Year’s Best SF 11 – David G Hartwell (Ed) & Kathryn Cramer (Ed) (2006)
It could be argued that ‘Nature’ is helping to keep that odd phenomenon, the short short story, alive. The SSS – not to be confused with the Drabble, which is a microstory of one hundred words – presumably due to the space constraints for fiction within the magazine, runs to no more than four pages.
Thus SF has found an evolutionary niche in a non-fiction periodical, much as happened back in the Sixties and Seventies with Playboy, which regularly had its published stories reprinted in ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies.
Several SSS’s feature in this volume and very good they are too. The longer pieces are also excellent, although in many I am seeing very good writing but little innovation.
There are two so far that I find both innovative and exciting, Rudy Rucker’s ‘Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch’ and Daryl Gregory’s ‘Second Person, Present Tense’.
David Langford – New Hope for the Dead (Nature 2005)
Hannu Rajaniemi – Deus Ex Homine (Nova Scotia 2005)
Gardner R Dozois – When the Great Days Came (F&SF 2005)
Daryl Gregory – Second Person, Present Tense (Asimov’s 2005)
Justina Robson – Dreadnought (Nature 2005)
Ken Macleod – A Case of Consilience (Nova Scotia 2005)
Tobias S Bucknell – Toy Planes (Nature 2005)
Neal Asher – Mason’s Rats (Asimov’s 2005)
Vonda N McIntyre – A Modest Proposal (Nature 2005)
Rudy Rucker – Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch (Interzone 2005)
Peter F Hamilton – The Forever Kitten (Nature 2005)
Matthew Jarpe – City of Reason (Asimov’s 2005)
Bruce Sterling – Ivory Tower (Nature 2005)
Lauren McLaughlin – Sheila (Interzone 2005)
Paul McAuley – Rats of The System (Constellations 2005)
Larissa Lai – I Love Liver: A Romance (Nature 2005)
James Patrick Kelly – The Edge of Nowhere (Asimov’s 2005)
Ted Chiang – What’s Expected of Us (Nature 2005)
Michael Swanwick – Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play (Asimov’s Aug 2005)
Stephen Baxter – Lakes of Light (Constellations 2005)
Oliver Morton – The Albian Message (Nature 2005)
Bud Sparhawk – Bright Red Star (Asimov’s 2005)
Alaya Dawn Johnson – Third Day Lights (Interzone 200 2005)
Greg Bear – Ram Shift Phase 2 (Nature 2005)
Gregory Benford – On the Brane (Gateways 2005)
R Garcia y Robertson – Oxygen Rising (2005)
Adam Roberts – And Future King… (Nature 2005)
Alastair Reynolds – Beyond the Aquila Rift (Constellations 2005)
Joe Haldeman – Angel of Light (Cosmos #6 – Dec 2005)
Liz Williams – Ikiryoh (Asimovs, Dec 2005)
Cory Doctorow – I, Robot (Infinite Matrix – Dec 2005)
David Langford – New Hope for the Dead
A satirical tale in which the digitally preserved dead are recruited to police e-mail during a credit crunch.
Hannu Rajaniemi – Deus Ex Homine
A very well-written story involving man’s fight against a virus which transforms humans into godlike AIs.
Gardner R Dozois – When the Great Days Came
The first of the stories in this volume featuring rats (either literally or symbolically). A rat witnesses the meteor strike which initiates the human extinction event.
Daryl Gregory – Second Person, Present Tense
One of the best stories in this volume, Gregory tells the story of Therese, whose personality was wiped by a new illegal drug. Having had her personality and memories reassembled, Terry has trouble convincing her family and therapists and maybe herself that she is not the Therese who took the drug in the first place. Gripping and thought-provoking.
Justina Robson – Dreadnought
A grim slice of dark space opera where dead soldiers, mounted on the flanks of a damaged military space vehicle are employed to host a damaged AI.
Ken Macleod – A Case of Consilience
An update on James Blish’s seminal novel ‘A Case of Conscience’ in which a priest seeks to communicate with seemingly intelligent networks of fungus.
Tobias S Bucknell – Toy Planes
An interesting little piece which relates the West Indies entry into the space race, from the viewpoint of a young pilot.
Neal Asher – Mason’s Rats
The rats in this story have mutated into a tool-bearing species which are raiding the grain from an automated factory. The question is, who are the true rats when one examines the bigger picture.
Vonda N McIntyre – A Modest Proposal
Like Macleod’s story, this is also a response to an earlier piece, in this case Swift’s (?) ‘A Modest Proposal to Improve on Nature’.
Rudy Rucker – Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch
As befits the artist, this is a surreal and colourful piece in which an alien takes a woman back in time to kidnap her hero, Hieronymus Bosch. The alien appears to be planning some kind of art installation of his own, featuring the relationship between the two, but things do not go to plan
Peter F Hamilton – The Forever Kitten
A short and fairly standard piece from Hamilton, which again looks at one of his favourite themes, that of longevity. It has a shock ending, which is unexpected, despite the brevity of the tale.
Matthew Jarpe – City of Reason
Asteroid dwellers, in a universe where disaffected radicals can set up their own communities in the asteroid belt. A one-man ship intercepts another ship hidden inside an asteroid containing a young couple. The girl, however is not what she seems and they are carrying a nuclear weapon, to destroy the City of Reason. A tale of advanced human augmentation.
