The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Sixth Annual

by Gardner Dozois

  (Finding individual pricings for all of the items from small-presses mentioned in the Summation has become too time-intensive, and since several of the same small presses publish anthologies, novels, and short story collections, it seems silly to repeat addresses for them in section after section. Therefore, I’m going to attempt to list here, in one place, all the addresses for small presses that have books mentioned here or there in the Summation, whether from the anthologies section, the novel section, or the short-story-collection section, and, where known, their Web site addresses. That should make it easy enough for the reader to look up the individual price of any book mentioned that isn’t from a regular trade-publisher; such books are less likely to be found in your average bookstore or even in a chain superstore, and so will probably have to be mail-ordered. Many publishers seem to sell only online, through their Web sites, and some will only accept payment through PayPal. Many books, even from some of the smaller presses, are also available through Amazon.com.)

  Addresses: PS Publishing, Grosvener House, 1 New Road, Hornsea, West Yorkshire, HU18 1PG, England, UK, pspublishing.co.uk; Golden Gryphon Press, 3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802, goldengryphon.com; NESFA Press, P.O. Box 809, Framinghan, MA 01701-0809, nesfa.org; Subterranean Press, P.O. Box 190106, Burton, MI 48519, subterraneanpress.com; Solaris, via solarisbooks.com; Old Earth Books, P.O. Box 19951, Baltimore, MD 21211-0951, oldearthbooks.com; Tachyon Press, 1459 18th St. #139, San Francisco, CA 94107, tachyonpublications.com; Night Shade Books, 1470 NW Saltzman Road, Portland, OR 97229, night-shadebooks.com; Five Star Books, 295 Kennedy Memorial Drive, Waterville, ME 04901, galegroup.com/fivestar; NewCon Press, via newconpress.com; Small Beer Press, 176 Prospect Ave., Northampton, MA 01060, smallbeerpress.com; Locus Press, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, locusmag.com; Crescent Books, Mercat Press Ltd., 10 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh, Scotland EH3 7AL, crescentfiction.com; Wildside Press/Cosmos Books/Borgo Press, P.O. Box 301, Holicong, PA 18928-0301, or go to wildsidepress.com for pricing and ordering; Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc. and Tesseract Books, Ltd., P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada, edgewebsite.com; Aqueduct Press, P.O. Box 95787, Seattle, WA 98145-2787, aqueductpress.com; Phobos Books, 200 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, phobosweb.com; Fairwood Press, 5203 Quincy Ave. SE, Auburn, WA 98092, fairwoodpress.com; BenBella Books, 6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 508, Dallas, TX 75206, benbellabooks.com; Darkside Press, 13320 27th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98125, darksidepress.com; Haffner Press, 5005 Crooks Rd., Suite 35, Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239, haffnerpress.com; North Atlantic Press, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA 94701; Prime, P.O. Box 36503, Canton, OH 44735, primebooks.net; Fairwood Press, 5203 Quincy Ave SE, Auburn, WA 98092, fairwoodpress.com; MonkeyBrain Books, 11204 Crossland Drive, Austin, TX 78726, monkeybrainbooks.com; Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, Order Dept., 37 Lafayette St., Lebanon NH 03766-1405, wesleyan.edu/wespress; Agog! Press, P.O. Box U302, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia, uow.ed.au/~rhood/agogpress; Wheatland Press, via wheatlandpress.com; MirrorDanse Books, P.O. Box 3542, Parramatta NSW 2124, tabula-rasa.info/MirrorDanse; Arsenal Pulp Press, 103–1014 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 2W9, arsenalpress.com; DreamHaven Books, 912 W. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408, dreamhavenbooks.com; Elder Signs Press/Dimensions Books, order through dimensionsbooks.com; Chaosium, via chaosium.com; Spyre Books, P.O. Box 3005, Radford, VA 24143; SCIFI, Inc., P.O. Box 8442, Van Nuys, CA 91409-8442; Omnidawn Publishing, order through omnidawn.com; CSFG, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, csfg.org.au/publishing/anthologies/the_outcast; Hadley Rille Books, via hadleyrillebooks.com; ISFiC Press, 707 Sapling Lane, Deerfield, IL 60015-3969, or isficpress.com; Suddenly Press, via suddenlypress@yahoo.com; Sandstone Press, P.O. Box 5725, One High St., Dingwall, Ross-shire, IV15 9WJ UK, sandstonepress.com; Tropism Press, via tropismpress.com; SF Poetry Association/Dark Regions Press, sfpoetry.com, checks to Helena Bell, SFPA Trea sur er, 1225 West Freeman St., Apt. 12, Carbondale, IL 62401; DH Press, via diamond bookdistributors.com; Kurodahan Press, via Web site kurodahan.com; Ramble House, 443 Gladstone Blvd., Shreveport, LA 71104, ramble house.com; Interstitial Arts Foundation, via interstitialarts.org; Raw Dog Screaming, via rawdogscreaming.com; Three Legged Fox Books, 98 Hythe Road, Brighton, BN1 6JS, UK; Norilana Books, via norilana.com; coeur de lion, via coeurdelion.com.au; PARSECink, via parsecink.org; Robert J. Sawyer Books, via sfwriter.com/rjsbooks.htm; Rackstraw Press, via rackstrawpress; Candlewick, via candlewick.com; Zubaan, via zubaan-books.com; Utter Tower, via threeleggedfox.co.uk; Spilt Milk Press, via electricvelocipede.com; Paper Golem, via papergolem.com; Galaxy Press, via galaxypress.com; Twelfth Planet Press, via twelfthplanetpress.com; Five Senses Press, via sensefive.com; Elastic Press, via elasticpress.com; Lethe Press, via lethepressbooks.com; Two Cranes Press, via twocranespress.com; Wordcraft of Oregon, via word-craftoforegon.com; Down East, via downeast.com.

