Friday, August 31, 2007

Asimov's 30th Anniversary Anthology


In honor their thirtieth anniversary of publishing the good people at Asimov's Science Fiction have put together an anthology collecting some of the best stories (in chronological order) published in Asimov's. Sheila Williams, the editor of Asimov's is also editing this anthology. There are some impressive names included in this anthology: Butler, Asimov, Willis, Lethem, Shepard...shoot, I’m familiar with the work of a good half of the list, aware of most of the rest and curious about the remainder.

Note the inclusion of Octavia Butler's Speech Sounds. You’ll see this in the Wastelands anthology, in her own Bloodchild collection and probably several other anthologies. It's really that good, and that’s not surprising because Octavia Butler was one of the best.

I think I’ve read Kelly Link's Flying Lessons in one of her collections. After I remember which story this is I'll have a better idea of my impression of it. I do know that I have read Robert Reed's Eight Episodes. It’s up for a Hugo this year (winners announced tomorrow), but this one I didn't like that much. Interesting construction, but I can't say that it really amounted to that much or meant anything to me.

What I’m most interesting in reading for the first time, though, are the stories by: Connie Willis, Mike Resnick, Charles Stross, Lucius Shepard, and Jonathan Lethem. And then a re-read of Butler's Speech Sounds.

Contents:
John Varley - "Air Raid"
Robert Silverberg - "The Time of the Burning"
Octavia E. Butler - "Speech Sounds"
Bruce Sterling - "Dinner in Audoghast"
Isaac Asimov - "Robot Dreams"
Kim Stanley Robinson - "Glacier"
Connie Willis - "Cibola"
Jonathan Lethem - "The Happy Man"
Mike Resnick - "Over There"
Ursula K. LeGuin - "Ether, OR"
Kelly Link - "Flying Lessons"
Michael Swanwick - "Ancient Engines"
James Patrick Kelly - "Itsy Bitsy Spider"
Charles Stross - "Lobsters"
Lucius Shepard - "Only Partly Here"
Stephen Baxter - "The Children of Time"
Robert Reed - "Eight Episodes"

No comments: