The Year's Best Science Fiction, First Annual Collection. edited by Gardner Dozois. 1984
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection
Rated 84% Positive. Story Score = 3.92 out of 5
25 Stories : 6 great / 14 good / 2 average / 3 poor / 0 DNF
If they carve a Mount Rushmore on the Moon for science fiction editors, Gardner Dozois’ face will on it. While a writer of some renown, Dozois shaped the sci-fi genre with his work editing Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine from 1986-2004 and published many amazing anthologies from the mid-19780s until his death in 2018. I started reading science fiction in the 1980s and 1990s. Didn’t know it at the time, but Gardner Dozois was behind a large number of the books that found their way into my hands. Dozois, along with writers Asimov, Bradbury, Crichton and the universes of Star Trek and Star Wars, shaped my love of science fiction.
This anthology, The 1984 First Annual Collection of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, covered stories published in 1983. For thirty-five years, it was the most important anthology series in science fiction. This was the first in that iconic series.
Check out his amazing body of work at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
There are 6 stories that make my All-Time Great List:
In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
A marine biologist is haunted by dreams of dissecting a young man that is a merman/human hybrid and is about to leave forever into the sea. Felt like the story that Ray Bradbury might have written for Dangerous Visions.
Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
A brilliant scientist goes to a friend for help after injecting himself with the intelligent results of illegal experiments.
Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
Disturbing story of a man who gets too romantically and sexually involved with the apes that he is training to speak and function in society.
Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
An ex-husband convinces his wife to undergo a process which wipes all memory of their time together. The idea is that without all their baggage, they can start over. They try, but the wife starts to suspect that the husband didn’t actually get his memory wiped at all. The same concept is treated differently in the great science fiction film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
A thrilling tale of horror and suspense. A foursome of ‘psychic vampires’ meet to discuss their “feedings” and get their scores in their sick game. A feeding occurs when one of the group uses their power to cause a person to kill, often in ways that insersect with historic real life murders. One woman the group says she intends to stop with the feeding, which leads to a terrifying reaction from the others in the group.
Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
A superb story of non-sentient first contact. A teenage girl goes to spend time with her wealthy widowed grandmother. The house is full of memorabilia and collectibles from a lifetime of exploration and travel. One stone seems to have a power that the others do not.
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: FIRST ANNUAL COLLECTION.
25 STORIES : 6 GREAT / 14 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 3 POOR / 0 DNF
My Rating System?
Cicada Queen • [Shaper/Mechanist] • (1983) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
Good. A big baroque hard sci-fi story about one man finding his destiny. You’ve got an alien queen who rules (benevolently) over a space habitat for human that are in factions based on their level of biological or technological adaptation. Too many big ideas for this short story to be truly great.
Beyond the Dead Reef • [Quintana Roo] • (1983) • short story by James Tiptree, Jr.
Good. A story of polluted dying reefs in the waters off Belize and the supernatural dangers that exist for people who visit them.
Slow Birds • (1983) • novelette by Ian Watson
Good. A peaceful community is disrupted by the sudden appearance of "slow birds," cylindrical and metallic creatures that hover above ground, disappear into thin air, and sometimes explode, leading to the sport of skate-sailing on the resulting glass lakes, and a tragic incident involving a rival's cruel trick.
Vulcan's Forge • (1983) • short story by Poul Anderson
Average. A scientist’s relationship with his dead wife’s persona embodied in a science satellite makes like complicated when things go wrong.
Man-Mountain Gentian • (1983) • short story by Howard Waldrop
Good. Pleasant story of zen-sumo (sumo wrestling with psychic powers.). Elevated by the charm of Waldrop’s prose.
Hardfought • (1983) • novella by Greg Bear
Good. The pivotal moment of a long war between humans and a strange alien race called the Senexi is told by alternating POV between aliens and alien-like humans. Complicated and very inventive.
Manifest Destiny • (1983) • short story by Joe Haldeman
Poor. An alternate history of the Mexican American War that I couldn’t ever find a reason to care about. If you don’t know the history extremely well, you won’t be able to find any speculative part to the story.
