Best New SF 5: The Best of the Newest Science Fiction

by Gardner Dozois (Editor)

With over 20 stories, this book looks at science fiction writing featuring authors such as Ursula LeGuin, Bruce Sterling and Walter Jon Williams. A summary of the year and a list of recommended reading is included. The editor won the 1990 Hugo Award for the Best Professional Science Fiction Editor.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Hugo Awards

592 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1991

About the author

Gardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois

http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...

Reviews

[Jemppu · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best of these collections I've finished yet. The themes of war so prevailing in the earlier volumes have subsided and, at least in this volume, seem to have made notable space for topics of identity instead.

Tempted to round up to full 5 - if there ever was a chance to do so for such varied collections. (Edit 09/08/2022: yup, rounded it up).

Couple favorites from this volume for one reason or another:
James Patrick Kelly's "Mr. Boy"
Kate Wilhelm's "And the Angels Sing"
Dafydd ab Hugh's "The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, a Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk"
Greg Egan's "Learning to Be Me"


(More in the reading updates below).

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this edition featured one of the strongest groups of stories out of the five of Dozois’ Year’s Best anthologies I’ve read so far. Favorites include Ursula Le Guin’s clever mashup of exploring her Hainish people’s cultures while also playing with the relativity of time, “The Shobies’ Story”; Bruce Sterling’s “We See Things Differently,” a fascinating exploration of Arab and American relations; Terry Bison’s delightful, award-winning “Bears Discover Fire”; Dafydd aB Hugh’s remarkably titled, brilliantly conceived, and perfectly executed “The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, a Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk”; Ted Chiang’s classic, award-winning “Tower of Babylon”; and John Brunner’s tough-minded “The First Since Ancient Persia.”

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm continuing my recaps of early Dozois anthols, since I was reminded of one of my highlights this afternoon. Anyway, there are some great and near-great stories here. My highlights, by memory:

• Dafydd ab Hugh, "The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel, by Mr. Skunk." I was reminded of this amazing story by reading George Saunder's mediocre (at best) "Fox 8." This is the story he was trying to write. 5+ stars! More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coo...
• The Hemingway Hoax, novella by Joe Haldeman. Won both the Hugo and Nebula awards in 1991. His masterpiece, I think. 5+ stars! My full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• "We See Things Differently" by Bruce Sterling. An amazingly prescient story of the then-upcoming clash between political Islam and the West, in what is now an alternate history. One of Sterling's best early stories, 5 stars. http://www.revolutionsf.com/fiction/w...
• Bears Discover Fire • short story by Terry Bisson. Won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon and other awards. 5 stars. ICYMI: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

And lots more Good Stuff after my four faves. OK, I see a couple of clunkers too. See
https://web.archive.org/web/200411280... (scroll down) and
http://bestsf.net/years-best-science-...
-- for memory-aids and details. Plus -- my favorite cover-art for the series! This Michaael Whelan beauty: http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/f/f6...

Links:
Learning To Be Me by Greg Egan. Implanted "jewel' for indefinite longevity. 3.8 *, https://books.google.com/books?id=SmC...

I'll add more links, if I get the energy to look for them & if I find more.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Year under scrutiny: 1990. Or, as I will call it: "the year when they thought sci-fi was about stories set on modern day Earth involving mundane activities".

Must be one of the poorest year's best of anthologies ever. And most likely not because of the editor, but the authors. Of all the stories within, I was able to ascertain that only ONE story out of all these does not involve Earth. And that one was pretty unreadable to me (the UKLG). There might be a handful of others but the very poor writing style prevented me from gleaning the setting.

Only two stand-out stories here. One being a very typical fantasy story. Not surprising with that much 'pretend sci-fi' being present.

Story breakdown:

• Mr. Boy • novella by James Patrick Kelly: 1*
Unreadable. Something bio-punk-ish. Very little set up. Straight into useless and horrible dialogue.

