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12 inframondi
La furia di Alastair Reynolds e gli inganni di Ann Halam; le navi simili a nuvole di Jason Sanford e i ragni di Sue Burke; lo strano uomo-uovo di Mary Rosenblum e la casa vuota di Robert Reed costituiscono l'hors d'oeuvre di questo epico banchetto dell'ignoto. Ma altre sei sorprese vi attendono al varco, ben dissimulate tra i piatti volanti di portata. Per leggere grandi racconti di fantascienza non c'è miglior via che seguire le antologie annuali di Hartwell e Cramer, una raccolta giunta qui alla quattordicesima edizione. Prima di lasciarvi alla quale, ricordiamo soltanto che la prima parte dell'antologia è stata pubblicata in "Urania" n. 1595 con il titolo Nove inframondi, che potete scaricare nel pratico formato e-book.
Copertina di Franco Brambilla
Copertina di Franco Brambilla
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2009
48 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
About the author
David G. Hartwell
114 books96 followersDavid Geddes Hartwell was an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He worked for Signet (1971-1973), Berkley Putnam (1973-1978), Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint, 1978-1983, and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he spearheaded Tor's Canadian publishing initiative, and was also influential in bringing many Australian writers to the US market, 1984-date), and has published numerous anthologies. He chaired the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and, with Gordon Van Gelder, was the administrator of the Philip K. Dick Award. He held a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature.
He lived in Pleasantville, New York with his wife Kathryn Cramer and their two children.
He lived in Pleasantville, New York with his wife Kathryn Cramer and their two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
October 10, 2025
An annual anthology whose title is not exaggerated. These probably are among the best SF stories published in 2008. Several award winners and nominees are included, such as Arkfall, Pump Six, Exhalation, and The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away. I enjoyed most of the stories beyond those as well. My individual ratings are below.
Arkfall, by Carolyn Ives Gilman. In a freak accident, the two main characters are thrown together in a situation in which they must both adapt their deep-seated personal and cultural identities. The setting is amongst the wonders of a carefully thought-out under-the-ice aquatic world. Thrown in for good measure is the responsibility for care of a beloved elderly family member with growing dementia. Nebula Award novella nomination. My rating 5/5.
Orange, by Neil Gaiman. In the form of a transcript of a child’s answers to unrecorded questions, we learn that her big sister has become an orange glowing god. Probably included just to get Neil Gaiman’s name on the cover. My rating 1/5.
Memory Dog, by Kathleen Ann Goonan. In an increasingly dystopic near future, a pair of academics lose their child and then their dog to accidents. The wife blames the husband. He uses his research into the nature of memory to implant his own memories into a dog, so he can still be with her and her new lover, a political dissident. There is a lot to unpack in this story, and I found the concepts difficult to follow without a little more exposition from the beginning. And I’m still doubtful that memory really works like that. My rating 4/5.
Pump Six, by Paulo Bacigalupi. In a dystopic future, the knowledge necessary to maintain the machinery that keeps our civilization going has been lost. The main character, who is the only one who seems concerned or even intelligent enough to know what is wrong, is treated as a misfit. Every engineer who ever lived can relate. Locus Award winner novelette. My rating 4/5.
Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Borrowing the concept of a human-brained spaceship from Anne McCaffery’s The Ship Who Sang, this is a story of a pirate spaceship and a crewmember. Locus Award short story nomination. My rating 3/5.
Exhalation, by Ted Chiang. A robotic species of “humans” learns to understand its own medical existence through the tools of science, but eventually discovers it is limited by entropy. The parallels to our own period of scientific enlightenment are strong. Hugo Award winner short story. Nebula Award winner short story. BSFA Award winner short story. My rating 5/5.
Traitor, by M. Rickert. A “mama” raises her little girl to be a suicide bomber. The ice fishing scene is imagined as in the author’s home state of Wisconsin. My rating 3/5.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away, by Cory Doctorow. Years ago, after a struggling career in information technology, Lawrence has taken refuge in a religious order founded by fellow geeks. Now, investigating a datamining thread out into society, he learns some truths. Locus Award novelette nomination. My rating 4/5.
Oblivion: A Journey, by Vandana Singh. In a technology-enabled society built on Hindu cultural concepts, a survivor of atrocity evolves into an immortal vengeance seeker. The quest takes him/her through many superlative settings until the end. My rating 2/5.
The House Left Empty, by Robert Reed. The failed delivery of a mysterious parcel in a small self-governing community within a balkanized future city, leads a few residents to receive it under a false pretense and then deliver it to the rightful owner. The item represents lost potential. My rating 3/5.
The Scarecrow’s Boy, by Michael Swanwick. A small boy fleeing a car accident encounters a cybernetic scarecrow who helps him. Their plight contains a slow reveal of the nature of the dystopic future. My rating 3/5.
N-Words, by Ted Kosmatka. A woman experiences the life of being married to one of a population of biologically restored neanderthals living among humans. My rating 3/5.
Fury, by Alastair Reynolds. The Galactic Emperor and his eons-long servant have achieved effective immortality through cloning and other technology. Investigating an assassination attempt, the servant travels to an obscure world, where the forgotten origins of the emperor and himself are revealed. My rating 4/5.
Cheats, by Ann Halam. A YA story about two teens in an immersive virtual reality. My rating 2/5.
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by their Rain, by Jason Sanford. The village’s “weather” forecaster discovers the true nature of their strangely conceived universe and artfully described existence. My rating 5/5.
The Eggman, by Mary Rosenblum. In a water-scarce near future dystopia, a Mexican aid worker comes into the US dispensing bioengineered medicines, but discovers his lost personal past. The main character of the story is well developed. My rating 4/5.
