The Best of Crank! (edition 1998)

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0312867395, Paperback)

Looking for a collection of stories that will briskly sweep the cobwebs of tradition out of your science fiction-loving head? This is it. Bryan Cholfin has grabbed the best bits from the pages of his eclectic, intelligent magazine, Crank!, and created an anthology in the edgy tradition of Dangerous Visions. Here you'll find stories by the literary lights of SF and fantasy--Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Bishop, David R. Bunch, Jonathan Lethem, Brian Aldiss, and oh, so many more.

Some of the 17 stories are startling, some hilarious, and some sad, but all meet Cholfin's criterion--they "encourage the growth of a richer, livelier, more interesting and more meaningful literature with space for all the possibilities of tomorrow." And while there are some familiar elements here (like spaceships, strange futures, and aliens), every science fiction device in the book is necessary, used carefully to further a great story, and not just thrown in gratuitously to fit a marketable cover. This outstanding anthology will challenge fans to reach between and beyond established genre definitions. Those who make the leap will find themselves holding a collection of pure gold literary nuggets. --Therese Littleton