  If I’ve missed some, as is quite possible, try Googling the name of the publisher.

  Once again, there were a lot of novels published in the SF/fantasy genres during the year, and although the recession-driven recent upheavals in the publishing world may reduce their numbers somewhat next year, they’re certainly not going to vanish from the bookstore shelves in 2009.

  According to the newsmagazine Locus, there were a record 2,843 books “of interest to the SF field” published in 2008, up 4 percent from 2,723 titles in 2007. (This total doesn’t count media tie-in novels, gaming novels, novelizations of genre movies, most Print-On-Demand books, or novels offered as downloads on the Internet—all of which would swell the total by hundreds if counted.) Paranormal romances continued to boom, both in number of titles published (there were 328 paranormal romances this year, up from 290 last year) and in robustness of sales; several of the bestselling writers in America—Stephanie Meyers, Charline Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher—are paranormal romance writers. Original books were down slightly, by 2 percent, to 1,671 from last year’s total of 1,710. Reprint books were up by 16 percent, to 1,172 compared to last year’s total of 1,013. The number of new SF novels was down by a statistically insignificant amount, one book, to 249 from last year’s total of 250. The number of new fantasy novels was down by 5 percent to 439 from last year’s total of 460. Horror dropped by 12 percent, to 175 titles, as opposed to last year’s total of 198, still up from 2002’s total of 112.

  Busy with all the reading I have to do at shorter lengths, I didn’t have time to read many novels myself this year, so, as usual, I’ll limit myself to mentioning that novels that received a lot of attention and acclaim in 2008 include:

