James Nicoll Reviews

Gardner Dozois’ 1991 The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection is the eighth annual anthology in Dozois’ Best Science Fiction series. 

Clearly, either the distinction between collection and anthology had not yet been established when this was published or Dozois rejected it. Young editors seeking to begin their own thirty-odd volume series may be interested to know that generally, collection refers to short story assemblies where all works are by the same person, whereas anthologies draw from the works of a variety of authors. Don’t look at me like that! It’s a useful distinction! 

At 656 pages, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection is a weighty tome. I am happy to have read it as an ebook. The anthologies sold well enough that only Dozois’ death ended the series. Somewhere out there someone has all thirty-five annuals and both best-of-the-best volumes. Length of bookshelves required to hold the run? 

As he usually does, Dozois focuses on science fiction by men. (It would be interesting to review ALL the short-form SF published in 1990 to see what Dozois overlooked; there are probably some gems written by women, BIPOCs, etc. in the mix.) As one also expects from Dozois, death is a recurring theme. If an author wanted to pitch a story to Dozois, they could do worse than to write about melancholy people being quietly miserable shortly before they expire. 

In short, it reminds me of Canadian Literature, which is also excessively fond of morose narratives leavened with occasional moments of intense melancholy and sudden death. Some of you may be unfamiliar with CanLit. If you annoy me sufficiently, I will introduce you to the works of Margaret Laurence.

Even if one were to ignore all magazine-related awards [1], the contents of this anthology did quite well at winning awards. Eight stories were Nebula finalists, six were Hugo finalists, one was a Ditmar finalist, one a Sturgeon finalist, one a World Fantast finalist and one British Science Fiction finalist. Winners include ​“Bears Discover Fire” (Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon), Tower of Babylon (Nebula), The Hemingway Hoax (Hugo and Nebula).

1991 is recent enough that the stories in this volume are not hopelessly archaic (although who knows if the Young People would agree?). Dozois’ annual summary is, as usual, a fascinating look at a year in the history of the field, albeit constrained by Dozois’ decision, since he was a magazine editor himself, to limit himself to positive comments about the competition. He was not so restrained when it came to novels, films, and other non-magazine sources of SF. 

I’ll tackle the stories individually in the following section. Short take: ​“Mr. Boy” and ​“Walking the Moons”, ​“Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates” were my favorites, and ​“The Shobies’ Story” wins my award for least rewarding read. 

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Book Depository), and here (Chapters-Indigo). Which, given that this is a thirty-one-year-old anthology, is kind of amazing. 

Now for a closer look at what you’ll get in this tome. This will be long. 

Summation: 1990 • essay by Gardner Dozois

A Dozois-eye review of the previous year. 

Mr. Boy • (1990) • novella by James Patrick Kelly

A twenty-something, kept stunted by his self-centered, post-human mother, grudgingly begins to embrace adulthood.

If someone were curating an anthology of stories about awful parenting decisions, this would be an excellent choice. Mr. Boybecame part of the 1994 fix-up novel Wildlife, which is inexplicably out of print. I really need to review more Kelly.

The Shobies’ Story • [Hainish] • (1990) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin

The first humans to try an innovative means to circumvent the speed of light using churten are astonished by the results.

Any time churten theory appears in a Le Guin story, the results are incomprehensible … at least to me. 

The Caress • (1990) • novelette by Greg Egan

Murder and a rotting corpse are among the least disturbing revelations in this tale of art pursued beyond reason. 

Egan seems to have as much fondness for biological organisms as Lovecraft had for Italians and other races he considered inferior.

A Braver Thing • (1990) • novelette by Charles Sheffield

A Nobel winner explains the sequence of events that led him to publish and take credit for a dead friend’s groundbreaking work.

This is a mirror image of Sheffield’s 1977 ​“What Song the Sirens Sang” and a cousin to L. Sprague De Camp’s 1955 ​“Judgment Day.”

We See Things Differently • (1989) • novelette by Bruce Sterling

A judgmental Arab, his confidence shored up by Islam’s ascendance, visits down-at-its-heels America.

One might also assemble an anthology of stories about rich foreigners touring a declining America. If there weren’t enough stories about Middle-Eastern visitors, one could pad it out with the brothers Haldeman’s 1979 ​“Starschool” and Spinrad’s 1973 ​“A Thing of Beauty.”

“And the Angels Sing” • (1990) • short story by Kate Wilhelm

A woman rescued from a storm proves to be no woman at all. Nor is she even human.

“Past Magic” • (1990) • short story by Ian R. MacLeod

Bioscience offers the chance to restore a dead girl to life … or at least to create a clone who believes that they are the original girl. 

“Bears Discover Fire” • (1990) • short story by Terry Bisson

There are bears. They discover fire.

This won the 1991 Asimov’s Readers’ Award, the 1991 SF Chronicle Award, the 1991 Hugo, the 1991 Locus, the 1991 Nebula, and the 1991 Sturgeon in its category. All round a pretty good year for Bisson. It greatly helps that the story does not overstay its welcome. 

