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gatspender's review against another edition
3.0
Evidently this wasn't a great year for short form SF. Dozois presents us the usual broad selection, with the usual poor copy editing (lots of errors, I can only assume the anthology was compiled in a hurry). I'm partly writing this review as a prompt for myself, as I think there's little here that i'll remember a month from now.
The good:
“A Heap of Broken Images” by Sunny Moraine. How we deal with (or not) the grim events of the past is an interesting subject. How an alien culture might do it is fascinating.
“One” by Nancy Kress. Something different! There are so few SF stories centering around complicated, fleshed-out working class characters in a (more or less) contemporary setting. There are two Kress stories in this volume, both actually quite similar. This is the better one.
“Fleet” by Sandra McDonald. I don't normally like post-apocalyptic fiction, but this is strange enough a setting to feel fresh.
The bad:
“Murder on the Aldrin Express” by Martin L. Shoemaker. Dull, dated story. It could have been written 40 years ago save for the odd reference to nanotechnology.
“The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin” by Michael Swanwick. Well enough written but just a little too sparse, like a novella stripped down to short story length. Miserable as hell, too.
The peculiar:
“The Irish Astronaut” by Val Nolan. I think the word is "lyrical". A good piece but I wouldn't classify it as science fiction purely because it's about an astronaut. They really exist! This was included, I suspect, to add some literary cred.
The good:
“A Heap of Broken Images” by Sunny Moraine. How we deal with (or not) the grim events of the past is an interesting subject. How an alien culture might do it is fascinating.
“One” by Nancy Kress. Something different! There are so few SF stories centering around complicated, fleshed-out working class characters in a (more or less) contemporary setting. There are two Kress stories in this volume, both actually quite similar. This is the better one.
“Fleet” by Sandra McDonald. I don't normally like post-apocalyptic fiction, but this is strange enough a setting to feel fresh.
The bad:
“Murder on the Aldrin Express” by Martin L. Shoemaker. Dull, dated story. It could have been written 40 years ago save for the odd reference to nanotechnology.
“The She-Wolf’s Hidden Grin” by Michael Swanwick. Well enough written but just a little too sparse, like a novella stripped down to short story length. Miserable as hell, too.
The peculiar:
“The Irish Astronaut” by Val Nolan. I think the word is "lyrical". A good piece but I wouldn't classify it as science fiction purely because it's about an astronaut. They really exist! This was included, I suspect, to add some literary cred.
porsane's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent collection of speculative fiction. Lots of stand out stories, but my favourite was barely in the genre, a melancholy tale of an astronaut holidaying in Ireland.
gengelcox's review
4.0
***** Introduction: Summation: 1983 • essay by Gardner Dozois
***** Cicada Queen • [Shaper/Mechanist] • (1983) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
** Beyond the Dead Reef • [Quintana Roo] • (1983) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
**** Slow Birds • (1983) • novelette by Ian Watson
** Vulcan's Forge • (1983) • short story by Poul Anderson
*** Man-Mountain Gentian • (1983) • short story by Howard Waldrop
* Hardfought • (1983) • novella by Greg Bear
*** Manifest Destiny • (1983) • short story by Joe Haldeman
**** Full Chicken Richness • (1983) • short story by Avram Davidson
**** Multiples • (1983) • short story by Robert Silverberg
*** Cryptic • (1983) • short story by Jack McDevitt
**** The Sidon in the Mirror • (1983) • novelette by Connie Willis
** Golden Gate • (1982) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
*** Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann
*** In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
**** Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee
***** Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
**** Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
**** Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
*** The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
***** The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
*** Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • short story by Pat Cadigan
**** Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
***** Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
**** Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
**** Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
I originally read this back in 1986, three years after most of the stories were published and a couple of years after the collection came out. I had met [a:Bruce Sterling|34429|Bruce Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379306689p2/34429.jpg] by then, and was on speaking terms with several of the other writers that appear in this collection and would appear in future ones, and had determined that I, too, would someday have a story included. Alas, the dream was not to be. While I did publish a few stories in the next three decades, none of them met Dozois' high standard and with his death this year, I no longer have the opportunity to try and meet that hurdle.
Dozois hadn’t started this from scratch. In the late 70s he had taken over a more modest Dutton-published Best SF series from [a:Lester del Rey|19739|Lester del Rey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217499177p2/19739.jpg], ending up doing five additional volumes to the five that del Rey had edited. But what he did do was somehow convince Bluejay Books to commit to a much more massive compilation, nearly three times the Dutton volumes. I’m not sure about the logistics, but I suspect that it may have been due to offering a slightly lower rate per word, so that while individual authors included may not have reaped as much monetarily, they may have become better known because these volumes became nearly a necessary buy for anyone interested in the field. So, in this one case, the exposure may indeed have been worth the reduced rate. In any case, it was “found money”—i.e., authors had already earned 3-7 cents per word on the original publications.
It was fun to re-read. While I started picking these huge volumes up when they first appeared, but stopped buying them after about the 20th annual collection because they threatened to implode and collapse in on themselves due to their combined heft and breadth. Still, for someone without the time to commit to reading all the short fiction magazines, these were indispensable to keep up with the trends in the field.
