THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: First Annual Collection

by Gardner--Ed. Dozois ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 9, 1984

Impressive and (at 576 pp.) massive: 24 substantial tales selected from the entire sf output of 1983. Greg Bear (The Wind From a Burning Woman) offers two of the standouts: chilling far-future conflict between enigmatic cold-planet aliens and the febrile, pitiless, Orwellian clones the human race has become; and a reckless researcher who invents DNA-like organic microcomputers. (Computer-amplified, his own leucocytes become intelligent and take him over.) James Tiptree, Jr. contributes one of her evocative tales of Mexico's Quintana Roo, where the trash and pollution that's poisoning the coral reefs develops a weird, menacing pseudolife, Ian Watson's ""Slow Birds"" are bizarre machines from an interdimensional war that, intruding on Earth, threaten destruction. And, in Jack McDevitt's ""Cryptic,"" radioastronomers searching for extraterrestrial life find not one but two alien civilizations--that turn out to be at war with one another. Also noteworthy: daring, imaginative, flawed work from Bruce Sterling on space colonies, big business, and the terraforming of Mars; a cowboy-cum-supernatural yarn from Joe Haldeman; David B. Lee's hardworking, thoughtful multiple-reality tale; Vernon Vinge's rather touching yarn of an unusual alien castaway. And there's plenty of diversity among the rest--from a molten asteroid inside Mercury's orbit, multiple personalities, mermen, vampires, intelligent apes, weight-loss treatments, and exploring dead brains. . . to selective memory erasure, the Spanish Armada, and more. With few exceptions or omissions: a meaty, worthwhile assemblage with lots of broad appeal.

Pub Date: April 9, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bluejay--dist. by St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION