Vanishing Acts: A Science Fiction Anthology

Rating:
Summary: A mostly original anthology of the highest caliber.
Review: Ellen Datlow has this incredible knack for putting together anthologies of science fiction, fantasy and horror of the highest caliber. If you missed VANISHING ACTS when it first came out in hardcover, you should definitely pick up a copy of this new trade paperback edition. Thematically intriguing, I found many new perspectives on endangered species, a subject near and dear to my heart. Suzy McKee Charnas's "Listening to Brahms" was one of my favorite stories from the old OMNI Magazine, and the new original stories by Ian McDowell, Brian Stableford, Joe Haldeman and others are all works of exceptional quality. The inclusion of Avram Davidson's "Now Let Us Sleep" from 1957 gives a very short blast from the past which is quite memorable. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful anthology of speculative fiction!
Review: I think this anthology is worth picking up for Ted Chiang's "72 Letters" all by itself. All of Chiang's stories are superb, and this one is set in an alternate Victorian age turned sideways by the use of Golems in their society. Since the name on a Golem's forehead describes its function, scientists in this age study names to analyze their meaning and power. If you like fantasy that is well thought out and sticks to its own rules, this is for you. Besides Chiang's alternative history tale, I liked Paul J. McAuley's "The Rift", about a hike down into uncharted pre-historic territory. I was a little bit alarmed about buying an anthology with 4 reprinted stories, but they are all good reads, especially Suzy McKee Charnas' "Listening To Brahms", about a group of astronauts who become the sole survivors of Earth and are saved from by extinction by copycat lizard aliens. As the book jacket proclaims, this really is one of the best anthologies of 2000.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful anthology of speculative fiction!
Review: I think this anthology is worth picking up for Ted Chiang's "72 Letters" all by itself. All of Chiang's stories are superb, and this one is set in an alternate Victorian age turned sideways by the use of Golems in their society. Since the name on a Golem's forehead describes its function, scientists in this age study names to analyze their meaning and power. If you like fantasy that is well thought out and sticks to its own rules, this is for you. Besides Chiang's alternative history tale, I liked Paul J. McAuley's "The Rift", about a hike down into uncharted pre-historic territory. I was a little bit alarmed about buying an anthology with 4 reprinted stories, but they are all good reads, especially Suzy McKee Charnas' "Listening To Brahms", about a group of astronauts who become the sole survivors of Earth and are saved from by extinction by copycat lizard aliens. As the book jacket proclaims, this really is one of the best anthologies of 2000.

Rating:
Summary: An Introduction to Vanishing Acts
Review: The genesis of Vanishing Acts was in Albuquerque, New Mexico,when some friends and I were discussing Suzy McKee Charnas's work andI mentioned one of my favorite of her stories, "Listening to Brahms." The story is about a lizard race that takes in the few survivors of the late great planet Earth and how those humans influence an entire culture. It's also about the healing power of music. It is one of very few stories that gives me a lump in my throat no matter how many times I read it. It prompted me to bring up two other stories I consider underappreciated classics--Bruce McAllister's "The Girl Who Loved Animals," about a woman who chooses to act as birth mother for an embryo of an endangered species and the emotions and ethical considerations this selfless act engenders. The other was Avram Davidson's "Now Let Us Sleep," about the last natives of a colonized planet. I decided then and there that I wanted to create a mostly original anthology that would emanate from these three stories. One might assume that an anthology about extinction would be depressing. Of course, some of the stories are heartbreaking and some are downbeat -but there are also healthy doses of exuberance, adventure, and even twinges of humor in this book. I hope that the stories, rather than creating a feeling of hopelessness in the reader, will instead stir a sense of anger and indignation and responsibility. And even more, perhaps spur at least a few readers into doing something to prevent endangered species from becoming extinct species like some of those in this book. I find polemic in fiction boring. The stories that most influence are the gentle persuaders-I don't mean gentle stories, but those that are so engrossing and well-told that the reader doesn't realize they've been poleaxed until after the story is done. I've tried to present a variety of stories-most are science fiction, but each goes at the subject from different angles, different tones, different points of view. Some are not meant to be taken seriously. You'll know them when you read them...

Rating:
Summary: Worth the price of entry for Ted Chiang alone
Review: While some of the original stories in this volume are weaker than I'd like to see, the longest piece alone is worth the price of admission. "Seventy-Two Letters" by Ted Chiang is another magnificent creation from one of the sharpest and least prolific writers in SF today. Every story he writes is a gem, and this one, a kabbalistic steampunk allegory for the Human Genome Project, is no exception. Other very worthwhile stories include "Links" by Mark W. Tiedemann and "The Thing About Benny" by M. Shayne Bell, and the reprints by Suzy McKee Charnas, Bruce McAllister, and Avram Davidson are great too. But that novella alone makes this book worth your attention.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the price of entry for Ted Chiang alone
Review: While some of the original stories in this volume are weaker than I'd like to see, the longest piece alone is worth the price of admission. "Seventy-Two Letters" by Ted Chiang is another magnificent creation from one of the sharpest and least prolific writers in SF today. Every story he writes is a gem, and this one, a kabbalistic steampunk allegory for the Human Genome Project, is no exception. Other very worthwhile stories include "Links" by Mark W. Tiedemann and "The Thing About Benny" by M. Shayne Bell, and the reprints by Suzy McKee Charnas, Bruce McAllister, and Avram Davidson are great too. But that novella alone makes this book worth your attention.