The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois

  Spec-Lit, Speculative Fiction, No. I, edited by Phyllis Eisenstein, is the first of a projected series of anthologies that collects student work from Eisenstein's writing class at Columbia College in Chicago-this doesn't sound very promising, I know, but the standard of work turns out to be surprisingly high, and if there's nothing really first-rate here, there is competent professional-level work by George Alan, Tom Traub, Sam Weller, and others (for Spec-Lit, No. I, send $6.95 to Fiction Writing Department, Columbia College Chicago, 600 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60605-1996; make checks payable to Columbia College Chicago). Similar ground is covered in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XIII, edited by Dave Wolverton (Bridge), which, as usual, presents novice work by beginning writers, some of whom may later turn out to be important talents.

  There was another small-press anthology out late this year, Alternate Skiffy, edited by Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, but it didn't arrive here in time to make my copy deadline, so I'll save consideration of it for next year.

  There seemed to be few shared-world anthologies this year. The few I saw included: Star Wars: Tales from the Empire, edited by Peter Schweighoffer (Bantam Spectra); Highwaymen: Robbers and Rogues, by Jennifer Roberson (DAW); Swords of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar, edited by Mercedes Lackey (DAW); More Than Honor (Baen), stories set in the "Honor Harrington" universe; and Bolos 4: Last Stand, edited by Bill Fawcett (Baen).

  People are waiting impatiently for Starlight 2, which should be one of the big anthologies of 1998. There's also a big original SF anthology of stories by Australian writers being put together by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb that we'll be keeping an eye out for, and it'll be interesting to see if an edition of George Zebrowski's long-delayed anthology series Synergy actually is published by White Wolf in 1998 ... and/or another edition of New Worlds. Other than those, there are no other SF original anthology series even potentially in the works, as far as I know. A "hard science" anthology of original stories about space habitats, edited by Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski, originally scheduled to come out in late 1997 or early 1998, has now been pushed back into mid-1999. And, of course, there's another flock of Greenberg-edited theme anthologies on the horizon as well.

  There were some good fantasy anthologies this year, although none as preeminent or dominating as such big fantasy anthologies of recent years as Immortal Unicorn or After the King. With the exception of the nearly-impossible-to-find Future Histories, the overall level of quality of the stories in the fantasy anthologies-or at least in the best of them-was higher than the overall level of the science fiction anthologies too, a sad commentary on the SF original anthology field.

  The best fantasy anthology of the year was probably The Horns of Elfland, edited by Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, and Donald G. Keller (Roo, an anthology of music-themed stories similar to last year's Space Opera, although on the whole it covers the territory better than Space Opera did (although lacking the Peter S. Beagle novelia that was the king piece of that anthology, and the main reason to buy it). The Horns of Elfland is an eclectic anthology, perhaps too much so for some readers tastes, especially in the kinds of music it covers there's little or nothing in the book about rock 'n' roll, for instance, and although the most typical kind of music dealt with here is Celtic music of one sort or another (if you had to pick background music to play while you read that would be the most representative of the overall mood of the book, your best bet would probably be someone like Enya or De Danann), there are also stories featuring opera, English bell ringing, church choir shape-note singing, bawdy house piano music, rap, and Cajun music. The stories themselves are similarly eclectic, mixing several types of fantasy, mainstream, and very mild horror; the dominant literary mood here is quiet, low-key, lyrical in a hushed sort of way-much the same as the music of Enya, in fact. Oddly, the very best stories here, Terri Windling's "The Color of Angels," Susan Palwick's "Aida in the Park," and Lucy Sussex's "Merlusine," either have no fantastic element at all, or, in the case of the Windling, a fantastic element so muted and in-the-background as to be almost subliminal. The fantastic elements in the rest of the stories are also usually somewhat muted-there are few obvious Wonders here, with locations mostly restricted to present-day settings, and magic often kept well in the background-although the overall line-by-line level of literary craftsmanship in the book is extremely high. The anthology also contains good work by Gene Wolfe, Roz Kaveney, Ellen Kushner, Elizabeth A. Wein, Jane Emerson, and others.