Glass, by Daryl Gregory. Medical/psychological experiments are performed on convicted sociopaths. What could go wrong? My rating 3/5
Fixing Hanover, by Jeff VanderMeer. The village fix-it man salvages a robot torso that washes up on the beach. Hidden histories are revealed. My rating 3/5.
Message Found in a Gravity Wave, by Rudy Rucker. The lone character is just a platform for Rucker’s brief exploration of an innovative cosmology. My rating 3/5.
Mitigation, by Tobias S. Buckell and Karl Schroeder. The values of carbon sequestration and a precious seed vault in Svalbard have created opportunities for violent conflict and profiteering. My rating 3/5.
Spiders, by Sue Burke. A father takes his young son out among life on an alien world, where human naming has been imposed on organisms that are not really those things. The ending was predictable. My rating 2/5.
Arkfall, by Carolyn Ives Gilman. In a freak accident, the two main characters are thrown together in a situation in which they must both adapt their deep-seated personal and cultural identities. The setting is amongst the wonders of a carefully thought-out under-the-ice aquatic world. Thrown in for good measure is the responsibility for care of a beloved elderly family member with growing dementia. Nebula Award novella nomination. My rating 5/5.
Orange, by Neil Gaiman. In the form of a transcript of a child’s answers to unrecorded questions, we learn that her big sister has become an orange glowing god. Probably included just to get Neil Gaiman’s name on the cover. My rating 1/5.
Memory Dog, by Kathleen Ann Goonan. In an increasingly dystopic near future, a pair of academics lose their child and then their dog to accidents. The wife blames the husband. He uses his research into the nature of memory to implant his own memories into a dog, so he can still be with her and her new lover, a political dissident. There is a lot to unpack in this story, and I found the concepts difficult to follow without a little more exposition from the beginning. And I’m still doubtful that memory really works like that. My rating 4/5.
Pump Six, by Paulo Bacigalupi. In a dystopic future, the knowledge necessary to maintain the machinery that keeps our civilization going has been lost. The main character, who is the only one who seems concerned or even intelligent enough to know what is wrong, is treated as a misfit. Every engineer who ever lived can relate. Locus Award winner novelette. My rating 4/5.
Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Borrowing the concept of a human-brained spaceship from Anne McCaffery’s The Ship Who Sang, this is a story of a pirate spaceship and a crewmember. Locus Award short story nomination. My rating 3/5.
Exhalation, by Ted Chiang. A robotic species of “humans” learns to understand its own medical existence through the tools of science, but eventually discovers it is limited by entropy. The parallels to our own period of scientific enlightenment are strong. Hugo Award winner short story. Nebula Award winner short story. BSFA Award winner short story. My rating 5/5.
Traitor, by M. Rickert. A “mama” raises her little girl to be a suicide bomber. The ice fishing scene is imagined as in the author’s home state of Wisconsin. My rating 3/5.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away, by Cory Doctorow. Years ago, after a struggling career in information technology, Lawrence has taken refuge in a religious order founded by fellow geeks. Now, investigating a datamining thread out into society, he learns some truths. Locus Award novelette nomination. My rating 4/5.
Oblivion: A Journey, by Vandana Singh. In a technology-enabled society built on Hindu cultural concepts, a survivor of atrocity evolves into an immortal vengeance seeker. The quest takes him/her through many superlative settings until the end. My rating 2/5.
The House Left Empty, by Robert Reed. The failed delivery of a mysterious parcel in a small self-governing community within a balkanized future city, leads a few residents to receive it under a false pretense and then deliver it to the rightful owner. The item represents lost potential. My rating 3/5.
The Scarecrow’s Boy, by Michael Swanwick. A small boy fleeing a car accident encounters a cybernetic scarecrow who helps him. Their plight contains a slow reveal of the nature of the dystopic future. My rating 3/5.
N-Words, by Ted Kosmatka. A woman experiences the life of being married to one of a population of biologically restored neanderthals living among humans. My rating 3/5.
Fury, by Alastair Reynolds. The Galactic Emperor and his eons-long servant have achieved effective immortality through cloning and other technology. Investigating an assassination attempt, the servant travels to an obscure world, where the forgotten origins of the emperor and himself are revealed. My rating 4/5.
Cheats, by Ann Halam. A YA story about two teens in an immersive virtual reality. My rating 2/5.
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by their Rain, by Jason Sanford. The village’s “weather” forecaster discovers the true nature of their strangely conceived universe and artfully described existence. My rating 5/5.
The Eggman, by Mary Rosenblum. In a water-scarce near future dystopia, a Mexican aid worker comes into the US dispensing bioengineered medicines, but discovers his lost personal past. The main character of the story is well developed. My rating 4/5.
Glass, by Daryl Gregory. Medical/psychological experiments are performed on convicted sociopaths. What could go wrong? My rating 3/5
Fixing Hanover, by Jeff VanderMeer. The village fix-it man salvages a robot torso that washes up on the beach. Hidden histories are revealed. My rating 3/5.
Message Found in a Gravity Wave, by Rudy Rucker. The lone character is just a platform for Rucker’s brief exploration of an innovative cosmology. My rating 3/5.
Mitigation, by Tobias S. Buckell and Karl Schroeder. The values of carbon sequestration and a precious seed vault in Svalbard have created opportunities for violent conflict and profiteering. My rating 3/5.
Spiders, by Sue Burke. A father takes his young son out among life on an alien world, where human naming has been imposed on organisms that are not really those things. The ending was predictable. My rating 2/5.
April 20, 2019
I likely purchased this book at a yard sale, and have kept it in my car, to have something to read when my wife goes shopping for clothes, gardening stuff, etc.; so it’s been read sporadically, over the past 2½ years. This collection is from 2008, the year of the Big Short, when the US economy experienced a decided downturn. In the Introduction by the editors, they indicate that the same thing happened in the publishing industry, specifically in the SF magazine business, which saw a decrease in the number of issues as well as pages per issue, thus fewer stories to choose from. Nonetheless, the 21 stories, by such authors as Neil Gaiman and Cory Docttorow, reflect a wide variety of points of view, of mostly good quality. My favorites:
“Arkfall,” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (a novella, actually), is an exploration of the hazardous undersea world, where man has lived because of an ice-covered surface and reportedly (and by now more legend than fact) toxic atmosphere. Thus, in many ways, it’s analogous to an outer-space story. Within this environment, there are descriptions of family dynamics, a coming-of-age story and dealing with individuals of various degrees of heroism and sociopathy. Very intriguing.
“Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang, describes a robot’s sort of “wondering how he works,” and thence dissecting his own brain, with intriguing results.
“Boojum” takes place in a “bio-spaceship,” with plucky Captain Laura Whatley, who encounters, among others, space pirates!
“Cheats,” by Ann Halem, involves a brother-sister team of championship virtual-reality gamers whose goal is to unlick the games’ codes and thus go to their “cheats.”
“The Egg Man,” by Mary Rosenbum, is sort of an ecological “Road Warrior” story, in which takes place mostly in Mexico, in the not-so-distant-future. The “egg” is a cure for a pathogen which must be smuggled across the border, amidst both landscape and human hazards.
“Fixing Hanover,” by Jeff VenDerMeer, is a “steampunk” tale of a robot whose designer is attempting to find him and change his programming because they have had a change a heart about – well, I won’t give it away, here.
“Spiders,” by Sue Burke, the final entry and one of the shortest, sends the message that one shouldn’t underestimate a child.
I must admit that, over this vast time, I had largely forgotten many of the details of several of these stories, so it was fun to revisit them. Overall, I enjoyed this anthology. Four stars.
“Arkfall,” by Carolyn Ives Gilman (a novella, actually), is an exploration of the hazardous undersea world, where man has lived because of an ice-covered surface and reportedly (and by now more legend than fact) toxic atmosphere. Thus, in many ways, it’s analogous to an outer-space story. Within this environment, there are descriptions of family dynamics, a coming-of-age story and dealing with individuals of various degrees of heroism and sociopathy. Very intriguing.
“Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang, describes a robot’s sort of “wondering how he works,” and thence dissecting his own brain, with intriguing results.
“Boojum” takes place in a “bio-spaceship,” with plucky Captain Laura Whatley, who encounters, among others, space pirates!
“Cheats,” by Ann Halem, involves a brother-sister team of championship virtual-reality gamers whose goal is to unlick the games’ codes and thus go to their “cheats.”
“The Egg Man,” by Mary Rosenbum, is sort of an ecological “Road Warrior” story, in which takes place mostly in Mexico, in the not-so-distant-future. The “egg” is a cure for a pathogen which must be smuggled across the border, amidst both landscape and human hazards.
“Fixing Hanover,” by Jeff VenDerMeer, is a “steampunk” tale of a robot whose designer is attempting to find him and change his programming because they have had a change a heart about – well, I won’t give it away, here.
“Spiders,” by Sue Burke, the final entry and one of the shortest, sends the message that one shouldn’t underestimate a child.
I must admit that, over this vast time, I had largely forgotten many of the details of several of these stories, so it was fun to revisit them. Overall, I enjoyed this anthology. Four stars.
August 7, 2011
Uncommonly good. A genuinely readable collection of SF short stories. Nice variety. I'd sworn off anthologies for a while because so many were so poor. My favorite was "Cheats."
The balance was tilted toward dystopias, but that's understandable of a book published in 2009. Don't read the intros, it only spoils the fun.
The balance was tilted toward dystopias, but that's understandable of a book published in 2009. Don't read the intros, it only spoils the fun.
September 25, 2011
My Favorites
"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang
"The Scarecrow's Boy" by Michael Swanwick
Story-By-Story Reactions
"Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Waterworld setting inspired by recent discoveries about Saturn's moons, unfortunately while the terrain was fresh and new, the characters were stereotyped knock-offs. Will people in the far future with Japanese names really be obsessively passive, and guys named "Jack" really act like they just escaped from a spaghetti western? i guess so...
"Orange" by Neil Gaiman. An ok story delivered as a set of answers to an investigator's questionnaire - great concept, but in the end i didn't feel the naive/homourous tone was done right. you can see a youtube video of Gaiman reading Orange here.
"Memory Dog" by Kathleen Ann Goonan. A dystopia that can be overthrown by high-tech communication devices (hey, maybe we should invent the internet) - mind you, the main aspect of the story, the transmigration of a man's soul into a dog, was as brilliant as his grief was painful. So that makes it worth reading.
"Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi. This is memorable but i'm not sure it should be. Bacigalupi is a good writer, but too many of his stories seem like cheap vehicles to quickly sketch a vision, and the thing about sketches it that to make an impact they need more power than he normally manages to summon up.
"Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. i do so like the theme of sentient space ships - this is a good one. Not great, though, but good enough.
"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang. The best story in either collection this year. Holy shit this was good. Set amongst steam-driven robots in another reality, where one scientist's discovery about how the mind works has ramifications for the whole universe.
"Traitor" by M. Rickert. Was there anything to this piece of shit story? Methinks not. Terrorists brainwash children to blow themselves up, and this a tale makes. Barf.
