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Eclipse Four: New Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Eclipse #4)

Jonathan Strahan (Goodreads Author) (Editor),

Andy Duncan,

Jeffrey Ford,

Emma Bull (Goodreads Author),

Peter Ball,

Jo Walton (Goodreads Author),

James Patrick Kelly (Goodreads Author),

Caitlín R. Kiernan,

more…

3.76 · Rating details · 101 ratings · 21 reviews

To observe an eclipse is to witness a rare and unusual event. Under darkened skies the sun becomes a negative image of itself, its corona transforming the landscape into a strange space where anything might happen, and any story may be true...

In the spirit of classic science fiction anthologies such as Universe, Orbit, and Starlight, master anthologist Jonathan Strahan (Th ...more

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Paperback, 230 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Night Shade Books (first published October 1st 2010)

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Average rating 3.76 ·

Rating details

· 101 ratings · 21 reviews

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Feb 02, 2012 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthologies

While I liked some stories more than others, I would say that the quality of stories in this anthology was very high. It contains an eclectic mix: two or three are what I might describe as hard science fiction, and then there are a whole bunch of ghostly/afterlifely stories. Jeffrey Ford channels Jonathan Carroll (who isn't dead, but seems open to channeling if anybody is). Caitlin Kiernan turns in an elegant story about a black hole. Nalo Hopkinson writes about the great shopping mall in the s ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Wealhtheow rated it liked it

Shelves: queer-characters, sci-fi, fantasy

A collection of sf and fantasy stories.

Andy Duncan's "Slow as a Bullet": told in a sort of pseudo nineteenth century Western style, this is the story of how one lazy man developed gun powder that shot bullets incredibly slowly in order to win a bet.

Caitlin Kiernan's "Tidal Forces": a black hole forms in a woman's stomach and grows ever larger. Weird concept told in a disjointed style, but it works.

Damien Broderick's "The Beancounter's Cat": Starts well (a talking cat adopts a lowly beancounter) ...more

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Dec 23, 2013 Anthony Panegyres rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthology, fiction, spec-fic

A varied selection that would accommodate most readers of speculative fiction in some way or another (although I’ve heard that Jonathan Strahan is not a fan of the ‘spec-fic’ term).

Nalo Hopkinson’s “Old Habits” is a superb piece (a real standout) dealing with humanity and the ghostly afterlife in perhaps the most tackiest of places: a shopping mall. Hopkinson's syntax ,including a superb lengthy stream of consciousness sentence, is masterful. The protagonist, a homosexual ghost, who more import ...more

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Jul 23, 2016 Scott rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, short-stories

This collection of science fiction and fantasy leans heavily toward the latter, and even most of the SF is of the soft or fanciful sort. It also goes heavy on the humor or at least whimsy. In short, a very lightweight selection. About two thirds of them are decent enough, but more than a few failed to hold my attention. One was completely incoherent.

Here are some of the stories I felt were worthwhile:

"The Man in Grey" by Michael Swanwick: A teen-aged girl slips behind the curtain of reality to d ...more

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Oct 11, 2016 Cathy Green rated it it was amazing

Eclipse Four is part of the series of non-themed science fiction and fantasy anthologies expertly edited (or perhaps curated is a better word choice) by Jonathan Strahan and published by Night Shade Books. This fourth volume in the series contains fourteen excellent stories by Andy Duncan; Caitlin R. Kiernan; Damien Broderick; Kij Johnson; Michael Swanwick; Nalo Hopkinson; Gwyneth Jones; Rachel Swirsky; Eileen Gunn; Jeffrey Ford; Emma Bull; Peter M. Ball; Jo Walton; and James Patrick Kelley. Str Eclipse Four is part of the series of non-themed science fiction and fantasy anthologies expertly edited (or perhaps curated is a better word choice) by Jonathan Strahan and published by Night Shade Books. This fourth volume in the series contains fourteen excellent stories by Andy Duncan; Caitlin R. Kiernan; Damien Broderick; Kij Johnson; Michael Swanwick; Nalo Hopkinson; Gwyneth Jones; Rachel Swirsky; Eileen Gunn; Jeffrey Ford; Emma Bull; Peter M. Ball; Jo Walton; and James Patrick Kelley. Strahan achieves a nice balance among up and coming writers such as Rachel Swirsky and Peter M. Ball, well established authors such as James Patrick Kelley and Jeffrey Ford, and authors I would categorize as "why the heck aren't they better known" such as Caitlin R. Kiernan. In Kiernan's case, despite the fact that she has written quite a number of science fiction stories, she's best known as a horror writer, and these days horror is the red-headed stepchild of the genre.