• The Shobies' Story • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin: 1*
I hesitated even starting this story as I am not a fan of UKLG. And of course I should've listened to my instincts. Another unreadable story. Really hate it when she starts up in medias res then sets up several characters all interacting with each other over the same paragraph.

• The Caress • novelette by Greg Egan: 2*
Another bio-punk story, this time with a murder detective flavor.

• A Braver Thing • novelette by Charles Sheffield: 1*
Kid bikes over to a stranger's house to return a lost satchel, then settles in for some discussions. Useless.

• We See Things Differently • novelette by Bruce Sterling: 1*
You might consider alternate history as sci-fi when it involves some major difference, or if we are way into the future and our present took a sharp turn at some point. If all you have is an Egyptian reporter talking philosophy with an American rock star, you probably missed that sharp point.

• And the Angels Sing • short story by Kate Wilhelm: 1*
Another unreadable non-sci-fi story. Unable to ascertain its purpose.

• Past Magic • short story by Ian R. MacLeod: 1*
Same as before. Man do they keep coming. Some people talking in an airport.

• Bears Discover Fire • short story by Terry Bisson: 1*
I could only read as far as the second page where a scene with two guys changing a tire on the highway made me cringe and move to the next.

• The All-Consuming • novelette by Robert Frazier and Lucius Shepard: 2*
Something finally different, just not by much. A dude starts eating parts of a swamp and evolves into an all-eating blob. But the story ends before the said blob starts to devour the entire town.

• Personal Silence • novelette by Molly Gloss: 1*
Back to useless on Earth chit-chat...

• Invaders • novelette by John Kessel: 2*
A bizarre mix of history, regular and science fiction, with the action occurring both in Middle Ages (Inca Empire), present day and with some aliens in the future trying to purchase Earth. I didn't get it.

• The Cairene Purse • novella by Michael Moorcock: 1*
My laundry list is more sci-fi than this story. Some dude is searching for his sister in current-day Cairo. Snorefest!

• The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk • novelette by Dafydd ab Hugh: 1*
Some animals are talking.

• Tower of Babylon • novelette by Ted Chiang: 5*
Exceptional fantasy. There's more sense of wonder in this non-sci-fi story than all the other stories combined.

• The Death Artist • novelette by Alexander Jablokov: 3*
Post-humans! Clones! Resurrections! Finally, another sci-fi story. Kinda difficult to follow, given that the author tried to cram too many concepts and characters in a novelette.

• The First Since Ancient Persia • novelette by John Brunner: 2*
Female trekker stumbles over secret research base somewhere in Latin America. Some mystery here and there, but ultimately boring and with a disappointing ending. Oh, did I mention this is another non-sci-fi story?

• Inertia • novelette by Nancy Kress: 1*
By now the on Earth setting is ubiquitous. Some time in the future persons displaying signs of a disease are isolated in communities. Some theory ensues about how most of the communities thrived while at the same time overall life quality dropped worldwide. Boring!

• Learning to Be Me • short story by Greg Egan: 4*
In the near future a 'jewel' is inserted into the brain humans at birth. It is responsible for copying the host's neural connections with the intent that at some point in the future it would take over completely. The set-up was sufficient for a four star rating. The action itself is already redundant at this point in a short story.

• Cibola • short story by Connie Willis: 1*
Some journalist is investigating around present-day Denver. Meh, just another author added to my avoid list.

• Walking the Moons • short story by Jonathan Lethem: 1*
Three pages of non-sci-fi.

• Rainmaker Cometh • short story by Ian McDonald: 1*
Even more pages of non-sci-fi. Unreadable.

• Hot Sky • short story by Robert Silverberg: 2*
In a semi-post-apocalyptic near-future setting, some ships are quarreling over an iceberg in the Pacific Ocean. Useless.

• White City • short story by Lewis Shiner: 3*
At the tail end of the 19th century Nikola Tesla decides to forever ban night from falling on Earth by electrifying the atmosphere.

• Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates • short story by Pat Murphy: 2*
Another post-apocalyptic near-future setting. One of the last humans decides to start having fun with some robot parts. Nothing special here, moving on.

