The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (5 page)

One of the year’s best anthologies was published by an ultra-small press in Australia, and is going to be very difficult for most readers to find. Neverthless,
X6
(Coeur de Lion), a collection of six novellas edited by Keith Stevenson, features two of the best stories of the year – an evocative reinvention of the selkie legend by Margo Lanagan and a brutal, hard-hitting examination of a disintegrating future Australia by Paul Haines – as well as good work by Terry Dowling and Cat Sparks. Not quite as successful as
X6
, but still featuring some substantial work, is another novella collection from another small press,
Panverse One: Five Original Novellas of Fantasy and Science Fiction
(Panverse Press), edited by Dario Ciriello. The best story here is probably an atmospheric fantasy by Alan Smale, centering on a strange space-time discontinuity that opens up around Emily Brontë
of Wuthering Heights
fame, but there is also good work by Jason K. Chapman and Andrew Tisbert. I had high hopes for another ultra-small press anthology,
When It Changed
(Comma Press), edited by Geoff Ryman, which had an intriguing premise and a good roster of authors, but somehow the final product was mildly disappointing, although there were strong stories there by Adam Roberts, Ryman himself, and others. Another ultra-small press produced the anthology
Footsteps
(Hadley Rille Books), edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds, a somewhat lackluster volume of Moon landing-related stories, although there was solid work there by James Van Pelt, Brenda Cooper, and others.

We’re supposed to consider the British publication
Postscripts
(PS Publishing) to be an anthology now rather than a magazine, so this seems like the appropriate place to take a look at it. They managed three issues this year, one of them a double issue:
Postscripts 18: This Is the Summer of Love, Postscripts 19: Enemy of the Good
, and
Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein
, all edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers. These three volumes maintain a reasonably high level of literary accomplishment, although none of them matches 2008’s
Postscripts 15;
there’s good work in the three volumes by Chris Roberson, Lisa Tuttle, Daniel Abraham, Paul Park, M.K. Hobson, Matthew Hughes, Marly Youmans, and others.

Pleasant but minor science fiction anthologies included
Intelligent Design
(DAW Books), edited by Denise Little,
Gamer Fantastic
(DAW Books), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, and a mixed SF and fantasy anthology, Warrior Wisewoman 2 (Norilana), edited by Roby James.

Noted without comment is
The New Space Opera 2
, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan.

The best original fantasy anthology of the year (although it contains a couple of SF stories) may have been
Firebirds Soaring
(Firebird), edited by Sharyn November, which featured excellent work by Jo Walton, Margo Lanagan, Chris Roberson, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ellen Klages, Louise Marley, and others.
Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales
(Viking), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling, is aimed at a younger audience than most of their other collections of fairy tale retellings have been – best story here is by Kelly Link, although there’s also entertaining work by Peter S. Beagle, Garth Nix, Delia Sherman, Jane Yolen, and others.

Pleasant but minor original fantasy anthologies included
Swordplay
(DAW Books), edited by Denise Little;
The Trouble with Heroes
(DAW Books), edited by Denise Little;
Lace and Blade 2
(Norilana Books), edited by Deborah J. Ross;
Ages of Wonder
(DAW Books), edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin;
Strip Mauled
(Baen Books), edited by Esther M. Friesner;
Witch Way to the Mall
(Baen Books), edited by Esther M. Friesner;
Terribly Twisted Tales
(DAW Books), edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg;
Under the Rose
(Norilana Books), edited by Dave Hutchinson; and
Crime Spells
(DAW Books), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Loren L. Coleman. There was also another installment in a long-running fantasy anthology series,
Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Swords and Sorceress XXIV
(Norilana Books), edited by Elisabeth Waters.

Noted without comment are
Songs of the Dying Earth
(Subterranean Press/HarperCollins UK), an anthology of new fantasy stories inspired by the work of Jack Vance, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, and
The Dragon Book
(Ace Books) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.

The year’s best original horror anthologies (although both have fantasy stories and even SF stories in them) were
Lovecraft Unbound
(Dark Horse Comics), a mixed original (mostly) and reprint anthology, and
Poe
(Solaris), an all-original, both edited by Ellen Datlow, and both collecting stories ‘inspired’ by the work of their respective authors (H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, naturally). The best story in
Lovecraft Unbound
happens to be the only SF story, by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, but the book also has strong original work by Laird Barron, William Browning Spencer, Lavie Tidhar, Holly Philips, Richard Bowes, Marc Laidlaw, and others, and good reprint stuff by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Chabon, and others.
Poe
features good work by Suzy McKee Charnas, Lucius Shepard, Pat Cadigan, Sharyn McCrumb, Glen Hirshberg, Laird Barron, Gregory Frost, Kim Newman, and others.
Tesseracts Thirteen
(Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy), edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, functioned as a dedicated horror anthology this year.
Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary
(Tor Books), edited by Carol Serling, is self-explanatory. There were also a number of large retrospective reprint horror anthologies, discussed below.