Bruce Sterling – Ivory Tower
A very brief tale about physicists setting up their own university on the internet
Lauren McLaughlin – Sheila
A beautifully atmospheric and engaging story about AIs, humans and religion. AI worship also features in the following story by Paul McAuley
Paul McAuley – Rats of The System
When transcendent AIs abandon Earth, fundamentalist sects proclaim them as gods and set about destroying anyone who dares to believe differently. A scientist and a pilot are attacked by the Fanatics while studying one such AI, who is dismantling a binary star system. The Rats here are metaphorical.
Larissa Lai – I Love Liver: A Romance
Just as the title says, a researcher falls in love with the liver he has designed.
James Patrick Kelly – The Edge of Nowhere
One of my favourite stories in this volume, this is set in a virtual world atop a plateau, where the residents can order anything they wish to be constructed. One of them, however, is trying to write The Great American Novel, and this original work provokes the interest of three intelligent dogs who suddenly appear, enquiring about the book.
Ted Chiang – What’s Expected of Us
Another excellent short piece from nature examining the concept of free will and determinism.
Michael Swanwick – Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play
A story which takes place in Arcadia, replete with artificially created gods such as Dionysus, satyrs, nymphs, and the author’s regular characters – Darger and Surplus. see also ‘The Dog said Bow-Wow’
Stephen Baxter – Lakes of Light
Part of Stephen Baxter’s ‘Xeelee Sequence’, this features a contact unit who find human colonies living under domes on a Xeelee constructed shell around a sun.
Oliver Morton – The Albian Message
Aliens have apparently left messages encoded in human DNA which points to a location at the Trojan asteroids.
Bud Sparhawk – Bright Red Star
A grim militaristic tale highlighting the realities of war and desensitisation.
Alaya Dawn Johnson – Third Day Lights
‘a strange creature living within a bizarre ‘body’ with a two-dimensional friend, is visited by a human. He is able to respond to the challenges which she sets him, and reveals that humanity is in the process of retrieving all humans who may or may not have ever lived, before using the energy from all universes, no matter how strange.’ from bestsf.net
Greg Bear – Ram Shift Phase 2
Another short short story from Nature
Gregory Benford – On the Brane
Humans visit a parallel Earth in a universe which is dying far faster than ours, where the laws of physics are very different and intelligent life of a very odd sort has evolved on Earth.
R Garcia y Robertson – Oxygen Rising
A human negotiator is involved in a war between humans and various bioengineered human decendants
Adam Roberts – And Future King…
King Arthur is recreated and decides to run for government. Another very short piece from ‘Nature’
Alastair Reynolds – Beyond the Aquila Rift
Reynolds is expert at the incredibly dense universe he creates. Here, we find a ship which has taken the wrong turn somehow through a wormhole and ended up somewhere else, but exactly how far have they travelled, and for how long?
Joe Haldeman – Angel of Light
In the future Ahmad Abd al-kareem, an adherent of Chrislam finds a preserved copy of the Summer 1944 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories belonging to an ancestor. After much soul-searching he takes it to the bazaar and barters it to an alien for an eternal light.
Liz Williams – Ikiryoh
A fascinating story about Japanese society and a woman who is asked to look after a child which has been given the bad spirit of the ruler, an Ikiryoh. While the bad spirit is trapped in the child, the ruler will be kind and beneficent.
Cory Doctorow – I, Robot
One of the best stories in this collection, it follows a man whose brilliant wife defected to the East where technological controls are less severe, and he suspects she is responsible for the recent terrorist software attacks on the West.
Year’s Best SF 1 – David G Hartwell (Ed.) (1996)
This is an oddly modest beginning to what turned out to be a very longrunning series, and to be honest, doesn’t have a bad tale in it. (Even the Robert Sheckley is entertaining in its own unique way. The weakest is the McKillip story which is a little too ambivalent about what it’s trying to say.)
This is possibly because of the comparative brevity of this book compared to its descendants, which are weightier, fulsome beasts; the tyrannosaurs of the Year’s Best evolutionary line.
The quality stories of the year have here been represented by a mixture of The Great and The Good, and the lesser knowns. It is, however, ‘Year’s Best American SF’ since The Great and The Good, and the lesser knowns involved (with the exception of Baxter, correct me if I am wrong) are all American.
A third of the authors are women, and as to the ethnic mix, it’s difficult for me to be absolutely sure about this as there are some authors new to me, but I suspect that everyone is white.
So, it’s ‘Year’s Best Mostly White Male American SF’ if we’re being truthful.
This imbalance to a certain extent is redressed in later and larger volumes, although the male american whites still do tend to dominate the pack.
