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The Centurion's Empire
Are you civilized?
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The Centurion's Empire
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By Sean McMullen
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Tor Books
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$24.95/34.95 Canada
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Hardcover, 1998
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ISBN 0-312-85131-6
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Review by Blaise Selby
 n 71 A.D. the Roman soldier Vitellan washes ashore five days after his transport ship is wrecked at sea. "The cold caressed me, the cold sustained me," he babbles. His ability to survive draws the attention of a secret Etruscan society--an Illuminati-like organization that possesses the secret of freezing and re-awakening human beings. They use their one-way time travel to rule the Roman Empire from behind the emperors' thrones. The society intends to recruit Vitellan, but instead he becomes the sole possessor of the corrosive freezing elixir--but not its proper antidote.
Vitellan sleeps through the centuries, his icy Frigidarium maintained by an English village. The villagers awaken him briefly in 870 to help fight off the invading Danes. He returns to sleep till 1358, when his skills as a centurion again prove valuable, this time in France, where he helps put down a peasant insurrection. But he is so weakened by the poisonous elixir that he must return to sleep--despite having discovered his true love--or die.
He regains consciousness in 2028, only to become a pawn of various factions, including the descendants of his former protectors in the English village. Thanks to computerized brain enhancements called imprints, he is quickly brought up to speed on the local customs and languages. But the implants can't help him decide whom to trust--only his innate adaptability can get him through the nanotech-embellished skullduggery that surrounds him...for, after, all, he is not the only traveler through time.
A believable past, a bang-up future
Sean McMullen, three-time winner of Australia's Ditmar Award for Science Fiction Achievement, has created a fascinating adventure through time in The Centurion's Empire. The novel divides into two distinct parts, in the same manner as Ian McDonald's King of Morning, Queen of Day--a detailed, believable past that nicely displays a working knowledge of real historical timelines, and a bang-up future with high-tech weaponry, medical breakthroughs and the mean streets of a cyberpunk world.
McMullen doesn't spare much room for flowery description. He has a lot of story to tell, and he goes about it in a highly readable way. He manages the trick of getting necessary explanations across without boring exposition that interrupts the flow. His science fictional extrapolation is as forthright and reasonable as his writing style, and his main viewpoint character, Vitellan, is the epitome of an SF hero: a competent man.
All this straightforwardness yields space for the twists and maneuvers of intrigue, as thieves and lovers, turncoats and secret supporters--from times past and present--riot through Vitellan's life.
The centurion's viewpoint offers both a window into history and a ledge to stand on while peering into the future. Readers who enjoy the details of historical fiction, and those who like the edgy speculation of assassins with bypass-boosted nervous systems and oxygen reserves in molecular cages within body tissue, will both find plenty to enjoy in The Centurion's Empire.
Sean McMullen is part of the abundance of terrific Australian SF these days, what with John Marsden's "Tomorrow...War" series, Garth Nix (Shade's Children), and the well-known Greg Egan.
-- Blaise
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The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection
The resurgence of hard science fiction, and a big year for the British...
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The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection
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Edited by Gardner Dozois
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St. Martin's Press
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$29.95/$39.99 Canada
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Hardcover, June 1998
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ISBN 0-312-18779-3
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Review by Clinton Lawrence
n The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection, editor Gardner Dozois presents the 28 stories he considers the best of 1997. Dozois, who also edits Asimov's Science Fiction, has become the most influential editor in science fiction and has been the editor most responsible for expanding its boundaries in recent years. The Year's Best Science Fiction series has been the field's standard since Dozois introduced it in 1984, although David Hartwell's competing series has provided a highly respected alternative view in recent years.
Along with the chosen stories, Dozois provides a long list of honorable mentions that didn't quite make it but which he feels are worth recommending, and an annual summation of the SF field. His selections this year tend toward longer works, with quite a number of novelettes and novellas. There is also an abundance of international content, including nine stories by British authors and three by Australians. In the annual summation, Dozois reports on the field as a whole, with a detailed analysis of both artistic and business trends, focusing on both the book publishing and magazine industries. His summation always provides keen insights into the health of the field, and he's reasonably adept at spotting major trends.
Dozois has a reputation for having a very broad definition of science fiction, sometimes publishing stories that are close to mainstream fiction, but this year, nearly all of his picks are solidly within the field's traditional boundaries, and many are outstanding hard science fiction. Though overtly experimental stories are missing this year, this doesn't mean Dozois has abandoned his preference for literary quality. Throughout, the stories he has chosen feature polished writing and sophisticated characterization. Most of the stories have a serious tone, but Dozois does include a few comedies.
Is SF returning to its roots?
If Dozois' selections lack the stylistic diversity of last year's edition, one thing that hasn't changed is the excellence of his choices. And, just perhaps, the predominance of hard science fiction in The Year's Best Science Fiction signals a shift in the field back toward its Campbellian roots, but with a vastly increased awareness of literary quality and more attention to characterization. British hard science fiction writers like Stephen Baxter, Paul J. McAuley and Peter F. Hamilton are at the forefront of this movement, and all three are represented here with excellent stories. Baxter's "Moon Six" is particularly impressive, using its science to create a surrealistic mood.
