When going to a pizzeria, when I had no idea what to take, I used to order a calzone, as those tend to have extremely wide variety of content. With science fiction, the similar strategy is to read anthologies. Also having a set of short stories is more confortable to read when you don’t have a lot of continuous time. So I bought “New Voices In Science Fiction” edited by Mike Resnick.

I can’t say that I’m a fan of Mike Resnik, I know the name, I think I read a book about him, but I can’t remember which one. The sample is very varied, in size, style but also quality. Some of the stories where really good, I particularly liked 1-800-wicked-1 by Lisa Mantchev, Dressmaker to the Princess by Robin Herrington, and Flowers from Alice, by Cory Doctorow of boing-boing fame and Charles Stross. Two other stories, I also liked much, but found very “classical”, in the sense they felt to me like they could have been written twenty years ago: Nucleon by David D. Levine and Intergalactic Refrigerator Repairmen Seldom Carry Cash by Tom Garencer.

There were other good stories in the book, but many were in my opinion weak: too predictable – I figured out the real context of the The Faithful by Kage Baker within the first three pages – too classical, or simply dull. So while there was really bad text, I’m somehow dubious about the affirmation Twenty original tales by science fiction stars of tomorrow, I hope that tomorrow’s science fiction is less classical and more original.