Ken MacLeod. ‘The Entire Immense Superstructure : an Installation’. (Reach for Infinity)
An excellent, quirky piece from MacLeod, slightly out of kilter with the fairly standard narrative structure of most the anthology.
Ken MacLeod. The Vorkuta Event. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction 29th Annual Collection)
Well-written, as you would expect from MacLeod, a post-war/Cold War setting (with an nod to Kim Philby) in which a student has related to him a story of Quatermassian horrors that foretell a far future conflict.
Ken MacLeod. The Surface of Last Scattering. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)
An intelligent story from MacLeod, the first in this volume I’d tip for Year’s Best honours.
Ken MacLeod. The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three. (Solaris Rising)
You always get some thought-provoking politics with MacLeod, and here he pops in some near-future background to give depth to a story involving an SF writer and an anthologist.
Ken MacLeod. Earth Hour. (Tor.com, June 2011)
A tight near-future thriller, set in Australia, and with a strong tech/political background
Rich Horton. Science Fiction The Best of the Year 2008 Edition.
As has been the case with others in his take on the year’s best SF there is less I agree with than is the case with the other year’s best volumes.
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume Three. (ed George Mann, Solaris 2009.)
The third in the Solaris series hits the street just as the word on those
‘Fast Forward 1’ ed Lou Anders, pub Pyr 2007
An excellent collection of short SF. Several made it to the various Year’s Best collections, and a couple of others which were not selected would not have looked out of place. The volume starts well, is strong in the middle, and ramps up to a strong finish.
Celebration. ed Ian Whates. NewCon Press, 2008
This is a good collection featuring some strong stories by many of the biggest names in British SF.
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Two. ed Jonathan Strahan, Night Shade Books, 2008.
Stories by : Ted Chiang, Peter S. Beagle, Charles Stross, Greg Egan, Daryl Gregory, Jeffrey Ford, Holly Black, Ted Kosmatka, Alex Irvine, Daniel Abraham, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, Theodore Goss, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Baxter, Ken Macleod, Susan Palwick, Michael Swanwick, M. Rickert, Tony Daniel, Elizabeth Hand, Chris Roberson, Elizabeth Bear, Kelly Link.
The New Space Opera, ed Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, Eos, 2007.
This has quite simply got to be the strongest original collection in SF in recent years. If you are a regular visitor to Best SF and tend to concur with what I see as being the best in short SF, then this volume is a must have.
Ken Macleod. The Highway Men. (Sandstone Vista, March 2006.)
This is a cracking little book which will hopefully act as an introduction to SF to some readers who would otherwise not browse the SF shelves of their bookshop or library. It also deserves a wider audience, and could well appear in one of the Year’s Best anthologies next year.
Nova Scotia – new Scottish Speculative Fiction, ed Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson. Crescent, 2005
A good mix of SF, alternate history and horror, interspered with some dry humour. It’s a handsome paperback that deserves to do well.
Year’s Best SF 13. ed David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. Eos Books 2008
Stories by : Bruce Sterling, Gene Wolfe., Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald, James Van Pelt, Johanna Sinisalo, John Hemry, John Kessel, Kage Baker, Karen Joy Fowler, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Ken MacLeod, Marc Laidlaw, Nancy Kress, Palle Juul Holm, Peter Watts, Robin Hitchock, Stephen Baxter, Terry Bisson, Tim Pratt, Tony Ballantyne, William Shunn.
Year’s Best SF 11. David G. Hartwell, Kathryn Cramer. Eos, 2006
Stories by : Adam Roberts, Alastair Reynolds, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Bruce Stirling, Bud Sparhawk, Cory Doctorow, Daryl Gregory, David Langford, Gardner R Dozois, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Hannu Rajaniemi, James Patrick Kelly, Joe Haldeman, Justina Robinson, Ken MacLeod, Larissa Lai, Lauren McLaughlin, Liz Williams, Matthew Jarpe, Michael Swanwick, Neal Asher, Oliver Morton, Paul McAuley, Peter F. Hamilton, R. Garcia y Robertson, Rudy Rucker, Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, Tobias S. Buckell, Vonda N McIntyre.
Year’s Best SF 6. David G. Hartwell. Eos Books 2001
Stories by : Brian Stableford, Brian W. Aldiss Steppenpferd, Charles Dexter Ward, Chris Beckett, Dan Simmons, Darrell Schweitzer, David Brin, David Langford, Greg Egan, Howard Waldrop, Joan Slonczewski, John M. Ford, Ken MacLeod, M. Shayne Bell, Michael F. Flynn, Nancy Kress, Norman Spinrad, Paul J. McAuley, Robert Charles Wilson, Robert Reed, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, Stephen Baxter, Stephen Dedman, Tananarive Due, Ted Chiang, Ursula K. Le Guin
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 25th Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois. St. Martins Griffin, 2008
As ever, chock full of high quality SF, with the annual summation providing SF with an ongoing reference and reading tome which we should not take for granted. Here’s to the next 25 years! Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, Chris Roberson, David Moles, Elizabeth Bear, Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald, James Van Pelt, John Barnes, Justin Stanchfield, Kage Baker, Keith Brooke, Ken MacLeod, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Neal Asher, Pat Cadigan, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, Ted Kosmatka, Tom Purdom, Una McCormack, Vandana Singh
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 24th Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois. St. Martins Griffin, 2007
Stories by : A.M. Dellamonica, Alastair Reynolds, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Bruce McAllister, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Cory Doctorow, Daryl Gregory, David D. Levine, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Greg Egan, Greg van Eekhout, Gregory Benford, Ian McDonald, Jack Skillingstead, Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold, John Barnes, Justin Stanchfield, Kage Baker, Ken MacLeod, Mary Rosenblum, Michael Swanwick, Paolo Bacigalupi, Paul J. McAuley, Robert Charles Wilson, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, Walter Jon Williams
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 23rd Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois. St. Martins Griffin, 2006
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Bruce Sterling, Chris Beckett, Chris Roberson, Daryl Gregory, David Gerrold, David Moles, Dominic Green, Elizabeth Bear, Gene Wolfe., Gwyneth Jones, Hannu Rajaniemi, Harry Turtledove, Ian McDonald, James Patrick Kelly, Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold, Joe Haldeman, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams, Mary Rosenblum, Michael Swanwick, Neal Asher, Paolo Bacigalupi, Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, Stephen Popkes, Vonda N McIntyre, William Sanders
Year’s Best Science Fiction, 19th Annual Collection. Gardner Dozois. St. Martins Griffin, 2002
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Allen M. Steele, Andy Duncan, Brenda W. Clough, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Charles Stross, Chris Beckett, Dan Simmons, Eleanor Arnason, Geoff Ryman, Howard Waldrop and Leigh Kennedy, Ian R. Macleod, James Kelly, Jim Grimsley, Ken MacLeod, Michael Blumlein, Michael Cassutt, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Paul Di Filippo, Paul McAuley, Robert Reed, Simon Ings, William Sanders.
‘infinities’. edited by Peter Crowther, (Gollancz 2002)
This is a handsome hard-back book which would grace any shelf (albeit that the shape of the book will require a deep shelf!). The stories are of varying quality and SFness, but work together well. A recommended purchase for those of you who haven’t got the stories in their PS Publishing format.
Ken MacLeod. The Human Front. PS Publishing, 2003.
All in all a story which is at times quite powerful and grittily believable, although I think the story could have benefitted from greater length.