From: dstein@oak.math.ucla.edu (David Stein)
Subject: The Year's Best SCIENCE FICTION
Summary: Buy it  
Keywords:  Dozoi's 9th collection
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 03:43:10 GMT


   Hell, I might as well post the review, as I wonder if I'll ever
really finish it.  So here you go.  Not a final version, and it lacks 
an afterword and a full explanation of the ratings. 

( I = the SF idea; E = the SF execution; W = writing; C = content )
( I&E relate directly to SF, W&C are independent of SF elemets.   )
( Scale:  * exceptional  + noticable  - average or worse  & ouch  )

*** [ Comments & corrections are _very_ appreciated. ] ***

---------------------------------------------------------------------



	The Year's Best SCIENCE FICTION
	Ninth Annual Collection
	Edited by Gardner Dozois


   What used to be the best is now the only collection of the previous
   year's short fiction in the SF magazine and anthology field.  
   Wollheim is dead, and so is his collection, The Orbit SF Yearbook 
   is gone, and some time ago Terry Carr's annual collection disappeared 
   as well.  This is a sorry state of affairs, as I think that short 
   fiction forms the backbone of the SF field, and as I know that any 
   single collection is bound to miss a jewel or two.

   Therefore, before I get to the nitty gritty, let me say that Gardner
   Dozois's collection is a _must_ for any serious SF reader, and that
   few will be completely disapointed.

   Dozois' collection is massive (27 stories) and Dozois' editorial 
   hand is well-established via his reign over IASFM.  There are, 
   however, worrysome indications that Dozois might be burning out. 
   (Something hardly suprising considering that this is his ninth 
   collection, and that in the meantime he's editing IASFM.)

   Consider the Summation section.

   First, Dozois repeats himself, year after year, without regard for 
   the sanity of his regular readers.  How many times will I have to 
   read the "...nobody can complain if I only say positive things about 
   the competition..." paragraph? 

   Second, Dozois tries to make the Summation all-inclusive, which leads
   him to babble about areas of little SF interest (like movies), which 
   in turn makes the Summation bloated and tiring to read. Since he admits 
   he has little time to do anything else then read the short fiction, I 
   would prefer he stuck to it. 
   
   Despite the above shortcomings Dozois is still informative on the general 
   state of the SF market.


   Now the stories:


  Beggars in Spain
  Nancy Kress
  I* E+ W+ C*

  The setting is the near future, where basic genetic programming
  can now be done for unborn children. Roger Camden, a self-made 
  billionaire, pressures his way into a secret and experimental 
  research project to obtain an otherwise unavailable modification 
  for his daughter-to-be:  the elimination of the need to sleep.

  The story follows this child, Leisha, and through her the fate 
  of other early "sleepless" ones.  It is soon evident that they are
  profoundly different from normal children--and, in many aspects,
  superior.

  At the core of "Beggars in Spain" lies the fear and jealousy that 
  permeates the relationship between those who have a fundamental 
  advantage and those who do not, and the precarious balance that needs 
  to be struck for a society to function if these two are to live side 
  by side.  One of the strong points of the story is that I found myself
  arguing not with the author, but with the characters.  Where many other
  authors would either preach or hide behind vague, noncommittal statements,
  Nancy Kress intrudes only by setting up the situations and challenges
  her characters encounter.

  The choice of "Beggars in Spain" to lead off the collection was well made.
  Whatever the opinion of the story as a whole might be, a true sf reader
  will be drawn in and left transfixed by the story--something every 
  first selection should do.
   

  Living Will
  Alexander Jablokov
  I+ E- W+ C+

  Jablokov has proved himself a solid story writer, one who creates 
  strong characters and puts them in well-constructed sf environments.  
  Here he executes a startling idea--the way a computer is put to use 
  by an old man in early stages of Alzheimer's disease--to its logical
  end.


  A Just and Lasting Peace
  Lois Tilton
  I- E- W+ C-

  This is SF only via a tagged-on ending that embarrasses an otherwise 
  OK story of a post-Civil War South under the yoke of a particularly 
  repressive and vengeful Yankee command.  


