The Best of Michael Swanwick. 2008
THE BEST OF MICHAEL SWANWICK
RATED 98% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 4.52 OF 5
21 STORIES : 12 GREAT / 8 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
If you ever need to make the case that Michael Swanwick is one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, just reach for this book. Three decades of amazing stories: full of cracklingly smart ideas, images of wonder and terror, well written characters, and meaningful subtle commentary of life and humanity. Damn, this was impressive! 98% Positive means this collection is higher on my scale than any other single author book I’ve ever reviewed here.
Other Great Single Author Collections
In this collection, Swanwick writes mostly hard sci-fi with extremely detailed and thoughtful worlds. Everything is alien enough to invoke a strong sense of wonder and yet so clearly drawn as to be easily grasped in a short story. This is plot-and-idea-driven fiction but the characters are always believable. These stories are truly in the same vein as the best of the 1940s and 50s, but are likely going to be far more accessible to a 2024 reader.
This might be the book to give to a new reader who loves science fiction in movies and television, but hasn’t yet made the jump to fiction.
A Whopping 12 Stories Make the All-Time Great List:
But as that is more than half the stories in the book, it makes more sense to invite you to find them below.
THE BEST OF MICHAEL SWANWICK
21 STORIES : 12 GREAT / 8 GOOD / 1 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
The Feast of Saint Janis • (1980) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Great. A First World African travels to Third World Boston and falls in with a charismatic young woman who channels Janis Joplin each night. Swanwick has built a super world of an America that has mostly collapsed. Through the attitude and voice of our protagonist, we get a perspective on how we subconsciously judge the people in poor foreign lands. Riveting.
Ginungagap • (1980) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Great. Abigail - a seasoned traveler known as a ‘gravity bum - is higher for a dangerous job to explore a black hole travel technology that was created with the help of alien spiders. There is a lot of suspicion and intrigue in this suspenseful story. Cool hard SF.
Trojan Horse • (1984) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. On a domed Moon colony, a woman awakens with a new personality after a devastating accident. As she integrates into her strange new life, she becomes a pivotal figure in a dangerous experiment aiming to create God through advanced wetware programming.
A Midwinter's Tale • (1988) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. A brutal, layered, and visceral tale of first contact between humans and wolf-like aliens. Very well written, smart, realistic, and intense.
The Edge of the World • (1989) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Average. Three teens in a middle-eastern-influenced military enclave explore the literal edge of the world while dealing with their teenage angst.
Griffin's Egg • (1991) • novella by Michael Swanwick
Great. Hard edged SF. Weapon manufacturing for earth has been transplanted to the moon., along with even more dangerous science that rewrites the human brain. Eventually the wars of earth flare up to an extreme level and that spills onto the moon. Suspenseful, exciting, smart.
The Changeling's Tale • (1994) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Good. High Fantasy. A man returns to the city of his birth that he abandoned to fight in Great War with dragons and elves. Poetic and perhaps circular.
North of Diddy-Wah-Diddy • (1995) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. Fun frivolous story of a mystery on a hell-bound train. Well written but not very original.
Radio Waves • (1995) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. A unique view of the afterlife. In this story ,when you die, you become energy running along the power lines. The story is about a man, in energy form, being hunted by a horrific being across the power grid.
The Dead • (1996) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Good. A scary vision of zombies as the new underclass. They are exploited by corporation to do all the low skilled work at a much lower cost than living workers.
Mother Grasshopper • (1997) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Good. In a weird future where humanity lives immortality on the back of a giant grasshopper, a magician and acolyte travel the landscape spreading welcome death and disease.
Radiant Doors • (1998) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. In this horrific story, a tortured refugee from the future brings with her a piece of technology that can control people.
The Very Pulse of the Machine • (1998) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. Stranded on Io after a rover crash, astronaut Martha Kivelsen must navigate the moon’s treacherous (but wonderfully written) terrain to reach safety. All the while, she is pulled the dead body of her coworker behind her. Her dead coworker … who might be talking to her.
Wild Minds • (1998) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. A Catholic man meets a woman at an orgy and brings her back to his apartment. She has an optimized brain and he does not. They have a debate about whether or not he should.
Scherzo with Tyrannosaur • (1999) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. A superb and tightly plotted time travel intrigue story centering on a fundraising party in the prehistoric past. Sex, death, and dinosaurs.
The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O • [Annie and Crow • 1] • (2000) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Good. Wild, sexy, and out of control romp through timey-wimey universe hoping and well … dude almost wrecks a van because of ‘road head’ while transporting velociraptors.
The Dog Said Bow-Wow • [Darger and Surplus • 1] • (2001) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. A very fun story of an uplifted dog pulling a con on the residents of Buckingham Palace in a near future where war with AI has reverted humanity back to near victorian levels.
Slow Life • (2002) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Great. A vain astronaut, on the verge of death, believes that she is communicating with an alien species in her dreams.
Legions in Time • (2003) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. A woman takes a weird job sitting in front of a door that never opens. When she opens it, she becomes embroiled in a wacky multiverse adventure.
Triceratops Summer • (2005) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. A delicate and beautify story that could have been written by the lovechild of Steven Utley and Ray Bradbury. The local time travel lab has made an error and dinosaurs are not just walking around town. Not every good thing lasts forever.
From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled • (2008) • short story by Michael Swanwick
Great. After the catastrophic fall of Babel - a majestic alien city, diplomat Carlos Quivera and his AI-embedded survival suit must navigate the alien jungles of Gehenna alongside a wounded native diplomat, Uncle Vanya. Rich in word building.
