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The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection
The twenty-six stories in this collection imaginatively takes us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents. Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.
ebook
First published August 9, 2002
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About the author
Gardner Dozois
645 books358 followersGardner 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...
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois
http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 7, 2017
So, yeah, I'm running about 15 years behind in my reading, but the nice thing about these Dozois Best Of collections is that they don't date quickly. This volume is good fiction, composed by talented and capable writers, and was excellent reading.
I did realize, as I was going through, that this is the last collection where all of the stories would have been written before the September 11 attacks, which was followed by darker SF. There's probably a master's thesis in there, somewhere.
Anyway, the stories. Clustered at the end (3 of the last 4 pieces) are three alternate histories. Paul McCauley's "The Two Dicks" is an alternate Philip K. Dick, in which his The Man in the High Castle has been suppressed, but he's rich and famous for The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. This one's a hoot, but it's very over-the-top in its tone. Brenda Clough's "May Be Some Time" brings a member of Scott's failed Antarctic expedition into the future. It's funny, and sad, and sensitive to Time Traveler's Syndrome. The third is outrageous worldbuilding (to mention the secondary genre would be a spoiler) by Ken MacLeod, "The Human Front," which one reads basically for the revelations, but which has some touching human moments along the way. I resist alternate history a bit, but I have to say I found all three to be effective.
The first story (Ian MacLeod's "New Light on the Drake Equation") is what I've taken to calling "post-SF." To describe is to spoil, but I liked it, except for a vision sequence. Hmmm.
There are four stories (by Kress, Swanwick, Reynolds and Kelly) which also occur in the corresponding Hartwell collection, which I've reviewed elsewhere. Needless to say, appearing in both collections is a Good Sign. Among the others, I especially enjoyed "Lobsters" by Charles Stross and "Have Not Have" by Geoff Ryman. Both deal with projections of what the Internet would do (and both have kinda come true). Stross's has some wonderful lines in it, including this lament for the wasted processing capacity of our planet: "....The solar system is a dead loss right now---dumb all over! Just measure the mps per milligram. We need to start with the low-mass bodies, reconfigure them for our own use. Dismantle the moon! Dismantle Mars! Build masses of free-flying nanocomputing processor nodes exchanging data via laser link, each layer running off the waste heat of the next one in. Matrioshka brains, Russian doll Dyson spheres the size of solar systems. Teach dumb matter to do the Turing boogie!"
Why no political party picked this up as a platform is beyond me.
Two more nods. Andy Duncan's "The Chief Designer" is nice work, nice writing, and an interesting concept. It's history fictionalized, using alternate history styling. And then there's Carolyn Ives Gilman's delicious satire "The Real Thing." I found it uncomfortable to read this week, in the early days of the Trump Presidency; but it's a kitchen sink satire, with all sorts of swipes being taken, and just about everybody's oxen gored by the end. This was my favorite piece of all.
Oh, I should add: this is a 6-grimace collection. Yep, this is from the era that turned me against that word.
I did realize, as I was going through, that this is the last collection where all of the stories would have been written before the September 11 attacks, which was followed by darker SF. There's probably a master's thesis in there, somewhere.
Anyway, the stories. Clustered at the end (3 of the last 4 pieces) are three alternate histories. Paul McCauley's "The Two Dicks" is an alternate Philip K. Dick, in which his The Man in the High Castle has been suppressed, but he's rich and famous for The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. This one's a hoot, but it's very over-the-top in its tone. Brenda Clough's "May Be Some Time" brings a member of Scott's failed Antarctic expedition into the future. It's funny, and sad, and sensitive to Time Traveler's Syndrome. The third is outrageous worldbuilding (to mention the secondary genre would be a spoiler) by Ken MacLeod, "The Human Front," which one reads basically for the revelations, but which has some touching human moments along the way. I resist alternate history a bit, but I have to say I found all three to be effective.
The first story (Ian MacLeod's "New Light on the Drake Equation") is what I've taken to calling "post-SF." To describe is to spoil, but I liked it, except for a vision sequence. Hmmm.
There are four stories (by Kress, Swanwick, Reynolds and Kelly) which also occur in the corresponding Hartwell collection, which I've reviewed elsewhere. Needless to say, appearing in both collections is a Good Sign. Among the others, I especially enjoyed "Lobsters" by Charles Stross and "Have Not Have" by Geoff Ryman. Both deal with projections of what the Internet would do (and both have kinda come true). Stross's has some wonderful lines in it, including this lament for the wasted processing capacity of our planet: "....The solar system is a dead loss right now---dumb all over! Just measure the mps per milligram. We need to start with the low-mass bodies, reconfigure them for our own use. Dismantle the moon! Dismantle Mars! Build masses of free-flying nanocomputing processor nodes exchanging data via laser link, each layer running off the waste heat of the next one in. Matrioshka brains, Russian doll Dyson spheres the size of solar systems. Teach dumb matter to do the Turing boogie!"
Why no political party picked this up as a platform is beyond me.
Two more nods. Andy Duncan's "The Chief Designer" is nice work, nice writing, and an interesting concept. It's history fictionalized, using alternate history styling. And then there's Carolyn Ives Gilman's delicious satire "The Real Thing." I found it uncomfortable to read this week, in the early days of the Trump Presidency; but it's a kitchen sink satire, with all sorts of swipes being taken, and just about everybody's oxen gored by the end. This was my favorite piece of all.
Oh, I should add: this is a 6-grimace collection. Yep, this is from the era that turned me against that word.
June 18, 2022
First story in “The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Edition” edited by Gardner Dozois in 2002.
New Light on the Drake Equation
Ian R. MacLeod
Dedicated but now ageing SETI researcher reminiscing about his life and love from a near future perspective. Lovely imagery..
4 stars.
More Adventures on other planets
Michael Cassutt
A chance encounter between two people working on a mission to Europa leads to a poignant and entangled relationship between the four entities? Read on MacDuff! 4 stars.
“On K2 with Kanakaredes,” by Dan Simmons.
A group of 3 climber friends are asked to take a strange and inexperienced stranger up K2. As the offspring of an amateur mountaineer I found this quite an authentic description and definitely a riveting read Excellente!. (I’ve read it before somewhere else). 5 stars.
When this World is All on Fire
WILLIAM SANDERS
An American Indian cop is the unfortunate victim of an encounter with the daughter of a racist squatter. The girl has a gift he alone appreciates but her Trump supporter of a dad is only interested in burning what little remains of the parched reservation in an overheated world already drowning in indifference. A Sad and hopeless inference of current trends. Not really SF more like the news. 3.5 for honesty.
Computer Virus by Nancy Cress
I’m going to have to give this one 100% as it involves computers, which I love as I strongly suspect they may have the potential be more moral than we are. Not difficult you may surmise but sadly there is no algorithm for truth, consider say abortion… It’s superficially about a terrorist action and Stockholm syndrome and what it means to be human. Difficult not to spoil it so I can say no more. Wish it had been longer. 5 stars.
Have Not Have GEOFF RYMAN
A poor but respected Chinese dressmaker navigates the politics and interpersonal relations required of a cany businesswoman in the last village in the world to connect to the net. Her life will never be the same. 4stars.