James Patrick Kelly – Think Like a Dinosaur ( Asimov’s, 1995)
Patricia A. McKillip – Wonders of the Invisible World (Full Spectrum 5, 1995)
Robert Silverberg – Hot Times in Magma City ( Omni Online, 1995)
Stephen Baxter – Gossamer ( Science Fiction Age, 1995)
Gregory Benford – A Worm in the Well (Analog, 1995)
William Browning Spencer – Downloading Midnight (Tomorrow, 1995)
Joe Haldeman – For White Hill (Far Futures, 1995)
William Barton – In Saturn Time (Amazing Stories – The Anthology, 1995)
Ursula K. Le Guin – Coming of Age in Karhide (New Legends, 1995)
Roger Zelazny – The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker (F&SF, 1995)
Nancy Kress – Evolution (Asimov’s , 1995)
Robert Sheckley – The Day the Aliens Came (New Legends, 1995)
Joan Slonczewski – Microbe ( Analog, 1995)
Gene Wolfe – The Ziggurat ( Full Spectrum 5, 1995)
James Patrick Kelly – Think Like a Dinosaur ( Asimov’s, 1995)
Humanity have been given the secret of matter transmission from a highly advanced race of dinosaurs. Reminiscent of themes in Rogue Moon and Christopher Priest’s ‘The Prestige’, it seems that when people are scanned and transmitted elsewhere, there original bodies have to be disposed of. The dinos are fine with this. Humans have to learn to grow up.
Patricia A. McKillip – Wonders of the Invisible World (Full Spectrum 5, 1995)
‘A strange and memorable thing. After outpourings of prayer, with the utmost fervor and fasting, there appeared an Angel, whose face shone like the noonday sun. His features were those of a man, and beardless; his head encircled by a splendid tiara; on his shoulders were wings; his garments were white and shining; his robe reached to his ankles; and about his loins was a belt not unlike the girdles of the peoples of the East.’ wrote Cotton Mather in 1685. McKillip seeks to provide a rational explanation of this vision with time-travellers of a sort who – coming from a secular future free of religious belief – are hired by a researcher to appear to people of faith in the past in order to record and study the effect that such visitations had on people. It’s a decent enough story but it’s not clear what point McKillip is trying to make given the denouement.
Robert Silverberg – Hot Times in Magma City ( Omni Online, 1995)
In a future US, the San Andreas fault has become a hotspot (literally) of volcanic activity. A team of community service junkies in various stages of recovery are employed to both monitor activity and have been trained by Icelandic volcano specialists to dam the lava as it emerges. There is a clever connection between the lava bursting under pressure from the landscape and the anger and demons pent-up within the team and its leader.
Stephen Baxter – Gossamer ( Science Fiction Age, 1995)
Following a wormhole malfunction, two women in a small ship are forced to crash on the surface of Pluto. They have enough supplies to survive until a rescue ship arrives but the discovery of what may be life puts their rescue in jeopardy as the PTB would rather let them die than attempt a rescue which may destroy the fragile ecosystem. They must therefore try and effect their own escape.
An excellent bit of Hard SF speculation from Baxter who postulates the life on Pluto spinning webs to its tidally locked moon, Charon, in order to access its water deposits.
Gregory Benford – A Worm in the Well (Analog, 1995)
An excellent piece of Hard SF from Benford in which a female captain, desperate to pay of her debts to a sinister organisation with a Japanese name (they always work well) contracts to a flyby of what appears to be a wormhole trapped in the corona of the Sun. An excellent piece, eminently readable and well characterised.
William Browning Spencer – Downloading Midnight (Tomorrow, 1995)
In the future, porn is provided by VR personalities moulded by AIs from scans of living humans. Occasionally, the avatars go rogue and haunt the virtual universe. Captain Armageddon is such a one. He needs to be tracked down and wiped.
It’s a rich textured tale set in a world which has gone through an age of Decadence where people can not have a sexual relationship until several stages of contracts and arrangements have been completed.
Joe Haldeman – For White Hill (Far Futures, 1995)
One of the best in this collection, this is a love story between two artists invited to construct a piece on an Earth ravaged by nanophages during what appears to be an ongoing war, Haldeman’s perennial theme. The enemy is seldom mentioned but the results of their destruction are the backdrop to this tale. Beautifully written.
William Barton – In Saturn Time (Amazing Stories – The Anthology, 1995)
In an alternate timeline, Udall became President after Nixon and initiated a far more ambitious space programme. An ageing astronaut tells the story of the missions he has been a part of.
Ursula K. Le Guin – Coming of Age in Karhide (New Legends, 1995)
A beautiful and poetic tale set in Le Guin’s Hain universe on the planet featured in her excellent ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’, featuring a coming of age of one of the gendermorphing denizens.
Roger Zelazny – The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker (F&SF, 1995)
Zelazny’s last published story apparently, in which he plays with Hard SF concepts, black holes, enigmatic aliens and the nature of time, all in his own distinctive way.
Nancy Kress – Evolution (Asimov’s , 1995)
A captivating human drama in a near future where antibiotic-resistant bacteria are making hospitals no-go areas. It’s refreshingly character-driven though
Robert Sheckley – The Day the Aliens Came (New Legends, 1995)
I still don’t get Robert Sheckley. Ok. I get the jokes. I get the weird surrealist concept of peculiar aliens with British/US surnames and the improbability of the entire premise, but does this have some further meaning. Is it a metaphor for the degradation of the Anglo-Saxon genome , or is it a celebration of diversity and the melting pot of human races?
I have no clue.
Joan Slonczewski – Microbe (Analog , 1995)
Slonczewski uses her background as a microbiologist to give us this small gem, set in the universe of ‘A Door Into Ocean‘. An expedition to another world finds a fascinating ecosystem based on triple helix DNA. The most dangerous predator on the planet however appears to be a microbe.
