The Best Of The Best Volume 2: 20 years Of The Best Science Fiction Stories edited by Gardner Dozois
01/03/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: St. Martin's Press. 642 page hardback. Price: $40.00 (US), $50.00 (CAN). ISBN: 0-312-36341-9. Buy The Best Of The Best Volume 2: 20 years Of The Best Science Fiction Stories in the USA - or Buy The Best Of The Best Volume 2: 20 years Of The Best Science Fiction Stories in the UK  check out websites: www.stmartins.comwww.stmartins.com
Occasionally, I have problems with the definition 'Best'. Indeed, it gets even worse when something is described as 'Best Of The Best' as this is a subjective term and dependent on the taste of an book's editor. Indeed, parallels are never drawn to what a straw poll of people would choose. In some respects that might be just as well. For any set period of time, it would be rather difficult to claim to have read all the stories open for inclusion and even a short list would also create similar difficulties. Hence, much of the time, one has to trust in the anthology editor to choose the right stories. Whether it is right they only come from a handful of publishers and ignoring others s something I'll have to leave you to ponder.
With the likes of Silverberg, Pohl, LeGuin, Egan, Swanwick, Cress and Haldeman amongst the thirteen stories, one would have hoped that authors alone should indicate worthy stories. Of them, the only one I've read before was Nancy Cress' 'Beggars In Spain' but I've seen that one in at least two anthologies and even editor Dozois admits it would be difficult to do a book such as this and ignore this quality tale. The problem I have is that I don't think the other stories match up so well to it. Yes, they are well-written but there's a certain lacking in them as well. The true sparkle of SF that catches the imagination. Its like the authors are going through the motions but not adding that certain joie de vivre that can bowl you over. You don't come away from them feeling excited or wanting to tell other readers they ought to try their other stories.
Take Joe Haldeman's 'The Hemmingway Hoax'. If he'd dumped the alternative realities thing he got into two-thirds of the way in, this story would have made an excellent con game story. Instead, it just gets messy and over-complicated and that you didn't really care where the lead character ended up.
Greg Egan's 'Oceanic' seems a tame version of 'Solaris' with less of the mystery. Alastair Reynolds' 'Turquoise Days' also comes over as less memorable for similar reasons. There was a feeling of lack of emotional impact of why should we care for these characters.
Ian McDonald's 'Tendeleo's Story' deals with the aftermath of the crash-landing of some alien spore in Africa. The blend between our reality and the change is carried out well enough but it could work as a character study without the SF element.
Ian R. MacLeod's 'New Light On The Drake Equation' is more a case of showing the history of two characters falling apart and meeting years later with just a touch of SF element for window-dressing.
Fred Pohl's story 'Outnumbering The Dead' is markedly different, set in a future of long-lifers and the fortunes of one whose genetics limits his life span. Walter Jon Williams' 'Surfacing' on the other hand shows a markedly different reality where the long-lifers change their cities to match their fancy but still play with one of their people doomed to a short life-span.
'The Cost To The Wise' by Maureen F. McHugh deals with an icy world revisited and the fatal consequences of a roving brutal male population. Ursula LeGuin's 'Forgiveness Day' set in her Hainish reality shows the history and then plight of a diplomat and her bodyguard held hostage. With certain adjustments it could work in our reality.
Half of this selection ran in Asimov's Magazine. The remainder are a scattering, but not from the other mags, one has to express some concern as to if the novellas are truly the best and what must the others be like. I have mixed feelings about this book. Some of these stories will appeal but as a 'Best Of The Best' is somewhat more questionable.
GF Willmetts |
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