The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois

  It was a slightly stronger year for first novels this year than last year. The two first novels that attracted the most attention were Revelation Space (Gollanz), by Alastair Reynolds and Mars Crossing (Tor), by Geoffrey A. Landis. Other first novels included: Wheelers (Warner Aspect), Ian Steward and Jack Cohen; Soulsaver (Harcourt), Jams Stevens-Acre; Growing Wings (Houghton Mifflin) Laurel Winter; House of Leaves (Pantheon), Mark Z. Danielewski; Ceres Storm (Tor), David Herter; and The Glasswrights’ Apprentice (Tor), Mindy L. Klasky. As usual, all publishers who are willing to take a chance publishing first novels should be commended, since developing new talent by publishing their maiden efforts, taking a risk on writers without a proven track record, is a chance that must be taken by someone if new talent is going to be able to develop, and if the field itself is going to survive.

  Looking over these lists, it’s obvious that Tor and Eos had strong years. Once again, in spite of complaints that nobody publishes “real” science fiction anymore, the majority of novels here are center-core science fiction novels. Even omitting the fantasy novels and the borderline genre-straddling work on the list, the Anderson, the Haldeman, the Le Guin, the Baxter and Clarke, the Benford, the Goonan, the McAuley, the Banks, the Kress, the Barnes, the Reed, the McCarthy, the Stableford, the Sterling, the Reynolds, the Landis, and a half dozen others are science fiction by any even remotely reasonable definition, many of them “hard science fiction” as hard and as rigorous as it’s ever been written by anybody—in fact, despite what “they” say, I think more center-core SF has been published in the last five years or so than ever before … as well as a large range of other kinds of work, from pure fantasy to borderland SF/fantasy hybrids of a dozen different sorts.

  Like last year, 2000 was also a good year for the reissuing of long-out-of-print classic novels. The SF Masterworks reprint series, from English publisher Millennium, has been doing an excellent job over the last two years of making classic novels available to the public again, with recent titles including such seminal works as Nova, by Samuel R. Delany, Pavane, by Keith Roberts, More Than Human, by Theodore Sturgeon, Ubik, by Philip K. Dick, Non-Stop, by Brian W. Aldiss, and more than thirty other titles, every single one of which belongs in the library of any serious student of the genre. Millennium’s recently launched Fantasy Masterworks reprint series is doing an equally good job of bringing classic fantasy books such as Little, Big, by John Crowley, Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees, Fevre Dream, by George R. R. Martin, and The Land of Laughs, by Jonathan Carroll back into print, as well as doing omnibus volumes of Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” series, Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth” stories, Roger Zelazny’s “Amber Chronicles,” and L. Sprague De Camp’s “Incomplete Enchanter” books, and hard-to-find collections by writes such as Robert E. Howard, M. John Harrison, and Lord Dunsany. On this side of the Atlantic, reprint series such as Tor/Orb and Del Rey Impact, and a reprint line from Vintage are also performing invaluable services for the field by bringing long-unavailable novels back into print, including, this year, The Big Time (Tor), by Fritz Leiber, A Case of Conscience (Del Rey Impact), by James Blish, The Power (Orb), by Frank M. Robinson, The Empire of Isher (Orb), by A. E. Van Vogt, The Genocides (Vintage), by Thomas M. Disch, and many others. Ace is also reissuing classics from its backlist, such as The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin, Neuromancer, by William Gibson, and The Northern Girl, by Elizabeth A. Lynn, and Overlook Press offered an omnibus of James Blish’s famous “Okie” novels, Cities in Flight. Print-on-demand (POD) publishers are also having a big impact on making classic work available to readers again; Wildside Press (http://www.wildside.com) has already returned to easy availability (if not, technically, to print) almost all of the long-out-of-print and long-unavailable novels of writers such as R. A. Lafferty and Avram Davidson, and this is only the beginning of what should be a flood of “reissued” POD classic titles over the next few years.

  In fact, all in all, this may be the best time in decades to get your hands on long-unavailable work and fill up those holes in your library shelves with books you’ve long meant to read but couldn’t find, so be sure to take advantage of it. Most of these classic novels should be read by anybody who wants to understand the evolution of science fiction, how the genre got to where it is today, and where it’s going next—and also by anybody who just wants a lot of first-rate reading, works that have been unavailable to them before now, sometimes unavailable for decades. Get them and read them now, while you have the chance.

