The Best of Interzone

Rating:
Summary: One of the few brit things I like.
Review: I don't even much like the british things that are popular in the usa like monty python, the beatles, shakespeare okay americans don't like shakespeare either, but you get my point. Anyway they do produce great science fiction. Interzone has some stuff too out there for me, but this has some hard sf & other stuff that's readable. Try it if you got time.

Rating:
Summary: SF Anthology Monster Meets Literature Demon, Lives
Review: The first story makes the price of the book worth while! (Egan's piece, 'Mitochondrial Eve,' is tight, pertinent, and funny ten years after first publication. If you read it closely, you'll laugh out loud.)

The truth about British sci-fi is that it often puts American sci-fi to shame in the area of style. I found the stories in this work superbly written, whereas I often get sleepy slogging through Mr. Dozois tastes (because they're so consistent, so repetitive).

This collection has a lot of fresh ideas. 'Best of Interzone' is a great gift for a person you know who likes modern (short) fiction and wants to try, for the first time, "a little science fiction." It will offer a sublime feel for what authors with panache and a little articulate gab can do if they're motivated. High recommendations!

K.M. McKay

Rating:
Summary: Should have been better
Review: There are 29 stories here, representing "The Best of Interzone" from the first half of the Nineties. Interzone is the UK's premiere SF magazine and it can certainly hold its head up in any company. So, this book has the makings of a good anthology. Many of the authors will be well known to SF fans around the world.

Perhaps I was expecting too much but, for me at least, the book did not live up to expectations. Some of the stories were really good but too many were mediocre and one or two were very hard going.

The two stories that stood out the most were right at the end of the book. "Human Waste" by Mary Gentle and "Cyril the Cyberpig" by Eugene Byrne. These two tales could hardly be more different. The first was a ghastly reminder of the desire or perhaps even the need for cruelty that can drive humans. It reminded me very much of "All My Darling Daughters" by Connie Willis which you can find in the first of Ellen Datlow's "Alien Sex" anthologies. Eugene Byrne's tale on the other hand is a sort of "Robocop" satire which had me laughing out loud several times.

I rate this as three stars. It's worth it if you like shorter SF a lot but if you will only read one anthology this year, then you should really find a better one. A real "Best of Interzone" could have been much better than this.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been better
Review: There are 29 stories here, representing "The Best of Interzone" from the first half of the Nineties. Interzone is the UK's premiere SF magazine and it can certainly hold its head up in any company. So, this book has the makings of a good anthology. Many of the authors will be well known to SF fans around the world.

Perhaps I was expecting too much but, for me at least, the book did not live up to expectations. Some of the stories were really good but too many were mediocre and one or two were very hard going.

The two stories that stood out the most were right at the end of the book. "Human Waste" by Mary Gentle and "Cyril the Cyberpig" by Eugene Byrne. These two tales could hardly be more different. The first was a ghastly reminder of the desire or perhaps even the need for cruelty that can drive humans. It reminded me very much of "All My Darling Daughters" by Connie Willis which you can find in the first of Ellen Datlow's "Alien Sex" anthologies. Eugene Byrne's tale on the other hand is a sort of "Robocop" satire which had me laughing out loud several times.

I rate this as three stars. It's worth it if you like shorter SF a lot but if you will only read one anthology this year, then you should really find a better one. A real "Best of Interzone" could have been much better than this.