The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois (Editor), Judith Moffett (Contributor), Bruce Sterling (Contributor)

Contents
ix • Summation: 1989 • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • Tiny Tango • [The Ragged World] • (1989) • novella by Judith Moffett
40 • Out of Copyright • (1989) • shortstory by Charles Sheffield
56 • For I Have Touched the Sky • [Kirinyaga • 3] • (1989) • novelette by Mike Resnick
78 • Alphas • (1989) • novelette by Gregory Benford
109 • At the Rialto • (1989) • novelette by Connie Willis
129 • Skin Deep • (1989) • shortstory by Kathe Koja
137 • The Egg • (1989) • novella by Steven Popkes
174 • Tales from the Venia Woods • [Roma Eterna] • (1989) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg
190 • Visiting the Dead • (1989) • shortstory by William King
202 • Dori Bangs • (1989) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling
215 • The Ends of the Earth • (1989) • novella by Lucius Shepard
267 • The Price of Oranges • (1989) • novelette by Nancy Kress
289 • Lottery Night • (1989) • novelette by S. P. Somtow
310 • A Deeper Sea • (1989) • novella by Alexander Jablokov
352 • The Edge of the World • (1989) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick
366 • Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man • (1989) • novelette by Megan Lindholm
385 • The Third Sex • (1989) • shortstory by Alan Brennert
402 • Winter on the Belle Fourche • (1989) • shortstory by Neal Barrett, Jr.
418 • Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another • [Time Gate] • (1989) • novelette by Robert Silverberg
452 • Relationships • (1989) • shortstory by Robert Sampson
459 • Just Another Perfect Day • (1989) • shortstory by John Varley
472 • The Loch Moose Monster • [Mirabile] • (1989) • novelette by Janet Kagan
504 • The Magic Bullet • (1989) • novelette by Brian Stableford
521 • The Odd Old Bird • [Doctor Eszterhazy] • (1988) • shortstory by Avram Davidson
530 • Great Work of Time • (1989) • novella by John Crowley
593 • Honorable Mentions: 1989 • essay by Gardner Dozois

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Fiction

598 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1990

About the author

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

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

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually good year, with a lot of 4 & 5-star classics, such as
• Out of Copyright • (1989) • short story by Charles Sheffield: 5-star, fabulous story
• Dori Bangs • (1989) • short story by Bruce Sterling: 4.5 star
• The Edge of the World • (1989) • short story by Michael Swanwick, 4-star, unusual & effective fantasy
• Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man • (1989) • novelette by Robin Hobb: 4+ star, romance in the dept store.
• Winter on the Belle Fourche • (1989) • short story by Neal Barrett, Jr.: 5-star, mountain man meets Emily Dickinson, where it says. Online copy: http://www.revolutionsf.com/fiction/b...
• Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another • [Time Gate] • (1989) • novelette by Robert Silverberg: 5+star, Silverberg's masterwork. Available online.
• The Loch Moose Monster • [Mirabile] • (1989) • novelette by Janet Kagan: 4+ star

Really, not a weak story in the bunch (if memory serves), though it's been awhile. More of these are online now. I'll come back sometime to add them,

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's 1989 and the 80's are still holding on to dear life. The unreadable stories are still here. The barely sci-fi as well. However if you are brave/foolish/patient enough you will find a few gems. Actually a larger than usual number of stories are above average here. It's the huge number of the unreadables that are bringing the rating down however.

Story breakdown:

- Tiny Tango • novella by Judith Moffett: 4*
This is one of the most surprising and daring stories I have ever read. Especially how this originates from 1989. It deals with the future of the HIV virus and how people adapt to it, but for good measure it also throws in some transsexualism and some semi-post-apocalyptic setting.

- Out of Copyright • short story by Charles Sheffield: 3*
Over in the Jovian system, explorers use clones of geniuses from the past to accomplish various engineering feats. Just when the story turns interesting it ends...

- For I Have Touched the Sky • novelette by Mike Resnick: 4*
Another of Resnick's very attractive Kirinyaga stories. I just love the transmuted African setting on a remote planet. In this one a girl tries to learn how to read by 'stealing secrets' from the village's witch doctor. Very Prometheus-like.

- Alphas • novelette by Gregory Benford: 4*
A near-future astronaut gets thrown by some aliens through a tunnel passing right through Venus. Interesting. Never heard of that before. Even with Benford's difficult style.

- At the Rialto • novelette by Connie Willis: 1*
Incomprehensible as usual and non-sci-fi as usual. Did I not add this author to my 'avoid' list?

- Skin Deep • short story by Kathe Koja: 1*
I tried starting this three times. Unable to make it past the third page.