  The Magic is a little bit more up front in another of the year's best fantasy anthologies, Black Swan, White Raven, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Avon), the latest in their long and acclaimed series of anthologies of retold fairy tales. This is also a mixed anthology of fantasy and horror, although there seems to be less horror than in some of the other books in the series, which is why I'm considering it in the fantasy section rather than the horror section. The fantastic elements here are usually a good deal less muted and subliminal than in The Horns of Elfland; although some of these stories are quiet lyrical fantasies, most are painted in brighter primary colors, and there are only a few modern settings, most of the fantasy stories pretty clearly taking place in Fairy Tale Territory. What horror there is here is a good deal stronger and sharper as well (although still mild by the gory standards of today's most extreme work), and there's more humor, including a story by Midori Snyder that manages to be both funny and strongly erotic at the same time, a rare combination. There are good stories by John Crowley, Nancy Kress, Jane Yolen, Harvey Jacobs, Gregory Frost, Esther M. Friesner, Susanna Clarke, Karen Joy Fowler, and others, including the above-mentioned Midori Synder story.

  The year's other prominent fantasy anthology is Bending the Landscape: Fantasy, edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Page) (White Wolf Borealis). Ostensibly an anthology of gay-themed stories in which "queer writers write fantasy for the first time, and genre writers explore queer characters," many of the stories really don't deal centrally with homosexual themes at all, instead turning out to be stories whose central characters just happen to be gay, with no great emphasis placed on this fact and no great fuss made about it-which makes this book a lot less polemic-heavy and angst-laden than some books aimed at the gay audience. There's a fair range of different kinds of fantasy offered here as well there's also a strong science fiction story, Carolyn Ives Cilman's "Frost Painting"-although Bending the Landscape: Fantasy tends to shade off on one end of its spectrum more toward magic realism or literary surrealism of various sorts than does the stuff in Black Swan, White Raven or even The Horns ofelfland. The best work here includes the above-mentioned story by Carolyn Ives Gilman, as well as stories by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, Holly Wade Matter, M. W. Kelper, Robin Wayne Bailey, Leslie what, Kim Antieats, and others. This is the first book in a projected anthology series, but the series has been dropped by White Wolf-it will be continued in 1998 by Overlook Press.

  Other fantasy anthologies this year included a big mixed original and reprint anthology of Arthurian stories, The Chronicles of the Round Table, edited by Mike Ashley (Carroll & Graf), which featured interesting work by old Arthur hands such as Parke Godwin and Phyllis Ann Karr, as well as by authors you don't usually associate with Arthuriana, such as Eliot Fintushel and Brian Stableford; Swords and Sorceress XV, edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley (DAW); and several anthologies of competent but largely unexceptional work, including Elf Fantastic (DAW) and Wizard Fantastic (DAW), both edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Tarot Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Lawrence Schimel (DAW), and Zodiac Fantastic, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and A. R. Morlan (DAW).

  I don't follow the horror field closely these days, but it seemed as if the most prominent original horror anthologies of the year probably included Revelations edited by Douglas E. Winter (Harperprism); Love in Vein II, edited by Poppy Z. Brite and Martin H. Greenberg (Harperprism); Dark Terrors 3, edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton (Goilancz); The Mammoth Book of Dr
acula, edited by Stephen Jones (Robinson/Raven); Gothic Ghosts, edited by Wendy Webb and Charles Grant (Tor); and Wild Women, edited by Melissa Mia Hall (Carroll & Graf). Noted without comment is an anthology of erotic ghost stories, Dying For It, edited by Gardner Dozois (Harperprism).

  Some associational anthologies that may well be of interest to genre readers are a series of fat mystery anthologies edited by Mike Ashley, all from Carroll & Graf, many of which feature stories by familiar genre writers such as Brian Stableford, Stephen Baxter (the prolific Baxter is in most of them, in fact!), Kim Newman, Phvllis Ann Karr, Darrell Schweitzer, Patricia A.Mckillip, Michael Moorcock, David Langford, John Maddox Roberts, and others. Some of the stories even have slight fantastic elements, and the historical mysteries may appeal to Alternate History buffs as well. The anthologies include: Classical Whodunnits; The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits; Shakespearean Whodunnits; and The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures. Even further out on the edge in some ways are two memorial anthologies about Famous Dead Celebrities, both of which feature some work with fantastic elements and use the work of genre authors: a Marilyn Monroe anthology, Marilyn: Shades of Blonde, edited by Carol Nelson Douglas (Forge), which features work by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Peter Crowther, Melissa Mia Hall, and Janet Berliner and George Guthridge; and a James Dean anthology, Mondo fames Dean, edited by Lucinda Ebersole and Richard Peabody (St. Martin's), which features work by Lewis Shiner and Jack C. Haldeman II.