As always, Dozois' summary provides the most objective measure of the good and bad the industry was going through at the time. His story selections remained strong. I only had real problems with one, [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]'s "Hardfought," which I found annoying more than interesting and found myself skimming, but that was more than made up for by Bear's "Blood Music," which I thought the best story of that year. Some of the other stories started off slow, and then I found myself caught up in them, like [a:Ian Watson|141334|Ian Watson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1307121764p2/141334.jpg]'s "Slow Birds," [a:Vernor Vinge|44037|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215099239p2/44037.jpg]'s "Gemstone," and [a:Dan Simmons|2687|Dan Simmons|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427999015p2/2687.jpg]' "Carrion Comfort."
***** Cicada Queen • [Shaper/Mechanist] • (1983) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
** Beyond the Dead Reef • [Quintana Roo] • (1983) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
**** Slow Birds • (1983) • novelette by Ian Watson
** Vulcan's Forge • (1983) • short story by Poul Anderson
*** Man-Mountain Gentian • (1983) • short story by Howard Waldrop
* Hardfought • (1983) • novella by Greg Bear
*** Manifest Destiny • (1983) • short story by Joe Haldeman
**** Full Chicken Richness • (1983) • short story by Avram Davidson
**** Multiples • (1983) • short story by Robert Silverberg
*** Cryptic • (1983) • short story by Jack McDevitt
**** The Sidon in the Mirror • (1983) • novelette by Connie Willis
** Golden Gate • (1982) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
*** Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann
*** In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
**** Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee
***** Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
**** Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
**** Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
*** The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
***** The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
*** Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • short story by Pat Cadigan
**** Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
***** Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
**** Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
**** Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
I originally read this back in 1986, three years after most of the stories were published and a couple of years after the collection came out. I had met [a:Bruce Sterling|34429|Bruce Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379306689p2/34429.jpg] by then, and was on speaking terms with several of the other writers that appear in this collection and would appear in future ones, and had determined that I, too, would someday have a story included. Alas, the dream was not to be. While I did publish a few stories in the next three decades, none of them met Dozois' high standard and with his death this year, I no longer have the opportunity to try and meet that hurdle.
Dozois hadn’t started this from scratch. In the late 70s he had taken over a more modest Dutton-published Best SF series from [a:Lester del Rey|19739|Lester del Rey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217499177p2/19739.jpg], ending up doing five additional volumes to the five that del Rey had edited. But what he did do was somehow convince Bluejay Books to commit to a much more massive compilation, nearly three times the Dutton volumes. I’m not sure about the logistics, but I suspect that it may have been due to offering a slightly lower rate per word, so that while individual authors included may not have reaped as much monetarily, they may have become better known because these volumes became nearly a necessary buy for anyone interested in the field. So, in this one case, the exposure may indeed have been worth the reduced rate. In any case, it was “found money”—i.e., authors had already earned 3-7 cents per word on the original publications.
It was fun to re-read. While I started picking these huge volumes up when they first appeared, but stopped buying them after about the 20th annual collection because they threatened to implode and collapse in on themselves due to their combined heft and breadth. Still, for someone without the time to commit to reading all the short fiction magazines, these were indispensable to keep up with the trends in the field.
As always, Dozois' summary provides the most objective measure of the good and bad the industry was going through at the time. His story selections remained strong. I only had real problems with one, [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]'s "Hardfought," which I found annoying more than interesting and found myself skimming, but that was more than made up for by Bear's "Blood Music," which I thought the best story of that year. Some of the other stories started off slow, and then I found myself caught up in them, like [a:Ian Watson|141334|Ian Watson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1307121764p2/141334.jpg]'s "Slow Birds," [a:Vernor Vinge|44037|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215099239p2/44037.jpg]'s "Gemstone," and [a:Dan Simmons|2687|Dan Simmons|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427999015p2/2687.jpg]' "Carrion Comfort."
caitlin_bookchats's review
2.0
mmm.... not sure yet. Nothing special though.
This is a book from an author with my initials for the 2015 PopSugar Ultimate Reading Challenge
This is a book from an author with my initials for the 2015 PopSugar Ultimate Reading Challenge
libellesalome's review
4.0
Is this book a clichéd YA? Sort of, yes.
Is this book predictable? Yes.
Does this book have (quite a lot of) problems? Definitely.
But, after all, is this book enjoyable way way way more than the majority of YA "fantasy" books out there? HELL, YES.
It's short, it's fast, it's fun. There are pirates, female captains and no insta-love. As far as I'm concerned, this was exactly what I needed in this period.
Ahoy.
Is this book predictable? Yes.
Does this book have (quite a lot of) problems? Definitely.
But, after all, is this book enjoyable way way way more than the majority of YA "fantasy" books out there? HELL, YES.
It's short, it's fast, it's fun. There are pirates, female captains and no insta-love. As far as I'm concerned, this was exactly what I needed in this period.
Ahoy.
qa9's review
4.0
The only thing stopping me from giving this book six stars (besides the fact that there are only five available) was the editing. Carrie Vaughn is an artist and this book was written beautifully. Unfortunately, sometimes characters would be introduced randomly and some facts (like at one point Jill, the main character, gets cut in a sword fight) are ignored and not mentioned again. (We never hear of this wound again.) Overall though this book was very good and I didn't want to put it down. I slightly envied Jill to be honest.
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