Customer Reviews

Year's Best SF 6 (SFBC Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This strong anthology proves that there is room in the science fiction market for two Year's Best anthologies. I was slightly surprised by this anthology because I have been underwhelmed by previous editions.

This year was a different story. I enjoyed nearly every offering in the book. I was particularly impressed with the stories that Mr. Hartwell culled from unusual sources. Robert Silverberg's 'The Millennial Express' from Playboy magazine was particularly impressive. Robert Reed's story 'Grandma's Jumpman' from Century magazine was above average. I enjoyed the 5 or 6 1-2 page stories from Nature magazine. The stories from David Brin and Dan Simmons stood out from the rest.

The anthology also included excellent stories from Howard Waldrop (an amusement-park attraction attains sentience and rebels against its masters) and Ted Chiang (an alternate reality story where Jewish kabbalistic tradition is real and powerful). Brian Stableford's fascinating 'The Last Supper' continues the author's recent exploration of the future of genetics.

Not to be overlooked are two award-winning stories, Ursula Le Guin's excellent 'The Birthday of the World' and David Langford's 'Different Kinds of Darkness'. I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology. Highly recommended.

This book didn't quite do it for me, I'm afraid. The main problem with the book was the overabundance of two-page short shorts (most culled from Nature). These things are worth reading, I suppose, and they're not as bad as Analog's Probability Zero pieces, but do they really belong in a Year's Best anthology? Ford's "In the Days of the Comet" and Kress's "To Cuddle Amy" could have been worthy of an inclusion here, had they been fleshed out a little more. With the advent of Internet -only fiction, short-shorts have become more and more popular as e-zines attempt to appeal to the average short-attention-span Web surfer. Call me old-fashioned, but I'll take a big fat novella any day.

When David Hartwell started his own annual series of the year's best SF with this volume in the mid nineties, the doorstopper series edited by Gardner Dozois had been running for over a decade. Hartwell made some passing references to other anthologies being unfocused but otherwise he avoided the issue and that begged the question of why this series started and should you buy it instead of or as well as the Dozois book?

On the strength of this, the first volume, I am happy to recommend Hartwell's choice to anyone who is into SF in the traditional sense. That does not mean that the contents are old fashioned just that the contents are certainly Science Fiction and not some related genre.

The fourteen stories here, all of which were written in 1995, include works by a selection of the best of contemporary SF authors. Writers like Silverberg, Baxter, Benford, Kress, Haldeman, Woolfe, Zelazny and Sheckley rarely disappoint though the last of those is represented here by one of his weaker recent works.

The highlights for me were Joe Haldeman's "For White Hill" and Robert Silverberg's "Hot Times in Magma City". The first is a tale of war, art, love and sacrifice set on a ruined Earth in the far future and the second is set in a near future LA beset by volcanic eruptions. The producers of "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak", a pair of similarly themed disaster movies should have studied Silverberg's tale to see how to inject some real humanity into the subject.

Like the Silverberg story, William Spencer's "Downloading Midnight", Gene Wolfe's "The Ziggurat" and "Evolution" by Nancy Kress are all set on a contemporary or near future Earth and all three are compelling and rewarding stories.

Stephen Baxter's "Gossamer" and Gregory Benford's "A Worm in the Well" demonstrate that the traditional setting of space travel in the Solar System can still give rise to highly enjoyable and original ideas that bring "golden age" styles right up to date.

This is not a perfect book, there are still a couple of stories here that left me wondering what the editor was thinking (or smoking) when he included them but on the whole, the book stands as justification for the fact that there is certainly room for another "years's best" series. If you buy Gardner Dozois' books, you should give this volume a go as well.

Hartwell opens his introduction thus:

"SCIENCE FICTION IS ALIVE AND WELL

This is the first volume of an annual year's best science fiction anthology, to be published each spring in a widely available mass market edition. In each volume the best science fiction of that year will be represented. Not fantasy. Not science fantasy. Science fiction: This anthology will contain only stories that a chronic reader would recognize as SF.

...Furthermore, the existence of more than one year's best anthology in the SF genre has been good for the field..."

Given the 12th volume has just come out this year, looks like he was right.

He also mentions that he thought it was a great year for novellas, so there are only 14 stories in this book because of several of the longer variety.

