Modern Classic Short Novels of Science Fiction

In a tribute to the science fiction novella, more than a dozen masterpieces from the past three decades feature the work of Poul Anderson, Samuel R. Delany, Lucius Shepard, Cordwainer Smith, and other masters of the genre.

Leaning less toward conventional hard sf than toward poetic flights of imagination, Dozois' latest anthology is a companion to Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1991), which consisted of short stories. Most of the selections predictably represent the best work of sf's more recognizable veterans--e.g., Poul Anderson's classic seafaring tale, "The Longest Voyage," about preindustrial mariners' encounter with an island tribe's hidden space vessel, and Kate Wilhelm's shorter original version of her Hugo-winning novel, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Including work from the period from 1960 to the early 1990s in order to showcase sf's most modern era, the collection opens with Jack Vance's "The Miracle Workers" (1958), about warring knights who resort to spells and telepathy until they recognize the value of archaic technology, and ends with Nancy Kress' "And Wild for to Hold" (1991), which displaces Anne Boleyn to an almost surrealistic far-future. In between is a generous assortment of master stylists who make this a veritable feast of storytelling genius that Dozois' lucid commentaries only further distinguish. Carl Hays