Fast Forward 2

Really excellent stories here- and I'm going to check out a couple of now-to-me authors. ( )

Fast Forward 2 is the best unthemed original anthology I have read. Gardner Dozois' Galactic Empires, from the same year is strong, with two five star stories, but it has a theme, as do other competitors from the past like the first Wild Cards book or more recently the second Dreaming Down Under volume or The New Space Opera.

Or to put it another way, this book is of sufficient quality to match good volumes of current Year's Best Science Fiction volume. These of course are reprint anthologies, however.

It tops the first volume thusly:

Here are the numbers :-

Fast Forward 1

4.5 - 3 - 16%
4.0 - 4 - 21%
3.5 - 9 - 47%
3.0 - 3 - 16%

Fast Forward 2
4.5 - 2 - 14%
4.0 - 7 - 50%
3.5 - 4 - 29%
3.0 - 1 - 07%

The very top range stories are similar in proportion. However, this volume has only 1 average story as compared to 3, and 4 decent standard stories compared to 9. Fast Forward 2 is the best unthemed original anthology I have read. Gardner Dozois' Galactic Empires, from the same year is strong, with two five star stories, but it has a theme, as do other competitors from the past like the first Wild Cards book or more recently the second Dreaming Down Under volume or The New Space Opera.

Or to put it another way, this book is of sufficient quality to match good volumes of current Year's Best Science Fiction volume. These of course are reprint anthologies, however.

It tops the first volume thusly:

Here are the numbers :-

Fast Forward 1

4.5 - 3 - 16%
4.0 - 4 - 21%
3.5 - 9 - 47%
3.0 - 3 - 16%

Fast Forward 2
4.5 - 2 - 14%
4.0 - 7 - 50%
3.5 - 4 - 29%
3.0 - 1 - 07%

The very top range stories are similar in proportion. However, this volume has only 1 average story as compared to 3, and 4 decent standard stories compared to 9. There are only 14 stories in this book compared to last year's 19 because of the monster True Names novella in the middle.

However, any anthology that has only 1 average story (and the best above) is a fine effort. Any anthology that has over half the stories as very good on top of that is most excellent.

There are only 14 stories in this book compared to last year's 19 because of the monster True Names novella in the middle.

If Anders produces a third volume, he'll be hard pressed to match this one, unless he's already strongarming stuff out of Reynolds, Stross, Baxter, Swanwick, Egan, Chiang, Williams and company.

At the top range there is the wildy adventurous Martian super agent story Catherine Drewe to begin, and the very close to home near future media study The Gambler to close.

The DNAgent Tornado Super Protest Gorilla cover by John Picacio, is pretty cool, too, which can tip it over the 4.75 round up to 5 category I think, along with the introduction, which even has footnotes, with urls (unlike some publishers, who you could beat to death with an optical wireless mouse before they get this sort of thing, it seems.) Book has the Pyr url, there are urls for the authors when they have them, and for the editor, too.

All solidly SF, too, something mostly absent in the science fiction part of this book's Del Rey competitor, for example, except perhaps for Jack Skillingstead, who, it seems, often can't help lapsing into ambiguity.

Overall, extremely well done.

Fast Forward 2 : Catherine Drewe - Paul Cornell
Fast Forward 2 : Cyto Couture - Kay Kenyon
Fast Forward 2 : The Sun Also Explodes - Chris Nakashima-Brown
Fast Forward 2 : The Kindness of Strangers - Nancy Kress
Fast Forward 2 : Alone With An Inconvenient Companion - Jack Skillingstead
Fast Forward 2 : True Names - Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum
Fast Forward 2 : Molly's Kids - Jack McDevitt
Fast Forward 2 : Adventure - Paul McAuley
Fast Forward 2 : Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter - Mike Resnick and Pat Cadigan
Fast Forward 2 : An Eligible Boy - Ian McDonald
Fast Forward 2 : SeniorSource - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Fast Forward 2 : Migration - Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell
Fast Forward 2 : Long Eyes - Jeff Carlson
Fast Forward 2 : The Gambler - Paolo Bacigalupi
Martian Great Game murder mission.

4.5 out of 5

Trash boy's cultis make feet.

4 out of 5

Designer johnson art.

3.5 out of 5

Monkeyboy urban cull.

3.5 out of 5

Either she's not a real girl, or I'm crazy. Could be both, though.

3.5 out of 5

To Beebe or not to Beebe, that is the Demiurge Brobdignag question.

4 out of 5

Send the dumb one, I ain't going.

4 out of 5

Interstellar expatriate deserted.

3 out of 5

It's a fine line between pleasure and pain.

3.5 out of 5

AI Matchmaking.

4 out of 5

Old school detective moon simulation.

4 out of 5

Seed Ark scan raid.

4 out of 5

The Ship Who Searched, and found ratpeople.

4 out of 5

Laosy science news not enough until girlpopped.

