A couple of old age ago , Ann and Jeff Vandermeer put out a request for recommendations : they were putting together a sketch anthology of brusque science fiction stories , and it would be a monumental project . Their workplace is now all over : The Big Book of Science Fiction will be released in July , and they ’ve told us what will be included in the Word .
This is going to be a monumental tome , one that clocks in at 1,200 Page and more than 750,000 words , which Vintage believe is the single largest book of its type . After request story , the Vandermeers got to study , comb through century of anthology and submitted stories .
The anthology covers an telling comprehensiveness of the genre as well : the early story represented is ( Update : Wells ’ story is the other ) H.G. Wells ’ , “ The Star , ” from 1897 , and runs all the way up to 2002 ’s story from Johanna Sinisalo , “ Baby Doll ” . 97 account make up everything in between , including the likes of Clifford D. Simak , Philip K. Dick , Arthur C. Clarke , Isaac Asimov and Bruce Sterling , while some lesser - known author , such as Edmond Hamilton , Katherine MacLean , and others are included .
There ’s also some rummy omissions here : I do n’t see anything by Robert Heinlein , Nancy Kress , C.L. Moore , Francis Stevens , and some others that I expected to see . It ’s not entirely surprising , given the distance of the book .
Update 9:00pm : Jeff Vandermeer write in to observe that Heinlein ’s works were n’t included due to the Heinlein estate ’s limitation on reprint his stories .
Here ’s the intact listing of the stories that will be included .
mention : this is n’t the finalized mesa of content , but a list in alphabetic order .
[ first translation = never in English before ; Modern translation = a newfangled translation of a previously translated story ; translation = acquirement of an existing transformation ]
Yoshio Aramaki , “ Soft Clocks ” 1968 ( Japan ) – translated by Kazuko Behrens and stylized by Lewis Shiner
Juan José Arreola , “ Baby H.P. ” 1952 ( Mexico ) – new transformation by Larry Nolen
Isaac Asimov , “ The Last Question ” 1956
J.G. Ballard , “ The Voices of Time ” 1960
Iain M. Banks , “ A Gift from the Culture ” 1987
Jacques Barbéri , “ Mondo Cane ” 1983 ( France ) – first translation by Brian Evenson
John Baxter , “ The Hands ” 1965
Barrington J. Bayley , “ Sporting with the Chid ” 1979
Greg Bear , “ Blood Music ” 1983
Dmitri Bilenkin , “ hybridization of the Paths ” 1984 – fresh translation by James Womack
Jon Bing , “ The Owl of Bear Island ” 1986 ( Norway ) – translation
Adolfo Bioy Casares , “ The Squid Chooses Its Own Ink ” 1962 ( Argentina ) – young translation by Marian Womack
Michael Bishop , “ The House of Compassionate Sharers ” 1977
James Blish , “ Surface Tension ” 1952
Michael Blumlein , “ The Brains of Rats ” 1990
Jorge Luis Borges , “ Tlön , Uqbar , Orbis Tertius ” 1940 ( Argentina ) – interlingual rendition by Andrew Hurley
Ray Bradbury , “ September 2005 : The Martian ” 1949
David R. Bunch , “ Three From Moderan ” 1959 , 1970
Octavia Butler , “ Bloodchild ” 1984
Pat Cadigan , “ sport on a Man ” 1984
André Carneiro , “ Darkness ” 1965 ( Brazil ) – translation by Leo L. Barrow
Stepan Chapman , “ How Alex Became a Machine ” 1996
C.J. Cherryh , “ Pots ” 1985
Ted Chiang , “ The Story of Your Life ” 1998
Arthur C. Clarke , “ The Star ” 1955
John Crowley , “ Snow ” 1985
Samuel R. Delany , “ Aye , and Gomorrah ” 1967
Philip K. Dick , “ Beyond Lies the Wub ” 1952
Cory Doctorow , “ Craphound ” 1998
W.E.B. Du Bois , “ The Comet ” 1920
Jean - Claude Dunyach , “ Paranamanco ” 1987 ( France ) – translation by Sheryl Curtis
S. N. Dyer , “ guide as a Flower in the City of the Dead ” 1984
Harlan Ellison , “ ‘ Repent Harlequin ! ’ say the Ticktock Man ” 1965
Carol Emshwiller , “ Pelt ” 1958
Paul Ernst , “ The Microscopic Giants ” 1936
Karen Joy Fowler , “ The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things ” 1985
Sever Gansovsky , “ Day of Wrath ” 1964 ( Ukraine ) – new translation by James Womack
William Gibson , “ New Rose Hotel ” 1984