"The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" by Cory Doctorow. An examination, in a not heavy-handed way, of personal responsibility in a panopticon dystopia.
"Oblivion: A Journey" by Vandana Singh. Drawing on the Ramayana, the Hindu epic, Singh gives us a protagonist willing to sacrifice anything to exact revenge on a war criminal. The ending did not work for me.
"The House Left Empty" by Robert Reed. While Reed is one of my favourite authors, this story left me cold. Near future post-amerika isn't so bad after all, if the worst thing about it is the end of the space programme.
"The Scarecrow's Boy" by Michael Swanwick. Beautiful yarn about sentient machines bound to serve the local despot. At one point the scarecrow asks the car if she believes in free will, to which she replies that she has often wondered but must obey her programming. "I don't mean for us. I mean for them. The humans," Scarecrow answers - priceless! One of my favorites this year.
"N-Words" by Ted Kosmatka. i think Neanderthals deserves their own post, but until i get around to that i'll just say that our swarthy friends are sexier than ever theseadays, doubtless due to the exciting discoveries being made using genetic research. In N-Words a scientist resucitates the species from old DNA à la Jurassic Park (not an impossibility it seems), leading to a new racial divide which really is racial, as the not so subtle title indicates. Note that on a cultural level, Neanderthals are coming to represent the suppressed european - we are being told they look conveniently like big vikings ("spent ten times longer in light-starved Europe than a typical Swede's ancestors") and racist "people of sun"/"people of ice" lingo is resucitated and turned on its head. On his website Kosmatka pedantically describes N-words as "my story against racism", which i think sells it short. Very reminiscent of Terry Bisson's Scout's Honor from 2006. And like Bisson's short story, Kosmatka's N-Words was one of the few that made it into both the Dozois and Hartwell/Cramer anthologies. [available as audio story here:]
"Fury" by Alastair Reynolds. Told by a space suit that evolved into something sentient. Reynolds tried this same idea in Dozois' 2006 anthology to much better effect, in his masterful Zima Blue. But in Fury the trick falls flat; my guess is because its ancillary to the main story-line, and as such is reduced to being a cheap trick. Whereas in Zima Blue we had real reflection about identity and personal development, in Fury we get a sorry little morality tale. Too bad.
"Cheats" by Gwyneth Jones (writing as Ann Halam). Described as for young adults, but apart from the fact that the protagonists are children (not rare in this genre) i don't see why. Which is a good thing. This is a simple story of how a virtual reality game gets crossed over with something much more serious, and where the search for easter eggs leads down the rabbit's hole. Nice, but not gripping.
"The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" by Jason Sanford. Very weird story, which i liked a lot until the ending, where it just got a bit too weird. Different world, different universe (it seems), and spaceships rain torrents of water crushing the poor people who live below.
"The Egg Man" by Mary Rosenblum. Set in a realistic dystopian near-future, where pharmaceutical crops and eggs provide the SF engines, and an abandoned corner of post-America provides the setting. Good, but not excellent.
"Glass" by Daryl Gregory. Great clockwork-orangeish premise, crap story. Partly the caricature prisoners bothered me, partly the silly ending which distracts from any real reflection on violence and morality. Gregory is normally very skilled at creating an ominous mood, but it's a difficult task in just a few pages.
"Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer. Wonderful steampunk offering about an engineer who - horrified at the warlike uses to which his skill has been applied - flees empire to live amongst the barbarians. This could have been a sentimental disappointment, but VanderMeer's hard ending saved it.
"Message Found in a Gravity Wave" by Rudy Rucker. Flash fiction SF from Nature magazine's Futures section, which i normally find disappoint. In this case the tone was cute, but i think i've seen this kind of message-in-a-bottle-coz-the-end-is-nigh stuff done enough.
"Mitigation" by Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder. A near future heist thriller set on a backfrop of an economy increasingly dominated by carbon trading. The cool thing about this story is how it effortlessly implies that global warming will continue unhindered, and the sideways focus on the new economic gruntwork and displacement caused by capitalist band-aid solutions. As has been noted here there and everywhere, if you've been focussing on the green part of "green capitalism", you've been focussing on the wrong thing.
"Spiders" by Sue Burke. A cute story about people on a strange new world, with pretty hackneyed parental gender dynamics.
"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang
"The Scarecrow's Boy" by Michael Swanwick
Story-By-Story Reactions
"Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Waterworld setting inspired by recent discoveries about Saturn's moons, unfortunately while the terrain was fresh and new, the characters were stereotyped knock-offs. Will people in the far future with Japanese names really be obsessively passive, and guys named "Jack" really act like they just escaped from a spaghetti western? i guess so...
"Orange" by Neil Gaiman. An ok story delivered as a set of answers to an investigator's questionnaire - great concept, but in the end i didn't feel the naive/homourous tone was done right. you can see a youtube video of Gaiman reading Orange here.
"Memory Dog" by Kathleen Ann Goonan. A dystopia that can be overthrown by high-tech communication devices (hey, maybe we should invent the internet) - mind you, the main aspect of the story, the transmigration of a man's soul into a dog, was as brilliant as his grief was painful. So that makes it worth reading.
"Pump Six" by Paolo Bacigalupi. This is memorable but i'm not sure it should be. Bacigalupi is a good writer, but too many of his stories seem like cheap vehicles to quickly sketch a vision, and the thing about sketches it that to make an impact they need more power than he normally manages to summon up.
"Boojum" by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. i do so like the theme of sentient space ships - this is a good one. Not great, though, but good enough.
