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The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2011 Edition
Thіѕ third volume οf thе year’s best science fiction аnd fantasy features thirty tаlеѕ bу ѕοmе οf thе genre’s greatest authors, including Carol Emshwiller, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, Paul Park, RJ Parker, Robert Reed, Rachel Swirsky, Peter Watts, Gene Wolfe, аnd many others. Selecting thе best fiction frοm Asimov’s, F&SF, Wеіrd Horizons, Subterranean, Tor.com, аnd οthеr top venues, Thе Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy іѕ уουr guide tο magical realms аnd worlds beyond tomorrow.Thіѕ thi
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Science Fiction and its Weird Bedfellow,
Rich Horton assembles a mixed best-of-the-year bag containing both science fiction and fantasy. The collection includes nineteen small tales, four novelettes, and five novella-length tales. Here is a unevenly equal balance between the two genres, with a few tales of uncertain classification.
My tastes run to science fiction, so four of my five favorites are from this group. They are:
Yoon Ha Lee’s “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” gets my vote for the best tale of the year. A woman guards an ancient stick that can remove pieces of the past. Large pieces. The dialogue between the two main font is reminiscent of the book-long bar discussion in The January Dancer.
Amal El-Mohtar’s “The Green Book” presents excerpts from an unusual book that corresponds with some of its readers. Read it if you like books.
Peter Watts’ “The Things” is a retelling of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from the perspective of… well, the thing. That poor thing.
Robert Reed’s “Dead Man’s Run” is a murder mystery complicated by the continuing existence of the murdered man’s backup made to handle routine phone calls. Of course it has all of his friends’ cell phone numbers.
Damien Broderick’s “Under the Moons of Venus” is easily the weirdest science fiction tale in the collection. A man tries to stay on most of the human race to Venus. But he can’t reasonably find a ride.
This is a reasonably excellent collection and worth the reader’s time and engagement. I’ll admit that reading the fantasy tales temporarily pushed me out of my science fiction rut. Not a terrible thing, nor unenjoyed.
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|Excellent SciFi reading,
As a regular buyer of Gardner Dozois ‘Year’s Best of’ series every year, I needed another series to get my fix for the rest of the year. With a Kindle, I was amazed that not only was it lower price, but I had it on the Kindle in less than 10 seconds – must have had a lot of network congestion that day, normally it is quicker.
Some of the tales are repeats from Gardner Dozois series, but here are many new writers that I had not read before. I do like this way of seeing what is out here every year, and like the Kindle.
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|Not a excellent tale selection,
If you like straight forwards science fiction and fantasy, you probably won’t like this collection. The tales chosen seem to be selected for public who like a more literary critical, pretentious style of writing. Fortunately, science fiction and fantasy generally haven’t been infected with that disease to a fantastic extent, but this collection certainly has.
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