• The Hemingway Hoax • novella by Joe Haldeman: 2*
A couple of dudes in (sigh) present-day Earth decide to write a fake long-lost Hemingway story and sell it as the real thing. An alien starts interfering with their plan. Lots of dialogue ensue with the alien attempting to stop them across multiple universes. Confusing, boring, too many details about Hemingway's personal life.

Weighted average: 1.67. Rounding down to a 1 because of the lack of true sci-fi stories.

[Michelle Farinella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr. boy, the opening story was extremely original and entertaining. Most of the rest I found exceedingly depressing and either totally trite or completely puzzling.

[Brendan Newport · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collected from 1990-published stories, Best New SF 5 - I've long given-up trying to square the UK editions title with its US equivalent - is another example of how far the genre has fallen. Even the 'duffers' in this collection - and there were a few - are way better than the thin gruel us older readers have to suffer these days.

There are, as mentioned, some duffers. Quite a few 'routine' stories, and three that are just tremendous and worth the admission price alone.

Probably the most significant story is that from the first appearance of Ted Chiang, with his Tower of Babylon first published in Omni. It's quite a few years before Arrival though Tower of Babylon is reprinted in the aforementioned anthology. Early-on though, Chiang was demonstrating his huge potential.

The first story, James Patrick Kelly's Mr. Boy is one about genetic manipulation run rampant. The resolution is a little weak, summed up as he's leaving home.

Le Guin's The Shobies Story is one I'd read before, and delves a little deeper into the nature of field research and family solidity.

Greg Egan features twice, with the first story The Caress going well, right up to the end, whereupon the story is fumbled and a little rushed.

A Braver Thing by Charles Sheffield, is one of the collections highlights. A wonderful story.

Bruce Sterling's We See Things Differently though has aged horribly. Like his Dori Bangs we are once again in rock-and-roll world, but this time, not successfully.

Kate Wilhelm's And The Angels Sing just ends rapidly, as if the story was an extract from a planned bigger work.

Ian R. MacLeod's Past Magic is just pure Interzone and very, very British.

Terry Bisson's Bears Discover Fire is harmless fun. It doesn't really belong in this collection, and its probably the second weakest story.

The All-Consuming from Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier is pretty much typical Shepard, with jungles-and-stuff. Cinematic at the end, but horribly predictable.

Molly Gloss' personal silence is probably the best example of an American writer writing in the style of, well, Ian R. MacLeod, or any other Interzone contributor. It hints at a bigger story, but never rightly follows-down that route.

John Kessel's Invaders has too many ideas to fit in a short space.

The next major highlight is Michael Moorcock's The Cairene Purse. Moorcock's strangely charming world belies the underlying threat and hidden violence with it. A bit of a nod to T.E Lawrence and you have a story that really stands-out.

Dafydd aB Hugh's The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured his Larinks, a Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk unfortunately reminded me of the movie Over The Hedge so I really was unable to appreciate it.

Chiang's superb Tower of Babylon follows.

Alexander Jablokov;'s The Death Artist is another weaker effort, of its time. Jablokov was a better editor than writer, I reckon.

The sadly missed John Brunner's The First Since Ancient Persia follows, and is another highlight. Brunner passed away in 1995, but this story, first published in 1990 in Amazing demonstrates that he was still going strong 5 years before.

Nancy Kress, who was one of the key writers in the genre in the 1990s had Inertia featured next. Not one of the top tier in this collection, but certainly top of the next level.

Greg Egan's second featured story Learning to Be Me has a great premise, but lost me a little near the end.

Connie Willis, another writer who ranged across the 1990s and beyond, has Cibola next. I'd read it before, didn't like it, and my opinion remains the same.

Jonathan Lethem's Walking The Moon is just a little ditty, one that you'd expect to find in Analog or as 'filler'.

Ian McDonald's Rainmaker should have been spectacular. It has a bit of an echo of Mark Helprin to it, but kinda lacks any substantial plot.

