The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection (5 page)

The year’s best original horror anthologies (although both have fantasy stories and even SF stories in them) were
Lovecraft Unbound
(Dark Horse Comics), a mixed original (mostly) and reprint anthology, and
Poe
(Solaris), an all-original, both edited by Ellen Datlow, and both collecting stories ‘inspired’ by the work of their respective authors (H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, naturally). The best story in
Lovecraft Unbound
happens to be the only SF story, by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, but the book also has strong original work by Laird Barron, William Browning Spencer, Lavie Tidhar, Holly Philips, Richard Bowes, Marc Laidlaw, and others, and good reprint stuff by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Chabon, and others.
Poe
features good work by Suzy McKee Charnas, Lucius Shepard, Pat Cadigan, Sharyn McCrumb, Glen Hirshberg, Laird Barron, Gregory Frost, Kim Newman, and others.
Tesseracts Thirteen
(Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy), edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, functioned as a dedicated horror anthology this year.
Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary
(Tor Books), edited by Carol Serling, is self-explanatory. There were also a number of large retrospective reprint horror anthologies, discussed below.

Slipstream anthologies included:
Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing
(Small Beer Press), edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher Barzak;
Conjunctions: 52, Betwixt the Between: Impossible Realism
(Bard College), edited by Bradford Morrow and Brian Evenson; and an anthology of flash fiction,
Last Drink Bird Head
(Ministry of Whimsy), edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer.

Shared world anthologies included
Wild Cards: Suicide Kings
(Tor Books), edited by George R.R. Martin;
Man-Kzin Wars XII
(Baen Books), created by Larry Niven;
Changing the World: All New Tales of Valdemar
(DAW Books), edited by Mercedes Lackey;
New Ceres Nights
(Twelfth Planet Press), edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Tehani Wesely;
Grants Pass
(Morrigan Books), edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar; and
The Grantville Gazette V
(Baen Books), edited by Eric Flint.

A long-running series featuring novice work by beginning writers, some of whom may later turn out to be important talents, changed editors this year, as the late Algis Budrys handed the torch to K.D. Wentworth, who continued the series with
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXV
(Galaxy Press).

A relatively new phenomenon is paranormal romance anthologies. They included
Strange Brew
(St. Martin’s Griffin), edited by P.N. Elrod, and a bunch of anthologies with no editor listed:
Mean Streets
(Roc),
Must Love Hellhounds
(Berkley Books), and
Never After
(Jove).

As in 2008, there were a lot of stories about robots this year, roughly divided into stories about robots working out compassionate relationships with humans and robots creating their own societies, loosely modeled on human culture, after all the humans are dead. As has been the case for a couple of years now, there were a number of stories that featured flying sailing ships (shades of
Peter Pan!)
and/or zeppelins. There were lots of steampunk stories, in both print and electronic venues, and, in spite of the death of dedicated alternate history magazine
Paradox
, still many alternate history stories as well. (Judging whether a given story is steampunk or alternate history is sometimes a judgment call, as by definition all steampunk is also alternate history, but you can usually tell where the strongest emphasis lies.) There weren’t as many zombie stories as last year, although there was another dedicated zombie anthology, so perhaps they will rest quietly in their graves for a bit. Lots of vampire stories, it almost goes without saying.

SF continued to appear in places well outside accepted genre boundaries, from science magazines
Cosmos, Nature
, and
New Scientist
to
The New Yorker.