"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang. The best story in either collection this year. Holy shit this was good. Set amongst steam-driven robots in another reality, where one scientist's discovery about how the mind works has ramifications for the whole universe.
"Traitor" by M. Rickert. Was there anything to this piece of shit story? Methinks not. Terrorists brainwash children to blow themselves up, and this a tale makes. Barf.
"The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" by Cory Doctorow. An examination, in a not heavy-handed way, of personal responsibility in a panopticon dystopia.
"Oblivion: A Journey" by Vandana Singh. Drawing on the Ramayana, the Hindu epic, Singh gives us a protagonist willing to sacrifice anything to exact revenge on a war criminal. The ending did not work for me.
"The House Left Empty" by Robert Reed. While Reed is one of my favourite authors, this story left me cold. Near future post-amerika isn't so bad after all, if the worst thing about it is the end of the space programme.
"The Scarecrow's Boy" by Michael Swanwick. Beautiful yarn about sentient machines bound to serve the local despot. At one point the scarecrow asks the car if she believes in free will, to which she replies that she has often wondered but must obey her programming. "I don't mean for us. I mean for them. The humans," Scarecrow answers - priceless! One of my favorites this year.
"N-Words" by Ted Kosmatka. i think Neanderthals deserves their own post, but until i get around to that i'll just say that our swarthy friends are sexier than ever theseadays, doubtless due to the exciting discoveries being made using genetic research. In N-Words a scientist resucitates the species from old DNA à la Jurassic Park (not an impossibility it seems), leading to a new racial divide which really is racial, as the not so subtle title indicates. Note that on a cultural level, Neanderthals are coming to represent the suppressed european - we are being told they look conveniently like big vikings ("spent ten times longer in light-starved Europe than a typical Swede's ancestors") and racist "people of sun"/"people of ice" lingo is resucitated and turned on its head. On his website Kosmatka pedantically describes N-words as "my story against racism", which i think sells it short. Very reminiscent of Terry Bisson's Scout's Honor from 2006. And like Bisson's short story, Kosmatka's N-Words was one of the few that made it into both the Dozois and Hartwell/Cramer anthologies. [available as audio story here:]
"Fury" by Alastair Reynolds. Told by a space suit that evolved into something sentient. Reynolds tried this same idea in Dozois' 2006 anthology to much better effect, in his masterful Zima Blue. But in Fury the trick falls flat; my guess is because its ancillary to the main story-line, and as such is reduced to being a cheap trick. Whereas in Zima Blue we had real reflection about identity and personal development, in Fury we get a sorry little morality tale. Too bad.
"Cheats" by Gwyneth Jones (writing as Ann Halam). Described as for young adults, but apart from the fact that the protagonists are children (not rare in this genre) i don't see why. Which is a good thing. This is a simple story of how a virtual reality game gets crossed over with something much more serious, and where the search for easter eggs leads down the rabbit's hole. Nice, but not gripping.
"The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" by Jason Sanford. Very weird story, which i liked a lot until the ending, where it just got a bit too weird. Different world, different universe (it seems), and spaceships rain torrents of water crushing the poor people who live below.
"The Egg Man" by Mary Rosenblum. Set in a realistic dystopian near-future, where pharmaceutical crops and eggs provide the SF engines, and an abandoned corner of post-America provides the setting. Good, but not excellent.
"Glass" by Daryl Gregory. Great clockwork-orangeish premise, crap story. Partly the caricature prisoners bothered me, partly the silly ending which distracts from any real reflection on violence and morality. Gregory is normally very skilled at creating an ominous mood, but it's a difficult task in just a few pages.
"Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer. Wonderful steampunk offering about an engineer who - horrified at the warlike uses to which his skill has been applied - flees empire to live amongst the barbarians. This could have been a sentimental disappointment, but VanderMeer's hard ending saved it.
"Message Found in a Gravity Wave" by Rudy Rucker. Flash fiction SF from Nature magazine's Futures section, which i normally find disappoint. In this case the tone was cute, but i think i've seen this kind of message-in-a-bottle-coz-the-end-is-nigh stuff done enough.
"Mitigation" by Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder. A near future heist thriller set on a backfrop of an economy increasingly dominated by carbon trading. The cool thing about this story is how it effortlessly implies that global warming will continue unhindered, and the sideways focus on the new economic gruntwork and displacement caused by capitalist band-aid solutions. As has been noted here there and everywhere, if you've been focussing on the green part of "green capitalism", you've been focussing on the wrong thing.
"Spiders" by Sue Burke. A cute story about people on a strange new world, with pretty hackneyed parental gender dynamics.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 26, 2017
Arkfall **** I was swept away to a new world - a great adventure. (And no small reminder of how my family talks...)
Orange *** Cute, and surprisingly-readable, despite the gimmick
Memory Dog ** Wish-fulfilment for hippies. Not for me.
Pump Six *** A dystopia that's all the more painful because of its plausibility.
Boojum *** Not bad, but nothing really surprising here either.
Exhalation ***** SF at its best. The allegory is obvious, but it also works on its own as an internally-consistent world.
Traitor * I have no idea what this story was doing here. It was political, sad, confusing, and not science fiction.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away ** Thinly-veiled politics, but not an interesting story.
Oblivion: A Journey ** I didn't get it.
The House Left Empty *** There's a lot of dystopia stories here... I guess 2009 was a tough year.
The Scarecrow's Boy ** Not sure what the point of this was.
N-Words **** I don't think this is the kind of story I like, but somehow it got me thinking. I suspect this one will stick with me, and I guess that's a victory in this book's book.
Fury **** The plot was a little implausible, but hey it made for good drama and SF.
Cheats ** Didn't make sense.
