Just when you thought it was safe to turn off the television and open a book, reality TV and game shows have invaded your favorite anthology. Well, maybe not quite, but in You Bet Your Planet, eleven authors tackle the task of translating reality television, games shows, and contests to a science fiction setting, producing a fascinatingly mixed bag of results.
Esther Friesner’s “Cook’s Turing” is one of her typically humorous pieces, about a woman accidentally tapped to represent Earth in an interstellar cookoff that will determine whether we’re accepted as equals, or as slaves, by a powerful alien race. It’s Iron Chef as you’ve never seen it, with some truly laugh-out-loud moments. Susan Sizemore’s “Dish of the Day” is another story about a cooking contest, where the prize is a much-needed planet for humans to colonize, and the main dish may just have some objections to being turned into a centerpiece.
“Heart’s Desire,” by Mickey Zucker Reichart, is a worthy successor to Stephen King’s own take on reality game shows, “The Running Man.” In a future where everyone has everything they need, one man discovers that he wants nothing more than an honest job, and he’s willing to go on a deadly game show to earn it. But is he ready for what they’ll force him to do? Another game show with high stakes and deadly consequences for failure can be found in Josepha Sherman’s “You’d Better Win!” in which a man stranded on an unfriendly planet can only get home if he survives the natives’ most popular show.
Susan Shwartz looks as a failed reality show contestant in “Mind Games,” following her as she ends up playing a far stranger game with highly personal stakes. Ed Gorman’s “Stop Or I’ll Shoot” comes darned close to outright horror; of all the stories in this volume, it evoked the strongest negative reaction from me. Basically, a man is forced to compete on a game show where death isn’t just a possibility, it’s practically a guaranteed outcome, and things are rigged against him. Full of unpleasant, ugly characters, this story is really something of a sour note, or a splash of cold water to the face.
Jane Lindskold’s “Here to There” follows her recurring character, spaceship captain Ah Lee, as Lee is drawn into investigating a plot which threatens the peace between several races. As an undercover contestant on a game of stamina, skill, and survival, Lee will be stretched to her limits as she looks for a saboteur. Also going undercover to foil a dastardly plot is the hero of Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s “Name That Planet!” which requires a secret agent to use her brain like never before.
Robert Sheckley’s “Scenes From The Contest” is another show where things are rigged, and this time, even the hero is in on the fix, though he doesn’t know it consciously. All he knows is that he’ll have to survive numerous challenges, and do it all for the sake of someone who may never have a chance to appreciate it. Russell Davis’ “The Hollywood Dilemma” is a return to that much-beloved chestnut, the deal with the Devil, in which a game show host finds that in order to escape one contract, he may have to sign an even more infernal one. In Bruce Holland Rogers’ “Entertaining Folly,” a rag-tag group of humans are selected to appear on the alien version of a reality show, and for one, it’s the trip of a lifetime.
All in all, You Bet Your Planet has some very good stories and some entertaining stories, and I was quite pleased with the contests for the most part. I’m not much of a reality show fan (save for the odd episode of Survivor and those Iron Chef reruns), but I greatly enjoyed what this collection had to offer.