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Nebula Awards Showcases #41
Nebula Awards Showcase 2007
An anthology of Nebula Award-winning fiction selected by the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America includes works by this year's winners--Joe Haldeman, Kelly Link, Carol Emshwiller, Grand Master Harlan Ellison, and other notables--accompanied by commentary on the current status of science fiction in the twenty-first century and its significance as a form of literature. Original. 12,000 first printing.
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2007
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108 people want to read
About the author
Mike Resnick
812 books551 followersMichael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 5, 2023
The volume is divided into fiction from the award winners and nonfiction, most of which reports on the past or speculates on the future, of science fiction and fantasy. I am going to focus on each of the fiction pieces, then give an overview of what the n-f has to say. There are also two poems, about which I am unqualified to comment.
Before starting on the fiction pieces, I’m going to start with definitions, because very frequently I am going to say that this or that story is “not science fiction” or “not fantasy.” Hence, I refer you to the Library of Congress Genre Terms scope note for "Science Fiction:" "Fiction that depicts imagined scientific or technological advances (e.g., time travel, artificial intelligence) and their impact on society." Fantasy fiction: “Fiction in which magic and extraordinary characters are integral to the story.” Note that the definition of s-f is much less subjective than that of fiction; I think of the Nebula as being an award first and foremost ofr s-f, but they do include “Fantasy in the name of the organization, “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFFWA), so I’ve included that. You have every right to disagree with these definitions, as does the SFFWA, who awards the Nebula and decides what goes into this collection, but I needed a baseline, since much of it seemed to me as outside the genre, and that is what I’ll be using.
“Magic for Beginners” won the prize for “Best Novella,” and it seems to be intended as Young Adult literature. I don’t read a lot of YA fiction, and so I don’t claim to understand how this fits into that genre. It was written by a woman, with a boy as the protagonist, but seems to have been meant more for a female audience. At least I am sure that I wouldn’t have read past three paragraphs as a boy of 11-17 years old. It is billed as fantasy, but takes place in contemporary America, with only a few oddities to constitute the “fantastic” element – most significantly a very popular TV show which operates like no TV show ever has. It appears at random times on different channels without warning, the actors change roles from one episode to the next, there are no stars, and it all takes place inside of a gigantic library. In some ways, it seems like a kind of funerary oration for the days when everyone in the family watched the same shows, and talked to each other about them, instead of fragmenting into specialized and rarely-shared interests. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it didn’t make me want to read more YA fiction.
“I Live with You” by Carol Emshwiller was the best Short Story for 2005. It reminds me a lot of Don Webb’s writing, which makes me wonder if there is a whole sub-genre of horror about modern day loser-types encountering something unusual that changes their lives while destroying someone else’s. It didn’t strike me as remotely science fictional, apart from the fact that the narrator is able to be invisible (supposedly because no one pays attention to her). It was written in the present tense, as was the previous story, so I guess that was big at the time. On the whole, I thought is was pretty meh, but it may stay with me for a while (which is also like Don Webb).
“The End of the World as We Know It” was by Dale Bailey and it also reminded me of Don Webb, so there’s that. The author seemed very smug and pleased with himself for defying genre conventions, but didn’t have much to say beyond “look how cool I am for not doing what you expect.” He addresses the audience directly in order to say this, which gets annoying very quickly.
Anne Harris contributed “Still Life with Boobs,” which I think is my favorite story so far, although like the others I wouldn’t consider it sci fi or fantasy. It is Cronenbergian body-horror surrounding mid-life crises over sex and identity, done with wit, charm, and feminist consciousness. Unlike the others, in which it seems the protagonist is pretty well doomed to stay what they are throughout, it has a bit of a character arc and an opportunity for agency.
Next up is “Identity Theft,” a runner-up for Best Novella by Canadian writer Robert J. Sawyer, which is far and away my favorite story up to this point, and is the first that is undeniably science fiction. Set on a Mars colony, it is a piece of hardboiled detective fiction that deals with replicants, making copies of people’s minds, and murder. At first I was a tad critical of how far Sawyer went with over-the-top violence and cynicism, but every detail of what is described fits neatly into the puzzle, and I’m now sold on him as a great writer of detective fiction. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex Lomax has had follow-up stories.
