Ellen Datlow, ed., The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Del Rey, 2008)
There's a reason Ellen Datlow is one of speculative fiction's superstars. How many editors are so respected, so recognizable, that their names on a cover sell an anthology as thoroughly as any author represented within? A couple. A few, perhaps. The final lineup on such a list might be debatable, but Datlow's name would be on nearly every permutation. The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy is a good example of why.
The collection opens with a beautiful story by Jason Stoddard, "The Elephant Ironclads." Not able to glean anything in particular from the title, I entered into this one with a clean slate. It turns out to be an alternate history, which the story's intro describes as "based (as most of the best of the subgenre) on some unbelievable but actual historical events." The story follows two young friends, Wallace and Niyol, on a short but grueling journey through the desert -- first as guides, then captives, of two mysterious tourists with shady agendas. Adventure this story does have, and a gritty, absolutely believable social and historical backdrop. A story about choices, identity, and personal accountability, all on a very human and totally comprehensible scale. Absolutely one of the best stories I've read all year. Deserves major genre recognition and possibly awards.
The next story, with the lovely and intriguing title "Ardent Clouds," shifts gears but not quality level. Difficult to classify (as the most memorable fiction often is), Lucy Sussex's "Ardent Clouds" is about an avid, dedicated, seemingly danger-addicted professional volcano photographer. It opens, "Call me suicidal (many do). Call me a paparazzo, specializing in subjects blowing their top. Call me a groupie for danger. . . ." A story in which the fantastical aspect hovers around the edges, lending the related events a surreal aspect that serves to make the action somehow more credible. Definitely a recommended read.
Christopher Rowe's "Gather" was also an excellent read, but a bit too esoteric to stay with me in any meaningful fashion after I closed the book. Vivid and interesting, with some intriguing socio-religious world-building and a unique narrative voice. The same goes for Elizabeth Bear's "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall." With an extremely compelling narrative voice, this boxing story is delivered in gospel-like singsong cadence, reminiscent of lay preaching and the delivery of oral histories. Another excellent offering.
Nathan Ballingrud's "North American Lake Monsters" was not among my favorites. Perhaps I'm fortunate in finding the disagreeable, though troubled, main character less than fully believable. "All Washed up While Looking for a Better World" by Carol Emshwiller (whose novel The Mount was another of my favorite reads of the year) wasn't as memorable nor as gripping as I would've liked, though it paints an intriguing and purposefully uncomforting picture of helplessness and self-reassessment.
"Special Economics" by Maureen F. McHugh was another spectacular standout. True science fiction stories seem to have been thin on the ground this year. Here, young heroine Jieling has moved to the big city to get a job. Alarmed at how quickly her savings are eaten by city prices for even the most basic necessities, and frustrated by how little her plague-trash market boom box hip-hop street performance earns her, she takes a job at the mysterious New Life Corporation. In a very Zola-esque way, she finds herself deeply in debt to the company from her very first day. Her work clothes, her meals, her dormitory bunk, even the electricity used to house her are all charged against her future earnings. Some of her co-workers are years in debt, and many have given over to what Jieling sees as a blatantly feudal system. A fantastic, refreshing adventure story with beautiful, very natural SF accessories and window dressing, here's another for the genre award ballots. Go read. Enjoy. Nominate.
"Aka St. Mark's Place" by Richard Bowes was another well-written tale with a convincing SF reality that still didn't make it onto my shortlist for the best stories in the anthology. When a collection is as carefully selected with as deft a hand as Ellen Datlow's, subjectivity reigns supreme. No story here is sub-par; some are simply to this particular reader's taste, while others aren't. This one left me more confused than satisfied.
Margo Lanagan's "The Goosle," a tragic but compelling "Hansel and Gretel" redux, is a definite read for anyone interested in fairytale retellings. This one's dark, perhaps better suited to original stylings of fairy tales, before they were repackaged for modern consumption in a sparkly new world with all the sharp edges trimmed off. "The Goosle" retains its sharp edges. That's what makes it interesting.
Lavie Tidhar's alternate history "Shira" tugs the tail of surrealism. Scholarly Nur, while researching her thesis, "On the Vision of the Small Holocaust in the Work of Lior Tirosh," comes across an obscure book by a seemingly prophetic poet. Mysticism, spiritualism, romance, obsession . . . so much is packed into this story, it feels considerably longer than it is. Tidhar's writing is lyrical and poetic, doing justice to the intensity of the main character and her personal journey.
"The Passion of Azazel" by Barry Malzberg was the one story of the entire anthology I found a bit of a slog. Perhaps it relied too heavily on specialized knowledge and arcane religious references? Not sure. We'll chalk this up as another on the side of "will work for someone else; did not work for me."
Laird Barron's "The Lagerstätte" is chillingly convincing, reminiscent in presentation and delivery of Doug Lain's "Music Lessons" (in The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet) or Robert Cormier's excellent I am the Cheese. But the similarity ends at presentation. In a series of dated entries, the story of Danni's near death experience, loss of her family, and subsequent haunting is revealed. The pain is raw and tangible, the behavior and dialogue completely believable. Reality and surreality and fantasy and longing and guilt are all tied up in a knotty string, too tangled to separate with any measure of certainty.
Anna Tambour's "Gladiolus Exposed" is another frighteningly convincing tale I don't need to read again. This reminds me of some of the more disturbing of Ellen Datlow's picks for the YBFH anthologies. The narrator stumbles upon an old, engraved bone in the earth while on (unsatisfying) vacation with his (unsatisfying) wife. His interest in the bone develops into something rather more and less than an obsession, which he insists it is not. We'll call this a love story and an anti-love story rolled into one. Too bleak for me.
"Daltharee" by Jeffrey Ford turns an abrupt corner from reality, forging with stern confidence a path into surreal science-fantasy. That anyone could traverse such a path with confidence is miraculous. This story of a city inside a bottle inside a reality inside another city inside another reality ad infinitum becomes a fable of epic dimensions, hinting at philosophies of a scope only slightly grasped.
What if a perennial scapegoat actually has an intangible but very real burden -- a reason for his treatment beyond his control -- placed on him from external sources? In Pat Cadigan's "Jimmy," the girl narrator tells the story of her friend Jimmy, a boy who could never escape the cloud of mistrust and dislike and constant marginalizing. Peers, teachers, family -- all view him with distrust or outright dislike for no reason readily discernable to his only friend. This is a weird, sad, but also somehow comforting story about a pariah and the one person who could see past the unfairness of his life. Recommended.
Rounding out the anthology is "Prisoners of the Action" by Paul McAuley and Kim Newman. A 60-page novella, this one's packed with all sorts of rich character detail and unfortunately believable (though clearly science-fictional) events. Echoing the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, with nods to the military absurdism of Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, this had a fast-paced story arc and satisfying ending. Could have been a tad shorter, though I would've hated to lose any significant portion of the story or any richness of the detail.
An outstanding collection overall, with a diversity and breadth of scope not often seen in modern collections. A 2008 must-buy for anthology fans. Several award-worthy stories within, and if McHugh and Stoddard don't win at least a couple between them, I'll be sorely disappointed.
