Past Lives, Present Tense

Past Lives, Present Tense, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (ed.), Ace Books, 1999

It has been discovered that DNA is not only a complete record of a person's physical makeup, it also records their memories and personalities. Through a simple process, viable DNA, even from someone dead for hundreds of years, can be turned into a form that can be installed in another person. Sitting in front of what looks like an eye doctor's examination machine, the new DNA can be shot into a person's brain through the optic nerve. The two personalities are then "supposed" to blend into one person. This group of science fiction stories look at the possibilities inherent in this process.

A couple of attempts are made to download Jesus Christ. A female religious revival singer who has lost the faith gets it back with the help of a 12th century female saint. Babe Ruth and a twentysomething software millionaire have different ideas about how to experience life. A domineering mother tries to revive her comatose daughter, who wants to explore Mars, with the help of explorer Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame. A feminist academic downloads Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of Henry the Eighth, and finds that Anne isn't quite the person in the history books. A basement scientist looks for help in his quest for a perpetual motion machine from Leonardo da Vinci.

These stories are quite good. The basic concept is intriguing, and the stories are well done, and less repetitive than one may think.