Best of
Speculative-Fiction

1990

Axiomatic


Greg Egan - 1990
    Contents:The Infinite Assassin (1991)The Hundred Light-Year Diary (1992)Eugene (1990)The Caress (1990)Blood Sisters (1991)Axiomatic (1990)The Safe-Deposit Box (1990)Seeing (1995)A Kidnapping (1995)Learning to Be Me (1990)The Moat (1991)The Walk (1992)The Cutie (1989)Into Darkness (1992)Appropriate Love (1991)The Moral Virologist (1990)Closer (1992)Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever


James Tiptree Jr. - 1990
    Revisions from the author's notes are included, allowing a deeper view into her world and a better understanding of her work. The Nebula Award–winning short story Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death, the Hugo Award–winning novella The Girl Who Was Plugged In, and the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning novella Houston, Houston, Do You Read? are included.The stories of Alice Sheldon, who wrote as James Tiptree Jr. ( Up the Walls of the World ) until her death in 1987, have been heretofore available mostly in out-of-print collections. Thus the 18 accomplished stories here will be welcomed by new readers and old fans. ''The Screwfly Solution'' describes a chilling, elegant answer to the population problem. In ''Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death,'' the title tells the tale--species survival insured by imprinted drives--but the story's force is in its exquisite, lyrical prose and its suggestion that personal uniqueness is possible even within biological imperatives. ''The Girl Who Was Plugged In'' is a future boy-meets-girl story with a twist unexpected by the players. ''The Women Men Don't See '' displays Tiptree's keen insight and ability to depict singularity within the ordinary. In Hugo and Nebula award-winning ''Houston, Houston, Do You Read?'' astronauts flying by the sun slip forward 500 years and encounter a culture that successfully questions gender roles in ours.ContentsIntroduction by Michael SwanwickThe Last Flight of Doctor Ain (1969)The Screwfly Solution (1977)And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side (1972)The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973)The Man Who Walked Home (1972)And I Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways (1972)The Women Men Don’t See (1973)Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light! (1976)Houston, Houston, Do You Read? (1976)With Delicate Mad Hands (1981)A Momentary Taste of Being (1975)We Who Stole the Dream (1978)Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (1974)Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death (1973)On the Last Afternoon (1972)She Waits for All Men Born (1976)Slow Music (1980)And So On, and So On (1971)

Expedition: Being an Account in Words and Artwork of the 2358 A.D. Voyage to Darwin IV


Wayne Barlowe - 1990
    Now his long-awaited account of that historic journey has been published. More vivid than the holos and more interpretive than the videos, these extraordinary paintings, plus numerous drawings, studies, and sketchbook pages, transport the reader to a wild, beautiful, untouched world-a planet teeming with incredible beasts and exotic vegetation.Expedition is the most important travel book of the 24th century. Selection of the Science Fiction Book Club and the Astronomy Book Club.

Parable of the Sower / Parable of the Talents / Kindred


Octavia E. Butler - 1990
    

The Lesser Evil


Andrzej Sapkowski - 1990
    (also contained in "The Last With" collection). It is notable for being the only edition of Sapkowski's Witcher stories to have all expletive words censored.

Tower of Babylon


Ted Chiang - 1990
    During his journey, Hillalum discovers entire civilizations of tower-dwellers on the tower—there are those who live inside the mists of clouds, those who raise their vegetables above the sun, and those who have spent their lives under the oppressive weight of an endless, white stratum at the top of the universe.   “Tower of Babylon” is a rare gem—a winner of the prestigious Nebula award, the first story Ted Chiang ever published, and the brilliant opening piece to Chiang’s much-lauded first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, which is soon to be a major motion picture starring Amy Adams.   An eBook short.