  The novel market didn't seem quite as hard-hit in 1997 as it was being predicted that it would be in 1996. There were cutbacks-with Harper Collins cancelling over 100 previously contracted-for novels, for instance-but elsewhere the field actually seemed to be expanding, with Harper Prism growing and Avon announcing a major and ambitious new SF line, Eos, for 1998. Mass-market paperback originals continued to dwindle, part of a trend that has persisted and even accelerated for the past couple of years; but, at the same time, there were more trade paperback editions than ever before-with many books that would have been done in mass-market a few years ago now being done as trade paperbacks instead-so it tends to even out. There also seem to be more original hardcovers now than ever before; there are now more original novels being published in hardcover than in mass-market paperback format, something that would have been inconceivable even ten years ago.

  According to the newsmagazine Locus, there were 999 original books "of interest to the SF field" published in 1997, as opposed to I,121 such books in 1996, a drop of II percent in original titles (on the other hand, according to Locus, there was a 15 percent increase in reprint titles over 1996, 817 to 1996's 708, bringing the overall total of books of interest to the field, original and reprint, to 1,816 as opposed to 1996's 1,829, only a I percent drop overall). The drop in original titles is scary, but, on the other hand, it's not nearly as bad as some of last year's through-the-floor-total-bust scenarios had predicted that it would be. The number of new SF novels was down, with 229 novels published as opposed to 253 in 1996; fantasy was down slightly, with 220 novels published as opposed to 224 in 1996; and horror suffered another substantial drop, with 106 novels published as opposed to 122 in 1996 and 193 in 1995. These are not insignificant losses, but neither are they catastrophic-as yet, anyway. Unless the totals continue to drop, and, in fact, the drop accelerates precipitously, the forecast of imminent death for the genre may turn out to have been premature (at least for the immediate future).

  It's obviously just about impossible for any one individual to read and review all the new novels published every year, or even a significant fraction of them, even if you restricted yourself to the science fiction novels alone. For somebody like me, who has enormous amounts of short material to read, both for Asimov's and for this anthology, it's flat-out impossible, and I don't even really try to keep up with everything anymore.

  As usual, therefore, I haven't read a lot of novels this year; of those I have seen, I would recommend: Jack Faust, Michael Swanwick (Avon); Diaspora, Greg Egan (Harper-prism); Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman (Ace); Corrupting Dr. Nice, John Kessel (Tor); City on Fire, Walter Jon Williams (Harper-prism); Slant, Greg Bear (Tor); Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson (Voyager); Earthling, Tony Daniel (Tor), and Mississippi Blues, Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor).

  Other novels that have received a lot of attention and acclaim in 1997 include: 3001: The Final Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke (Del Rey); The Fleet of Stars, Poul Anderson (Tor); Titan, Stephen Baxter (Harperprism); Destiny's Road, Larry Niven (Tor); God's Fires, Patricia Anthony (Ace); The Rise of Endymion, Dan Simmons (Bantam Spectra); The Siege of Eternity, Frederik Pohl (Tor); The Reality Dysfunction, Peter F. Hamilton (Warner Aspect); The Sorcerers of Majipoor, Robert Silverberg (Harperprism); Glimmering, Elizabeth Hand (Harperprism); The Dark Tower IV. Wizard and Glass, Stephen King (Donald Grant); Winter Tides, James P. Blaylock (Ace); Eternity Road, Jack Mcdevitt (Harperprism); The Dazzle ofday, Molly Gloss (Tor); The Calcutta Chromosome, Amitay Ghosh (Avon); How Few Remain, Harry Turtledove (Del Rey); Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Charles Sheffield (Bantam Spectra); The Black Sun, Jack Williamson (Tor); Someone to Watch over Me, Tricia Sullivan (Bantam Spectra); Earthquake Weather, Tim Powers (Tor); The Moon and the Sun, Vonda N. Mcintyre (Pocket)-, Widowmaker Reborn, Mike Resnick (Bantam); The White Abacus, Damien Broderick (Avon); Fool's War, Sarah Zettel (Warner Aspect); Secret Passages, Paul Preuss (Tor); A King of Infinite Space, Allen Steele (Harperprism); Freeware, Rudy Rucker (Avon); Deception Well, Linda Nagata (Bantam Spectra); Fortress on the Sun, Paul Cook (Roo; Carlucci's Heart, Richard Paul Russo (Ace); The Night Watch, Sean Stewart (Ace); Reckoning Infinity, John Stith (Tor)-, The Still, David Feintuch (Warner Aspect); Bug Park, James P. Hogan (Baen); The Stars Dispose, Michaels Roessner (Tor); Chimera's Cradle, Brian Stableford (Legend); The Gala Websters, Kim Antieau (Roo; and Faraday's Orphans, N. Lee Wood (Ace).