The stories in the anthology cover a wide variety of themes and styles. Andy Duncan's story "Slow as a Bullet" is an amusing tall tale in the style of Mark Twain stories such as "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Michael Swanwick takes the trope of the real person in a construct world and turns it into a meditation on free will in his story "The Man in Grey". In "Old Habits", Nalo Hopkinson tells a ghost story about ghosts trapped in a ghost mall who seem to be trapped there in part due to the somewhat stupid nature of their deaths.

Caitlin Kiernan's story is both a body horror story and a science fiction story. In "Tidal Forces", Emily and Charlotte's relationship takes a strange turn when Charlotte gets hit by a micro black hole that takes up residence in her body and starts growing. The two of them are watching her body be consumed from within with seemingly no way to stop it. And once the "yawning black mouth in her abdomen" completely consumes Charlotte it might keep going and swallow the world. Even without the possibility of taking the rest of the world with you, the idea of slowly being consumed by a black hole in your body is pretty horrific. There's also an indication in the story that it's not just a hole but a portal into a universe of eldritch horrors waiting for the hole to be large enough to come through. In addition, the hole acts as a metaphor for a relationship that may or may not be fraying as the characters dance around the issue of what is happening. And there's clearly a sexual metaphor involved when Emily attempts to close the whole by shoving her arm into it.

Eileen Gunn has written what turns out to be a very creepy story about the dangers of time travel in "Thought Experiment" and Kij Johnson's "Story Kit" is a very meta tale about the nature and structure of narrative and storytelling using Dido and Aeneas from Virgil's The Aeneid.

One of the things that makes anthologies great is that if the reader doesn't like a story she can either skip ahead to the next story without losing the plot or plow ahead knowing another story will start in just a few pages. In the case Eclipse Four, there isn't a weak story in the volume, although obviously if the reader does not like a particular subgenre, moving on to the next story is certainly an option. Eclipse Four includes a useful “about the authors” section in the back where in addition to basic biographical information the reader can find the authors' websites and titles of other works by the authors. Eclipse Four is yet another great entry in the series. ...more

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Nov 28, 2016 Peter Tillman marked it as to-read

Shelves: short-fiction

I checked out the ebook from Hoopla, read a few and then it came due. Have it out again. Wealtheow's review is the go-to here. Also see Sarah's.

More reviews:
http://www.tangentonline.com/print--o...
http://www.tor.com/2011/05/03/hunger-...
TOC: https://jonathanstrahan.wordpress.com...

Highlights:
** “The Beancounter’s Cat”, Damien Broderick
* “The Man in Grey”, Michael Swanwick

...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) rated it really liked it

Shelves: aurealis-awards-2011, anthologies-collections, read-2011

Katharine is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

~~To be safe, I won't be recording my review here until after the AA are over.~~

Though I'm unsure on the theme of the anthology in general, most stories within were capturing enough. ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Robin Kirk rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-stories

A number of these stories were good, but none really rocked my world. Either the setting or central conflict seemed tired or too far-fetched (not really supported by the material, kind of a gee whiz look at me vibe) . A great short story needs to be its own universe, direct, complete and satisfying in some emotional way.

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Apr 03, 2012 Kirstyn McDermott rated it really liked it

Shelves: writer-and-the-critic

A varied and very enjoyable anthology, with some truly standout stories by Caitlin R Kiernan, Kij Johnson and Nalo Hopkinson.

For an in depth discussion of Eclipse 4, please listen to my podcast, The Writer and the Critic, episode 9. ...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Meghan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fic-speculative, fic-short, fic-science, library

Kij Johnson's story is amazing, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for (and didn't really find) in the Interfictions anthologies. Nothing else in the collection stood out as particularly great or terrible. ...more

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Sep 17, 2012 John Devenny rated it liked it

A mixed bag containing some very good stories eg the ones by Kij Johndon, Michael Swanwick and Andy Duncan as well as a few disappointing ones. Overall worth reading but not all consistently good

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Sep 02, 2011 David Marshall rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is an excellent unthemed anthology, edited by Jonathan Strahan who has contrived to pack the volume with thought-provoking stories rather than routine SF and fantasy stories.

http://opionator.wordpress.com/2011/0... ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Ben Krutko rated it liked it

Normally, I would give this four stars. Well put together, well edited, however some of the stories were weaker than others and the collection comes across as uneven in quality and assembly.

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Oct 02, 2012 Neil Ottenstein is currently reading it

Just read a few of the stories, but it is an interesting collection

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Mar 18, 2013 DebbieB rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013

Each story a gem.

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Aug 30, 2011 Ron rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, short-stories

Skimmed the stories. I really borrowed the book to read Emma Bull's Nine Oracles story. ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 David rated it liked it

Shelves: sf

Not the best collection, though there were a few compelling stories in it.

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Jul 06, 2013 Todd rated it liked it

some very good, some average, some very bad

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May 10, 2011 Alexander Case rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, anthology

As with any anthology, this is a mixed bag. Some of the stories are really, really good, but others are more iffy. There wasn't anything I particularly hated though. ...more

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