  Skinner's Room
  William Gibson
  I- E- W* C-

  Gibson has a cute idea: the homeless taking over the Golden Gate
  Bridge.  It is his chiseled prose that makes this venture so
  enjoyable, as he presents a glimpse into the life of the bridge 
  community, and infuses it with dreamy evocations of "how it all 
  began."


  Prayers on the Wind 
  Walter Jon Williams
  I- E+ W+ C+

  Williams keeps on surprising me with his wide-ranging and intriguing
  stories.  In this one he depicts a colorful future earth governed 
  by a Buddhist theocracy which is on the verge of a conflict with an
  alien race--whose first ambassador has just arrived and the impressions
  she will communicate back might make a difference between peace and war.   
  Written in the best tradition of sf-fantasy, I suspect Williams, 
  considering his other stories, can succeed in any genre he picks.
  

  Blood Sisters
  Greg Egan
  I+ E- W- C-

  Greg Egan turns out stories based on worthwhile premises but
  he lacks the writing skills and imagination equal to his task.
  It is with authors like Egan, those who show promise but so far
  fail, that a true SF genre reader can be recognized.  If you 
  are one, your reaction will be to contemplate how the story 
  could have been improved; if you are not, you will feel you 
  have wasted your time.


  The Dark
  Katherine J. Fowler
  I- E- W+ C+

  This modern day twist on Mowgli, written from the viewpoint of a 
  distanced character, is only marginally SF, but it will nevertheless 
  intrigue and puzzle the reader.  And unlike a number of other recent 
  SF stories, it uses the 60's and the Vietnam War without sentimental 
  or banal affectation.


  Marnie
  Ian R. MacLeod
  I- E- W+ C-

  Dozois compares MacLeod to Egan as the "Hottest New Writer of the 
  Nineties to date".  Unlike Egan, MacLeod is already a sound writer, 
  and his last year's _Past Magic_ was a fine SF story.  This time 
  the writing was the only part that kept me reading.  The idea for 
  the story was conventional; little reason was given to care about 
  the characters, and there were no explicit sf elements.


  A Tip on a Turtle
  Robert Silveberg
  I- E- W+ C-

  Silveberg has a chance to make it into all of the first ten YBSF 
  collections, having already appeared in the first nine.  His
  only competition, Bruce Sterling, got burned this year after
  eight years of contention.  I haven't seen a truly bad story
  by either writer, despite their productivity.  But I _have_ seen
  a number of Silveberg stories, including this one, which may be
  entertaining or though provoking, but which fail to have a lasting 
  impact, the way _Enter a Soldier_ had.  
    _A Tip on a Turtle_ has weaknesses similar to _Marnie_--it adds 
  nothing new to a conventional idea, it lacks engaging characters, 
  and there are no sf elements to pickup genre brownie points.


  Ubermensch!
  Kim Newman
  I- E- W- C-

  This peculiar satire assumes Superman landed in Bavaria instead of 
  Oklahoma (or wherever), and became a Nazi super-hero.  I'm not sure 
  what the point is.


  Dispatches from Revolution
  Pat Cadigan
  I- E- W+ C-
  
  Hmmm, yet another alternative 60's yarn, this time an apocalyptic
  fantasy, politically speaking.  The redeeming part is the myriad of 
  voices that Cadigan convincingly crafts together as we read excerpts 
  from samizdats and dissident press.  The 60's atmosphere of confusion, 
  and the subsequent (hypothetical) feel of the protest generation 
  gone underground emanates from these voices.  But the whole thing
  is still hard to take in earnest.


  Pipes
  Robert Reed
  I- E- W& C-
  
  A worthwhile point in the ongoing environmental debate--that
  rather then saving nature from humanity we need to find a place
  for humanity in nature--is being made, or rather being 
  obscured, by this dull and flimsy effort.  The characters
  are manipulated so that both their speech and actions lack
  credibility, and this is true of the story developments in 
  general.  


