The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection

A friend of mine lent me the above title and I've been drilling through it the past week or two. I've been floored by the quality of the writing. As an aspiring author it is downright depressing. How could a mere mortal like me ever create something this rich?

I went to Amazon and bought a copy for 35 cents plus shipping and handling. Then I read the reader reviews and was surprised to find that they weren't all good. The first reviewer gave each short story a letter grade. I would advise against reading these unless you have already read the short stories. I'm not even reading the little introductions that precede each story in the collection. I read a couple and realized that these were coloring my expectations of the stories in ways that I didn't appreciate. I've pasted some of these not-quite-but-sort-of spoiler reviews at the end of the page.

The review that really struck me was this one that gave the collection 2 out of 5 stars.

Dozois prefers the long short story or what might be called the condensed novel, and most of these stories are in that vein. Very few stories here are short. Dozois also prefers stories that are more about millieu and atmosphere rather than stories filled with metaphor or operate on some kind of ironic level (as did the stories in the old Wollheim/Carr anthologies). Perhaps this is due to the kind of science fiction being written today: it's mostly about predictable futures or predictable alien cultures, long on atmosphere and short on story. Many stories, in fact, don't really get going (the McDonald, the Reed, the Gerrold, the Turtledove) for several pages. (I was halfway through the McDonald before I had any understanding what the story was about, let alone what its conflict was--the story had almost no dramatic tension). ...

It goes on. What most surprised me is that the reviewer is mostly right. Furthermore, when I thought about it, I had my own criticisms of each of the stories. I put myself in the author's head and I could feel the ebb and flow of the prose, the frustration, the sagging, the logical inconsistencies, the cowardice. So I'm going to try harder to get some of my stuff written. Are there truly flawless works? Not many, if any.

I've written my own reviews of the stories I've read so far and copied some of the Amazon reviews. These aren't spoilers per se. They don't give anything away, but in a piece that can be interpreted a few different ways even suggesting the theme is sort of a spoiler so...

SPOILER ALERT

My reviews:

The Little Goddess, by Ian McDonald. Atmosphere. Atmosphere. Atmosphere. So thick you could cut it with a knife. If you want to immerse yourself in a place and you aren't so interested in plot, you'll love this.

The Calorie Man, by Paolo Bacigalupi. This is a fascinating story that takes place in Mark Twain's land in a distant future without most modern technologies. It's got solid plot, setting, and characters, but the ending annoyed me. The main character doesn't personally redeem himself enough to warrant a happy ending and the sad ending is right there for the taking. It's like the editor told the author to go back and make it happy and the author spent the bare minimum amount of time making it happy.

Beyond the Aquila Rift, by Alastair Reynolds. Great plot, atmosphere, and characters. There were even two or three whoa! moments on the order of "they're both Tyler Durden", but again the ending was awful. First of all, I didn't get it. I thought of 3 different interpretations for it. Secondly, it was so ill-fitting that it bounced me out of the story. That's not allowed even at the end of a story.

Second Person, Present Tense, by Daryl Gregory. Absolutely spectacular. A must read. Utterly convincing and emotionally gripping. I have one gripe. (Don't read it if you haven't read this story yet. It could spoil it for you.) The story makes a big deal about the "Queen" being just a figurehead and representing, but not commanding the nation. If that is truly the case, then why does the new queen appear so different to the family that knew the old queen? Shouldn't they be indistinguishable? Doesn't all the neuroscience say that the queen herself doesn't matter and it is the underlying brain processes that determine personality? Seems like a logical flaw. Thank god that didn't stop the author from writing this incredible story.

The Canadian Who Came ... by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. Booooorrrrring. A guy spends years at this weird lake not having sex with this hot widow. Then there's an explosion. The end.

