The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction Bear Baxter

The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction

edited by Allan Kaster

unabridged readings by Tom Dheere, Sue Bilich, and Vanessa Hart

More than 9 hours running time on 8 CDs

This is an unabridged audio collection of the “best of the best” science fiction prose originally written in 2008 by current and emerging masters of the genre as narrated by top voice talents. “Exhalation,” by Ted Chiang, tells the story of a world totally unlike Earth where mechanical men use the gas argon as air, replacing their lung tanks daily from an underground well.   “Exhalation” won: the 2009 Hugo Award for best short story; the 2009 British Science Fiction Association Award for best story; and the 2009 Locus Award for the best short story. “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story,” by James Alan Gardner, tells the story of a boy who discovers a ray-gun that affects his life in unanticipated ways, both good and bad. This story won the 2009 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. In Stephen Baxter’s “Turing’s Apples” two brothers reluctantly work together to decode an alien signal picked up by a radio telescope on the far side of the moon. In a homeage to H.P. Lovecraft, a black naturalist, just before World War II, investigates the biology of shoggoths (blobs of jelly) on the New England coast in Elizabeth Bear’s, 2009 Hugo Award winner for best novelette, “Shoggoth’s in Bloom.”  A scientist slowly goes mad trying to prove that the distant stars are made of diamond and that matter is just light slowed down in Jeffrey Ford’s “The Dream of Reason.” In Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” a woman buys a traveling monkey show that pretty much runs it self as all the monkeys know what they’re doing. A steel company will do what it takes to prevent two scientists from releasing the secret of making carbon nanotubes in “The Art of Alchemy” by Ted Kosmatka. In Paul McAuley’s “The City of the Dead,” the town constable in a settlement on a planet in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way befriends a woman who researches dangerous hive rats. A genetically enhanced psychopathic secret agent battles the “Rebirths” for the survival of the human race in Robert Reed’s “Five Thrillers.” Finally, in “Fixing Hanover,” by Jeff VanderMeer, a man reluctantly repairs the remains of a mechanical man that washed up on a beach and may be a link to his enigmatic past. Both "Exhalation" and "Shoggoths in Bloom" won Hugo Awards.

***REVIEWS***

SF Signal

REVIEW SUMMARY: This is an outstanding anthology.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: An 8-CD set of 10 audio stories of stories originally printed in 2008.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: An excellent selection of stories; high production values; excellent narration overall; audio format made it easy to consume.
CONS: Though few and far between, some stories worked better than others.
BOTTOM LINE: This was an enjoyable listening experience.

Publishing a "perfect" anthology is hard, if not impossible. With multiple stories, it's hard to compile ones that are all well-received by any one reader (let alone a short-fiction-consuming audience). A while back, I had posted my "Wish List" anthology, a collection of first-rate stories that I would pick for inclusion in a perfect anthology. It almost seems as if editor Allan Kaster has tapped into my own thoughts of 2008's short fiction selection, because the audio book anthology The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction (for 2008) come really close to being perfect.

But it's not just story selection that contributes to that. It's also the delivery and consumption of the stories. For example, I had already read 7 of the 10 stories in this anthology - and they were all good enough that I gave the audio version a try. Reinforcing my belief that outside influences affect a story's quality (most notably, a reader's attention), I must confess that the second time around, I found one story ("The Ray-Gun: A Love Story") to be more enjoyable. Perhaps I read it too quickly the first time around? I can't speed-read an audio story!

The narration of the stories is top notch, but I did notice a few things that, being a casual consumer of audio stories, make me wonder whether they are prevalent in all audio books. First, the chapter breaks (when a story had chapters) sometimes did not match up with the CD track breaks and furthermore, lacked sufficient pause in the narration. Second, the delivery was not always consistent. You could here when a new take was tacked on to the previous one. These are not detractors, mind you, just some notes on the audio format itself. The narrators (Tom Dheere, Vanessa Hart, and Sue Bilich) do a wonderful job. Additionally, the 8-CD set comes with a nice cover by Maurizio Manzieri.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable experience. It helped that, being audio stories, I was able to listen on the drive to/from work. But that didn't stop me from listening at home, too, when a story had me chomping at the bit to see what happened next.

