ardner Dozois' 18th annual best-of collection of short science fiction maintains its status as the older and larger of the two traditional best-of-the-year SF anthologies. It includes the editor's exhaustive review of the year; 23 short stories, novelettes and novellas; and a list of dozens more stories receiving honorable mentions.
The volume begins with an intriguing murder mystery set on the moon by John Kessel, and includes two other murder mysteries, one by Peter F. Hamilton in his Greg Mandel series, and one by Rick Cook and Ernest Hogan set in an Aztec alternative history with "huetlacoatl" aliens. Other alternative histories include Greg Egan's story of a gay particle physicist in an alternative post-World-War-II universe, and Charles Stross' story set in an alternative 1960s about a radical new doomsday weapon.
Many of the cutting-edge stories are set in baroquely complex futures that are radically different in setting, technology and/or characters. The Ursula Le Guin story, set on a far-future planet, tells a compelling story with a fantasy feel. Paul McAuley's story of mining a planetoid in the Kuiper belt fits this mold, as does new author Albert E. Cowdrey's story, set long after a calamity that killed most humans. Lucius Shepard's tale is set in a strange, far-future Vietnam, while Alistair Reynolds' is about normal humans at war with hive-mind "conjoiner" humans. Stephen Baxter's story is set in a far future where mankind's expansion throughout the galaxy is being inhibited by incomprehensible aliens, and Ian McDonald's is in a future Africa whose landscape is being radically transformed by alien biological packages that fall from space.
Others are more traditional SF idea stories. Nancy Kress' is about an alien craft that lands on Earth and waits for centuries to fulfill its enigmatic purpose. Severna Park's is about relocation of isolated tribes in the Amazonian rain forests. Brian Stableford's concerns creating humans from animal genes. Some use SF ideas to tell quiet stories about the human condition, including those by Susan Palwick, Steven Utley, M. Shayne Bell, Tananarive Due and Robert Charles Wilson. A few stories, such as those by Michael Swanwick and Eliot Fintushel, are difficult to classify as SF instead of fantasy.
An impossible, indescribable future
Short science fiction--especially novelettes and novellas--have long been the cutting edge of SF, where new ideas and styles are introduced and refined. Dozois' latest volume provides ample evidence that this remains true, that current SF is alive and well and that science-fiction literature is continuing to evolve.
Very few of these stories resemble those of the 1930s to '60s. Gone are the grand masters who defined traditional SF space adventures and hard SF extrapolation. Ursula Le Guin is the only author represented who entered the field before 1970. Most of the 22 authors with stories in this collection (Charles Stross has two) entered the field in the past decade.
Dozois has chosen a wide variety of stories that are almost uniform in their excellence. They range from quiet little stories of the human condition to startlingly complex futures and new concepts that have few antecedents in the field. It is almost impossible to choose which stories are the best of those he selected, and almost equally impossible to find any unworthy selections.
Some trends are noticeable along the cutting edge of SF. The intellectual rigor and complexity of most of these stories is remarkable. Alternative histories and travel between alternative timelines continue to ascend and become more exotic. There seems to be an increase in the use of Asian characters and settings. And idea-driven science fiction continues to thrive. Indeed, these stories tend to be more concept-driven than plot-driven, less visually oriented and therefore less suitable than past SF to be adapted to the visual media, such as movies or TV. But there are enough new ideas and concepts in this volume to fuel hundreds of future science-fiction novels.
Dozois' selections in this anthology clearly demonstrates that SF literature is alive and well, and continuing to evolve.