The stories begin with the best, James Patrik Kelly's Think Like A Dinosaur.

There are a couple here I don't like, and usually in an average number of story anthologies would expect one, but there are no stories that are only ordinary to balance that. Still, only a 3.68 average. A little down for a Year's Best. Close enough though to make it a 4.5, rounding up a little.


Year's Best SF 01 : Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best SF 01 : Wonders of the Invisible World - Patricia A. McKillip
Year's Best SF 01 : Hot Times in Magma City - Robert Silverberg
Year's Best SF 01 : Gossamer - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best SF 01 : A Worm in the Well - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 01 : Downloading Midnight - William Browning Spencer
Year's Best SF 01 : For White Hill - Joe Haldeman
Year's Best SF 01 : In Saturn Time - William Barton
Year's Best SF 01 : Coming of Age in Karhide by Sov Thade Tage em Ereb of Rer in Karhide on Gethen - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best SF 01 : The Three Descents of Jeremy Baker - Roger Zelazny
Year's Best SF 01 : Evolution - Nancy Kress
Year's Best SF 01 : The Day the Aliens Came - Robert Sheckley
Year's Best SF 01 : Microbe - Joan Slonczewski
Year's Best SF 01 : The Ziggurat - Gene Wolfe

Lizard people's replication errors multiply.

4.5 out of 5


Not an angel research.

2.5 out of 5


Lava fighters on the rehab.

4 out of 5


Wormhole stuffup surfing webs.

4 out of 5


This wormhole is mine.

4 out of 5


Captain Armageddon abuse source.

3.5 out of 5


Artists try for retro inspiration.

2.5 out of 5


Space program choices.

3.5 out of 5


Puberty gender blues cured by dedicated fracking and food, even if the flavor can be a crapshoot.

4 out of 5


Bound up information.

4 out of 5


Terror disease infighting cure.

3.5 out of 5


Trading with the long way out of towners is quite odd.

4 out of 5


Working on nanotechnology suits to enable people to exist on a rather deadly new planet, after some testing on rats. A field test doesn't go quite as planned, and some interesting biology is found.

4 out of 5


"That rock over there is hollow, and there are strange and wonderful blue-lit rooms inside, where little brown women will try to kill you"

3.5 out of 5




4.5 out of 5

I actually thought the last story was the best one of all. "72 Letters" is a provoking piece of steampunk/alternative history which turns biology on its ear and introduces God as a substrate of 19th century physics and engineering. By rights, "72 Letters" should be classified as Hard Fantasy, given its fantastical premise combined with a rigorous setting and well-thought-out exploration of the Golem myth. The subject of the story, far more than its characters, grew more fascinating with each page, and when I closed the back cover of the book I thought, wow, that was a hell of a way to end the volume! Terrific!

Other standout stories that I enjoyed were, "Patient Zero", "Different Kinds of Darkness", "The Birthday of the World", "Sheena 5", "Grandma's Jumpman", and "Built Upon the Sands of Time."

Both well-established and famous writers (such as Ursula K. Leguin) and relatively obscure names cohabitate between the covers of this book, and like others in the series, #6 offers a decent sampling of SF from all over the map: sociological, hard, bio/eco, dystopia, etc.

Note: not necessarily a great book for people new to the SF field, or who are seeking light fare. Several of the stories in this volume, like "Patient Zero", are downright depressing, and a story like "Reef" is so obviously on the cutting edge of hard SF, a reader more familiar with mainstream fiction or franchise SF material (Star Trek, Star Wars) might be offput.

The art of the short story is disappearing. It is a joy when a compilation is released and it is very good. This is such a release. Are these the best of the Science Fiction genre for 1995? I don't know, but these stories are wonderfull. When I buy short story anthologies I tend to look for authors I have enjoyed over the years. The true gift is when I find an author I know nothing about or a new and rising author that is going to be fun to follow. This anthology has some of the big names such as Le Guin and Silverberg who both have written execellent stories. The true find for me was Nancy Kress. Her 'Evolution' is about a plague and the ramifications of genetic manipulation. Kress wrote 'An Alien light' in 1988 and I had lost track of her since. She is truly an amazing find. This book is well worth the time.

the best thing about this book is the sheer variety of really good stories. no one type of SF dominates the book: cyberpunk, hard Arthur C. Clarke-style (gossamer), far-future space opera all occupy space in this novel. and the stories are all worthy of notice. hartwell edits good anthologies. if you like horror, check out "the dark descent."