Standout stories in this anthology include "Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer, "Turing's Apples" by Stephen Baxter, "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson, "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang, and "Five Thrillers" by Robert Reed.

Individual story reviews follow.

"The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" by James Alan Gardner (originally reviewed as part of the 2008 Nebula Award Short Fiction Nominees reading project) is a simple story, simply told, about Jack, who finds a Ray Gun that has fallen from space. Jack treats the ray-gun with respect, training himself to be a hero, and along the way gets a girlfriend or two. Soon Jack suspects that the ray-gun might be controlling some aspects of his life. Gardner's straightforward prose makes this read like a children's fable. I must have been paying better attention during the audio version of this story than when I read it; the impression left this time was better.

Jeff VanderMeer's "Fixing Hanover" (originally reviewed in Extraordinary Engines edited by Nick Gevers) is about a man hiding from his past in the community of Sandhaven. He finds the remains of a mechanical man washed up on the beach that may be a link to his mysterious past, and is ordered to fix it by Blake, the community's leader. Blake harbors ill-will towards our esteemed handyman narrator, since his mate, a sea captain named Lady Salt, was once with Blake. The beauty of this story is not only the dramatic tension caused by this triangle, but also by the way details emerge about the world; about the dangerous Hill People and the Empire from which they all hide. This is one of those stories that reveals different layers of enjoyment and leaves you wanting more. Well done.

In Jeffrey Ford's "The Dream of Reason" (also reviewed in Extraordinary Engines), a truly mad scientist named Amanitas Perul believes that stars are made of diamonds and that matter is light slowed to a standstill. He embarks on a years-long experiment to prove that he can slow down starlight enough that it becomes diamond dust. Although Perul's final discovery leaves a little to be desired, his inevitable and obsessive descent into madness is fascinating to watch.

In "The City of the Dead," Paul McCauley takes us to dusty settlement on a faraway colony world (the setting of the author's Confluence stories, I think) where the past history of the town constable (Mariliyn) clashes with the work of an elderly scientist (Anna) who is studying the resident hive rat population. Space travel and advanced technology have been granted to humans by super-intelligent landlords who, beyond a few scattered worlds like this one, reserve the rest of the galaxy for themselves. These are cool ideas that surface after a slow buildup, but they take a back seat to the immediacy of the plot; that is, how Annie's shady past brings in a palpable tension related to Anna's study of the hive rats.

"The Art of Alchemy" by Ted Kosmatka is an excellent examination of when corporate profiteering is chosen over morality. The creation of a super-strong carbon nanotube material is something that can significantly benefit mankind, but instead of it being made public, the design is taken to a corporation who will pay handsomely to keep it a secret. Veronica, a corporate bureaucrat, and one of the company's scientists don't think the technology should be suppressed. That's when the corporate bigwigs send out the hired help to eliminate them. Tense action and cool concepts make this an excellent thriller

Stephen Baxter's "Turing's Apples" (originally reviewed in Eclipse Two) is a perfect blend of interpersonal relationships and Big Ideas. The narrator, Jack, and his estranged brother, Wilson, eventually come together to decode an alien signal picked up by a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon. Wilson is obsessed with decoding its secrets while he avoids any personal contact with his family - especially Jack who shares Wilson's love for mathematics and science, but shuns academia to the point of working in the supercomputing department of a government anti-terrorist agency. Baxter's Big Idea comes in when Wilson actually does uncover the secret in the alien message - something that drives him to solicit Jack's help - thereby setting of a world-changing sequence of events. This is an excellent, well-written story that's only slightly muddled by Jack's speculation over what really happened.