Finding individual pricings for all of the items from small presses mentioned in this 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 this summation, whether from the anthology section, the novel section, or the short-story collection section, and, where known, their website 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 websites, 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
, Grosvenor House, 1 New Road, Hornsea, East Yorkshire, HU18 1PG, England; www.pspublishing.co.uk.
Golden Gryphon Press
, 3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802; www.goldengryphon. com.
NESFA Press
, P.O. Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701-0809; www. nesfa.org.
Subterranean Press
, P.O. Box 190106, Burton, MI 48519; www. subterraneanpress.com.
Old Earth Books
, P.O. Box 19951, Baltimore, MD 21211-0951; www.oldearthbooks.com.
Tachyon Publications
, 1459 18th St. #139, San Francisco, CA 94107; www.tachyonpublications.com.
Night Shade Books
, 1470 NW Saltzman Road, Portland, OR 97229; www. nightshadebooks.com.
Five Star
, 295 Kennedy Memorial Drive, Waterville, ME 04901; www.galegroup.com/fivestar.
NewCon Press
, www.newconpress. co.uk.
Small Beer Press
, 150 Pleasant St. #306, Easthampton, MA 01027; www.smallbeerpress.com.
Locus Press
, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661; www.locusmag.com.
Crescent Books
, Mercat Press Ltd., 10 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh, EH3 7AL, Scotland.
Wildside Press/ Borgo Press
, P.O. Box 301, Holicong, PA 18928-0301; www.wildsidepress.com.
Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc./Tesseract Books
, P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada; www.edgewebsite.com.
Aqueduct Press
, P.O. Box 95787, Seattle, WA 98145-2787; www.aqueductpress. com.
Phobos Books
, 200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1109, New York, NY 10003.
Fairwood Press
, 5203 Quincy Ave. SE, Auburn, WA 98092; www. fairwoodpress.com.
BenBella Books
, 6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 508, Dallas, TX 75206; www.benbellabooks.com.
Darkside Press
, Darkside Press & Midnight House, 107 E. Green St., Gallup, NM 87301; www. darkmidhouse.com.
Haffner Press
, 5005 Crooks Rd., Suite 35, Royal Oak, MI 48073-1239; www.haffnerpress.com.
North Atlantic Books
, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA, 94701; www.northatlanticbooks.com.
Prime Books
, P.O. Box 36503, Canton, OH, 44735; www.prime-books.com.
MonkeyBrain Books
, 11204 Crossland Drive, Austin, TX 78726; www.monkeybrainbooks. com.
Wesleyan University Press
, University Press of New England, Order Dept., 37 Lafayette St., Lebanon NH 03766-1405; www.wesleyan.edu/ wespress/.
Agog! Press
, P.O. Box U302, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Austrailia.
Wheatland Press
, P. O. Box 1818, Wilsonville, OR 97070; www.wheatlandpress.com.
MirrorDanse Books
, P.O. Box 3542, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia; www.tabula-rasa.info/MirrorDanse.
Arsenal Pulp Press
, 103-1014 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 2W9, Canada; www.arsenalpulp.com.
DreamHaven Books
, 2301 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406; www.dreamhavenbooks.com.
Elder Signs Press/ Dimensions Books
, www.dimensionsbooks.com.
Chaosium
, Chaosium Inc., 22568 Mission Boulevard #423, Hayward, CA 94541-5116; www.chao-sium.com.
Spire Books
, P.O. Box 3005, Radford, VA 24143.
SCIFI, Inc.
, P.O. Box 8442, Van Nuys, CA 91409-8442.
Omnidawn Publishing
, 1632 Elm Avenue, Richmond, California 94805-1614; www.omnidawn.com.
CSFG
, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, www.csfg.org.au.
Hadley Rille Books
, P.O. Box 25466, Overland Park, KS 66225; www.hadleyrillebooks.com.
ISFiC Press
, 707 Sapling Lane, Deerfield, IL 60015-3969; www.isficpress.com.
Suddenly Press
, c/o Brian Youmans, 49 Magnolia Street, Arlington, MA 02474; www.suddenlypress.com.
Sandstone Press
, P.O. Box 5725, One High St., Dingwall, Ross-shire, IV15 9WJ, Scotland; www.sandstonepress.com.
Tropism Press
, 1034 McKinley Ave., Oakland, CA 94610; www.tropismpress.com.
SF Poetry Association
, www.sfpoetry. com.
DH Press
, www.diamondbookdistributors.com.
Kurodahan Press
, c/o Intercom, Ltd., 3-9-10-403 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-0001 Japan; www.kurodahan.com.
Ramble House
, 443 Gladstone Blvd., Shreveport, LA 71104; www.ramblehouse.com.
Interstitial Arts Foundation
, P.O. Box 35862, Boston, MA, 02135; www.interstitial arts.org.
Raw Dog Screaming
, www.rawdogscreaming.com.
Three Legged Fox Books
, 98 Hythe Road, Brighton, BN1 6JS, UK; www.threeleggedfox.co.uk.
Norilana Books
, P.O. Box 2188, Winnetka, CA 91396; www.norilana.com.
Coeur de Lion
, 56 Serpentine Road, Kirrawee NSW 2232, Australia; www.coeurdelion.com. au.
PARSEC
, www.parsecink.org.
Robert J. Sawyer Books
, Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, ON, L3R 4T8, Canada; www.sfwriter.com/rjsbooks.htm.
Rackstraw Press
, http://rackstrawpress. nfshost.com.
Candlewick
, www.candlewick.com.
Zubaan
, 128 B, First Floor, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110019, India; www.zubaanbooks.com.
Utter Tower
, www.threeleggedfox.co.uk.
Spilt Milk Press
, P.O. Box 266, Bettendorf, IA 52722; www.electricvelocipede.com.
Paper Golem
, www.papergolem.com.
Galaxy Press
, 7051 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 200, Hollywood, CA 90028; www.galaxypress.com.
Twelfth Planet Press
, P.O. Box 3027, Yokine, WA, 6060, Australia; http://twelfthplanetpress.wordpress. com.
Senses Five Press
, www.sensesfive.com.
Elastic Press
, 85 Gertrude Road, Norwich, NR3 4SG, UK; www.elasticpress.com.
Lethe Press
, 118 Heritage Ave., Maple Shade, NJ 08052; www.lethepressbooks.com.
Two Cranes Press
, www.twocranespress.com.
Wordcraft of Oregon
, P.O. Box 3235, La Grande, OR 97850; www.wordcraftoforegon.com.

