These were not the short stories I was planning to read this week. But then my next door neighbor had a yard sale and I bought four anthologies from the Year's Best Science Fiction series, edited by Gardner Dozois. The one I decided to start reading was The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection.
I only read the first three stories, but that still totaled nearly 100 pages. The first story was a novella at about 53 pages and the other two were novelettes. I found all of them challenging and a bit overwhelming in one way or another.
"Mr. Boy" by James Patrick Kelly
I had not heard of James Patrick Kelly before reading this novella about a 25-year-old man whose growth has been stunted by genetic manipulations, so that he remains in the body of 12-year-old boy. His mother purchased this modification for him, and the story is at least partly about the misuse of wealth. In this society these types of body modifications are not unusual and are carried to many extremes. I found the first half very weird but the second half was much better. The story was told in first person narrative by Mr. Boy.
In 1994, Kelly published a novel, Wildlife, that was a fix-up of this story and at least one other story featuring some of the same characters. I would be willing to give it a try someday.
"The Shobies' Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin
This story is set in a universe in which the ability to travel to another destination can be done instantaneously. A group of people have volunteered to be the first humans to try this type of travel and see what effects it has on them, mentally and physically. The crew come from various planets and have various skills; some children are included. They first gather for a bonding experience before the flight.
The story is a part of the Hainish Cycle by Le Guin, but I have not read any of her science fiction writing, so I had no experience with that.
I had an exceptionally hard time with this story and I had to read it twice to get any grip on it at all. I liked the first half but it went downhill in the second half.
"The Caress" by Greg Egan
Another author I had not heard of previously. In the introduction to this story, Egan is described as a "hot new Australian writer."
This one is closer to my usual reading, sort of a police procedural set in the future. The protagonist is a policeman but he is enhanced. Policemen are trained from an early age, given drugs to prime their ability to deal with crime (while on the job), and their bodies are enhanced for strength and agility. The crime that is discovered is very strange. A woman of about 50 is found dead, her throat slit, in the living room of her house. In the basement downstairs, the policeman finds a chimera, a leopard's body with a woman's head. The chimera is in a coma. The dead woman turns out to be a scientist who created the chimera.
This was a strange story, very complex, with a lot of scientific explanations. But it was also very interesting, and I liked that it was told in first person, by the policeman.
There are two stories by Greg Egan in this anthology.
So I have 22 more stories and about 515 more pages to read in this collection. There are two more novellas in the anthology; one of them is "The Hemingway Hoax" by Joe Haldeman, about 80 pages long, which won both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1991.
A bonus: The painting on the cover is Sentinels by Michael Whelan.
22 comments:
Those stories do sound a bit overwhelming, Tracy. It sounds as though there's a lot to think about and a lot to work through as you read. The collection sounds fascinating, though, and as though it's got all sorts of stories in it. My husband is more of a sci-fi person than I am; I'll have to tell him about this.
Dozois was a (perhaps THE) major editor in the field and his knowledge and scope allowed him to present a wide range of stories and styles, some of which may not appeal to every reader but all of which have proven to be significant. Of the three authors you present here, Kelly and Egan are now considered major writers, while LeGuin (of course) is sui generis.
There's a lot of good reading ahead of you in these four anthologies.
I looked forward to reading the YEAR'S BEST SF anthologies of Dozois each year. Like Jerry House said, Dozois had encyclopedic knowledge of SF and seemingly read EVERYTHING! As time went on, the size of his anthologies grew and grew. The last few volumes were real doorstops! But, I miss his massive volumes. Others have edited YEAR'S BEST SF anthologies since Dozois is no longer with us, but no one has come close to his quality.
Margot, of the three stories, the only one I really did not care for was the one by Le Guin, which surprised me. And the story by Egan was very promising, makes me want to try more of his writing.
Jerry, with these four anthologies plus a new anthology titled Mash Up, I now have five anthologies edited by Dozois. His summation at the beginning of the book is interesting, although I have not had time to read it all yet.
Interesting that Kelly and Egan are now well known, as they were both newish writers in 1990. Another author in this book that was new then and doing well now is Ted Chiang.
George, One of the reviewers of this anthology noted that he was sure that some science fiction readers had everyone of the Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies by Dozois, and they must take up a lot of shelf space.
In An Informal History of the Hugos by Jo Walton, there were interesting comments for each year from Dozois.
Hi Tracy, of the 3 I would probably like the Egan story because I too enjoy police procedurals. Truth be told I haven't explored much science fiction and yet now that I think about it one of my favorite novels is Frankenstein.
I really like the way you try and fit a book or story into what you have already read. That gives a nice context to it.
I have read LeQuin but not this story.