The Madness Season


C.S. Friedman - 1990
    Determined to keep humanity cowed, the Tyr have culled from the captive population the most intelligent, the most curious, the most likely to foment rebellion, and banished them from Earth. As the memory of freedom recedes, humanity sinks into a lethargic subservience. Daetrin, the hero of this tale, is a vampire--not a monster, however, but a man, nearly immortal, who embodies the vanished virtues of a once-sovereign Earth. When his existence is exposed by the Tyr, who are appalled to find a human who witnessed the Conquest, they immediately ship him offworld. Thus begins a journey of self-discovery as Daetrin is forced by adversity to come to grips with the long-suppressed side of his nature and to confront the ancient horror of a bloody heritage.

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card


Orson Scott Card - 1990
    For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the many who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.Contents: Introduction (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Quietus (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card Deep Breathing Exercises (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card Fat Farm (1980) / short story by Orson Scott Card Closing the Timelid (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card Freeway Games (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card A Sepulchre of Songs (1981) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Prior Restraint (1986) / short story by Orson Scott Card The Changed Man and the King of Words (1982) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Memories of My Head (1990) / short story by Orson Scott Card Lost Boys (1989) / short story by Orson Scott Card Afterword (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card Introduction (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card A Thousand Deaths [Tales of Capitol] (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Clap Hands and Sing (1982) / short story by Orson Scott Card Dogwalker (1989) / novelette by Orson Scott Card But We Try Not to Act Like It (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card I Put My Blue Genes On (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card In the Doghouse (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card and Jay A. Parry The Originist [Foundation] (1989) / novella by Orson Scott Card Afterword (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card Introduction (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card Unaccompanied Sonata (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card The Porcelain Salamander (1981) • short story by Orson Scott Card Middle Woman (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card The Bully and the Beast (1979) / novella by Orson Scott Card The Princess and the Bear (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Sandmagic [Mither Mages] (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card The Best Day (1984) / short story by Orson Scott Card A Plague of Butterflies (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Afterword (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card Introduction (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card Mortal Gods (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card Saving Grace (1987) / short story by Orson Scott Card Eye for Eye (1987) / novella by Orson Scott Card St. Amy's Tale (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Kingsmeat (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card Holy (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Afterword (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card Introduction (Book 5: Lost Songs, The Hidden Stories) • essay by Orson Scott Card Ender's Game [Ender Wiggin] (1977) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Mikal's Songbird (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow [The Alvin Maker Saga] (1989) • poem by Orson Scott Card Malpractice (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card Follower (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card Hitching (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card Damn Fine Novel (1989) / short story by Orson Scott Card Billy's Box (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card The Best Family Home Evening Ever (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card Bicicleta (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card I Think Mom and Dad Are Going Crazy, Jerry (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card Gert Fram (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card Afterword (Book 5: Lost Songs, The Hidden Stories) • essay by Orson Scott Card

The World at the End of Time


Frederik Pohl - 1990
    Matter occupied so tiny a part of his vast awareness that humans were utterly beneath his notice.The colonists of Newmanhome first suffered the effects of Wan-To's games when their planet's stars began to shift, the climate began to cool down, and the colony was forced into a desperate struggle to survive.Viktor Sorricaine was determined to discover what force had suddenly sent his world hurtling toward the ends of the universe. And the answer was something beyond the scope of his imagination -- even if he lived for 4000 years...

The Harlan Ellison Hornbook


Harlan Ellison - 1990
    This volume also includes Harlan Ellison's Movie, the script commissioned by a 20th Century-Fox producer who asked the fatal question, "If you could make any movie, with complete carte blanche, what would you do?"

Tam Lin


Jane Yolen - 1990
    “Mikolaycak’s illustrations...attract attention yet do not overpower the story, making the book one that could be easily used as a picture story book presentation for middle- and upper-grade or even adult audiences.”-The Horn Book

Gossamer Axe


Gael Baudino - 1990
    Chairiste alone managed to escape, and now, living in the modern world as Christa Cruitaire, a quiet harp teacher, she is all but resigned to her inability to win her beloved’s freedom . . . until she discovers that the volume and violence of the electric guitar and heavy metal might prove brutal enough to forcibly breach the barriers between the human and fairy worlds. With the aid of her bandmates—who must themselves overcome inner demons of abuse, addiction, and prejudice—Christa is determined to use her newfound musical power to rescue the woman she loves.Audacious and heartfelt, Gossamer Axe is an entirely original hero’s journey, an ode to the power of music and the human spirit alike, charged with rapier-sharp social commentary.

