Gardner
Dozois is well known for his The Year’s Best Science Fiction
anthologies. Roughly five-hundred
stories having accumulated in the series as of 2005, at that time St. Martin’s
Griffin asked Dozois to up the ante: to choose the best of the best. Producing two volumes, the first being The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's
Best Science Fiction, the second The Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels.
(For the record, like the yearly anthologies, the best-of-the-best anthologies
were also ice aged: The Mammoth Book of The Best of The Best New SF and The Mammoth Book of Best Short SF
Novels, respectively.)
Dozois
consciously trying to avoid stories that had been re-printed innumerable times
in other anthologies while maintaining a consistently high level of quality,
the anthology he compiled covers all the names of the field one would expect, while not always
the stories. What Dozois continues to do is spread interest within the
sub-genres and micro-genres science fiction has to offer, resulting in a solid
collection of short stories, from the genre’s mainstream to a handful somewhat
beyond (but not too far). (See the
bottom of this review for a complete list of the thirty-nine stories Dozois
selected.) The following review covers
some but not all of the stories, thirty-nine indeed mammoth.
What would
later be revised into the eponymous novel, “Blood Music” by Greg Bear opens the
anthology. First person instead of third
and possessing fingers that creep further than the novel’s opening section, the
novelette to me is better than the novel.
What, indeed, if the next apocalypse lies in the laboratories of a
pharmaceutical company? Like much of
Gene Wolfe’s horror/suspense short fiction, “A Cabin on the Coast” is a story
that appears mundane on the surface but below is dark horror of the most
sublime. Featuring the same setting as
“R&R”, “Salvador” is the story of John Dantzler, an American soldier
fighting in El Salvador. Led by a
maniacal captain named DT, Dantzler pops pills to take the existential edge off
combat, distract himself from the exigencies of war, and focus on the
killing. A short but affective piece
with strong echoes of the Vietnam War, Shepard slowly spins hallucination and
reality into an ever tightening spiral of quality story. “Trinity” by Nancy Kress is a contrived
novella of melodramatic proportion.
Characters that just don’t feel real, scientific experimentation that is
fantasy dressed up as science with the tie-lines and support beams still
visible, and a scenario as unlikely as any to be seen in genre. Next.
“Flying
Saucer Rock and Roll” by Howard Waldrop is a delightfully nostalgic story about
the 50s acapella pop music crush.
Capturing the magic of the era, two bands duke it out on an improviso
stage late on enight in NYC to the universe’s delight. “Dinner in Audoghast” by Bruce Sterling is
about a group of Muslim aristocrats discussing life over a meal of gaudy
proportions. A leprous fortune-teller
appearing on their doorstep, history takes a new perspective. Not Pat Cadigan’s best work (a one-off, in
fact), “Roadside Rescue” is nevertheless the story of a man stranded on the
side of the road, his vehicle needing repair.
An alien assistance vehicle arriving quickly, soon enough his motor
isn’t the only thing being manipulated.
“Snow” by John Crowley is the atmospheric story of a man whose wife left
him the key to her memories. As is the
case with Crowley, something intangible that weighs tangibly on the heart is
captured in the story. A Sprawl story
that lays the groundwork for Slick, Gentry, Cherry, and Little Bird in Mona
Lisa Overdrive, “A Winter Market” by William Gibson asks the question:
what if you could escape physical pain without committing suicide by casting
aside your mortal body for a digital life inside cyberspace? While never stated it’s a time travel story,
“The Pure Product” by John Kessel nevertheless is. The device used in Gyges Ring fashion,
Kessell explores the morality of not being beholden to any particular moment in
the continuum. A cultural clash of
post-modern concern, “Kirinyaga” by Mike Resnick pits a traditional African
culture against the modern, politically correct view (in the novelette’s case,
an African witch doctor’s right to infanticide on the ground’s of tribal
belief). Viewing the scenario through
polarized glass, there is a noticeable gap in maturity in style and outlay when
placing the story alongside post-colonial literary fiction tackling the same
issue.
A Roma
Eterna story, “Tales from the Venia Woods” by Robert Silverberg – a twelve year
old boy and his sister find for a supposedly haunted house in the woods lived
in by an old man. Perhaps who he says he
is, perhaps not, the key remains his fate.
“Bears Discover Fire” by Terry Bisson is the elegaic story about an
uncle, his nephew, and his old-fashioned mother. Portraying the end of America’s Golden Age in
anything but obvious terms, it’s intriguing to discover the title is
direct. “Even the Queen” by Connie
Willis is situational humor in the sharpest of dialogue. Who knew women sitting around and chatting
about their periods could be so insightfully funny? “None So Blind” by Joe Haldeman is a spin off
on Flowers for Algernon and wondering how it made itself into the
best-of-the-best. “Mortimer Gray's History of Death” by Brian Stableford is
the story of a man who, after having a brush with death as a child, grows to
become a historian of death. Not a morbid
tale, Gray lives in post-human times wherein humanity has achieved emortality,
which places a new spin on the idea of mortality. A beautifully sociological work regarding
humanity’s perception of life and death, this is one of the most comprehensive,
in-depth stories in the collection. “The
Lincoln Train” by Maureen McHugh is a Civil War story about a girl forced to
move west with her mother after the North has won the war. Not McHugh’s best story, nor anything new
thematically, it nevertheless is written in the author’s confident, minimalist
hand.
