re:mote voices

Title: The Mammoth Book Of Best New SF 15
Editor: Gardner Dozois
Publisher: Robinson

The Mammoth Book Of Best New SF is something I’ve been picking up for a number of years now. For me it is one of the best ways of supporting the SF short story scene, while also gaining access to a good sample of the best material that is published each year. Without fail each volume is a strong collection, barring one or two pieces in each volume, Gardner Dozois consistently proving himself as a reliable judge. Admittedly I’ve got a little behind in reading these collections, partly because of their size, but I’ve bought them regardless, and gradually catch up a story at a time.

The publication of this collection each year is a curious thing, particularly in the UK, which is out of synch with the original American edition. Especially given that the numbering of editions seems to be a handful ahead with the US edition. Regardless this is volume 15, which is the best SF short stories from 2001. Which would have been published at the start of 2002, before being reprinted in this UK edition towards the end of that year, and then probably picked up by myself at the start of 2003. Such that the latest edition, which has been published recently in the UK, is volume 17 and is a collection of the best stories from 2003. Which is something I will pick up soon, and I have already made a start on volume 16 in an attempt to close the gap that I allowed to open.

New Light On The Drake Equation by Ian R. MacLeod, following an aging scientists obsession with the equation which calculates the chances of finding other life in the universe. Mixed in with that is the idea of how the world has changed, almost becoming alien itself while he obsessed, which includes reflection on how he lost his chance at true love.

More Adventures On Other Planets by Michael Cassutt is a curious little story, which contrasts life on another planet through the eyes of remote robots, and life on our planet through the eyes of the people who operate those robots.

Dan Simmons’ On K2 With Kanakaredes is a story about climbing K2 and how tough it is, especially when the climbers find themselves joined by the son of an alien ambassador. How does climbing a mountain change for a group of men when joined by an alien which is something like a giant ant?

When The World Is All On Fire sees William Sanders explore a post-apocalyptic vision, where the Native Americans patrol the reservation borders against the infraction of squatters and refugees.

Computer Virus by Nancy Kress reminds of the film Panic Room, though instead of the house locking down because of robbers, the specially designed house locks down because something got into the system before cutting the house and it’s inhabitants off from the rest of the world.

Have Not Have is Geoff Ryman’s story about a remote village, the last village to be added to the world wide web, a system which is thrust upon them whether they want it or not and how the status quo is torn apart by the arrival of this all encompassing system.

Lobsters is one of the stories I had read before reading this collection, the short by Charles Stross follows the character Manfred Manx, who is a brilliant thinker, and works freelance on the bleeding edge of the zeitgeist to change the world and help the people he meets. Painfully hip and clever and damn well worth reading.

The Dog Said Bow-Wow is Michael Swanwick’s story about a post-internet generated apocalypse, which sees a conman join with an engineered and intelligent dog to set up an elaborate ruse against the British monarchy.

Neutrino Drag by Paul di Filippo is about street racing in 1950’s America, and how the local team ignored alien the latest addition to their team was when his peculiar car helped them win every race they entered.

Glacial fits into the novels of Alistair Reynolds, where characters from one of his books flee Earth and the war that has been raging there. When they come across an ice bound planet they land expecting to be the first humans to have ever been here, instead they find the remains of a colony and what might well be a murder mystery.

Allen M. Steele asks a pertinent question with The Days Between, what happens to someone who wakes up from deep freeze 3 months into a 270 year flight, finding himself alone and with no way back to sleep he somehow has to live as best he can.

Moby Quilt wasn’t really what I expected when I started to read it, the story by Eleanor Arnason sees a location scout for the film industry take a trip on a boat on an alien planet. The great Kraken like beast that swims alongside the ship however is on their side, and communicates with her through AI links. Giving the story a couple of view points when the ship does run up against something even more alien.

Robert Reed does something a little different from his novels with Raven Dream, presenting a world, which is a square bordered by day/night and summer/winter. The story follows Raven as he grows from a child to a new man, one of the few remaining People in the world, hiding from the demons that invade the Land.

Undone is James Patrick Kelly’s story about time travel, which sees a woman fighting for a rebel force prevented from taking a step back in time. With the result that she ends up in the far future, where there is no trace of her allies or the people they were fighting. So she sets out to find out how her past could have been undone.

The Real Thing is another time travel story and is a really good piece by Carolyn Ives Gilman. A woman volunteers for an experimental process, waking up to a future even more information driven than our present, where she has been caught up in a struggle for copyright and media access.

Interview: On Any Given Day is presented as a series of hyperlinked interview by Maureen F. McHugh. At the centre are the conversations with teenagers, which encapsulate the changes in technology, and to a degree how those fit into the perennial battle between parents and children. Alongside that there is also the issue of rejuvenation, and how the old made young fit into that picture, something which flags up a parallel with Bruce Sterling’s Holy Fire.

Into Greenwood sees Jim Grimsley go into the dark woods on an alien planet as a woman meets up with her brother for the first time since he became a hybrid. A symbiotic interpreter for a tree in the vast sentient Greenwood.

Know How, Can Do is perhaps a story about so-called frankenscience, Michael Blumlein presenting the case of the worm with a human brain. Following the worm from initial consciousness through increasing levels of intelligence, the language of this piece struck me, being particularly poetic.

Russian Vine is the second of the stories here that I had read previously, the story by Simon Ings sees Earth conquered by aliens. Aliens who have taken steps to destroy language in the belief that it will prevent resistance to their occupation.

The Two Dicks isn’t quite what the title might suggest, Paul McAuley offering an alternate reality story featuring America’s greatest novelist – Philip K. Dick. A man who suspects there is something going on around him, and isn’t very happy to find that someone has stolen a draft copy of “The Man In The High Castle” and bootlegged it, especially given that kind of pulp-SF could harm his career as a serious novelist.

Brenda W. Clough’s May Be Some Time is another time travel story, which has parallel’s The Real Thing as someone from the past travels to the future. But in this case the time traveller is not a volunteer and has something of a rude awakening. The body of arctic explorer Titus Oates was never found, perhaps because it was spirited away to 2045?

Marcher by Chris Beckett is a story about immigration and the people that police the borders. Except in this case the borders aren’t national, they are spatial.

The Human Front is the last story in the collection and the last of the 3 that I had read before reading this volume. Ken MacLeod’s story of a boy becoming a man, and the political growth that goes with that, and the resulting fall out that goes with that is not what it seems.

Most of the stories are pretty good, though I found that I wasn’t particularly inspired by Andy Duncan’s Chief Designer, which took long to go anywhere for a short story, and Ian R. MacLeod’s Isabel Of The Fall which was trying to be too clever in it’s reinterpretation of legend that it put me off pretty quickly with it’s continual backtracking and reconditioning of phrases. From this collection my favourite stories are those by Nancy Kress, Charles Stross, Eleanor Arnason, Robert Reed, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Michael Blumlein and Paul McAuley.