Lobsters CHARLES STROSS
A jargon rich confusion of future shock described by a young maverick entrepreneur during his AR assisted trip to Amsterdam. He’s inundated with tech data and brokering hip deals while interrupted by an AI and a dominatrix ex. Sry too much enforced cool and sterile PC sex for me to really engage with I’m afraid, despite umpteen glowing recommendations, I can only ever seem to give 3 stars to my fellow denizen of Edinburgh. Prolific though..so maybe next time?
The Dog Said Bow-Wow
MICHAEL SWANWICK
A mixture of swashbuckling adventure and post technological apocalyptic society this tail involves a couple of lovable rascal out to make their fortune. Excellent fun.
The Chief Designer
ANDY DUNCAN
This story of the soviet space race was both fascinating and horrifying. To me it had the ring of absolute truth about it although doubtless in this new age of lies I will never know for sure. Regardless, I’m glad to know of the sacrifices these brave men made in their quest for progress into the unknown, to keep impossible dreams alive. 5 stars for taking me there whether fictional or not.
Neutrino Drag
PAUL DI FILIPPO
This is a preposterous tale of an army vet turned mechanic and would be dragster racer set in the Californian 1950s. His gang of anti racist and cartoonishly sexist lads encounter a strange car inhabited by a stranger couple. This macho fantasy proceeds towards its inevitable Roswellian conclusion at roadrunner velocities. Hilariously pre-PCs - so 3.75 stars.
Glacial
ALASTAIR REYNOLDS
A crew of 4 fleeing conflict finds a habitable but icy planet has somehow already been visited…but the expedition members have all already died a century before. Typically AR hard SF and excellent 4.5 stars
The Days Between
ALLEN M. STEELE
A man is accidentally awakened aboard an interstellar space ship shortly after its departure and discovers that the rest of the crew are still in hibernation. As he pieces together the events that led to this catastrophic error, and tries to come to terms with his fate he manages to somehow retain his sanity despite the knowledge that he can never reach his original destination. Poignant tale about meaning and hope. 4 stars.
One-Horse Town HOWARD WALDROP & LEIGH KENNEDY
A mixture of different timelines related to the fall of Troy. Somewhat tragic, and wistfully told it’s nevertheless a highly creative idea rather unlike anything I’ve read before. I only wish the ending had been different, in my version the thief would have met with justice from the last owner of the artefact however historically implausible it would have been. Still 4 stars overall.
Moby Quilt ELEANOR ARNASON
I really enjoyed this colonisation story about exoplanet life being studied by humans (both scientists and laymen), in conjunction with AIs and a visiting alien Cephalopod / cetacean like creature. The life-form of primary interest is a large ocean dwelling mat like colony, highly reminiscent of Greg Egan’s also excellent Wang’s carpets.
Raven Dream ROBERT REED
A boy describes his world. We are seeing demons and spirits through the eyes of an indigenous inhabitant of a rich and ancient culture as he becomes a man and learns wisdom from his grandfather. But the modern world is encroaching fast, making his world shrink as fast as his curiosity grows. Beautifully written, it’s a different kind of SF horror story documenting the fall from innocence as humanity consumes the last vestiges of a natural environment in which to be truly free. 5 stars.
Undone JAMES PATRICK KELLY
I’ve read this before somewhere but it was still fun to re-read. Sometime in the future a lone pilot with advanced abilities and AI ship finds her luck has run out as she is suddenly surrounded by her adversaries. With no time left she escapes but pays a heavy price. The rest is their thwarted attempt to return to something resembling her past, which occasionally involves messing with time. 4 stars.
The Real Thing
CAROLYN IVES GILMAN
A pretty cool analysis of the utter mess we have already created for ourselves by allowing the free market forces of capitalism to apply to our social media
curated opinions. The death of facts and its sensationalist replacement religion for the masses... celebrity.
It's utterly depressing (for me) to watch, the promise of the net to bring us together and educate us into building an effective democratic yet sustainable future seems to me to be being stupidly squandered. It's like watching a chisel being used to murder a baby when it should have carved a masterpiece. 5 stars for trying to get people to notice.
Interview: On Any Given Day MAUREEN F. MCHUGH
I found this one kinda tough, it made me think, being as it is basically describing baby boomers such as myself from the perspective of a young teenage girl. She's a victim of the older generation who have rejuvenated themselves and then exploited their teenage appearance to basically become paedophiles. Uck. Fortunately I'm not tempted to follow that path, even if it were available, but I know some who would, and I can sympathise with the young people who blame our generation for the mess we're in. I hear and support them but I'm sure that if the time comes they won't be interested that I tried to stop our decline, so it's a tad scary. 3.5 stars.
Isabel of the Fall IAN R. MACLEOD
I’m afraid however poetic this mysterious story of a plain girl enslaved by some sort of cruel religious sect (possibly run by a AI), on a alien archipelago of worlds it didn’t really move or satisfy me. 2 stars.
Into Greenwood JIM GRIMSLEY
I’ve read this before somewhere. Good - memory of weird brother tree symbiosis.
Know How, Can Do
MICHAEL BLUMLEIN
A superb examination of the morality of curiosity driven science discussed in a jovial manner but with a biting satire. C. Elegans is the tiny hero of this tale, and his conversation about life, love and philosophy with his friend and kindly torturer may well shortly be prophetic. Part two should be Drosophila, 5 stars.
Russian Vine SIMON INGS
A story of horrible revenge against a single individual of an alien race that has had the audacity to conquer Earth "for its own good". Interesting theory that control of language can be used to effectively manipulate society. These aliens are awful, even the narrator, but I still felt the result was a warning we perhaps needed but might prefer not to know. 2 stars.
The Two Dicks PAUL MCAULEY
Am alternative future in which PK Dick struggles to become the genius he was meant to be. Pretty good 4 stars.
May be Some Time
BRENDA W. CLOUGH
This story is about a time travelling Captain Oates from Scotts ill fated Antarctic expedition that really appealed to me. His struggles with culture shock, and his minders shocked reactions are well described as is his effort to find purpose and meaning to his life. 5 stars.
Rant mode…
His problems seem to echo those of my own generation as we are bombarded with ever shorter social media cats on Farcebook, uTubes, Twitts, Twitches, Tics n Tocs, Flashes n Flickers. I recall my Grandad being mightily unimpressed by my Excel or even my fractal programs - his question was “But what use are they?”.
I must confess have a personal but rather tenuous connection to the subject matter of this story. I assisted my late father, Don Aldridge, with some IT aspects of writing his non-fiction book “The Rescue of Captain Scott”. His book, needless to say, did not go down well with the official heroic line pedalled by “The Scott Polar Research Institute”. It’s based on embarrassing facts suppressed by The Admiralty but revealed by his visit to see the less restricted press archives in N.Z. of the Scott expedition. His story was really about the highly experienced, but non-Etonian, whaler Captain McKay who set off from Dundee in the Discovery to use gun cotton to extricate Scott from the ice he had deliberately stuck himself in rather than risk losing his funding. My Dad also was the consultant who suggested to Dundee Council that the ship Discovery might be better employed telling the history of Dundee rather than becoming a floating restaurant in London. He won that battle (and incidentally also prevented the disastrous introduction of the National Park system to Scotland until his retirement from the CCS). End of rant.