Gene Wolfe – The Ziggurat ( Full Spectrum 5, 1995)
Emery is staying alone in a cabin in the American wilderness, awaiting the arrival of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her three children. Just before she arrives, Emery’s cabin is robbed by three hooded figures, one of whom shoots at him with his own gun.
Ostensibly this is an SF tale about desperate stranded travellers, from the future it is suggested, although (being Wolfe) there are levels of meaning. Emery is a complex character, and the story is told from his perspective, so one has to be careful to read between the lines.
Year’s Best SF 6 – David G Hartwell (Ed.) (2000)
Contents
The Reef – Paul J McAuley (Skylife Ed Benford/Zebrowski 2000)
Reality Check – David Brin (Nature, Vol 404 2000)
The Millennium Express – Robert Silverberg (Playboy, Jan 2000)
Patient Zero – Tananarive Due (F & SF 2000)
The Oort Crowd – Ken MacLeod (Nature, Vol 406 2000)
The Thing About Benny – M Shayne Bell (Vanishing Acts, Tor 2000 Ed Ellen Datlow)
The Last Supper – Brian Stableford (Science Fiction Age, Mar 2000)
Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN – Joan Slonczewski (Nature, Vol 405 2000)
Our Mortal Span – Howard Waldrop (Black Heart, Ivory Bones, Avon Books/Eos, Ed Ellen Datlow and Terri Wilding)
Different Kinds of Darkness – David Langford (F & SF, Jan 2000)
New Ice Age, or Just Cold Feet? – Norman Spinrad (Nature, Vol 405 2000)
The Devotee – Stephen Dedman (Eidolon #29/30 2000)
The Marriage of Sky & Sea – Chris Beckett (Interzone Mar 2000)
In The Days of the Comet – John M Ford (Nature, Vol 405 2000)
The Birthday of the World – Ursula K LeGuin (F& SF, Jun 2000)
Oracle – Greg Egan (F& SF, Jul 2000)
To Cuddle Amy – Nancy Kress (Asimov’s, Aug 2000)
Steppenpferd – Brian W Aldiss (F&SF, Feb 2000)
Sheena 5 – Stephen Baxter (Analog, May 2000)
The Fire Eggs – Darrell Schweitzer (Interzone, Mar 2000)
The New Horla – Robert Sheckley (F&SF July 2000)
Madame Bovary, C’est Moi – Dan Simmons (Nature, Vol 407 2000)
Grandma’s Jumpman – Robert Reed (Century, Spring 2000)
Bordeaux Mixture – Charles Dexter Ward (Nature, Vol 404 2000)
The Dryad’s Wedding – Robert Charles Wilson (Star Colonies, 2000)
Built Upon The Sands of Time – Michael Flynn (Analog July/Aug 2000)
Seventy-Two Letters – Ted Chiang (Vanishing Acts, Tor 2000 Ed Ellen Datlow)
Annual collections have evolved like dinosaurs from the slim volumes of the 60s and 70s into the paperback versions of Tyrannosaurs, vying for attention with their garish colour schemes (Sadly, the text for the cover of this issue completely obscures the artwork, looks like it’s been thrown together hurriedly in a copy of Adobe Illustrator and doesn’t do the volume itself any justice at all).
This series, ably edited by David G Hartwell, goes head to head with the Gardner Dozois series and a whole subspecies of other annual compilations which somehow survive to re-emerge next year, so good luck to them.
This volume purports to be the best SF of 2000. I say purports to be since the publishing history is a little strange, giving a first paperback publication date of June 2000, when some of the stories included were not published until July/August 2000. Looking at the publication dates of the stories included we notice that, yes, it seems that possibly all of the work included comes from a time before August 2000, which is unfortunate if your excellent SF story was published in, say, November 2000.
Odd.
However, it is nevertheless an excellent collection and Hartwell, whatever publishing constraints he is bound by, has to be congratulated on selecting not only brilliant pieces of work, but those which complement and enhance each other. McLeod and Slonczewski, for instance, both deal with the theme of intelligent bacteria, and there are other examples of synchronicity throughout the collection.
The Reef – Paul J McAuley
One of my favourites in this collection, which tells of an expedition to find the result of a lost experiment in genetically engineered zero-gravity organisms.
Reality Check – David Brin
This is the first of several examples of the short pieces that were published in Nature throughout 2000 to celebrate the Millennium. David Brin takes a very Dickian turn with this piece which suggests that there is embedded code within the text which can wake certain people up to face a truer reality.
The Millenium Express – Robert Silverberg
On the eve of the Third Millenium, an investigator is tracking four men: Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and Vjong Cleversmith. His aim is to find out why they are planning to blow up (or implode, since the matter is still under discussion) The Louvre, and to stop them. But can he, and more importantly, should he?
Patient Zero – Tananarive Due
A good, if a little schmaltzy, tale of a young boy who was one of the first to contract a lethal virus, and one of the only people to survive. He is kept within an isolation unit and we see the world through his eyes, via the doctors and helpers who come into contact with him, as the virus destroys society.
Well-written, and from an unusual perspective.
