I heard a while ago that Rob Gerrand, who among many other things was a partner in Norstrilia Press, was to edit a retrospective collection of Australian science fiction. This struck me then, and strikes me now, as both an interesting and a good thing. For some reason, though, I had the impression that the book was coming out in 2005, but word reached me today that it would be out before Christmas.
The book is called The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection, and is published by Black Inc, who do a number of ‘year’s best’ type projects in Australia. According to the PR material I’ve seen so far, it includes stories by Jack Dann, A. Bertram Chandler, Sean McMullen, Peter Carey, Greg Egan, Philippa Maddern, Norma Hemming, George Tuner, Jack Wodhams, David Lake, Erle Cox, Lucy Sussex, Randal Flynn, John Baxter, Frank Bryning and others. When I have a full listing I’ll post it here, but till then you can see the PR material on the Pan Macmillan website,
I’ve read enough Australian science fiction, and been involved in the field long enough, to be fascinated in what choices Gerrand makes and why. It’s the kind of book that I wish well, and want to be terribly successful. I also like it because it becomes a talking point. I can imagine a number of conversations at conventions and similar places that will start with “he chose that Dowling story, and not that one!” and continue from there. The one thing I hope Gerrand didn’t do, though, is try to avoid famous stories. There’s nothing worse than a best of that avoids the best stories because they’re familiar or easily accessible. Kind of kills the point. I’ll post more here when I have it.