Chains of the Sea is a 1973 anthology of three science-fiction novellas: "And Us, Too, I Guess" by George Alec Effinger, "Chains of the Sea" by Gardner Dozois, and "The Shrine of Sebastian" by Gordon Eklund, edited and with an introduction by Robert Silverberg.^[1]

And Us, too, I Guess

When a pet fish dies, no one thinks anything of it. And when the entire species dies, still no one pays attention. Every day a new species suddenly goes extinct, it starts with seemingly 'insignificant' species, like fish or fungus; and it isn't until much more concerning species start mysteriously disappearing that people finally start to pay attention. The calamity is slow moving and it gave plenty of warning, now the damage is done, and it is possible society waited much too long to fix it.^[2][3][4][5]

The story is meant to be a cautionary tale, pointing out that people tend to ignore problems until it is too late. While originally published in 1973 as part of the "Chains of the Sea" anthology, it was published again in 1976 in Effinger’s own collection titled "Irrational Numbers", which features seven other short stories.^[6][7]

Chains of the Sea

Alien ships land in Delaware, Ohio, Colorado, and Venezuela, where their landing catches the attention of human-created Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the military. An initial attack on an alien ship yields no results, and governments unsuccessfully attempt to cover-up news of the landings. AI succeeds in communicating with the Aliens, though it does not share this fact with the humans. The Aliens, who exhibit little interest in humans, reveal to AI that Earth is ruled not by humans nor AI, but rather by previously unknown races of non-human intelligences. Meanwhile, a young boy named Tommy has the unique ability to see otherwise-invisible inhabitants of Earth. He visits a forest inhabited by The Other People where he glimpses entities called Jeblings and communicates with beings called Thants. The Thants inform him of the alien's landing. As a result, Tommy is diagnosed as hyperactive and placed on medication.^[8]

Dozois's "Chains of the Sea" was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella and the Nebula Award for Best Novella.^[9][10] The novella earned a mention in the Acknowledgements section of Michael Swanwick's Nebula-Award-winning novel Stations of the Tide.^[11] "Chains of the Sea" was noted in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for its alien invasion where the aliens "are more or less indifferent to the existence of humans".^[12]

The Shrine of Sebastian

When Julian's sister dies, she names him her successor as the new pope. But before he can begin his duties, he must first make the perilous journey to the Shrine of Sebastian, where his sister requested to be buried. Julian is unsure about this, as Sebastian was a blasphemer and is worshipped by the robots. None the less Julian takes up the challenge and begins the journey accompanied by only his sister’s body and a robot named Andrew. ^[13][14]

The story provides and interesting look at gender roles and religion.

The titular story in the collection, Chains of the Sea by Gardner Dozois, experienced an explosion of renewed interest among the UFO Disclosure Community in 2020 when ex-DoD official and UFO whistleblower Lue Elizando ^[15] cited the book as the best work of fiction about the UFO phenomena in a reddit AMA.^[16]

The novella was subsequently optioned for a film adaptation^[17] and reprinted for the first time by Animus Press.^[18]