I have always had a fascination with certain areas of science and enjoyed certain writers because of their affinity with blending it into fiction. (Andrea Barrett comes immediately to mind.) While reading The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction & Fantasy I was quite delighted to come across Lucy Sussex's story because it was about volcanoes and the people attracted to them - volcanologists, extreme photographers, mystics and mythologists. If you think about it, volcanoes attract a lot more attention from a far wider spectrum of people than other natural events like earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. (I'm obviously not talking about natural disasters here.) Volcanoes are different - they are compared to women, presided over by gods and goddesses, feared and revered, watched for decades (centuries even) and the sites of sacrifices from virginal to animal. Volcanoes inspire deep feelings, something Sussex explores quite effectively in her story.

"Ardent Clouds" is about Bet, a modern day "powder monkey" who travels around the world filming volcanic eruptions. She is addicted to the action, the explosion, to one of the "most uncontrollable things on earth". But while definitely an adrenalin junkie, Bet isn't stupid. She is aware of people who have pushed eruptions too far, gotten too close, lost track of the big picture while absorbed in getting THE picture. Sussex is careful to make it clear that Bet doesn't have a death wish. The problem though is that you can be only so careful and do what she does for a living (or for a passion). Bet is cruising close to the edge and this is the story where she falls over.

Her assignment is in S. America for a volcano with an unpronounceable name (nickname "Chillipepper") that has attracted several of the big names in volcanic studies to monitor what looks to be an upcoming eruption. An old friend/crush of Bet's is going and to see Larissa again she is willing to put up with all the professional annoyances and grandstanding that the eruption seems to be attracting. After arriving in the nearby town however Bet learns of the legend surrounding the volcano and the agreement made between the town's priest and the god in the volcano. The deal (which did not involve sacrifice of any kind) has kept the town eruption free since 1870. Bet is skeptical - she has heard about a lot of angry volcanoes and really the legend is not why she is there. She just wants to get her action shot and also, maybe, take a shot with Larissa as well.

What happens will come as no surprise, to a certain degree, to readers. Bet has a great line though, "The eruption of 'Chillipepper' wouldn't have killed anyone, if people hadn't been fool enough to be actually standing on the damn thing as it blew." The people in the town, who have the long standing deal, are fine. It is the newcomers - scientists, students and photographers, powder monkeys all, who never made a deal and thus pay the price.

I don't want to read to much into what Sussex was staying with this story, or make assumptions that might be incorrect. For me though it seemed very much to be a sharp look at how we claim to have advanced beyond the era of gods and goddesses controlling volcanoes and yet some of us still insist upon getting dangerously close - for no discernible reason other than to be as close as we can get. If you approach an active volcano in the name of science rather than superstition are you somehow more believable - more advanced or noble? Who are the more "advanced people"? And really - what are you trying to see when you peer over the edge if it isn't a god? What ever elusive image are you trying to capture?

I've continued to think about this one long after having read it. It's not a big story and not a typical SFF story but it makes you think for a bit about science and just what we are trying so hard to prove.

[Post pic of Alaska's Augustine volcano - January 2006. I've written about other stories from this anthology here, here and here.]