“My Mother Dancing” by Nancy Kress was also short-listed for Best Short Story, and it is undeniably a science fiction story by any definition. Loosely about a deep-space mission to follow up on terraforming operations, it manages to intelligently consider questions of philosophical dogmatism, existentialism, and humanity’s efforts to displace or become God. I didn’t actually enjoy reading it all that much, not least because of an invented pronoun system that reminded me a bit too much of Timothy Leary, but I suspect that it’s something that will keep me mulling over its ideas for some time to come, unlike many (most?) of the other stories in this volume.
There is a brief excerpt from the novel “Camouflage” by Joe Haldeman which demonstrates why Haldeman was still a professional writer in an age when little money was coming out of publishers for science fiction. It is very much the sort of thing people read on airplanes – all style, no substance. The excerpt seems to have been selected by a marketing committee to draw in the suckers.
Kelly Link (she of “Magic for Beginners”) also won in the “Best Novelette” category for “The Faerie Handbag.” I’m not really sure what a “novelette” is, but apparently it’s a long-ish short story shorter than a novella. I liked this one a bit better, though it also seems intended for a YA audience. It’s a bit more down-beat, but still loosely a modern fairy tale, as the title suggests. It’s about a girl with a crazy grandma who thinks a whole European village is hiding in her handbag…except there’s evidence to show that she’s not so crazy, after all. It might not be sci fi (no technology is central to the story), but even accepting the vagueness of the concept of “fantasy,” this one has more qualifications than most. Grandma is certainly an “extraordinary character” by any measure.
The runner-up novelette is by James Patrick Kelly, titled “Men Are Trouble,” and I am pretty safe in saying that it is hands-down my favorite piece in this collection. I was slightly disappointed to see another hardboiled detective piece after “Identity Theft,” but this is writing on a whole other level. The intro compares it to Chandler, surely one of its inspirations, but it is far more subtle and carefully plotted than a Chandler novel. It also draws from Clarke – specifically the Overlords from Childhood’s End, but here they are shorter in stature and far less infallibly acting for the Ultimate Good of Humanity. In fact, they seem downright devious and untrustworthy, though maybe they are just inscrutable. Anyway, the premise is that these super-beings have “disappeared” all the men on the planet, and our heroine investigates a plot to (possibly) reintroduce Y-chromosomes despite them. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for more Kelly to read in the future.
The final work of fiction is a story by Harlan Ellison, who in the year 2006 was inducted as a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Before I discuss that, however, I have to talk about the penultimate piece of fiction, which is the introduction to this work written by Barry N. Malzberg. Ellison was probably one of sci fi’s least likeable and liked individuals, a man who went out of his way to insult everyone, was notoriously hard to work with, and notoriously used whatever power he had to cow and intimidate anyone with less. In Malzberg’s telling, however, he was a lovely person, who just happened to speak truth to power, and insulted only the “right people.” Apparently, even at this late date, Ellison could still find sycophants, if not actual friends.
The real Ellison is very much on display, however, in “The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie,” which, by the way, is in no way a work of science fiction or fantasy. It is an expose, through the eyes of a man who made good money working in Hollywood, of the Hollywood of the 1960s. It is vicious and tragic, although to its credit it also must be said that it is remarkably accurate in terms of production and publicity details, and also that it is very well written. The moment where Ellison truly takes off the mask is in his fantasy-description of his protagonist beating and mutilating a muscle-bound “beach bum,” despite being himself a “pigeon-weight” in defense of a woman’s honor (despite the fact said protagonist is in the process of ruining said woman’s life). It’s notable that Harlan Ellison was a tiny man, in no way capable in real life of winning a physical fight fairly. It seems odd to reprint such a no-longer-timely story, but I suppose it was intended to exemplify his career, more than the state of his then-current writing.
Most, though not all, of the nonfiction selections in this volume are state-of-the-industry snapshots understandably concerned about the direction publishing is moving, the difficulty in finding audiences for genre work, and most especially concern about getting paid for doing anything creative in the face of an Internet that expects everything for free. All of this still seems relevant today, and, if anything, the notes of optimism mostly ring hollow, although there are still apparently enough professional works getting published that the SFFWA continues to hand out Nebula awards. It would be pretty ironic if one gets awarded to an AI within the next few years, but also it might seem appropriate if the first such writing award was for work in science fiction.
