Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction

Mars #1 - The Empress of Mars

by Jonathan Strahan, Kage Baker (Contributor), Walter Jon Williams (Contributor)

Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction. "These are good times for the novella", says editor Jonathan Strahan, offering nine of these "marvels of compression". From a distant future where both beer and rebellion brew in a tavern on Mars to an alternate WWII—where the cutting-edge science is quantum biology, and from a haunting story of a bizarre prison without guards or rules to a Bradbury-esque tale of small-town America, Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction is a landmark collection of some of the finest short work in science fiction, a must-have collection for sf readers.

Contents:
* Introduction (Best Short Novels: 2004) (2004) • essay by Jonathan Strahan
* The Empress of Mars [Mars] (2003) / novella by Kage Baker: a distant future where both beer and rebellion brew in a tavern on Mars.
* The Green Leopard Plague [College of Mystery] (2003) / novella by Walter Jon Williams: tells of a philosopher who develops a way to make human skin photosynthetic-ending starvation as a tool of oppression. But his breakthrough has unforeseen repercussions.
* Springdale Town (2003) / novella by Robert Freeman Wexler: Bradbury-esque tale of small-town America.
* The Swastika Bomb (2003) / novella by John Meaney
* Jailwise (2003) / novella by Lucius Shepard: haunting story of a bizarre prison without guards or rules.
* Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (2003) / novella by Connie Willis: the ultimate global warming effect: a freak snowstorm that effectively shuts down North America.
* Greetings (2003) / novella by Terry Bisson
* Awake in the Night (2003) / novella by John C. Wright: life in a distant future after the sun has gone out and true humans are confined to a single giant pyramid.
* Off on a Starship (2003) / novella by William Barton: a sf-loving teen travels on-an automated probe that carries him across space to a world where he's all alone, except for a robot that becomes increasingly female.


Also published titled: Best Short Novels: 2004 (May2004)
Also published titled: The Best Short Science Fiction Novels of the Year (Jan2006)
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Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Family Law, Science Fiction Fantasy

552 pages, Paperback

First published April 8, 2003

Reviews

[Janine Southard · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stories were so disparate that any reader is almost guaranteed to think some are brilliant and some are utterly worthless. (Depending on your tastes, however, your ordering may differ.)

As far as I was concerned, here's a run down:

Kage Baker, "The Empress of Mars" - Lovely. My favorite in the collection. Very classic in its themes, and, y'know, distaste for the English.

Walter Jon Williams, "The Green Leopard Plague" - Unreadable. Boring characters, jumpy, largely annoying.

Robert Freeman Wexler, "In Springdale Town" - Cute footnotes in the academic style, but the story part felt like a personal essay rather than a story. If what you really want it academic footnotes in the middle of a story, may I recommend the Stargate: Atlantis fanfiction "Written By the Victors"?

John Meany, "The Swastika Bomb" - No comments since I didn't get past the second page. It may have suffered in my estimation by being forced to follow "Green Leopard" and "Springdale".

Lucius Shepard, "Jailwise" - Interestingly literary. Existential life-in-jail.

Connie Willis, "Just Like the Ones We used to Know" - Yay! Connie Willis. Kind of like Love, Actually in the fact that it is a Christmas story that follows a bunch of mostly unrelated characters going through their everyday lives. Love, Actually is, sadly, one of my least favorite Christmas movies ever. Of course, Willis is brilliant, which saves this story and makes it the second or third best in the collection.

Terry Bisson, "Greetings" - The other second or third best in the collection. Creepy mortality creeps up on older people who aren't so old after all. See, "The Lottery."

Those last two - Yeah, I got a few pages into each, then gave up and went to watch bad movies on Netflix. (Oh, look! I could watch The Shadow or I could read this next novella.)

All in all, more than half of this anthology wasn't for me. And the parts that were felt a little...old school. Which, hey, more power to people still writing old school science fiction. Just, y'know, maybe they should self-select into their own anthology so that the wide range of styles doesn't seem so jarring?

[Earl Truss · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nine novellas. I read six of them because the others are in books I will read in the future. Of these I somewhat liked three - The Swastika Bomb, Jailwise and Just Like the Ones We Used to Know. Unfortunately the third had a disappointing ending although the concept was promising.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do I rate so many anthologies, so high on my list? Because it's my favorite thing to read. I love science fiction, short fiction. Does that make it biased? Of course. Does that make it an illegitimate attempt to get you to read this book? I doubt it. Because of the editor, the contributors & the caliber of their work. I mean Connie Willis, Lucius Shepard, Kage Baker, Terry Bisson... These are amazing authors & their stories in this anthology, hold the same high standard they always put into the rest of their work. If anything, I'm not praising this book enough. Nine novellas, that are extraordinary, intriguing examples of the genre. You might not agree with my rating, but it's hard to argue that this is an awesome collection of stories. Well... only if your into this sort of thing. I hope your only bothering to read this, if you are anyways. Otherwise, I hope you become a fan of the genre very soon.




:)