The Best of Crank! [Hardcover]

Bryan Cholfin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1998

The debut of Crank! stunned the science fiction world with its disregard for obsolete notions of genre fiction, instead insisting on highly individual and imaginative fiction of literary distinction. This volume presents the best from Crank!.

Featuring stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Michael Bishop, Jonathan Lethem, R.A. Lafferty, A.A. Attanasio, Brian Aldiss, Gwyneth Jones, Lisa Tuttle, Robert Devereaux, Karen Joy Fowler, Eliot Fintushel, Carter Scholz.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Looking for a collection of stories that will briskly sweep the cobwebs of tradition out of your science fiction-loving head? This is it. Bryan Cholfin has grabbed the best bits from the pages of his eclectic, intelligent magazine, Crank!, and created an anthology in the edgy tradition of Dangerous Visions. Here you'll find stories by the literary lights of SF and fantasy--Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Bishop, David R. Bunch, Jonathan Lethem, Brian Aldiss, and oh, so many more.

Some of the 17 stories are startling, some hilarious, and some sad, but all meet Cholfin's criterion--they "encourage the growth of a richer, livelier, more interesting and more meaningful literature with space for all the possibilities of tomorrow." And while there are some familiar elements here (like spaceships, strange futures, and aliens), every science fiction device in the book is necessary, used carefully to further a great story, and not just thrown in gratuitously to fit a marketable cover. This outstanding anthology will challenge fans to reach between and beyond established genre definitions. Those who make the leap will find themselves holding a collection of pure gold literary nuggets. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

The 17 stories harvested from the pages of Cholfin's cutting-edge SF zine Crank! provide an excellent survey of today's writers in the field, from the old guard (Ursula K. Le Guin) to the newer and edgier (Jonathan Lethem) and the promising but little known (A.M. Dellamonica). Though the collection is militantly antithematic, there's a noticeable lack of hard science here. Generally, the SF hooks take a back seat to character and plot. In "Moonbender," one of three stories by Lethem, a vendor of disposable ambiatronic puppets and a middlebrow artist drag each other to ruin when they attempt to combine their efforts. "I, Iscariot" by Michael Bishop puts Judas on trial using scripture and a running fictional online commentary. "Nixon in Space" by Rob McCleary posits a world based on the myth of the disgraced president's pathetic efforts to participate in a moonshot. Lisa Tuttle's "Food Man," one of the more inspired stories in the anthology, portrays a teenage girl's eating disorder as an incubus that comes to life out of the food she hides under her bed. Tuttle ingeniously and unexpectedly resolves the tension between food and sex with an ending reminiscent of insect mating ritual. Also notable, not least for its originality and its brilliant playfulness of language, is Eliot Fintushel's "Santacide." Other name authors represented in this fine sampling of the field include A.A. Attanasio and Gene Wolfe (whose entries, not surprisingly, tend more toward fantasy than SF), as well as Brian Aldiss, R.A. Lafferty and David R. Bunch.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312867409
• ISBN-13: 978-0312867409
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,906,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed "Antigeneric" Bag, May 8, 2001

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Crank! (Paperback)

I should preface this by saying I'm only a dabbler in science fiction, and had never heard of Crank prior to reading this anthology. However, I'm always interested in trying out fiction that's attempting to push the edges of genre. Of course, it should be noted that in his somewhat whiny and facile introduction, editor Cholfin rails against the concept of genre (which I'm actually rather in agreement with) and presents this anthology as "a deliberately antigenric selection" of stories. In any event, the 17 stories range from a few pages to 40+ pages in length and, as with any anthology, vary considerably in quality. Like many short stories, many are built upon gimmicks--some of which work, and some of which don't. Lisa Tuttle's ""Food Man," about the intertwining of anorexia, food, and sex is a gem, easily the best of the stories. "The Matter of Seggri." Ursula Le Guin's description of a world where women live normally and men are raised as breeders, explores many of the gender themes her novels do, and with equal success. Robert Devereaux's tale about Tinkerbell and her human-sized boyfriend is another notable contribution, albeit a little cutesy. With his two and half stories here, Jonathan Lethem continues to befuddle me. I loved his books Motherless Brooklyn and Gun, With Occasional Music and hated Amnesia Moon. Similarly I quite liked his story "Mood Bender," and very much didn't like his story "The Happy Prince," or his cowritten piece, "Receding Horizon." In the end, I can't say I feel reading this "Best of" was time well spent, but I'm sure others with different tastes will find much to enjoy within.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Makes one Cranky!, June 8, 2001

By 

Rafik "RafikNY" (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best of Crank! (Paperback)

I purchased the collected stories of the "Best of Crank" based upon an early... review from Mike Swanwick: "CRANK! has been, from its inception, a scream against the dark night of genre and a haven for chimeric literary forms and writers who take chances. Here are stories that dance right on the edge of the abyss of the Unsayable. Some fall over, while others spread unexpected wings and fly. Here are the works that are shaping the future of science fiction."

Sounds exicting right? True, one of the stories was rather compelling, "Food Man" by Lisa Tuttle, was interesting. The rest of the stories I just could not get into.

I agree with T.Ross' most intelligent and excellent review (who was much kinder in his/her review). In sum, The Best of Crank is a little too cute for my taste. Agreeing with T.Ross, I too feel that the time reading this book could have been better spent. Others however might enjoy these works that cater to a certain type of personal preference. Maybe I'll come back to this collection of stories with a new set of eyes in the future.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yummy anthology just keeps cranking!, November 20, 1998

By 

Robert Devereaux (Fort Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Crank! (Hardcover)

It's my privilege to have kicked off the very first issue of CRANK! with my story "Clap If You Believe," which also has the honor of being included among editor Bryan Cholfin's choices for this "best of" compilation. This journal deserves all the accolades it has received, and THE BEST OF CRANK! is an anthology that moves from strength to strength. Buy it and enjoy!