Before starting on the fiction pieces, I’m going to start with definitions, because very frequently I am going to say that this or that story is “not science fiction” or “not fantasy.” Hence, I refer you to the Library of Congress Genre Terms scope note for "Science Fiction:" "Fiction that depicts imagined scientific or technological advances (e.g., time travel, artificial intelligence) and their impact on society." Fantasy fiction: “Fiction in which magic and extraordinary characters are integral to the story.” Note that the definition of s-f is much less subjective than that of fiction; I think of the Nebula as being an award first and foremost ofr s-f, but they do include “Fantasy in the name of the organization, “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFFWA), so I’ve included that. You have every right to disagree with these definitions, as does the SFFWA, who awards the Nebula and decides what goes into this collection, but I needed a baseline, since much of it seemed to me as outside the genre, and that is what I’ll be using.
“Magic for Beginners” won the prize for “Best Novella,” and it seems to be intended as Young Adult literature. I don’t read a lot of YA fiction, and so I don’t claim to understand how this fits into that genre. It was written by a woman, with a boy as the protagonist, but seems to have been meant more for a female audience. At least I am sure that I wouldn’t have read past three paragraphs as a boy of 11-17 years old. It is billed as fantasy, but takes place in contemporary America, with only a few oddities to constitute the “fantastic” element – most significantly a very popular TV show which operates like no TV show ever has. It appears at random times on different channels without warning, the actors change roles from one episode to the next, there are no stars, and it all takes place inside of a gigantic library. In some ways, it seems like a kind of funerary oration for the days when everyone in the family watched the same shows, and talked to each other about them, instead of fragmenting into specialized and rarely-shared interests. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but it didn’t make me want to read more YA fiction.
“I Live with You” by Carol Emshwiller was the best Short Story for 2005. It reminds me a lot of Don Webb’s writing, which makes me wonder if there is a whole sub-genre of horror about modern day loser-types encountering something unusual that changes their lives while destroying someone else’s. It didn’t strike me as remotely science fictional, apart from the fact that the narrator is able to be invisible (supposedly because no one pays attention to her). It was written in the present tense, as was the previous story, so I guess that was big at the time. On the whole, I thought is was pretty meh, but it may stay with me for a while (which is also like Don Webb).
“The End of the World as We Know It” was by Dale Bailey and it also reminded me of Don Webb, so there’s that. The author seemed very smug and pleased with himself for defying genre conventions, but didn’t have much to say beyond “look how cool I am for not doing what you expect.” He addresses the audience directly in order to say this, which gets annoying very quickly.
Anne Harris contributed “Still Life with Boobs,” which I think is my favorite story so far, although like the others I wouldn’t consider it sci fi or fantasy. It is Cronenbergian body-horror surrounding mid-life crises over sex and identity, done with wit, charm, and feminist consciousness. Unlike the others, in which it seems the protagonist is pretty well doomed to stay what they are throughout, it has a bit of a character arc and an opportunity for agency.
Next up is “Identity Theft,” a runner-up for Best Novella by Canadian writer Robert J. Sawyer, which is far and away my favorite story up to this point, and is the first that is undeniably science fiction. Set on a Mars colony, it is a piece of hardboiled detective fiction that deals with replicants, making copies of people’s minds, and murder. At first I was a tad critical of how far Sawyer went with over-the-top violence and cynicism, but every detail of what is described fits neatly into the puzzle, and I’m now sold on him as a great writer of detective fiction. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex Lomax has had follow-up stories.
“My Mother Dancing” by Nancy Kress was also short-listed for Best Short Story, and it is undeniably a science fiction story by any definition. Loosely about a deep-space mission to follow up on terraforming operations, it manages to intelligently consider questions of philosophical dogmatism, existentialism, and humanity’s efforts to displace or become God. I didn’t actually enjoy reading it all that much, not least because of an invented pronoun system that reminded me a bit too much of Timothy Leary, but I suspect that it’s something that will keep me mulling over its ideas for some time to come, unlike many (most?) of the other stories in this volume.
There is a brief excerpt from the novel “Camouflage” by Joe Haldeman which demonstrates why Haldeman was still a professional writer in an age when little money was coming out of publishers for science fiction. It is very much the sort of thing people read on airplanes – all style, no substance. The excerpt seems to have been selected by a marketing committee to draw in the suckers.
