Best of Crank!

Bryan Cholfin (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0312867395 / ISBN 13: 9780312867393

Published by Tor Books February 2000, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 286959

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Best of Crank!
• Publisher: Tor Books February 2000
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312867395
• ISBN 13: 9780312867393
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Used - Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Short Story Anthology

About this title

Synopsis

Selecting the best work from the innovative and controversial scifi magazine, this anthology reveals why Crank split lovers of the genre down the middle, rankling traditionalists and thrilling those in search of fresh voices.

Review

Looking for a collection of stories that will briskly sweep the cobwebs of tradition out of your science fiction-loving head? This is it. Bryan Cholfin has grabbed the best bits from the pages of his eclectic, intelligent magazine, Crank!, and created an anthology in the edgy tradition of Dangerous Visions. Here you'll find stories by the literary lights of SF and fantasy--Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Bishop, David R. Bunch, Jonathan Lethem, Brian Aldiss, and oh, so many more.

Some of the 17 stories are startling, some hilarious, and some sad, but all meet Cholfin's criterion--they "encourage the growth of a richer, livelier, more interesting and more meaningful literature with space for all the possibilities of tomorrow." And while there are some familiar elements here (like spaceships, strange futures, and aliens), every science fiction device in the book is necessary, used carefully to further a great story, and not just thrown in gratuitously to fit a marketable cover. This outstanding anthology will challenge fans to reach between and beyond established genre definitions. Those who make the leap will find themselves holding a collection of pure gold literary nuggets. --Therese Littleton