  (There are a lot of new POD novels available, too, too many to individually list here, many of them by first-rate SF writers such as William Sanders and Lois Tilton; check the Web sites of POD publishers such as Xlibris and Wildside and Subterranean Press and Universe for these, is my advice. Novels both old and new are also available in great numbers to either be downloaded or read online at PeanutPress, Fictionwise ElectricStory, Alexandria Digital Literature, Project Gutenberg, and many other sites.)

  My track record for predicting what novels are going to win major awards is bad enough (last year, I predicted Vernor Vinge’s Hugo win, but missed the Nebula winner completely) that I suppose I shouldn’t even try. Your guess is, obviously, as good as mine.

  Borderline SF novels this year included Bad Medicine (HarperCollins Australia), by Jack Dann, a wonderfully crafted and keenly observed “road” novel about two old men setting off for a last adventure—and a last chance for knowledge and self-discovery—on the edge of life: mostly “mainstream,” but with a few strong fantastic touches here and there to add spice; and the comic The Man of Maybe Half-a-Dozen Faces (St. Martin’s), by Ray Vuckcevich. Mystery novels by SF writers included Deepest Water (St. Martin’s), by Kate Wilhelm. and Bleeding Heart (Berkeley), by Mary Rosenblum, writing as “Mary Freeman.”

  It was another good year for short-story collections, as it has been for the past several years now. The year’s best collections included Tales of Old Earth (North Atlantic/Tachyon), by Michael Swanwick; Beluthahatchie and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon), by Andy Duncan; Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon), by Neal Barrett, Jr.; Moon Dogs (NESFA Press), by Michael Swanwick; Worlds Vast and Various (Eos), by Gregory Benford; Strange Travelers (Tor), by Gene Wolfe; Blue Kansas Sky (Golden Gryphon), by Michael Bishop; Terminal Visions (Golden Gryphon), by Richard Paul Russo; The Perseids and Other Stories (Tor), by Robert Charles Wilson; Night Moves and Other Stories (Subterranean Press), by Tim Powers; and In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (Tor), by Terry Bisson.

  Other good collections included: High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale (Golden Gryphon), by Joe R. Lansdale; Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories (Edgewood Press), by James Blaylock; Kafka Americana (Subterranean Press), by Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz; In the Stone House (Arkham House), by Barry N. Malzberg; Sister Emily’s Lightship and Other Stories (Tor), by Jane Yolen; Blackwater Days (Eidolon), by Terry Dowling; Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary (Dragon Press), by Michael Swanwick; Travel Arrangements (Gollancz), by M. John Harrison; Gnarl! (Four Walls Eight Windows), by Rudy Rucker; In Space No One Can Hear You Laugh (Farthest Star SF), by Mike Resnick; The Death Artist (Dream Haven), by Dennis Etchison; Tagging the Moon (Night Shade), by S. P. Somtow; and Triskell Tales (Subterranean Press), by Charles de Lint.

  The year also featured strong retrospective collections such as The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume VII: Saucer of Loneliness (North Atlantic), by Theodore Sturgeon; Selected Stories (Vintage), by Theodore Sturgeon; The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 2: Music of Many Spheres (NESFA Press), by Hal Clement, edited by Mark L. Olsen and Anthony R. Lewis; The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (NESFA Press), by Hal Clement, edited by Mark L. Olsen and Anthony R. Lewis; Meet Me in Infinity (Tor), by James Tiptree, Jr.; Telzey Amberdon (Baen), by James H. Schmitz, edited by Eric Flint; T’n’T: Telzey & Trigger (Baen), by James H. Schmitz, edited by Eric Flint; The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Three: Wi
zard’s Isle (Haffner Press), by Jack Williamson; The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations: The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume I (Night Shade Books) by Manly Wade Wellman; Hell on Earth: The Lost Bloch Volume Two (Subterranean Press), by Robert Bloch; The Yellow Sign and Other Tales (Chaosium), by Robert W. Chambers; and Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russell (NESFA Press), by Eric Frank Russell. And although it contains a number of mainstream stories as well as SF and fantasy, Davidson fans will certainly want Everybody Has Somebody In Heaven: Essential Jewish Tales of the Spirit (Pitspopany Press), by the late Avram Davidson, edited by Jack Dann and Grania Davis, which collects some of Davidson’s rarest and hardest-to-find early stories, as well as some later classics like “The Golem” and “Goslin Day.”

