A review by gengelcox
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection by Val Nolan, Ian McDonald, Greg Egan, Geoff Ryman, Lavie Tidhar, Nancy Kress, Martin L. Shoemaker, Karl Bunker, Neal Asher, Michael Swanwick, Sandra McDonald, Carrie Vaughn, Robert Reed, Jay Lake, Brendan DuBois, Paul McAuley, Alexander Jablokov, Stephen Baxter, Sean McMullen, Jake Kerr, Aliette de Bodard, Alastair Reynolds, Gardner Dozois, Ken Liu, Sunny Moraine, James Patrick Kelly, Allen M. Steele, Ian R. MacLeod, Damien Broderick, Melissa Scott
4.0
***** Introduction: Summation: 1983 • essay by Gardner Dozois
***** Cicada Queen • [Shaper/Mechanist] • (1983) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
** Beyond the Dead Reef • [Quintana Roo] • (1983) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
**** Slow Birds • (1983) • novelette by Ian Watson
** Vulcan's Forge • (1983) • short story by Poul Anderson
*** Man-Mountain Gentian • (1983) • short story by Howard Waldrop
* Hardfought • (1983) • novella by Greg Bear
*** Manifest Destiny • (1983) • short story by Joe Haldeman
**** Full Chicken Richness • (1983) • short story by Avram Davidson
**** Multiples • (1983) • short story by Robert Silverberg
*** Cryptic • (1983) • short story by Jack McDevitt
**** The Sidon in the Mirror • (1983) • novelette by Connie Willis
** Golden Gate • (1982) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
*** Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann
*** In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
**** Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee
***** Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
**** Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
**** Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
*** The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
***** The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
*** Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • short story by Pat Cadigan
**** Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
***** Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
**** Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
**** Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
I originally read this back in 1986, three years after most of the stories were published and a couple of years after the collection came out. I had met [a:Bruce Sterling|34429|Bruce Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379306689p2/34429.jpg] by then, and was on speaking terms with several of the other writers that appear in this collection and would appear in future ones, and had determined that I, too, would someday have a story included. Alas, the dream was not to be. While I did publish a few stories in the next three decades, none of them met Dozois' high standard and with his death this year, I no longer have the opportunity to try and meet that hurdle.
Dozois hadn’t started this from scratch. In the late 70s he had taken over a more modest Dutton-published Best SF series from [a:Lester del Rey|19739|Lester del Rey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217499177p2/19739.jpg], ending up doing five additional volumes to the five that del Rey had edited. But what he did do was somehow convince Bluejay Books to commit to a much more massive compilation, nearly three times the Dutton volumes. I’m not sure about the logistics, but I suspect that it may have been due to offering a slightly lower rate per word, so that while individual authors included may not have reaped as much monetarily, they may have become better known because these volumes became nearly a necessary buy for anyone interested in the field. So, in this one case, the exposure may indeed have been worth the reduced rate. In any case, it was “found money”—i.e., authors had already earned 3-7 cents per word on the original publications.
It was fun to re-read. While I started picking these huge volumes up when they first appeared, but stopped buying them after about the 20th annual collection because they threatened to implode and collapse in on themselves due to their combined heft and breadth. Still, for someone without the time to commit to reading all the short fiction magazines, these were indispensable to keep up with the trends in the field.
As always, Dozois' summary provides the most objective measure of the good and bad the industry was going through at the time. His story selections remained strong. I only had real problems with one, [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]'s "Hardfought," which I found annoying more than interesting and found myself skimming, but that was more than made up for by Bear's "Blood Music," which I thought the best story of that year. Some of the other stories started off slow, and then I found myself caught up in them, like [a:Ian Watson|141334|Ian Watson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1307121764p2/141334.jpg]'s "Slow Birds," [a:Vernor Vinge|44037|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215099239p2/44037.jpg]'s "Gemstone," and [a:Dan Simmons|2687|Dan Simmons|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427999015p2/2687.jpg]' "Carrion Comfort."
***** Cicada Queen • [Shaper/Mechanist] • (1983) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
** Beyond the Dead Reef • [Quintana Roo] • (1983) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
**** Slow Birds • (1983) • novelette by Ian Watson
** Vulcan's Forge • (1983) • short story by Poul Anderson
*** Man-Mountain Gentian • (1983) • short story by Howard Waldrop
* Hardfought • (1983) • novella by Greg Bear
*** Manifest Destiny • (1983) • short story by Joe Haldeman
**** Full Chicken Richness • (1983) • short story by Avram Davidson
**** Multiples • (1983) • short story by Robert Silverberg
*** Cryptic • (1983) • short story by Jack McDevitt
**** The Sidon in the Mirror • (1983) • novelette by Connie Willis
** Golden Gate • (1982) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
*** Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann
*** In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
**** Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee
***** Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
**** Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
**** Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
*** The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
***** The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
*** Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • short story by Pat Cadigan
**** Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
***** Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
**** Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
**** Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
I originally read this back in 1986, three years after most of the stories were published and a couple of years after the collection came out. I had met [a:Bruce Sterling|34429|Bruce Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1379306689p2/34429.jpg] by then, and was on speaking terms with several of the other writers that appear in this collection and would appear in future ones, and had determined that I, too, would someday have a story included. Alas, the dream was not to be. While I did publish a few stories in the next three decades, none of them met Dozois' high standard and with his death this year, I no longer have the opportunity to try and meet that hurdle.
Dozois hadn’t started this from scratch. In the late 70s he had taken over a more modest Dutton-published Best SF series from [a:Lester del Rey|19739|Lester del Rey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217499177p2/19739.jpg], ending up doing five additional volumes to the five that del Rey had edited. But what he did do was somehow convince Bluejay Books to commit to a much more massive compilation, nearly three times the Dutton volumes. I’m not sure about the logistics, but I suspect that it may have been due to offering a slightly lower rate per word, so that while individual authors included may not have reaped as much monetarily, they may have become better known because these volumes became nearly a necessary buy for anyone interested in the field. So, in this one case, the exposure may indeed have been worth the reduced rate. In any case, it was “found money”—i.e., authors had already earned 3-7 cents per word on the original publications.
It was fun to re-read. While I started picking these huge volumes up when they first appeared, but stopped buying them after about the 20th annual collection because they threatened to implode and collapse in on themselves due to their combined heft and breadth. Still, for someone without the time to commit to reading all the short fiction magazines, these were indispensable to keep up with the trends in the field.
As always, Dozois' summary provides the most objective measure of the good and bad the industry was going through at the time. His story selections remained strong. I only had real problems with one, [a:Greg Bear|16024|Greg Bear|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223822211p2/16024.jpg]'s "Hardfought," which I found annoying more than interesting and found myself skimming, but that was more than made up for by Bear's "Blood Music," which I thought the best story of that year. Some of the other stories started off slow, and then I found myself caught up in them, like [a:Ian Watson|141334|Ian Watson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1307121764p2/141334.jpg]'s "Slow Birds," [a:Vernor Vinge|44037|Vernor Vinge|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215099239p2/44037.jpg]'s "Gemstone," and [a:Dan Simmons|2687|Dan Simmons|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427999015p2/2687.jpg]' "Carrion Comfort."