Numbers
sometimes speak louder than words, so rather than open my review of editor
Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science
Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 9 (2015, Solaris) with some trite intro, here is
the statistical breakdown:
Percentage of stories by authors making at least
their second appearance in Strahan’s ‘best of’ series: 75% (highest of all
volumes to date)
Percentage of stories by authors making at least
their third appearance: 64%
Percentage of stories by authors making at least
their fourth appearance: 39%
Percentage of stories by authors making at least
their fifth appearance: 18%
Percentage of stories by authors making their
seventh appearance: 4% (one story, in fact: Kelly Link has appeared in seven of
the nine volumes)*
I don’t
mind repeat inclusions. It’s perfectly
plausible that a given writer has written several high quality stories over the
past decade. The question in my mind,
however, is: does such a list truly represent the current state of short
speculative fiction? Has the editor really
gone out to pound the pavement, gotten to know the back genre corners and
haunts of underground authors who are writing quality fiction but not yet in
the spotlight, and compiled a list of the best of 2014 regardless of author? Or has he just gone with old faithful? I know Strahan is working within limitations
most readers may not be aware of—legal clauses, reprint restrictions, author
rights, sales expectations, etc.
Nevertheless, given such a high volume of repeat inclusions, I lean
toward the idea these are favorite authors, and therefore not wholly
representative of 2014 in short speculative fiction.
But
favoritism is one thing. Flying in the
face of the current genre ideal—diversity, diversity, diversity—is
another. As a simple example, two of the
twenty-eight stories are from Ellen Klages, yet there is not one from the
several Chinese authors translated into English in the course of 2014—a
couple of which were notable or at least as good as Klages’ (more below). Another
way of putting this is: why introduce the anthology with “I believe that a small part of the process of moving to a broader more
inclusive conversation of SF and fantasy is the regular inclusion of new
voices.”and follow up by including the same old faces—75% the same old
faces when dozens upon dozens of new voices were published in 2014?
To Volume 9’s credit, however, there is
diversity present in actual story content.
2014 may not have been a stand out year in genre short fiction, but
there remain several high quality selections that do go some way toward
representing diversity of culture and society.
Rather than continuing to harp on my disappointment in the favoritism, I
will let the stories speak for themselves, which is, after all, the reason for
the anthology.
Volume 9 opens with “Slipping” by Lauren Beukes. The story of a handicapped young woman who
has the majority of her body replaced with bio-mechanical parts and becomes an
athlete competing in the +Games, it is a very familiar genre note on which
start. His most mature story to date,
“Moriabe’s Children” by Paolo Bacigalupi tells of the girl Alanie and the
voices of the great sea kraken echoing in her head. Nice to see Bacigalupi starting to shift away
from over-dramatization and move toward more sophisticated forms of writing; it
is an engaging tale. One of the best in
the anthology, Usman T. Malik’s “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar
Pakistani Family” tells of a young woman, her widowing, and the life choices
she makes in a Pakistan upturned by terrorism.
Its prose burns, accenting a highly purposeful, relevant story thatis
diverse in all fronts, new author to content.
The fourth selection, “The Lady and the Fox,” is classic Kelly
Link. About a young woman’s growing up,
the story’s progression is anything but typical. I don’t know many other writers who could
walk the prose tightrope Link does without falling, but she pulls it off, with
flourish.
The sun
rises and the sun sets, such is the predictability of Joe Abercrombie’s work.
“Tough Times All Over” is no exception.
I went in anticipating loads of empty nihilism, Medieval-esque setting,
an assortment of vice-ridden characters, and some reader games/manipulation. Save a little less of the latter than normal,
I would have cashed in were I in Vegas.
I keep reading grand praise for Ken Liu, and I keep reading his work
being underwhelmed—due to the expectation, so my fault, not Liu’s. “THE LONG HAUL”, however, may be his best
yet. About a cross-Pacific zeppelin
flight, it subtly digs into culture and sacrifice without resorting to the
manipulative literary devices I’ve seen Liu use in the past. A semi-forced idea, “Insects of Love” mixes
entomology and the relationship of two sisters in telling a nicely convoluted
tale. The writing of Nicola Griffith
normally a cut above, “Cold Wind” finds her falling back to Earth to tell a
rather conventional story. The details
of setting are relayed in fine, tactile fashion, but the plot itself feels done
before, save with a heterosexual protagonist.
Caitlin
Kiernan is one of the best writers in the field today, and “Interstate Love
Song (Murder Ballad No.8)” is a reason why.
Dynamic prose the reader can really sink their teeth into, it transcends
itself by converting a standard serial killer story into true art.
“Shadow Flock” by Greg Egan is an SF thriller heavy on drones. Fulfilling the “fun” of genre, it remains a
reversion for Egan: something more entertainment than concept. Like Abercrombie, K.J. Parker is another
predictable writer—at least her recent short fiction. Take a Medieval-esque
setting, introduce some “ethically dynamic” characters, make stabs at dark
humor, and deconstruct fantasy. I’m not
offended by this formula as a fantasy reader, rather I think it lacks true substance. “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There" is no
exception.
