Grasp The 1984 Annual Worlds Best SF Expressed By Donald A. Wollheim Categorized In Pamphlet
favorite story was the last one, . . beautifully written and almost the perfect length, I wanted more of a denouement, but it was the only story in the bunch that I didn't want to put down.
I've found at least one "new" author to read! THEANNUAL WORLDS BEST SF
RATEDPOSITIVE.
STORY SCORE./
STORIES :GREAT /GOOD /AVERAGE /POOR /DNF
The most interesting thing about this anthology going in was that so many of the authors were new to me.
Not “Ive never read any of their stories” New, but “Ive never heard this authors name New, It was a bit disappointing when most of the Great work was by authors that were already known to me.
Despite a mediocre percent positive, there is much to enjoy here with fourGreat stores:
Homefaringnovella by Robert Silverberg.
Completely unexpected and quite wonderful, A scientist volunteers to have his consciousness transported into the future and ends up millions of years ahead within a the body of an intelligent lobsterbeing.
This inspires a quest across a strange and wonderful undersea future world, This is a stunning “Sense of Wonder” story that I absolutely loved,
Blood Musicnovelette by Greg Bear, A brilliant, but unsophisticated scientist injects himself with his most recent experiment and goes to his friend for help.
What starts as selfimprovement eventually becomes horror,
The Leaves of Octobernovelette by Don Sakers, A lyrical story told in the voice of an intelligent alien tree, Human are the only species that hasnt been raised by ancient treealiens and one brave tree is sent to live among humans and try to understand them.
Another wistful and beautifully told story,
Spending a Day at the Lottery Fairshort story by Frederik Pohl, A quiet and haunting story of a family that attends a Fair, The Fair is full of wonders, but each one collects a calculated price,
THEANNUAL WORLDS BEST SF IS RATEDPOSITIVE
STORIES :GREAT /GOOD /AVERAGE /POOR /DNF
Blood Musicnovelette by Greg Bear
Great.
A brilliant scientist goes to a friend for help after injecting himself with the intelligent results of illegal experiments.
Potential Multivacshort story by Isaac Asimov
Average, Scientist investigate a young man that the giant computer says has the DNA for telepathy,
Knight of Shallowsnovelette by Rand B, Lee
Good. Rollicking timetravel/multiuniverse adventure as a man tracks a murderous version of himself,
Spending a Day at the Lottery Fairshort story by Frederik Pohl
Great, A quiet and haunting story of a family that attends a fair, The fair is full of
wonders, but each one collects a calculated price,
In the Face of My Enemy Kim Ryannovella by Joseph H, Delaney
Good. An expedition to approve a planet for colonization is sabotaged, A woman and an Indian man must try to make it back to base, Thankfully the Indian had been altered millennia ago by aliens and has superhuman powers,
The Nannynovelette by Thomas Wylde
Average, The last hope for humanity falls to one man when he is awakenedyears early and has to be responsible for hundreds of embryos in storage on the spaceship.
The Leaves of Octobernovelette by Don Sakers
Great, A lyrical story told in the voice of an intelligent alien tree, Human are the only species that hasnt been raised by ancient treealiens and one brave tree is sent to live among humans and try to understand them.
As Time Goes Byshort story by Tanith Lee
Good, A space station on a timeneutral way point, A dashing space pirate at an elegant bar, A beautiful woman with a secret and a paradox, Plus a ghost ship.
The Harvest of Wolvesshort story by Mary Gentle as by Mary R, Gentle
Poor. In a trite fascist future America, an old woman talks about the old times to an angry young man who doesnt care.
Homefaringnovella by Robert Silverberg
Great, Masterful and poignant story of a scientist whose consciousness is sent into the distant future and into the body of an intelligent lobster.
The latest collection of the finest science fiction tales published over the last year includes works by Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Tanith Lee, and other masters of the genre.
Good authors, but one of the more depressing in the series, Lots of armaggedon's and bleak views of humanity, Since this is theedition, this collection has a strong dystopian subtheme but not so much that you'd notice if you didn't know this was theedition, possibly because dystopian worlds are generally not uncommon in Science Fiction anyway.
In the introduction, the editor makes note of the year and how it did and did not impact the selections but it's all really beside the point because when it comes down to it, Science Fiction is about the impact of current and potential future science on humanity It doesn't matter if the potential science is nonsense.
There are many cases of nonsense science in older science fiction that proved to be prophetic facsimiles of future realities and every impact is easily taken to the nth degree in regards to it's ultimate contribution towards whichever side of the utopian/dystopian scale For recent examples think of Ray Bradbury or the artist formerly and once again known as Prince and the reasons behind their strong aversions to the internet.
Or there's the issue of GMOs and how some see them as the eventual final cure for world hunger while others go so far as to see them as the final step in human extinction.
But let's not fool ourselves with an evenly balanced scale because I'm pretty sure the dystopian side is touching the ground.
This is because humanity has a very "devil you know" attitude towards change and in reality, I think most dystopian fears are really rooted in a misplaced fear of change and the unknown.
I guess what it comes down to, is that I'm on vacation and am taking advantage of this rare opportunity to write this long and rambling review of what is basically a decent collection of short stories.
There's what I felt to be one long stinker in there, but otherwise the rest range from ok to reallyquitegood.
My favorite of the bunch was one that I started out disliking and in the end was won over by.
In closing, I'll be redonating these books back to the thrift shop when I'm done with them so if you run into them, I'd recommend picking them up.
As with most collections each reader will find their favourites, What is crap to one might be a delight to another though I think we can all agree that THE NANNY by Thomas Wylde is sexist bullshit.
My favourites by far are THE LEAVES OF OCTOBER by Don Sakers and HOMEFARING by Robert Silverberg.
Both speculate a future where man isnt the only, or dominant, intelligence on the planet,
The Hlut, in the Leaves of October, reminded me of the Ents from Tolkiens world though lacking mouths they communicated through colour patterns on their trunks.
A beautiful image to consider, I disagree with the final decision made by the Hlut collective which youll have to read if you want to know what I think about humans as a destructive force.
The HOMEFARING unfolds in such a fascinating way that you really need to read it yourself, To have it described would ruin the experience, This is a decent collection of Science Fiction short stories, I don't know if I'd really refer to them as the World's Best, though, I guess that's subjective.
The first story, "Blood Music" was a rather shocking and slightly stomachturning, The concept of injecting selfreplicating intelligent microbes into one's blood has some farreaching implications, What will they decide to do to you
The most fascinating, yet also the most confusing to me, at least was "Knight of Shallows.
" Roger is told by a mysterious corporation that an alternate Roger from another 'potential timeline' is going about murdering other Rogers in lots of other timelines.
This corporation commissions this Roger dubbed 'Roger Prime' to track the murdering 'Roger Rogue' and try to capture him.
The timelines and multiple Rogers were a little hard to keep track of, as well as the timejumping.
I had to read the ending of this story a couple of times and I'm still not sure I understand it as the author intended it.
Fascinating concept, though.
"The Leaves of October" is a heartbreaking tale of a sentient tree from another planet who may hold the fate of the world in it's.
. . um branches. The concept is familiar: sentient extraterrestrials decide humanity is too dangerous, warmongering, and insane they must be completely wiped out, however the particular extraterrestrial involved, the tree, has such an unique and compelling voice that it seems singularly distinct.
The remaining tales in this collection were, like I said earlier, decent, "As Time Goes By" started well, ended poorly, "In the Face of My Enemy" was rather long for a short story, and the payoff at the end not really worth it.
In fact, now that I think about it, the other stories all can be described as "interesting concept, decent beginning, disappointing ending.
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