- The Egg • novella by Steven Popkes: 1*
No idea just what the blazes is going on here either. Unreadable.

- Tales from the Venia Woods • short story by Robert Silverberg: 4*
This one is set in Silverberg's 'Eternal Roma' alternate universe, with Rome continuing to rule the world. A brother-sister pair embark on an adventure to meet a relative of an old emperor.

- Visiting the Dead • short story by William King: 2*
At the limit of readability, a dude tries to talk to a clone of a dead relative.

- Dori Bangs • short story by Bruce Sterling: 1*
Some alternate history thingy discussing records in the 60's. Bad idea, bad execution.

- The Ends of the Earth • novella by Lucius Shepard: 0*
Oh no, I'm not falling for another Shepard story

- The Price of Oranges • novelette by Nancy Kress: 1*
Bunch of people actually discuss the price of oranges. Good one!

- Lottery Night • novelette by S. P. Somtow: 1*
Literally lottery night. Some folks hang around waiting for lottery results.

- A Deeper Sea • novella by Alexander Jablokov: 2*
If earlier I felt that a story ended had ended too soon, this drags on for too long. Some kind of cold war between dolphins and whales on the moons of Jupiter mirrors the cold war between various Earth nations. Too much focus on Earth unfortunately.

- The Edge of the World • short story by Michael Swanwick: 3*
Interesting alternate history set-up. The Earth simply "ends" with a cliff into nothingness and a few young characters attempt to climb down a stairwell along the cliff. But that's about it.

- Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man • novelette by Megan Lindholm: 4*
Urban fantasy romance. Brilliantly written. Down on her luck young woman falls in love with mysteriously disappearing magician.

- The Third Sex • short story by Alan Brennert: 4*
Hard to classify this as sci-fi. Even urban fantasy. Person on a "self-searching" journey across the States. But for this to have come out dealing with transsexuals in 1989 (I have to point out again) is astonishing.

- Winter on the Belle Fourche • short story by Neal Barrett, Jr.: 3*
More alternate history. Emily Dickinson is wandering the wild west and guarded by some cowboy/hero. Nicely written, but ultimately average.

- Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another • novelette by Robert Silverberg: 2*
Uh-oh. A Silverberg dud. And weirdly, the third story in this anthology to feature cloning or some sort of bringing back into the present of long-dead people from the past.

- Relationships • short story by Robert Sampson: 2*
Just like the previous story, this also is very similar to another story in this anthology. More specifically it's got to do with 'talking to the dead' topic.

- Just Another Perfect Day • short story by John Varley: 2*
Man writing messages to his 'always-forgetting-previous-day' self. Nothing special here.

- The Loch Moose Monster • novelette by Janet Kagan: 1*
Unreadable. Pretty sci-fi-ish as the plot is set on another planet, but that is all I was able to glimpse from the proceedings.

- The Magic Bullet • novelette by Brian Stableford: 2*
Detective story with a small futuristic element.

- The Odd Old Bird • short story by Avram Davidson: 1*
This really is some people discussing an odd bird.

- Great Work of Time • novella by John Crowley: 2*
A time travel / parallel universes novella very reminiscent of Asimov's The End of Eternity with a group of people dedicated to preserving the timelines. However, the style is very slow and confusing. Barely managed to get to the end.

Weighted average: 2.35. Rounding down to a 2.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction continues to be the absolute gold standard for me for good science fiction and the Seventh Annual doesn't diminish this at all. However, I have to admit that compared to the Fifth and Thiry-Fifth which both were one exciting story after another to the point that I "couldn't put them down", some of the stories here were a bit of a slog, Interestingly, Kim Stanley Robinson, who has excellent stories in most of these early volumes, was relegated this year to the honorable mention section.

Two stories that stand out were Mike Resnick's "For I Have Touched the Sky" about a little girl with extraordinary abilities thwarted in her ambitions due to cultural consideration (heartbreaking) and John Crowley's "Great Work of Time" about manipulation of time to extend the endurance of the British Empire (clever and historically interesting though I don't really believe timeline manipulation is possible ). Also, stories by Bruce Sterling and Robert Silverberg, veterans of these books, were standouts.

To reiterate, this series is amongst my very favorite sci-fi reading. This volume does nothing to diminish that (it's great writing), it just wasn't quite as exciting to me as some 0f the others.

[Brendan Newport · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd purchased this in 1990, but although I'm sure I'd read it, darned if I could remember any of the stories.

Nearly 34 years old, but Dozois' 'Summation' referenced the then-fear that the horror inflicted on Salman Rushdie through the publication of The Satanic Verses would see literature, including SF, increasingly subject to self-censorship.