Marcher
CHRIS BECKET
Neat short about a rather unique young man beset by doubts regarding his job as an immigration officer in the near future. Excellent escapism 5 stars.
The Human Front KEN MACLEOD
Set in my adopted home - country of Scotland it is an alternate history with weirdly divergent politics and a UFO encounter. Cool ending 4 stars.
New Light on the Drake Equation
Ian R. MacLeod
Dedicated but now ageing SETI researcher reminiscing about his life and love from a near future perspective. Lovely imagery..
4 stars.
More Adventures on other planets
Michael Cassutt
A chance encounter between two people working on a mission to Europa leads to a poignant and entangled relationship between the four entities? Read on MacDuff! 4 stars.
“On K2 with Kanakaredes,” by Dan Simmons.
A group of 3 climber friends are asked to take a strange and inexperienced stranger up K2. As the offspring of an amateur mountaineer I found this quite an authentic description and definitely a riveting read Excellente!. (I’ve read it before somewhere else). 5 stars.
When this World is All on Fire
WILLIAM SANDERS
An American Indian cop is the unfortunate victim of an encounter with the daughter of a racist squatter. The girl has a gift he alone appreciates but her Trump supporter of a dad is only interested in burning what little remains of the parched reservation in an overheated world already drowning in indifference. A Sad and hopeless inference of current trends. Not really SF more like the news. 3.5 for honesty.
Computer Virus by Nancy Cress
I’m going to have to give this one 100% as it involves computers, which I love as I strongly suspect they may have the potential be more moral than we are. Not difficult you may surmise but sadly there is no algorithm for truth, consider say abortion… It’s superficially about a terrorist action and Stockholm syndrome and what it means to be human. Difficult not to spoil it so I can say no more. Wish it had been longer. 5 stars.
Have Not Have GEOFF RYMAN
A poor but respected Chinese dressmaker navigates the politics and interpersonal relations required of a cany businesswoman in the last village in the world to connect to the net. Her life will never be the same. 4stars.
Lobsters CHARLES STROSS
A jargon rich confusion of future shock described by a young maverick entrepreneur during his AR assisted trip to Amsterdam. He’s inundated with tech data and brokering hip deals while interrupted by an AI and a dominatrix ex. Sry too much enforced cool and sterile PC sex for me to really engage with I’m afraid, despite umpteen glowing recommendations, I can only ever seem to give 3 stars to my fellow denizen of Edinburgh. Prolific though..so maybe next time?
The Dog Said Bow-Wow
MICHAEL SWANWICK
A mixture of swashbuckling adventure and post technological apocalyptic society this tail involves a couple of lovable rascal out to make their fortune. Excellent fun.
The Chief Designer
ANDY DUNCAN
This story of the soviet space race was both fascinating and horrifying. To me it had the ring of absolute truth about it although doubtless in this new age of lies I will never know for sure. Regardless, I’m glad to know of the sacrifices these brave men made in their quest for progress into the unknown, to keep impossible dreams alive. 5 stars for taking me there whether fictional or not.
Neutrino Drag
PAUL DI FILIPPO
This is a preposterous tale of an army vet turned mechanic and would be dragster racer set in the Californian 1950s. His gang of anti racist and cartoonishly sexist lads encounter a strange car inhabited by a stranger couple. This macho fantasy proceeds towards its inevitable Roswellian conclusion at roadrunner velocities. Hilariously pre-PCs - so 3.75 stars.
Glacial
ALASTAIR REYNOLDS
A crew of 4 fleeing conflict finds a habitable but icy planet has somehow already been visited…but the expedition members have all already died a century before. Typically AR hard SF and excellent 4.5 stars
The Days Between
ALLEN M. STEELE
A man is accidentally awakened aboard an interstellar space ship shortly after its departure and discovers that the rest of the crew are still in hibernation. As he pieces together the events that led to this catastrophic error, and tries to come to terms with his fate he manages to somehow retain his sanity despite the knowledge that he can never reach his original destination. Poignant tale about meaning and hope. 4 stars.
One-Horse Town HOWARD WALDROP & LEIGH KENNEDY
A mixture of different timelines related to the fall of Troy. Somewhat tragic, and wistfully told it’s nevertheless a highly creative idea rather unlike anything I’ve read before. I only wish the ending had been different, in my version the thief would have met with justice from the last owner of the artefact however historically implausible it would have been. Still 4 stars overall.
Moby Quilt ELEANOR ARNASON
I really enjoyed this colonisation story about exoplanet life being studied by humans (both scientists and laymen), in conjunction with AIs and a visiting alien Cephalopod / cetacean like creature. The life-form of primary interest is a large ocean dwelling mat like colony, highly reminiscent of Greg Egan’s also excellent Wang’s carpets.
Raven Dream ROBERT REED
A boy describes his world. We are seeing demons and spirits through the eyes of an indigenous inhabitant of a rich and ancient culture as he becomes a man and learns wisdom from his grandfather. But the modern world is encroaching fast, making his world shrink as fast as his curiosity grows. Beautifully written, it’s a different kind of SF horror story documenting the fall from innocence as humanity consumes the last vestiges of a natural environment in which to be truly free. 5 stars.
Undone JAMES PATRICK KELLY
I’ve read this before somewhere but it was still fun to re-read. Sometime in the future a lone pilot with advanced abilities and AI ship finds her luck has run out as she is suddenly surrounded by her adversaries. With no time left she escapes but pays a heavy price. The rest is their thwarted attempt to return to something resembling her past, which occasionally involves messing with time. 4 stars.
The Real Thing
CAROLYN IVES GILMAN
A pretty cool analysis of the utter mess we have already created for ourselves by allowing the free market forces of capitalism to apply to our social media
curated opinions. The death of facts and its sensationalist replacement religion for the masses... celebrity.
It's utterly depressing (for me) to watch, the promise of the net to bring us together and educate us into building an effective democratic yet sustainable future seems to me to be being stupidly squandered. It's like watching a chisel being used to murder a baby when it should have carved a masterpiece. 5 stars for trying to get people to notice.
Interview: On Any Given Day MAUREEN F. MCHUGH
I found this one kinda tough, it made me think, being as it is basically describing baby boomers such as myself from the perspective of a young teenage girl. She's a victim of the older generation who have rejuvenated themselves and then exploited their teenage appearance to basically become paedophiles. Uck. Fortunately I'm not tempted to follow that path, even if it were available, but I know some who would, and I can sympathise with the young people who blame our generation for the mess we're in. I hear and support them but I'm sure that if the time comes they won't be interested that I tried to stop our decline, so it's a tad scary. 3.5 stars.
Isabel of the Fall IAN R. MACLEOD
I’m afraid however poetic this mysterious story of a plain girl enslaved by some sort of cruel religious sect (possibly run by a AI), on a alien archipelago of worlds it didn’t really move or satisfy me. 2 stars.
Into Greenwood JIM GRIMSLEY
I’ve read this before somewhere. Good - memory of weird brother tree symbiosis.
