This year two of my short stories will appear in publications that are a vanishing breed: the non-themed original science fiction anthology. The first just came out, George Mann’s The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two, with Lou Anders’ Fast Forward Two to be released this fall. Solaris is a UK publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy.
As George Mann points out in his introduction to this second volume, most anthologies these days are themed or, if not, are reprint anthologies. He quotes James Sallis of “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction” who noted in his review of Mann’s first anthology in the series that there may be a resurgence of interest in this “new breed of original anthology.” Let’s hope George Mann and Lou Anders are catching a wave.
I’ve read about half the stories and the book is, in Mann’s words, “feeding my addiction.” I have especially enjoyed the tales iCity by Paul Di Filippo and Sunworld by Eric Brown for their concept-driven magic.