Full Chicken Richness • (1983) • short story by Avram Davidson
Poor. I hate AD’s writing style so much. A quirky artist talks to quirky people at a diner. They the protagonist finds a stupid quirky sci-fi reason why some chicken soup is tasty.
Multiples • (1983) • short story by Robert Silverberg
Good. In a future where multiple personalities are attractive, a woman pretends to have a “double” in order to have a relationship with a multi-personality man.
Cryptic • (1983) • short story by Jack McDevitt
Good. A scientist stumbles across long-shelved SETI evidence of an alien race, but why was it hidden? What makes it so disturbing?
The Sidon in the Mirror • (1983) • novelette by Connie Willis
Good. Sci-fi western with a being that slowly adapts their personality and behavior to the people closest to them, a Mirror. The Mirror plays piano in a brothel on a mining planet and get drawn up in revenge and melodrama. Could see this as a good Outer Limits episode.
Golden Gate • (1982) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
Poor. Fantasy about a show in a bar and a man who tries to kill the unkillable villain in the play.
Blind Shemmy • (1983) • novelette by Jack Dann
Good. In a decadent dystopia, a couple visit a luxury casino in Paris to gamble with the man’s body organs in a complex psycho-digital game.
In the Islands • (1983) • short story by Pat Murphy
Great. A marine biologist is haunted by dreams of dissecting a young man that is a merman/human hybrid and is about to leave forever into the sea. Felt like the story that Ray Bradbury might have written for Dangerous Visions.
Nunc Dimittis • (1983) • novelette by Tanith Lee
Good. A very charming vampire story about an old thrall-servant of a vampiress whose last act is to find her a new companion. Parts of the setup reminded by of the baroque erotic horror movie “The Hunger.”
Blood Music • (1983) • novelette by Greg Bear
Great. A brilliant scientist goes to a friend for help after injecting himself with the intelligent results of illegal experiments.
Her Furry Face • (1983) • short story by Leigh Kennedy
Great. Disturbing story of a man who gets too romantically and sexually involved with the apes that he is training to speak and function in society.
Knight of Shallows • (1983) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
Good. Rollicking time-travel/multi-universe adventure as a man tracks a murderous version of himself.
The Cat • [Solar Cycle] • (1983) • short story by Gene Wolfe
Good. A lovely story that require having read at least the first two books from The Book of the New Sun. The affairs of servants in the house absolute. Ostensibly about a cat, but really about the cattiness of aristocracy enacted through their servants.
The Monkey Treatment • (1983) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
Average. An obese man gets a weird procedure that puts an invisible mean monkey on his shoulders who fight him for food.
Nearly Departed • [Deadpan Allie] • (1983) • short story by Pat Cadigan
Good. A mind scanner is hired to go into the mind of a murdered psychotic poet and retrieve her unfinished art.
Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine • (1983) • novelette by John Kessel
Great. An ex-husband convinces his wife to undergo a process which wipes all memory of their time together. The idea is that without all their baggage, they can start over. They try, but the wife starts to suspect that the husband didn’t actually get his memory wiped at all. The same concept is treated differently in the great science fiction film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
Great. A thrilling tale of horror and suspense. A foursome of ‘psychic vampires’ meet to discuss their “feedings” and get their scores in their sick game. A feeding occurs when one of the group uses their power to cause a person to kill, often in ways that insersect with historic real life murders. One woman the group says she intends to stop with the feeding, which leads to a terrifying reaction from the others in the group.
Gemstone • (1983) • novelette by Vernor Vinge
Great. A superb story of non-sentient first contact. A teenage girl goes to spend time with her wealthy widowed grandmother. The house is full of memorabilia and collectibles from a lifetime of exploration and travel. One stone seems to have a power that the others do not.
Black Air • (1983) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
Good. Historical Fantasy about a man who sales with the Spanish Armada for England and experiences the extreme challenges death and destruction of that voyage. The fantastical element is that he sees the souls of the cremates over their heads and the air changes color based on the mood and situation. If you believe in auras, this is historical fiction. For the rest, this is light fantasy. Quite detailed and visceral.