Know How, Can Do
MICHAEL BLUMLEIN
A superb examination of the morality of curiosity driven science discussed in a jovial manner but with a biting satire. C. Elegans is the tiny hero of this tale, and his conversation about life, love and philosophy with his friend and kindly torturer may well shortly be prophetic. Part two should be Drosophila, 5 stars.
Russian Vine SIMON INGS
A story of horrible revenge against a single individual of an alien race that has had the audacity to conquer Earth "for its own good". Interesting theory that control of language can be used to effectively manipulate society. These aliens are awful, even the narrator, but I still felt the result was a warning we perhaps needed but might prefer not to know. 2 stars.
The Two Dicks PAUL MCAULEY
Am alternative future in which PK Dick struggles to become the genius he was meant to be. Pretty good 4 stars.
May be Some Time
BRENDA W. CLOUGH
This story is about a time travelling Captain Oates from Scotts ill fated Antarctic expedition that really appealed to me. His struggles with culture shock, and his minders shocked reactions are well described as is his effort to find purpose and meaning to his life. 5 stars.
Rant mode…
His problems seem to echo those of my own generation as we are bombarded with ever shorter social media cats on Farcebook, uTubes, Twitts, Twitches, Tics n Tocs, Flashes n Flickers. I recall my Grandad being mightily unimpressed by my Excel or even my fractal programs - his question was “But what use are they?”.
I must confess have a personal but rather tenuous connection to the subject matter of this story. I assisted my late father, Don Aldridge, with some IT aspects of writing his non-fiction book “The Rescue of Captain Scott”. His book, needless to say, did not go down well with the official heroic line pedalled by “The Scott Polar Research Institute”. It’s based on embarrassing facts suppressed by The Admiralty but revealed by his visit to see the less restricted press archives in N.Z. of the Scott expedition. His story was really about the highly experienced, but non-Etonian, whaler Captain McKay who set off from Dundee in the Discovery to use gun cotton to extricate Scott from the ice he had deliberately stuck himself in rather than risk losing his funding. My Dad also was the consultant who suggested to Dundee Council that the ship Discovery might be better employed telling the history of Dundee rather than becoming a floating restaurant in London. He won that battle (and incidentally also prevented the disastrous introduction of the National Park system to Scotland until his retirement from the CCS). End of rant.
Marcher
CHRIS BECKET
Neat short about a rather unique young man beset by doubts regarding his job as an immigration officer in the near future. Excellent escapism 5 stars.
The Human Front KEN MACLEOD
Set in my adopted home - country of Scotland it is an alternate history with weirdly divergent politics and a UFO encounter. Cool ending 4 stars.
November 2, 2018
Great collection. I enjoyed every story except one. will be reading several of the various author's other works.
August 1, 2015
New Light on the Drake Equation - Ian R MacLeod (SCI FICTION May 2001)
More Adventures on Other Planets - Michael Cassutt (SCI FICTION Jan 2001)
On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons (Red Shift (ROC) AC Sarrantonio Ed.)
When This World is All On Fire - William Sanders (Asimov's SF Oct/Nov 2001)
Computer Virus - Nancy Kress (Asimov's SF April 2001)
Have Not Have - Geoff Ryman (Magazine of F&SF April 2001)
Lobsters - Charles Stross (Asimov's SF June 2001)
The Dog said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick (Asimov's SF Oct/Nov 2001)
The Chief Designer - Andy Duncan (Asimov's SF June 2001)
Neutrino Drag - Paul Di Fillipo (SCI FICTION 22/8/2001)
Glacial - Alastair Reynolds (Spectrum SF 5)
The Days Between - Allen Steele (Asimov's SF March 2001)
One Horse Town - Howard Waldrop/Leigh Kennedy (SCI FICTION 4/3/2001)
Moby Quilt - Eleanor Arnason (Asimov's SF May 2001)
Raven Dream - Robert Reed (Magazine of F&SF December 2001)
Undone - James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's SF June 2001)
The Real Thing - Carolyn Ives Gilman (Magazine of F&SF July 2001)
Interview: On Any Given Day - Maureen F McHugh (Starlight 3 (Tor))
Isabel of The Fall - Ian R MacLeod (Interzone July 2001)
Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley (Asimov's SF September 2001)
Know How, Can Do - Michael Blumlein (Magazine of F&SF December 2001)
Russian Vine - Simon Ings (SCI FICTION June 6 2001)
The Two Dicks - Paul McAulay (Magazine of F&SF August 2001)
May Be Some Time - Brenda W Clough (Analog Science Fiction & Fact April 2001)
Marcher - Chris Beckett (Interzone October 2001)
The Human Front - Ken MacLeod (chapbook - The Human Front - PS Publishing)
New Light on The Drake Equation - Ian R MacLeod
An atmospheric and poignant tale, set in France, in which a lifelong SETI researcher looks back on his life of fruitless searching for signs of extraterrestrial life from a future where genetic bodily restyling is all the rage. His memories are interrupted by the arrival of an old girlfriend, a woman who may be the alien he has been searching for all his life.
Beautifully written and evocative.
More Adventures on Other Planets - Michael Cassutt
A modern interplanetary romance (literally) featuring two older members of a Scientific Institute who operate waldos on the surface of Europa who are searching for signs of life beneath the frozen surface. It's extremely well-written and amusing without having that annoying American habit of over-emphasising the humour.
On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons never disappoints and here he is on top form, and on top of the world in a tale of a climbing crew who are ordered by the US government to accept one of the alien insectoid Listeners (as they are known) on a climbing expedition up K2. The characterisation is excellent, and despite the brevity of the tale we accept the idea of a large insect bonding with a pack of professional mountain climbers. Simmons provides one of his usual metaphysical clichés in the concept of the Listeners having come to Earth to teach us how to Listen to the song of the world.
Very memorable.
When This World is All On Fire - William Sanders
A global warming themed tale set in the American Midwest where white people are beginning to encroach on what remains of Native American land now that the sea level has risen, leaving much of North America under water.
Sanders employs the dry and desperate environment as a backdrop to a tale of a Native American security man and his obsession with the young white girl he hears singing one day when her family park on Indian land illegally.
Like all the stories so far it has a sad and poignant element to it, but is nevertheless an energetic and well-painted story. You can almost smell the smoke and the baking land.
Computer Virus - Nancy Kress
I seem to remember at least two TV movies of the Eighties or earlier which featured a computer going rogue and holding people hostage in some building or other. One featured Kate Jackson of Charlie's Angels, but was otherwise unmemorable.
Thankfully Nancy has used this concept far more cleverly in a fast-paced story where an escaped AI invades a computer-controlled house into which a female scientist has retreated since her geneticist husband was murdered by eco-terrorists.
The AI wants to hold her and her children hostage unless it is allowed to talk to the Press, something its creators do not want it to do.
It is up to her to use her wits to defeat the AI, since her young son has contracted a mutated virus, and his temperature is steadily rising.
It says much about the media, about government, and a climate in which we seem to be more afraid of each other than posited foreign terrorists.
Have Not Have - Geoff Ryman
Ryman's work is very much character-driven, but there is always an interesting backdrop, an exotic setting against which the drama can be shown to best effect. Here we are, it is supposed, in China, where a young woman makes a living by adapting the fashions she sees on screen and in magazines to make dresses for the peasants of her village. The stark poverty of the villagers is contrasted by the advent of technology and a development of the internet which will allow everyone to have TV 'in their heads'.