The Oort Crowd – Ken MacLeod
This is a prequel of sorts to MacLeod’s ‘Dark Light’ books, and is one of two tales here dealing with the concept of intelligent bacteria.
The Thing About Benny – M Shayne Bell
An unusual tale, set in the aftermath of climate change, or at least an ecological disaster, where a savante of sorts – who is also an obsessive Abba Fan – hunts through office blocks in search of rare plants which unwitting workers may have been keeping in a plant pot. His aim is to discover a new species and name it after Agnetha.
Very original and readable.
The Last Supper – Brian Stableford
A celebration of genetically-modified food in this gloriously politically incorrect story set in the restaurant of a renowned chef whose dishes are all genetically modified, and some ingredients are not what one might call strictly legal.
Elegant, satirical and memorable
Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN – Joan Slonczewski
Another millennium tale from ‘Nature’, this time told as a news report in which a civilisation of bacteria join the UN.
Our Mortal Span – Howard Waldrop
I have a problem with Waldrop. As a writer he is good, descriptive, poetic, emotive, and pushes all the right buttons, but there is always something I don’t quite get.
This a tale set in a near future Fairy Tale Theme Park where a mechanised troll goes on the rampage, accusing the other characters of not being true to the original scripts, or so it seemed to me. It might be a little more complicated than that.
Different Kinds of Darkness – David Langford
This is what I would term a ‘real’ SF story, the sort of thing one used to get in SF monthly. It’s full of meat and character and fascinating concepts, such as pictures designed to drive the viewer insane and schools where the pupils have their perceptions altered.
New Ice Age, or Just Cold Feet? – Norman Spinrad
A short satirical tale from Spinrad in which a future Earth is struggling to reverse the effects of Global Cooling
The Devotee – Stephen Dedman
An interesting noir-esque tale featuring a hard-boiled private eye and covering issues such as amputee fetishes, porn and cloning. Despite what some people may find to be distasteful subject matter, this is an excellent tale, stylishly written and conveying a sense of verisimilitude to a complex near future society
The Marriage of Sky & Sea – Chris Beckett
A clever story which exploits our current obsession with media celebrities, one of whom is the hero – if that is the right word – of this short gem. He is an author, travelling the galaxy in a sentient ship, each time landing on a primitive world and writing about his experiences with the natives, despite the fact he is well aware of what the effect of his intrusion – along with his advanced technology – has on the cultures he visits.
On this occasion, however, he may have underestimated both the natives and his own feelings.
In The Days of the Comet – John M Ford
And yet another tale featuring the microcellular, or smaller, particles of the universe, in this case, infectious proteins or prions, which have been seeded in comets. Extraordinarily well-written for such a short piece.
The Birthday of the World – Ursula K LeGuin
A beautiful and poetic work from Le Guin, who never fails to marry the base human and the exotic into a powerful piece of work. Here, a race which has, as the basis of its culture, hereditary gods who foresee the future, is thrown into turmoil by the failure of the system and the power of ambition and greed working within the family.
It’s a haunting and mysterious piece, but one which seems firmly grounded in its own reality.
Oracle – Greg Egan
Although not made that clear in the text, Egan here fictionalises a rivalry in the late Nineteen Forties between two characters based on Alan Turing and CS Lewis, and sets up a battle of essentially, science versus religion.
‘Turing’, trapped by the police into admitting a gay relationship, is blackmailed into working for an unscrupulous government scientist, but is rescued by a mysterious woman who turns out to be an AI, one of the descendants of his research.
Following a series of brilliant scientific developments on ‘Turing’s part, ‘Lewis’ believes ‘Turing’ to be in league with The Devil, and sets out to expose and discredit him.
To Cuddle Amy – Nancy Kress
Another tale that features children, which seems to be a popular subject in this volume, although this is a short and quite chilling tale, examining what morality we may eventually ascribe to producing children if it becomes a simple matter of ordering another one if the first one doesn’t work out.
Steppenpferd – Brian W Aldiss
In a strangely parallel story to Alistair Reynolds’ ‘Century Rain’ Aldiss takes us to a strange system where copies of the earth are trapped inside Dyson Spheres. On one of these worlds, in a pre-industrial Scandinavia, a priest is tormented between his faith and the reality he sees around him, doubting whether his fellow priests are real, or merely the transient bodies of the shape-changing asymmetrical aliens who have created these worlds.
Sheena 5 – Stephen Baxter
Baxter examines the ethics and possible consequences of genetic experimentation in this tale in which a tailored squid is sent out to the asteroids to set up a mining operation. The squid however, was pregnant and gives birth en-route to other equally intelligent offspring.
An alternate history of Sheena can also be found as part of Baxter’s 1999 novel, ‘Time – Manifold 1’ where the pregnant squid is diverted to Cruithne, Earth’s other ‘moon’ and the destiny of her children changed.
The Fire Eggs – Darrell Schweitzer
An odd and borderline surreal tale of luminescent eggs which appear all over the world, hovering slightly above the ground. Impervious to any form of force, and seemingly inert, they are eventually relegated to the status of inexplicable curiosities by most of the population. There are a few however, who claim that they can hear the eggs singing.
The New Horla – Robert Sheckley
A reworking of the classic tale ‘The Horla’ by Guy Du Maupassant.