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain ** Definitely SF, but for some reason this didn't catch me.
The Egg Man ** Another dystopia.
Glass *** Cute, I guess.
Fixing Hanover
Message Found in a Gravity Wave
Mitigation
Spiders
Orange *** Cute, and surprisingly-readable, despite the gimmick
Memory Dog ** Wish-fulfilment for hippies. Not for me.
Pump Six *** A dystopia that's all the more painful because of its plausibility.
Boojum *** Not bad, but nothing really surprising here either.
Exhalation ***** SF at its best. The allegory is obvious, but it also works on its own as an internally-consistent world.
Traitor * I have no idea what this story was doing here. It was political, sad, confusing, and not science fiction.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away ** Thinly-veiled politics, but not an interesting story.
Oblivion: A Journey ** I didn't get it.
The House Left Empty *** There's a lot of dystopia stories here... I guess 2009 was a tough year.
The Scarecrow's Boy ** Not sure what the point of this was.
N-Words **** I don't think this is the kind of story I like, but somehow it got me thinking. I suspect this one will stick with me, and I guess that's a victory in this book's book.
Fury **** The plot was a little implausible, but hey it made for good drama and SF.
Cheats ** Didn't make sense.
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain ** Definitely SF, but for some reason this didn't catch me.
The Egg Man ** Another dystopia.
Glass *** Cute, I guess.
Fixing Hanover
Message Found in a Gravity Wave
Mitigation
Spiders
May 18, 2023
4/5 stars. One of the best short story collections I’ve ever read. My only issue is that sometimes the editor loves to spoil the plot in the introduction.
1. Carolyn Ives Gilman: "Arkfall" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) **** Great alien ocean world
2. Neil Gaiman: "Orange" (Originally in The Starry Rift, 2008) *** interesting interview format that works well
3. Kathleen Ann Goonan: "Memory Dog" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) **** great original ideas
4. Paolo Bacigalupi: "Pump Six" (Originally in Pump Six and Other Stories, 2008) *** cool little dystopian not unlike the movie Idiocracy (2006).
5. Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette: "Boojum" (Originally in Fast Ships, Black Sails, 2008) *** interesting with a bit of pirate fantasy.
6. Ted Chiang: "Exhalation" (Originally in Eclipse 2, 2008) ***** Ted’s stories always have amazing worlds with their own fantastic science that ARE worthy of the hype. “Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.”
7. M. Rickert: "Traitor" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) *** dark but great finish
8. Cory Doctorow: "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" (Originally published online by Tor Books, 2008) *** modern shades of 1984
9. Vandana Singh: "Oblivion: A Journey" (Originally in Clockwork Phoenix, 2008) *** decent story but holy exposition Batman.
10. Robert Reed: "The House Left Empty" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) *** a dystopian lesson to Libertarians.
11. Michael Swanwick: "The Scarecrow’s Boy" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) *** not unlike the movie AI
12. Ted Kosmatka: "N-Words" (Originally in Seeds of Change, 2008) *** cool original premise
13. Alastair Reynolds: "Fury" (Originally in Eclipse 2, 2008) **** very well written story set in the far future
14. Gwyneth Jones (as Ann Halam): "Cheats" (Originally in The Starry Rift, 2008) **** a great idea with sound execution that captures a brother & sister team.
15. Jason Sanford: "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" (Originally in Interzone, 2008) ***** a fantastic story set in an original world
16. Mary Rosenblum: "The Egg Man" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) **** very believable, ironic, futuristic world
17. Daryl Gregory: "Glass" (Originally in MIT Technology Review, 2008) **** short, sweet, and well executed.
18. Jeff VanderMeer: "Fixing Hanover" (Originally in Extraordinary Engines, 2008) ** not bad but predictable
19. Rudy Rucker: "Message Found in a Gravity Wave" (Originally in Nature Physics, 2008) ** cool, quick, and quirky.
20. Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder: "Mitigation" (Originally in Fast Forward 2, 2008) *** interesting post-climate disaster setting
21. Sue Burke: "Spiders" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) ** short yet still a bit tedious.
1. Carolyn Ives Gilman: "Arkfall" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) **** Great alien ocean world
2. Neil Gaiman: "Orange" (Originally in The Starry Rift, 2008) *** interesting interview format that works well
3. Kathleen Ann Goonan: "Memory Dog" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) **** great original ideas
4. Paolo Bacigalupi: "Pump Six" (Originally in Pump Six and Other Stories, 2008) *** cool little dystopian not unlike the movie Idiocracy (2006).
5. Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette: "Boojum" (Originally in Fast Ships, Black Sails, 2008) *** interesting with a bit of pirate fantasy.
6. Ted Chiang: "Exhalation" (Originally in Eclipse 2, 2008) ***** Ted’s stories always have amazing worlds with their own fantastic science that ARE worthy of the hype. “Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so. I feel I have the right to tell you this because, as I am inscribing these words, I am doing the same.”
7. M. Rickert: "Traitor" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) *** dark but great finish
8. Cory Doctorow: "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" (Originally published online by Tor Books, 2008) *** modern shades of 1984
9. Vandana Singh: "Oblivion: A Journey" (Originally in Clockwork Phoenix, 2008) *** decent story but holy exposition Batman.
10. Robert Reed: "The House Left Empty" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) *** a dystopian lesson to Libertarians.
11. Michael Swanwick: "The Scarecrow’s Boy" (Originally in F&SF, 2008) *** not unlike the movie AI
12. Ted Kosmatka: "N-Words" (Originally in Seeds of Change, 2008) *** cool original premise
13. Alastair Reynolds: "Fury" (Originally in Eclipse 2, 2008) **** very well written story set in the far future
14. Gwyneth Jones (as Ann Halam): "Cheats" (Originally in The Starry Rift, 2008) **** a great idea with sound execution that captures a brother & sister team.