It's a startling, evocative and original tale, in which individual characters are carved intricately like small jade sculptures
Lobsters - Charles Stross
A bewildering and disorienting romp through a future world of predatory ads, AIs, and world where the minds of lobsters are uploaded into a digital environment, their minds employed as processing slaves. Quite brilliant, but very difficult to describe. It's easier to read the story for yourself.
The Dog said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
As usual Swanwick has created a bizarre and exotic world in which to set his tale, which features a genetically engineered dog of the far future who joined forces with a human man and hatches a scheme to steal the jewels of a member of the aristocracy.
In this future, the Queen (an almost immortal creature with multiple brains set deep into her vast body) lives in a Buckingham Palace which surrounded by a labyrinth.
Vivid, surreal, amusing and memorable.
The Chief Designer - Andy Duncan
An emotional and poignant view of 'the chief designer' of the USSR space programme, rescued form a Russian concentration camp to become the main force behind Russia's bid to conquer space.
Neutrino Drag - Paul Di Fillipo
Very stylish fast and amusing SF from Di Fillipo who tells the story of how an alien got involved in drag racing with an American gang. When the human hero accidentally 'bonds' with the alien's specially-cloned girlfriend, he is challenged to a 'chicken' race into the corona of our sun.
Di Fillipo evokes a sense of place and his vision of contemporary gang culture in the US is, if a little romantic, vivid and realistic.
Glacial - Alastair Reynolds
One of the best stories in this collection features Clavain, the renegade conjoiner from Reynolds' 'Redemption Ark'. Here, the action is set long before that of the novel, at a time when the conjoiners have set off to find a habitable world to start a colony. Felka, the mind-damaged conjoiner and Galiana, the leader of the group along with Clavain land on the frozen planet Diadem, only to find a dead Earth colony has already preceded them. One man has frozen himself deliberately in the hope of being revived.
Like the later story 'Moby Quilt' in this volume, a vital part of the plot is a gestalt of seemingly low-level intelligence creatures (in this case, worms) which seem to be acting as an information processing device; i.e. a self-aware organism composed of thousands of smaller creatures.
Fascinating reading, and suggesting that Reynolds may be planning other Clavain stories to fill in the gaps between this and 'Redemption Ark'
The Days Between - Allen Steele
An interstellar ship, whose passengers are all cryogenically frozen for the long-haul light-years-long trip suddenly awakens one of its passengers only a few months into the mission.
The AI controlling the functions of the ship refuses to re-freeze him - for complex reasons having to do with a sub-plot involving conspiracies and mutiny - and we follow his descent into madness as he realises that he will die years before the ship reaches its destination, and his slow return to reason.
One Horse Town - Howard Waldrop/Leigh Kennedy
Far too similar to Howard Waldrop's novel 'Them Bones' for this to be an original story, it tells of three different time-periods intersecting; The siege of Troy; Homer's adolescence, and a modern day archaeological team. Visions and impressions of the periods overlap and bleed through, affecting the action and the destiny of those involved.
Moby Quilt - Eleanor Arnason
Another of the best stories in this volume is a peculiar tale of love which sees Lydia Duluth, a future PR guru and location-scout visiting a waterworld. Also visiting is the alien K'r'x with whom she is put into mental contact via a pair of AIs. While investigating the mystery of the vast circular mats which float on the oceans, she begins to fall in love with the vast squidlike creature. As with 'Glacial' this also deals with the subject of gestalt or multi-symbiotic organisms working together as one organism.
Raven Dream - Robert Reed
An odd piece featuring Native Americans who live in a seemingly secret part of our world - to them our world is known as the spirit world - and the coming of age of Raven, a young man who slowly begins to learn who and what he is and how his world relates to the world outside.
Reed has used Native American characters before but not to such concentrated effect. What works in this story is that we are looking from a perspective of the belief of Raven, which gives us doubts as to what is real and not real - and indeed how we actually define the word 'real'.
Undone - James Patrick Kelly
A marvellous densely-packed modern space opera in which a feisty heroine of the resistance - standing up for her right to be an individual - escapes into the future but is pursued by a mine travelling six minutes behind her. Any attempt to travel backwards in time beyond that point will wipe her mind and reprogramme her memories. Cleverly, the story ends up going in a most unexpected direction.
The Real Thing - Carolyn Ives Gilman
Another story which features a Native American lead character in the form of Sage Akwesasne, who volunteers to be dismantled and projected - via a slingshot black hole process which is not that important to the plot - fifty years into the future.
She arrives in a world where she is literally a commodity since the courts have ruled that she is not the original Sage, but a copy, and the legal property of a megacorporation in a world where hype and spin are the be-all and end-all of business.
Obviously it's a commentary on the direction in which our media-obsessed society is moving, and a very clever one, managing to be both funny and dismayingly accurate if we dare to hold a mirror to our own society now.
Interview: On Any Given Day - Maureen F McHugh
Transcript of a fictional TV programme in which a teenager infected with a retrovirus mutated from a longevity treatment is interviewed. Not only interesting structurally, but showing a strong command of voice and character, since through the testimony of one girl McHugh brings to life those about her, described in a 'Talking Heads' style confessional.
Isabel of The Fall - Ian R MacLeod
In a far and complex future, Isabel tends the mirrors which redirect light to various parts of her community, part of a society in which social roles and responsibilities are rigidly controlled. When Isabel fails to correct a mirror misalignment, part of her community experiences an unheard-of twilight, which leads to a friend ship with another woman, a dancer at the cathedral. It's a tragedy of consequence, of the terrible events which lead from the simple error of the mirror misalignment. Powerful and haunting.
Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley
Grimsley's story is a clever examination of the concept of relative freedom. The hero is a revolutionary, attempting to promote independence on worlds controlled by the efficient and mysterious Prin. After years of silence she is invited to visit her brother, a man who has been genetically altered to become a symbiont; a vegetable creature living in symbiosis with an intelligent tree.
One of the better stories in the collection it examines issues surrounding slavery and freedom while at the same time creating a vivid and realistic world.
Know How, Can Do - Michael Blumlein
Michael Blumlein showed in his novel 'The Movement of Mountains' that he has a deep interest in scientific and medical ethics and shows this again to good effect in a disturbing love story where the narrator is a cloned human brain linked to the nervous system of a roundworm. As his psyche grows and learns he slowly falls in love with the female scientist who created him.
Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Aliens infect humanity with a virus which renders them illiterate and therefore incapable of developing complex societies and science and thereby destroying themselves. The aliens think of themselves as gardeners, conserving the races of the galaxy. Against this backdrop one of the aliens forms a relationship with an Earth woman. Very well-written, from an odd point of view; i.e. that of one of the alien earthdwellers.
The Two Dicks - Paul McAulay
A clever tribute to Philip K Dick, set at the time of Dick's famous exegesis in 1974, but in an altered timeline in which Richard Nixon remains in power, having somehow derailed the careers of influential creative figures. Dick himself has been dissuaded from writing science fiction, although pirate copies of his one SF novel 'The Man in The High Castle' are much in demand. Elvis Presley appears at one point, asking Dick to sign his last mainstream novel 'The Grasshopper Lies Heavy' (the title of the novel within 'The Man in The High Castle') while mentioning obliquely that they have something in common. They both have dead twins. Elvis in this timeline runs an ice-cream business.
