The Year's Best SF 12 # 1994

by Gardner Dozois (ed)

  Is it beautiful? Charlotte asked herself, as she studied the sculpted trees staring at her with their illusory eyes, marveling at their hectic crowns and their luminous flowers. Or is it mad?

  It was beautiful: more beautiful than anything she had ever seen or ever hoped to see. It was much more beautiful than the ghostly echoes of Ancient Nature that modern men called wilderness, doubtless more beautiful than Ancient Nature itself—even in all its pre-Devastation glory—could ever have been. Charlotte could see, even with her unschooled eyes, that it was the work of a young man. However many years Rappaccini had lived, however many he had spent in glorious isolation in the midst of all this strange fecundity, he had never grown old. This was not the work of a man grown mournful in forgetfulness; this was the work of a man whose only thought was of the future that he would not live to see: its novelty, its ambition, its progress. This was Moreau’s island, by which its creator meant morrow’s island.

  It was mad, too, but its madness was essentially divine.

  In the heart of the island, she expected to find a house, but there was none. There was only a mausoleum. She knew that Moreau’s body could not be inside it, because he had died in Honolulu, but it was nevertheless his tomb. It was hewn from a white marble whose austerity stood in imperious contrast to the fabulous forest around it. It bore neither cross, nor carven angel, nor any inscription.

  “Like you and I, dear Charlotte,” Oscar said, “Jafri Biasiolo was delivered by history to the very threshold of true immortality, and yet was fated not to live in the Promised Land. How he must have resented the fading of the faculties which had produced all this! How wrathful he must have become, to see his fate mirrored in the faces and careers of all those who might—had the whim of chance dictated it—have been his father. When the true immortals emerge from the womb of biotechnical artifice, they will no longer care about who their fathers were or might have been, for they will indeed be designed, by men like gods, from common chromosomal clay. He, alas, was not.”

  Charlotte looked around curiously as she spoke, wondering where the woman might be. “He may be dead,” she reminded Oscar, grimly, “but his accomplice and executioner will have to stand trial.”

  “Yes, of course,” he murmured. “She must settle her own account with the recording angels of the Celestial Net.” So saying, he walked around the massive mausoleum. Charlotte followed him.

  The woman was sitting on the pediment on the further side of the tomb, facing a crowd of leaping lions and prancing unicorns, vaulting hippogriffs and rearing cobras, all hewn in living wood beneath a roof of rainbows. Hundreds of man-faced monkeys were solemnly observing the scene. Her vivid green eyes were staring vacuously into space. It was as though she could not see the fantastic host which paraded itself before her. She was quite bald, and the dome of her skull was starred with a thousand tiny contact-points, glistening in the sunlight. The golden red wig that she had worn lay like stranded sea-weed between her feet. In her left hand, she held a flower: a gorgeously gilded rose. In her right hand was a curious skull-cap, made of exceedingly fine metal mesh.

  Oscar Wilde picked up the gilded rose, and placed it carefully in his buttonhole, where he was accustomed to wearing a green carnation. Charlotte picked up the skull-cap, and turned it over in her hands, marveling at its thinness, its lightness, and its awesome complexity.

  “What is it?” she asked, as her eyes dutifully compared its shape to the contours of the girl’s strangely decorated skull.

  “I imagine,” said Oscar, “that it is your murderer’s accomplice and executioner: Rappaccini’s daughter. The Virtual Individual which has moved this Innocent Eve through the world, fascinating her appointed victims and luring them to the acceptance of her fatal kisses, is the vengeful ghost of Rappaccini himself, left behind to settle all his accounts on earth. When your Court of Judgment sits, that will be the only guilty party that can be summoned to appear before it. No part of this project originated within the mind and purpose of the girl herself. You may add trafficking in illegal brainfeed equipment to the seemingly endless list of Dr. Moreau’s crimes.”

