Patrick Nielsen Hayden has posted the table of contents for his new anthology, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens, over on his website. As far as I know, it’s the first book of its kind specifically aimed at a teen audience, so I’ve been very eager to see what he and co-editor Jane Yolen have selected for their book.

Looking at the list, I have several immediate reactions. First, I think it looks like a good, strong selection of stories. The Bradley Denton and Kelly Link stories alone, make the book more than worth the price of admission. I also loved Delia Sherman’s “CATNYP” and Theodora Goss’s “The Wings of Meister Wilhelm”, and it’s an interesting idea to include a century-old piece in the book too. Second, I’ve held the belief for a while now that we needed a year’s best that blends science fiction and fantasy in a single volume. I think Jane and Patrick have done a very creditable job, especially given the length of their book. It’s very tightly edited.

Probably the only caveat I have about the book is a personal one. I read pretty much everything published in the adult market, so I’ve already read every story in the book. I had been hoping that Jane and Patrick might have been able to highlight stuff published in sources I haven’t seen, stuff from young adult collections, anthologies, magazines and so on. I know they exist, but I’ve only see a handfull of them. That said, it’s a very personal caveat. The intended audience, I suspect, won’t have seen many of these stories, and they should love them. Definitely something to buy for a teen near you, or for someone who perhaps doesn’t read enough short fiction. Oh, and the cover (by Donata, I think) is terrific.

It occurred to me that I haven’t seen the Ditmar noms in any single, easy-accessible, html kind of format, so herewith…

Short Story

• Deborah Biancotti: Number 3 Raw Place, Agog! Smashing Stories
• Rjurik Davidson: The Interminable Suffering of Mysterious Mr Wu, Aurealis #33
• Margo Lanagan: Singing My Sister Down, Black Juice
• Ben Peek: R, Agog! Smashing Stories

Novella or Novelette

• Simon Brown: Water Babies, Agog! Smashing Stories
• Stephen Dedman: The Whole of the Law, ASIM 13
• Paul Haines: The Last Days of Kali Yuga, NFG Magazine, Volume 2 Issue 4, August 2004
• Richard Harland: Catabolic Magic, Aurealis #32
• Cat Sparks: Home by the Sea, Orb #6, July

Novel

• Richard Harland: The Black Crusade
• Maxine McArthur: Less than Human
• Sean Williams: The Crooked Letter

Collected Works

• Agog! Smashing Stories: ed. Cat Sparks
• Black Juice: Margo Lanagan.
• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine: ed. Lyn Triffitt, Edwina Harvey, Andrew Finch, Zara Baxter, Robbie Matthews & Tehani Croft
• Orb 6: ed. Sarah Endacott
• Encounters: ed. Donna Hanson and Maxine McArthur, CSFG Publishing

Pro Artwork

• Les Petersen: cover of ASIM 12
• Kerri Valkova: cover of The Black Crusade, Chimaera Publications
• Cat Sparks: cover of Agog! Smashing Stories
• Les Petersen: cover of Encounters
• Les Petersen: cover and internal ASIM 16

Fan Art

• Sarah Xu

William Atheling Jnr Award for Criticism or Review

• Robert Hood: review of Weight of Water at Hood Reviews, asking “is this film a ghost story?”
• Jason Nahrung: Why are publishers afraid of horror, BAM, Courier Mail, 20 March 2004
• Ben Peek: review of Haruki Murakami’s work in the Urban Sprawl Project

Pro Achievement

• The Clarion South Team: negotiating with the US Clarion people, then promoting and establishing Clarion South which gives emerging writer the chance to work with the best in the business.
• Cat Sparks: editing and writing including winning third place in the writers of the future award
• Margo Lanagan: for Black Juice
• Maloney, Geoff: Tales of the Crypto-System, his short story publications
• Sean Williams for The Crooked Letter and efforts in teaching
• Jonathan Strahan for work over the year in internationally published reviews and in editing anthologies

Fan achievement

• Super Happy Robot Hour
• Conflux convention committee
• Continuum 2 convention committee

Fan writer

• Edwina Harvey
• Gillespie, Bruce
• Fan webite/zine
• Antipodean SF: ed Ion Newcomb
• SF Bullsheet: ed Edwina Harvey & Ted Scribner
• Gynaezine: ed Emma Hawkes and Gina Goddard

New Talent

• Barnes, Chris
• Barrow, Stuart
• Dugan, Grace
• Haines, Paul
• Robson, Barbara
• Smith, Brian

The Australian science fiction community generously presents two different major sets of science fiction awards each year: the Aurealis Awards and the Ditmar Awards. The Aurealis Awards were presented earlier this year, and the final nominations for the Ditmars have just been announced. I was genuinely surprised, and very grateful, to be nominated. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be in Tasmania when the awards are presented, but I wish everyone nominated the best of luck, and would like to thank everyone who nominated me.

Editing year’s best annuals isn’t a competitive thing. You don’t watch what your colleagues are doing with a win-lose mindset, and you’re always aware that it all comes down to a difference in taste. We’ve just recently seen the tables of contents for Gardner Dozois’ and Ellen Datlow & Gavin Grant & Kelly Link’s books listed on the net, and David and Kathryn listed their SF book the other day. This morning I see that Kathryn has posted the table of contents for the Year’s Best Fantasy on her blog, and I think it looks like a terrific book. I often disagree about their SF volume, but as I looked down their table of contents for this book I found myself nodding my head, and thinking ‘good book’. You guys should definitely check it out. I would have done it slightly differently, were the world just up to me, but only slightly.

I was talking to a friend on the weekend who is about to read the zero-th draft of Neil Gaiman’s new novel Anansi Boys, and I have to admit to suffering a small pang of envy. I think Neil is getting better and better as a prose writer. His short fiction has been becoming more and more impressive over the past couple years, and American Gods was a terrific book. Given that there isn’t an actual first draft yet, I’m guessing it’ll be some months before I get to read the book, but I’m really looking forward to it.