It is remarkable to think that this volume was released 33 years ago...a third of a century...and I was already a Grizzled Vet of reading new sf along with old on a regular basis for at least a dozen years. The three writers you tackled had basically become major figures in sf by then, though Kelly was more established than Egan...I was first encountering Kelly's work in '78, and Egan, like Chiang, was one who was impressing people Very Quickly...a few like them, such as David Marusek and Kelly Link, were to come along Soon After...and the likes of Karen Russell would be Carefully Segregated from fantasy or sf by their publishers...
There's a vast amount of talent here...and some we've lost, some who are finding it difficult to work (John Varley) at this point (Varley in the mid-late '70s was one of the writers impressing most people, except with his novels)...Kathe Koja is a friendly acquaintance of Patti's, I believe I remember correctly, and a brilliant writer. Neal Barrett, I think, was a friend of Bill Crider's as well as Joe Lansdale's, and was a brilliant writer, as much of crime fiction and of some westerns as well as fantasy and sf...
I attended Dozois's wife's wake...and would buy Dozois's used books (ones he had owned even more often than ones he wrote or edited) a fair amount at one of the Philadelphia used bookstores we both would patronize.
ix • Summation: 1989 • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • Tiny Tango • [Holy Ground Trilogy] • (1989) • novella by Judith Moffett
40 • Out of Copyright • (1989) • short story by Charles Sheffield
56 • For I Have Touched the Sky • [Kirinyaga • 3] • (1989) • novelette by Mike Resnick
78 • Alphas • (1989) • novelette by Gregory Benford
109 • At the Rialto • (1989) • novelette by Connie Willis
129 • Skin Deep • (1989) • short story by Kathe Koja
137 • The Egg • (1989) • novella by Steven Popkes
174 • Tales from the Venia Woods • [Roma Eterna] • (1989) • short story by Robert Silverberg
190 • Visiting the Dead • (1989) • short story by William King
202 • Dori Bangs • (1989) • short story by Bruce Sterling
215 • The Ends of the Earth • (1989) • novella by Lucius Shepard
267 • The Price of Oranges • (1989) • novelette by Nancy Kress
289 • Lottery Night • (1989) • novelette by S. P. Somtow
310 • A Deeper Sea • (1989) • novella by Alexander Jablokov
352 • The Edge of the World • (1989) • short story by Michael Swanwick
366 • Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man • (1989) • novelette by Robin Hobb [as by Megan Lindholm]
385 • The Third Sex • (1989) • short story by Alan Brennert
402 • Winter on the Belle Fourche • (1989) • short story by Neal Barrett, Jr.
418 • Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another • [Time Gate] • (1989) • novelette by Robert Silverberg
452 • Relationships • (1989) • short story by Robert Sampson
459 • Just Another Perfect Day • (1989) • short story by John Varley
472 • The Loch Moose Monster • [Mirabile] • (1989) • novelette by Janet Kagan
504 • The Magic Bullet • (1989) • novelette by Brian Stableford
521 • The Odd Old Bird • [Doctor Eszterhazy] • (1988) • short story by Avram Davidson
530 • Great Work of Time • (1989) • novella by John Crowley
593 • Honorable Mentions: 1989 • essay by Gardner Dozois
I hope you enjoy. In all fiction, things can get baroque and opaque as things get along...but we, of course, must Make It New.
From what you describe here, these sound like kind of a slog to get through. I always figure that one of the better stories in a compilation is going to be somewhere in the first three at the deepest, so it sounds as if this one may just not be for you or worth the time invested in getting through so many words/pages. Just not enough personal payback there. I'm quicker to toss books aside than ever before in my life...same old story: too many books, too little time left to read them.
Kathy, I do like cross genre stories, and especially science fiction blended with mystery. There are lots of kinds of science fiction, and I like some kinds more than others. And then it also depends on the author and the writing. I am not especially experienced with science fiction either. I like time travel stories and space operas, for example.
Wow, look at the wonderful cover on that book! I find Le Guin's writing to be quite variable. Some novels/stories I like, others, like her novel The Lefthand of Darkness, lose me a bit in explanations I don't understand and so the book gets a bit muddy for me. The other two stories sound very good.
Thanks, Patti. For me, science fiction often has an element of mystery about it, and I am trying to figure out what is going on as I read. The only thing I have read by Le Guin is fantasy, A Wizard of Earthsea. I hope to read some of her science fiction one day.
Todd, I don't know where I got the impression that James Patrick Kelly was a fairly new published author in 1990, but I see now that he was publishing novels in the 80s.
I look forward to trying more of the authors. Egan has stories in two of the other anthologies I bought at the yard sale, and Nancy Kress, who is also new to me, has a story in all four of them.
Thanks for adding the table of contents. I had thought of adding a list of the stories, and may do so if I feature this anthology again on the blog, but I just ran out of time.