Return to Centaur


Richard Pini - 1990
    

Earth


David Brin - 1990
    As scientists frantically work to prevent the ultimate disaster, they discover that the entire planet could be destroyed within a year. But while they look for an answer, some claim that the only way to save Earth is to let its human inhabitants become extinct: to reset the evolutionary clock and start over.

Concrete: The Complete Short Stories, 1986-1989


Paul Chadwick - 1990
    Collecting all sixteen of the Concrete short stories originally published in Dark Horse Presents between 1986 and 1989.

Zot! Book 1


Scott McCloud - 1990
    For the first time, the first ten issues of this intelligent and charming series are collected into one massive full-color volume. See what everyone from Comics Buyer's Guide to The New York Times has raved about

Satanic, Versus


Mercedes Lackey - 1990
    And a spell cast by someone who has no idea what she's doing can be extremely dangerous...

Sword and Sorceress VII


Marion Zimmer BradleyLaurell K. Hamilton - 1990
    IN THE MAGIC REALMSa quickly woven spell may proved the key to power or to a power weaver's downfall, while a skilled blade wielder may survive dangers beyond even a sorceress wildest imaginings.So join today's top magic makers and talented newcomers as they guide you to kingdoms where: a late night encounter in a tavern can awaken sorceries more compelling than death;a swords-woman's capture will pit her against a cult of darkness;oath-bound companions possessed of a magical blade and wizardly skills stumble across a shape-changing mystery they're not all sure they should attempt to solve;and a colorful cast of bold women warriors and mistresses of enchantment comes breathtakingly alive to rove kingdoms created by Mercedes Lackey, Diana L Paxson, and many another noble scribe.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection


Gardner DozoisMegan Lindholm - 1990
    P. Somtow310 • A Deeper Sea • (1989) • novella by Alexander Jablokov352 • The Edge of the World • (1989) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick366 • Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man • (1989) • novelette by Megan Lindholm385 • The Third Sex • (1989) • shortstory by Alan Brennert402 • Winter on the Belle Fourche • (1989) • shortstory by Neal Barrett, Jr.418 • Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another • [Time Gate] • (1989) • novelette by Robert Silverberg452 • Relationships • (1989) • shortstory by Robert Sampson459 • Just Another Perfect Day • (1989) • shortstory by John Varley472 • The Loch Moose Monster • [Mirabile] • (1989) • novelette by Janet Kagan504 • The Magic Bullet • (1989) • novelette by Brian Stableford521 • The Odd Old Bird • [Doctor Eszterhazy] • (1988) • shortstory by Avram Davidson530 • Great Work of Time • (1989) • novella by John Crowley593 • Honorable Mentions: 1989 • essay by Gardner Dozois

