The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection [Paperback]

Gardner R. Dozois (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (May 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312007108
• ISBN-13: 978-0312007102
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #827,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Scott Baker discovered his love of reading in grade school when his mother bet him he couldn't stay up until midnight every night reading Dracula. He finished the book, won 50 cents, slept with the lights on for the next four years, and was hooked for life on science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Scott first attempted a novel in third grade. It was a page long and featured a rocket ship that ran on liquid copper.

In college, Scott drifted away from SF, but he was driven back to it by the deadly dullness of U.C. Irvine's Ph.D. program. Abandoning academia, he devoted himself to chemically-assisted hedonism in the Los Padres National Forest. During this time, Scott made several attempts at novels, but it was only after his van was stolen, he lost his job, his girlfriend left, and his roommate stole his rent money that he decided a life devoted to the joys of the moment wasn't all that much fun, so it was time to get serious about writing.

Scott wrote four novels-Nightchild, Dhampire, and Symbiote's Crown--before selling Symbiote's Crown. By the time it was published, Scott and his wife were living in the archetypical writer's garret, a cramped fifth-floor walk-up in Paris. Symbiote's Crown won the 1982 Prix Apollo for best French science fiction novel of the year.

Scott stayed in Paris for twenty years, working as translator and publisher's reader. He collaborated on several film scripts, working with directors such as Raoul Ruiz, Chile's former Minister of Culture. One film, Litan, won the Critic's prize at the Avoriaz Film Festival.

He also began writing shorter fiction. Four of Scott's stories were World Fantasy Award finalists and Still Life with Scorpion won the World Fantasy Award. He has three short story collections published in France.

Scott's next two novels, Drink the Fire from the Flames and Firedance, were fantasies set in the world of Ashlu. Inscrutable editorial imperatives meant that Firedance, second in the series, was published first, creating some confusion. The Ashlu books were followed by Webs, a psychological thriller with rather large spiders. Dissatisfied with Dhampire, he rewrote it from scratch. The vastly improved version was published as Ancestral Hungers.

After moving back to California, Scott created websites for the on-line tie-in for Steven Spielberg's film, AI, including one written in pseudo-Boolean code. The tie-in, AI: Who Killed Evan Chang was the first Alternate Reality Game. It was ranked Entertainment Weekly's number one website for 2002 and one of the New York Times' "Cool Ideas of the Year."

Scott's work has been published in England, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, and Finland. He has been a judge for the World Fantasy Awards, and is currently chairman of the judge's panel for the 2011 Philip K. Dick award.

After a long hiatus, Scott is currently working on an alternate history novel revolving around ethnopsychiatry, dire leopards, ancient Nubian medicine, traumatic brain injury, behavior-modifying parasites, and Napoleon's attempted conquest of Egypt.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
2002 Entertainment Weekly's number one website (AI: Who Killed Evan Chang?)
2002 A New York Times' "Cool Idea of the Year" (AI: Who Killed Evan Chang?)
1990 World Fantasy Award Finalist (Varicose Worms)
1990 Chosen for The Year's Fantasy and Horror (Varicose Worms)
1987 World Fantasy Award Finalist (Nesting Instinct)
1987 Chosen for The Year's Best Science Fiction (Sea Change)
1985 World Fantasy Award Winner (Still Life with Scorpion)
1983 World Fantasy Award Finalist (The Lurking Duck)
1982 Critic's Prize, Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival (Litan)
1982 Prix Apollo for best science fiction novel published in France (Symbiote's Crown)


NOVELS
Symbiote's Crown (1978)
Nightchild (1983)
Drink the Fire from the Flames (1987)
Firedance (1985)
Webs (1989)
Ancestral Hungers (1995)

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS (French)
Nouvelle Recette Pour Canard Au Sang (1983)
Fringales (1985).
Aléas (1997).

