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Starlight 1
Gathers original stories that explore the excitement, invention, and sense of play that were once an integral part of science fiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1996
105 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
18 books12 followersPatrick James Nielsen Hayden, often abbreviated as PNH, is an American science fiction editor, fan, fanzine publisher, essayist, reviewer, anthologist, teacher and blogger. He is a World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award winner (with nine nominations for the latter award), and is a Senior Editor and the Manager of Science Fiction at Tor Books. He changed his last name to "Nielsen Hayden" on his marriage to Teresa Nielsen (now Teresa Nielsen Hayden) in 1979.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 9, 2018
I got this anthology because it is the place where one of my favourite authors, Susanna Clarke, was first published. I was therefore curious whether the rest of the collection would contain any gems that I would find equally precious. The stories are very varied, both in terms of content, tone and style. The stories vary from pseudo-historical to futuristic or simply supernatural, exploring human experience from violence to hidden love. They are all very interesting, however I wasn't drawn to any of the stories with the same rapport that I feel towards Clarke's writing, but that's likely down to personal preference. The eclectic nature of the anthology content compels you however into worlds that you might not otherwise explore, so this collection is a very good opportunity to go on some adventuring outside of your literary comfort zone with the guarantee of a well-crafted story.
May 29, 2024
The more short stories that I read, the more that short fiction interests me. It's a bit of an acquired taste in today's tome-laden literary culture, but it's still important. Patrick Nielsen Hayden (PNH) - now editor-in-chief of Tor Books - has always understood this, and in the nineties he started a series of anthologies containing innovative original fiction with the hope to take the throne of famous series like Knight's *Orbit* anthologies or Silverberg's *New Dimension* treasuries. The result was the Starlight series, which ran for the three volumes, the first of which I found at a library book sale almost two-and-a-half years ago. I've been toying around with reading it for maybe the last year (I know, reading the books which you buy; what a novel idea), and this November I finally picked it up. It to have a very strong start eventually dragged down by a more middling conclusion; let's talk about that progression in detail.
--The book starts with Michael Swanwick's "The Dead", a frighteningly generic title that's thankfully inspired by a cool concept: near-future corporations using dead bodies as a workforce and selling them off as luxury items. The story centers around a man who a zombie-selling company is trying to recruit into their ranks through his on-and-off lover. It part of its genius. The use of is almost well-measured and artistic. Strong prose and the appearance of strong thematic complexity make this my favorite Swanwick story under my belt and earn it 8.5/10.
--"Liza and the Crazy Water Man" is not just the first Andy Duncan story I've ever read but also the author's debut story. He studied under SF writer John Kessel (who I've sadly never read) and his skill with the English language shows itself relatively quickly. This is a story set in the early 1900s in the age of water-and-tonic-sponsored radio variety shows, and our main character is a recruiter and producer for one of those shows . He tries recruiting smalltown Liza and her golden voice, but some vaguely magical-realism-esque things get in the way of that. The charm really isn't in what happens (Liza's voice ) but in Duncan's warm prose and strong analogies. 8/10.
--I've never been that infatuated by Jane Yolen, and "Sister Emily's Lightship" doesn't really help with that. It's about this good-for-nothing woman who writes poetry in her family's top floor. Eventually she's . There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but the reveal at the end didn't mean anything to me because I'm not into poetry, and it seems just... there. My opinion is not the consensus, though, so maybe I'm missing something. Till then: 6.5/10.
--"The Weighing of Ayre" by Gregory Feeley is a temporary return to form. At first it doesn't feel like science fiction - it feels like a 17th/18th century period piece - but our main character's education and interest in microscopy and the like still gives us the perspective of a man ahead of his time. He's visiting the Dutch even though his countrymen (the English) are at war with them in this part of history, but we don't exactly why he's there until he's had some encounters with Dutch experts of the microscope. There's some cloak-and-dagger trappings and eventually the story turns out to be about before it was cool. It's densely written - maybe a bit too dense for me at the moment I was reading it - but it's worth a bit of patience with the first few pages because its setting and everything is unique and genuinely interesting. 8/10.