Angélica Gorodischer , “ The plain Smell of Wood Violets ” 1973 ( Argentina ) – first translation by Marian Womack
Edmond Hamilton , “ The Star Stealers ” 1929
Han Song , “ Two Small Birds ” 1988 ( China ) – first translation by John Chu
Alfred Jarry , “ The Elements of Pataphysics ” 1911 ( re - version by Gio Clairval ; France )
Gwyneth Jones , “ The Universe of Things ” 1993
Langdon Jones , “ The Hall of Machines ” 1968
Kaijo Shinji , “ Reiko ’s Universe Box ” 1981 ( Japan ) – interlingual rendition by Toyoda
Takashi and Gene van Troyer
Gérard Klein , “ The Monster ” 1958 ( France ) – translation by Damon Knight
Damon Knight , “ Stranger Station ” 1956
Leena Krohn , “ The Gorgonoids ” 1992 ( Finland ) – interlingual rendition by Hildi Hawkins
R.A. Lafferty , “ Nine Hundred Grandmothers ” 1966
Kojo Laing , “ Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ ” 1992 ( Ghana )
Geoffrey A. Landis , “ Vacuum States ” 1988
Tanith Lee , “ Crying in the Rain ” 1987
Ursula K. Le Guin , “ Vaster Than Empires and More Slow ” 1971
Stanisław Lem , “ Let Us Save the Universe ” 1981 ( Poland ) – translation by Joel Stern and Maria Swiecicka - Ziemianek
Cixin Liu , “ The Poetry Cloud ” 1997 ( China ) – transformation by Chi - yin Ip and Cheuk Wong
Katherine MacLean , “ The Snowball Effect ” 1952
Geoffrey Maloney , “ Remnants of the Virago Crypto - System ” 1995
George R.R. Martin , “ Sandkings ” 1979
Michael Moorcock , “ The Frozen Cardinal ” 1987
Pat Murphy , “ Rachel in Love ” 1987
Misha Nogha , “ Death is Static Death is Movement ” 1990
Silvina Ocampo , “ The Waves ” 1959 ( Argentina ) – first translation by Marian Womack
Chad Oliver , “ allow Me Live in a House ” 1954
Manjula Padmanabhan , “ Sharing Air ” 1984 ( India )
Frederick Pohl , “ Day Million ” 1966
Rachel Pollack , “ Burning Sky ” 1989
Robert Reed , “ The Remoras ” 1994
Kim Stanley Robinson , “ Before I Wake”1989
Joanna Russ , “ When It Changed ” 1972
Josephine Saxton , “ The Snake Who Had Read Chomsky ” 1981
Paul Scheerbart , “ The New Abyss ” 1911 ( Germany ) – first translation by Daniel Ableev and Sarah Kaseem
James H. Schmitz , “ Grandpa ” 1955
Vadim Shefner , “ A small-scale Genius ” 1965 ( Russia ) – transformation by Matthew J. O’Connell
Robert Silverberg , “ Good News from the Vatican ” 1971
Clifford D. Simak , “ Desertion ” 1944
Johanna Sinisalo , “ Baby Doll ” 2002 ( Finland ) – rendering by David Hackston
Cordwainer Smith , “ The Game of Rat and Dragon ” 1955
Margaret St. Clair , “ Prott ” 1985
Bruce Sterling , “ Swarm ” 1982
Karl Hans Strobl , “ The Triumph of Mechanics ” 1907 ( Germany ) – first rendering by Gio Clairval
Arkady & Boris Strugatsky , “ The Visitors ” 1958 ( Russia ) – new translation by James Womack
Theodore Sturgeon , “ The Man Who Lost the Sea ” 1959
William Tenn , “ The Liberation of Earth ” 1953
William Tenn , “ Ghost Standard ” 1994
James Tiptree , Jr. , “ And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill ’s Side ” 1972
Tatyana Tolstoya , “ The Slynx ” 2000 ( Russia ) – interlingual rendition byJamey Gambrell
Yasutaka Tsutsui , “ Standing Woman ” 1974 ( Japan ) – version by Dana Lewis
Lisa Tuttle , “ Wives ” 1979
Miguel de Unamuno , “ Mechanopolis ” 1913 ( Spain ) – new translation by Marian Womack
Élisabeth Vonarburg , “ Readers of Lost Art ” 1987 ( Canada / Quebec ) – translation by Howard Scott
Kurt Vonnegut , “ 2BRO2B ” 1962
H.G. Wells , “ The Star , ” 1897
James White , “ Sector General ” 1957
Connie Willis , “ Schwarzschild Radius ” 1987
Gene Wolfe , “ All the Hues of Hell ” 1987
Alicia Yánez Cossío , “ The IWM 1000 ” 1975 ( Chile ) – transformation by Susana Castillo and Elsie Adams
Valentina Zhuravlyova , “ The Astronaut ” 1960 ( Russia ) – new interlingual rendition by James Womack
Yefim Zozulya , “ The Doom of Principal City ” 1918 ( Russian ) – first translation by Vlad Zhenevsky
From the inclination alone , this reckon like it ’ll be an essential book for any serious science fable reader . Just make certain you lift it with your knee , not your back .
jeff vandermeerSci - Fi
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