Scan barcode
nwhyte's review
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1331230.html[return][return]This pulls together Hartwell's selection of the best stories of 2000. As you would expect, they are all good: the standouts for me are David Langford's 'Different Kinds of Darkness', from his series of BLIT stories, this one set in a boarding school for specially talented children; Greg Egan's 'Oracle', which has an alternate-universe take on the possible interactions between C.S. Lewis and Alan Turing; and Teg Chiang's 'Seventy-Two Letters', which combines steampunk and qabalah.[return][return]It is interesting to compare Hartwell's choices with those of the Hugo and Nebula voters that year. 'Different Kinds of Darkness' won the Hugo for Best Short Story (deservedly and decisively; the other nominees were all terrible). 'Oracle' and 'Seventy-Two Letters' were both on the Hugo shortlist for Best Novella, but were beaten by Jack Williamson's 'The Ultimate Earth', which is not as good a story as either but was obviously the last chance to give an award to the nonagenarian author (it won the Nebula too, I guess for the same reason). None of Hartwell's selections made it to the Nebula shortlist, or even the preliminary ballot, for either year of eligibility. Draw your own conclusions...
sjstuart's review
4.0
In hindsight, you might expect that sci-fi written at the cusp of the millennium should be a little more far-looking than the standard fare; that authors would have been inspired to think on an even grander scale than usual. Or perhaps not. This collection of stories from the year 2000 is relatively indistinguishable from the sci-fi of neighboring years, proving perhaps that authors are exercising their futurological powers to their fullest in any given year. There are a few stories set as far as another thousand years in the future ("The Millennium Express") or in times or places so distant there is no discernible connection to the present ("The Marriage of Sky and Sea", "The Birthday of the World"). But no more than in a typical collection, and for each far-future story there are others set in the past ("Oracle" and "Seventy-Two Letters") or sometime indistinguishable from the present ("The New Horla", "Built Upon The Sands of Time").
One trend that is noteworthy in this collection is the prevalence of short-short stories, with more than half a dozen taken from Nature's "Futures" series. In this collection, these tend to be brief elaborations of a gimmicky concept (e.g. the present is a VR sim, or bacteria become sentient and join the UN, etc). This subgenre is anthologized much effectively in [b:Futures from Nature|1003695|Futures from Nature|Henry Gee|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316136255s/1003695.jpg|989185].
As with any best-of anthology, a few stories left me confused or expecting more. ("Our Mortal Coil", "Steppenpferd") They're written well, but either have no point or else I missed its significance. Given that they were championed by an editor who plucked them from the sea of more mediocre stories, I suspect it must be the latter. I also didn't enjoy either of the alternate-history stories here ("Oracle" and "Seventy-Two Letters"). [a:Ted Chiang|130698|Ted Chiang|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208187207p2/130698.jpg]'s "Seventy-Two Letters", in particular, was very frustrating. The story is written superbly, set in a very believable Victorian-era society, and features ambitious and enticing subthemes about information theory, Platonic essentialism, thermodynamics and class warfare. But why would I want to read about these fascinating ideas all tangled up with animated clay golems and medieval claims that sperm contain fully formed homunculi?? This story, along with "The New Horla" stray far enough from the confines of sci-fit to leave me disappointed.
There were several standouts, of course, as would be expected from any best-of anthology. For me, the most noteworthy stories were: [a:Tananarive Due|23417|Tananarive Due|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1275079761p2/23417.jpg]'s "Patient Zero", a poignant story about a boy living through a devastating plague; [a:David Langford|19443|David Langford|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-88f044bbc71480ca4e6dee980381ec7a.jpg]'s tale of "Different Kinds of Darkness", in which a team of plucky young kids stumble across a way to fight back against futuristic psychoweapons; [a:Ursula K. Le Guin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg]'s "Birthday of the World" which (like most of her best work) juxtaposes essentially human values with a completely alien society; [a:Stephen Baxter|20295|Stephen Baxter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223817214p2/20295.jpg]'s "Sheena 5" about sentient squid that rise above their human benefactors in more ways than one; [a:Robert Reed|57814|Robert Reed|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-88f044bbc71480ca4e6dee980381ec7a.jpg]'s story about "Grandma's Jumpman", a very well written story about prejudice that I'm sure I will appreciate even more on additional reading; and [a:Michael Flynn|126502|Michael Flynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282631351p2/126502.jpg]'s "Built Upon The Sands of Time", an entertaining twist on how changes to the past affect the future.
