By E. Catherine Tobler
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Adams, John Joseph, ed. Lightspeed: Year One. Prime Books (November 2011). USD $16.95 (hardcover); USD $6.99 (ebook). ISBN 978-1607013044.
Lightspeed Year One is an anthology that collects the stories published in the first year of the online short fiction venue (June 2010 to May 2011). The stories are all flavours of science fiction, be it near-future, soft SF, steampunk, new weird, or hard SF. Latter volumes of this anthology will contain fantasy stories, as well, as Lightspeed and FantasyMagazine merged in the winter of 2011. If you didn’t read Lightspeed over the course of the year, this anthology is a great way to catch up.
As with any anthology, every reader will find something different in the collected works. With 48 stories in this volume, readers will surely discover something to like, something to love, something to abhor, something to cringe over. Lightspeed Year One is chiefly a collection of traditional SF stories, some of which break out of the norm, rising to the top like cream. Of course, your cream will differ from mine; this is the joy of fiction.
Kaftan explores a quiet, long-distance love, while Lee introduces readers to a heroine and weapon unlike any other. Castro’s “Arvies” may make a person cringe and that may well be part of the point. Castro conveys it well, providing a look at what happens to society when certain parts of it are viewed as disposable. Landsdale’s “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” is worth a cringe or two, as well, looking at a fascinating, post-apocalyptic world that continually turns itself upside down.
With the bigger, more-familiar authors, readers may find more-uneven ground. Stephen King’s “Beachworld” doesn’t cover much new ground (dating from 1984’s Weird Tales, as it does), and Valente’s “How to Become a Mars Overlord” wanders, albeit in her ever-eloquent language. “The Silence of the Asonu” by Le Guin is reprinted here, and will hopefully gain new readers of the collection it originates from, Changing Planes. Czerneda’s “The Passenger” might seem clichéd, but is saved by the wonderful ups and downs and humanity at its heart.
Amid the stories, you will find Nebula Award finalists: Vylar Kaftan”s “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” and “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro (which won the storySouth Million Writers Award), and Carrie Vaughn”s Hugo Award nominee “Amaryllis”. Editor Adams is well-known in the field, becoming, as Barnes & Noble online called him, “the reigning king of the anthology world.” Lightspeed Year One seems to solidify that, with an overall splendid collection of sf stories.
Complete table of contents:
- “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan
- “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt
- “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley
- “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn
- “No Time Like the Present” by Carol Emshwiller
- “Manumission” by Tobias S. Buckell
- “The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball” by Genevieve Valentine
- “…For a Single Yesterday” by George R.R. Martin
- “How to Become a Mars Overlord” by Catherynne M. Valente
- “Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due
- “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro
- “More Than the Sum of His Parts” by Joe Haldeman
- “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee
- “The Long Chase” by Geoffrey A. Landis
- “Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo
- “Travelers” by Robert Silverberg
- “Hindsight” by Sarah Langan
- “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale
- “The Taste of Starlight” by John R. Fultz
- “Beachworld” by Stephen King
- “Standard Loneliness Package” by Charles Yu
- “Faces in Revolving Souls” by Caitlin R. Kiernan
- “Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim
- “Ej-Es” by Nancy Kress
- “In-Fall” by Ted Kosmatka
- “The Observer” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- “Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman
- “The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin
- “Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow” by Corey Mariani
- “Cucumber Gravy” by Susan Palwick
- “Black Fire” by Tanith Lee
- “The Elephants of Poznan” by Orson Scott Card
- “Long Enough And Just So Long” by Cat Rambo
- “The Passenger” by Julie E. Czerneda
- “Simulacrum” by Ken Liu
- “Breakaway, Backdown” by James Patrick Kelly
- “Saying the Names” by Maggie Clark
- “Gossamer” by Stephen Baxter
- “Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor
- “Woman Leaves Room” by Robert Reed
- “All That Touches the Air” by An Owomoyela
- “Maneki Neko” by Bruce Sterling
- “Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son” by Tom Crosshill
- “Velvet Fields” by Anne McCaffrey
- “The Harrowers” by Eric Gregory
- “Bibi From Jupiter” by Tessa Mellas
- “Eliot Wrote” by Nancy Kress
- “Scales” by Alastair Reynolds