Slipstream anthologies included:
Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing
(Small Beer Press), edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak;
Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between: Impossible Realism
(Bard College), edited by Bradford Morrow and Brian Evenson; and an anthology of flash fiction,
Last Drink Bird Head
(Ministry of Whimsy), edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer.

Shared world anthologies included
Wild Cards: Suicide Kings
(Tor Books), edited by George R.R. Martin;
Man-Kzin Wars XII
(Baen Books), created by Larry Niven;
Changing the World: All New Tales of Valdemar
(DAW Books), edited by Mercedes Lackey;
New Ceres Nights
(Twelfth Planet Press), edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wesely;
Grants Pass
(Morrigan Books), edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar; and
The Grantville Gazette V
(Baen Books), edited by Eric Flint.

A long-running series featuring novice work by beginning writers, some of whom may later turn out to be important talents, changed editors this year, as the late Algis Budrys handed the torch to K.D. Wentworth, who continued the series with
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXV
(Galaxy Press).

A relatively new phenomenon is paranormal romance anthologies. They included
Strange Brew
(St. Martin’s Griffin), edited by P.N. Elrod, and a bunch of anthologies with no editor listed:
Mean Streets
(Roc),
Must Love Hellhounds
(Berkley Books), and
Never After
(Jove).

As in 2008, there were a lot of stories about robots this year, roughly divided into stories about robots working out compassionate relationships with humans and robots creating their own societies, loosely modeled on human culture, after all the humans are dead. As has been the case for a couple of years now, there were a number of stories that featured flying sailing ships (shades of
Peter Pan!)
and/or zeppelins. There were lots of steampunk stories, in both print and electronic venues, and, in spite of the death of dedicated alternate history magazine
Paradox
, still many alternate history stories as well. (Judging whether a given story is steampunk or alternate history is sometimes a judgment call, as by definition all steampunk is also alternate history, but you can usually tell where the strongest emphasis lies.) There weren’t as many zombie stories as last year, although there was another dedicated zombie anthology, so perhaps they will rest quietly in their graves for a bit. Lots of vampire stories, it almost goes without saying.

SF continued to appear in places well outside accepted genre boundaries, from science magazines
Cosmos, Nature
, and
New Scientist
to
The New Yorker.

Finding individual pricings for all of the items from small presses mentioned in this summation has become too time-intensive, and since several of the same small presses publish anthologies, novels,
and
short-story collections, it seems silly to repeat addresses for them in section after section. Therefore, I’m going to attempt to list here, in one place, all the addresses for small presses that have books mentioned here or there in this summation, whether from the anthology section, the novel section, or the short-story collection section, and, where known, their website addresses. That should make it easy enough for the reader to look up the individual price of any book mentioned that isn’t from a regular trade publisher; such books are less likely to be found in your average bookstore, or even in a chain superstore, and so will probably have to be mail-ordered. Many publishers seem to sell only online, through their websites, and some will only accept payment through PayPal. Many books, even from some of the smaller presses, are also available through Amazon.com.