I’ve never really ‘got’ Sheckley, and this fairly recent piece of his didn’t help me to get him any further.
Madame Bovary, C’est Moi – Dan Simmons
It is discovered that works of literature generate their own universes in which, more often than not, the central figures do not realise that they are the central figures. This is probably the best of the ‘Nature’ stories, conveying a tremendous amount in its brief number of words.
Grandma’s Jumpman – Robert Reed
Reed as a writer is very much at home in America’s rural backwaters, and before he began his recent style of vast post-vanvogtian space opera with planet-sized ships and immortal post-humans, his work was more redolent of Clifford Simak, as here, where a young boy visiting his aunt’s farm discovers the true nature of her relationship with the alien farmhand.
As with much of Reed’s work, there is a bittersweet undertone to the piece, where idyllic surroundings are the background to a coming of age and a loss of innocence.
Bordeaux Mixture – Charles Dexter Ward
The subject of GM crops (and other foods) seems to have inspired many writers, here, Charles Dexter Ward foresees vegetation which emits pheromones to make one want to grow and eat it.
The Dryad’s Wedding – Robert Charles Wilson
On a colony world a woman has an accident and lies in a river with half her brain missing before she is found, When she is awoken after a regeneration procedure she finds the empathic flora and fauna around her trying to make contact, and has unaccountable memories of Brussels, which she has never visited.
Apparently a prequel to a Wilson novel, this is a deep and complex, highly detailed piece of work, rich with scientific ideas and the atmosphere of an alien planet.
Built Upon The Sands of Time – Michael Flynn
A very literary and Irish piece set in a bar in which scientists and others discuss matters of scientific import over a Guinness or two, and in the course of things hear a tale of alternate worlds and altered history.
Seventy-Two Letters – Ted Chiang
This is a strange novella set in an alternate Victorian world where golems can be brought to life by placing a sequence of seventy-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet under their tongue.
Also, it is discovered, each individual male sperm, when examined, contains a complete foetus. How these two scientific discoveries relate to each other is at the core of this tale of weird science, murder, espionage and the very future of the human race.
Year’s Best SF 3 – David G Hartwell (Ed.) (1998)
It’s interesting that most ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies tend to feature one or two of the old guard or the big names of SF, and this volume is no exception. In other cases, there may be ulterior motives, since the likes of Robert Silverberg, Jack Williamson, Will Gibson and Moorcock etc, still swing a lot of weight, and publishers will – one assumes – be keen to feature these names in a publication which is likely to sell to hardcore fans more than anyone else.
One has to say though that the quality of the work from the establishment writers (apologies to Mr Moorcock, who will no doubt quail at the thought of having become the establishment) is exceedingly high, particularly in the case of Moorcock, Silverberg and Gibson. There are one or two stories whose inclusion as ‘Year’s Best’ I would question, but then, I’m sure that’s going to be the case for most readers. It would have been nice, I think though, to have seen more fresh blood since there were only two or three writers in this volume who were new to me.
1997 seems to be the year of relationships in SF, since quite a few of these tales have a romantic element. Let’s hope it was just a passing fad.
Petting Zoo (1997) Gene Wolfe (Return of the Dinosaurs, May 1997, ed. Martin H. Greenberg, Mike Resnick, )
A young boy illicitly recreates an intelligent, slightly purple, T.Rex and rides off on a voyage of mayhem. However, there are consequences.
The Wisdom of Old Earth (1997) Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Dec 1997)
Post-humans getting back to nature try to experience what it is to be human and mortal again. Very poetic and not a little weird.
The Firefly Tree (1997) Jack Williamson (Science Fiction Age – May 1997)
Very poetic story about a young boy and a fabulous plant he discovers, which could be the First Contact between man and an intergalactic civilisation. Who will believe him when his dad is a dope farmer?
Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City (1997) William Gibson (New Worlds 1997)
A wonderful Ballard-esque tour through – as the title would suggest – thirteen (one imagines) photographs of a Far-East cardboard city where the residents have exploited the properties of boxes to the nth degree. Gibson always has an arty sharp visual side to his writing, which is more than usually evident here.
Quite marvellous.
The Nostalginauts (1997) shortstory by Sharon N. Farber [as by S. N. Dyer ] (Asimovs, March 1997)
A character-driven piece about time-travellers who can visit from the future, but only for a short time, insubstantially and with no sound, and only from 25 years ahead. This gives rise to a fashion of visiting one’s wedding or prom night, holding up pictures or messages from the future.
Guest Law (1997) novelette by John C. Wright (Asimovs July 1997)
More baroque technofabulousness, as a ship, piloted by the decadent and mannered hi-tech survivors of humanity, encounters another ship, and evokes the ‘Guest Law’ in order to receive the captn of the ship into their midst in mutual safety. Earth, it appears, is now controlled by machine intelligence and humanity is spread across space, living in ships and habitats.
The Voice (1997) shortstory by Gregory Benford (Science Fiction Age, May 1997)
An interesting concept of humans rediscovering written text after having been reliant on an inner ‘internet’ called The Voice. The Voice, however, seems to be resistant to the idea of humans reading for themselves.
Yeyuka (1997) shortstory by Greg Egan (Meanjin v56 #1)
Egan’s short stories can be compared with Ian Watson’s – not simply because they tend to be examinations of character within a Hard SF framework, but because they cover odd concepts, places and situations.
