Books: Best Of British Science Fiction 2017

 

(Drivebycuriosity) -  I like science fiction. Unfortunately most science fiction novels disappoint. Often a writer has an interesting idea which carries a story about maybe 100 pages or less, but when she stretches the plot the story gets thinner and thinner and the text has too many fillers.  Just a minority of authors is capable to keep the tension over hundreds of pages. Therefore I usually skim collections of science fiction short stories in order to find some gems.

I just finished "Best Of British Science Fiction 2017", curated & edited by Donna Scott (amazon). There are a lot fine British Science Fiction writers, including Alistair Reynolds, Ian McDonald,  Neil Asher & Paul McAuley.  Unfortunately Scott ignored them, maybe she doesn`t even know them. This editor seems to prefer amateurs. The result is a harvest of 22 mostly weak stories.

But I found 4 gems anyway:

"The Ghosts of Europa will keep you trapped in a Prison you make for Yourself" by Matt Dovey.  Amira is a scientist who works on the Jupiter Moon Europa, where an ice shield covers a hidden ocean. Apparently she is alone there and something is wrong & mysterious.

"When I close my Eyes" by Chris Barnham. This story is set on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. An explorer  - supported by his AI - is fighting for his live after having an accident on the deeply frozen moon surface. Thrilling!

"After the Atrocity" by Ian Creasey. A woman is working in a highly classified military laboratory. She had developed a sophisticated machine which can duplicate humans. She uses this machine to create a duplicate of the body of an extremely dangerous terrorist which brings her to some critical ideas.

"Voicemail" by Karen McCreedy. This is just a funny idea on less than one page. Aliens had sent a voicemail to earth.

I doubt that this collection represents really the "best British science fiction". I don´t plan to read more books written, curated or edited by Donna Scott.