  Charlotte let out her breath in a long, deep sigh that sounded exactly like one of Oscar Wilde’s. She looked up into the little tent of blue sky above the mausoleum, which marked the clearing in which they were standing. Already, the sky was full of flying eyes.

  This is Rappaccini’s funeral, she thought, and all of this was his last gift to himself: his last and finest wreath. It’s a great symbolic circle woven out of life and death, laying claim to the only kind of immortality he could design for himself. Everybody in the world has been invited, to mock or mourn or marvel as they please.

  The eyes, she knew, had ears as well. The words that she and Oscar spoke could be heard by thousands of people all over the world, and would in time be relayed to billions. Oscar was looking upward too, with a curious smile on his face.

  “It was, after all,” he said, wryly, “a perfect murder.”

  HONORABLE MENTIONS 1994

  Brian W. Aldiss, “The Dream of Antigone,” Blue Motel.

  _____, “Else the Isle with Calibans,” Weird Tales from Shakespeare.

  _____, “The God Who Slept with Women,” Asimov’s, May.

  _____, “The Madonna of Futurity,” Universe 3.

  _____, “The Monster of Everyday Life,” Interzone, Feb.

  Ray Aldridge, “Filter Feeders,” F&SF, Jan.

  Michael Armstrong, “Mother to Elves,” F&SF, June.

  Eleanor Arnason, “The Lovers,” Asimov’s, July.

  Isaac Asimov, “March Against the Foe,” Asimov’s, April.

  A. A. Attanasio, “The Dark One: A Mythograph,” Crank! 4.

  _____, “Remains of Adam,” Asimov’s, Jan.

  Virginia Baker, “Dierdra, Alive and Dead,” Tomorrow, June.

  Neal Barrett Jr., “Donna Rae,” The King Is Dead.

  _____, “Manhattan 99,” Asimov’s, Mid-Dec.

  Barrington J. Bayley, “Gnostic Endings,” Interzone, July.

  Stephen Baxter, “The Blood of Angels,” Asimov’s, Dec.

  _____, “Mittelwelt,” Interzone, April.

  _____, “The Logic Pool,” Asimov’s, June.

  Chris Beckett, “Jazamine in the Green Wood,” Interzone, Aug.

  M. Shayne Bell, “Naked Asylum,” Tomorrow, June.

  _____, “Mrs. Lincoln’s China,” Asimov’s, July.

  Gregory Benford, “Doing Alien,” F&SF, March.

  _____, “Not of an Age,” Weird Tales from Shakespeare.

  _____, “Soon Comes Night,” Asimov’s, Aug.

  Maria Billion, “How My Son Became a Dragon Slayer,” Prairie Fire.

  Terry Bisson, “Dead Man’s Curve,” Asimov’s, June.

  _____, “Tell Them They Are All Full of Shit,” Crank! 4.

  _____, “Necronauts,” Playboy, Aug.

  E. Michael Blake, “Moths to the Blue Flame,” Universe 3.

  Terry Boren, “Transcript of ‘Yandal,’” Universe 3.

  Bruce Boston, “Curse of the Cyberhead’s Wife,” SF Age, Sept.

  Mark Bourne, “Great Works of Western Literature,” F&SF, Sept.

  Ben Bova, “Inspiration,” F&SF, April.

  _____, “Sam’s War,” Analog, July.

  Richard Bowes, “The Shadow and the Gunman,” F&SF, Feb.

  Steven R. Boyett, “Epiphany Beach,” F&SF, April.

  _____, “The Madonna of Port Lligat,” Asimov’s, June.

  Ray Bradbury, “From the Dust Returned,” F&SF, Sept.

  R. V. Branham, “Apocalypse’s Children,” Asimov’s, Sept.

  David Brin, “The Other Side of the Hill,” SF Age, Nov.

  J. Brooke, “Three Things to Watch for When You’re in the Market for a Used Tumor,” Aboriginal SF, Spring.

  Keith Brooke, “Professionals,” Interzone, Aug.