Todd, I just noticed that the table of contents you put in your post is for the Seventh Annual Collection (in 1989) and the one I am reading is the Eighth. I saw the Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man by Robin Hobb in that list and was surprised. I will have to find that edition somehow.
Sam, these stories were not too bad, although I will be interested to see what Le Guin's other short stories are like since I did not care for the one in this anthology at all. About half the reviews I saw of this anthology praised it as having a lot of good stories and half went the other way and did not like any of the stories. There are other authors in this anthology I want to try, so I won't give up just yet.
Cath, I love that cover also. The artist did some covers for some of Anne McCaffrey's books and I have a paperback of Isaac Asimov's Foundation with a Michael Whelan cover.
It is good to hear about your experiences with Le Guin's writing. I have copies of The Lefthand of Darkness and The Lathe of Heaven, and plan to read them someday. It will be interesting.
Well, fwiw, although THE LATHE OF HEAVEN was first published (as a serial) in an sf magazine, AMAZING, in 1971, it's a fantasy, and a philosophical fantasy (unsurprising for Le Guin!), but it's a fun read. It has some mildly "techish" aspects, so one can squint and call it a science fantasy novel.
If I was going to hand one book of UKL's to a beginning reader, it would probably be her collection THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS, but THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is certainly her best-known sf novel, unless that's THE DISPOSSESSED, where she grapples with her own anarchist sympathies fairly directly.
And sorry for spacing on the date (you do write Stories From 1990, after all)...distractions were abounding, along with the nostalgia. Not to take up too much territory on your blog, but here's the TOC for the 1991 volume (and Michael Whelan has been one of my favorite illustrators over the decades as well--his covers for Gerald Page's, then Karl Edward Wagner's volumes of THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES annuals have been particularly good, as well, on balance):
Longterm favorites not previously mentioned in my comments here include Kate Wilhelm, Robert Silverberg, (Ms.) Pat Murphy and Jonathan Lethem, the best writer in the same class of '86 (albeit Lethem dropped out) as graduated Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis (it's not That tough to be a better writer than Ellis, to be sure).
Contents (view Concise Listing)
xi • Summation: 1990 • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • Mr. Boy • (1990) • novella by James Patrick Kelly
55 • The Shobies' Story • [Hainish] • (1990) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
79 • The Caress • (1990) • novelette by Greg Egan
101 • A Braver Thing • (1990) • novelette by Charles Sheffield
129 • We See Things Differently • (1989) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
147 • And the Angels Sing • (1990) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
165 • Past Magic • (1990) • short story by Ian R. MacLeod
179 • Bears Discover Fire • (1990) • short story by Terry Bisson
190 • The All-Consuming • (1990) • novelette by Robert Frazier and Lucius Shepard
213 • Personal Silence • (1990) • novelette by Molly Gloss
232 • Invaders • (1990) • novelette by John Kessel
253 • The Cairene Purse • (1990) • novella by Michael Moorcock
307 • The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk • (1990) • novelette by Dafydd ab Hugh
332 • Tower of Babylon • (1990) • novelette by Ted Chiang
354 • The Death Artist • (1990) • novelette by Alexander Jablokov
382 • The First Since Ancient Persia • (1990) • novelette by John Brunner
421 • Inertia • (1990) • novelette by Nancy Kress
447 • Learning to Be Me • (1990) • short story by Greg Egan
461 • Cibola • (1990) • short story by Connie Willis
478 • Walking the Moons • (1990) • short story by Jonathan Lethem
483 • Rainmaker Cometh • (1989) • short story by Ian McDonald
496 • Hot Sky • (1990) • short story by Robert Silverberg
517 • White City • (1990) • short story by Lewis Shiner
523 • Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates • (1990) • short story by Pat Murphy
533 • The Hemingway Hoax • (1990) • novella by Joe Haldeman
619 • Honorable Mentions: 1990 • essay by Gardner Dozois
The Bennington College class of '86 had all three in it, that is, even if Lethem relatively briefly.
The ISFDB link for this list is https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?50797
Todd, Thanks for further recommendations for Le Guin. And thanks for adding the Table of Contents. I love that those ISFDB TOCs have whether a story is a novella or novelette.
I was glad to see that there was a story from Kate Wilhelm because (if I remember correctly) I still have not read anything by her. I was also interested to see a story by Lethem, I did not know that he had written science fiction.
Coincidentally, the latest Tor newsletter has a link to a new story by James Patrick Kelly, “What It Means to Be a Car”. I haven't read it yet but I will.
Lethem was primarily an sf writer at the beginning of his professional career...as with Karen Russell, Steven Millhauser,early on Peter Beagle and William Kotzwinkle, and a slew of others, he has been largely segregated from fantastica since...
Thanks for the pointer for the new Kelly story...I remember enjoying the ab Hugh story from this anthology upon first reading it.
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