false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176317221m/612435.jpg 612435 3 Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I> (2002) is a thematic sequel to their 1994 anthology <I>The Ascent of Wonder</I>. The first anthology argued that "[t]here has been a persistent viewpoint that hard [science fiction] is somehow the core and the center of the SF field." <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I> asserts that hard SF has truly become the heart of the genre and supports its assertion by assembling nearly a thousand pages of short stories, novelettes, and novellas originally published between the late 1980s and early 2000s. A different theory says hard SF stories are engineering puzzles disguised as fiction; <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I> repudiates this theory in regard to modern hard SF. Most of the selections have strong prose and rounded characters, several are classics, and gadget-driven clunkers are mercifully few.<p>Contributors to <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I> range from SF gods like Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frederik Pohl; to promising newcomers like Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder, and Peter Watts; and to acclaimed SF writers not usually associated with hard SF, like James Patrick Kelley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, and Michael Swanwick.<p>You may have noticed the lack of women in that list. It reflects the book: the 30-odd contributors (some with two stories) include only three women (Nancy Kress, Joan Slonczewski, and Sarah Zettel, with one story each). Some eyebrow-elevating omissions are Eleanor Arnason, Catherine Asaro, Nicola Griffith, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Connie Willis, all of whom have written hard SF stories in the period covered by <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I>. They've certainly written SF harder than the book's implicit definition (the book reprints Kim Stanley Robinson's fine story "Sexual Dimorphism," in which fossil DNA serves as a metaphor for the protagonist's failing relationship; a few cosmetic changes and this SF story would be mainstream). The absence of several crucial authors makes <I>The Hard SF Renaissance</I> a less-than-definitive anthology of late-20th-century hard SF. <I>--Cynthia Ward</I> 1784675 2002 The Hard SF Renaissance total:32|5:7|4:18|3:6|2:0|1:1| 32 126 73 6 1 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 11 11:47:11 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 11 11:48:44 -0700 2007
Nancy Kress's novella version of "Beggars in Spain" -- the one where gene therapy makes it possible ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Dec 10 05:13:10 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 12:24:12 -0800 2009 1
* "Beggars In Spain" by Nancy Kress
* "Marrow" by Robert Reed
* "Sexual Dimorphism" by Kim Stanley Robinson
* "Into the Miranda Rift" by G. David Nordley
* "The Shoulders of Giants"...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 12 14:35:58 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 14:36:30 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Dec 04 11:08:14 -0800 2008 Sat May 23 09:16:18 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Nov 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Sep 10 11:48:48 -0700 2008 Tue Nov 11 13:37:13 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Aug 22 03:32:56 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 03:32:56 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 24 03:55:59 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 24 03:56:04 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Nov 16 23:34:23 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 23:34:23 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 15 13:43:23 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 13:43:23 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 01 17:18:18 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 17:18:21 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 18 13:16:30 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 13:16:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Aug 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 11:19:50 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 11:19:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 31 19:00:04 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 19:00:10 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jul 22 20:30:56 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 20:30:56 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 16 20:15:24 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 20:15:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 14 11:47:22 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 11:47:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jul 13 17:25:27 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 17:25:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 02 22:17:11 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 22:17:11 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 30 19:52:24 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 09:01:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 28 17:27:21 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 17:27:21 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=612435