Isaac Asimov's Solar System

______________________________________________ This anthology takes us on an sfnal tour of our home system, with a story for each planet, plus one for the Sun. It's a solid collection, with no really weak stories, and a couple of outstanding ones. All are reprinted from Asimov's SF magazine. This collection should lay to rest any lingering doubts of whether Asimov's prints hard-SF. Recommended. The stories: The Sun Spider (1987), by Lucius Shepard. Sex, violence & weird behavior on Helios Station. My rating: "B", but YMMV. Previous reprints: Orbit SF Yearbook 1987, David Garnett; World's Best SF 1988, Donald A. Wollheim; Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories, Lucius Shepard, 1997. Cilia-of-Gold (1994), by Stephen Baxter. Hard-bitten miners meet the eponymous heroine, a native Mercurian. An "A" story, one of the two best here. Previous reprints: Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual, Gardner Dozois, 1995; Vacuum Diagrams, Stephen Baxter, 1997. Dawn Venus (1995), by G. David Nordley. Romance amidst a land- rush on a terraformed Venus. Lots of Neat Ideas, a nice Cordwainer Smith reference, and some plausibility problems: A-. Touchdown (1990), by Nancy Kress. A scavenger hunt on a devastated future Earth. Nice but a downer: B+. Previous reprint: The Aliens of Earth, Nancy Kress, 1993. The Difficulties Involved in Photographing Nix Olympica (1986), by Brian Aldiss. A slight and quirky vignette: B. Previous reprint: Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss, 1988. The Very Pulse of the Machine (1998), by Michael Swanwick. A surreal but unconvincing close encounter on Io: "B" for me, but well-liked by others. Previous reprint: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixteenth Annual, Gardner Dozois, 1999. Ex Vitro (1995), by Daniel Marcus. War-clouds mar a research-station romance on Titan: B or B+, depending on your taste for bleakness. Into the Blue Abyss (1999), by Geoffrey Landis. Explore the world- ocean of Uranus wth miniature rocket-subs! Neat ideas, wooden characters: B/B+ . Second Skin (1997), by Paul McAuley. After the Quiet War, a trade delegation from Earth visits Neptune's satellite Proteus -- but is the war really over? Twisty, tasty and very nice: "A". Previous reprint: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual, Gardner Dozois, 1998. Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe (1977), by John Varley. A classic Eight Worlds tale from Asimov's premiere issue. Piri is spending his second childhood in the Pacifica disneyland, under construction inside Pluto -- but he can't stay a child forever. Nice, if a bit hokey: A-. Previous reprints: The Barbie Murders, John Varley, 1980 -- a wonderful collection, but hard to find. Get this book back in print! Better yet, how about a "Complete Short Fiction of John Varley"? NESFA, are you listening? -- and in Dozois' recent anthology The Good New Stuff. review copyright 2000 by Peter D. Tillman

This anthology takes us on an SFnal tour of our home system, with a story for each planet, plus one for the Sun. It's a solid collection, with no really weak stories, and a couple of outstanding ones. All are reprinted from Asimov's SF magazine. This collection should lay to rest any lingering doubts of whether the magazine publishes hard-SF. Recommended.