Here, a cancer surgeon, carrying a ring that guarantees him constant monitoring and medication goes to Africa where he finds the technology far behind that of Australia and the developed world. Very detailed. Very clever.
An Office Romance (1997) shortstory by Terry Bisson (Playboy, February 1997)
A very clever, witty and somewhat romantic story from Bisson, who posits a romance behind the windows of Windows in a future where we can immerse ourselves in an Office Environment, a place which is sometimes more real than real.
Itsy Bitsy Spider (1997) shortstory by James Patrick Kelly (Asimovs, June 1997)
Kelly decides to examine the emotive subject of Alzheimers, and how one might address it in the future, but this story is far more than that. It’s an examination of a relationship, and the way in which we all – consciously, deliberately or by means beyond our control – forget things from our past.
Beauty in the Night (1997) novelette by Robert Silverberg (Science Fiction Age, September 1997)
A wonderful poetic piece from Silverberg set in a future Salisbury where aliens have occupied the Earth and rearranged Stonehenge to their own alien configuration. A young man, fuelled by revenge against his brutal quisling father, sets out to kill one of the invaders.
Mr. Pale (1997) shortstory by Ray Bradbury (Driving Blind, Avon, 1997)
As is to be expected, a late tale from Bradbury with all the exoticism and poetry of his earlier years. Death is found travelling on a starship, having consigned the Earth to flames, but Death himself is dying. Should the Doctor try to save him?
The Pipes of Pan (1997) novelette by Brian Stableford (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1997)
An interesting story, a little steampunkish, set in a world where children’s growth has been retarded in an effort to deal with the population programme.
Always True to Thee, in My Fashion (1997) shortstory by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 1997)
Imagine that moods could be changed by designer drugs and that the fashion is set by designers for the following season. A relationship in this world is examined, revealing a great deal about the attitudes and motives of the narrator.
Canary Land (1997) novelette by Tom Purdom (Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 1997)
A dense, complex piece involving music, gene patents, big business and espionage.
Universal Emulators (1997) shortstory by Tom Cool (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 1997)
Beautifully written, this is another of the stories in this volume that looks at a relationship. In this world, one can hire someone to be you, to take over half your life and deal with a heavy workload, or make your wife fall in love with you.
Fair Verona (1997) novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson (Asimov’s Science Fiction, October/November 1997)
The narrator spends his time between living virtually in medieval Verona and taking rich clients on Wyevern hunts on an alien world. The Wyverns are collared are radio controlled so they are effectively harmless, until Tony is dragged from his game to find his client ripped to pieces by a Wyvern, and his own life as a witness on the line.
Great Western (1997) novelette by Kim Newman (New Worlds 1997)
An odd alternate Earth tale is which modern England becomes a parallel of the Wild West, with corrupt Reeves, evil squires, beleaguered widows running farms, and a gun-totin’ motorbike riding hero riding to the rescue.
Turnover (1997) shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis (Interzone, January 1997)
A rather daft story about a Professor and her handsome assistant examining larval occurrences on Venus. Couldn’t see the point of it. Another story featuring relationships in this volume.
The Mendelian Lamp Case [Dr Phil D’Amato] (1997) novelette by Paul Levinson (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, April 1997)
One feels that this should really have been worked up onto a novel. It doesn’t read like a short story and seems rushed into an implausible conclusion. The overall premise is that the Amish, through extensive selective breeding, have created a new sustainable green technology, and can for instance use fire flies that will light the inside of one’s home.Marvellous idea. Not that well employed.
Kiss Me (1997) shortstory by Katherine MacLean (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, February 1997)
It’s well-written, amusing, and casts a cynical eye on the motivations of young women. MacLean is an SF veteran, and it’s no surprise that there is a retro feel to this story, harking back to some of the quirky ‘feel good’ stories of the 40s and 50s. It’s another short piece which focuses on (at least one half of) a relationship, but should it really be in a Year’s Best anthology?
London Bone (1997) novelette by Michael Moorcock (New Worlds 1997)
Moorcock, as Hartwell points out, is a major figure in British and International SF and fantasy. Here is a mature work which is not only a love letter to London itself, but a commentary perhaps on London society, with its obsession the facile and superficial. Ray, the narrator, is a dealer in services, providing tours and shows for jaded tourists and is offered a chance to be finance a lucrative deal. Under a disused site in Southwark some strange bones have been discovered, fused together by a chemical process and scrimshawed with figures of matchstick men, and these bits of bone are being sought by collectors. It’s a memorable piece which also manages to take a sideswipe at many of our more overhyped sacred cows such as Madonna. It may in its own way be a commentary on modern society’s penchant for feeding on its own remains, regurgitating the old bones rather than producing anything truly new and original. It is perhaps significant that Andrew Lloyd-Webber, regularly the subject of claims that he has plagiarised the work of earlier (and conveniently dead) composers, comes under Moorcock’s hammer, and is described as having gone bankrupt following the failure of his popularity and his last show ‘Dogs’.
It’s a marvellous piece, full of witty one-liners and snapshots from London’s real and imaginary past.
