Eclipse One: New Science Fiction And Fantasy (v. 1) (Paperback)

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
An eclipse is a rare and unusual event, when the world is transformed and the sky becomes a dark eldritch thing. It's a time when anything could happen, when any kind of story just might be true. That sense of the strange and wonderful guides Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, the first volume in an exciting new annual anthology series edited by acclaimed anthologist Jonathan Strahan.
Set to become a major event on the science fiction and fantasy calendar,Eclipse: New Science Fiction and Fantasy gathers together new science fiction and fantasy stories by the best writers working today. You can see that in Eclipse 1, which features extraordinary tales by Peter S. Beagle, Jack Dann & Paul Brandon, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Eileen Gunn, Gwyneth Jones, Ellen Klages, Maureen F. McHugh, Garth Nix, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling and Ysabeau S. Wilce.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597801178
• ISBN-13: 978-1597801171
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #691,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #12 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Beagle, Peter
  #19 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Sterling, Bruce
  #55 in	Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( N ) > Nix, Garth

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So - So reading..., March 25, 2008

By	J. D. Mason (Stillwater, OK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am more of a fan of "hard" science fiction, but bought this kind of on a whim. It wasn't really for me. I'm willing to take a risk on anthologies because if a writer's style or whatever doesn't grab me, I can just go to the next story. The problem with this book was that most of the stories didn't work for me. Make sure you are familiar with a few of the writers before you buy this, if you like their work I'm sure you will like the book. Oh well, live and learn...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, July 4, 2008

By	Blue Tyson "- http://freesf.blogspot.com" - See all my reviews

The start of an original anthology series, but not a good one. Not bad, just pretty average at 3.23. However, there are some highlights, with three good stories from Duncan, Nix and Dowling.

Some others were selected for Year's Best Fantasy type collections, too. That points out that this is basically a fantasy anthology. The editor invokes the anthology series of Terry Carr (Universe) and Damon Knight (Orbit) as role models to go by. Whether any of them produced a volume of their series with as little SF as this one? Don't know having never read them all, or not likely to, but seems unlikely in Carr's case from the few of those I have seen.

As far as fantasy goes, this tends definitely to the more mundane or ironic, in general, and those with more mainstream genre fantasy interests might not find much of interest here. Nix and the Dann/Brandon satirical type story perhaps.

An example of this is Shepard's story about a hopefuly screenwriter's relationship with a producer's Russian mistress - just the odd passing line mentioning something that was maybe supernatural in her background. Blink and you could miss most of it.

Horror fans, particuarly if they like Dowling's Dan the investigator of monsters of the human psychopath type variety should be happy with his work.

Eclipse 1 : Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse - Andy Duncan
Eclipse 1 : Bad Luck Trouble Death and Vampire Sex - Garth Nix
Eclipse 1 : The Last and Only or Mr Moscowitz Becomes French - Peter S. Beagle
Eclipse 1 : The Lost Boy A Reporter At Large - Maureen F. McHugh
Eclipse 1 : The Drowned Life - Jeffrey Ford
Eclipse 1 : Toother - Terry Dowling
Eclipse 1 : Up the Fire Road - Eileen Gunn
Eclipse 1 : In The Forest Of The Queen - Gwyneth Jones
Eclipse 1 : Quartermaster Returns - Ysabeau Wilce
Eclipse 1 : Electric Rains - Kathleen Ann Goonan
Eclipse 1 : She-Creatures - Margo Lanagan
Eclipse 1 : The Transformation of Targ - Jack Dann and Paul Brandon
Eclipse 1 : Mrs Zeno's Paradox - Ellen Klages
Eclipse 1 : The Lustration - Bruce Sterling
Eclipse 1 : Larissa Miusov - Lucius Shepard

Jaysus chook pose.

4 out of 5


"'Oh yeah,' I said. I'd forgotten I was a wizard too, a green wizard, not a somewhat sorcerous private eye with a proclivity for bizarre sex and firearms."

4 out of 5


Going fairy froggy.

3 out of 5


Dissociative Disorder.

3 out of 5


Octopus advice maybe dodgy.

3 out of 5


Forced in denture.

4 out of 5


Bigfoot baby makes talk show host disappear!

3 out of 5


Frog communion death.

3 out of 5


Undead requisition.

3 out of 5


Dark load of.

2.5 out of 5


Witchy t1ts.

3 out of 5


Evil overlord mellower.

3.5 out of 5


Microbrownie limit.

3 out of 5


"You've secretly discussed artificial intelligence for forty thousand years?"Thirty thousand," the metaphysician admitted. "Unfortunately, it took us ten thousand years to admit that the system's behavior had some unaccountable aspects."

3 out of 5

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing gleanings, February 21, 2008

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

After decades of reading science fiction anthologies, this is the first I've seen from an editor in Perth Australia. The stories are drawn from all over the world. With a few set in Australia, which American or British readers might not typically encounter.

But the overall impression is disappointing. To be sure, the editor states that he includes both science fiction and fantasy; as ecumenical as can be. However, there was nothing in any of the selections that seemed memorable to me. One example was a story set in the near future [2014 or so], in the aftermath of dirty bombs exploding in an American city. Where a kid became separated from his family and then developed an amensia, totally forgetting them. Banal and boring. What did the editor see in this tripe?

The most interesting was a horror-type scenario of grave robbers and teeth robbers, in escapades spanning decades. It has some evocations of the classic "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" by Robert Bloch. Alas, it fell far short in drama. Granted, it may be unfair to compare a story with Bloch's timeless tale, but I am comparing to the best.

Yes, the authors of this book include some first rank writers, like Bruce Sterling and Lucius Shepard. But their contributions might well disappoint their fans.