That didn't happen, or at least not in 1990. Fast-forward though another two decades, and science fiction changed, markedly. Self-censorship became the key thread running through the genre. Who you are, rather than what you wrote became the key driver for awards and, not surprisingly, quality plummeted, and kept on plummeting to the depths we know today, a world of insipid virtue-signalling or juvenile space opera 'book 1 or a 10-book cycle' sh3t2.

And so, perhaps inevitably, I gave-up buying science fiction books, with the odd, very rare exception. Fortunately I've an extensive library of novels and short story collections I'd purchased since the 1970s. And most need a re-read.

And so onto Best New SF 4, the British edition of The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventh Annual Collection.

And it was a mixed bag. Yet this huge volume displays in vivid colour just how varied and muti-faceted the genre of science fiction was in 1990 (well 1989, when the stories were first published). It was a Golden Age, with the likes of Silverberg still producing quality work (he had two stories in this collection) whilst a new generation of writers were just starting to make an impression on a publishing industry then in the doldrums.

There are a few duffers. Alphas by Gregory Benford would be best-described as 'hard science fiction' though I'd prefer the term 'rubbish'. Unfortunately its basic premise would be used in one of Benford's Galactic Centre novels, which I'd read after 1990. At The Rialto b Connie Willis was a poor follow-up to the brilliant The Last of the Winnebagos from the previous year. A Deeper Sea by Alexander Jablokov; pretty standard cyberpunk fare. Judith Moffett Tiny Tango? Well, entertaining enough, but it packed too much into too short a space; First Contact, cross-dressing, AIDS, geno-research...a nuclear disaster. Just one theme would have been enough.
The Loch Moose Monster by Janet Kagan was just too 'chummy' and frankly, a little improbable (even for science fiction!)
and
The Odd Old Bird from Avram Davidson was just...dire. So I gave-up with it as I simply didn't enjoy any of what I'd read up to then.

Of the rest, I found a few fabulous stories.

Steven Popkes The Egg is a brilliant, evocative tale that I hope was expanded into a novel.
Lucius Shepard's The End's of The Earth is typical Shepard, and reminded me that we were left only Green Eyes, Life During Wartime and The Jaguar Hunter as his major works.
The Price of Oranges from Nancy Kress is just...sublime.
The Edge of the World from Michael Swanwick reminded me of the cover of an album from the US band, Kansas
Silverbergs first story in the volume, Tales from the Venia Woods is one of those reminders that he really is a perfect storyteller.
Just Another Perfect Day from John Varley is pretty simple, but was surely an inspiration for Christopher Nolan's movie Memento made decades later?

The rest were of a high quality, but three stories really stood out for me.

British writer Brian Stablefords The Magic Bullet is just so different. I can't easily describe it, but it reminded me of P.D. James. There was a potential TV detective drama series lurking in its premise, and I wonder if Stableford thought to pursue that.

S.P. Somtow's Lottery Night is just great fun, and a plot that will stick with the reader.

And finally, the best of the collection, left to the last. John Crowley's stunning novella Great Work of Time. It's simply incandescent & beautifully-written. It bears a resemblance (in basic idea) with Asimov's The End of Eternity but it couldn't otherwise be more different. It's a story that would have foxed me when I was younger; with its Cecil Rhodes and references to history such as the Dreyfus Affair. It helps to have read a bit since school.

Overall though a great collection and a great year.

[H James · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology like this is always going to be a mixed bag, and the passage of 35 years certainly is kinder to some stories than others. The first story, “Tiny Tango”—presumably first because it felt important at the time—is so AIDS‐focused that it retains value only as a historical oddity. “The Third Sex” should feel more relevant now than ever, but its ending is so pat that it feels blithe and repellant. Meanwhile, “Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another” captures the black‐box weirdness of contemporary A.I. so well that it really is probably more potent now than when it was written. “The Price of Oranges” hasn’t aged too poorly, but its kernel is so similar to Stephen King’s (much newer) 11/22/63 that it can’t but seem like a pale version of that.

Interestingly, seven of the twenty‐five stories are not sci‐fi, even interpreting that term loosely. Most have fantastical elements, but at least one (“Winter on the Belle Fourche”) is straight‐up historical fiction and seems to be included just because it’s good.