  Saturn’s Children (Ace), by Charles Stross; The Dragons of Babel (Tor), by Michael Swanwick; The Quiet War (Gollancz), by Paul McAuley; The Last Theorem (Del Rey), by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl; Lavinia (Harcourt), by Ursula K. Le Guin; Little Brother (Tor), by Cory Doctorow; Matter (Orbit), by Iain M. Banks; Going Under (Pyr), by Jusina Robson; Navigator (Ace), by Stephen Baxter; Weaver (Ace), by Stephen Baxter; The Dragon’s Nine Sons (Solaris), by Chris Roberson; Incandescence (Gollancz), by Greg Egan; House of the Stag (Tor), by Kage Baker; The Night Sessions (Orbit), by Ken MacLeod; Marsbound (Ace), by Joe Haldeman; A Dance with Dragons (Bantam), by George R.R. Martin; Hunter’s Run (HarperCollins), by George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, and Daniel Abraham; City at the End of Time (Del Rey), by Greg Bear; The Prefect (Ace), by Alastair Reynolds; House of Suns (Gollancz), by Alastair Reynolds; Zoe’s Tale (Tor), by John Scalzi; The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins), by Neil Gaiman; Victory of Eagles (Del Rey), by Naomi Novik; Pirate Sun (Tor), by Karl Schroeder; Judge (Eos), by Karen Traviss; Earth Ascendant (Ace), by Sean Williams; Firstborn (Del Rey), by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter; An Evil Guest (Tor), by Gene Wolfe; Rolling Thunder (Ace), by John Varley; The Ghost in Love (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), by Jonathan Carroll; Anathem (Morrow), by Neal Stephenson; Flora’s Dare (Harcourt), by Ysabeau S. Wilce; Misspent Youth (Del Rey), by Peter F. Hamilton; Ender in Exile (Tor), by Orson Scott Card; Keepe
r of Dreams (Tor), by Orson Scott Card; Null-A Continuum (Tor), by John C. Wright; Valor’s Trial (DAW), by Tanya Huff; Shadowbridge (Del Rey), by Gregory Frost; Lord Tophet (Del Rey), by Gregory Frost; An Autumn War (Tor), by Daniel Abraham; The Martian General’s Daughter (Pyr), by Theodore Judson; The Steel Remains (Gollancz), by Richard Morgan; The Valley-Westside War (Tor), by Harry Turtledove; Slanted Jack (Baen), by Mark L. Van Name; The Hidden World (Tor), by Paul Park; Stalking the Vampire (Pyr), by Mike Resnick; Victory Conditions (Del Rey), by Elizabeth Moon; The Edge of Reason (Tor), by Melinda Snodgrass; Bone Song (Bantam Spectra), by John Meaney; The Philosopher’s Apprentice (Morrow), by James Morrow; The Time Engine. (Tor), by Sean McMullen; The Engine’s Child (Del Rey), by Holly Phillips; January Dancer (Tor), by Michael F. Flynn; Very Hard Choices (Baen), by Spider Robinson; The Stars Down Under (Tor), by Sandra McDonald; Renegade’s Magic (Eos), by Robin Hobb; Escapement (Tor), by Jay Lake; Before They Are Hanged (Pyr), by Joe Abercrombie; Half a Crown (Tor), by Jo Walton; Juggler of Worlds (Tor), by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner; Nation (HarperCollins), by Terry Pratchett; and Duma Key (Scribner), by Stephen King.

  Small presses once published mostly collections and anthologies, but these days they’re active in the novel market as well. Novels issued by small presses this year, some of them among the year’s best, included: Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key (Subterranean), by Kage Baker; Implied Spaces (Night Shade), by Walter Jon Williams; The Bird Shaman (Bascom Hill), by Judy Moffett; The Word of God: or, Holy Writ Rewritten (Tachyon), by Thomas M. Disch; The Song of Time (PS Publishing), by Ian R. MacLeod; Hespira (Night Shade), by Matthew Hughes; Dogs (Tachyon), by Nancy Kress; The King’s Last Song (Small Beer Press), by Geoff Ryman; The Shadow Pavilion (Night Shade), by Liz Williams; Leaving Fortusa: A Novel in Ten Episodes (Norilana), by John Grant; Shadow of the Scorpion (Night Shade), by Neal Asher; and The Madness of Flowers (Night Shade), by Jay Lake.

  The year’s first novels included: Singularity’s Ring (Tor), by Paul Melko; Pandemonium (Del Rey), by Daryl Gregory; Black Ships (Orbit), by Jo Graham; The Magicians and Mrs. Quent (Bantam Spectra), by Galen Beckett; The Ninth Circle (Gollancz), by Alex Bell; A Darkness Forged in Fire (Pocket), by Chris Evans; Apricot Brandy (Juno), by Lynn Cesar; Seekers of the Chalice (Tor), by Brian Cullen; Thunderer (Bantam), by Felix Gilman; Havemercy (Bantam), by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett; Whitechapel Gods (Roc), by S. M. Peters; Mad Kestrel (Tor), by Misty Massey; Gordath Wood (Ace), by Sarath Patrice; Superpowers (Three Rivers Press), by David J. Schwartz; Immortal (Delta), by Traci C. Slatton; The Mirrored Heavens (Bantam), by David J. Williams; and Paraworld Zero (Blue World), by Matthew Peterson. The Melko and the Gregory probably attracted the most attention of these.