  Special mention should be made of Walter M. Miller Jr's posthumously published Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (Bantam Spectra), which was completed by Terry Bisson after Miller's death, although by far the bulk of the text was written by Miller himself. This may not have quite the impact of Miller's classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, but it certainly qualifies as a minor masterpiece of sorts, one of the best novels of the year, and a fitting capstone to Miller's distinguished career-it's a shame he didn't live to see it in print. Note should also be taken of Roger Zelazny's Donnerjack (Avon), which was completed by Jane Lindskold after Zelazny's death.

  It was a fairly strong year for first novels. The most impressive ones I saw were In the Garden of Iden, by Kage Baker (Harcourt Brace), and The Great Wheel, by Ian R. Macleod (Harcourt Brace). Other good first novels included: The Art of Arrow Cutting, Stephen Dedman (Tor)-, Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (Tor); Waking Beauty, Paul Witcover(Harperprism); Expendable, James Alan Gardner (Avonova); Mars Underground, William K. Hartmann (Tor); Lightpaths, Howard V. Hendrix (Ace); The Seraphim Rising, Elizabeth De Vos (Roo; The Seventh Heart, Marina Fitch (Ace), Polymorph, Scott Westerfeld (Roo, and Lives of the Monster Dogs, Kirsten Bakis (Farrar, Straus). For the second time in recent years, Harcourt Brace strongly dominated the first novel field this year, as it did in 1993-1994 when it published acclaimed first novels by Patricia Antheny and Jonathan Lethem-a tribute to the shrewd judgment of editor Michael Kandel. Tor, Ace, Roc, and DAW all published a fair number of first novels this year as well, and are to be commended for it, as are all publishers who are willing to take a chance on unknown writers with no track record-a risky business, but one that's vital to the continued evolution and health of the genre.

  An interesting small-press item was a first novel by one of SF's most prolific and most eclectic short-story writers, Paul Di Filippo's Ciphers, available in a hardcover edition from Cambrian Publications and a trade paperback edition from Permeable Press (Cambrian Publications, Box 112170, Campbell, CA 94114, $60 for the hardcover edition; Permeable Press, 47 Noe St #4, San Francisco, CA 94114, $16.95 for the trade paperback edition). Novels out on the fringes
of the field that may be of interest to genre readers included two nearmainstream novels with (sometimes almost subliminal) traces of fantastic elements, American Gothic (St. Martin's), by Harvey Jacobs-the more overtly fantastic of the two-and Signs of Life (St. Martin's), by M. John Harrison, and an odd novel by Stepan Chapman that occupies the border territory between SF and literary surrealism, The Troika (The Ministry of Whimsy Press, P.O. Box 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315, $14.99). Associational mysteries last year included Bad Eye Blues by Neal Barrett, Jr. (Kensington) and Soma Blues by Robert Sheckley (Forge).

  It looked like a good year for novels to me, even judging solely by the ones I had time to read, and many of the others were well-received as well. For those who still repeat the oft-heard remark about how nobody writes "real" centercore science fiction anymore, it should be noted that in the above list, most of the titles would have to be considered to be real, actual, sure-enough science fiction by any even remotely reasonable definition (even excluding the several fantasy novels and the more ambiguous cases, such as Williams's City on Fire or Swanwick's jack Faust, which could be taken as either fantasy or SF, depending how you squint at them), and a number of them are hard SF, as hard and rigorous as it has ever been written by anyone anywhere (Egan's Diaspora, for instance, as only ope example). In fact, it seems to me that the percentage of really hard-core "hard SF" has gone up sharply in recent years, as has the percentage of wide-screen, Technicolor, baroque Space Opera, stuff reminiscent of the old "Superscience" days of the '30s, but written to suit the aesthetic and stylistic tastes of the '90s. There's more "real" SF of several different flavors and styles around these days than ever before, if you open your eyes up and look for it-as well as vigorous hybrids of SF with fantasy, horror, the historical novel, the mystery, and several other forms. Far from being dead, the field is, artistically at least, richer and wider and more varied than it has ever been, with good work being done by writers in every possible subvariety and subgenre you can name all out there to be found, in spite of the pressure of competition for bookstore rack space by media tie-in and gaming and other associational novels.