Addresses:
PS Publishing
, Grosvenor House, 1 New Road, Hornsea, East Yorkshire, HU18 1PG, England; www.pspublishing.co.uk.
Golden Gryphon Press
, 3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802; www.goldengryphon. com.
NESFA Press
, P.O. Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701-0809; www. nesfa.org.
Subterranean Press
, P.O. Box 190106, Burton, MI 48519; www. subterraneanpress.com.
Old Earth Books
, P.O. Box 19951, Baltimore, MD 21211-0951; www.oldearthbooks.com.
Tachyon Publications
, 1459 18th St. #139, San Francisco, CA 94107; www.tachyonpublications.com.
Night Shade Books
, 1470 NW Saltzman Road, Portland, OR 97229; www. nightshadebooks.com.
Five Star
, 295 Kennedy Memorial Drive, Waterville, ME 04901; www.galegroup.com/fivestar.
NewCon Press
, www.newconpress. co.uk.
Small Beer Press
, 150 Pleasant St. #306, Easthampton, MA 01027; www.smallbeerpress.com.
Locus Press
, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661; www.locusmag.com.
Crescent Books
, Mercat Press Ltd., 10 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 7AL, Scotland.
Wildside Press/ Borgo Press
, P.O. Box 301, Holicong, PA 18928-0301; www.wildsidepress.com.
Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc./Tesseract Books
, P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada; www.edgewebsite.com.
Aqueduct Press
, P.O. Box 95787, Seattle, WA 98145-2787; www.aqueductpress. com.
Phobos Books
, 200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1109, New York, NY 10003.
Fairwood Press
, 5203 Quincy Ave. SE, Auburn, WA 98092; www. fairwoodpress.com.
BenBella Books
, 6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 508, Dallas, TX 75206; www.benbellabooks.com.
Darkside Press
, Darkside Press & Midnight House, 107 E. Green St., Gallup, NM 87301; www. darkmidhouse.com.
Haffner Press
, 5005 Crooks Rd., Suite 35, Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239; www.haffnerpress.com.
North Atlantic Books
, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA, 94701; www.northatlanticbooks.com.
Prime Books
, P.O. Box 36503, Canton, OH, 44735; www.prime-books.com.
MonkeyBrain Books
, 11204 Crossland Drive, Austin, TX 78726; www.monkeybrainbooks. com.
Wesleyan University Press
, University Press of New England, Order Dept., 37 Lafayette St., Lebanon NH 03766-1405; www.wesleyan.edu/ wespress/.
Agog! Press
, P.O. Box U302, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Austrailia.
Wheatland Press
, P. O. Box 1818, Wilsonville, OR 97070; www.wheatlandpress.com.
MirrorDanse Books
, P.O. Box 3542, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia; www.tabula-rasa.info/MirrorDanse.
Arsenal Pulp Press
, 103-1014 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2W9, Canada; www.arsenalpulp.com.
DreamHaven Books
, 2301 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.dreamhavenbooks.com.
Elder Signs Press/ Dimensions Books
, www.dimensionsbooks.com.
Chaosium
, Chaosium Inc., 22568 Mission Boulevard #423, Hayward, CA 94541-5116; www.chao-sium.com.
Spire Books
, P.O. Box 3005, Radford, VA 24143.
SCIFI, Inc.
, P.O. Box 8442, Van Nuys, CA 91409-8442.
Omnidawn Publishing
, 1632 Elm Avenue, Richmond, California 94805-1614; www.omnidawn.com.
CSFG
, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, www.csfg.org.au.
Hadley Rille Books
, P.O. Box 25466, Overland Park, KS 66225; www.hadleyrillebooks.com.
ISFiC Press
, 707 Sapling Lane, Deerfield, IL 60015-3969; www.isficpress.com.
Suddenly Press
, c/o Brian Youmans, 49 Magnolia Street, Arlington, MA 02474; www.suddenlypress.com.
Sandstone Press
, P.O. Box 5725, One High St., Dingwall, Ross-shire, IV15 9WJ, Scotland; www.sandstonepress.com.
Tropism Press
, 1034 McKinley Ave., Oakland, CA 94610; www.tropismpress.com.
SF Poetry Association
, www.sfpoetry. com.
DH Press
, www.diamondbookdistributors.com.
Kurodahan Press
, c/o Intercom, Ltd., 3-9-10-403 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-0001 Japan; www.kurodahan.com.
Ramble House
, 443 Gladstone Blvd., Shreveport, LA 71104; www.ramblehouse.com.
Interstitial Arts Foundation
, P.O. Box 35862, Boston, MA, 02135; www.interstitial arts.org.
Raw Dog Screaming
, www.rawdogscreaming.com.
Three Legged Fox Books
, 98 Hythe Road, Brighton, BN1 6JS, UK; www.threeleggedfox.co.uk.
Norilana Books
, P.O. Box 2188, Winnetka, CA 91396; www.norilana.com.
Coeur de Lion
, 56 Serpentine Road, Kirrawee NSW 2232, Australia; www.coeurdelion.com. au.
PARSEC
, www.parsecink.org.
Robert J. Sawyer Books
, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, ON, L3R 4T8, Canada; www.sfwriter.com/rjsbooks.htm.
Rackstraw Press
, http://rackstrawpress. nfshost.com.
Candlewick
, www.candlewick.com.
Zubaan
, 128 B, First Floor, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110019, India; www.zubaanbooks.com.
Utter Tower
, www.threeleggedfox.co.uk.
Spilt Milk Press
, P.O. Box 266, Bettendorf, IA 52722; www.electricvelocipede.com.
Paper Golem
, www.papergolem.com.
Galaxy Press
, 7051 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 200, Hollywood, CA 90028; www.galaxypress.com.
Twelfth Planet Press
, P.O. Box 3027, Yokine, WA, 6060, Australia; http://twelfthplanetpress.wordpress. com.
Senses Five Press
, www.sensesfive.com.
Elastic Press
, 85 Gertrude Road, Norwich, NR3 4SG, UK; www.elasticpress.com.
Lethe Press
, 118 Heritage Ave., Maple Shade, NJ 08052; www.lethepressbooks.com.
Two Cranes Press
, www.twocranespress.com.
Wordcraft of Oregon
, P.O. Box 3235, La Grande, OR 97850; www.wordcraftoforegon.com.