  Associational novels by people connected with the science fiction and fantasy fields included: Wit’s End (Putnam), by Karen Joy Fowler; White Sands, Red Menace (Viking), by Ellen Klages; Black and White (Subterranean), by Lewis Shiner; The Somnambulist (Morrow), by Jonathan Barnes; Tigerheart (Del Rey), by Peter David; and The Shadow Year (Morrow), by Jeffrey Ford. Ventures into the genre by well-known mainstream authors, included: The Island of Eternal Love (Riverhead), by Daina Chaviano; The Widows of Eastwick (Knopf), by John Updike; and The Enchantress of Florence (Random House), by Salman Rushdie.

  Individual novellas published as stand-alone chapbooks were not as strong this year as they’ve been in other years, but there were still some good ones out. Subterranean published: Kilimanjaro: A Fable of Utopia, by Mike Resnick; Muse of Fire, by Dan Simmons; Stonefather, by Orson Scott Card; and Conversation Hearts, by John Crowley. PS Publishing brought out: The Economy of Light, by Jack Dann; Gunpowder, by Joe Hill; Planet of Mystery, by Terry Bisson; Template, by Matthew Hughes; Mystery Hill, by Alex Irvine; The City in These Pages, by John Grant; The Situation, by Jeff VanderMeer; Revolvo, by Steve Erikson; Val/Orson, by Marly Youmans; The Book, the Writer, the Reader, by Zoran Zivkovic; The Bridge, by Zoran Zivkovic; Living with the Dead, by Darrell Schweitzer; and Camp Desolation and An Eschatalogy of Salt, by Uncle River. Aqueduct Press produced Distances, by Vandana Singh. Wyrm Publishing produced Memorare, by Gene Wolfe. Norilana published The Duke in His Castle, by Vera Nazarian. Knopf published Once Upon a Time in the North, by Philip Pullman. And Monkeybrain published Escape from Hell!, by Hall Duncan.

  Novel omnibuses this year included: The Jack Vance Reader (Subterranean), by Jack Vance; Five Novels of the 1960s and 1970s (Library of America), by Philip K. Dick; Books of the South: Tales of the Black Corridor (Tor), by Glen Cook; and The Chronicles of Master Li and Number One Ox (Subterranean), as well as many omnibus novel volumes published by the Science Fiction Book Club. (Omnibuses that contain both short stories and novels can be found listed in the short story section.)

  As has been true for the last couple of years, after the long drought of the nineties, when almost nothing out-of-print got back into it, this is the best time in decades to pick up reissued editions of formerly long-out-of-print novels, not even counting Print On Demand books from places such as Wildside Press, the reprints issued by The Science Fiction Book Club, and the availability of out-of-print books as electronic downloads from Internet sources such as Fictionwise. Here are some out-of-print titles that came back into print this year, although producing a definitive list of reissued novels is probably difficult to impossible:

  Tor reissued: Pebble in the Sky, by Isasc Asimov; The Dragon in the Sea, by Frank Herbert; Starfish, by Peter Watts; The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds, both by Scott Westerfeld; and the associational novel In Milton Lumky Territory, by Philip K. Dick. Orb reissued: Make Room! Make Room!, by Harry Harrison; Anvil of Stars, by Greg Bear; and Inferno, by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. Baen reissued: Farmer in the Sky and Between Planets, both by Robert A. Heinlein. Orbit reissued: The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton; and Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, and Use of Weapons, all by Iain Banks. Cosmos reissued: Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper; The Black Star Passes, by John W. Campbell, Jr.; and Planet of the Damned, by Harry Harrison. Tachyon reissued: The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers. Paizo/Planet Stories reissued: The Ginjer Star, by Leigh Brackett; and Lord of the Spiders, by Michael Moorcock. Overlook reissued: Titus Alone, by Mervyn Peake. Golden Gryphon Press reissued: The Physiognomy, The Beyond, and Memoranda, all by Jeffrey Ford.

  Lots of science fiction and even hard science fiction here, as usual, although there are also fantasy novels and odd-genre-mixing hybrids on the list as well. Although we often hear the lament that science fiction has been driven off the bookstore shelves, it just isn’t true. There’s still lots of it out there to be found.

