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A review by colossal
The Big Book of Science Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer, Ann VanderMeer
3.0
The SpecFic Buddy Reads group read this mammoth anthology starting in January 2017 at a rate of one story per week and just finished it about a week ago in January 2019. It was a long, often frustrating, but voluminous, education on what one pair of really notable editors consider to be important waypoints from the origins of the genre to its most modern antecedents.
Along the way there are some amazing gems, [b:Bloodchild|21265321|Bloodchild|Octavia E. Butler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1394278990s/21265321.jpg|40588304] and [b:Story of Your Life|31682219|Story of Your Life|Ted Chiang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472180915s/31682219.jpg|52354434] among them, but there are also plenty of stories that would best be described as "of academic interest only", including a lot of literary experimentation. I've read the Vandermeer's stuff before, and it's very clear that their tastes in story selection match their own fiction, with quite a number of these stories stretching science fictional concepts to horror and even bizarro fiction in places.
I nearly always appreciated what I was reading through this anthology, for a look at when different science fictional concepts were showing up in fiction, and also to see some of the genre traditions of other countries. But because the editors have such a strong and obvious preference for certain bents in fiction (highbrow literature, experimental fiction, horror), I never got an impression of a chronicle of science fiction as such, but much more of a "this is what we think was important" list.
And ultimately, other than academic interest, I simply don't share much of the tastes of the Vandermeers in this realm, and I probably only enjoyed (rather than appreciated) one story in three in this anthology. I'm still glad I read it though.
Along the way there are some amazing gems, [b:Bloodchild|21265321|Bloodchild|Octavia E. Butler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1394278990s/21265321.jpg|40588304] and [b:Story of Your Life|31682219|Story of Your Life|Ted Chiang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472180915s/31682219.jpg|52354434] among them, but there are also plenty of stories that would best be described as "of academic interest only", including a lot of literary experimentation. I've read the Vandermeer's stuff before, and it's very clear that their tastes in story selection match their own fiction, with quite a number of these stories stretching science fictional concepts to horror and even bizarro fiction in places.
I nearly always appreciated what I was reading through this anthology, for a look at when different science fictional concepts were showing up in fiction, and also to see some of the genre traditions of other countries. But because the editors have such a strong and obvious preference for certain bents in fiction (highbrow literature, experimental fiction, horror), I never got an impression of a chronicle of science fiction as such, but much more of a "this is what we think was important" list.
And ultimately, other than academic interest, I simply don't share much of the tastes of the Vandermeers in this realm, and I probably only enjoyed (rather than appreciated) one story in three in this anthology. I'm still glad I read it though.