Customer Reviews

One Million A.D.

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This is an anthology of six original novellas of the very far future, commissioned by the Science Fiction Book Club, in a departure from their usual reprints-only policy. The authors are all well-known: Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Alastair Reynolds, Charlie Stross, and Greg Egan. Plus a nice introduction by supereditor Gardner Dozois. A stellar lineup!

The opening story, "Good Mountain" by Robert Reed, is set in an old water-world colony with some unusual terraforming adaptations. Reed's writing and characterizations are very fine, but the story has an odd twist ending that undercut its impact, at least for me. But who could resist a railway system where the passengers ride inside giant worms?

Robert Silverberg has a long-standing interest in the far future. His "A Piece of the Great World" is a story of a world recovering from a Long Winter, after a heavy meteorite bombardment. It's set in the world of his novels _At Winter's End_ and _The New Springtime_. As you'd expect, Silverberg's writing is polished and professional. This isn't one of his best stories, though it has some nice moments, and some gorgeous images. Silverberg fans won't go away unhappy.

Nancy Kress has clone-sisters, a galaxy-spanning quantum AI and clashing branes in her far-future "Mirror Image". One clone-sister is convicted of an awful crime, and sentenced to life on a prison planet. Her sisters try to rescue her, and solve the mystery of who really dunnit. Fine world-building and a good story.

Alastair Reynold's clever, colorful and very fast-moving "Thousandth Night" takes us to 2,000,000 AD, for a family reunion of the clone-line of Abigail Gentian, a noted star-traveler who picked an unusual (but effective) way to "double the pleasure, double the fun!", carried to the eighth power. But the reunion turns into a murder-mystery, and the fate of the Galaxy is in the balance! Classic Reynolds, not to be missed.

Charles Stross's "Missile Gap" is a major new story. It's Yet Another Stross replay of the Cold War, set on a Very Big Dumb Object.... I can't say much more without spoiling the fun (which has a dismal outcome, for us Old Humans), except to say that "Missile Gap" will leave you scratching your head, wondering what the hell really happened. Who was that CIA 'man'? Denizens of rec.arts.sf.science will see the results of Charlie's past inquiries about ekranoplans. Stross is an astonishingly inventive author who's giving staid old SF some well-needed kicks in the pants. Stories like this are why I keep reading this stuff. "Missile Gap" is worth buying the book for.

The windup story is "Riding the Crocodile" by Greg Egan, who hasn't been writing much SF lately, more's the pity. And certainly not because he's forgotten how: this is a typically dazzling Egan story, and if it's not quite up with his very best, it's still very, very good. With such grace notes as the festival planet Tassef, where the Listening Party had proved so popular that the authorities "imposed a thousand-year limit on their presence, if they wished to remain embodied without adopting local citizenship..."

This is the strongest original-story anthology I've read in awhile. Recommended -- though, as you'll see below, YMMV.

Review copyright 2006 by Peter D. Tillman
First published at SF Site

I'm sad I left this on my shelf so long before reading it, this is one of the strongest collections I've read and really showcases the strengths of the novella, a form I particularly love but doesn't appear enough in the short fiction magazines.

The conceit of each of the stories in the collection is the far far future, a relatively recent idea as the editor points out in the foreward. What we want from this is a sense of true difference, even humans at that point should be incredibly alien.

Though all stories are good, there are some better and some worse. Robert Reed's story though truly alien with the setup of an earth undergoing total tectonic collision and giant worms providing transport was perhaps the least strong. Charles Stross' story though good was the least alien, transporting cold war era earth to the future on a huge discworld. I thought the Kress story about the clone sisters was both sufficiently alien and sufficiently strong. The Alistair Reynolds story was also top-notch in portraying betrayal amongst an immortal clone family in a post-scarcity far future, a future where they gather together every 200,000 years and it is nothing for one of them to spend thousands of years preparing the venue. The Silverberg and Egan story fall in the middle, both good stories and reasonably alien in their point of view of uplifted species and humans in another apparently post-scarcity human/computer hybrid future respectively.