"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson (originally reviewed as part of the 2008 Nebula Award Short Fiction Nominees reading project) is a seemingly superficial story about a traveling fairgrounds monkey act run by a woman named Aimee. The monkeys can perform amazing feats, including vanishing into thin air, only to return some time later carrying trinkets from wherever they've been. As the story unfolds, though, it reveals layers of surprising depth about life and Aimee's in particular. It's about loneliness and how she came to fill her life with meaningless things (like her boyfriend). And it's about healing and moving on. Serious topics for a monkey act, eh?

Elizabeth Bear's "Shoggoths in Bloom" (originally reviewed as part of the 2009 Hugo Award Short Fiction Nominees reading project) is a clever historical take on Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, placing the immortal shoggoth creatures under the attention of a black scientist in 1938. A few boat trips out to where they are located (with the help of a white fisherman) helps the scientist learn more than he bargained for, and enough to put him in a position of import regarding the shoggoths themselves. What could have merely been a simple horror story is instead turned into something more substantial when the author places the shoggoths' genesis in pitch-perfect context with the personal experiences of the scientist, particularly regarding racism, and with the treatment of Jews in pre-WWII Germany.

Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (originally reviewed in Eclipse Two) is perhaps best described as a mechanical man's notes on the scientific method used to discern the true nature of life: that it is predicating on changing air pressure. The setting is a self-contained world totally unlike our own, in which the mechanical men draw air from an underground well, replacing their lung tanks daily. Reading this, I am reminded of the wonder I felt when I first read "Surface Tension" by James Blish. Chiang's story is equally enjoyable and just as wondrous. Well done.

Robert Reed's excellent story "Five Thrillers" is exactly what it says it is: five dramatic stories. They happen to be related, portraying a few decades in the life of Joe Carroway, a merciless (and psychopathic) agent who deals in one way or another with the genetically engineered Rebirths, an oppressed faction of humans who eventually seek freedom by threatening to wipe out the "normal" humans. Joe is completely detached from humanity, as evidenced by the chilling reasoning shown in the first Cold Equations scenario. This makes him the perfect "hero" to fight the Rebirths, but the mindset that is rewarded may be no better for humanity in the long run. Great stuff.

Posted by John DeNardo at Tuesday August 04, 2009 at 12:29 AM © 2009 SF Signal

SF Site

A review by Susan Dunman

Annual "best of" short story anthologies are a long-standing tradition within the science fiction publishing community. As an audio fan, it's encouraging to see this same tradition being embraced by science fiction audio publishers such as Infinivox. This year, Infinivox editor Allan Kaster has made his selections from science fiction prose originally written in 2008 and his top ten picks are ones to be proud of, including two Hugo Award winners. No doubt about it, there's something here for any science fiction fan to appreciate and enjoy.

The collection starts off with, "The Ray Gun: A Love Story," by James Alan Gardner. As you might suspect, it's about a ray gun, but it's also about Jack, the young boy who finds it and will be changed forever. But is it a case of Jack changing his life because of the weapon or the ray gun having an alien influence over Jack's future?

Sometimes it pays to be a mechanical genius and sometimes it doesn't. That's not really the moral to Jeff VanderMeer's story, "Fixing Hanover," but it does explore consequences to actions and how there are times when those actions may be unavoidable.

Another story examining consequences is, "Turing's Apples," by Stephen Baxter. When Jack's older brother, Wilson, discovers the first signal from intelligent life received from outer space, he is determined to interpret the message, no matter the outcome. As an unwilling accomplice, Jack discovers, too late, that both the cost and consequences of their actions are far higher than either brother could possibly imagine.

H.P. Lovecraft fans should get a kick out of Elizabeth Bear's, "Shoggoths in Bloom." As a tribute to Lovecraft, this story works so well on so many different levels. Obviously, I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion, as it recently won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

"Exhalation," by Ted Chiang, is another Hugo winner, receiving the award for Best Short Story. It's a robot story unlike any I've ever heard. Mechanical men living in their own mechanical world refill their lungs with argon gas each day in order to survive. This was such a unique story and told in such a clever way that I had to go back and listen to it twice!

If your preferences turn more toward the action suspense novel or thriller, then both "The Art of Alchemy," by Ted Kosmatka and "Five Thrillers," by Robert Reed, should be right up your alley. "The Art of Alchemy" looks at what might happen when a new discovery could result in the demise of a currently successful technology that's keeping shareholders happy. And "Five Thrillers" takes listeners down a frightening path as a genetically enhanced psychopath employs all of his alarming skill to protect the human race.

It's almost impossible to not rate each story as you hear it being read and, for me, "The Dream of Reason," by Jeffrey Ford, was the least enjoyable. I don't think I ever really got the point, unless it was that scientists can believe and do incredibly stupid things. But you may have an entirely different reaction, which is the beauty of a short story collection.

Sometimes stories defy categorization, and that would be true for, "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss," by Kij Johnson. As part of a performing circus act, 26 monkeys can disappear into thin air. No one can explain how this happens and, in the end, does it really matter? You be the judge after reading this baffling, yet intriguing tale that doesn't try to explain the universe.

"The City of the Dead," by Paul McAuley, is my favorite in the collection and I'm not really sure why. An aging scientist lives in a deserted area on a remote planet to study alien animals called hive rats. But some local thugs are tipped off that she may be studying things more alien that overgrown rats and there's money to be made. However, they don't count on the resilience of the scientist and the local constable -- both of whom are clever ladies you really don't want to mess with.

All of the stories are expertly narrated by Tom Dheere, Vanessa Hart and Sue Bilich. Dheere has the lion's share of the narration, but each of the narrators take a low-key approach, using subtle shifts in accents, pitch, and pacing to differentiate characters when needed. This method works well with these stories because they don't need extra help to be effective. The stories cover a broad range of subject matter and offer a variety of styles. So, while you may not find every single selection to your taste, it's also a sure bet that at least a few will reverberate through your brain for days, weeks, or maybe even years after you've heard this production.

Copyright © 2009 Susan Dunman

SF Crowsnest.com

The Year's Top 10 Tales of Science Fiction audio book edited by Allan Kaster
01/09/2009. Contributed by Rod MacDonald 

pub: Audio Text/Infinivox. 544 minutes 8 CDs. Regular Price: $32.99 (US), CD Sale $29.99 (US). ISBN: 978-1884612-85-5). read by: Vanessa Hart, Sue Bilich and Tom Dheere.

A delightful package of eight CDs, very well presented in a case, with ten Science Fiction short stories and an audio time of 9 hours. These tales were originally written in 2008 and represent a wide spectrum of the genre. There is something for everyone and you will be very pleased with the editor's selection.

I reviewed this over seven days when not feeling very well during August and I can attest that the tales certainly cheered me up. At least for nine hours my mind was taken to somewhere else than misery. In fact, each one of the 10 stories was good, well-narrated and interesting.



My favourite was by Stephen Baxter. 'Turing's Apples' was reminiscent of Bletchley Park and the Enigma Code but this time the signals were not from German U-boats but from aliens distant in the galaxy. Received by a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon where it is shielded from extraneous signals from Earth, the information obviously intelligent in nature defies decoding that is, until a couple of brothers unite to crack it.

James Allen Gardner's 'The Ray Gun' seemed innocuous enough from the start but as the tale progressed it became more involved and complex. A boy discovers a ray gun of alien origin while out in the countryside. This would affect his entire life in good and bad ways but the end result is not what we expect.

All the tales were very good including 'Shoggoth's In Bloom', an offering from Elizabeth Bear in which a scientist with completely different perceptions of reality from our own is convinced that stars are made of diamonds and goes out on a quest to prove this to be true. Jeff VanderMeer took us to a planet governed by a ruthless dictatorship where giant airships rain down on fire on the oppressed in 'Fixing Hanover'. A robot washed up on a distant shore brings this back to a refugee fleeing from his past.

For further information, visit their website above. This audio CD collection would make an ideal present for anyone interested in Science Fiction or indeed, could be purchased as an act of self-indulgence. Highly recommended.

Rod MacDonald

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