15. Jason Sanford: "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain" (Originally in Interzone, 2008) ***** a fantastic story set in an original world
16. Mary Rosenblum: "The Egg Man" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) **** very believable, ironic, futuristic world
17. Daryl Gregory: "Glass" (Originally in MIT Technology Review, 2008) **** short, sweet, and well executed.
18. Jeff VanderMeer: "Fixing Hanover" (Originally in Extraordinary Engines, 2008) ** not bad but predictable
19. Rudy Rucker: "Message Found in a Gravity Wave" (Originally in Nature Physics, 2008) ** cool, quick, and quirky.
20. Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder: "Mitigation" (Originally in Fast Forward 2, 2008) *** interesting post-climate disaster setting
21. Sue Burke: "Spiders" (Originally in Asimov's, 2008) ** short yet still a bit tedious.
May 14, 2021
3.5 stars. The following authors have good or great stories:
Paolo Bacigalupi, although his story just ends;
Ted Chiang;
Cory Doctorow, with a good twist ending;
M. Rickert;
Michael Swanwick;
Ted Kosmatka;
Alastair Reynolds - the winner of this book;
Mary Rosenblum;
Jeff Vandermeer
Paolo Bacigalupi, although his story just ends;
Ted Chiang;
Cory Doctorow, with a good twist ending;
M. Rickert;
Michael Swanwick;
Ted Kosmatka;
Alastair Reynolds - the winner of this book;
Mary Rosenblum;
Jeff Vandermeer
January 7, 2019
Very good anthology featuring a variety of sci-fi.
February 25, 2022
Just like all the others in this series, some of the stories are good, some I can't figure out and some I do not like. What more can you say about collections.
June 20, 2016
My subjective best of the best:
"Arkfall"/Carolyn Ives Gilman. (Cool underwater adventure with "biotechnology and great
characters).
"Memory Dog"/Kathleen Ann Goonan. (Dogs and SF work well together, Very emotional!)
"Pump Six"/ Paolo Bacigalupi. His boss reminds me of my boss! Dystopian future living among
idiots ala Kornbluth's "the Marching Morons".
"Boojum"/Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Interesting space opera about space pirates (although
the grammar was a bit clunky). The "Lavinia Whately", cool!
"Exhalation"/Ted Chiang. Weird steam-punkish account of a robot/alien scientist dissecting his
own brain to learn about the nature of his universe and the workings of the mind.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"? Cory Doctorow. Computer
geek monks meet "1984".
"Oblivion: A Jourmey./Vandana Singh. Intergalactic vengeance with a Hindu mythological flavor.
"N-Words"./Ted Kosmatka. Newly cloned Neanderthals vie with Homo sapiens.
"Fury"./Alastair Reynolds. Cool space opera.
"Cheats"/Ann Halam. Kids, virtual reality and an emotional ending.
"The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"/Jason Sanford. Reading each story's intro, I
sometimes get preconceived ideas about whether to like a story or not. The description of the
main SF idea sounded stupid to me and if I was skipping certain stories this would have been
one of them. It turned out to be a great story based on a great idea.
"Glass"/Daryl Gregory. A drug to enhance empathy, incarcerated psycho killers and a satisfying
ending.
"Arkfall"/Carolyn Ives Gilman. (Cool underwater adventure with "biotechnology and great
characters).
"Memory Dog"/Kathleen Ann Goonan. (Dogs and SF work well together, Very emotional!)
"Pump Six"/ Paolo Bacigalupi. His boss reminds me of my boss! Dystopian future living among
idiots ala Kornbluth's "the Marching Morons".
"Boojum"/Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Interesting space opera about space pirates (although
the grammar was a bit clunky). The "Lavinia Whately", cool!
"Exhalation"/Ted Chiang. Weird steam-punkish account of a robot/alien scientist dissecting his
own brain to learn about the nature of his universe and the workings of the mind.
The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"? Cory Doctorow. Computer
geek monks meet "1984".
"Oblivion: A Jourmey./Vandana Singh. Intergalactic vengeance with a Hindu mythological flavor.
"N-Words"./Ted Kosmatka. Newly cloned Neanderthals vie with Homo sapiens.
"Fury"./Alastair Reynolds. Cool space opera.
"Cheats"/Ann Halam. Kids, virtual reality and an emotional ending.
"The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"/Jason Sanford. Reading each story's intro, I
sometimes get preconceived ideas about whether to like a story or not. The description of the
main SF idea sounded stupid to me and if I was skipping certain stories this would have been
one of them. It turned out to be a great story based on a great idea.
"Glass"/Daryl Gregory. A drug to enhance empathy, incarcerated psycho killers and a satisfying
ending.
Read
November 24, 2010
TOC:
Arkfall - Carolyn Ives Gilman - good, poetic. an underwater world, japanese-ish culture, almost a coming of age type story.
Orange - Neil Gaiman - "clever" concept, only answers to an interrogation of a teenage girl.
