|
|
Nebula Awards 33
The best stories of 1997, according to the writers themselves
 |
Nebula Awards 33
|
|
Edited by Connie Willis
|
|
Harcourt Brace
|
|
$13.00/$19.00 Canada
|
|
Trade Paperback, 1999
|
|
ISBN 0-1560-0601-4
|
|
|
Review by Clinton Lawrence
 ebula Awards 33 collects the stories that won the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's 1997 Nebula Awards, as well as the two winners of the Rhysling Award for science fiction poetry. It also includes stories by 1997 SFWA Grand Master Poul Anderson and Author Emeritus Nelson Bond, and five tales by nominees who did not win. In addition to editor Connie Willis' introduction and commentary, the anthology features a section at the end in which eight writers and editors comment on the events of 1997, and how they relate to science fiction.
Vonda McIntyre's award-winning novel The Moon and the Sun is represented with an excerpt in which a sea monster is captured and brought to the court of Louis XIV. In Jerry Oltion's novella "Abandon in Place," the space program is in decline until a series of ghost Saturn V rockets begin appearing at Cape Canaveral, replicating the Apollo missions. In the novelette category, Nancy Kress' winning story "The Flowers of Aulit Prison" concerns an alien woman who must become a government informant to atone for the murder of her sister. Jane Yolen's short story "Sister Emily's Lightship" tells of an encounter between Emily Dickinson and an extraterrestrial.
In addition to the annual awards, in 1997 SFWA named another Grand Master, Poul Anderson. In the anthology, he is represented by his 1960 story "The Martyr," in which a group of humans hold members of a superior species captive in order to research their psionic powers. Recently, SFWA has also been giving a special award, the Author Emeritus, to an important science fiction author of the past who is no longer writing. In 1997 it honored Nelson Bond, whose 1940 story "The Bookshop" is included here. The Rhysling winners were W. Gregory Stewart's "Day Omega" for short poem and Terry A. Garey's "Spotting UFOs While Canning Tomatoes" for long poem.
Every story is a winner
In her introduction, Willis reveals how she knew the Nebula Awards were special when she read the first anthology, collecting the 1965 winners--every story in the anthology ended up on the list of favorite stories she kept. While the 1997 winners might not quite live up to the numerous classics that won awards in 1965, it's likewise a very impressive collection. In fact, the stories Willis includes that didn't win are as impressive as the ones that did.
The best story, however, is one of the winners, Kress' "The Flowers of Aulit Prison." Kress convincingly creates an alien culture with a different belief system and explores the ethical dilemmas facing her main character. The excerpt from McIntyre's novel is compelling enough to convince readers to seek out the book. And Oltion's "Abandon in Place" is a very interesting oddity: a mix of hard science fiction and supernatural fantasy that works surprisingly well.
"Sister Emily's Lightship" is a fine story, but several of the stories it beat are equally as good: James Patrick Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Karen Joy Fowler's experimental "The Elizabeth Complex" are both outstanding examinations of father-daughter relationships, and Michael Swanwick's "The Dead" is a brilliant dystopian story of a world in which corpses are revived as a cheap labor source. In the novelette category, James Alan Gardner's "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream" is a brilliant alternate-history satire of the conflict between science and religion.
In summary, there's not a weak story in the book. Willis deserves commendation for seeking out a good Anderson tale that's not often anthologized, as well as finding a fine story by Bond. Nebula Awards 33 has some convincing evidence that 1997 was excellent year for innovative science fiction, as least at the shorter lengths.
After reviewing various original anthologies, short story collections and best-of-the-year anthologies over the last few years, I've read a number of these stories three or four times now. They still seem just as good every time I read them.
-- Clint
Back to the top.
Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask
A young flyboy grows up
|
Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask
|
|
By Jim Munroe
|
|
HarperCollins Canada
|
|
$20.00 Canada
|
|
Trade Paperback, Feb. 1999
|
|
ISBN 0-00-648091-8
|
|
|
Review by Nalo Hopkinson
 yan is an average university student with average
problems: school's a pain, he's a virgin, his chain-smoking
mother is dying of beast cancer...and he can turn himself into a
fly.
Ryan has a crush on Cassandra, a waitress at a local
greasy spoon. She's been the lead singer of a popular
underground punk band, she's a single mother, a political
activist, openly bisexual...and she can make objects disappear by
looking at them. When Ryan and Cassandra start dating, they
discover each others' strange powers and decide to join forces.
As Flyboy and Ms. Place, they aim to fight the villains of their
urban world: tobacco barons, redneck media and an unfair legal
system. They make themselves cool costumes, hire a publicist and
do a media blitz. Superheroes for Social Justice is born.
But Ryan is in over his head. Unlike Cassandra, he's
never had to fight for his rights, never been the visible target
of prejudice. The Superheroes for Social Justice deface
cigarette billboards to protest the health risks of smoking.
They embarrass male police who are intimidating a peaceful
women's rally. They play a huge practical joke on a local
tabloid paper. And all through it, Ryan is consumed by terror
that they will be caught. He follows Cassandra's lead. He
second-guesses his every move and is often astounded at Cassandra's
ability to plan ahead. He admires her ability to keep throwing
herself into the fray despite her fear. He's just trying--and
often failing hilariously--not to say anything too stupid.
Then events take a couple of very personal turns, and
Ryan has to figure out quickly whether he really is an action
hero. Is he a doer, or just a talker?
Superhero or anti-hero?
Author Jim Munroe has a fine sense of irony and an incisive wit, and the prose of Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask (due out in the United States from Avon Books in November) is a
pleasure to read. Popular culture fuels this novel, and it's peppered with
references to science fiction books and films. Ryan is hooked on
Sailor Moon cartoons. As a superhero he is in fact a 20-
something anti-hero who bumbles and stumbles his very human way
about. Like anybody else, he's just trying to figure life out
and not look too dumb in the process. In between jaunts of
world-saving, he goofs around with his roommates, skips classes
and berates himself for not making his mother quit smoking. He
thinks of himself as a pretty liberal guy, but his preconceptions
keep tripping him up. When Cassandra asks him how he feels about
an ex-girlfriend of hers he says:
"It doesn't arouse feelings of jealousy, if
that's what you mean. It arouses...well, it just
arouses."
Cassandra nodded. "She's not exactly male-inclusive when it comes to feminism. She's actually
pretty separatist."
"It makes perfect sense. If she's gay, what
use does she have for men? Actually, it's kinda
weird that gay men and women get along at all,
because they have nothing to unite them."
Cass looked as if she had eaten something
sour. "I guess you're a little homophobic and a
little sexist."
"Yeah," I said, surprised and dismayed.
Ultimately, Ryan may be too much of an anti-hero for the
book to be completely satisfying. The denouement of the novel
fizzles, though that may be the author's choice. If so it should be respected. People like to pretend that their heroes are perfect. Munroe deflates that pretense.
I enjoyed the irreverent humor of this novel, although I did wonder how
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a real man facing very real capital punishment for a
murder he may not have committed, might feel at reading fictional plans to
free him.
-- Nalo
Back to the top.
|