Hot Sky from Robert Silverberg is a little dated too, when concerns about Global Warming abounded. Not one of his best. Likewise Lewis Shiners' White City. And likewise Pat Murphy's Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates.

Leading to the big finish. Joe Haldeman's The Hemingway Hoax. First published in IASF and deservedly winning the Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1991. Together with Moorcock and Brunner's stories, The Hemingway Hoax is a great way to finish this volume.

Since first reading The Hemingway Hoax I'd read a bit of Hemingway, and Mary V. Dearborn's biography Ernest Hemingway (2017) which helped, a lot.

And The Hemingway Hoax, with Haldeman's utterly convincing Hemingway-style passages from never-published stories hasn't aged. For someone who could have risked being stuck with The Forever War as his major work of significance, Haldeman managed to avoid being typecast and wrote a story that is both brilliant, and a wonderful contribution to the genre.

[Manuel Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As it is tradition the editor provides a very comprehensive summary of science fiction publishing and science fiction as a whole during the prior year. The introduction sections to each story are better than ever.

Mr. Boy by James Patrick Kelly: 5
3rd best story of the anthology: The story of boy kept eternally young by a medical procedure and the ensuing adventures after he tasks his robot companion to steal an illegal photograph. This needs mentioning as his best friend is a human engineering to look like a dinosaur, his gf is a nudist, and his mom is an almost full size hollow replica of the statue of liberty.

The Shobies' Story by Ursula K. Le Guin: 5
The story of a peculiar crew tasked with the first mission of a new interstellar ship

The Caress by Greg Egan: 5
The story of a cop and a genetically engineered chimera that suffer at the hands of an eccentric man obsessed with a painting

A Braver Thing by Charles Sheffield: 5
A chance encounter leads a boy down the path of academia and an eventual Nobel prize earned by the posthumously published work of his best friend that committed suicide

We See Things Differently by Bruce Sterling: 5
A story set after the cold war which left the USA bankrupt and a decaying country, an Arab journalist seeks an interview with the most patriotic music artist in the USA

And The Angels Sing by Kate Wilhelm: 3
A Mr. nobody finds an alien by the side of the road and requests the help of his journalist friend to take care of it.

Past Magic by Ian R. MacLeod: 4
A woman convinces her ex-husband to come visit her after she has commissioned a clone of their dead daughter.

Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson: 4
The title says it all

The All-Consuming by Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier: 2.5
3rd worst story of the anthology: An eccentric Japanese man world renowned by eating the most exotic (and frankly inedible) dishes sets his eyes on the radiation mutated jungle in the south of México

Personal Silence by Molly Gloss: 2
1st worst story of the anthology: A war protester goes around protesting war and meets a girl that has psychic powers?

Invaders by John Kessel: 4.5
The conquest of the incas and the future alien invasion are not too dissimilar

The Cairene Purse by Michael Moorcock: 3.5
A man goes to Egypt in search of his archeologist sister after her disappearance under mysterious circumstances

The Coon Rolled Down And Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel By Mr. Skunk by Dafydd ab Hugh: 4
You can't stop democrazy and progrets! A skunk, a dog and a boy infected with a virus to escape from their containment area.

Tower Of Babylon by Ted Chiang: 5
1st best story of the anthology: Wow, just wow. A miner climbs the to the top of a tower extending to the top of the world to open the vault of heaven

The Death Artist by Alexander Jablokov: 2
2nd worst story of the anthology: An being that is able to transfer his consciousness sets up his death over and over

The First Since Ancient Persia by John Brunner: 5
During a trip in Argentina a woman stumbles upon a biological research facility which (spoiler?) leads to the creation of a new world

Inertia by Nancy Kress: 5
A virus that whose most prominent symptom is the disfigurement of skin becomes one of humanity's last hopes as it faces civilization collapse thanks to its more subtle symptoms

Learning To Be Me by Greg Egan: 5
2nd best story of the anthology: A man with a neural implant meant to mimic his every thought wrestles with the idea of going through with the surgery that would give the implan control of his body to gain immortality

Cibola by Connie Willis: 4
A journalist searches for the cities of gold of Cibola in Denver, Colorado USA, guided by the claimed descendant of the man that was unable to guide the Spanish to the same cities centuries earlier.

