Lou Anders puts his money where his mouth is. A champion of new authors, he’s committed to redefining science fiction’s essential reading list. In a 2007 story about Ray Bradbury in THE NEW YORK TIMES, he said, “I hope that anyone who comes to science fiction and fantasy cold — readers for whom THE ILLUSTRATED MAN or I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC! are their doorway in — will be inspired to look beyond these classic works to the new masters.”

As editorial director for sci-fi publisher Pyr, he has delivered, bringing new classics like RIVER OF GODS, BRASYL and INFOQUAKE to shelves. And short fiction — a cornerstone of the genre — got a shot of adrenaline last year thanks to Anders’ spectacular FAST FORWARD anthology. This year he’s been kind enough to give us another helping with FAST FORWARD 2, and it’s a worthy successor: Anders has assembled a batch of stories that span the breadth of modern science fiction and provide a better introduction to today’s scene than the musty copies of FAHRENHEIT 451 lingering in high school English classes ever could.

Nearly every entry in FAST FORWARD 2 is a highlight, but the best include:
• DOCTOR WHO scribe Paul Cornell’s superb “Catherine Drewe,” which manages to outline a fantastic future British Empire and a neat spy yarn in just 20 pages.
• Chris Nakashima-Brown’s “The Sun Also Explodes,” in which a disabled vet in the reinvigorated future American Southwest gets a wonderful prosthesis (with strings attached).
• Mike Resnick and (please write more) Pat Cadigan’s “Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter,” which manages to thematically name-check so many classic “cultural misunderstanding” sci-fi stories while remaining fresh and brutal.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “SeniorSource,” about a gumshoe hampered by physical limitations, but who retains the analytical mind to solve mysteries remotely.

Among all of this goodness, three entries stand above the rest: Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell contribute “Mitigation,” an environmental thriller revolving around a subject by which I’ve been fascinated recently; Paulo Pacigalupi’s “The Gambler” recounts the plight of a war-scarred blogger torn between his ideals and his need to get his online popularity in order to keep his job; and Ian McDonald’s “An Eligible Boy” is another stunning entry in the continuing stories from the future India he created in RIVER OF GODS.

Unfortunately, the longest story in the collection, Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow’s “True Names,” didn’t grab me like the rest. While the plots and schemes of a pair of post-human cultures is well-written and contains plenty of Doctorow’s wry, referential wit, the point of it eluded me. It might very well be an intellectual failure on the reviewer’s part, and I’m sure that it’s got plenty of admirers — Anders wouldn’t put it in here if he didn’t think it was strong — but I wasn’t particularly impressed.

That, however, is the glorious aspect of FAST FORWARD 2: There might be a story or two in here that doesn’t appeal to individual readers, but anybody that loves science fiction (and fans of the recent outpouring of well-written sci-fi television and movies looking for literary sustenence) can put their trust into Mr. Anders and this instant classic.

One important note: While there are 14 stories listed in the table of contents for FAST FORWARD 2, John Picacio’s ridiculously cool jet-legs-ape-in-front-of-rampaging-mob cover infers a story all its own, and readers can use their own imaginations to come up with the plot for that one. —Ryun Patterson

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF LOU ANDERS:
• FAST FORWARD 1: FUTURE FICTION FROM THE CUTTING EDGE edited by Lou Anders