The All-Consuming • (1990) • novelette by Robert Frazier and Lucius Shepard

A reprobate, scorned and reduced to poverty, is hired to kill a rich man by supplying toxic foodstuffs. 

Had Shepard been born fifty years earlier, his stories of Third-World poverty-driven adventures would have been perfect for the old radio show Escape.

Personal Silence • (1990) • novelette by Molly Gloss

In a world seemingly addicted to war, a wanderer and a young girl do what is in their power to try to steer global society towards peace. 

Invaders • (1990) • novelette by John Kessel

Two parallel stories — one historical and one futuristic — examine and critique colonialism. 

The Cairene Purse • (1990) • novella by Michael Moorcock

Determined to reconcile with his estranged sister, a man unwittingly sets himself on a path towards disturbing revelations.

The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks, A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk • (1990) • novelette by Dafydd ab Hugh

Brave talking animals risk their lives to deliver the great revolution to the last holdout against change.

Only a cynic would compare this to the backstory to Jack Kirby’s Kamandi. This was ab Hugh’s highwater mark, award-wise. 

Tower of Babylon • (1990) • novelette by Ted Chiang

Devout workers construct a tower to heaven, little suspecting the reward that awaits. 

This won a Nebula, the first of many award wins for Chiang. I think one could draw parallels between Chiang’s short fiction and that by Greg Egan: both authors write spare and disturbing stories; they are also fascinated by the implications of world building rigorously applied. However, while Chiang may find human foibles frustrating, he is not as intensely repelled by basic human biology as Egan appears to be. 

The Death Artist • (1990) • novelette by Alexander Jablokov

Subjected to incessant murder attempts, a pampered immortal is forced to embrace self-discovery.

Another clone story! I note that if one set out to riff on Varley’s 1977 ​“The Phantom of Kansas” in manner calculated to appeal to anthologist Dozois in particular, this is pretty much what one would expect. 

The First Since Ancient Persia • (1990) • novelette by John Brunner

A determined woman makes her way to an obscure research facility, a life choice that will have disastrous consequences for the entire planet.

One of the morals of the story is ​“ethics committees exist for a reason.”

Inertia • (1990) • novelette by Nancy Kress

The inhabitants of a medical concentration camp present disdainful, fearful America with a puzzle: why, when society outside the camp is disintegrating, have the prisoners somehow used their far more meagre resources to maintain a functional civil society?

In general I don’t care for Kress’ fiction but this is the exception. I liked it, which was a surprise. I was sure I’d read this before and was prepared to be vexed anew, but I was thinking of a completely different story clearly inspired by proposals to consign HIV suffers to concentration camps. 

“Learning to Be Me” • (1990) • short story by Greg Egan

An immortal discovers an undocumented feature in the technology that will keep them alive until the last star gutters out.

This is an Egan story that touches on biology, which is to say horror. 

“Cibola” • (1990) • short story by Connie Willis

The true secret of the Seven Cities of Gold — revealed!

Re-reading this story thirty-two years later, I found myself thinking that this is a very, very American story. The fabled cities of legend turn out to be a modern-day US community. Shining city on a hill and all that. 

A small mystery: I know I read this story sometime in the last twenty years, but for the life of me I cannot figure out where I would have encountered it. I know I did not read this volume of Best SF when it first came out. 

“Walking the Moons” • (1990) • short story by Jonathan Lethem

A visionary embraces the wonders of virtual reality, oblivious to the urine dribbling down his leg.

This makes much the same point as Anderson’s ​“The Saturn Game.” Lethem is a far better prose writer than Anderson, but … for some reason the Anderson won a Hugo while this superior effort was largely snubbed.

Thanks to Zuckerberg’s over-hyped Metaverse, the story is rather timely. 

“Rainmaker Cometh” • (1989) • short story by Ian McDonald

What price the end of drought? 

“Hot Sky” • (1990) • short story by Robert Silverberg

This is a short story by Robert Silverberg.

“White City” • (1990) • short story by Lewis Shiner

Tesla delivers a technological miracle to the unappreciative masses.

“Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates”• (1990) • short story by Pat Murphy

Dying in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange, a scientist uses her last days to construct a lasting heritage. 

If nothing else, this effective little tale drew my attention to the existence of the collection Women Up to No Good, which I will have to track down.

[one minute later]

Acquired! Ebooks and the internet have really eliminated much of the relentless-pursuit aspect of book collecting. 

The Hemingway Hoax • (1990) • novella by Joe Haldeman

What begins as simple literary fraud swiftly turns out to have major cosmological implications.

Judging by the fact this won both the Nebula and the Hugo, it is safe to say that other readers loved this more than I did. Although in retrospect, the notion that reading Hemingway’s fiction could have lethal consequences is pretty funny. 

Honorable Mentions: 1990 • essay by Gardner Dozois

An extremely lengthy list of works not quite good enough to make it into this volume. 

1: I’m also ignoring the HOMer, which did manage an eleven-year run.