The best story, however, is Robert Reed's "Marrow," set in a spaceship that has been created from a Jupiter-like gas giant by an alien race. Humans now occupy it, and the story concerns an expedition to the newly-found solid core, and the aftermath when things go wrong. Robert Silverberg contributes a very powerful story, set in a near-future Earth ruled by malevolent aliens, but in which humans are monsters too, in "Beauty in the Night."
There aren't any undeserving stories in this anthology, but a few others that are particularly strong include Gwyneth Jones' "Balinese Dancer," James Patrick Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider," Alan Brennert's "Echoes," Greg Egan's "Reasons to Be Cheerful," Nancy Kress' "Steamship Soldier on the Information Front," Walter Jon Williams' "Lethe," Ian McDonald's "After Kerry," and Gregory Benford and Elizabeth Malartrez's "A Cold, Dry Cradle."
Dozois has sometimes been criticized for choosing science fiction that is too soft, or that is not science fiction at all to some with more rigid, narrow definitions of SF. It would be hard to imagine that happening with this year's edition, however. It's a very worthwhile, and very surprising, anthology.
I miss the diversity of last year's collection, but it's nice to have this much good hard science fiction.
-- Clint
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Year's Best SF
Great science fiction, however you define it
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Year's Best SF
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Edited by David G. Hartwell
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HarperPrism
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$6.50/$8.50 Canada
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Paperback, June 1998
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ISBN 0-06-105901-3
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Review by Curt Wohleber
 mish terrorists wage biological warfare. A virtual reality addict finds real-world adventure--and the risk of non-virtual death. A bored socialite eagerly awaits the season's new line of designer emotions. A band of space pirates find out the hard way that the galaxy is becoming civilized. An overly inquisitive historian rediscovers the lost--and forbidden--art of reading.
Year's Best SF 3--the third volume in an ongoing annual series--contains these stories and more, a diverse collection chosen by editor and critic David G. Hartwell. The 22 stories here--all published in 1997, mostly in magazines such as Science Fiction Age and Asimov's Science Fiction--include works by old masters such as Ray Bradbury and Jack Williamson, as well as relative newcomers like John C. Wright and Tom Cool (which sounds like the pen name of a cyberpunk wannabe; he's actually a U.S. naval officer of Irish descent).
Hartwell leans toward shorter works in this volume, with only a handful of novelettes and novellas showing up for duty. The stories range from the whimsical to the tragic, from character-driven dramas with only a few science-fictional props to stories that probably required the authors to do a lot of math during the outline stage. In his brief introduction, Hartwell stresses that only real science fiction stories make the cut--no fantasy, horror, "speculative fiction" or "slipstream and postmodern literature."
Hartwell plays fast and loose with that rule, however, admitting a few well-dressed impostors to keep things interesting, including William Gibson's uncategorizable "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City," which describes a Japanese subway station through a series of camera angles. Then there's "London Bone," Michael Moorcock's story of a shady entrepreneur who turns to grave robbery when Andrew Lloyd Webber's career flameout sinks his ticket-scalping business.
Excellent but uneven
Year's Best SF 3 contains several outstanding stories, including James Patrick Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider," a moving and sentimental counterpoint to the reptilian family values of Kelly's acclaimed 1995 story "Think Like a Dinosaur." Speaking of dinosaurs, Gene Wolfe's "Petting Zoo" takes an obvious gag--Jurassic Park meets Barney--and turns it into an eerie, funny and utterly original tale. In "Guest Law," John C. Wright retrofits the conventions of space opera with gritty technical realism and an exotic, brutal future society. The always-delightful Terry Bisson takes readers to the virtual workplace of "Microserf Office 6.9" for a story of love, loss and graphical user interfaces.
Robert Silverberg, Brian Stableford, Nancy Kress, and Jack Williamson--who's been writing science fiction for about as long as science fiction itself has existed--also contribute first-rate stories.
All of the stories are worth a read, but a few of Hartwell's selections, even accounting for variations in personal taste, might leave some readers scratching their heads. The legendary Ray Bradbury, now in his late 70s, can still write killer stories. "Mr. Pale," alas, isn't one of them. "Turnover," by Geoffrey Landis, is amusing but forgettable. He's certainly published better stories in 1997. William Gibson again demonstrates astonishing literary powers, but seems increasingly unsure of what to do with them.
Only three of the 22 writers represented here are women. Gender equity shouldn't dictate a selection of the year's best stories, but 1997 saw stories by writers such as Martha Soukup and Mary Soon Lee that were as good as or better than some of Hartwell's picks.
Year's Best SF 3 still offers readers a good return on investment, a safer bet than most "theme" anthologies and many single-author short story collections. It's not as authoritative as Gardner Dozois' long-running The Year's Best Science Fiction, but as a 448-page paperback it's much less expensive and a bit more portable than Dozois' hefty hardcover/trade paperback tome.
The nice thing about "Year's Best" collections is that it's hard to put together a really bad one, even when you don't always agree with the editor's choices.
-- Curt
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