--Add Robert Reed to the list of 90s authors I need to read more of (like *Down the Bright Way*, which I own...) because I enjoyed "Killing the Morrow", in which a man moves into a house that's not his with a woman who's not his wife because something - from the future, perhaps - is controlling them. The ending is a bit weird and choppy, but hey, I can be that way too. 7.5/10.
--I had no idea that Susanna Clarke of *Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell* and *Piranesi* fame wrote short fiction, but "The Ladies of Grace Aideu" taught me that she did; it's even set in the same world as "JS & Mr. N". Cooler yet, it was her debut story. I found it interesting enough in its plot about three woman - one married to a rich guy, one set to be married to a rich guy, and one looking after a rich guy's young cousins like Mary Poppins - and the famous and titular magician's companion who comes to town. It's all about magic and while I caught glimpses of this interesting world, I just didn't feel there was enough to go off besides this ladies showing up a famous magician for reasons that the well-written prose couldn't make me care enough about. It's biggest crime is that, while it was well-done, it's already proving to be forgettable. 7/10.
--"GI Jesus" by Susan Palwick is an interesting story, another one that borders up against the realm of magical realism; it's also a spin on old wives' tales and other folklore. Its main character is a woman whose best friend's sister hasn't been seen in the community ever since said friend's wedding because her parents and her priest judged her for being flippant about drug use and promiscuity (gee, I wonder why?), but now - decades later, after the friend's been divorced - she's back, and dying. Things get weird when . It's a tale all about forgiveness, and it's a dense and memorable one at that, but I still think that the tale's a little morally bankrupt because- unless Palwick's writing characters less self-aware than her, which is possible - no one stops to consider that this crappy lifestyle the girls led is wrong. Sometimes, seeking momentary pleasure will ruin your life, and this overly-flippant "seize the day" mindset is kind of contemptable. Still, I'm not that bitter; it was memorable. 7.5/10. No, 7.25.
--Martha Soukup's "Walking Beauty", about a mundane office-lady who stops time in the office so she can have a fleeting moment of "being alive" during an affair, was originally going to be in Gaiman's Sandman universe. While I haven't read that, what I know of it would explain this story's dreaminess. It was alright and vaguely artificially profound but I really couldn't tell what was special about the whole thing. Maybe I don't fit the demographic. 6.5/10.
--I don't quite know the point of "Mengele's Jew" by Carter Scholz either, now that I think about it. It's centered around this dying Nazi how contemplates on the nature of Schrodinger's cat and how it relates to dead Jews. I'm not offended that Scholz wrote a story of this subject matter - I think that'd be silly - but I don't think he handled it was the gravitas required. Maybe I'm missing something, but it'll sit at a 5.5 because it - like some others here - is a bit forgettable.
--"Erase/Record/Play: A Drama For Print" is, to John M. Ford's credit, is the last noteworthy story here. It's a play-within-a-play, where the nested play (A Shakespeare rendition carried out within the play's story by prisoners from experimentation camps) is observed by a doctor and an interviewer, whose dialogue is represented by a script, while the actors and their actions are told through prose. I found the nested play to be very disengaging, probably because I read this on a weird afternoon and, more important, I have no knowledge of *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, which I would really recommend having before reading this. Still, the interplay about how the , is marvelous. I'll reread it after reading the original play, and I think I'll get more from it then. For now, 7/10, but with a note that says it's interesting and experimental in all the right ways.
--Mark Kreighbaum? "I Remember Angels"? Oh yeah, that one, where a human tells an alien interviewer about his first... kiss, or something? And how he witnesses a ? That one. Pretty forgettable and while the interview format could've been really interesting it got caught in this needlessly brutal remembrance of scum. I guess it's a 6/10 for this short story.
