psc@lzmi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (01/06/85)
o+ _T_h_e _Y_e_a_r'_s _B_e_s_t _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n: _F_i_r_s_t _A_n_n_u_a_l _C_o_l_l_e_c_t_i_o_n, edited by
Gardner Dozois, 1984.
This quarter million word collection is Dozois's first for Bluejay
Books, a successor to the _B_e_s_t _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n _S_t_o_r_i_e_s _o_f _t_h_e _Y_e_a_r series he
did for five years for some other publisher. This collection of 1983
stories is nicely catholic in its tastes, with if anything a little too much
emphasis on humor and the offbeat.
Contents: "Summation: 1983" by the editor, "Cicada Queen" by Bruce
Sterling (a Shaper/Mechanist story I enjoyed more the second time around),
"Beyond the Dead Reef" by James Tiptree, Jr. (an typically weak Quintana
Roo story), "Slow Birds" by Ian Watson (the deserved award winner),
"Vulcan's Forge" by Poul Anderson (unsurprising Anderson hard science, mushy
character story), "Man-Mountain Gentian" by Howard Waldrop (Zen-Sumo
wrestling? better believe it), "Hardfought" by Greg Bear (another award
winner), "Manifest Destiny" by Joe Haldeman (a borderline fantasy western),
"Full Chicken Richness" by Avram Davidson (weird, funny), "Multiples" by
Robert Silverberg (beyond singles bars, you have . . .), "Cryptic" by Jack
McDevitt (a quiet, scary SETI tale), "The Sidon in the Mirror" by Connie
Willis (moody), "Golden Gate" by R. A. Lafferty (he's done better), "Blind
Shemmy" by Jack Dann (not always convincing, but an attention grabber), "In
the Islands" by Pat Murphy (a story of generation and other gaps), "Nunc
Dimittis" by Tanith Lee (another good vampire story), "Blood Music" by Greg
Bear (Bear's _o_t_h_e_r award winning story from 1983), "Her Furry Face" by Leigh
Kennedy (another story about wide gaps), "Knight of Shallows" by Rand B. Lee
(of parallel universes, and skew ones, too), "The Cat" by Gene Wolfe (from
the New Sun universe, I think), "The Monkey Treatment" by George R. R.
Martin (funny diet horror story), "Nearly Departed" by Pat Cadigan
(postmortem telepathy), "Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine" by John Kessel (of
trust and psychotherepy, and love and memory), "Carrion Comfort" by Dan
Simmons (another interesting twist on vampirism), "Gemstone" by Verner Vinge
(about some Thing or other), "Black Air" by Kim Stanley Robinson (it'd be
tough on the losing side of the Spanish Armada's defeat).
--
-Paul S. R. Chisholm
...!hogpd!pegasus!lzmi!psc The above opinions are my own,
...!cbosg!lzmi!psc and do not necessarily represent
...!ucbvax!ihnp4!lznv!psc those of anyone else.