Walking The Moons by Jonathan Lethem: 4.5
An intrepid virtual reality explorer is interviewed by a journalist that is not at all impressed by his "adventures" and living conditions

Rainmaker Cometh by Ian McDonald: 3.5
A man that serves a flying city arrives at a small town in the middle of a great drought.

Hot Sky by Robert Silverberg: 4.5
This is the first Silverberg story in these anthologies to not be a clear 5 for me. The story of the situation (dilemma?) that ensues after an iceberg trawler tends to the SOS call of a squid fishing vessel.

White City by Lewis Shiner: 4
Nikola tesla addresses his fear of the dark in a manner only he could... (spoiler?) by banishing the night

Love And Sex Among The Invertebrates by Pat Murphy: 5
After a nuclear war, a scientist attempts to build a pair of robot lizards capable of mating before dying of radiation poisoning

The Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman: 4
Multiverse shenanigans ensue after a man decides to forge Ernest Hemingway's lost works with his wife and a con-man

[Cybercrone · Rating 1 out of 5]

Several well-known and popular authors here, but for the most part I couldn't get enthusiastic about their stories here.
Mr Boy was my favourite, though I kept imagining it as a cartoon-type offering, and it wasn't. But it was original and fun.
There were maybe 2 or 3 other stories that actually grabbed my interest.
One thing that popped up more than once (anthology is from 1991) was authors' confidence that the future of information storage and transmission lay in the CD. Interesting look back at the times.

[Carla Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really excellent stories in this one that have aged well. Favorites include Mr. Boy by James Patrick Kelly, The Shobies' Story by Ursula K. Legion, Bears Discover Fire (sweet and funny) by Terry Bisson, The Coon Rolled Down... by Dafydd ab Hugh, Cibola by Connie Willis, Tesla story White City by Lewis Shiner, The First Since Ancient Persia, by John Brunner, Inertia by Nancy Kress, And aThe Angel's Sing. By Kate Wilhelm, Past Magic by Ian MacLeod, personal Silence by Molly Gloss

[Rob Jacobs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This contained stories written in 1990, and it was amazing how badly the future was predicted. Nearly every one that could have contained newspapers, land lines and malls, no matter how far in the future or how much other things like people having genetic manipulation to become dinosaurs or bears, but still going to the mall.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the whole a very strong collection, despite a couple of puzzling stinkers. Lots of deep weirdness (I loved The All-consuming) and a couple of English melancholy ruminations from Moorcock and Brunner. Also good were Inertia, Learning To Be Me, Cibola and Hot Sky.

[Kai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, as all of the early one. The last story, about Hemingway and time travel by Haldeman is especially awesome. Of course, there might be a few stories you skip, but overall this anthology is just great.

[Bonnie Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pick up these collections whenever I come across them; I liked this one better than most of the others I've perused. I could finish most of the stories and even liked a few of them.

[Nathaniel Rich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't find any stories in here that interested me, and wasn't able to finish any of them.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another volume of great sci-fi stories from Gardner Dozois' 35 yers of "The Year's Best Science Fiction", to me the series that sets the gold standard for sci-fi writing.

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally gave up on this one. Either my tastes have changed or early 90s SF really didn't float my boat.

[York · Rating 2 out of 5]

Favorites: "A Braver Thing", "Personal Silence", "Inertia".

[Rishindra Chinta]

I always have a hard time giving stories in these "best of" anthologies star ratings, so I'll just order them from most liked to least liked:

"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly: When I first started this story, it was giving me a headache. Science fiction is about how people will respond to changing technology, but I just had a hard time believing that people would actually use the kind of technology described here even if it were available. One character has herself made into a giant hollow replica of the Statue of Liberty that her son, the main character, lives in, and another character has himself turned into a troodontid dinosaur. The story's partly about the excesses of the rich, but even so. But the more I read, the more I warmed up to it. It does build to a satisfying conclusion.