Triceratops Summer, by Michael Swanick. This is sort of a feeling piece. It will give you a feeling similar to wasting a summer day in a hammock, which is almost what it is about. The most interesting characters are the two that are mostly off stage. The main characters reminded me of Hank and Peggy Hill from the TV show King of the Hill

Amazon Reviews

Not One of the Best, But a Few Gems

The Little Goddess, by Ian McDonald. Rich atmosphere adds weight to thin plot as artificial intelligence complicates life in 2034 India. C

The Calorie Man, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Even when Earth's energy sources are reduced to plants, Big Business casts its sinister shadow--is all hope lost? Superb speculation with a timely message. A

Beyond the Aquila Rift, by Alastair Reynolds. Humans use abandoned alien technology to comb the Milky Way, but as one ship captain learns the hard way, what they really need is an operator's manual. A

Second Person, Present Tense, by Daryl Gregory. A family tries to heal after the daughter's strange drug overdose, but astounding issues of self-identity and consciousness get in the way. Heartrending and mind bending! A+

The Canadian Who Came ... by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. An anomaly at the bottom of a remote British Columbia lake suggests a missing space explorer may still be around. B

Triceratops Summer, by Michael Swanick. Dinosaurs cause trouble for humans, but not in the usual way. C

Camouflage, by Robert Reed. Snappily written but routine whodunit aboard an immense space ship full of immortals. C

A Case of Consilience, by Ken MacLeod. Courageous or crazy? A space reverend makes first contact with sentient mud. C

The Blemmye's Strategem, by Bruce Sterling. A monstrous master of the occult stirs up Hell during the Crusades. Dank, Medieval characters and atmosphere. B

Amba, by William Sanders. Against the dismal backdrop of global warming, adventurers live by their wits in sunny Siberia. Near-future speculation seems too true to be good. B

Search Engine, by Mary Rosenblum. When computers record your every move, tracking a suspect is easy. Figuring out what to do with him--a bit harder. C

Piccadilly Circus, by Chris Beckett. A poignant story set in a desolate future London where virtual reality is more real than reality, except for a few lingering old souls. B

In the Quake Zone, by David Gerrold. Brokeback Chinatown. Sexual politics under cover of fiction. D

La Malcontenta, by Liz Williams. The maids on a mystical medieval Mars are merrily minus men, mostly. C

The Children of Time, by Stephen Baxter. Bold predictions about the fate of man over the next seven hundred million years are made stirringly immediate and personal. A

Little Faces, by Vonda N. McIntyre. Another all female society, this one aboard organic ships, grim, and feuding. C

Comber, by Gene Wolfe. Pithy tale of a man who sees trouble ahead, literally, for his geologically unstable city. A

Audubon in Atlantis, by Harry Turtledove. In a barely alternate world, the famed naturalist combs Atlantis for a rare and most peculiar bird. B

Deus Ex Homine, by Hannu Rajaniemi. This one is about artificial intelligence implants, but I need one myself to make sense of it. NR

The Great Caruso, by Steven Popkes. Puff piece about an old woman who smokes her way to stardom, thanks to a cigarette SNAFU. Finally, some (much needed) humor in this collection! A

Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck, by Neal Asher. Unsavory adventure seekers hunt off-limits prey--and their guide--on an exotic planet where danger lurks everywhere. Fast paced and exciting. A+

Zima Blue, by Alistair Reynolds. In the far future, a mysterious artist reveals his secrets to a spunky journalist. One of the most memorable characters I can remember, plus fresh thinking on the meaning of work, art, and self. A+

Planet of the Amazon Women, by David Moles. I'm neither smart nor schooled enough to make heads or tails of this one. NR

The Clockwork Atom Bomb, by Dominic Green. Weapons of mass destruction hijinx in a politically complex future Africa. C

Gold Mountain, by Chris Roberson. Zzz.

The Fulcrum, by Gwyneth Jones. Zzzz.

Mayfly, by Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy. Zzzzz.

