Twenty-First Century Science Fiction

Twenty-First Century Science Fiction from New York editors David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden is a amazing collection of science fiction stories which succeeds in letting the new reader and/or fan know that science fiction has survived The Millennium. It might be harder to write original science fiction now, especially since it has been around for more than one hundred years and a lot of the traditional storylines have already been explored many times. Though all the ideas in the book are not new, these stories retell these plots with a modern sensibility. It is also easy to understand and is diverse with all sorts of writers. For the older stars there are many other anthologies.

The book has wonderful introductions to the stories which make them more accessible. It is interesting to find out about these new stars who came into prominence recently, but one need not read the introductions if one is looking for more surprises from the story. Science Fiction is alive and well here with intrigue, name dropping, judgments, and maybe in-fighting. This is how some people can only communicate. Most readers will not be bothered by this and are in for a fascinating read which is charming to the last.