Beautifully written, very much in Dick's style.
May Be Some Time - Brenda W Clough
Famous explorer Titus Oates is snatched at the point of death from his own timeline and taken to a New York of 2045, only to discover that his rescue was just an experiment employing technology provided from a First Contact message sent from Tau Ceti.
Highly readable and enjoyable.
Marcher - Chris Beckett
A topical tale involving an immigration officer who is called in to examine cases of 'shifters', disaffected people who take 'seeds' which have the effect of switching them between alternate worlds.
The Human Front - Ken MacLeod
MacLeod examines his usual themes of Scotland, Communism and grey aliens in an unusual novella originally published as a chapbook. The son of a Scottish doctor remembers his father treating the occupant of a crashed 'bomber' during the war, and had always considered the pilot to be a child.
Later we realise this is not the world we know, and that the Americans have been using alien anti-gravity technology in military technology.
It's dense and complex, but very much character-driven and manages to explore themes of politics, communism and propaganda against a backdrop of alternate worlds and civil war.
More Adventures on Other Planets - Michael Cassutt (SCI FICTION Jan 2001)
On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons (Red Shift (ROC) AC Sarrantonio Ed.)
When This World is All On Fire - William Sanders (Asimov's SF Oct/Nov 2001)
Computer Virus - Nancy Kress (Asimov's SF April 2001)
Have Not Have - Geoff Ryman (Magazine of F&SF April 2001)
Lobsters - Charles Stross (Asimov's SF June 2001)
The Dog said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick (Asimov's SF Oct/Nov 2001)
The Chief Designer - Andy Duncan (Asimov's SF June 2001)
Neutrino Drag - Paul Di Fillipo (SCI FICTION 22/8/2001)
Glacial - Alastair Reynolds (Spectrum SF 5)
The Days Between - Allen Steele (Asimov's SF March 2001)
One Horse Town - Howard Waldrop/Leigh Kennedy (SCI FICTION 4/3/2001)
Moby Quilt - Eleanor Arnason (Asimov's SF May 2001)
Raven Dream - Robert Reed (Magazine of F&SF December 2001)
Undone - James Patrick Kelly (Asimov's SF June 2001)
The Real Thing - Carolyn Ives Gilman (Magazine of F&SF July 2001)
Interview: On Any Given Day - Maureen F McHugh (Starlight 3 (Tor))
Isabel of The Fall - Ian R MacLeod (Interzone July 2001)
Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley (Asimov's SF September 2001)
Know How, Can Do - Michael Blumlein (Magazine of F&SF December 2001)
Russian Vine - Simon Ings (SCI FICTION June 6 2001)
The Two Dicks - Paul McAulay (Magazine of F&SF August 2001)
May Be Some Time - Brenda W Clough (Analog Science Fiction & Fact April 2001)
Marcher - Chris Beckett (Interzone October 2001)
The Human Front - Ken MacLeod (chapbook - The Human Front - PS Publishing)
New Light on The Drake Equation - Ian R MacLeod
An atmospheric and poignant tale, set in France, in which a lifelong SETI researcher looks back on his life of fruitless searching for signs of extraterrestrial life from a future where genetic bodily restyling is all the rage. His memories are interrupted by the arrival of an old girlfriend, a woman who may be the alien he has been searching for all his life.
Beautifully written and evocative.
More Adventures on Other Planets - Michael Cassutt
A modern interplanetary romance (literally) featuring two older members of a Scientific Institute who operate waldos on the surface of Europa who are searching for signs of life beneath the frozen surface. It's extremely well-written and amusing without having that annoying American habit of over-emphasising the humour.
On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons never disappoints and here he is on top form, and on top of the world in a tale of a climbing crew who are ordered by the US government to accept one of the alien insectoid Listeners (as they are known) on a climbing expedition up K2. The characterisation is excellent, and despite the brevity of the tale we accept the idea of a large insect bonding with a pack of professional mountain climbers. Simmons provides one of his usual metaphysical clichés in the concept of the Listeners having come to Earth to teach us how to Listen to the song of the world.
Very memorable.
When This World is All On Fire - William Sanders
A global warming themed tale set in the American Midwest where white people are beginning to encroach on what remains of Native American land now that the sea level has risen, leaving much of North America under water.
Sanders employs the dry and desperate environment as a backdrop to a tale of a Native American security man and his obsession with the young white girl he hears singing one day when her family park on Indian land illegally.
Like all the stories so far it has a sad and poignant element to it, but is nevertheless an energetic and well-painted story. You can almost smell the smoke and the baking land.
Computer Virus - Nancy Kress
I seem to remember at least two TV movies of the Eighties or earlier which featured a computer going rogue and holding people hostage in some building or other. One featured Kate Jackson of Charlie's Angels, but was otherwise unmemorable.
Thankfully Nancy has used this concept far more cleverly in a fast-paced story where an escaped AI invades a computer-controlled house into which a female scientist has retreated since her geneticist husband was murdered by eco-terrorists.
The AI wants to hold her and her children hostage unless it is allowed to talk to the Press, something its creators do not want it to do.
It is up to her to use her wits to defeat the AI, since her young son has contracted a mutated virus, and his temperature is steadily rising.
It says much about the media, about government, and a climate in which we seem to be more afraid of each other than posited foreign terrorists.
Have Not Have - Geoff Ryman
Ryman's work is very much character-driven, but there is always an interesting backdrop, an exotic setting against which the drama can be shown to best effect. Here we are, it is supposed, in China, where a young woman makes a living by adapting the fashions she sees on screen and in magazines to make dresses for the peasants of her village. The stark poverty of the villagers is contrasted by the advent of technology and a development of the internet which will allow everyone to have TV 'in their heads'.
It's a startling, evocative and original tale, in which individual characters are carved intricately like small jade sculptures
Lobsters - Charles Stross
A bewildering and disorienting romp through a future world of predatory ads, AIs, and world where the minds of lobsters are uploaded into a digital environment, their minds employed as processing slaves. Quite brilliant, but very difficult to describe. It's easier to read the story for yourself.
The Dog said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
As usual Swanwick has created a bizarre and exotic world in which to set his tale, which features a genetically engineered dog of the far future who joined forces with a human man and hatches a scheme to steal the jewels of a member of the aristocracy.
In this future, the Queen (an almost immortal creature with multiple brains set deep into her vast body) lives in a Buckingham Palace which surrounded by a labyrinth.
Vivid, surreal, amusing and memorable.
The Chief Designer - Andy Duncan
An emotional and poignant view of 'the chief designer' of the USSR space programme, rescued form a Russian concentration camp to become the main force behind Russia's bid to conquer space.
Neutrino Drag - Paul Di Fillipo
Very stylish fast and amusing SF from Di Fillipo who tells the story of how an alien got involved in drag racing with an American gang. When the human hero accidentally 'bonds' with the alien's specially-cloned girlfriend, he is challenged to a 'chicken' race into the corona of our sun.
