Rich
Horton’s take on the year in speculative fiction is, historically, the one more
willing to seek out the overlooked niches and corners of genre in concatenating
its sequence of ‘best of’. The 2014
Edition of The Year's Best Science
Fiction & Fantasy (Diamond
Book Distributors) proves no different. Of the thirty-five stories
featured, only four can be found in Jonathan Strahan’s year’s best anthology
and two in Dozois’—of which one is common amongst all three. Potential buyers can thus be assured they are
not treading old ground while having the possibility of enjoying stories
located somewhere in the fuzzier interstices of genre.
In a
rather perfunctory introduction (I suppose after writing roughly a dozen, the
task could be daunting), Horton acknowledges the field is branching out
internationally, or at least the English language field is doing a better job
of recognizing efforts beyond the former British empire. And indeed the anthology reflects this. The second story is a translation of
“Trafalgar and Josefina” by the Argentinean Angélica Gorodischer, which is one
crotchety old lady’s recollection of the rise and fall of a fantasy land. “Call Girl” by Tang Fei is the story of a
high school who sells not herself but virtual stories, in the form of dogs, told
from the backseat of a beat up car.
(Yes, it’s Weird.) “Town’s End”
by Yukimi Ogawa is equally strange, telling of a marriage agency and the
bizarre clients and requests which come its way. “The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly” by
the up and coming Thai writer Benjanun Sriduangkaew is the story of a virtual
woman seeking her sister in the esoteria of a virtual world. Sriduangkaew’s story a stand out, it still
lacks the sheer dynamism and re-readability of “On the Origin of Song” by Naim
Kabir. Puzzle pieces that click together
on the second go round, this is a rich story filled with imagery and culture
that shifts and moves to rhythms and patterns of its own (and for this reader
is the best in the anthology).
Despite
that few crossover titles exist among this year’s ‘best of’ anthologies, the
comaprison is at story level only. At
the author level, there are many more repeats.
Between Strahan and Horton, for example, there are twelve by the same
author. Thus, where Strahan’s Robert
Reed choice “Mystic Falls” is stylistically superior to “Grizzled Veterans of
Many and Much,” the latter better explores the relationship between humanity
and technology. (A quick side note: Reed
just keeps getting better and better.
His short stories maturing superbly, the reader can’t go wrong with either
Strahan and Horton’s selection, and indeed, either could have chosen one or two
of his other stories in 2013 and been as successful.) In keeping, “The Promise of Space” by James
Patrick Kelly in Strahan’s is a more humanist piece, whereas “Soulcatcher” in
Horton’s is a splash of imaginative revenge used to open the anthology. Ian Macleod’s “The Discovered Country” is a
touch of the real intruding upon the virtual in Horton’s, whereas “Entangled”
in Strahan’s is a touch of the virtual intruding in the real—both stories of
troubled love. Common to all three ‘best
of’ anthologies released thus far in 2014 (we await David Hartwell’s) is Geoff
Ryman’s “Rosary and Goldenstar”. Worth the praise, Ryman’s typically flat prose
tells a clever story of Shakespeare and science. Where Strahan chose K.J. Parker’s novella The Sun and I, Horton went with “The
Dragonslayer of Merebarton” (interestingly published in Strahan’s anthology Fearsome Journeys). A standard knight vs. dragon story, it
focuses on the mechanics and logistics of killing the fire-breathing lizard
with the ‘proper’ tools and techniques.
Where Horton easily could have followed suit with Strahan and included
“Sing”, he goes for another Karin Tidbeck offering “A Fine Show on the Abyssal
Plain”, which tells the story, meta and otherwise, of a troupe of actors acting
on life’s stage. Both stories in Lavie
Tidhar’s ongoing Central Station sequence, Strahan chose “The Book Seller”
whereas Horton chose “The Oracle”. Both
rather blasé offerings, Charles Stross has, unfortunately for the rest of the
field, spoiled singularity stories for a lot of other writers by sheer power of
imagination. Tidhar just can’t keep up.
Unlike
Strahan, however, Horton balances the sci-fi and fantasy. Without breaking down the specifics, there is
a 50/50 mix—significantly better than Strahan’s fantasy top-heavy
anthology. Among the sci-fi is “They
Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. A story that initially comes across as
misperceived victimhood, it slowy develops into a more complex relationship
between the oppressed and the oppressor.
Possibly an allegory for modern day Africa, two women, Libby and Tris,
are free to live but within the confines of their alien overseer’s—the
glassmen’s—rules and laws. While I still
have my doubts about the mindsets present, the story is in the least thought
provoking—something which many sci-fi stories in 2013 failed to achieve. “Loss, with Chalk Diagrams” by E. Lily Yu is
a story that feels like its been done before: a grieving woman elects to have
unwanted memories removed surgically. “A
Stranger from a Foreign Ship” by Tom Purdom is a Fallen meets PKD story about a man whose mind can occupy others’
bodies temporarily, and who does a good deed.
Back after three years of silence, “The Dead Sea Bottom Scrolls” by
Howard Waldrop is a pleasant little memoir about a human retracing the steps of
a long-dead Martian across the barren planet in his wind glider. Salacious yet nostalgic, Waldrop’s tale is a
genre delight. Ken Liu had great
success playing the pity card in “The Paper Menagerie” in 2012, and in 2013 his
“A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel” sees the same tactic being
milked. For as lucidly as the story is
written, it reopens old wounds in Chinese-Japanese relations but does little to
heal them, the final handful of pages an all too obvious ploy for sympathy.
Only the
fantasy titles remaining, there is an elfin/animal fantasy from Theodora Goss
called “Blanchefleur” that is light fun.
Yoon Ha Lee’s “Effigy Nights” is a very nice vignette of super heroes
literally cut out of paper with strong poetic overtones. “A Window or a Small Box” by Jedediah Berry
is an excellent specimen of prose, even if it is ultimately just a spot of
fun. “Ilse, Who Saw Clearly”, the second
E. Lily Yu offering in the anthology, is a wonderful, mature story of a girl
who goes on a quest to retrieve the eyes of her villagers after they were
stolen by a traveling magician. So
crisply written, the reader fairly bounces in step with Ilse on her journey.
In the
end, Rich Horton’s take on the best of speculative fiction first published in
2013 is equally as good as the other 2014 year’s best anthologies, though for
different reasons. Horton often tapping
different sources than Strahan and Dozois, as well as seeing greater potential
in different stories, his collection features less ‘big names’ and more stories
that sit at a greater distance from the core of what most would perceive
science fiction and fantasy to be.
Better balancing the two genres, for those who complain of Strahan
tilting the field, Horton attempts to right it, offering an even mix of
sf&f. And where Dozois near
faithfully adheres to stories that do not stray far from the core of science
fiction, Horton casts his net to wider seas, capturing less typical sf
tales. Overall, 2013 was neither a
strong or weak year, and Horton’s take on ‘best of’ represents this well, which
makes it as good a place as any to make up one’s own mind about the quality of
the year.
The
following is the table of contents for the anthology:
“Soulcatcher”
- James Patrick Kelly
“Trafalgar
and Josefina” - Angélica Gorodischer
“A
Stranger from a Foreign Ship” - Tom Purdom
“Blanchefleur”
- Theodora Goss
“Effigy
Nights” - Yoon Ha Lee
“Such
& Such Said to So & So” - Maria Dahvana Headley
“Grizzled
Veterans of Many and Much” - Robert Reed
“Rosary
and Goldenstar” - Geoff Ryman
“The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly” -
Benjanun Sriduangkaew
“The
Dragonslayer of Merebarton” - K.J. Parker
“The
Oracle” - Lavie Tidhar
“Loss,
with Chalk Diagrams” - E. Lily Yu
Martyr’s Gem - C.S.E. Cooney
“They
Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass” - Alaya Dawn Johnson
“A Window
or a Small Box” - Jedediah Berry
“Game of
Chance” - Carrie Vaughn
“Live
Arcade” - Erik Amundsen
“Social
Services” - Madeline Ashby
“Found” -
Alex Dally MacFarlane
“A Brief
History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel” - Ken Liu
“Ilse, Who
Saw Clearly” - E. Lily Yu
“The End
of the World as We know It, and We Feel Fine” - Harry Turtledove
“Killing
Curses: A Caught-Heart Quest” - Krista Hoeppner Leahy
“Firebrand”
- Peter Watts
“The
Memory Book” - Maureen McHugh
“The Dead
Sea-Bottom Scrolls” - Howard Waldrop
“A Fine
Show on the Abyssal Plain” - Karin Tidbeck
“Out in
the Dark” - Linda Nagata
“On the
Origin of Song” - Naim Kabir
“Call
Girl” - Tang Fei
“Paranormal
Romance” - Christopher Barzak
“Town’s
End” - Yukimi Ogawa
The Discovered Country - Ian R. MacLeod
“The
Wildfires of Antarctica” - Alan DeNiro
Kormak the Lucky - Eleanor Arnason
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