  Matter's End
  Gregory Bendford
  I- E+ W- C+

  Ever since _Timescape_, Benford manages to frustrate me repeatedly 
  by his show of promise but lack of delivery.  Here he presents
  a nightmarish landscape of near-future India on the bring of an 
  environmental and social meltdown, shows an engrossing snapshot of a 
  local physics research facility in midst of an important discovery 
  documenting proton decay, staffs it with believable yet decidedly 
  non-ordinary scientists committed to their work despite the 
  increasingly hostile attitude facing them, 
  and,... 
         -- and then he takes it nowhere, or rather where many  
  (like Clarke) have gone before.  Worse, he ends up suspended in 
  the void his gimmick creates, unable to attach any meaning to 
  the result, or even derive some energy from it.


  A History of the Twentieth Century, With Illustrations
  Kim Stanley Robinson
  I- E- W+ C*

    In 1996, Frank Churchill is asked to start writing a coffee 
  table book on the history of the 20th century.  As he looks 
  back to the beginning of the century, he sees nothing that
  would indicate the slaughter of WW1.  And a slaughter it was,
  though it was entered quite cheerfully at first by its victims.  
  Thinking of the Vietnam memorial, Churchill realizes that the 
  British lost that many soldiers every month or two, for 
  fifty-one months.  As he continues with his research, Churchill 
  can't help concentrating on wars, genocides and other mass murders.  
  He notes that the `cold' war period cost about 15-20 million lives 
  over the years.  And he starts paying more attention to the news, 
  noticing that old conflicts still rage and that the recently fresh
  democracies are crumbling. 

    Depressed from his findings, he comes upon an old heavy book
  with a name no other then _A History of the Nineteenth Century, 
  With Illustrations_.  In it, on the last page, he reads:

	I believe that Man is good. I believe that we stand at the
	dawn of a century that will be more peaceful and prosperous 
        than any in history.

  The implications are clear, as we are once again told that a lasting 
  peace and prosperity are possible, that history the way we know it 
  has ended.  How Churchill deals with his assignment and his depression,
  I will let the readers follow on their own.  I found the second half
  less engrossing the the first, but no less important in its content.

    The story is only marginally science fiction.  Yes, Robinson is 
  perfectly justified in moving it a few years into the future, 
  closer to the end of the century.  But he looks back, into *our* 
  past, the way it *was*, not might have been.  The connections to
  the future are provided by the implications of the past, and by
  the correspondences between our present and the turn of the last
  century.  


  Gene Wars
  Paul McAuley
  I+ E+ W+ C-

    This funny, action-packed short-short scans in ten 
  paragraph-long bio-sections the life of Evan, who happens 
  to be there when the genetic revolution *really* takes off.  
  Shades of Rudy Rucker here.


  The Gallery of his Dreams
  Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  I- E- W- C-

    Technically science-fiction,  a wish-fullfilment fantasy
  in spirit, this story follows the Civil War photographer Mathew
  Brady through his life as he chronicles the Civil War _and_
  conflicts we never knew he covered.... 


  A Walk in the Sun
  Geoffrey A. Landis
  I+ E@ W@ C-

    What might have been a good hard sci-fi gimmick story turns
  in the hands of Landis into a catastrophe that will surely earn
  him another Hugo this year (hey, he has a Ph.D. in physics, so he 
  must know what he writes, right?).  The protagonist, together with
  her hallucinations, is drawn so unrealistically she is laughable.  
  Worse, however, is that Landis's solution of the problem--a lone 
  astronaut on the moon in a sunlight powered space-suit has to wait 
  one month for a rescue party--breaks down under scrutiny.  Landis
  completely ignores even the most common-sense objections.  Less
  obvious is that the whole set-up of the story, so that the astronaut
  can get into her troubles in the first place, is quite suspect on
  technical and logistical grounds as well.  I assume Landis knows
  about the above difficulties with the sf in the story, but he also
  knows he can get away with it.


  Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria
  Ian McDonald
  I- E- W@ C@

    A horribly overwritten piece of nonsense.  Will probably
  impress many people.


  Angels In Love
  Kathe Koja
  I@ E@ W- C@

    After jerking off night after night to her neighbor's 
  fucking noises, she finally musters enough courage to
  come by and join the fun. (No, not the author, but her
  protagonist.)  This story has no place in this collection, 
  nor in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror collection by the 
  same publisher.  These two related anthologies should not 
  print the same stories, in my humble opinion.  That they 
  did do so with _this_ story is either a sign of the editors' 
  insanity, or of humor.  You choose.
  