Di Fillipo evokes a sense of place and his vision of contemporary gang culture in the US is, if a little romantic, vivid and realistic.
Glacial - Alastair Reynolds
One of the best stories in this collection features Clavain, the renegade conjoiner from Reynolds' 'Redemption Ark'. Here, the action is set long before that of the novel, at a time when the conjoiners have set off to find a habitable world to start a colony. Felka, the mind-damaged conjoiner and Galiana, the leader of the group along with Clavain land on the frozen planet Diadem, only to find a dead Earth colony has already preceded them. One man has frozen himself deliberately in the hope of being revived.
Like the later story 'Moby Quilt' in this volume, a vital part of the plot is a gestalt of seemingly low-level intelligence creatures (in this case, worms) which seem to be acting as an information processing device; i.e. a self-aware organism composed of thousands of smaller creatures.
Fascinating reading, and suggesting that Reynolds may be planning other Clavain stories to fill in the gaps between this and 'Redemption Ark'
The Days Between - Allen Steele
An interstellar ship, whose passengers are all cryogenically frozen for the long-haul light-years-long trip suddenly awakens one of its passengers only a few months into the mission.
The AI controlling the functions of the ship refuses to re-freeze him - for complex reasons having to do with a sub-plot involving conspiracies and mutiny - and we follow his descent into madness as he realises that he will die years before the ship reaches its destination, and his slow return to reason.
One Horse Town - Howard Waldrop/Leigh Kennedy
Far too similar to Howard Waldrop's novel 'Them Bones' for this to be an original story, it tells of three different time-periods intersecting; The siege of Troy; Homer's adolescence, and a modern day archaeological team. Visions and impressions of the periods overlap and bleed through, affecting the action and the destiny of those involved.
Moby Quilt - Eleanor Arnason
Another of the best stories in this volume is a peculiar tale of love which sees Lydia Duluth, a future PR guru and location-scout visiting a waterworld. Also visiting is the alien K'r'x with whom she is put into mental contact via a pair of AIs. While investigating the mystery of the vast circular mats which float on the oceans, she begins to fall in love with the vast squidlike creature. As with 'Glacial' this also deals with the subject of gestalt or multi-symbiotic organisms working together as one organism.
Raven Dream - Robert Reed
An odd piece featuring Native Americans who live in a seemingly secret part of our world - to them our world is known as the spirit world - and the coming of age of Raven, a young man who slowly begins to learn who and what he is and how his world relates to the world outside.
Reed has used Native American characters before but not to such concentrated effect. What works in this story is that we are looking from a perspective of the belief of Raven, which gives us doubts as to what is real and not real - and indeed how we actually define the word 'real'.
Undone - James Patrick Kelly
A marvellous densely-packed modern space opera in which a feisty heroine of the resistance - standing up for her right to be an individual - escapes into the future but is pursued by a mine travelling six minutes behind her. Any attempt to travel backwards in time beyond that point will wipe her mind and reprogramme her memories. Cleverly, the story ends up going in a most unexpected direction.
The Real Thing - Carolyn Ives Gilman
Another story which features a Native American lead character in the form of Sage Akwesasne, who volunteers to be dismantled and projected - via a slingshot black hole process which is not that important to the plot - fifty years into the future.
She arrives in a world where she is literally a commodity since the courts have ruled that she is not the original Sage, but a copy, and the legal property of a megacorporation in a world where hype and spin are the be-all and end-all of business.
Obviously it's a commentary on the direction in which our media-obsessed society is moving, and a very clever one, managing to be both funny and dismayingly accurate if we dare to hold a mirror to our own society now.
Interview: On Any Given Day - Maureen F McHugh
Transcript of a fictional TV programme in which a teenager infected with a retrovirus mutated from a longevity treatment is interviewed. Not only interesting structurally, but showing a strong command of voice and character, since through the testimony of one girl McHugh brings to life those about her, described in a 'Talking Heads' style confessional.
Isabel of The Fall - Ian R MacLeod
In a far and complex future, Isabel tends the mirrors which redirect light to various parts of her community, part of a society in which social roles and responsibilities are rigidly controlled. When Isabel fails to correct a mirror misalignment, part of her community experiences an unheard-of twilight, which leads to a friend ship with another woman, a dancer at the cathedral. It's a tragedy of consequence, of the terrible events which lead from the simple error of the mirror misalignment. Powerful and haunting.
Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley
Grimsley's story is a clever examination of the concept of relative freedom. The hero is a revolutionary, attempting to promote independence on worlds controlled by the efficient and mysterious Prin. After years of silence she is invited to visit her brother, a man who has been genetically altered to become a symbiont; a vegetable creature living in symbiosis with an intelligent tree.
One of the better stories in the collection it examines issues surrounding slavery and freedom while at the same time creating a vivid and realistic world.
Know How, Can Do - Michael Blumlein
Michael Blumlein showed in his novel 'The Movement of Mountains' that he has a deep interest in scientific and medical ethics and shows this again to good effect in a disturbing love story where the narrator is a cloned human brain linked to the nervous system of a roundworm. As his psyche grows and learns he slowly falls in love with the female scientist who created him.
Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Aliens infect humanity with a virus which renders them illiterate and therefore incapable of developing complex societies and science and thereby destroying themselves. The aliens think of themselves as gardeners, conserving the races of the galaxy. Against this backdrop one of the aliens forms a relationship with an Earth woman. Very well-written, from an odd point of view; i.e. that of one of the alien earthdwellers.
The Two Dicks - Paul McAulay
A clever tribute to Philip K Dick, set at the time of Dick's famous exegesis in 1974, but in an altered timeline in which Richard Nixon remains in power, having somehow derailed the careers of influential creative figures. Dick himself has been dissuaded from writing science fiction, although pirate copies of his one SF novel 'The Man in The High Castle' are much in demand. Elvis Presley appears at one point, asking Dick to sign his last mainstream novel 'The Grasshopper Lies Heavy' (the title of the novel within 'The Man in The High Castle') while mentioning obliquely that they have something in common. They both have dead twins. Elvis in this timeline runs an ice-cream business.
Beautifully written, very much in Dick's style.
May Be Some Time - Brenda W Clough
Famous explorer Titus Oates is snatched at the point of death from his own timeline and taken to a New York of 2045, only to discover that his rescue was just an experiment employing technology provided from a First Contact message sent from Tau Ceti.
Highly readable and enjoyable.
Marcher - Chris Beckett
A topical tale involving an immigration officer who is called in to examine cases of 'shifters', disaffected people who take 'seeds' which have the effect of switching them between alternate worlds.
The Human Front - Ken MacLeod
MacLeod examines his usual themes of Scotland, Communism and grey aliens in an unusual novella originally published as a chapbook. The son of a Scottish doctor remembers his father treating the occupant of a crashed 'bomber' during the war, and had always considered the pilot to be a child.
Later we realise this is not the world we know, and that the Americans have been using alien anti-gravity technology in military technology.
It's dense and complex, but very much character-driven and manages to explore themes of politics, communism and propaganda against a backdrop of alternate worlds and civil war.
October 16, 2023
I finally got around to reading this one, though I had seen a number of the stories elsewhere over the years. A good but not great year, and some of the stories haven't aged well. For me, a 3.4 star collection overall.
