This is one of the books written every year to commemorate the nominees and award recipients for the Nebula awards, essentially the Oscars of science fiction. These awards which are chosen every year by the Science Fiction Writers of America seem to do a pretty good job of recognizing the most outstanding contributions of that year. This series was put together to publish some of the shorter fiction that won each year and to also mention some outstanding things that happened that year. For awhile this series was edited by Michael Bishop, and this is one of them, published to recognize the 1988 awards.I bought this book several years back on a bargain table at Borders or Barnes & Nobles. I really love short fiction and I love science fiction, so this is a great combination. I actually had several of these stories already ("Last of the Winnebagos" was printed in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and I had a subscription for awhile), but I decided it would still be interesting to read what others had to say about the works. Anyway, I finally got around to reading it.
The anthology starts out with an introduction by Michael Bishop where he essentially explains his philosophy and how he wants to try and recognize all of the works that won awards but also just to emphasize major accomplishments from that year. He also lists the winners and nominees, the winners were:
Novel-Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold (some controversey surrounded this selection since many considered it a juvenile) Novella-"The Last of the Winnebagos" by Connie Willis Novelette-"Schrodinger's Kitten" by George Alec Effinger Short Story-"Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge" by James Morrow
Ian Watson continues the anthology with a piece that basically summarizes and analyzes each of the pieces nominated, and he mentions his disapproval with the choice of a juvenile for novel. Since the full novel can't be reproduced, Lois McMaster Bujold then talks about Falling Free, and responds to Ian's allegations, basically stating that the novel deals with universal themes and therefore whether or not it is a juvenile is irrelevant. Both of these are interesting in there discussion of science fiction themes but of course somewhat dated and don't seem very relevant nowadays.
Ray Bradbury was also immortalized with a Grand Master award (essentially a lifetime achievement award). Greg Bear talks about Ray Bradbury's contributions to the field. This is a very personal look at Ray and not very in-depth but provides a side we usually don't see. Ray himself contributes an original poem, "The Collector Speaks" which is interesting and definitely an example of Ray's style of art. There is also a reprint of Ray's nonfiction piece, "More Than One Way To Burn A Book" which warns about the dangers of censorship in any form. It's something everyone should read at least once.
At this point we start to look at some of the winners and nominees. "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen is actually a nominee for the novella category, and is not reprinted in its full version but a significant portion is present. This piece which has a young girl being transported back to Nazi Germany, is definitely a juvenile, and not all that original. "Bible Stories For Adults..." the short story winner is a unique rewriting of the flood story and it will obviously be considered sacrilegious by some but it is funny and fairly innovative.
The three winners of the Rhysling award for 1987 are also reprinted. This is essentially science fiction's poetry award, and though the pieces are very good, I didn't find any of the really outstanding.
"Schrodinger's Kitten" is about a woman trapped to repeat a certain set of events in life until they work out correctly. This is extremely original and very interesting, since it combines quantum theory and traditional laws (a Muslim code of ethics) in a very unique and well told story. "The Fort Moxie Branch" is another short story nominee and is perhaps one of the better non-winners present in this collection. This story about a weird library that appears in a small town, asks questions about what it means to be good, and makes us wonder how much we've lost in the last 2000 years simply because no one thought it was worth preserving.
Clifford Simak and Robert Heinlein also died the year this book was put to press and hence there are memoriams to them by Gordon Dickinson and Frank Robinson respectively. I'm not a big Simak fan, but was a huge Heinlein fan and the memoriam to Heinlein I thought was particularly well done. I knew most of what was contained in it, but for those interested in Heinlein's life it is a very well done summary.
There are then several more stories reprinted. There is also a discussion of movies from the year 1988. The most notable of all the reprints in my opinion is "The Last of the Winnebagos" by Connie Willis. This novella is set in the not too distant future, and conjures up a world where dogs are extinct. The world it envisions is interesting in its own right, but Connie does a great job as well of developing great characters who really have to go through some emotional trials and growth in just the short span of a novella, and she pulls it all off quite successfully.
The second to last piece in this collection is perhaps my favorite. It is called "My Alphabet Starts Where Your Alphabet Ends" and essentially is a work by Paul Di Fillipo that tries to argue that Dr. Seuss is perhaps the best and most visionary science fiction writer of the last century. Written in a very witty style Paul does a very good job of convincing me by the end.
This is a great collection all around and if it weren't so dated by now I'd give it five stars. I highly recommend this as well as the whole Nebula series to anyone who likes to read short science fiction, or who is interested in science fiction as a whole. A remarkable combination of pieces and very well edited.