  Eyewall
  Rick Shelley
  I- E? W- C-

    Experiments on Triton using nuclear explosions in a scheme
  to battle hurricanes come-up against opposition from the locals 
  who object on principle or from fear to the use of atomic weapons.  
  Earnest but unexceptional.


  Pogrom
  James Patrick Kelly
  I+ E+ W+ C*

    As usual, Kelly places flesh-and-blood characters with 
  regular human concerns in a well-drawn future scenario.
  Concerned with the backlash we might expect if we continue to 
  live at the expense of the future generation, the story is told 
  from a point-of-view of a secure senior citizen who fails, or 
  refuses, to realize the impact of her actions because she does 
  not understand the youngsters around her who live in a much 
  harsher world then she grew up in, and because, ultimately, 
  she can't admit any responsibility for their condition. 
  

  The Moat
  Greg Egan
  I+ E- W- C-

    Another one from Egan.  Here he succeeds in going beyond 
  the limited scope of an sf gimmick as he links a growing trend 
  towards isolation and selfishness in his native Australia
  with a disturbing possibility of exclusivity as fundamental
  as your DNA.


  Voices
  Jack Dann
  I- E- W- C-

    Dann co-edited several fantasy anthologies with Dozois, which 
  does not make me very happy given that this story, about a guy 
  who claims he talks to dead people, has no reason to be here.  
  It's really just straight fiction, though nowhere as close to
  interesting as Robinson's entry.


  FOAM
  Brian W. Aldiss
  I- E+ W+ C+

    You might read FOAM as a kind of postscript to "A History of
  the Twentieth Century, With Illustrations".  Where there is
  an implicit pessimism sounded by Robinson, Aldiss makes it
  explicit on both the external (British and European) and 
  internal (the narrator's) level.  Where Robinson tries to 
  understand history, Aldiss concerns himself with the way 
  the past is forgotten, on both the personal and universal 
  scale.  The title, FOAM, stands for "Free of all Memory". 
  

  Jack
  Connie Willis
  I- E- W- C-

    This could have been an enjoyable yarn, though of different
  genre then science fiction.  But somewhere during the story 
  Connie loses touch with her material and gets distracted by 
  little tricks like the irritating triple signifier "Jack" of
  the title.


  La Macchina
  Chris Beckett
  I- E- W+ C-

    The subject is soul and robots, as the narrator, standing in 
  front of Michelangelo's unfinished _Captives_ in Florence, hears 
  someone say to him from behind "This is my favorite, too", and 
  when he turns, he sees only a robot security guard.  Later, he 
  is persuaded to go to the police--robots are not supposed to 
  behave this way.  It is his subsequent visit to the Bordello Sano, 
  staffed entirely by "sinteticas", that makes him to reconsider his 
  ideas about robots.  
    Showing little regard to technical detail amid its Italian 
  setting and sensibilities, there is a pleasant lightness to this 
  tale.


  One Perfect Morning, With Jackals
  Mike Resnick
  I- E- W+ C-

    As a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, this Kirinyaga story fits
  perfectly.  It takes us back to Kenya, where Koriba is about 
  to emigrate and start a tribal space colony, the subject of 
  the usual Kirinyaga stories.


  Desert Rain
  Mark L. Van Name & Pat Murphy
  I- E+ W* C+

    The collection closes with the most satisfying and well-
  written story of the bunch.  Pat Murphy, whose excellent 
  _Rachel in Love_ won the Nebula a few years ago, you should 
  know.  Van Name, however, is a new writer I have never heard
  of, and whose solo effort I would like to see.  

    The story follows a relationship between a sculptor stranded 
  in the cultural desert of Arizona to where she followed her 
  husband, and the experimental computer system he, a computer 
  researcher, installs in the house.  Hmmm..., I guess you just 
  have to read it on your own it to see why it's such a delight.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'm not sure what I wrote.
Flames will be ignored unless you post them in perfect Czech.
================================ - David (the metamathician) - ===
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written