The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy


Avram Davidson - 1990
    He had served his country and his Emperor in war; he now led the leisured life of his class. But then events overtook him, caught him up, whirled him about; and when he found his feet again, he was a changed man.The servant of a visiting king was undoubtedly a shaman. What powers did he command? What other powers were secretly at work behind the familiar scenes of south-eastern Europe?But also steam, already powering factories, ships and trains -- what more could it do, portent to the changing world of the late nineteenth century? Road transport... or even powered flight? Think of the dread possibilities for warfare!But when the Autogóndola-Invention took to the skies over the territories that ambitious neighbors -- viz., Ruritania and Graustark -- wished to claim, was it really its steam engine that made it fly? Or did it depend on the unreckoned aid of sorcery?Between the old knowledge and the new, Eszterhazy was to spend his life, searching. Time and time again, the unexpected would visit him, often leaving the learned Doctor to end a notebook entry with "UNEXPLAINED."Here are tales of the most gripping such visitations, now brought together in one comprehensive volume. Several of these stories were collected as The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy, a 1975 Warner Books paperbacks, now long unobtainable. These represent less than half of the present volume, which includes stories of his earlier career, published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories under the aegis of George Scithers. A foreword by Gene Wolfe and an afterword by the author complete The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy.***"Or All The Seas with Oysters", one of Avram's stylish and witty stories, won the 1958 Hugo award and headed a collection of the same name; among other short story collections are What Strange Stars and Skies, Strange Seas and Shores, and The Redward Edward Papers. His novels range from the far future of Rogue Dragon and Mutiny in Space to the might-have-been Dark and Middle Ages -- comic in Peregrine: Primus and Peregrine: Secundus, haunting in The Phoenix and the Mirror and Vergil in Averno. From 1962 to 1964 he served as editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. New York City, Mexico, Belize and California have been his haunts; he has been a U.S. Marine in World War II and a sheepherder* in Israel. He lives presently in Washington State.-------------------------* Or shepherd, if you want it to sound romantic.

Lens of the World


R.A. MacAvoy - 1990
    The first of a series chronicling the life of Nazhuret!

Through the Arc of the Rain Forest


Karen Tei Yamashita - 1990
    By the end of this hilarious tale, they each have risen to the heights of wealth and fame, before arriving at disasters - both personal and ecological - that destroy the rain forest and all the birds of Brazil.

Journals of the Plague Years


Norman Spinrad - 1990
    Four people hold the fate of humanity in their hands... A sexual mercenary condemned to death as a foot soldier in the Army of the Living Dead; a scientist who's devoted his whole life to destroying the virus and now discovers he has only ten weeks to succeed; a God-fearing fundamentalist on his way to the presidency before he accepts a higher calling; and a young infected coed from Berkeley on a bizarre crusade to save the world with a new religion of carnal abandon. Each will discover that the only thing more dangerous than the Plague is the cure.

Mark of the Werewolf


Jeffrey Sackett - 1990
    

Crown of Stars


James Tiptree Jr. - 1990
    Contents:Second Going (1987)Our Resident Djinn (1986)Morality Meat (1985)All This and Heaven Too (1985)Yanqui Doodle (1987)Come Live with Me (1988)Last Night and Every Night (1970)Backward, Turn Backward (1988)The Earth Doth Like a Snake Renew (1988)In Midst of Life (1987)

Red Spider White Web


Misha Nogha - 1990
    There is no crime. No pollution. No one is unemployed and entertainment is the primary industry. In the tunnels below lies Dogton. Hard, dirty, industrial and restless with a subterranean rage, it's nightlife neon and garish. But surrounding all is Ded-Tek, grim, violent and predatory, with survival being the sole occupation of its inhabitants, and The Market its only hope.Amidst this city of outcasts is Tommy Uchida, enigma, god, a mind too brilliant for his artificially enhanced body: and Kumo, trickster chimera, living by her wits and for her art, trying to assert her humanity. All are interconnected by the uncertainty of their future: fifteen minute viruses, a cold blistering sun, savage police 'wire-dogs', offbeat cult groups, roving gangs of rich boys, and the punishment of the 'Bell Factory', and the spectre of a brutal murderer, a foreshadow of a change that none of them can comprehend.First U.S. publication of the acclaimed out of print British edition (Morrigan Publications, 1990) with original foreword by Brian Aldiss and Afterword by James P. Blaylock and a new Introduction by John Shirley. This novel was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in England (1990) and won the Readercon Award in 1991. #20 in the Wordcraft Speculative Writers Series.

Rivals of Weird Tales: 30 Great Fantasy and Horror Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps


Martin H. Greenberg - 1990
    HARDCOVER

Agviq: The Whale


Michael Armstrong - 1990
    But then the modern world itself was destroyed.Among others, a white archeologist named Claudia has survived. The People need her to teach what has been taken; she needs them--to live. And together, they must face the ice and confront the ancestors' greatest challenge . . .