Kelly Link (she of “Magic for Beginners”) also won in the “Best Novelette” category for “The Faerie Handbag.” I’m not really sure what a “novelette” is, but apparently it’s a long-ish short story shorter than a novella. I liked this one a bit better, though it also seems intended for a YA audience. It’s a bit more down-beat, but still loosely a modern fairy tale, as the title suggests. It’s about a girl with a crazy grandma who thinks a whole European village is hiding in her handbag…except there’s evidence to show that she’s not so crazy, after all. It might not be sci fi (no technology is central to the story), but even accepting the vagueness of the concept of “fantasy,” this one has more qualifications than most. Grandma is certainly an “extraordinary character” by any measure.
The runner-up novelette is by James Patrick Kelly, titled “Men Are Trouble,” and I am pretty safe in saying that it is hands-down my favorite piece in this collection. I was slightly disappointed to see another hardboiled detective piece after “Identity Theft,” but this is writing on a whole other level. The intro compares it to Chandler, surely one of its inspirations, but it is far more subtle and carefully plotted than a Chandler novel. It also draws from Clarke – specifically the Overlords from Childhood’s End, but here they are shorter in stature and far less infallibly acting for the Ultimate Good of Humanity. In fact, they seem downright devious and untrustworthy, though maybe they are just inscrutable. Anyway, the premise is that these super-beings have “disappeared” all the men on the planet, and our heroine investigates a plot to (possibly) reintroduce Y-chromosomes despite them. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for more Kelly to read in the future.
The final work of fiction is a story by Harlan Ellison, who in the year 2006 was inducted as a Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Before I discuss that, however, I have to talk about the penultimate piece of fiction, which is the introduction to this work written by Barry N. Malzberg. Ellison was probably one of sci fi’s least likeable and liked individuals, a man who went out of his way to insult everyone, was notoriously hard to work with, and notoriously used whatever power he had to cow and intimidate anyone with less. In Malzberg’s telling, however, he was a lovely person, who just happened to speak truth to power, and insulted only the “right people.” Apparently, even at this late date, Ellison could still find sycophants, if not actual friends.
The real Ellison is very much on display, however, in “The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie,” which, by the way, is in no way a work of science fiction or fantasy. It is an expose, through the eyes of a man who made good money working in Hollywood, of the Hollywood of the 1960s. It is vicious and tragic, although to its credit it also must be said that it is remarkably accurate in terms of production and publicity details, and also that it is very well written. The moment where Ellison truly takes off the mask is in his fantasy-description of his protagonist beating and mutilating a muscle-bound “beach bum,” despite being himself a “pigeon-weight” in defense of a woman’s honor (despite the fact said protagonist is in the process of ruining said woman’s life). It’s notable that Harlan Ellison was a tiny man, in no way capable in real life of winning a physical fight fairly. It seems odd to reprint such a no-longer-timely story, but I suppose it was intended to exemplify his career, more than the state of his then-current writing.
Most, though not all, of the nonfiction selections in this volume are state-of-the-industry snapshots understandably concerned about the direction publishing is moving, the difficulty in finding audiences for genre work, and most especially concern about getting paid for doing anything creative in the face of an Internet that expects everything for free. All of this still seems relevant today, and, if anything, the notes of optimism mostly ring hollow, although there are still apparently enough professional works getting published that the SFFWA continues to hand out Nebula awards. It would be pretty ironic if one gets awarded to an AI within the next few years, but also it might seem appropriate if the first such writing award was for work in science fiction.
July 20, 2020
Considering every story with this anthology is a prize winner, they should have read better. Most were either disappointing or inconsequential. The only one that was readable and professional was Identity Theft by Robert Sawyer, which turned out to be a sci-fi detective story. Sci-fi, you can do better.
September 4, 2018
You know, this is the second Nebula Awards Showcase book I've read, and for them getting awards, I haven't been that impressed. There are some good ones, but not much has wowed me.
November 3, 2009
this was so-so. i enjoyed quite a bit of it, but was REALLY let down by the end, and when the that's the feeling you're left with when you walk away...well, that's the feeling you're left with.
i really enjoyed the articles/op-eds on the "state of sci-fi" especially the one by jack mcdevitt.
the stories i did like were "the end of the world as we know it" by dale bailey (which i'd just read in Wastelands Stories of the Apocalypse), "identity theft" by robert j. sawyer, and "men are trouble" by james patrick kelly. i was also quite taken by the excerpt from Camouflageby joe haldeman, and have added that to my "to read" list. the two poems were also quite good, and i don't really go in for poetry that often, especially modern poetry.
i didn't like the overly fantasy-y stories, because i'm not huge on fantasy. just...meh.