Year’s Best SF 2 – David G Hartwell (Ed.) (1997)
This collection features several tribute stories, notably Jack Williamson, but also HG Wells, Jack London, Jules Verne and GK Chesterton. Postmodern pastiche seems the zeitgeist of 1997.
Outstanding stories from Dave Wolverton, Sheila Finch and Yves Meynard. Nice to see a healthy representation of female authors also, but one would have been happier to see newer names here.
After a Lean Winter – Dave Wolverton (F&SF, 1996)
HG Wells’ ‘War of The Worlds’ told from the perspective of Jack London, in a Victorian Alaska. A very well-crafted atmospheric piece, which brings us a little closer to the Martians than Wells did.
In The Upper Room – Terry Bisson (Playboy 1996)
A young man, living with his mother following the break-up of his relationship, enrols on an erotic VR holiday in ‘Victoria’s Palace’ and ends up having more of an adventure than he may have originally imagined.
Thinkertoy – John Brunner (The Williamson Effect, 1996)
A tribute to Jack Williamson, this was maybe Brunner’s last short story as he died in 1995 at the Worldcon in Glasgow. Written in a suitably retro style it carries a nasty sting in its tail.
Gregory Benford: “Zoomers” (Future Net, 1996)
A hard SF vision of a future where prospecters trawl virtual space for information to sell.
Sheila Finch: “Out of the Mouths” (F&SF, 1996)
A high quality tale from Finch (who is a linguist) of a highly unethical experiment in linguistics which the originator justifies because it may help to stop an interstellar war. Very beautifully written, this is reminiscent of the best of Connie Willis’ early work, and to a certain extent Russell’s ‘The Sparrow’. Finch certainly deserves wider exposure.
James Patrick Kelly: “Breakaway, Backdown” (Asimov’s, 1996)
A very stylistic tale, told in the voice of the narrator; a recruiter interviewing an applicant for service in low-g.
Yves Meynard: “Tobacco Words” (Tomorrow, 1995)
A marvellous and engrossing piece featuring a disabled boy with a crippled tongue. His sister works at removing sins from humans arriving on her world who have picked up the sins of others while travelling through space. Full of detail and beautiful pieces of unexplained randomness. One of my favourite stories in this volume.
Joanna Russ: “Invasion” (Asimov’s, 1996)
A story that is interesting and well-written but reads as being somewhat dated. Had it been written in the Seventies it would not have raised any eyebrows. A ship encounters a distress signal and is forced to evacuate a horde of troublesome alien children with telekinetic abilities.
Mayhem ensues.
Brian Stableford: “The House of Mourning” (Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, 1996)
Stableford seems at his best with exploring the possible uses or misuses of genetic engineering. Here, we follow the victim of one such procedure and slowly uncover the tragedy of her life.
Damon Knight: “Life Edit” (Science Fiction Age, 1996)
A neat little gem which examines the consequences of us being able to edit our lives and change things, thus creating a new timeline. Knight takes this in a direction one might not have expected.
Robert Reed: “First Tuesday” (F&SF, 1996)
By hooking himself into a computer interface, the US President is able to visit every house independently, and answer questions.
David Langford: “The Spear of the Sun” (Interzone, 1996)
Langford postulates a world in which GK Chesterton, rather than HG Wells was the greatest influence on European Science Fiction, and here presents one of his Father Brown stories; in this instance, the murder of a pagan acolyte aboard a space liner.
Gene Wolfe: “Counting Cats in Zanzibar” (Asimov’s, 1996)
The mother of Artificial Intelligence meets one of her children on a boat at sea, and amidst literary allusions and references, they play an intellectual game of cat and mouse.
Bruce Sterling: “Bicycle Repairman” (Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Anthology, 1996)
A lovely cyberpunk tale of a bicycle repairman living in a barter society who receives a piece of equipment that others are keen to retrieve. Packed with character and wee thinky bits.
Gwyneth Jones: “Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland” (Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex, 1996)
Set in a time when therapists are using VR immersion sex programmes for treatment and analysis, this is a short study of sexuality, domination, control and sexual identity. One has to ask though, whether it adds anything new to any debate.
Allen Steele: “Doblin’s Lecture” (Pirate Writings, 1996)
Steele, who was once a hard nosed journalist, brings us a quite chilling story of convicted criminals brought to campus to be interviewed as part of their course work by students. The lesson, however, doesn’t end with a mere question and answer session.
Kathleen Ann Goonan: “The Bride of Elvis” (Science Fiction Age, 1996)
A very entertaining story in which Elvis turns out to be a humanoid alien, stranded on Earth with his harem. When he goes missing from his tomb, one of the brides becomes concerned.
Kate Wilhelm: “Forget Luck” (F&SF, 1996)
Not a new idea (that ‘luck’ in terms of avoiding death has a genetic basis) but one that is skilfully handled here by Wilhelm.
Connie Willis: “Nonstop to Portales” (The Williamson Effect, 1996)
A lovely tribute to Jack Williamson by Connie Willis in which a man arriving in Williamson’s home town finds himself on a sightseeing coach from the future.
Stephen Baxter: “Columbiad” (Science Fiction Age, 1996)
A sequel to Verne’s ‘From The Earth to The Moon’ in which HG Wells discovers that Verne was describing an actual journey in his novel.
Death Robots From Mars 
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