Lightspeed: Year One. edited by John Joseph Adams. 2011
Lightspeed is an online science fiction magazine and this large collection contains all of the short fiction from its first year. This is a large collection with 48 stories and over 480 pages in the print edition. About half the stories were original to Lightspeed and half were reprints published during that year.
Many of the biggest names of science fiction are here. Orson Scott Card. Stephen King. Robert Silverberg. Ursula K. Le Guin. Anne McCaffrey. George R.R. Martin. Bruce Sterling.
Others are equally superb but known only to the most dedicated of Science Fiction fans. Nancy Kress. Kristine Kathryn Rusch. James Patrick Kelly. Stephen Baxter. Nnedi Okorafor. Joe Haldeman.
Even you know these authors, the stories selected are deeper cuts than other books would assemble, and there lies the issues with the collection. When the stories work well, they are probably original to you. When they don’t it usually a very minor work from a big name author.
Lightspeed: Year One is rated 77%.
31 good / 12 average / 5 poor.
How do I arrive at a rating?
"I'm Alive, I Love You, I'll See You in Reno" by Vylar Kaftan
Poor. Slipstream lovers caught in time. Maybe?
"The Cassandra Project" by Jack McDevitt
Average. Russians accidentally release photos of a dome on the moon. Nasa gets sent into a tizzy.
"Cats in Victory" by David Barr Kirtley
Good. Catmen fight the Dogmen and then meet a Monkeyman is this thoughtful and action-packed story.
"Amaryllis" by Carrie Vaughn
Average. Character study of a woman running a fishing boat who violates the law by getting pregnant.
"No Time Like the Present" by Carol Emshwiller
Poor. Strange tall people move in to a house.
"Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell
Average. People sell their clones to fight a war.
"The Zeppelin Conductors' Society Annual Gentlemen's Ball" by Genevieve Valentine
Average. Steampunk character study of men who fly zepplins.
"...For a Single Yesterday" by George R. R. Martin
Good. In a post-apocalyptic world, one man plays Jancis Joplin and retreats into a drug-induced remembering
"How to Become a Mars Overlord" by Catherynne M. Valente
Good. Humorous how-to-manual on becoming a villainous warlord of Mars, even if your Mars isn’t our Mars.
"Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due
Good. A child is kept away from everyone and constantly tested in the hopes of finding a cure.
"Arvies" by Adam-Troy Castro
Good. A wild world where fetuses are the only humans and they control a series of human hosts to experience life. Then one fetus wants to know what it would feel like to experience the perversity of being born.
"More Than the Sum of His Parts" by Joe Haldeman
Average. A man is rebuilt with powerful new body parts.
"Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" by Yoon Ha Lee
Good. Chinese-infused story of a woman in command of a powerful weapon. She is hired to use a weapon that will destroy a person entire lineage.
"The Long Chase" by Geoffrey A. Landis
Good. A sentient spaceship on the losing side of a war flees across the galaxy to avoid being assimilated.
"Amid the Words of War" by Cat Rambo
Good. A strange alien who is part of a clutch-mates bonding is working in a whorehouse after failing a mission.
"Travelers" by Robert Silverberg
Good. A family with nearly eternal life visits a ugly dreadful place for vacation. And maybe to meet their destiny.
"Hindsight" by Sarah Langan
Average. As the world prematurely ends, people struggle to upload their consciousness to the Second Coming’s mainframe.
"Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" by Joe R. Lansdale
Good. A terrifying story of a man and woman who are trapped in a lighthouse wild the mutated world around them tries to enter and destroy them.
"The Taste of Starlight" by John R. Fultz
Poor. Disgusting horror of a man awakened early from cryosleep who must resort to canibalism to stay alive.
"Beachworld" by Stephen King
Average. Two men crash their ship on a world of sand that is less empty than they originally suspect.
"Standard Loneliness Package" by Charles Yu
Good. Character study of a office employee who experiences pain and sadness for clients.
"Faces in Revolving Souls" by Caitlin R. Kiernan
Good. Character piece about a young girl taking her first steps into a transhumanist body-modification world and effect of that on her social circle.
"Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters" by Alice Sola Kim
Average. Whenever he sleeps, a man jump forward in him but always sees one of his daughters.
"Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress
Good. At the site of a colony collapse, a small team of Corps explorers discover some survivors who have retreated into a degraded life full of joy and invisible friends.
"In-Fall" by Ted Kosmatka
Average. An interrogator uses a black hole to get leverage on a terrorist.
"The Observer" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Average. The multiple personas in one soldiers body highlight the cost of war.
"Jenny's Sick" by David Tallerman
Good. In a world with disease eradicated, one young woman is choosing to get sick
"The Silence of the Asonu" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Good. A SF fable about a species that chooses silence and what effect that has on other races.
"Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow" by Corey Mariani
Good. Chilling tale of children who have extreme love for all other people, until they are needed for something terrible but necessary.
"Cucumber Gravy" by Susan Palwick
Good. A wonderful character study of a pot dealer in Nevada and the strange aliens that come to sing at his fire.
"Black Fire" by Tanith Lee
Good. Riveting investigation into a sexual disturbance in the mountains.
"The Elephants of Poznan" by Orson Scott Card
Good. In a post-apocalyptic Poland, elephants hold the key to humanities future.
"Long Enough And Just So Long" by Cat Rambo
Good. Two women on a space station start a friendship with a retired sex robot.
"The Passenger" by Julie E. Czerneda
Good. A man is trapped in a clear room and turned into a subject of pilgrimage.
"Simulacrum" by Ken Liu
Good. A father and daughter record how the use of simulacrums have affected their family relationships
"Breakaway, Backdown" by James Patrick Kelly
Poor. Rambling about drugs and shoe-shopping in space. Maybe?
"Saying the Names" by Maggie Clark
Good. A woman is sent to an alien world to defend her estranged father who is accused of murder.
"Gossamer" by Stephen Baxter
Good. Two astronauts become stranded on Pluto and make a discovery.
"Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor
Good. A superb character study of a damaging marriage and terrifying robots that violently defend an African pipeline. Very well written.
"Woman Leaves Room" by Robert Reed
Average. Difficult tale of a man trapped in a room interacting with his scientific handlers.
"All That Touches the Air" by An Owomoyela
Good. Man interacts with an alien race that takes people’s bodies as their own and cannot be reasoned with.
"Maneki Neko" by Bruce Sterling
Good. A Japanese family man finds himself drawn into a web of intrigue when he follows a few simple unassuming instructions given him by his mobile device.
"Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son" by Tom Crosshill
Poor. A quantum physics influenced boy trains to compete against rats.
"Velvet Fields" by Anne McCaffrey
Good. Brutal tale of colonists who didn't quite understand everything about the planet they settled.
"The Harrowers" by Eric Gregory
Good. One of my favorite stories. A young man enlists the help of professionals to find his father living as a preacher amongst the infected.
"Bibi From Jupiter" by Tessa Mellas
Good. A freshmen in college gets a girl from Jupiter as her roommate. They have a interesting friendship.
"Eliot Wrote" by Nancy Kress
Average. A young man deals with his brilliant mathematician father who is struggling with mental illness … or possible an amazing discovery.
"Scales" by Alastair Reynolds
Good. A searing story of a young man heading towards war.
