"David G. Hartwell - Year's Best SF 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hartwell David G)

First, my annual clarification: this selection of science fiction stories represents the
best that was published during the year 1997. In my opinion I could perhaps have
filled two more volumes this size and then claimed to have nearly all of the
bestтАФthough not all the best novellas.
Second, the general criteria: this book is full of science fictionтАФevery story in the
book is clearly that and not something else. I personally have a high regard for
horror, fantasy, speculative fiction, and slipstream and postmodern literature. But
here, I chose science fiction. It is the intention of this yearтАЩs best series to focus
entirely on science fiction, and to provide readers who are looking especially for
science fiction an annual home base.
And now for 1997.
All the trends mentioned in last yearтАЩs introduction continued in 1997: the
magazines continued to lose circulation but still publish the lionтАЩs share of the best
stories in the SF field; original anthologies remained mediocre, with honorable
exceptions that gathered stories often better than all but the best magazine stories. IтАЩll
discuss some of them below. And the best stories were most often short, novelettes
or shorts according to Hugo or Nebula Award rules (just plain short stories
according to the standards of non-genre literature). 1997 was not a great year for
novellas.
SF Age emerged as a leader among the magazines for high quality science fiction,
though AsimovтАЩs and Fantasy & Science Fiction and Interzone continued strong. It
was a particularly good year for AsimovтАЩs, and there were a number of talented new
writers in Interzone. There were some consolidations in the publishing industry,
some cutbacks in paperbacks, but they were offset by an extraordinary increase in
the number of trade paperback titles. 1997 was the year of the trade paperback in
SF, with Del Rey alone issuing fifty or more titles of its extensive fantasy and SF
backlist in trade paperback.
I have several hot tips for readers. You may well have missed three of the best
(maybe three of the four yearтАЩs bestтАФthe only other leading contender is Linaweaver
& KramerтАЩs Free Space, which was reviewed widely and attracted many Nebula
story nominations) original science fiction anthologies of the year: Decalog 5, New
Worlds, and Future Histories. All of these books appeared unexpectedly and
without advance warning and I only saw them at first by accident. They helped make
it a particularly good year for anthologies in general.
Decalog 5 is the fifth in a series and is suddenly distinguished (after four previous
volumes that were notтАФ the first two were filled with unmemorable Dr. Who
stories!). This one, however, has originals by Stephen Baxter, Dominic Green, Ian
Watson, and others, all set in the far future. A good book in any year. Editor David
GarnettтАЩs latest New Worlds appeared as a trade paperback original from White
Wolf with no fanfare and is in my opinion the best original anthology of the year,
including new stories by William Gibson, Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, Kim
Newman, Ian Watson, and many othersтАФsome SF, some speculative fiction, as you
would expect. If there is such a thing as good old fashioned New Worlds at its best,
this it it. Editor Stephen McClellandтАЩs Future Histories is a trade paper-back
published in the UK (only?) by Horizon House and Nokia, full of original stories by
such writers as Nancy Kress, Gregory Benford, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Baxter, Pat
Murphy, Brian Stableford (and interviews with Sterling, Bear, Gibson, Stephenson,
Vernor Vinge, Alexander Besher, and others). The theme is тАЬTwenty Tomorrows for
CommunicationsтАЭтАФa corporate anthology, by golly, but done extremely well.
There was the usual, sad to say, glut of mediocre original anthologies, many with