Later
developed into the novel Diaspora,
“Wang's Carpets” by Greg Egan is a VERY hard sf look at life on another
planet. “Coming of Age in Karhide” by
Ursula K. Le Guin is a return to the planet Gethen from The Left Hand of Darkness, and is precisely what the title says:
not an easy task for an asexual species that places such importance on the
rites of puberty and sexuality. A zombie
tale with a killer final paragrah “The Dead” by Michael Swanwick is as sharp in
writing as it is commenting on politics. A sampler
sketch of his Chaga series,
“Recording Angel” Ian McDonald is a piece featuring the Irish reporter Gaby
McAslan and her assignment to cover the last days of the Treetop Hotel. A strange virus chewing slowly across Africa,
the story captures the eerie strangeness and various attitudes of the locals
dealing with the phenomenon.
Another
sampler, “Second Skin” by Paul J. McAuley is classic/retro space opera, spy in
a space colony that leads into the Quiet
War. Ted Chiang’s novella “Story of Your Life” is the story of Dr. Louise Banks.
One of the world’s leading philologists, she is contacted by the
military one day and asked to help communicate with aliens who have arrived in
Earth’s orbit and sent communicator pods to the surface. Chiang drawing in Banks’ tragic backstory
alongside linguistic theory and physics as she slowly develops a channel of
communication with the seven-legged creatures, the story ends up on a higher
plane, particularly regarding the idea of free will. Combining hard and soft science fiction
effortlessly, this is a superb novella worthy of the annals of the genre. “The Wedding Album” by David Marusek is a
brilliant story of a marriage fractured—literally and figuratively—by technology. For all the clean takes on virtual
personality copies, this one is down and dirty.
A
reflective story, “10 to 16 to 1” by James Patrick Kelly is the remembrance of
a man whose rural New York upbringing led him to an encounter with a bizarre time
traveler. Reminiscent of Harlan
Ellison’s “Jeffty Is Five” for its nostalgic view of childhood in the American
pulp era, Kelly takes his story in a Cold War direction to positive effect. “Daddy's
World” by Walter Jon Williams is the story of a young boy growing up in a
strange, strange world. “Have Not Have”
by Geoff Ryman, later expanded into the novel Air, is a sensitive yet imaginative story of a fictional Eurasian
country where a new technology is introduced.
Ryman’s prose of subtle import, he tells a cyberpunk tale but in sheep’s
clothes. Abuzz with all of the ideas
fizzing in Stross’s head “Lobsters” by Charles Stross is the opening to the
novel Accelerando. “Breathmoss” by
Ian R. MacLeod is a young girl’s subtle coming of age on an alien planet that
never descends to melodrama. Reminiscent
of an Ursula Le Guin story, Macleod uses a Middle Eastern motif to transition a
young lady through the urban fringes of a strange alien planet. “The Fluted Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi is about a girl named Lydia who attempts to remain
hidden in the castle of her patron, Baleri, who has biologically modified her
and her twin sister. A creepy story of
the potential for bioengineering with a macabre, Gothic twist (reminiscent of
Jeff Vandermeer’s Veniss Underground), it gets a bit
sensationalist toward the end, but is overall a well-developed story. Tim Burton would love it.
In the
end, The Best of the Best: 20 Years of
the Year's Best Science Fiction is a nice retrospective, perhaps most
beneficial to those who missed out on many of the early years of Dozois’ annual
anthology. Dozois having more than one
finger on the pulse of mainstream science fiction, it will also be a treat for
anyone looking to read some of the genre’s most identifiable stories in the
genre, and some of its most liked by its fandom. Bringing together numerous award winning and
nominated stories, it likewise would be a nice catch up for anyone who would
like to own said stories without having to track down the original
publication. Challenging, complex, and
multi-layered most of the stories are not; but colorful, representative, and
interesting in some way most are.
The
following is the listing of the thirty-nine stories in the anthology (UK
version, the US version having only thirty-six, the last three not included):
“Blood
Music” by Greg Bear
“A Cabin
on the Coast” by Gene Wolfe
“Salvador”
by Lucius Shepard
“Trinity”
by Nancy Kress
“Flying
Saucer Rock and Roll” by Howard Waldrop
“Dinner in
Audoghast” by Bruce Sterling
“Roadside
Rescue” by Pat Cadigan
“Snow” by
John Crowley
“The
Winter Market” by William Gibson
“The Pure
Product” by John Kessel
“Stable
Strategies for Middle Management” by Eileen Gunn
“Kirinyaga” by Mike Resnick
“Tales
from the Venia Woods” by Robert Silverberg
“Bears
Discover Fire” by Terry Bisson
“Even the
Queen” by Connie Willis
“Guest of
Honor” by Robert Reed
“None So
Blind” by Joe Haldeman
“Mortimer
Gray's History of Death” by Brian Stableford
“The
Lincoln Train” by Maureen F. McHugh
“Wang's
Carpets” by Greg Egan
“Coming of
Age in Karhide” by Ursula K. Le Guin
“The Dead”
by Michael Swanwick
“Recording
Angel” by Ian McDonald
“A Dry,
Quiet War” by Tony Daniel
“The
Undiscovered” by William Sanders
“Second
Skin” by Paul J. McAuley
“Story of
Your Life” by Ted Chiang
“People
Came from Earth” by Stephen Baxter
“The
Wedding Album” by David Marusek
“10 to 16
to 1” by James Patrick Kelly
“Daddy's
World” by Walter Jon Williams
“The Real
World” by Steven Utley
“Have Not
Have” by Geoff Ryman
“Lobsters”
by Charles Stross
“Breathmoss”
by Ian R. MacLeod
“Lambing
Season” by Molly Gloss
“The
Fluted Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi
“The
Footvote” by Peter Hamilton
“Zima
Blue” by Alastair Reynolds
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