Readers
Rich Horton's Market Summaries:
Summary: DAW Anthologies, 2005
This includes 10 mass market paperbacks in what is sometimes called DAW's "monthly magazine". That's all the original DAW anthologies save two. Those I skipped were Magic Tails -- I simply couldn't imagine reading another goshdarned BOOK full of cat stories (there are some good cat stories but way too many sickening ones) -- and a Mercedes Lackey book full of other writers working in her Valdemar series -- I simply couldn't imagine reading a whole bunch of stories based on Lackey's work.
The books I did read:
Constellations, edited by Peter Crowther;
Renaissance Faire, edited by Andre Norton and Jean Rabe;
I, Alien, edited by Mike Resnick;
Maiden, Matron, Crone, edited by Kerrie Hughes and Martin H. Greenberg;
Gateways, edited by Martin H. Greenberg;
Women of War, edited by Tanya Huff and Alexander Potter;
You Bet Your Planet, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Brittiany A. Koren;
In the Shadow of Evil, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers;
All Hell Breaking Loose, edited by Martin H. Greenberg;
Time After Time, edited by Denise Little.
I note that there was no Sword And Sorceress book -- I'm not sure what the long term status of that project is.
Subtotals: 10 books, 161 new stories (1 novella, 27 novelettes, 133 short stories (2 short-shorts)), about 960,000 words of new fiction.
I must say that taken as a whole the DAW anthologies are fairly disappointing. Way too many mediocre or poor stories. Consider that these typically feature approximately twice the wordcount of any of the top three US magazines. Yet they rarely produce award-nomninated work, nor work published in BOTY anthologies, and I have to say I consider that not just an artifact of distribution, but a result of merit. Still, two of these books are pretty good: Constellations and I, Alien, and there was some enjoyable stuff in the other books. One book that I enjoyed rather more than I expected was You Bet Your Planet, which has a pretty dumb theme (SFnal game shows), but which has a bunch of light-heartedly enjoyable -- if hardly great -- stories.
Constellations, indeed, was one of the best original anthologies of the year, and three stories from it made my Locus recommended reading list, all novelettes (though the Roberts story is only 7600 by my estimate): Ian McDonald's "Written in the Stars", about a world in which astrology seems literally true; Alistair Reynolds' "Beyond the Aquila Rift", a traditional-seeming SF adventure story about a spaceship lost in a wormhole network, with a spooky ending twist; and Adam Roberts's "The Order of Things", about a future society remaking the world on geometrical models.
I, Alien also has some strong work, particularly "You, by Anonymous", by Stephen Leigh, a very short creepy story of a different kind of alien invasion; and also stories by Mike Resnick ("Me", about an apprentice "Star Maker") and William Sanders ("Acts", about an alien talent agent and the results of his booking an up-and-coming comic to an obscure planet).
The best DAW stories of the year, then:
Novella:
The only novella was Michelle West's "The Black Ospreys" (Women of War), a pretty decent effort about a group of fighters called of course "The Black Ospreys" and the somewhat distasteful but successful way they fought -- and how that has affected their reputation.
Novelette:
"Written in the Stars", Ian McDonald (Constellations)
"Beyond the Aquila Rift", Alistair Reynolds (Constellations)
"The Order of Things", Adam Roberts (Constellations)
"Heart's Desire", Mickey Zucker Reichert (You Bet Your Planet)
"Strikes of the Heart", Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Maiden, Matron, Crone)
"Enter All Abandon, Ye Who Hope Here", David Bischoff (All Hell Breaking Loose)
Short Story:
"You, by Anonymous", Stephen Leigh (I, Alien)
"Acts", William Sanders (I, Alien)
"Me", Mike Resnick (I, Alien)
"Moses' Miracles", Roberta Gellis (Renaissance Faire)
"Chain", Ray Vukcevich (Time After Time)