In spite of the recession, there were still a huge number of novels published in the SF/fantasy genres during the year – more than ever before, in fact, and it looks likely that there’ll be even more next year.

According to the newsmagazine
Locus
, there were a record 2,901 books ‘of interest to the SF field’ published in 2009, up 2 per cent from 2,843 titles in 2008. Sixty-seven percent of those were new titles, not reprints. (It’s worth noting that this total doesn’t count novels offered as downloads on the Internet or on Kindle, media tie-in novels, gaming novels, novelizations of genre movies, or most Print on Demand books – all of which would swell the total by hundreds if counted.) Paranormal romances remained strong, with 339 titles this year as opposed to 328 in 2008; one of the paranormal romance writers, Stephanie Meyer, edged out J. K. Rowling in sales, and others such as Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, and Diana Gabaldon are among the bestselling writers in America. The number of new SF novels was down slightly, by 7 per cent, to 232 as opposed to 2008’s total of 249 (still far larger than the field was even a few years back, and more novels than any one person is going to have a chance to read in the course of a year). The number of new fantasy novels was up by 30 per cent, to 572 titles as opposed to 2008’s total of 439. Horror novels were up to 251 titles as opposed to 2008’s total of 175, the biggest gain since the Big Horror Boom busted; in 2002, for instance, there were only 112 horror titles published.

As usual, 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 I’ll limit myself to mentioning the novels that received a lot of attention and acclaim in 2009. These include:

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America
(Tor Books), by Robert Charles Wilson;
Steal Across the Sky
(Tor Books), by Nancy Kress;
Drood
(Little, Brown and Company), by Dan Simmons;
The Empress of Mars
(Tor Books), by Kage Baker;
The Caryatids
(Del Rey/Ballantine Books), by Bruce Sterling;
This Is Not a Game
(Orbit), by Walter Jon Williams;
House of Suns
(Ace Science Fiction), by Alastair Reynolds;
The Revolution Business
(Tor Fantasy), by Charles Stross;
Gardens of the Sun
(Gollancz), by Paul McAuley;
The High City
(Forge), by Cecelia Holland;
Ark
(Gollancz), by Stephen Baxter;
The Sunless Countries
(Tor Books), by Karl Schroeder;
Transition
(Orbit Books), by Iain M. Banks;
Galileo’s Dream
(HarperVoyager), by Kim Stanley Robinson;
Mind Over Ship
(Tor Books), by David Marusek;
Yellow Blue Tibia
(Gollancz), by Adam Roberts;
The Devil’s Alphabet
(Del Rey), by Daryl Gregory;
Boneshaker
(Tor Books), by Cherie Priest;
The City & The City
(Del Rey), by China Mieville;
Coyote Horizon
(Ace), by Allen Steele;
Regenesis
(DAW Books), by C. J. Cherryh;
Conspirator
(DAW Books), by C. J. Cherryh;
The Walls of the Universe
(Tor Science Fiction), by Paul Melko;
Avilion
(Gollancz), by Robert Holdstock;
The Magicians
(Viking Press), by Lev Grossman;
Chasing the Dragon
(Pyr), by Justina Robson;
The Steel Remains
(Ballantine Books), by Richard K. Morgan;
The Price of Spring
(Tor Fantasy), by Daniel Abraham;
The Red Tree
(Roc Trade), by Caitlin R. Kiernan;
Green
(Tor Books), by Jay Lake;
The Knights of the Cornerstone
(Ace Books), by James P. Blaylock;
Buyout
(Del Rey), by Alexander Irvine;
Palimpset (Bantam
Spectra), by Catherynne M. Valente;
Hope’s Folly
(Bantam), by Linnea Sinclair;
End of the Century
(Pyr), by Chris Roberson;
Duplicate Effort
(Roc Books), by Kristine Kathryn Rusch;
Diving into the Wreck
(Pyr), by Kristine Kathryn Rusch;
Turn Coat
(Roc), by Jim Butcher;
Corambis
(Ace Books), by Sarah Monette;
The Sharing Knife
(Eos), by Lois McMaster Bujold;
Buyout
(Del Rey), by Alexander Irvine;
Storm from the Shadows
(Baen Books), by David Weber;
Escape from Hell
(Tor Books), by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle;
Heroes of the Valley
(Hyperion), by Jonathan Stroud;
Bone Crossed
(Ace), Patricia Briggs;
Unseen Academicals
(Harper), by Terry Pratchett; and
Under the Dome
(Scribner), by Stephen King.