Two Dreams on Trains, By Elizabeth Bear. In a submerged and subdued future New Orleans, a poor boy sandwiched between a rock and a hard place tries to make his mark. B

Angel of Light, by Joe Haldeman. Slice of life about a man in the new Chrislam world order who discovers an odd cultural relic in his basement. B

Burn, by James Patrick. Struggles of a young firefighter on planet Walden, where men fight with mixed success for the simple life in a remote corner of a culturally and technologically complex galaxy. C

The Preeminent Science Fiction Anthology

I was especially anxious for this year's volume because I recently read Mr. Dozois' Amazon Short in which he describes how he goes about preparing his annual best-of volume and in which he recommends that the volume be read cover to cover without skipping through the various stories. In this my twentieth year of reading Mr. Dozois' annual volume, I found that it truly does make a difference to read the stories sequentially as it gave the volume a much more powerful impact.

But let me take a stab at why the book represents more than the sum of its parts: Following Mr. Dozois' absolutely encyclopedic summary of events in the science-fiction world, we first encounter a story by Ian McDonald that treats some timely themes of Artificial Intelligence and the effects of governmental limitations on technology that mirror current attempts to limit internet access. This story has an upbeat and hopeful ending. The theme of the triumph of good over bad continues with Paolo Bacigalupi's story of a dystopic future in which farming is controlled by multi-national corporations--again, a type and shadow of fears concerning control of technological development by virtue of intellectual property rights.

Dozois follows two clearly thematically chosen stories with a first-rate Alastair Reynolds story about a future sailor who gets a bit more than he bargained for that is just excellent science fiction. It is followed by Daryl Gregory's piece about the effects of a future designer drug, an excellent piece of technological extrapolation.

Next are four stories that are surprisingly similar in that they primarily focus on the impact of events upon an individual character: Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold's superbly rendered story of an eccentric billionaire who develops star travel on his own with fateful consequences to his wife is followed by a Michael Swanwick story about time manipulation and its effect upon the person who understands the ultimate fate of his timeline. Robert Reed's story of a character making his way across the galaxy in a gigantic ship has much to say about the power of one individual to do good. The next story likewise presents Ken MacLeod's tale of a missionary who desires to bring Christianity to an alien lifeform.

Bruce Sterling's story of the Blemmye brings a new perspective to the crusades and thoughfully explores the question of whether our history is everything we believe it to be is followed by a dystopic future-vision of a world destroying itself; William Sanders' Amba. Just as Amba deals with unforseen consequences, so too does Mary Rosenblum's story about a world in which any information is available for a price, Chris Beckett's vision of a world that turns inward to the ultimate rejection of all that is corporeal, and David Gerrold's exploration of the unintended environmental impacts of time travel in Southern California.

He changes gears with a solid work by Stephen Baxter, who has the audacity to present a story of humanity spanning the very life of our Earth but which subtly highlights the interconnection between our civilzation and our environment--albeit on a geologic level. This is followed by a unique future vision by Vonda McIntyre in which humanity exists in a symbiotic relationship with its own technology. Dozois then turns to alternative histories--Gene Wolfe's world adrift and Harry Turtledove's portrayal of Audubon's search for unique birds on a unique continent. These are followed by an utterly unique story by Hannu Rajaniemi about ultimate power and a similar story by Steven Popkes about how the health benefits bestowed by nanobots may come with a price that is not entirely welcome.

Dozois is obviously a believer in saving the best for last because he then throws in two stories that were my personal favorites: Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck by Neal Asher--a story about a hunting expedition gone awry and Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds which was in my estimation worth the entire volume just by itself, a story about what is truly important. Unfortunately, anything that followed these two stories was bound to suffer by comparison: David Moles' story about a planet where males inexplicably die yet the women are doing just fine; Dominic Green's sobering tale of high technology gone wrong in Africa; Chris Robertson's alternate history in which China is the superpower; and Gwyneth Jones unnecessarily profane and graphic story about space travel.

