The Best Science Fiction of 1989?

Hardcover, 254 pages
Published 1990 (contents: 1989)
Acquired March 2008
Reread April 2014

The 1990 Annual World's Best SF
edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha

Like last time, I'll be evaluating the stories in this book on the basis of their seeming worthiness of being in a "year's best" anthology: thumbs up means the story feels like it belongs in a "year's best" book, thumbs down means it most definitely does not, and thumbs sideways means I'm essentially neutral on the issue.

"Alphas" by Gregory Benford
Aliens come to Venus, and I don't even know what they do because it was so ridiculously boring. There are multiple charts and diagrams. Thumbs down.

"The Magic Bullet" by Brian Stableford
Something about mice that live forever-- long-winded and dull. Brian Stableford, I liked  Scientific Romance in Britain, 1880-1950, and based on this, please stick to criticism. Thumbs down.

"North of the Abyss" by Brian W. Aldiss
Some guy discovers the Egyptian gods are real or something? Third story in a row where I struggled to even care about the basic elements of the story. Second story in a row where the author would be better off writing more criticism. Thumbs down.

"Chiprunner" by Robert Silverberg
Just when you're starting to think that 1989 was a completely awful year for science fiction, this story-- about a psychiatrist trying to stop a kid from losing himself in computers-- comes along. Not amazing, but interesting enough. Thumbs sideways.

"Abe Lincoln in McDonald's" by James Morrow
Abraham Lincoln travels to the future to see what it will be like if he compromises with the Confederacy. This was fun, but somewhat disturbing at times. The title scene alone would be enough, but Morrow balances the comedy with some nightmares. Thumbs up.

"Death Ship" by Barrington J. Bayley
Some kinda dystopian regime invents a train that goes to the future, kinda. I didn't entirely get it, but it was disturbing and evocative and the ending felt real. Thumbs up.

"In Translation" by Lisa Tuttle
In the future, aliens live in camps around the Earth, and they employ translators an go-betweens. A lonely guy tries to find sexual solace with them, only to discover that nothing is not that straightforward, but especially not sex. Ambiguous but powerful, and the best story in the book. Thumbs up.

"A Sleep and a Forgetting" by Robert Silverberg (again)
Scientists build a machine that can communicate with people in the past, and our hero makes contact with Genghis Khan... kinda. An interesting premise, but I dislike invention stories that spend most of their time establishing the invention, rather than getting on with the implications. Give me the transformed society, not the transforming. Thumbs sideways.

"Not Without Honor" by Judith Moffett
Aliens make contact with a Mars base, trying to find the host of The Mickey Mouse Club because there's a crisis with the kids on their home planet. Kinda goofy, but delightful and sometimes even heart-warming without being too saccharine. Thumbs up.

"Dogwalker" by Orson Scott Card
A fun tale of an adult trapped in a kid's body who can figure out your password by learning enough about you. Entertaining, but not quite "year's best" material, I don't think. Thumbs sideways.

"Surrender" by Lucius Shepard
I wanted to like this story, given how interesting Shepard's story in the 1988 volume was, but this one never really grabbed me, though it has its moments (particularly the sex scene and the ending). Thumbs sideways.

"War Fever" by J. G. Ballard
A clever story of war in the Middle East, where U.N. peacekeepers intervene and a smart protagonist figures out how to stop it all... only for there to be a twist... and then another twist. Good stuff. Thumbs up.

So: twelve stories, five thumbs up-- marginally a better hit rate than the 1988 volume (4/10). There were also more thumbs downs than last time, and they were unfortunately clustered at the book's beginning. I think we have to conclude, thanks to this highly scientific methodology, that 1989's science fiction was slightly not as good as 1987's.

This was the last volume of Wollheim's Annual World's Best SF series, but at some point I'll be looping back to the 1984 volume, and I also have a few volumes of the Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction to look at.

The Best Science Fiction of 1987?

Donald A. Wollheim presents
The 1988 Annual World's Best SF

Hardcover, 244 pages. Published 1988 (content: 1987).  Acquired March 2008.  Read November 2011.