and i HATED "still life with boobs." i cannot even believe how much i loathe it. i mean, a NEBULA nomination?!?! really? all i could picture was a bunch of d&d playing, mountain dew drinking, sci-fi nerds in their basements being all excited about this because it mentioned BOOBS. i could see a story like this in the erotica anthologies i used to read, but i really expected better. i mean, in the broadest sense, yes, the story is science fiction in that it could not happen in today's reality. but still.
and i was super disappointed with the end of the anthology, because it closed with a story that was NOT sci-fi. the editor explained his decision in the preamble to the story, but it still annoyed the beejeesus out of me. yeah, it's your book so you can do whatever you want, but it's a sci-fi anthology, so you should really just stick to the sci-fi and not include some hollywood schtick because it's your fave story evar. i understand wanting to share that story with others, but just tell us about the story and where we can find it if we want to, don't put it in your anthology that is on an unrelated topic!
i really enjoyed the articles/op-eds on the "state of sci-fi" especially the one by jack mcdevitt.
the stories i did like were "the end of the world as we know it" by dale bailey (which i'd just read in Wastelands Stories of the Apocalypse), "identity theft" by robert j. sawyer, and "men are trouble" by james patrick kelly. i was also quite taken by the excerpt from Camouflageby joe haldeman, and have added that to my "to read" list. the two poems were also quite good, and i don't really go in for poetry that often, especially modern poetry.
i didn't like the overly fantasy-y stories, because i'm not huge on fantasy. just...meh.
and i HATED "still life with boobs." i cannot even believe how much i loathe it. i mean, a NEBULA nomination?!?! really? all i could picture was a bunch of d&d playing, mountain dew drinking, sci-fi nerds in their basements being all excited about this because it mentioned BOOBS. i could see a story like this in the erotica anthologies i used to read, but i really expected better. i mean, in the broadest sense, yes, the story is science fiction in that it could not happen in today's reality. but still.
and i was super disappointed with the end of the anthology, because it closed with a story that was NOT sci-fi. the editor explained his decision in the preamble to the story, but it still annoyed the beejeesus out of me. yeah, it's your book so you can do whatever you want, but it's a sci-fi anthology, so you should really just stick to the sci-fi and not include some hollywood schtick because it's your fave story evar. i understand wanting to share that story with others, but just tell us about the story and where we can find it if we want to, don't put it in your anthology that is on an unrelated topic!
May 24, 2011
The Science Fiction Writer's of America organization—and the Nebula Award—have been around for more than four decades. The Nebula is awarded each year to honor the best of the best in a particular year's short stories, novellas, novels, poems, etc. It is the premier award given to authors of science fiction and fantasy. The winners are chosen by the members of the SFWA and then published in that year's anthology.
In addition to the winners, this year's book includes essays written by some of the top SF writers about such subjects as the history and future of science fiction and fantasy, a round table discussion, and an essay on Canadian publishing.
Overall, like any anthology, I found stories I liked and others I didn't. Had I picked this off the shelf and looked at the first or second story, it would immediately have been put back, but then I would have missed the ones further in that I did enjoy. The first one made no sense to me, had multiple points of view, sometimes within the same paragraph, which made it difficult to follow. Whose head was I supposed to be in? Unfortunately, I've found this seems to becoming more and more popular in "modern" writing. Sorry, but I don't like it.
However, the later stories were more to my traditional liking and I really did enjoy them, as well as the essays. At the back of the book, there is a listing that shows the Nebula winners from the earliest 1965 to today, a list I find most helpful as I will search out some of the stories I've missed when I have time. I found the interspersion of fiction and non-fiction a nice blend that adds to the appeal of the book overall.
Overall if you are a fan of science fiction, then you should definitely pick up a copy of this book. After all, it is the best of the best for the past year. But as with any anthology, understand that there may be stories you like and others you do not. And that's okay. If we all had the same taste, what a boring world this would be.
October 10, 2011
The Nebula Awards Showcase, a collection put together every year by the SFWA, continues its annoying tradition of creating a title that’s off-by-one, when considering the selections it includes. In other words, this 2007 collection contains award winners and other notable works from 2006. But that’s really just a minor quibble...
The 2007 collection is actually quite strong. Each of the chosen stories truly held their own, and were quite original. “Still Life with Boobs” by Anne Harris was hands down the most strange, bringing back memories of the 1990s song by King Missle called “Detachable Penis”. The other titles were equally well written, though none really fit the classic space opera style you might expect.