  This was another good year for short story collections. The year’s best collections included: The Best of Michael Swanwick (Subterranean), by Michael Swanwick; East of the Sun and West of Fort Smith (Norilana Books), by William Sanders; Dark Integers and Other Stories (Subterranean), by Greg Egan; Other Worlds, Better Lives: A Howard Waldrop Reader (Old Earth Books), by Howard Waldrop; Pump Six and Other Stories (Night Shade), by Paolo Bacigalupi; The Wreck of the Godspeed and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon), by James Patrick Kelly; The Best of Lucius Shepard (Subterranean), by Lucius Shepard; Nano Comes to Clifford Falls (Golden Gryphon), by Nancy Kress; The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories (Small Beer Press), by John Kessel; and Pretty Monsters (Viking), by Kelly Link. Other good collections included: Harsh Oases (PS Publishing), by Paul Di Fillipo; The Ant King and Other Stories (Small Beer Press), by Benjamin Rosenbaum; Strange Roads (Dreamhaven), by Peter S. Beagle; The Garble and Other Stories (Tor UK), by Neal Asher; Starlady and Fast-Friend (Subterranean), by George R.R. Martin; Space Magic: Stories by David D. Levine (Wheatland Press), by David D. Levine; The Wall of America (Tachyon), by Thomas M. Disch; The Autopsy and Other Tales, by Michael Shea; Binding Energy (Elastic Press), by Daniel Marcus; Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt (Subterranean), by Jack McDevitt; Tempting the Gods (Wildside Press), by Tanith Lee; The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives (Subter
ranean), by James Blaylock; Crazy Love (Wordcraft of Oregon), by Leslie What; Walking to the Moon (Wildside), by Sean McMullen; Billy’s Book (PS Publishing), by Terry Bisson; Long Walks, Last Flights, and Other Journeys (Fairwood Press), by Ken Scholes; What the Mouse Found and Other Stories (Subterranean), by Charles de Lint; and Just After Sunset (Scribner), by Stephen King.

  As has become common, there were also a lot of good retrospective collections by older writers (as specialty press hardcovers, many of them may be too expensive for casual readers, although there are a few less-expensive paperbacks here as well), including: The Van Rijn Method (Baen—an omnibus of stories about Falstaffian space adventurer Nicolas Van Rijn, plus the well-known novel The Man Who Counts), by Poul Anderson; David Falkayn: Star Trader—The Technic Civilization Saga (Baen—another ominibus of stories and a novel), by Poul Anderson; Works of Art (NESFA Press), by James Bliss; Lorelei of the Red Mist: Planetary Romances (Haffner Press), by Leigh Brackett; Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith (Prize/Planet Stories), by Leigh Brackett; H. P. Lovecraft: The Fiction (Barnes & Noble), by H. P. Lovecraft; The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908–2008 (Haffner Press), Jack Williamson, edited by Stephen Haffner; Gateway to Paradise: The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume Six (Haffner Press), Jack Williamson; The Metal Giants and Others: The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume One (Haffner Press), by Edmond Hamilton; The Star Stealers: The Complete Adventures of the Interstellar Patrol: The Collected Edmond Hamilton, Volume Two (Haffner Press), by Edmond Hamilton; The Collected Captain Future: Volume One: Captain Future and the Space Emperor (Haffner Press), by Edmond Hamilton; Venus on the Half-Shell and Others (Subterranean—an omnibus of stories and the eponymous novel, written as by “Kilgore Trout”), by Philip José Farmer; Laugh Lines (Tor—an omnibus of six stories and two novels), by Ben Bova; Button, Button: Uncanny Stories (Tor), by Richard Matheson; Boy in Darkness and Other Stories (Peter Owen), by Mervyn Peake; Elric: The Stealer of Souls (Del Rey—an omnibus of stories and novels), by Michael Moorcock; Elric: To Rescue Tanelorn (Del Rey—an omnibus of stories and novels), by Michael Moorcock; Viewpoints Critical: Selected Stories (Tor), by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.; Skeleton in the Closet and Other Stories (Subterranean), by Robert Bloch; Summer Morning, Summer Night (PS Publishing), by Ray Bradbury; Skeletons (Subterranean), by Ray Bradbury; and Project Moon-base and Others (Subterranean—an omnibus of screenplays and never-filmed adaptations of early Heinlein stories), by Robert A. Heinlein.