There are a lot of anthologies that claim to contain the “best” content from a certain time period/genre/author, but Night Shade Books’ THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR: VOLUME ONE delivers on the title’s claim in an exquisite fashion. Editor Jonathan Strahan has assembled the ultimate mix tape of 2006’s short fiction in these genres, and it reads like a symphony.
Anthologies can be piecemeal affairs; readers tend to hopscotch around them, picking and choosing based on the author, the first page, the first sentence or even the title. Here, however, Strahan has paid such meticulous detail to order and rhythm that to do this would be a great disservice to the totality of the book.
Things kick of with Neil Gaiman’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” which serves as a hearty appetizer, leading into Peter S. Beagle’s wonderful and eerie “El Regalo.” Cory Doctorow has made a splash with his takes on classic themes, and the story included here, “I, Row-Boat,” while clever, comes off as mugging for the camera, like the author’s basking in his own cleverness.
From there, however, it’s like waking up on your birthday with breakfast in bed and the week off from work. Ellen Klages tells the story of a girl raised by feral librarians, Christopher Rowe takes us to a world where maps are considered to be God’s literal truth, and Jeffrey Ford’s “The Night Whiskey” plops us down in a small town with (as small towns are wont to have) a weird, possibly evil, secret.
And that’s just the first course. The real meat of THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR: VOLUME ONE begins at about the halfway point, and Tim Powers puts things into high gear with “The Bible Repairman,” a welcome addition to his magic-among-the-everyday mythos. Paolo Bacigalupi follows up with my second favorite sci-fi story of the year, “Yellow Card Man,” envisioning a world of urban refugees that’s only a sideways step from reality.
This leads into the the anthology’s tour de force, Geoff Ryman’s lyrical, beautiful, funny and all-too-real “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter.” Ryman paints a stunningly accurate picture of a modern Cambodia still haunted – in this case, literally – by the past and coming to terms with its place in modern society.
This crescendo is followed by further great work, especially with the efforts of Jay Lake, Robert Charles Wilson (whose story totally spoiled me when I finally watched THE PRESTIGE a couple of days later), Connie Willis, Paul Di Filippo and the ever-great Gene Wolfe.
The climax, “The Djinn’s Wife” by Ian McDonald, is another doozy; set in the world he created in RIVER OF GODS, it tells the story of a woman’s marriage to an artificial intelligence, which, as we all probably realize, is destined to end in tears. It’s heartbreaking and awe-inspiring.
In the end, I have the utmost sympathy for the people voting for the Hugo awards: “Yellow Card Man,” “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter” and “The Djinn’s Wife” are all up against each other in the best novelette category. I know that awards are hardly measures of greatness, but to have four nominees in the same anthology (“How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is up in the short story category) surely says something about the quality of this anthology, and about the anthologist himself. THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR: VOLUME ONE lives up to its billing, and then some. –Ryun Patterson
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• ANANSI BOYS by Neil Gaiman
• BEST SHORT NOVELS 2005 edited by Jonathan Strahan
• FRAGILE THINGS: SHORT FICTIONS AND WONDERS by Neil Gaiman
• RIVER OF GODS by Ian McDonald
• SOLDIER OF SIDON by Gene Wolfe
• SOMEONE COMES TO TOWN, SOMEONE LEAVES TOWN by Cory Doctorow
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I loved “how to talk to girls at parties”. It was just amusing to watch the main character wonder from room to room and never quite get what was going on around him. Plus for some reason, the final scene reminded me of a line from Galaxy Quest, and that’s always a plus
GJ
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