  Eric Brown, “Downtime in the MKCR,” Interzone, May.

  Molly Brown, “Women on the Brink of a Cataclysm,”
Interzone, Jan.

  John Brunner, “Good With Rice,” Asimov’s, March.

  Edward Bryant, “The Fire That Scours,” Omni, Oct.

  Stephen L. Burns, “Song from a Broken Instrument,” Analog, Feb.

  Pat Cadigan, “Not Just Another Deal,” Deals with the Devil.

  _____, “Serial Monogamist,” Little Deaths.

  Steve Carper, “Reflections in an Empty Pool,” Tomorrow, Dec.

  Jonathan Carroll, “A Wheel in the Desert, the Moon on Some Springs,” Omni, March.

  Susan Casper, “Up the Rainbow,” Asimov’s, Dec.

  Graham Charnock, “Harringay,” New Worlds 4.

  Rob Chilson, “Dead Men Rise Up Never,” Asimov’s, Aug.

  _____, “Midnight Yearnings,” F&SF, Aug.

  Eric Choi, “Dedication,” Asimov’s, Nov.

  Sarah Clemens, “Holes,” Little Deaths.

  Rick Cook & Peter L. Manly, “Symphony for Skyfall,” Analog, July.

  Greg Costikyan, “The West Is Red,” Asimov’s, May.

  Gary Couzens, “Second Contact,” F&SF, March.

  Don D’Ammassa, “Jack the Martian,” Harsh Mistress SF, Spring.

  Tony Daniel, “Angel of Mercy,” Asimov’s, Sept.

  Jack Dann, “Counting Coup,” Tales from the Great Turtle.

  Chan Davis, “The Names of Yanils,” Crank! 3.

  Stephen Dedman, “Desired Dragons,” Alien Shores.

  Bradley Denton, “We Love Lydia Love,” F&SF, Oct./Nov.

  Cory Doctorow, “Resume,” On Spec, Spring.

  Paul Di Filippo, “Bad Beliefs,” Pirate Writings, Fall.

  _____, “The Double Felix,” Interzone, Sept.

  _____, “McGregor,” Universe 3.

  Thomas M. Disch, “The Man Who Read a Book,” Interzone, Sept. Gardner Dozois, “A Cat Horror Story,” F&SF, Oct./Nov.

  L. Timmel Duchamp, “Things of the Flesh,” Asimov’s, Jan.

  _____, “When Joy Came to the World,” F&SF, Jan.

  George Alec Effinger, “Good Night, Duane Allman,” Deals with the Devil.

  Greg Egan, “Our Lady of Chernobyl,” Interzone, May.

  Phyllis Eisenstein, “No Refunds,” Asimov’s, Feb.

  Kandis Elliot, “Basket Case,” Asimov’s, Nov.

  _____, “Cretaceous Park,” Asimov’s, April.

  _____, “Laddie of the Lake,” Asimov’s, Feb.

  Kate Elliott, “My Voice Is in My Sword,” Weird Tales from Shakespeare.

  Harlan Ellison, “The Pale Silver Dollar of the Moon Pays Its Way and Makes Change,” The King Is Dead.

  Stuart Falconer, “Fugue and Variations,” Interzone, July.

  Gregory Feeley, “Aweary of the Sun,” Weird Tales from Shakespeare.

  _____, “Passion for the Souls Below,” Deals with the Devil.

  Eliot Fintushel, “A Ram in the Thicket,” Tomorrow, Dec.

  Marina Fitch, “Sarah at the Tidepool,” F&SF, April.

  Alan Dean Foster, “Our Lady of the Machine,” Amazing, Spring.

  Maggie Flinn, “On Dreams: A Love Story,” Asimov’s, June.

  Leanne Frahm, “Land’s End,” Alien Shores.