Other highlights:
“A Deeper Sea” – the hands‐down winner for me (could this be the origin of the hilariously foul‐mouthed dolphins in John Scalzi’s Starter Villain?)
“The Edge of the World” – a forerunner of the New Weird movement
“Tales from the Venia Woods” – a nice mix of puzzling and poignant
“For I Have Touched the Sky” – one of just two stories offering a non‐Eurocentric perspective
“The Loch Moose Monster” – an OK story containing a really fun speculative biotechnology
“Great Work of Time” – the longest and most challenging story but worth the effort

[Jemppu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 to 4 stars. (Notes in the reading updates below).

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars

[York · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: 'Tiny Tango', 'At the Rialto', 'The Loch Moose Monster'.

[Cheryl]

Skipped several in the middle because the intro blurbs said things like "intrigue" and "not for the squeamish." The ones I did read are all pretty darn good. They do tend to be a bit long, though.

January 2022

[Manuel Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As always the summation offered by Gardner Dozois is superb along with the introduction to every story.

Tiny Tango by Judith Moffett: 5
A story about the life of an academic woman going through life with HIV

Out Of Copyright by Charles Sheffield: 5
A competition between 4 teams made up of cloned geniuses that proves that intelligence is not all

For I Have Touched The Sky by Mike Resnick: 5
1st best story of the anthology: A tale of a young girl being oppressed by the traditions and expectations of her society.

Alphas by Gregory Benford: 3
The misfortunes of a human crew sent to chck out an alien construction project in Venus

At The Rialto by Connie Willis: 4
A unique take in Quantum Physics

Skin Deep by Kathe Koja: 4
The story of a love affair between a a man and a blob-like alien

The Egg by Steven Popkes: 4.5
A boy finds a mysterious egg and decided to hatch it with his alien caretaker

Tales From Venia Woods by Robert Silverberg: 5
A story set in the first years of the second Roman republic about how to Germanic children find the last living brother of the Roman Emperor

Visiting The Dead by William King: 4.5
A woman returns to earth to visit a computer simulation of her recently deceased brother with a backdrop of an upcoming Islamic-European war due to religious objections to cloning

Dori Bangs by Bruce Sterling: 5
The tale of a second chance at life for a rock critic Lester Bangs and cartooninst Dori Seda and the ensuing relationship

The Ends Of The Earth by Lucius Shepard: 2
3rd worst story of the anthology: A love triangle involving an ancient Mayan game

The Price Of Oranges by Nancy Kress: 5
3rd best story of the anthology: A man with a time portal (machine?) tries to find a man to cheer up his daughter

Lottery Night by S. P. Somtow: 5
The story of two boys (a local boy and his US friend) that go to the cemetery to get the winning numbers to the Thai lottery

A Deeper Sea by Alexander Jablokov: 4
The downfall and redemptive arc of a Soviet scientist that becomes the dolphin messiah

The Edge Of The World by Michael Swanwick: 4
A trip down the sides of a seeminly bottomless hole undertaken by three children

Silver Lady And The Fortyish Man by Megan Lindholm: 4
A descendant of Merlin tries to court a Sears employee

The Third Sex by Alan Brennert: 5
Honorable Mention: The story of a third sex person and their stumbles through life

Winter On The Belle Fourche by Neal Barrett Jr: 2
2nd worst story of the anthology: The story of a wandering man that saves a woman writer from the winter

Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another by Robert Silverberg: 5
2nd best story of the anthology: The story of a dialogue between Pizarro and Socrates brought about by two researchers working on artificial intelligence technology

Relationships by Robert Sampson: 2
A man holds conversations with his ex-girlfriends

Just Another Perfect Day by John Varley: 5
An overview of a day in the life of an amnesiac man that forgets everything from the previous day after going to bed

The Loch Moose Monster by Janet Kagan: 4
The story of a scientist in charge of keeping the ecosystem of a human colony in check

The Magic Bullet by Brian Stableford: 4
The story of the aftermath of a plot to assasinate a scientist that had discovered a virus that would make women nearly immortal by allowing the cells of their ova to replenish the cells of their bodies

The Odd Old Bird by Avram Davidson: 1
1st worst story of the anthology: Somehthing about a prince trying to trade a live Archaeopteryx for a French painting

Great Work of Time by John Crowley: 5
The story of the rise and fall of a secret society that uses time travel to preserve the British Empire

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Gavgav Doc · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this up at a local library book sale. Didn't really enjoy any of the stories aside from one or two, which ended too quickly for my liking. I would go as far as to say that most of the short stories in this collection could barely be considered science-fiction, and some of them have absolutely nothing to with the genre (I'm looking at you, story about hermaphrodite.) Also, the editing was terrible.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Bill Borre]

"Relationships" by Robert Sampson - Hadley Jackson fears the onset of dementia as the women of his past continually appear before him.

08-05-2015