FILM SCRIPTS
Litan (French), directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky
The Territory, directed by Raoul Ruiz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Humdinger, March 7, 2003

By 

Brad Shorr "Brad Shorr" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (Paperback)

This volume is rare but can be found. Well worth the effort.
1. "R & R" by Lucius Shepard. Can a story be too well written? Formidable story but florid prose: weary American soldiers fighting a war of attrition in future Central America get serious battle fatigue. I got serious metaphor fatigue. B
2. "Hatrack River" by Orson Scott Card. Does a seemingly innocent pioneer girl merely see the future...or shape it? Thought-provoking, sometimes violent story laced with mysticism set in 1805 Pennsylvania. B
3. "Strangers in Paradise" by Damon Knight. Man visits enchanting Earth-colonized planet only to discover its dirty little secret. A
4. "Pretty Boy Crossover" by Pat Cadigan. Confused and rebellious future teenagers literally go digital instead of getting pierced or tattooed. Cadigan's portrait of virtual reality is ahead of its time, well framed in a compelling story. A
5. "Against Babylon" by Robert Silverberg. Intrepid, exhausted pilot fights raging brush fires in Los Angeles as alien space ships land with intentions unknown. A real page turner! A
6. "Fiddling for Waterbuffloes" by Somtow Sucharitkul. Too high on the ambiguity scale for me. C-
7. "Into Gold" by Tanith Lee. Roman warlord falls for sultry witch in a remote corner of the crumbling Empire. Haunting prose creates an aura of impending doom. B+
8. "Sea Change" by Scott Baker. Loveable boy in future Venice is drawn to mysterious sea creatures. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? C

9. "Covenant of Souls" by Michael Swanick. Despite the religious motif, this one, set in nuclear war-torn America, doesn't have a prayer. C-
10. "The Pure Product" by John Kessel. Alien tourists blend in with humans on a visit to the Midwest and do a whole lot more than take pictures. Absolutely chilling. A+
11. "Grave Angels" by Richard Kearns. Simultaneously lyrical and gruesome tale about life, death, and the sometimes grim consequences of getting what you wish for. A-
12. "Tangents" by Greg Bear. Boy with unique mathematical insight makes very hard contact with life in the Fourth Dimension. B
13. "The Beautiful and the Sublime" by Bruce Sterling. My favorite story in the book. The author's own description is perfect: "(A) Wodehousian romantic comedy about the death of the scientific method..." Lots of unforgettable characters and dialog; fantastic, ironical plot totally counter to my expectations. A+
14. "Tattoos" by Jack Dann. On the other hand, this one is kind of predictable. C-
15. "Night Moves" by Tim Powers. Dreams, reality, madness and memory converge on a sad and lonely soul in New York. Complex, well plotted, thought-provoking. B
16. "The Prisoner of Chillon" by James Patrick Kelly. Zzzz
17. "Chance" by Connie Willis. Depressed New England woman married to brutish professor gets a chance to clean up her past when she returns to her undergraduate campus. C
18. "And So to Bed" by Harry Turtledove. This story, written in Elizabethan English, is so hard to read I didn't read it. NR
19. "Fair Game" by Howard Waldrop. Why do so many sci-fi writers write about Ernest Hemingway? C-
20. "Video Star" by Walter Jon Williams. America is in disarray, dissolving into a network of drug-dealing and otherwise criminal gangs...A daring con man bursts on the scene with a foolproof scheme to rip off two of them. Like I said, foolproof. This would make a great movie. A
21. "Sallie C" by Neal Barrett, Jr. Incongruous historical figures meet up in an Old West Saloon. Too incongruous, I figure. C
22. "Jeff Beck" by Lewis Shiner. What would it be like to play like Jeff Beck? Promising premise promptly peters out. C
23. "Surviving" by Judith Moffett. Female writer and woman raised by chimps become friends, then spend lots of time probing each other's psyche while swinging naked from trees. I'm not kidding. B
24. "Down and Out in the Year 2000" by Kim Stanley Robinson. My second favorite, set in a crumbling Washington, D.C. even worse than it's actually turned out. A poverty-stricken street hustler has his world closing in on him as he slowly and steadily runs out of money. Exceedingly well-written: the noose tightens with every sentence! A+
25. "Snake Eyes" by Tom Maddox. The author gets it right on artificial intelligence: very cool. A military pilot is hard-wired for combat, but the war gets cancelled like a TV show. Unfortunately, he can't pull his altered head out of its nosedive. B+
26. "The Gate of Ghosts" by Karen Joy Fowler. Extremely sad story about a devoted mother whose sweet four year-old daughter is gradually being pulled away by strange, unseen forces. A
27. "The Winter Market" by William Gibson. Zzzz