4.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2009/02... ( )

"Catherine Drewe" by Paul Cornell
Despite it being what drew me to this book, I was actually somewhat underwhelmed by Paul Cornell's contribution. Not to say that it was bad. But it was sort of insubstantial, really-- Jonathan Hamilton of British intelligence infiltrates a mercenary gang on Mars to stop the Russians from gaining hold of a piece of alien technology. It's a bit consciously James Bond, and Cornell plans to turn it into a series, apparently; story #2 will be appearing in the forthcoming Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume 3. But despite Cornell's usual mixture of deft characterization and fun antics, I find it hard to get very excited about another Hamilton story. (I'll buy the book anyway, though.)

"Cyto Couture" by Kay Kenyon
This is fun little story about a genetically mis-engineered child working in a factory that grows clothes from plants. Enjoyable.

"The Sun Also Explodes" by Chris Nakashima-Brown
Another story about genetic engineering, and it won't be the last. There's some interesting ideas in it, but none of the characters ever really interested me.

"The Kindness of Strangers" by Nancy Kress
Aliens destroy most of the world's major population centers yet do their best to assist the survivors. Why could this be happening? You won't really be surprised by the answer, and neither was I. These sort of better-than-you-primitives aliens who like lording over us were sort of done to death by Star Trek in the 1960s, you know? Except here, there's no getting out of the situation with a grand, moralistic gesture, just some empty nihilism. I'm pretty sure this same story turned up at least twice in Brian W. Aldiss's Galactic Empires collections, anyway.

"Alone with an Inconvenient Companion" by Jack Skillingstead
After reading this, I felt vaguely unsettled and unsure of the world around me-- which was exactly what Skillingstead was going for, I assume. Strange and really quite good.

"True Names" by Benjamin Rosenbaum and Cory Doctorow
The longest story in the book, I wasn't quite sure what had happened after I read it, because I didn't know what the protagonists were. Artificial intelligences? Memes? Post-singularity entities? Disembodies consciousnesses? Biological programs? Demiurge knows. But I enjoyed the story anyway. Whatever the protagonists actually are, they have a fascinating culture and way of life, one that Rosenbaum and Doctorow exploit to good effect. The characters are actually quite well drawn for entities of uncertain provenance, and there's some serious craziness going on at times to add to further enjoyment. Another good one.

"Molly's Kids" by Jack McDevitt
It's like McDevitt thought of a good problem for his characters, but he couldn't think of a solution. So he ends the story with the characters promising they'll think of a solution. And I don't understand why waning public support for a space probe would result in its launch being terminated mere minutes before its scheduled time. Surely by that point you've spent all the money; what would you gain? The characters themselves almost point this out, but no one ever answers it.

"Adventure" by Paul McAuley
At times this reads like a synopsis of a good story, but it comes together in the last few scenes, which make you realize that human existence will probably be just as meaningless and purposeless once we can live on other planets, and that growing up will still suck. Thumbs up.

"Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter" by Mike Resnick and Pat Cadigan
This one left me lukewarm. It's well-executed, but most of the ideas are a bit old hat, and I'm not sure that the spin the authors put on them is that different from what's gone before.

"An Eligible Boy" by Ian McDonald
A contender for my favorite of the collection, this is a story of Future India, 2047. The culture McDonald devises for the subcontinent in the mid-21st century is fascinating, and it makes a welcome break in a genre where the only country in the future always seems to be America. It's a great look at what these amazing technologies would do to society other than my own. The story's only flaw is that though the plot is quite good, it's wrapped up with some fairly humdrum stuff about two AIs falling in love, meaning that the story doesn't really live up to the potentials of its fascinating setting. Apparently McDonald's written a novel and several other short stories about this Future India; I'll certainly be checking them out.

"SeniorSource" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The entire story of this story turns out to be a distraction for the real story, which is brought up and resolved in one scene. Not so great.

"Mitigation" by Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell
This is a fun story about an environmental terrorist working for the Russian mafia who's not quite the player that he thinks he is.

"Long Eyes" by Jeff Carlson
A story about an intelligent spaceship with a human brain in it feels like it should be old hat, but it really works in Carlson's hands for some reason, probably the good characterization of the spaceship itself.

"The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi
A sweet little story about an ex-Laos journalist, and his attempt to change a world that increasingly doesn't care about the kind of stories he has to offer. A little simplistic and preachy perhaps, but still effective because it feels all too plausible.

I didn't really hate anything in this book-- even the worst stories just left me disinterested more than anything else-- but I didn't really love anything, either, though several of the stories were quite good. Oh, and for an ostensibly unthemed anthology, there sure were a lot of stories about a future Earth with its ecology either on the verge of collapse or already collapsed. Maybe that happened because it's what's actually going to happen, but it got a little tiring after a while. Overall, a fine enough anthology, but I wish that it had provided a little bit more bang.