  Robert Frazier & James Patrick Kelly, “Grandfather Christmas,” Asimov’s, Dec.

  Valerie J. Freireich, “Soft Rain,” Asimov’s, Aug.

  Esther M. Friesner, “Death and the Librarian,” Asimov’s, Dec.

  _____, “Patterns,” Tales from the Great Turtle.

  _____, “Royal Tiff Yields Face of Jesus!,” Alien Pregnant by Elvis.

  _____, “Titus!,” Weird Tales from Shakespeare.

  R. Garcia y Robertson, “Into A Sunless Sea,” Tomorrow,” Oct.

  _____, “Wendy Darling, RFC,” F&SF, April.

  _____, “Werewolves of Luna,” Asimov’s, Mid-Dec.

  David Garnett, “A Friend Indeed,” Interzone, Nov.

  Peter T. Garratt, “The Collectivization of Transylvania,” Interzone, March.

  David Gerrold, “The Martian Child,” F&SF, Sept.

  Gary M. Gibson, “Touched By an Angel,” Interzone, March.

  Owl Goingback, “Animal Sounds,” Tales from the Great Turtle.

  Stephen Goldin, “The Height of Intrigue,” Analog, Nov.

  Lisa Goldstein, “The Narcissus Plague,” Asimov’s, July.

  _____, “Rites of Spring,” Asimov’s, March.

  Kathleen Ann Goonan, “Revelation Station,” Strange Plasma 7.

  _____, “Susannah and the Snowbears,” Blue Motel.

  Lee Goodloe and Jerry Oltion, “Waterworld,” Analog, March.

  Alan Gordon, “Digital Music,” Asimov’s, Sept.

  Ed Gorman, “The Old Ways,” Tales from the Great Turtle.

  Colin Greenland, “The Travelling Companion,” Strange Plasma 8.

  Nicola Griffith, “Yaguara,” Little Deaths.

  George Guthridge, “The Tower,” Amazing, Fall.

  Joe Haldeman, “The Cure,” Universe 3.

  Jack C. Haldeman II, “South of Eden, Somewhere Near Salinas,” By Any Other Fame.

  Elizabeth Hand, “Last Summer at Mars Hill,” F&SF, Aug.

  Charles L. Harness, “The Tetrahedron,” Analog, Jan.

  M. John Harrison, “Isabel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring,” Little Deaths.

  Daniel Hatch, “All Justice Fled,” Pirate Writings, Fall.

  Gerald Hausman, “Turtle Woman,” Tales from the Great Turtle.

  Nina Kiriki Hoffman, “Haunted Humans,” F&SF, July.

  Alexander Jablokov, “Focal Plane,” Future Boston.

  _____, “Seating Arrangement,” Future Boston.

  _____, “Summer and Ice,” Asimov’s, May.

  _____, “Syrtis,” Asimov’s, April.

  Ben Jeapes, “The Data Class,” Interzone, Feb.

  Alex Jeffers, “Composition with Barbarian and Animal,” Universe 3.

  Phillip C. Jennings, “Going West,” Universe 3.

  _____, “Original Sin,” Asimov’s, April.

  _____, “The Valley of the Humans,” Asimov’s, Nov.

  Janet Kagan, “Space Cadet,” By Any Other Fame.

  Michael Kandel, “Ogre,” Black Thorn, White Rose.

  James Patrick Kelly, “Big Guy,” Asimov’s, June.

  Leigh Kennedy, “Golden Swan,” Interzone, Jan.

  Katharine Kerr, “Cui Bono?,” Alternate Outlaws.

  Garry Kilworth, “Black Drongo,” Omni, May.

  _____, “Nerves of Steel,” New Worlds 4.

  _____, “Wayang Kulit,” Interzone, Dec.

  Stephen King, “The Man in the Black Suit,” The New Yorker, Oct. 31.

  Damon Knight, “Fortyday,” Asimov’s, May.

