focusing on patterns of psychic and physical immurement. The Frank Carlucci sequence of noir Near Future crime thrillers set in San Francisco (see California) – comprising Destroying Angel ( 1992), Carlucci's Edge ( 1995) and Carlucci's Heart ( 1997), all three assembled as Carlucci (omni 2003) – only cosmetically lessens the intensity of Russo vision of America as a Dystopia in the making. Subterranean Gallery ( 1989), which won the 1990 Philip K Dick Award, is set in a City full of dropouts and underground artists in a Near-Future America filled with analogues of and references to the present (abortion has been banned the country is fighting a Vietnam-style war in Central America police fly "dragoncubs" which resemble helicopters and use "stunclubs" rather than nightsticks) and tells a convincing and richly characterized story of a man's search for meaning in creativity. The protagonist, an empath (see ESP) who wants to abandon humanity (to whose violence and hypocrisy his talent bares him) in favour of the aliens, in the end achieves an ambiguous redemption. His first novel, Inner Eclipse ( 1988), is a strongly atmospheric tale, illuminated by striking visual images, which describes a search for Alien intelligence on a jungle world whose major industry is the export of an extremely dangerous recreational Drug.
(1954- ) US author who began publishing sf with "Firebird Suite" for Amazing in 1981.
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