The
middle-of-the-roadness continuing, “Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)” by Rachel
Swirsky is not a bad story. Rather,
Swirsky has written better, and with more original premises. About a father who builds a doll to transfer
the personality of his dying daughter into, matters play out in rather standard
fashion but are freshened a little by the interweaving of Jewish culture. “Kheldyu” by Carl Schroeder is classic
science fiction for its poorness of presentation but quality of idea. “Four Days of Christmas” by Tim Maughan is
the briefest in the anthology at only four pages, and follows the route of a
Christmas toy made in China, sold in the US.
Oscillating between enjoyably dynamic prose and being just plain
overwritten, “Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying” by
Alice Sola is about a family with four daughters and their travails. James Patrick Kelly’s addition, “Someday,”
is a bizarre story of human reproduction in the far future that does more than
turn the gender tables on which sex should take lead.
Precursor
to a planned 2015 novel, “The Fifth Dragon” by Ian McDonald is a feeling out of
future commerce on the moon, and is about two lovers who must make a difficult
choice. “The Truth About Owls” by Amal
El-Mohtar is a rather simplistic but charming story of a rebellious young girl
learning her stance on life. The anti-A Clockwork Orange, “Covenant” by
Elizabeth Bear is the story of a ‘reprogrammed’ serial killer. (I also thought to describe Bear’s story as ‘Crime and Punishment after popping a
sci-fi tab’). Rushed out too fast and in
too great a quantity, Peter Watts’ recent short fiction does not bear the
polished appeal of his early career, and his story “Collateral” is no
exception. Moving nicely, even
relevantly, until the ending, Watts pulls the rug out from underneath
plausibility. Likewise warranting the
description ‘charming,’ Klages second story in the anthology “Amicae Aeternum”
closes things. About a girl leaving
Earth for a for a generation starship, she must say goodbye to things she
loves, but has a new life waiting for her.
Status
check: my review not an empty critique, the following are some examples of
stories that could have been included in Volume
9. Meeting the diversity theme, they
maintain a quality at least equal to if not better than those actually
selected. Benjanun Sriduangkaew wrote a
couple high quality shorts in 2014, including “Synecdoche Oracles,” “When We
Harvested the Nacre- Rice”, and the novella “Scale Bright,” any of which could
have been selected. “Tongtong’s Last
Summer” by Xia Jia, if Hugo readers would get a hold of it, is sure to charm,
and “Storytelling for the Night Clerk”, by another Chinese writer JY Yang, is
also engaging. “Help Me Follow my Sister into the Land of the Dead” by Carmen
Maria Machado is a worthwhile story, as is “The Hymn of Ordeal, No 23” by
Rhiannon Rasmussen. Pat Cadigan’s “Report Concerning the Presence of Seahorses
on Mars” and Aliya Whiteley’s “The Beauty” are both fine, imaginative
novellas. And on and on go the list of
writers who rarely see the light of day in ‘best of’ volumes if they ever have,
but who were overlooked this year.
In the
end, if you are a regular reader of the The
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year and enjoy Strahan’s favorite
authors, then you also may enjoy Volume 9. If, however, you are looking for a selection
of stories truly representative of short fiction in 2014, then the anthology
may only partially satisfy. Certainly
there are some stand out stories—the Kiernan, Malik, and Wilson selections are
superb. But as a whole, it seems the
opportunities to branch out and represent how truly varied the field has become
were not fully taken. The Abercrombie, Beukes, Parker, Schroeder, Bear,
Swanwick and one of the Klages selections could easily have been replaced by
stories from further afield, everything gained rather than lost. Diversity does exist within the stories
themselves, it’s only that the 75% of the writers have appeared in Strahan’s
series before…
All
published 2014, the following are the twenty-eight stories contained in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the
Year: Volume 9:
Slipping,
Lauren Beukes
Moriabe’s
Children, Paolo Bacigalupi
The
Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family, Usman T. Malik
The Lady
and the Fox, Kelly Link
Ten Rules
for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind), Holly Black
THE LONG
HAUL from the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009, Ken Liu
Tough
Times All Over, Joe Abercrombie
The
Insects of Love, Genevieve Valentine
Cold Wind,
Nicola Griffith
Interstate
Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8), Caitlín R. Kiernan
Shadow
Flock, Greg Egan
I Met a
Man Who Wasn’t There, K. J. Parker
Grand Jeté
(The Great Leap), Rachel Swirsky
Mothers,
Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying, Alice Sola Kim
Shay
Corsham Worsted, Garth Nix
Kheldyu,
Karl Schroeder
Caligo
Lane, Ellen Klages
The Devil
in America, Kai Ashante Wilson
Tawny
Petticoats, Michael Swanwick – Another Darger and Surplus story
The Fifth
Dragon, Ian McDonald
The Truth
About Owls, Amal El-Mohtar
Four Days
of Christmas, Tim Maughan
Covenant,
Elizabeth Bear
Cimmeria:
From The Journal of Imaginary Anthropology, Theodora Goss
Collateral,
Peter Watts
The
Scrivener, Eleanor Arnason
Someday,
James Patrick Kelly
Amicae
Aeternum, Ellen Klages
*Some
additional stats:
Total
number of stories in Volume 9: 28
(average for whole series: 28)
Total
number of unique authors appearing in series to date: 119
Total
number of stories appearing in series to date: 251
No comments:
Post a Comment