  Kathe Koja, “Queen of Angels,” Omni, April.

  Nancy Kress, “Ars Longa,” By Any Other Fame.

  _____, “Words Like Pale Stones,” Black Thorn, White Rose.

  R. A. Lafferty, “Holy Woman,” Strange Plasma 7.

  _____, “I Don’t Care Who Keeps the Cows,” Crank! 4.

  Geoffrey A. Landis, “The Singular Habits of Wasps,” Analog, April.

  _____, “What We Really Do at NASA,” SF Age, July.

  Joe Lansdale, “Bubba Ho-Tep,” The King Is Dead.

  Tanith Lee, “Mirror, Mirror,” Weird Tales, Spring.

  _____, “One for Sorrow,” Weird Tales, Spring.

  Ursula K. Le Guin, “Another Story,” Tomorrow, Aug.

  _____, “Betrayals,” Blue Motel.

  _____, “Solitude,” F&SF, Dec.

  _____, “Unchosen Love,” Amazing, Fall.

  Jonathan Lethem, “Mood Bender,” Crank! 3.

  Megan Lindholm, “The Fifth Squashed Cat,” Xanadu 2.

  Alison Lurie, “In the Shadow,” Asimov’s, Mid-Dec.

  Ian R. MacLeod, “Sealight,” F&SF, May.

  Bruce McAllister, “Assassin,” Omni, Feb.

  Sally McBride, “The Fragrance of Orchids,” Asimov’s, May.

  Wil McCarthy, “The Blackery Dark,” Asimov’s, Oct.


  _____, “Dirtyside Down,” Universe 3.

  Jack McDevitt, “Standard Candles,” F&SF, Jan.

  _____, “Windrider,” Asimov’s, July.

  Ian McDonald, “Blue Motel,” Blue Motel.

  _____, “Legitimate Targets,” New Worlds 4.

  Terry McGarry, “The Only Gift a Portion of Thyself,” Amazing, Fall.

  Maureen F. McHugh, “The Ballad of Ritchie Valenzuela,” Alternate Outlaws.

  _____, “Virtual Love,” F&SF, Jan.

  Patricia A. McKillip, “Transmutations,” Xanadu 2.

  Sean McMullen, “The Miocene Arrow,” Alien Shores.

  Barry N. Malzberg, “Allegro Marcato,” By Any Other Fame.

  _____, “The Only Thing You Learn,” Universe 3.

  _____, “Understanding Entropy,” SF Age, July.

  Daniel Marcus, “Angel from Budapest,” Asimov’s, March.

  _____, “Conversations with Michael,” Asimov’s, Dec.

  _____, “Heart of Molten Stone,” SF Age, Sept.

  _____, “Winter Rules,” F&SF, Sept.

  Jim Marino, “Secret Identities,” Strange Plasma 8.

  Beth Meacham, “A Dream Can Make a Difference,” By Any Other Fame.

  Michael Moorcock, “Freestates,” New World 4.

  Derryl Murphy, “The History of Photography,” Prairie Fire.

  Pat Murphy, “Games of Deception,” Asimov’s, April.

  Pati Nagle, “Coyote Ugly,” F&SF, April.

  Jamil Nasir, “The Lord of Sleep,” Asimov’s, Mid-Dec.

  Resa Nelson & Sarah Smith, “Fennario,” Future Boston.

  Kim Newman, “The Pale Spirit People,” Interzone, Jan.

  G. David Nordley, “The Day of Their Coming,” Asimov’s, March.

  _____, “His Father’s Voice,” Analog, Sept.

  _____, “Karl’s Marine and Spacecraft Repair,” Analog, Dec.

  _____, “Of Fire and Ice,” Mindsparks, Fall.

  _____, “Out of the Quiet Years,” Asimov’s, July.

  _____, “Network,” Analog, Feb.

  Jerry Oltion, “Fermat’s Last Theorem,” Analog, Mid-Dec.