All in all, this collection is just what you'd expect from a "Year's Best" sci-fi anthology: lots of solid stories, with a few that don't resonate, but more than enough gems to be worth the effort.
One trend that is noteworthy in this collection is the prevalence of short-short stories, with more than half a dozen taken from Nature's "Futures" series. In this collection, these tend to be brief elaborations of a gimmicky concept (e.g. the present is a VR sim, or bacteria become sentient and join the UN, etc). This subgenre is anthologized much effectively in [b:Futures from Nature|1003695|Futures from Nature|Henry Gee|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316136255s/1003695.jpg|989185].
As with any best-of anthology, a few stories left me confused or expecting more. ("Our Mortal Coil", "Steppenpferd") They're written well, but either have no point or else I missed its significance. Given that they were championed by an editor who plucked them from the sea of more mediocre stories, I suspect it must be the latter. I also didn't enjoy either of the alternate-history stories here ("Oracle" and "Seventy-Two Letters"). [a:Ted Chiang|130698|Ted Chiang|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1208187207p2/130698.jpg]'s "Seventy-Two Letters", in particular, was very frustrating. The story is written superbly, set in a very believable Victorian-era society, and features ambitious and enticing subthemes about information theory, Platonic essentialism, thermodynamics and class warfare. But why would I want to read about these fascinating ideas all tangled up with animated clay golems and medieval claims that sperm contain fully formed homunculi?? This story, along with "The New Horla" stray far enough from the confines of sci-fit to leave me disappointed.
There were several standouts, of course, as would be expected from any best-of anthology. For me, the most noteworthy stories were: [a:Tananarive Due|23417|Tananarive Due|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1275079761p2/23417.jpg]'s "Patient Zero", a poignant story about a boy living through a devastating plague; [a:David Langford|19443|David Langford|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-88f044bbc71480ca4e6dee980381ec7a.jpg]'s tale of "Different Kinds of Darkness", in which a team of plucky young kids stumble across a way to fight back against futuristic psychoweapons; [a:Ursula K. Le Guin|874602|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1244291425p2/874602.jpg]'s "Birthday of the World" which (like most of her best work) juxtaposes essentially human values with a completely alien society; [a:Stephen Baxter|20295|Stephen Baxter|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223817214p2/20295.jpg]'s "Sheena 5" about sentient squid that rise above their human benefactors in more ways than one; [a:Robert Reed|57814|Robert Reed|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66-88f044bbc71480ca4e6dee980381ec7a.jpg]'s story about "Grandma's Jumpman", a very well written story about prejudice that I'm sure I will appreciate even more on additional reading; and [a:Michael Flynn|126502|Michael Flynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282631351p2/126502.jpg]'s "Built Upon The Sands of Time", an entertaining twist on how changes to the past affect the future.
All in all, this collection is just what you'd expect from a "Year's Best" sci-fi anthology: lots of solid stories, with a few that don't resonate, but more than enough gems to be worth the effort.
worldsinink's review
3.0
A great collection of science fiction short stories. There are a few that were mediocre, but the rest more than made up for it. Some that stood out for me was 'Reef' by Paul J. McAueley; 'Sheena 5' by Stephen Baxter; 'Different Kinds of Darkness' by David Langford and 'Seventy-Two Letters' by Ted Chiang. A very enjoyable read.
sweetpeakate's review
3.0
3.75 solid read, found myself more interested in the plot than the character development.
More...