--I'll be reading *China Mountain Zheng* soon, and I hoped that Maureen F. McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise" would be a good warmup. It's set on this LeGuin-esque lost colony where a couple of civilized anthropologists have landed to witness the main character (a young woman) and her village and how they contend with the brutal clans that live in the area. Well, the answer is: not very well, and a silly dispute ends up in . I don't get why the main character was asked to do what she did, and it just felt... unneeded, especially the unspeakable violence. Like, it was offscreen, but it's still negative imagery that I, in my old-timey ways, think should be balanced by meaning. Still, a lot of the story was fun to read, so... 6.5/10?
*Starlight 1* has been an interesting window into the state of speculative fiction in the 1990s. I've heard one of my favorite voices on science fiction talk about how nineties SF was marked by an increase in quality-of-prose and a decrease in meaning. This book - with the nice writing that is present in pretty much every story - seems to concur with that opinion. A lot of the stories seem futile even though they're nicely written. The concepts aren't always anything to write home about; it makes me yearn for the short fiction of the 80s and earlier. Still, I'm glad I expanded my horizons with a bunch of authors I haven't read much of, or at all, and some of these stories were really good in their own right. I even have some authors to add to the endless long-list.
My favorite stories were definitely "The Dead," "Liza and the Crazy Water Man," and "The Weighing of Ayre." They're all memorable and might become reference-points. Still, that's not enough to make a four-star collection; there's plenty of chaff in the way of the greatness. I think this evens out to a solid 7/10. It's almost a 7.5/10, but I just don't think I can go that far with so much chaff. I'll pick up the other *Starlight*s if I ever see them in the wild, and I'll be on the lookout for books by Swanwick, Palwick, Reed, Ford, Feeley, and Duncan. I'm glad I read this one, and I hope to be reading more like it soon. Until then, keep an eye on my page here @ Darnoc Leadburger and I'll see you around our beloved site.
--The book starts with Michael Swanwick's "The Dead", a frighteningly generic title that's thankfully inspired by a cool concept: near-future corporations using dead bodies as a workforce and selling them off as luxury items. The story centers around a man who a zombie-selling company is trying to recruit into their ranks through his on-and-off lover. It part of its genius. The use of is almost well-measured and artistic. Strong prose and the appearance of strong thematic complexity make this my favorite Swanwick story under my belt and earn it 8.5/10.
--"Liza and the Crazy Water Man" is not just the first Andy Duncan story I've ever read but also the author's debut story. He studied under SF writer John Kessel (who I've sadly never read) and his skill with the English language shows itself relatively quickly. This is a story set in the early 1900s in the age of water-and-tonic-sponsored radio variety shows, and our main character is a recruiter and producer for one of those shows . He tries recruiting smalltown Liza and her golden voice, but some vaguely magical-realism-esque things get in the way of that. The charm really isn't in what happens (Liza's voice ) but in Duncan's warm prose and strong analogies. 8/10.
--I've never been that infatuated by Jane Yolen, and "Sister Emily's Lightship" doesn't really help with that. It's about this good-for-nothing woman who writes poetry in her family's top floor. Eventually she's . There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but the reveal at the end didn't mean anything to me because I'm not into poetry, and it seems just... there. My opinion is not the consensus, though, so maybe I'm missing something. Till then: 6.5/10.
--"The Weighing of Ayre" by Gregory Feeley is a temporary return to form. At first it doesn't feel like science fiction - it feels like a 17th/18th century period piece - but our main character's education and interest in microscopy and the like still gives us the perspective of a man ahead of his time. He's visiting the Dutch even though his countrymen (the English) are at war with them in this part of history, but we don't exactly why he's there until he's had some encounters with Dutch experts of the microscope. There's some cloak-and-dagger trappings and eventually the story turns out to be about before it was cool. It's densely written - maybe a bit too dense for me at the moment I was reading it - but it's worth a bit of patience with the first few pages because its setting and everything is unique and genuinely interesting. 8/10.
--Add Robert Reed to the list of 90s authors I need to read more of (like *Down the Bright Way*, which I own...) because I enjoyed "Killing the Morrow", in which a man moves into a house that's not his with a woman who's not his wife because something - from the future, perhaps - is controlling them. The ending is a bit weird and choppy, but hey, I can be that way too. 7.5/10.