For some reason, I've always been a bit suspicious of "year's best" sci-fi anthologies.  So much so, in fact, that I am fairly certain that I have never actually read one.  I can't really explain or justify this.  Is the cynic in me simply unable to believe that there were ten truly worthy sci-fi stories published in one year?  Especially if that year is 1987?  That doesn't really make any sense now that I think about it.  Anyway, a couple years ago, I ended up getting a set of year's best anthologies for 1983, 1987, 1989, 1998, and 2000 basically for free.  So, here I am, ready to give the science fiction of 1987 a try.

I'm going to try an arbitrary metric this time out: thumbs up means the story feels like it belongs in a "year's best" book, thumbs down means it most definitely does not, and thumbs sideways means I'm essentially neutral on the issue.

"The Pardoner's Tale" by Robert Silverberg
In the future, aliens have taken over the world, occupying the cities.  Our main character is a pardoner, who hacks the systems to let people get out of the cities, in exchange for tons of money.  He's a bit of a smug protagonist, but this was a decent little story, with a few good ideas.  Thumbs sideways.

"Rachel in Love" by Pat Murphy
A man transplants the brain of his dead daughter into a chimpanzee, but when he himself dies, she's left alone in the world.  An okay presmise livened by very immersive writing-- Murphy explores the perspective of Rachel better than I would have thought possible.  The only thing more confusing than being a teenager is being a teenager in a body you clearly weren't made for.  Sad and depressing, but in the right ways.  The ending is great.  Thumbs sideways.

"America" by Orson Scott Card
There's a frame story here about a collapsing America in the far future, being invaded by long-dispossessed inhabitants of Latin America.  This isn't so interesting.  It frames, however, an essentially not-sf tale about a boy goes to a remote native village in Brazil with his father on medical missionary work.  I liked this story a lot, even if the story occasionally did dance into essentializing the natives as possessors of "magical" truths.  I was intrigued enough that I'd like to read Folk of the Fringe, which collects all of Card's stories set in this millieu.  Thumbs up.

"Crying in the Rain" by Tanith Lee
Yet another postapocalyptic story.  I would say that we weren't very positive about the future in 1987, but by all accounts, we're not very positive now, either.  A haunting story about what a mother has to do to give her daughter a better life in this bleak future.  Thumbs up.

"The Sun Spider" by Lucius Shepard
This was, without a doubt, my favorite story in the book.  There's a complex relationship between a strange scientist and his wife, some interesting sci-fi stuff, great worldbuilding, lyrical writing.  I was not expecting something this good when I picked up the book, and certainly not from an author I've never even heard of.  Wollheim's introduction indicates that Shepard usually writes about "near-future wars in backwards lands," which is disappointing, as I'd love to read more gorgeous space stuff from here.  Thumbs up, for sure.

"Angel" by Pat Cadigan
I never even figured out what was going on here.  I'm sure I could have, but nothing made me care enough to want to.  Thumbs down. 

"Forever Yours, Anna" by Kate Wilhelm
A handwriting expert named Gordon has to find a woman named Anna, wanted in connection with an experiment gone wrong.  It has a very neat idea, but does not do much with it.  Thumbs sideways. 

"Second Going" by James Tiptree, Jr.
Aliens come to the Earth, but turn out to be rather different than anyone expected.  Their telepathy gives them extraordinary abilities to prevent problems, but what proves really intriguing is their gods.  A pretty good story, borderline, but ultimately thumbs sideways. 

"Dinosaurs" by Walter Jon Williams
This was my other favorite story in the book, about humans of the future who have subdivided their functions into different specializations-- and are utterly unable to communicate fully with members of species who haven't.  Humanity's terraformers are destroying the planets of intelligent races, but because the terraformers weren't designed with human intelligence, there's no good way to get them to stop.  So naturally those intelligent races declare war... but it's a war they can never win.  Great ideas, and great writing.  Thumbs up. 

"All Fall Down" by Don Sakers
Apparently I read this story but I don't remember a thing about it.  Thumbs down.

That's not that bad.  Only two stories that I flat out didn't like.  There were perhaps more thumbs sideways stories than one might wish (four), but that's equaled by the number of very good stories, two of which I thought were excellent.  I look forward to discovering what the best sci-fi stories of 1989 were whenever I get there.

There's no table of contents in this book, by the way.  Who does that?  Also, Wollheim writes little paragraph-long introductions to each story.  He needs to not do that.  When they aren't disposable, they give away parts of the story!