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A review by wunder
The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows by Jonathan Strahan
5.0
Johnathon Strahan invited people to write short stories "with the same kind of thrill" as those written in the 1950's and 1960's. But because SF is always about today, the starting point for those rocket ships moved fifty or so years.
This could have been a train wreck, but he chose very good writers. So it is fun reading a Garth Nix story about nanobot vampires instead of his YA fantasy. And Scott Westerfeld with a "boarding the colony ship" story that would have been at home in Galaxy.
A few people can't quite get with the program. Cory Doctorow writes more Cory Doctorow stuff. Ian McDonald delivers another wonderful magical-SF piece in his India.
Neil Gaiman's "Orange" is a twisted record, only the answers a girl gives to an investigation of her older sister's transformation, with paragraphs like, "33. The next morning, all of us." The author's note doesn't mention Paula Zoline, but it reminds me of her 1967 story "The Heat Death of the Universe". Intentional or not, it captures the experimental wing of SF in those decades.
I often read anthologies to discover new writers. That doesn't quite work here, because most are writing out of their home territory. There are a couple of stories I like, though I have not liked those authors' novels. I might give Paul McAuley another try with one of his Quiet War books.
This could have been a train wreck, but he chose very good writers. So it is fun reading a Garth Nix story about nanobot vampires instead of his YA fantasy. And Scott Westerfeld with a "boarding the colony ship" story that would have been at home in Galaxy.
A few people can't quite get with the program. Cory Doctorow writes more Cory Doctorow stuff. Ian McDonald delivers another wonderful magical-SF piece in his India.
Neil Gaiman's "Orange" is a twisted record, only the answers a girl gives to an investigation of her older sister's transformation, with paragraphs like, "33. The next morning, all of us." The author's note doesn't mention Paula Zoline, but it reminds me of her 1967 story "The Heat Death of the Universe". Intentional or not, it captures the experimental wing of SF in those decades.
I often read anthologies to discover new writers. That doesn't quite work here, because most are writing out of their home territory. There are a couple of stories I like, though I have not liked those authors' novels. I might give Paul McAuley another try with one of his Quiet War books.