--I had no idea that Susanna Clarke of *Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell* and *Piranesi* fame wrote short fiction, but "The Ladies of Grace Aideu" taught me that she did; it's even set in the same world as "JS & Mr. N". Cooler yet, it was her debut story. I found it interesting enough in its plot about three woman - one married to a rich guy, one set to be married to a rich guy, and one looking after a rich guy's young cousins like Mary Poppins - and the famous and titular magician's companion who comes to town. It's all about magic and while I caught glimpses of this interesting world, I just didn't feel there was enough to go off besides this ladies showing up a famous magician for reasons that the well-written prose couldn't make me care enough about. It's biggest crime is that, while it was well-done, it's already proving to be forgettable. 7/10.
--"GI Jesus" by Susan Palwick is an interesting story, another one that borders up against the realm of magical realism; it's also a spin on old wives' tales and other folklore. Its main character is a woman whose best friend's sister hasn't been seen in the community ever since said friend's wedding because her parents and her priest judged her for being flippant about drug use and promiscuity (gee, I wonder why?), but now - decades later, after the friend's been divorced - she's back, and dying. Things get weird when . It's a tale all about forgiveness, and it's a dense and memorable one at that, but I still think that the tale's a little morally bankrupt because- unless Palwick's writing characters less self-aware than her, which is possible - no one stops to consider that this crappy lifestyle the girls led is wrong. Sometimes, seeking momentary pleasure will ruin your life, and this overly-flippant "seize the day" mindset is kind of contemptable. Still, I'm not that bitter; it was memorable. 7.5/10. No, 7.25.
--Martha Soukup's "Walking Beauty", about a mundane office-lady who stops time in the office so she can have a fleeting moment of "being alive" during an affair, was originally going to be in Gaiman's Sandman universe. While I haven't read that, what I know of it would explain this story's dreaminess. It was alright and vaguely artificially profound but I really couldn't tell what was special about the whole thing. Maybe I don't fit the demographic. 6.5/10.
--I don't quite know the point of "Mengele's Jew" by Carter Scholz either, now that I think about it. It's centered around this dying Nazi how contemplates on the nature of Schrodinger's cat and how it relates to dead Jews. I'm not offended that Scholz wrote a story of this subject matter - I think that'd be silly - but I don't think he handled it was the gravitas required. Maybe I'm missing something, but it'll sit at a 5.5 because it - like some others here - is a bit forgettable.
--"Erase/Record/Play: A Drama For Print" is, to John M. Ford's credit, is the last noteworthy story here. It's a play-within-a-play, where the nested play (A Shakespeare rendition carried out within the play's story by prisoners from experimentation camps) is observed by a doctor and an interviewer, whose dialogue is represented by a script, while the actors and their actions are told through prose. I found the nested play to be very disengaging, probably because I read this on a weird afternoon and, more important, I have no knowledge of *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, which I would really recommend having before reading this. Still, the interplay about how the , is marvelous. I'll reread it after reading the original play, and I think I'll get more from it then. For now, 7/10, but with a note that says it's interesting and experimental in all the right ways.
--Mark Kreighbaum? "I Remember Angels"? Oh yeah, that one, where a human tells an alien interviewer about his first... kiss, or something? And how he witnesses a ? That one. Pretty forgettable and while the interview format could've been really interesting it got caught in this needlessly brutal remembrance of scum. I guess it's a 6/10 for this short story.
--I'll be reading *China Mountain Zheng* soon, and I hoped that Maureen F. McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise" would be a good warmup. It's set on this LeGuin-esque lost colony where a couple of civilized anthropologists have landed to witness the main character (a young woman) and her village and how they contend with the brutal clans that live in the area. Well, the answer is: not very well, and a silly dispute ends up in . I don't get why the main character was asked to do what she did, and it just felt... unneeded, especially the unspeakable violence. Like, it was offscreen, but it's still negative imagery that I, in my old-timey ways, think should be balanced by meaning. Still, a lot of the story was fun to read, so... 6.5/10?