In addition, the non-fiction essays this year were also quite good. Unlike prior years, the essayists kept their writing short and to the point, which made them much easier for general public style readers (like me). This was much appreciated.
But the collection ends on a downbeat: the Grand Master award for 2006 went to Harlan Ellison, and for whatever reason, the novella chosen to represent this was a story that contrasted the styles of 1940s and 1960s film. Not science fiction at all. I’ve never been a fan of Ellison, and this selection isn’t likely to make me one either. It’s unfortunate that this appears at the end of the collection, because that means this final feeling is the one I’m left at for the book as a whole, and I have to consciously remind myself that the rest of the book was much better.
So, yeah. Mostly, this was worth reading. 4 of 5 stars.
The 2007 collection is actually quite strong. Each of the chosen stories truly held their own, and were quite original. “Still Life with Boobs” by Anne Harris was hands down the most strange, bringing back memories of the 1990s song by King Missle called “Detachable Penis”. The other titles were equally well written, though none really fit the classic space opera style you might expect.
In addition, the non-fiction essays this year were also quite good. Unlike prior years, the essayists kept their writing short and to the point, which made them much easier for general public style readers (like me). This was much appreciated.
But the collection ends on a downbeat: the Grand Master award for 2006 went to Harlan Ellison, and for whatever reason, the novella chosen to represent this was a story that contrasted the styles of 1940s and 1960s film. Not science fiction at all. I’ve never been a fan of Ellison, and this selection isn’t likely to make me one either. It’s unfortunate that this appears at the end of the collection, because that means this final feeling is the one I’m left at for the book as a whole, and I have to consciously remind myself that the rest of the book was much better.
So, yeah. Mostly, this was worth reading. 4 of 5 stars.
Read
December 17, 2012It disappoints me that this is considered some of the best science fiction and fantasy writing of 2007. While the writing here is a head above what you're going to see filling the pages of Analogue, it's far from being very good. Which isn't to say there aren't some exceptions in this collection of good writing combined with clever ideas. There are. The thing is, it doesn't sustain itself for more than a few pages.
Oh well. There's some interesting stuff here and it was good to dip my toe back into the pool of what's happening with contemporary short science fiction.
Oh well. There's some interesting stuff here and it was good to dip my toe back into the pool of what's happening with contemporary short science fiction.
May 27, 2008
Definitely one of the better books in what is in any event a very good series. A 'Lost' novella by Grand Master Harlan Ellison, and outstanding crossover novella by Robert J. Sawyer, plus outstanding winners by Kelly Link, Carole Emshwiller and Joe Haldeman.
The full review is here. http://scififantasyfiction.suite101.c...
The full review is here. http://scififantasyfiction.suite101.c...
June 6, 2015
Resnick has assembled a nice collection of fiction and non-fiction pieces that serve as a nice time capsule or year book of the state of the field at it was in 2006. Good stories from Robert Sawyer, Nancy Kress, and Kelly Link, though I thought it was a curious choice to include a non-genre novella by Harlan Ellison to celebrate his Grand Master Award.
December 24, 2015
This was just OK. Two stories were about science fiction private eyes in the Blade runner vein. And the Harlan Ellison story was not science fiction at all. It was an alright story but I mainly kept reading it wondering at what point it was going to flip, or something was going to happen to make it Sci Fi.
December 12, 2014
Interesting collection of stories and essays. The bits covering the publishing and SF industry were interesting reads considering the concerns ere from 7 years ago. The stories themselves range from "Still Life with Boobs" humor to the pulpy noir of "Men are Trouble".
April 2, 2008
I loved this collection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy stories. There was not one in the collection that I didn't enjoy. I recommend this to anyone who loves Sci-Fi or Fantasy.
February 13, 2016
I liked the short stories "Identity Theft", "My Mother Dancing", and the "Faery Handbag." Also, the essays on sci fi were interesting.
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August 25, 2011English edition
March 6, 2019
Good science fiction stories from a few years ago. I don't always read thee collections but I probably should. SOme good nonfiction essays are included.
March 20, 2014
Some good stories. Overriding theme seems to be hard boiled detective set in the future.
November 27, 2017
This left me with mixed feelings: some stories I didn't like at all, some were ok.. Loved the last one, though, "the resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie"
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews