Teaser

Science Fiction exists at the cutting edge of human knowledge. gathered in this anthology are nineteen stories that push the limits of what we know to be possible, and sometimes break those limits altogether . . .

Review

Despite the fact that modern science fiction grew out of the short story market, and in spite of my large science fiction collection, I haven’t read a whole lot of short stories. Well, I’ve actually read a few hundred, but the overwhelming majority are by one author, Isaac Asimov. And when I have read collections by other authors, they’ve tended to be single-author collections. True anthologies are few and far between on my shelves. Seeking to address that oversight, I turned my attention towards the well-established Mammoth Anthology range, and the editing skills of Mike Ashley.

Extreme Science Fiction is ostensibly a collection of hard SF, rooted in real science and posing questions about where it might lead. The caveat of course is that there’s nearly a century between the oldest and most recent stories in the collection, so the science at the respective times of writing looked markedly different. There are also some stories in here that take very strange ideas and then treat them with scientific rigour. In terms of authors, I’d say I’ve heard of about three quarters of them prior to reading the anthology, though I had only read the works of half that many. Since one of my goals with any anthology is finding new authors to read and enjoy, I thought I was in a pretty good place. I was, sadly, not entirely correct.

Starting with the good stories, most came with authors I knew already. Alastair Reynolds put forward a typically strong short story in ‘Merlin’s Gun,’ Stephen Baxter’s ‘The Pacific Mystery’ was a very unusual story, but ended up being one of my favourites in the collection, and Greg Bear’s ‘Judgement Engine’ has made me excited to read more of his work. Two less familiar standouts were Greg Egan’s ‘Wang’s Carpets,’ which offered a very unique take on first contact that makes me glad I’ve already invested in one of his novels, and Gregory Benford’s ‘Anomalies.’ My only prior experience with Benford was a the rather dire Foundation’s Fear, but based on ‘Anomalies’ I may have to re-evaluate my decision not to read his original fiction.

Unfortunately, the rest of the anthology is quite weak. There are plenty of stories in here that, while inoffensive, are utterly forgettable, such as Jerry Oltion’s ‘Stuffing’ and Pat Cadigan’s ‘Death in the Promised Land.’ Like filler episodes of a TV show, they do nothing wrong, but don’t live long in the memory after reading. Far worse can be found in this anthology. Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross combine their efforts to create ‘Flowers from Alice’ which asserts transhumanism’s place at the top of my least favourite SF tropes. Meanwhile Harlan Ellison’s ‘The Region Between’ makes the classic New Wave mistake of assuming that making something hard to read makes it worth reading. The New Wave is an area I’ve explored very little of, and Ellison’s contribution makes that trend set to continue.

The variations in enjoyment are as extreme as the title of the collection promises, and while I have been intrigued by a handful of authors, Extreme Science Fiction finds itself quite some way down my list of recommendations for science fiction reader.

Book Stats

• Part of the Mammoth Anthology Range
• Contains 19 stories
• Published by Robinson in 2006
• Predominantly Hard SF
• 562 pages