Peter Watts and Darryl Murphy offer a story about the unintended consequences of creating a conscious program that has a searing ending followed by a likewise emotional story by Elizabeth Bear about the power of expression. The volume ends with a James Patrick Kelly novella that harkens back to Thoreau and asks whether it might be better to live simply and to forego the benefits of modern technology.

I'm convinced that the best way to experience Mr. Dozois' efforts is to start at the beginning and read straight through--despite the fact that the volume presents many different stories and styles, there is an impact carefully designed by the editor that requires this approach. Highly recommended.

Dozois' Usual Suspects

Dozois prefers the long short story or what might be called the condensed novel, and most of these stories are in that vein. Very few stories here are short. Dozois also prefers stories that are more about millieu and atmosphere rather than stories filled with metaphor or operate on some kind of ironic level (as did the stories in the old Wollheim/Carr anthologies). Perhaps this is due to the kind of science fiction being written today: it's mostly about predictable futures or predictable alien cultures, long on atmosphere and short on story. Many stories, in fact, don't really get going (the McDonald, the Reed, the Gerrold, the Turtledove) for several pages. (I was halfway through the McDonald before I had any understanding what the story was about, let alone what its conflict was--the story had almost no dramatic tension).

And there are a lot of lost opportunities. Robert Reed's story involves a ship larger than several worlds, but ends up becoming a mere - and unexciting - detective story. The trope or conceit of living in a HUGE space ship is lost both on Reed and the protagonist. What would human life be like if one were traveling the rim of the galaxy in a giant spaceship? Wouldn't that DO something to you? Well, apparently not. The story becomes just another murder mystery that needs to be solved. The same is true of the David Gerrold story. It's a time travel story involving "timequakes" in the L.A. region (brilliantly realized by a man who's lived there all his life) but becomes devolves into a rather sordid homoerotic detective story in the end (with an ending that's so cliched that I'm surprised Gerrold let himself get away with it). And some of the stories are plain unpleasant, such as the Vonda McIntyre story. How it ended up here I have no idea. Another odd choice is the Alastair Reynolds story, "Along the Aquila Rift". I'm surprised that ANY editor published it: imagine a story told in the first person where, in the end, the person forgets what he has just told you. As a creative writing teacher, I would NEVER have a student tell a story in the 1st person and have it end: "And then I died" or "And then I was given amnesia". One can justifiably wonder how the heck the story got written down in the first place. How did it appear on the printed page? (Alan Brennert, an otherwise notable writer, won a Nebula years ago by writing a story told by a ghost. I guess fantasy and science fiction writers can do things that mainstream writers cannot. Or perhaps everyone's taking their cues from John Gardner's GRENDEL wherein the monster, telling his tale, is, as we all know, killed in the end. I would let Gardner get away with the conceit, not so Mr. Reynolds. I want my money back!)

This anthology really is a collection of stories that Dozois would have published had he seen them all for Asimov's Science Fiction. To his credit, he has culled many of these from internet and other non-traditional publishing sources. But mostly these stories weren't a lot of fun, and most took a lot of patience to wade through. I did like the Wolfe story; but, again, the conceit of the story gets lost in a twist ending that can only be appreciated if one has endured a bad marriage and suffered inklings of spousal revenge. I miss Donald Wollheim and Terry Carr and Judith Merrill and Frederick Pohl and Groff Conklin. What happened to stories that were fun? Where is the sense of wonder here? Yes, there are dazzling depictions of India in the future and the wonders of genetic engineering and nanotechnology, but, really, who cares? What is present in this volume are stories written by the very best we have. But they're like weightlifters with these enormous muscles lifting really tiny weights. Is it because they have to crank out two stories a month and three novels a year in order to make a living? Find an old anthology edited by Damon Knight called THE DARK SIDE. It's out there somewhere. It's far better than these anthologies--collections that suggest a paucity of imagination in our field that's been around now for about twenty years. These people, and this editor, can do MUCH better than this.

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