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dozois gives sf readers a lot for their money & time., February 7, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year's Best Science Fiction: 4th Annual Collection (Hardcover)

Dozois's fourth massive 80s anthology of current sf culled 27 genre stories out of the hundreds published in 1986 to reprint here. Dozois always locates stories that represent the current trends of the field. Cyberpunk was at its greatest influence then, and those writers (e.g., William Gibson, Walter Jon Williams) are well represented. Two award winners he reprinted are Greg Bear's "Tangents" and Lucius Shepard's long, intense "R & R." The three I liked best are these: Tanith Lee's "Into Gold," a clever take on the Arthur legend set at the end of Rome's influence; Kim Stanley Robinson's "Down and Out in the Year 2000," an ironic study of street life in a decaying Washington, DC; and Connie Willis's "Chance," about a married woman's romance with a man who has died. All three stories were first published in ASIMOV'S, which has dominated much of the American sf short story scene in the last 20 years.

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the money - A bit like reading a TV anthology show, February 21, 2011

By 

T. Heagy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (Paperback)

- 27 "episodes" in total; 600 pages. Rather than review each short story, I'll just review the ones I liked best. Note that some of these can be found free on authors' websites, if you're willing to search: - "Tangents" 4D creatures make contact with the 3D world - causing a bit of chaos.

- "Strangers in Paradise" Not sure how to review this without spoiling it. Imagine Avatar if the aliens lose; humans win.

- "Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes" A story about alien possession in India, and how the Indians repel the plans for invasion/conquering earth. Unique perspective and comedic.

- "Into Gold" A prequel tale about King Arthur's father and mother, shortly after the fall of Rome.

- "The Pure Product" Story about humans from the future (2100?) who are bored with life so they travel to modern day America to find excitement (like sex, grand theft auto, and murder). A bit depressing overall but enlightening.

- "Grave Angels" This is basically a Twilight Zone-style episode, with an interesting twist at the end. It's about a gravedigger who digs graves Before the person dies, and the teenage boy who helps him.

- "Tattoos" A man who uses tattoos to cover-up Jewish Holocaust survivors' internment camp numbers. And take the pain onto himself.

- "Chance" A somewhat mental woman revisits her old college, and remembers her mistakes as a student - including losing a close roommate and boyfriend who committed suicide, due to her poor choices. And the element of chance.

- "And So to Bed" In this alt.history, primitive creatures like mastodons and homo erectus continue to survive in America, allowing scientists to discover "natural selection" and the evolution theory in the 1500s.

- "Surviving" A child who had been raised by apes, reintegrated into society as a human, and yet still not whole. This story traces her learning process as she rejoins both halves of her self.

1. "R & R" by Lucius Shepard.
2. "Hatrack River" by Orson Scott Card.
3. "Strangers in Paradise" by Damon Knight.
4. "Pretty Boy Crossover" by Pat Cadigan.
5. "Against Babylon" by Robert Silverberg.
6. "Fiddling for Waterbuffloes" by Somtow Sucharitkul.
7. "Into Gold" by Tanith Lee.
8. "Sea Change" by Scott Baker.
9. "Covenant of Souls" by Michael Swanick.
10. "The Pure Product" by John Kessel.
11. "Grave Angels" by Richard Kearns.
12. "Tangents" by Greg Bear.
13. "The Beautiful and the Sublime" by Bruce Sterling.
14. "Tattoos" by Jack Dann.
15. "Night Moves" by Tim Powers.
16. "The Prisoner of Chillon" by James Patrick Kelly.
17. "Chance" by Connie Willis.
18. "And So to Bed" by Harry Turtledove.
19. "Fair Game" by Howard Waldrop.
20. "Video Star" by Walter Jon Williams.
21. "Sallie C" by Neal Barrett.
22. "Jeff Beck" by Lewis Shiner.
23. "Surviving" by Judith Moffett.
24. "Down and Out in the Year 2000" by Kim Stanley Robinson.
25. "Snake Eyes" by Tom Maddox.
26. "The Gate of Ghosts" by Karen Joy Fowler.
27. "The Winter Market" by William Gibson.