Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Seventh Annual Collection

Gardner Dozois states in the introduction to this volume his conviction that science fiction can no longer be considered a mere category of fiction; it is no longer confined to stories of Bug-Eyed Monsters or multilimbed robots. Each story in this collection thoughtfully examines the possibilities and limitations of human experience in the context of the unknown dimensions of time and space.

Raccoona Sheldon’s award-winning story, “The Screwfly Solution,” tells of a medical researcher confronted with the aberrant symptoms of a disease that could depopulate Earth.

John Varley’s “In the Hall of the Martian Kings” concerns the potential for life and the environmental interaction that might work for a group of colonists on Mars.

Questions of life and death for humans and the universe, from the smallest particles—or pions—to supernovas, are dealt with in Edward Bryant’s “Particle Theory.”

In “Black as the Pit, From Pole to Pole,” the accomplished writing team of Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop transports Frankenstein’s monster from the Arctic to Antarctica on a voyage of self-discovery.

George R. R. Martin’s “Bitterblooms” contrasts life in a real world of gray cold to a fantastic vision of magical merger of past, present, and future.

In “The House of Compassionate Sharers,” Michael Bishop searches for the true meaning of human relationships and finds that it lies in caring about others.

Spider and Jeanne Robinson, husband and wife writing team, study the art of dance and the aesthetic concerns of the artist in an environment of changed gravitational force in the award-winning “Star-dance."