  As you can see, small-press publishers remain vital to the publication of short-story collections, with new publisher Golden Gryphon Press particularly distinguishing itself, following in the footsteps of its founder, the late Jim Turner; NESFA Press, Tachyon, North Atlantic, and other small presses also brought a lot of good work to the public this year that otherwise might never have been seen again. Regular trade publishers, though, do seem to be doing more collections these days than in years past, and a special nod should be given to Tor, which has probably published more collections in the past couple of years than any other trade publisher.

  Print-on-demand publishers are becoming important suppliers of short-story collections. Mike Resnick had one POD collection last year, A Safari of the Mind from Wildside Press, and he had another one out this year, a collection of his stories in collaboration with Nick DiChario, Magic Feathers: The Mike & Nick Show(Obscura Press). Wildside Press also published The Sweet and Sour Tongue: Stories by Leslie What, by Leslie What, Without Absolution, by Amy Sterling Casil, and Nightscapes: Tales of the Ominous and Magical, by Darrell Schweitzer this year. And there are many more POD collections on the way for next year, from Wildside and from other POD publishers as well.

  Another rapidly developing source of collections, at least of the downloadable “electronic collection” variety, are online fiction sites. “Collections” by Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, Damon Knight, Kage Baker, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Tom Purdom, John Kessel, James Patrick Kelly, for instance, and many others, are available to be downloaded for a fee at Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com), and ibooks (http://www.ibooksinc.com) also “published” (promulgated? We need new terminology for this!) downloadable electronic collections by Robert Silverberg, Alfred Bester, and others this year. And more such sites are on the way.

  As very few small-press titles will be findable in the average bookstore, or even in the average chain superstore, that means that mail order is still your best bet, and so I’m going to list the addresses of the small-press publishers mentioned above: NESFA Press, P.O. Box 809, Framinghan, MA 01701-0809-$25 for Moon Dogs, by Michael Swanwick; $25 for The Essential Hal Clement, Volume Two: Music of Many Spheres, by Hal Clement, $25 for The Essential Hal Clement, Volume Three: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton, by Hal Clement; $29 for Major Ingredients: The Selected Short Stories of Eric Frank Russell, by Eric Frank Russell; Golden Gryphon Press, 364 West Country Lane, Collinsville, IL 62234-$23.95 for Beluthahatchie and Other Stories, by Andy Duncan, $21.95 for Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories, by Neal Barrett, Jr; $24.95 for Blue Kansas Sky, by Michael Bishop; $23.95 for Terminal Visions, by Richard Paul Russo; $23.95 for High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale, by Joe R. Lansdale; North Atlantic Books, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA, 94701–$25 for Tales of Old Earth, by Michael Swanwick; $30 for The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume VII: Saucer of Loneliness, by Theodore Sturgeon; Pitspopany Press, 40 East 78th St., Suite 16D, New York, NY 10021–$24.95 for Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven: Essential Jewish Tales of the Spirit, by Avram Davidson; Edgewood Press, P.O. Box 380264, Cambridge, MA 02238-$25 for Thirteen Phantasms and Other Stories, by James Blaylock; Wildside Press, P.O. Box 45, Gillette, NJ 07933-0045-$13.95 for The Sweet and Sour Tongue Stories by Leslie What, by Leslie What; $15 for Without Absolution, by Amy Sterling Casil; $16 for Nightscapes: Tales of the Ominous and Magical, by Darrell Schweitzer; Farthest Star SF, 65 Macedonia Road, Alexander, NC 28701-$16.95 for In Space No One Can Hear You Laugh, by Mike Resnick; Obscura Press, P.O. Box 1992, Ames, Iowa 50010-1992-$12.95 for Magic Feathers: The Mike 6 Nick Show, by Mike Resnick & Nick DiChario; Eidolon Publications, PO Box 225, North Perth, Western Australia 6906—$A22.95 for Blackwater Days, by Terry Dowling; Haffner Press, 5005 Crooks Rd., Suite 35, Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239-$32 plus $5.00 postage for The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Three: Wizard’s Isle; Night Shade Books, 563 Scott #304, San Francisco, CA 94117-$35 for The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations: The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, by Manly Wade Wellman; $25 for Tagging the Moon, by S. P. Somtow;. Subterranean Press, P.O. Box 190106, Burton, MI 48519-$40 for Hell on Earth: The Lost Bloch Volume Two, by Robert Bloch; $40 for Night Moves and Other Stories, by Tim Powers; $40 for Triskel Tales, by Charles de Lint—$40 for Kafka Americana, by Jonathan Lethem and Carter Scholz (although this last title appears to be currently out-of-stock); Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570—$8 for Puck Aleshire’s Abecedary, by Michael Swanwick; Arkham House, PO Box 546, Sauk City, WI 53583-$25.95 for In the Stone House, by Barry N. Malzberg; DreamHaven Books, 912 W. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408-$30 plus $4.75 postage for The Death Artist, by Dennis Etchison; Wizard’s Attic, 900 Murmansk St., Suite 7, Oakland, CA 94608-$19.95 for The Yellow Sign and Other Tales, by Robert W. Chambers.

