Customer Reviews

Science Fiction: The Best of 2001 (Science Fiction: The Best of ... (Quality))

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had high hopes for "Science Fiction: The Best of 2001," the anthology edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber. The main reason I was so enthused about the book was due to the presence of science fiction legend Silverberg as co-editor; I figured, "This guy knows sci-fi." Well, I was not disappointed. "2001" is a marvelous collection of 11 tales about humans, extraterrestrials, robots, and/or genetically engineered creatures.

My favorite tales in the anthology are as follows: Michael Blumlein's "Know How, Can Do," told in the first-person by a genetically engineered "chimeric life form"; Richard Wadholm's "From Here You Can See the Sunquists," about a couple's visit to a town that is enveloped by a temporal anomaly; Robin Wayne Bailey's "Keepers of Earth," the story of a devastated earth, abandoned by humanity and populated by robots; Michael Swanwick's "The Dog Said Bow-Wow," in which a genetically engineered superdog has an adventure in a future London; Nancy Kress's "And No Such Things Grow Here," which opens with the protagonist learning that her sister has been arrested for GMFA (Genetic Modification Felony Actions); and Dan Simmons's "On K2 with Kanakaredes," the rather touching story of an interspecies mountain climbing expedition.

But the best story in the collection, in my opinion, is Jim Grimsley's haunting "Into Greenwood." This tale takes place on a planet where neutered, genetically altered humans serve as symbionts for a race of intelligent trees. "Into Greenwood" is a superb blend of a compelling sci-fi concept, great character development, and wonderful descriptive writing. I recommend "Science Fiction: The Best of 2001" both for pleasure reading and as a classroom literature text.

A short introduction here about Year's Bests and mentioning they hope there was room for a third. There was for me, as some different stories here, and a rather good volume indeed to start, averaging 3.82.

Starts and finishes with the best stories with Kelly's Undone, and Dan Simmons' story of a really big mountain.

SF Best of 2001 : Undone - James Patrick Kelly
SF Best of 2001 : Know How Can Do - Michael Blumlein
SF Best of 2001 : From Here You Can See the Sunquists - Richard Wadholm
SF Best of 2001 : Keepers of Earth - Robin Wayne Bailey
SF Best of 2001 : Anomalies - Gregory Benford
SF Best of 2001 : One of Her Paths - Ian Watson
SF Best of 2001 : The Dog Said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
SF Best of 2001 : And No Such Things Grow Here - Nancy Kress
SF Best of 2001 : Sun-Cloud - Stephen Baxter
SF Best of 2001 : Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley
SF Best of 2001 : On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons

Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5


Madam I'm Adam, and smart for a worm, too.

4 out of 5


Self-referential trip.

3 out of 5


Alpha not a tractor.

3.5 out of 5


Error observation religion.

4 out of 5


Q-Space solo separation Tee-Cee colony baby avatar Voice.

4 out of 5


Canine anti-tech adventures.

4 out of 5


The seeds of crime bear fitter fruit.

4 out of 5


Corpuscle calling.

3.5 out of 5


Alien family fortunes.

3 out of 5


On a really big mountain, a human and an alien mountaineer come to an understanding.

4.5 out of 5




4.5 out of 5

As with all yearly compilations, this book contains the best and the worst of 2001 Science Fiction. I found four stories in the book to be great the remaining stories were boring. One plus for the book, however, is that it did expose me to several new authors. I recommend browsing the stories before purchasing.

In this case, to those who wait for the Hartwell and Dozois collections, both coming out in the summer. Yeah, this one came out early in the year - but doesn't that make you stop to wonder, right there? How can Silverberg and Haber possibly have time to thoroughly review the field, make well-considered best-story choices, put the book together, copyedit, publish, and have it on shelves in the first couple of months of the year? They can't, or at least they didn't here. Enormous typeface cheats the reader out of the number of stories one would expect from a volume of this thickness and price. Not to mention that my (admittedly brief) perusal of the contents did not impress me. These stories are not *bad*, but they are not particularly outstanding and seem about average for what you'd get if you picked up any random month's top 3 or 4 sf magazines - and the stories are all you get; no review of the year in sf the way you get from Dozois, and no strong feeling of consistency like you get from Hartwell. Use the money to buy copies of the best sf collections of years past - Dozois or Hartwell or, going back further, Carr or Wollheim.

For less than eight dollars--and way ahead of the competition--Silverberg has pulled together a terrific best of the year collection.

Its been a while since i last picked up an SF compilation. Im thoroughly pained by the quality of this book. Though i have yet to finish it, completed only stories 1 - 5... i realised that they are pretty much a rehash of old themes

- creation
- adam and eve
- looking back at the past... travelling there then accidentally changing it... urgh... (how star trekky can u be)
- the purpose of life from the eyes of a robot... (asimov!)

i mean, come on? are there no more original stories... im still looking for the class that was so apparent from authors of old nebula and hugo award winners. its sorely missing in the crop presented by this compilation...

Classics like Hyperion from Dan Simmons (his story is last in this compilattion - im saving it.. hopefully its worth waiting for!)

then there's the ever inspiring - Border's of Infinity.
a multitude of gems from Asimov, or the very few from Arthur C Clarke.

are sf authors really dead? have they all sink to the semi space opera sf works of Peter F. Hamilton? Or the many ... so called authors which produce the commercial star wars series?

surely u can do better than this.