This book really should be in print and offered to a mass audience.

Bought this book to read a story by Alastair Reynolds. I enjoyed the story and the book was reasonably priced. The condition and delivery were as promised. I was pleased with this purchase.

I picked up this collection because I wanted to read "Thousandth Night" by Alastair Reynolds before I read his novel HOUSE OF SUNS, which takes place in the same universe. I had already read "Good Mountain" and "Riding the Crocodile" which are reprinted in "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection".

I'll just make a few minor additions to what's already been said here:

"Good Mountain" is by a long distance the weirdest contribution to this volume. In it, we join a man on a train ride through hell, an attempt to escape a planetary disaster in progress. It reads initially like bizarre fantasy, but what *might* be a scientific explanation slowly emerges.

SF stories often involve present-day humans uncovering ancient alien ruins and artifacts. Less often, we see stories of future humans uncovering artifacts from present-day humanity. (Quoth Charlton Heston: "God damn you to Hell!") "A Piece of the Great World" is a sort of love story/travelogue that has far future uplifted simians uncovering earthly artifacts that post-date humanity.

Nancy Kress is a talented SF author, but her novella "Mirror Image," is probably the least interesting piece in this volume.

Reynolds' "Thousandth Night" features an opulent far-future setting vaguely reminiscent of John C. Wright's GOLDEN AGE (minus the strange cognitive stuff and the classical mythology). It introduces the characters Campion and Purslane who are also the protagonists of the later novel HOUSE OF SUNS. The pair realize that something fishy is going on at their family reunion, and eventually find that the suspicious activity involves not only murder but also a galaxy-spanning conspiracy. It's more a preliminary sketch for HOUSE OF SUNS than a prequel.

In Charles Stross' "Missile Gap," he displays both his familiar satirical touch and his obsession with spies, secretive bureaucracies, and bizarre, evil conspiracies that go way deeper than virtually anybody realizes. Like much of Stross' work, this is more a clever exercise than a satisfying story. And it really doesn't belong in this volume; Stross cheated.

Greg Egan's "Riding the Crocodile" begins with the line, "In their ten thousand, three hundred and ninth year of marriage, Leila and Jasim began contemplating death." They undertake a final adventure, attempting to contact "the Aloof", an alien species true to its name. I'm not a big fan of Egan's, but this one's pretty good.

I wouldn't pick this collection over one of the "best of" volumes that Dozois edits each year, but it's still a shame that it's not available in paperback.

I read mostly science fiction short stories, and I found this collection of all new novellas to be one of the most enjoyable I've encountered. Each of the 6 stories is a glimpse into a semi-plausible far future with compelling characters and environments and engaging storylines. Apparently it's not for everyone, but if you've enjoyed work by any of the authors - Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, and Greg Egan - they're at the top of their game here. (Though I would note that Charles Stross's story is atypical of his style - if you like his scattershot techno-crazy stories you might not like this one; it's actually too far in the future to contain any GNU/Linux in-jokes)

"What will humanity be doing in the year 1,000,000 A.D.?"

That's the question Gardner Dozois asked each of the authors in this collection. All told, this book is a hit, with only a scant few stories that aren't highly fulfilling. There are some definite stand-outs, as well, that make reading the whole thing worthwhile.

Robert Silverberg, Robert Reed, Nancy Kress, Alistair Reynolds, Charles Stross, and Greg Egan, edited by Garden Dozois should be an instant formula for greatness, but it isn't.
None of the stories (novellas, really) in this collection is up to par for these authors. The concept - describe life in the year 1,000,000 AD - sounded intriguing.
None of the stories are intriguing. They are boring and disappointing. I found myself skimming through whole paragraphs, trying to find something to justify the price of a hardcover. I failed to find it.
With a reading speed approaching 2000 words per minute, I'd like the books I buy to give me some entertainment, if only for an hour. This one didn't.