Encounter

Leigh, Stephen. "Encounter." Novelette. Destinies (April-June 1979).[1] Rpt./Anthologized Supertanks. Martin Harry Greenberg, Joe Haldeman, Charles G. Waugh, editors. New York: Ace, 1987. Sirius, #163/164 (5 Dec. 1989). When Diplomacy Fails: An Anthology of Military SF. Deerfield: ISFiC Press, 2008. Eric Flint and Mike Resnick, editors.[2]

Briefly handled by Rikk Mulligan in review of When Diplomacy Fails, SFRA Review #287 (Winter 2009): p16.[3]

Stephen Leigh’s “Encounter” was originally published in 1979 and is possibly the most powerful story in the collection. Myrna, the last survivor of a family killed by Voll, tracks him down inside an impenetrable barrier after a war. Of course, both are veterans; Myrna is the last of a family unit of animatanks, and the cyborg Voll has been imprisoned by his fearful creators. Leigh subtly conveys loss and pain, as well as hints not all costs are obvious.

So see for a definite kind of supertank,[4] with the suggestive appellation "animatanks," and for a military cyborg.[5]

RDE, finishing, 21Jan21