Элинор Арнасон - The Year's Best Science Fiction - Thirtieth Annual Collection

The strongest novella chapbooks of the year included On a Red Station, Drifting (Immersion Press), by Aliette de Bodard; Gods of Risk (Orbit), by James S. A. Corey; The Boolean Gate (Subterranean Press), by Walter Jon Williams; The Yellow Cabochon (PS Publishing), by Matthew Hughes; After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall (Tachyon), by Nancy Kress; Mare Ultima (PS Publishing), by Alex Irvine; Starship Winter (PS Publishing), by Eric Brown; An Account of a Voyage from World to World (Jurassic), by Adam Roberts; Indomitable (Subterranean Press), by Terry Brooks; Face in the Crowd (Simon & Schuster), by Stephen King and Steward O’Nan; When the Blue Shift Comes (Phoenix Pick), by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; The Thorn and the Blossom (Quirk Books), by Theodora Goss; From Whence You Came (d.y.m.k. Productions), by Laura Ann Gilman; The Pit of Despair (PS Publishing), by Simon R. Green, and ad eternum (Subterranean Press) and Book of Iron (Subterranean Press), both by Elizabeth Bear.

As you can see, this category is largely dominated by Subterranean Press and PS Publishing.

Novel omnibuses this year included: American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s (Library of America), edited by Gary K. Wolfe; Ride the Star Winds (Baen), by A. Bertram Chandler; Thunder in the Void (Haffner), by Henry Kuttner, edited by Stephen Haffner; The Chalice of Death (Paizo/Planet Stories), by Robert Silverberg; The Planet Killers (Paizo/Planet Stories), by Robert Silverberg; A Song Called Youth (Prime Books), by John Shirley; The Ghost Pirates and Others: The Best of William Hope Hodgson (Night Shade Books), by William Hope Hodgson, edited by Jeremy Lasson (contains short stories as well); Earthblood and Other Stories (Baen), by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown (contains short stories as well); and Ice and Shadow (Baen), by Andre Norton. Novel omnibuses are also frequently made available through the Science Fiction Book Club.

Not even counting print-on-demand books and the availability of out-of-print books as e-books or as electronic downloads from Internet sources, a lot of long out-of-print stuff has come back into print in the last couple of years in commercial trade editions. Here are some out-of-print titles that came back into print this year, although producing a definitive list of reissued novels is probably impossible. Tor reissued: Mother of Storms, by John Barnes; Earthseed, by Pamela Sargent; After the King: Stories in Honor of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Martin H. Greenberg; Foundation’s Friends, edited by Martin H. Greenberg; The Eye of the World, The Fires of Heaven, The Great Hunt, and Lord of Chaos, all by Robert Jordan. Orb reissued Peace, by Gene Wolfe; Downward to the Earth, by Robert Silverberg; and The Long Price: The Price of War, by Daniel Abraham. Baen reissued When the People Fell, by Cordwainer Smith; Voyage Across the Stars, by David Drake; Strangers, by Gardner Dozois; Nightmare Blue, by Gardner Dozois and George Alec Effinger; The Forerunner Factor, by Andre Norton; and An Assignment in Eternity, Sixth Column, and The Star Beast, all by Robert A. Heinlein. Subterranean Press reissued Dying of the Light, by George R. R. Martin; Phases of Gravity , by Dan Simmons; and Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link. Ace reissued Illegal Alien, by Robert J. Sawyer. Bantam reissued Windhaven , by George R.R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle. William Morrow reissued Stardust: The Gift Edition—Deluxe Signed Limited, by Neil Gaiman. Ballantine/Del Rey reissued: The Annotated Sword of Shannara: 35 th Anniversary Edition. Houghton Mifflin reissued The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien; A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin; and Counter-Clock World; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Gather Yourself Together; and Solar Lottery, all by Philip K. Dick. Harcourt/Mariner reissued The Man in the High Castle and Time Out of Joint, by Philip K. Dick. The Library of America reissued A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Fairwood Press reissued Brittle Innings, by Michael Bishop. Roc reissued Majipoor Chronicles, by Robert Silverberg. Arc Manor reissued The Masks of Time and Thebes of the Hundred Gates, by Robert Silverberg. Chicago Review Press reissued Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. PM Press reissued Byzantium Endures and The Laughter of Cathage , by Michael Moorcock. Farrar, Straus and Giroux reissued A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle. Grand Central reissued The New Moon’s Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson. Scribner reissued Black House, by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Wesleyan University Press reissued Starboard Wine: More Notes on the Language of Science Fiction, by Samuel R. Delany. Open Road reissued Alien Sex, edited by Ellen Datlow. Underland Press reissued Glimmering, by Elizabeth Hand. HiLoBooks reissued When the World Shook, by H. Rider Haggard.

Many authors are now reissuing their old back titles as e-books, either through a publisher or all by themselves, so many that it’s impossible to keep track of them all here. Before you conclude that something from an author’s backlist is unavailable, though, check with the Kindle and Nook stores, and with other online vendors.

2012 was a strong year for short-story collections. The year’s best collections included: The Best of Kage Baker (Subterranean Press), by Kage Baker; Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett, Jr. (Subterranean Press), by Neal Barrett, Jr.; Shoggoths in Bloom (Prime Books), by Elizabeth Bear; The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories (PS Publishing), by Andy Duncan; At the Mouth of the River of Bees (Small Beer Press), by Kij Johnson; Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas (PS Publishing), by Robert Reed; The 400-Million-Year Itch (Ticonderoga), by Steven Utley; Win Some, Lose Some: The Hugo Award Winning (And Nominated) Short Fiction of Mike Resnick (ISFIC Press) by Mike Resnick; Fountain of Age: Stories (Small Beer Press), by Nancy Kress; A Stark and Wormy Knight (Subterranean Press), by Tad Williams; and The Dragon Griaule (Subterranean Press), by Lucius Shepard. Also good were: Captive Dreams (Arc Manor), by Michael F. Flynn; Neil Gwyne’s On Land and At Sea (Subterranean Press), by Kage Baker and Kathleen Bartholomew; First and Last Contacts (NewCon), by Stephen Baxter; Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille and Other Stories (Fairwood Press), by James Van Pelt; Angels and You Dogs (PS Publishing), by Kathleen Ann Goonan; Errantry (Small Beer Press) by Elizabeth Hand; Crackpot Palace (Morrow), by Jeffery Ford; Birds and Birthdays (Aqueduct Press), by Christopher Barzak; Jagannath (Cheeky Frawg Books), by Karin Tidbeck; Near + Far (Hydra House Books), by Cat Rambo; Master of the Galaxy (PS Publishing), by Mike Resnick; Resnick’s Menagerie (Silverberry), by Mike Resnick; Moscow But Dreaming (Prime Books), by Ekaterina Sedia; Cracklespace (Twelfth Planet), by Margo Lanagan; Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart (Subterranean Press), by Catlin R. Kiernan; You Will Meet a Stranger Far from Home (Lethe Press), by Alex Jeffers; Trapped in the Saturday Matinee (PS Publishing), by Joe R. Lansdale; Report from Planet Midnight (PM Press), by Nalo Hopkinson; The Janus Tree and Other Stories (Subterranean Press), by Glen Hirshberg; and Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures (Big Mouth House), by Peter Dickinson.