The Big Book of Science Fiction
Ed. by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Normally you’d roll your eyes at a book that bills itself as “quite possibly the greatest science fiction collection of all time – past, present and future!”, but in this case you have to take the claim seriously.
In the first place, it’s not just a big but a massive book, with nearly 1200 double-columned pages. Next, it’s a terrific selection from a pair of editors who are experts in the field and who have already produced great anthologies on related genres (The Weird and The Time-Traveler’s Almanac). And finally it features a wonderfully eclectic table of contents, including a lot of international work (some of it translated into English here for the first time), old and new stories, and less well-known authors mixed in with the usual heavyweights (Asimov, Bradbury, Wells, Le Guin).
We don’t know what even bigger books the future may hold, but for now this is a collection to anchor every SF fan’s bookshelf.
Alex on SF 