The Best 2007 Has To Offer?

When perusing the shelves at my local bookstore, I stumbled across a book entitled, Science Fiction: the Best of the Year, 2007 edition. Being a science fiction fan myself I was immediately interested by the prospect of the best science fiction written this year all tied together in a convenient little package, no searching through shelves hoping to find something good, this practically had a label on it exclaiming, “I’m the best our great minds have to offer!”

What this book is, is a collection of twelve short stories and novellas, ranging from twelve pages long to sixty seven pages long, edited and put together by Rich Horton. Every one of these short stories is well written and interesting, but what surprised me was the way the whole book tied together. The editor had to look through hundreds of short stories to choose the twelve for his book, and some of them are just as well written as the ones in this book, however he had to choose, so he picked ones with similar themes. So when you read through this book it feels as though while all the stories are radically different, they are tied together. However this also means that if one is looking for an honest account of the absolutely best stories that the world has to offer this year, they are bound for disappointment.

All of the short stories in this anthology seem to pertain to death or the soul, and personally I like the depth it adds to the stories. Science fiction is generally a very action-based genre, these themes allow the stories to be something deeper than just adventure.

However much I like the anthology as a whole, there are some substandard stories, about two. However those two stories are balanced by the four or five really fantastic stories. The best of the book, hands down, is “The Cartesian Theater”, by Robert Charles Wilson. This is a story about how in the future the government takes care of humankind’s basic needs, they have an artificially intelligent type of robot called aibots that do most of the menial work. Most people choose to work, but those that don’t live in this place called Doletown, and that is the scene for this story. In Doletown lives a man, an artist, and it is the main character’s job to hunt out this man, Jafar Bloom, and offer him money to put on his show, because an anonymous backer requested it.

‘“He’s an artist, you said?”

“Yes.”
“So what’s his medium?”

“Death,” I said.’

The next best story in my mind is “Inclination” by William Shunn. This one is about how in the future all people live in space station and there is this small religious sect called the Machinists; the Machinists believe in the Six Fundamental Machines and study their religious text called the Manual (which is actually an adaptation of the Bible). The rest of the world has moved on and embraced new technology but the Machinists stick to the old fashioned type of mechanics, they don’t use electricity or anything like that. It is all about a young man’s endeavors in the outside world, the world of the Sculpted. “So, you are telling me my people live in poverty to provide an example of how undesirable poverty is?”

All in all this is the perfect book for all sci-fi fans. The stories are short, but well developed. The plots are unique. The writing is good. This very well may be the best 2007 has to offer.