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?254036 has all story sources, other reprints and more.
http://bestsf.net/years-best-science-... is my usual go-to for detailed story comments from Mark Watson.
I may get back with some comments on individual stories if time and energy permit.
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?254036 has all story sources, other reprints and more.
http://bestsf.net/years-best-science-... is my usual go-to for detailed story comments from Mark Watson.
I may get back with some comments on individual stories if time and energy permit.
July 5, 2022
Dozois' collection of the best sci-fi stories of 2001. As with most anthologies, the stories differ greatly in how much I liked them, but Dozois is expert at picking them, and I can at least recognize quality even the few I didn't much care for. One of the stories (Andy Duncan's "The Chief Designer") is one of the all-time best short stories I have ever read, and by itself makes the book well worth acquiring.
May 9, 2019
Majority of stories are just... Meh, so what? Didn't see much in the way of uniqueness.
March 3, 2025
Favorites: 'On K2 with Kanakaredes', 'Lobsters', 'Moby Quilt'.
November 4, 2011
These collections are always worth a read. This one is about a decade old, but holds up pretty well, with the exception of some predictions about the future of the internet that feel a bit dated. In fact, the future of the information superhighway and information tech is a recurring theme in this collection (at least 4 stories focus on it). Oddly, I noticed an abundance of sexual content in the stories (sometimes graphic), which I don't recall being the case in the other collections I've read in the past. My main complaint about this collection is that, while most of the stories were very well-written, in general they tended to lack really breathtaking new ideas. Additionally, a lot of the same authors tend to get selected year after year, so you're not exposed to new talent as often as you might hope. Fortunately, a lot of the authors are really good, so you are happy to see them recur!
A few of my favorites in this collection were "Computer Virus" by Nancy Kress (think Panic Room but with the house's AI as the intruder), "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick (bizarre far-future con caper with a talking dog), "Neutrino Drag" by Paul Di Filippo (drag racing with a crazy alien), and "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan (historical novella that takes you inside the Soviet space program).
This collection has been unusual in that I haven't found a single story I hated! The stories that don't wow you with ideas or pacing or fun tend to be emotionally-moving character pieces that impress you by the time they are done. The only story that really failed to draw me in was "One-Horse Town" by Howard Waldrop and Leigh Kennedy, which is a 3-timeline story about Homer and the writing of the Illiad. I was also underwhelmed by Michael Blumlein's "Know How, Can Do" story of a worm given human intelligence (ala Flowers for Algernon) which I found to be too short and too blunt.
As always, your mileage will vary.
A few of my favorites in this collection were "Computer Virus" by Nancy Kress (think Panic Room but with the house's AI as the intruder), "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick (bizarre far-future con caper with a talking dog), "Neutrino Drag" by Paul Di Filippo (drag racing with a crazy alien), and "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan (historical novella that takes you inside the Soviet space program).
This collection has been unusual in that I haven't found a single story I hated! The stories that don't wow you with ideas or pacing or fun tend to be emotionally-moving character pieces that impress you by the time they are done. The only story that really failed to draw me in was "One-Horse Town" by Howard Waldrop and Leigh Kennedy, which is a 3-timeline story about Homer and the writing of the Illiad. I was also underwhelmed by Michael Blumlein's "Know How, Can Do" story of a worm given human intelligence (ala Flowers for Algernon) which I found to be too short and too blunt.
As always, your mileage will vary.
October 3, 2009
My favorite story in the collection is the one I've read three or four times before: "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick. The collection also includes a story I have read before and still, on second reading, actively dislike: "Lobsters" by Charles Stross.
There were a few other stories that combined length with not being my cup of tea, which made this 780-page volume a slow read.
Other than the Swanwick, my favorites were:
"Interview: On Any Given Day" by Maureen McHugh (rejuvenation technology means the elderly have a second chance to screw up as teen-agers)
"Know How, Can Do" by Michael Blumlein ("Flowers for Algernon" with a worm ... and a goat)
Quotes
"Information production and information delivery are two completely different jobs now--and I'm telling you, honey, all the money an security is in delivery. ... The public needs the truth but doesn't want it. The money's all in what they want but don't need."
There were a few other stories that combined length with not being my cup of tea, which made this 780-page volume a slow read.
Other than the Swanwick, my favorites were:
"Interview: On Any Given Day" by Maureen McHugh (rejuvenation technology means the elderly have a second chance to screw up as teen-agers)
"Know How, Can Do" by Michael Blumlein ("Flowers for Algernon" with a worm ... and a goat)
Quotes
"Information production and information delivery are two completely different jobs now--and I'm telling you, honey, all the money an security is in delivery. ... The public needs the truth but doesn't want it. The money's all in what they want but don't need."
February 7, 2018
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...
May 4, 2012
Lots of great material by Ian MacLeod, Dan Simmons, William Sanders (whose work I would explore later), Kress, Jim Grimsley, Michael Blumlein, Paul McAuley, Chris Beckett and Ken MacLeod. Also one of my favorite Swanwick stories, "The Dog Said Bow Wow", which would form the basis for his later series with Darger and Surplus. I also loved "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan. Once again, I recall the book cover easily, which means it's either distinctive or I spent a lot of time enjoying the book.
May 9, 2012
This anthology is slightly better than some of the more harrowing and frustrating collections that had been compiled by Mr Dozois in the previous years. "Glacial" was good. "On K2 with Kankaredas" was cute. But some of the other unbelievably boring stuff that is now-a-days celebrated as cerebral sci-fi dragged the anthology down.
February 19, 2016
Εξαιρετική ανθολογία με ιστορίες ανθρώπινες, αλλά που σε ταξιδεύουν. Η επιστημονική φαντασία είναιτο αγαπημένο μου είδος λογοτεχνίας για αυτό το λόγο, παίρνει και εξετάζει τον άνθρωπο πέρα από το πρόσκαιρο και το εφήμερο και σε βοηθάει να βγάεις τα δικά σου συμπεράσματα. Είναι μεγάλο και πυκνογραμμένο βιβλίο, αλλά αξίζει τον κοπο. Η νέα γενιά συγγραφέων επιστημονικής φαντασίας είναι πολύ καλή.
April 9, 2007
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.
Read
June 3, 2009Really cool stories about a smart house that is taken hostage by an escaped AI, an alien bug that climbs K2, and a woman who sling-shots around a black hole to go into the future, where information technologies run the economy.
October 19, 2009
ေရငတ္တုန္း ေရတြင္းထဲက်သလို ၀မ္းသာအားရဖတ္တယ္...။ အမ်ားစုကို နားမလည္ႏိုင္ဘူး။ ဉာဏ္မမီဘူး။ Hard Science-fiction မ်ား...။
January 7, 2015
some good some great stories
Read
May 16, 20131/4/12: "Glacial" by Alastair Reynolds
abandoned
May 25, 2015Abandoned (twice!) not because there was any problem with the short stories; I'm just not a big fan of the short story form.
June 16, 2014
Either 2001 was a bummer year for sci fi, or this anthology isn't very good.
January 1, 2015
A very large collection of good works.
July 24, 2015
As always, mostly good, a couple I skimmed, a couple I skipped.
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