I enjoyed some stories in this anthology, while I disliked others. I think that the common denominator of the stories that I don't like is that they simply stop, without any sort of real ending. Some authors simply can't write endings, and some editors will let them get away with it instead of sending the story back and asking for a rewrite.

I put this item on my wishlist because the Amazon review said that Hartwell insisted on science fiction in his SF anthologies, which is a sentiment that I can agree with. But I want the stories to work as stories as well as be SF, that is, I want the stories to engage me. About half of these stories didn't. I've been reading SF for four and a half decades. My grandfather allowed me to read his back issues of Analog and his paperback library of classic SF (he didn't care for fantasy) before I needed two digits to express my age. I like fantasy very much, but I also love science fiction, and it seems that there's really not much pure SF on the market these days. So while I admire one of Hartwell's goals, I think that he just doesn't have the same tastes as I do when it comes to SF. I want a completed story, not something that might have been a random portion of a book.

I doubt that I will buy other anthologies from this series, unless the editor changes, or unless there's a story that I particularly want.

The Big Bang of Hartwell

This is the first volume of David Hartwell's annual anthology of science fiction stories. It contains fourteen stories, each with an introduction to the story's author and the author's other works. It is a fair beginning of a great series.

My four favorite stories are:

James Patrick Kelly's "Think Like a Dinosaur" has become a classic. Comparisons to Tom Goodwin's "The Cold Equations" are appropriate. I find Kelly's story more chilling. Being able to think--and act--like an alien is a matter of empathy.

Stephen Baxter's "Gossamer" combines two science fiction problem-solving stories into one. Lvov and Cobh are stranded on Pluto. One tries to figure out whether regularly-shaped splotches in the ice may be a new form of life. The other tries to get them home. They don't seem to be working against each other.

Joe Haldeman's "For White Hill" seems like just another love story on the home planet Earth. Two lovers are attracted by their different approaches to life.

Nancy Kress' "Evolution" is a post-apocalyptic story in which medical treatment and personal relationships both play important roles. Why do we always hurt the ones we love?

The introductions in this book and in Year's Best SF 2 are briefer than those found in later volumes. I am glad that this early form changed into the more extended treatment as the series progressed. Hartwell's longer introductions add a great deal to the reader's enjoyment.

This collection is recommended for its several very good stories. They are worth reading through some so-so stories that also appear. Ursula Le Guin's "Coming of Age in Karhide" was not as enjoyable as I find most of her stories. And while there were interesting things happening in Gene Wolfe's "The Ziggurat," the main character's actions in the last half of the story didn't make sense to me. I'm not sure why this story has received so much critical acclaim. Maybe I'm just missing something.

I've been working my way backward in time, reading progressively earlier volumes of the Year's Best SF. This was the last collection that David Hartwell edited by himself before teaming with Kathryn Cramer for Year's Best SF 7 and later volumes. I found no change in quality with the change in editors. As in future volumes, the story introductions are superbly-written, with the right mix of author bios, pointers to other work, and brief teasers for the stories themselves.

My favorite six of the twenty-seven stories all deal with children, although they were certainly not written for children. Here are the six:

Tananarive Due's "Patient Zero" is a child's-eye view of a global epidemic and the desperate attempts by adults to find a cure. And a cause.

M. Shayne Bell's "The Thing About Benny" introduces a child with a valuable eye for detail and his corporate handler. They both look for rare and medically useful plant species--for different reasons.

David Langford's "Different Kinds of Darkness" reminds us that children can be careful who they play with, but not about WHAT they play with.

Nancy Kress's "To Cuddle Amy" is a discussion between two parents who want the best childhood for their daughter. And will spend the time to get it.

Stephen Baxter's "Sheena 5" focuses on an intelligent, gene-engineered squid, the "child" of a NASA project to capture the resources of a near-Earth asteroid. Even good children do not always mind their parents. And they grow up.

Michael Flynn's "Built Upon the Sands of Time" is a science fiction bar story told by a man who understands the changeable nature of the past. No child is present.

I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection and am a stronger fan of the series than ever. I recommend it to those who appreciate or are learning to appreciate good science fiction. But read it after the kids are in bed.