| The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| edited by Gardner Dozois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| St. Martin's Press, 623 pages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A review by Steven H Silver
In his lengthy summation of 1997, Gardner Dozois begins by taking a shot at
the pessimists of the field -- perhaps even including rival Best
of Year anthologist David Hartwell -- by stating that
"Doomsayers continued to predict the imminent demise of science fiction... with
gloomy, headshaking, I-told-you-so-but-you-wouldn't-listen-to-me relish... "
Dozois then goes on to explain why, despite falling sales figures and
mergers, he feels science fiction is alive and well. However, as a glance at the table of
contents will reveal, Dozois's definition of science fiction is much more
inclusive than Hartwell's. The remainder of Dozois's summation looks at the various aspects of the SF field:
magazines, books, anthologies, films, etc. Dozois points out what he felt
were the strengths and weakness of each area, which can provide good fodder for a debate.
After reading Dozois's take on the film The Fifth Element, I wonder if
there are two films with that title (and shudder at the prospect). One new thing
Dozois did in his introduction is to include a listing of some of the science fiction
websites, both fiction and news-based, which can be found on the web (including a
fine review of the SF Site, which never hurts -- Ed.) Once I finish reading Dozois's summation each year, I find myself doing some number
crunching. How many of the stories first appeared in Asimov's, the magazine
Dozois edits? (9 out of 26 this year). Looking at the source material this year
reveals few surprises, although the surprises that are there are interesting. Only
one story comes from Analog, but four are from Science Fiction Age.
The big four magazines (those three, plus F&SF) contributed 16 of the stories
in the anthology. The biggest surprises are four stories which do not come from
traditional sources. Two of the stories, Nancy Kress's "Steamship Soldier on the Information
Front" and Dave Marusek's "Getting To Know You," come from a British
anthology entitled Future Histories. This is a much-talked about book which
few people have seen since only a limited number were published and distributed, not to
the trade, but to the British telecommunications industry. Dozois has provided a
considerable service in reprinting two of these stories.
Based on these works, with luck a general publisher (both in the US and the UK) will
purchase reprint rights to the entire anthology. The other surprises were Simon Ings's "Open Veins" and Sean
Williams and Simon Brown's "The Masque of Agamemnon." Both of these pieces
were originally published on-line -- the first in the recently defunct Omni On-Line,
the latter in the continuing Eidolon, an Australian venture. Because of their
electronic format, I have a feeling these stories have had a much smaller audience than
they warranted, and it is nice to see that Dozois, whose anthology usually only draws from
the usual suspects, is willing to look off the beaten paths. Dozois has also included one of my favorite stories from 1997, the Hugo and Nebula
nominated "The Undiscovered," by William Sanders. On the surface, this
this piece examines the idea of Shakespeare lost in the wilds of North America and writing
Hamlet for a native American tribe. On deeper inspection, it examines the role and
interpretation of art across cultural boundaries. James Patrick Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider" presents an odd mix of nostalgia
with a quest for identity as Jen Fancy visits her estranged father in a fantasy world
based on Beatles songs, only to discover a robotic version of herself taking care of her
aging father. Although Jen has no desire to be a part of her father's life, she is
disturbed to discover how easily she seems to have been replaced. Dozois's decision to present a variety of types of science fiction is demonstrated by the
inclusion of Bill Johnson's quixotically named "We Will Drink a Fish Together...,"
which places an alien ambassador in a backwater Dakota town reminiscent of Twin
Peaks, Washington or Cecily, Alaska right next to Stephen Baxter's hard SF alternate world
story "Moon Six." Howard Waldrop's "Heart of Whitenesse," a
journey up the Thames in the manner of Joseph Conrad, is another example of how far
fiction can be from spaceships and planets and still fall into the category of SF. Dozois's anthology continues to be the leader in a field which has, admittedly, little
competition, currently only going head to head with David Hartwell's three volume
series. Dozois's anthology tends to cover a wider range than Hartwell's,
and includes both Dozois's insightful summary of the previous year's science fiction and
an extensive recommended reading list, which Hartwell doesn't provide.
Steven H Silver is one of the founders and judges for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. He sits on concoms for Windycon, Chicon 2000 and Clavius in 2001 and is co-chair of Picnicon 1998. Steven will be serving as the Programming Chairman for Chicon 2000. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is trying to get his short stories published and has recently finished his first novel. He lives at home with his wife and 3200 books. He is available for convention panels. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
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