  The year 2000 was somewhat slender in the reprint anthology field, with fewer books overall and fewer really worthwhile ones than last year, although there were still a few good values here and there.

  The best bets for your money in this category, as usual, were the various Best of the Year anthologies, and the annual Nebula Award anthology, Nebula Awards Showcase 2000 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), edited by Gregory Benford (note the title change; last year’s volume was titled Nebula Awards 33, and we would have expected this one to be Nebula Awards 34, but instead they flew in the face of decades of tradition and called it Nebula Awards Showcase 2000 instead; wonder what next year’s volume will be called?). As has been true for several years now, science fiction is being covered by two Best of the Year anthology series, the one you are holding in your hand, and the Year’s Best SF series (HarperPrism), edited by David G. Hartwell, now up to its sixth annual volume. Once again, there were two Best of the Year anthologies covering horror in 2000: the latest edition in the British series The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (Robinson, Caroll & Graff), edited by Stephen Jones, now up to Volume Eleven, and the Ellen Datlow half of a huge volume covering both horror and fantasy, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin’s Press), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, this year up to its Thirteenth Annual Collection. This year, for the first time since Art Saha’s Year’s Finest Fantasy series died, fantasy will be being covered by two Best of the Year anthologies, by the Windling half of the Datlow/Windling anthology, and by a new Fantasy Best of the Year annual being edited by David G. Hartwell and Katherine Cramer.

  The best retrospective reprint SF anthology of the year was probably The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 2 (Tor), edited by Frederik Pohl, the second volume in a series collecting the work of writers who have won SFWA’s Grand Master Award, this year featuring classic work by Isaac Asimov, Andre Norton, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and Alfred Bester. A look back over the history of the Writers of the Future contest can be found in L. Ron Hubbard Presents the Best of Writers of the Future (Bridge), edited by Algis Budrys. And historic overviews of the evolution of SF over the last fifty years is provided in Explorers: SF Adventures to Far Horizons (St. Martin’s Griffin) and The Furthest Horizon: SF Adventure to the Far Future (St. Martin’s Griffin), both edited by Gardner Dozois, and noted without further comment.

  The only “regional” anthology I spotte
d this year was the Canadian retrospective Aurora Awards: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Science Fiction & Fantasy (Out of This World), edited by Edo van Belkom. An anthology of science fiction poetry is to be found in The 2000 Rhysling Anthology (SFPA/Stone Lightning Press).

  Noted without comment are Aliens Among Us (Ace), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, Isaac Asimov’s Mother’s Day (Ace), edited by Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams, and Isaac Asimov’s Utopias (Ace), edited by Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams.

  There didn’t seem to be many reprint fantasy anthologies this year. One well worth looking into, though, is the follow-up to last year’s popular anthology My Favorite Science Fiction Story; this one is called My Favorite Fantasy Story (DAW), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, in which famous fantasy writers are asked to select their favorite fantasy story, and explain why, with fascinating results; writers whose stories were picked included Jack Vance, Charles de Lint, Robert Bloch, and M. R. James. Another reprint fantasy anthology, this one of “comic fantasy,” was Knights of Madness (Ace), edited by Peter Haining, which featured work by Woody Allen, Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolfe, and Terry Prachett, among others.

  Other than the above-mentioned “Best” anthologies by Stephen Jones and Datlow & Windling, there don’t seem to be a lot of reprint horror anthologies anthologies anymore, although since I no longer follow the horror market closely, I might have missed them. The most prominent horror reprint anthology I saw this year was the retrospective Arkham’s Masters of Horror (Arkham House), edited by Peter Ruber. Another one I spotted was My Favorite Horror Story (DAW), edited by Mike Baker and Martin H. Greenberg, the horror version of the fantasy anthology described above. Other reprint horror anthologies included The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories (Robinson), edited by Peter Haining, and The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1 (Penguin/Roc), edited by Richard T. Chizmar.