Teaser

What is science fiction if not the genre that makes you say ‘wow’? A genre of ideas and visuals beyond any other, pushing readers to the limits of imagination. A genre that is quite simple mindblowing . . .

Review

It is my unfortunate duty to report that my mind remains steadfastly unblown. I’ve been wanting to check out more anthologies recently, but my excitement for the form was severely tempered by The Mammoth Book of Extreme SF. This second anthology is equally uninspiring, and I can only conclude that Ashely and I have very different definitions of what constitutes mindblowing. There are a couple of authors who appear in both anthologies, so Ashley has clearly picked those authors he rates very highly, but I find the overall effect rather dull. Not a good feeling to have when there are more than five hundred pages still waiting to be turned.

The first thing to discuss is story length. As well as the usual spread of short stories, there are two novellas in here. Timothy Zahn’s ‘Cascade Point’ is the first of these. Since I’m a Zahn fan (indeed, I’m reading another of his works right now), I had high hopes for this novella. Alas, it is a far cry from his space opera work, and I’d still recommend his longer works over this shorter fare any day of the week. Performing slightly better is G. David Nordley’s ‘Into the Miranda Rift.’ This is a very Jules Vernesque story of exploring an alien moon, and is far more interesting than the stories either side of it.

There were a couple of authors here I already knew, or at least knew of. Stephen baxter’s ‘The Pevatron Rats’ is fun enough, while ‘Tiger Burning’ proves that Alastair Reynolds is better at short fiction than long-form novels. I’ve only read snatches of James Blish before, but I think I may have come across ‘Bridge’ prior to this anthology. It remains an interesting piece, and I may well look into more of his original fiction.

Then there are the unfamiliar authors. Eric Borwn’s ‘The Rest is Speculation’ is, to put it mildly, too weird for my liking. Any time a crab and a manta ray guide someone through the afterlife, my mind is not so much blown as shit down out of irritation. Michael Swanwick’s ‘Mother Grasshopper’ falls into a similar rut. It’s certainly got an original idea, but it doesn’t excite me. it doesn’t evoke that sense of wonder we talk about so often. It’s unfortunate that of all the new authors in this anthology, I don’t think I’m going to look further into any of them.

The Mammoth SF collection, therefore, is a range of anthologies I must sadly write off. Perhaps I’ll have better luck with Year’s Best and the legendary Gardner Dozois. Until then, it looks like I’m sticking to single author collections for a little while.

Book Stats

• Part of the Mammoth Anthology Range
• Contains 21 stories
• Published by Robinson in 2009
• Various Subgenres
• 531 pages