Memory Dog - Kathleen Ann Goonan
Pump Six - Paolo Bacigalupi
Boojum - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette
Exhalation - Ted Chiang
Traitor - M. Rickert
The Things that Make Me Weak and Stange Get
Engineered Away - Cory Doctorow
Oblivion: A Journey - Vandana Singh
The House Left Empty - Robert Reed
The Scarecrow’s Boy - Michael Swanwick
N-Words - Ted Kosmatka
Fury - Alastair Reynolds
Cheats - Gwyneth Jones writing as Ann Halam
The Ships Like Clouds, Risen By Their Rain - Jason Sanford
The Egg Man - Mary Rosenblum
Glass - Daryl Gregory
Fixing Hanover - Jeff VanderMeer
Message Found in a Gravity Wave - Rudy Rucker
Mitigation - Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder
Spiders - Sue Burke
October 31, 2009
Since I read the big Science Fiction anthology by Gardner Dozois religiously every year, I hardly ever pick up another best of anthology for fear of duplication. This year my friend Bonnie mentioned this anthology and there was only one duplicated story.
Anyway -- it's a pretty decent anthology and a good read. Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman is the first, and perhaps best storyy of the bunch, certainly one I will remember. It's hard for me to consider these the "best" stories of the year, it's more like reading a very good and extra long issue of one of the better magazine like Asimovs or or Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Anyway -- it's a pretty decent anthology and a good read. Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman is the first, and perhaps best storyy of the bunch, certainly one I will remember. It's hard for me to consider these the "best" stories of the year, it's more like reading a very good and extra long issue of one of the better magazine like Asimovs or or Fantasy and Science Fiction.
December 31, 2020
Looking through the titles in this collection, I determined I HAD already read it, and most likely this year, and again, too, though I can most clearly remember a few choice stories from it, such as the N Words, The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away, and Mitigation.
So this serves a mark to myself as a reminder so that I don't pick it up again - though these are all top-quality, I'm interested in seeing something different.
If I did happen to pick it up again by accident, I could work on improving my recall of what exactly happened in each of these tales...
Overall, I had a decent time enjoying this anthology.
So this serves a mark to myself as a reminder so that I don't pick it up again - though these are all top-quality, I'm interested in seeing something different.
If I did happen to pick it up again by accident, I could work on improving my recall of what exactly happened in each of these tales...
Overall, I had a decent time enjoying this anthology.
December 6, 2009
All excellent stories - a couple really got me thinking, and that's good. The best strategy for reading this book is to read one story a day and let it simmer for awhile. More than that and you risk SF overload, which can lead to blurry vision and headaches. Pace yourself and you should be okay. If I had the book in front of me I would name the outstanding stories; unfortunately, I don't, so I will have to hope to update this review soon.
November 19, 2009
Read this anthology because of the story "Boojam" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Very derivative of the Sci-Fi show Farscape (which I loved), but a different enough of a take to interest. The one by Neil Gaiman was also pretty fun.
Currently reading
July 10, 2024"The Scarecrow’s Boy" by Michael Swanwick - In this story a scarecrow, car and boat all possess reasoning capability and the plot involves the scarecrow using the car to transport a boy to a location he claims is political asylum for the child.
"Orange" by Neil Gaiman - The narrator's sister begins to pulse orange until aliens arrive and take her away.
"The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything" by George Alec Effinger - wc
"Orange" by Neil Gaiman - The narrator's sister begins to pulse orange until aliens arrive and take her away.
"The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything" by George Alec Effinger - wc
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2011
I found the stories a bit uneven. They were all undeniably well written, they just weren't all too my taste. There were an excessive number of depressing stories set in dystopic futures with unhappy endings, for example. But there were also many stories that I enjoyed a great deal, stories that moved me and made me think.
June 26, 2017
...i racconti davvero belli stanno della prima metà del volume, come sempre solertemente spezzettato da Urania, intitolata Nove Inframondi.
Qui la qualità media è molto più insoddisfacente, soprattutto considerando i blasonati nomi coinvolti, che risultano stantii rispetto a quanto scritto nella stessa annata da altre penne non così stagionate.
Qui la qualità media è molto più insoddisfacente, soprattutto considerando i blasonati nomi coinvolti, che risultano stantii rispetto a quanto scritto nella stessa annata da altre penne non così stagionate.
January 11, 2011
This is a great collection! I really liked Jason Sanford's "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain". Truly visionary! I previously recommended Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi. The title story is published herein.
February 19, 2011
Many of these stories fall outside of my definition of science fiction. However, like most anthologies, there are some jewels. I enjoyed seven of the 21 stories: Pump Six, Boojum, Exhalation, The Scarecrow's Boy, N-Words, Fury, and Fixing Hanover.
August 17, 2011
As with any anthology there are hits and misses. Gaiman, Singh, Doctorow, and Chiang were the hits and Paolo Baci... and M. Richert were the misses for me. There are also wonderful new authors I've discovered in this volume.
June 16, 2014
As with any collection, it contained the usual mix of good, OK, and bad stories....some of the interesting ones included "Orange" by Gaiman, "The House Left Empty" by Reed, "Fury" by Reynolds, "Spiders" by Sue Burke and, my favorite, "Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer.
October 15, 2016
Stories I especially enjoyed include:
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, "Boojum"
Cory Doctorow, "The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"
Vandana Singh, "Oblivion: A Journey"
Jason Sanford, "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, "Boojum"
Cory Doctorow, "The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"
Vandana Singh, "Oblivion: A Journey"
Jason Sanford, "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"
May 27, 2009
Total ripoff.
September 5, 2009
again great stories!
February 20, 2010
A very good collection of short stories, I particularly liked Exhalation by Ted Chiang
July 19, 2010
Great! This series never fails and this iteration is possibly the best of the whole batch. More and more stories contain themes of digital networks and genetic engineering.
August 17, 2010
I loved the stories in this anthology. It kept me up late a couple of nights, even.
January 3, 2011
Review pending...
June 6, 2020
this is an excellent anthology- almost all of the stories are first class, creative & well-written. This is probably the best of the 'Year's Best' that I have read.
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