*Starlight 1* has been an interesting window into the state of speculative fiction in the 1990s. I've heard one of my favorite voices on science fiction talk about how nineties SF was marked by an increase in quality-of-prose and a decrease in meaning. This book - with the nice writing that is present in pretty much every story - seems to concur with that opinion. A lot of the stories seem futile even though they're nicely written. The concepts aren't always anything to write home about; it makes me yearn for the short fiction of the 80s and earlier. Still, I'm glad I expanded my horizons with a bunch of authors I haven't read much of, or at all, and some of these stories were really good in their own right. I even have some authors to add to the endless long-list.
My favorite stories were definitely "The Dead," "Liza and the Crazy Water Man," and "The Weighing of Ayre." They're all memorable and might become reference-points. Still, that's not enough to make a four-star collection; there's plenty of chaff in the way of the greatness. I think this evens out to a solid 7/10. It's almost a 7.5/10, but I just don't think I can go that far with so much chaff. I'll pick up the other *Starlight*s if I ever see them in the wild, and I'll be on the lookout for books by Swanwick, Palwick, Reed, Ford, Feeley, and Duncan. I'm glad I read this one, and I hope to be reading more like it soon. Until then, keep an eye on my page here @ Darnoc Leadburger and I'll see you around our beloved site.
July 19, 2023
The premise of this sf collection is worthy: gather together speculative and experimental stretches of genre and idea in science fiction, regaining something of what made classic sf great. Resist all the tired genre tropes and formula nonsense which pervade so much of the predictable publishing paradigms. And, to a large degree, that premise is successful. Many of the authors and works (Susanna Clarke a personal favorite) have gone on to expand these works and grow larger careers.
There are also later volumes of the series which will include writers like Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, and Jane Yolen.
This first volume, though, has some real hits and near misses, what one might expect from its ambition, a few of which I might argue never truly reach what I would define as science fiction, more merely "tales of the unexpected" or "an idea for a scene I had."
Among the standouts, though, is Michael Swanwick's "The Dead," which foresees grim morality for a biotech which animates dead humans. Clarke's "The Ladies of Grace Adieu" is an early tale in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this alone worth the collection for fans of hers. Carter Scholz's "Mengele's Jew" is a disturbing cross of metaphysics and fanaticism. Maureen McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise" (later expanded into the novel Mission Child) plays richly with a future anthropology ethic. And for me, my favorite was "Erase/Play/Record: A Drama for Print" by John M Ford, a stage play of sorts that weaves and unpacks its territory in both terrifying and too truthful ways.
And anthology of short fiction with 5 of 12 beings hits, to my eyes, is worth the time!
There are also later volumes of the series which will include writers like Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, and Jane Yolen.
This first volume, though, has some real hits and near misses, what one might expect from its ambition, a few of which I might argue never truly reach what I would define as science fiction, more merely "tales of the unexpected" or "an idea for a scene I had."
Among the standouts, though, is Michael Swanwick's "The Dead," which foresees grim morality for a biotech which animates dead humans. Clarke's "The Ladies of Grace Adieu" is an early tale in the world of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this alone worth the collection for fans of hers. Carter Scholz's "Mengele's Jew" is a disturbing cross of metaphysics and fanaticism. Maureen McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise" (later expanded into the novel Mission Child) plays richly with a future anthropology ethic. And for me, my favorite was "Erase/Play/Record: A Drama for Print" by John M Ford, a stage play of sorts that weaves and unpacks its territory in both terrifying and too truthful ways.
And anthology of short fiction with 5 of 12 beings hits, to my eyes, is worth the time!
September 14, 2020
An excellent collection, although for a few of the stories the speculative element is a bit, shall we say, overly subtle. Nevertheless, quite enjoyable.
July 31, 2008
I checked this one out to read the John M. Ford story, which was my favorite of the lot. Weakest was the Emily Dickinson story by Jane Yolen, disappointing from an author I love.
December 15, 2024
Meh. Another B-grade collection -- chock full of wishy-washy, overly 'soft' sci-fi.
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February 21, 2012Starlight 1 by Patrick (Editor) Nielsen Hayden (1996)
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews