21st Century Science Fiction
edited by David Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen HaydenTor, 2013The title of the latest book from David Hartwell (ably assisted by Patrick Neilsen Hayden), 21st Century Science Fiction, doubles as an impish little invitation to naysayers, and who am I to turn down an invitation? So: isn't publishing an anthology called 21st Century Science Fiction in the Year of Grace 2013 just a wee bit premature? Imagine 20th Century Science Fiction appearing in 1913 - think of all that it would lack! No "Scanners Live in Vain" (1950), no "The Nine Billion Names of God" (1953), no "The Dragon Masters" (1963), no "The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World" (1969), no "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (1970), no "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1974), no "The Screwfly Solution" (1977), no "The Ugly Chickens" (1980) - and not just countless other genre-defining short stories, but also the way they build on each other, even unconsciously (since it's usually the oddball kids who hungrily read science fiction short stories who then grow up to hungrily write them). And even more than that, the way the century shapes the warp of all its fiction but science fiction most of all. In 1913, science fiction had not yet even begun assume its 20th century shape. It had yet to adapt itself to air travel, the structure of DNA, a man walking on the moon, or rampaging new plagues. A 1913 anthology called 20th Century Science Fiction would have been a waste of perfectly good 4-cent pulp.Perhaps the legendary sci-fi editor John W. Campbell could have saved it, but he was still a small child in 1913. And the main thing that saves 21st Century Science Fiction is the vision and skill of Campbell's clear successor as the genre's greatest living editor: David Hartwell, who in forty working years has never produced a single anthology that wasn't excellent (and who in 1994 assembled one of the greatest sci-fi anthologies of them all, The Ascent of Wonder). In 21st Century Science Fiction he has a pretty clear plan beyond simply agitating reviewers: he's trying to demonstrate (in the most straightforward way there is) that the genre of science fiction isn't just an inbred coterie of the same well-established dozen names, that it in fact is vibrant new talent.To that end, he and Neilsen Hayden have assembled 34 stories, ranging from two pages to twenty, written by authors who may not necessarily have debuted in the 21st Century but "came to prominence" then. Much in the nature of first-rate fiction anthologies, each of these authors pops up in the roster, tries hard to craft an entire world in precious little space, and then steps aside to let the next author try, and because the editorial discretion behind it all is so strong, a huge percentage of these stories are sharply, memorably good right from their first lines. Elizabeth Bear, for instance, starts off "Tideline," her story about the unlikely bonding between a failing super-machine and a "feral" girl:
Chalcedony wasn't built for crying. She didn't have it in her, not unless her tears were cold tapered glass droplets annealed by the inferno heat that had crippled her.
The talented Liz Williams begins her story "Ikiryoh" in a way that's far less flamboyant but equally intriguing:
Every evening, the kappa would lead the child down the steps of the water-temple to the edges of the lake. The child seemed to like it there, although since she so rarely spoke, it was difficult to tell. But it was one of the few times that the child went with the kappa willingly, without the fits of silent shaking, or whimpering hysteria, and the kappa took this for a good sign.
And Catherynne Valente's amusing "How to Become a Mars Overlord" starts out with its tongue firmly in cheek:
Welcome, Aspiring Potentates!We are tremendously gratified at your interest in our little red project, and pleased that you recognize the potential growth opportunities inherent in whole-planet domination. Of course we remain humble in the face of such august and powerful interests, and seek only to showcase the unique and challenging career paths currently available on the highly desirable, iconic, and oxygen-rich landscape of Mars.
Any collection such as this will have duds scattered, one hopes infrequently, among the good stuff, but 21st Century Science Fiction has fewer such duds than you'll encounter in anthologies helmed by lesser experts, and it also has stories like Yoon Ha Lee's "A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel" and Jo Walton's "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction" - stories that strongly hint of genius.Will such hints bear out? Will any of these stories become venerated paradigm-changers? Will their authors shape the genre for the century that's only just begun? Too soon to tell - but you knew that.