"The Caress" by Greg Egan: From the way this story starts out, I was expecting a stronger plot than it had. But it does have a great conceit, which is that there's an artist who wants to replicate paintings with such exact precision that he will genetically engineer humans to look like their subjects and have geographical features featured in them artificially created to match them. I think some images will stay with me.

"A Braver Thing" by Charles Sheffield: Is this really science fiction? I guess it's about science. Either way, it's an interesting story about a scientist who finds the journals of his more brilliant friend that contain a new and important theory that will help mankind with space travel after his friend commits suicide. I wish the friend character had been explored further, though. And his reason for doing what he does could've been foreshadowed even earlier. But that might've been overbearing, I suppose. And there was one thread that I thought didn't have a good conclusion (or any conclusion): the main character's relationship with his friend's mother.

"We See Things Differently" by Bruce Sterling: An Arab journalist interviews an American rock star in a world where Soviet Union dissolved after a nuclear bomb destroyed Moscow and America has lost economic power to Europe, Japan, and a new state comprising the Arab countries. There are interesting connections made between America, the Soviet Union, and the Arab Caliphate, but I felt the main character didn't have to be as much of a stereotype as he was (he's not as stereotypical as some other Arab characters that are coming to mind, but still).

"The Shobies' Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin: I'm kind of ashamed to admit the only thing by Le Guin I've read is one of her novellas, "Vaster than Empires and More Slow." I haven't read any of her famous novels. I started The Dispossessed recently, but I put it aside; I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time. Anyway, this story is set in the same universe as that novel, and I guess it's one of those stories that's supposed to mess with you. I'm kind of neutral towards it. I didn't dislike, but didn't really like it either.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

every single one of these collections is essential reading for true fans of science fiction short stories... each lengthy volume has a stellar array of all mini-genres and areas of powerfully influential science fiction: hard science, speculative, steampunk, alien invasions, apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic, space opera, fantasy, aliens, monsters, horror-ish, space travel, time travel, eco-science, evolutionary, pre-historic, parallel universes, extraterrestrials... in each successive volume in the series the tales have advanced and grown in imagination and detail with our ability to envision greater concepts and possibilities... Rod Serling said, "...fantasy is the impossible made probable. science fiction is the improbable made possible..." and in the pages of these books is the absolute best the vastness of science fiction writing has to offer... sit back, relax, and dream...

[Kevin Groosalugg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, not great collection of sci-fi short stories from the early 90's. Nice variety of topics and writing styles. By far my favorite two were 'The Shobies Story' - Ursula LeGuin and 'The Hemingway Hoax' - Joe Haldeman. Both were truly mind-bending and worth reading the whole thing just for them. The majority of rest of the stories were pretty good too, very few duds.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably only read nine or ten of the 25 stories before I had to return it to the library. Another 2 to 4 might have been worth giving a chance. I liked OK each of those that I read but probably thoroughly enjoyed only one or two of them.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you read one sci-fi book a year, this is the one. Always stories of high caliber with a few tossed in that will keep you thinking weeks later, not to mention the collection is a primer for what science and technology everyone will be talking about five to ten years from now.

[Bill Borre]

"White City" by Lewis Shiner - Tesla banishes night for all time, thinking to abolish crime and nightmares, but the people are not grateful as he believes they should be.

"Walking the Moons" by Jonathan Lethem - wc
"And the Angels Sing" by Kate Wilhelm - wc

[Timon Karnezos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a slump in this series. Nothing in here worth reading.

[Thom Dunn]

1991. No ISBN number ?

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like any collection of stories, you've got the good and the bad. But the good stories in this collection were great. Highly recommended. I already have another of these in line to read soon.

[Zora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes one of my favorite stories of all times, Molly Gloss's "Personal Silence," and is worth hunting down for at least that story.