Science fiction authors like to think big; their work spans galaxies and remakes worlds. The thus-far-fictional act of radically changing other planets to suit human desires is the theme of Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming, edited by Gardner Dozois, SF's greatest short fiction editor since the legendary John W. Campbell. Dozois has assembled 20 powerful, imaginative stories by many of SF's finest writers, from Poul Anderson and Arthur C. Clarke to Stephen Baxter and Bruce Sterling.
These stories were first published between 1954 and 2001; a majority are from the 1990s. The stories are often hard SF, but they don't sacrifice characterization for ideas or technology. SF fans will love this anthology if they don't mind that women make up only two of the contributors and not many more of the protagonists. Dozois has also edited a companion volume about remaking humanity, Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
Hugo-winner Gardner Dozois offers a sizable anthology of classic tales of man's efforts to remake other worlds in Earth's image: Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming. Contributors of these vivid visions of space colonies include Arthur C. Clarke, Pamela Sargent, Poul Anderson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
From the late Poul Anderson's politically dated but dramatically timeless tale of an attempt to turn a hostile planet into a utopian paradise ("The Big Rain") to Laura J. Mixon's depiction of a young woman's struggle to rescue her loved ones from death on an ice-encrusted world ("At Tide's Turning"), the 20 stories in this anthology explore a variety of approaches to the concept of terraforming worlds. Including tales (many published only in magazines) by Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stanley Robinson, Pamela Sargent, and other sf veterans, this theme anthology covers six decades of hard-science sf and belongs in most collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
When mankind moves out to the stars, the colonists of the future will remake the worlds they inhabit in their image. Included here are twenty stories from the most imaginative writers in the field, including:
Poul Anderson * Stephen Baxter * Gregory Benford * Arthur C. Clarke * Greg Egan * Joe Haldeman * Philip Jennings * William H. Kieth * Geoffrey A. Landis * Ian McDonald * Richard McKenna * Laura Mixon * G. David Nordley * Robert Reed * Kim Stanley Robinson * Pamela Sargent * Cordwainer Smith * Bruce Sterling * John Varley * Roger Zelazny
These are the stories of the explorers and pioneers who transform their destinations in the image of their distant home--exciting tales of alien landscapes and the struggle to make them suit human desires.
About the Author
Gardner Dozois edits the Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies and Asimov's SF magazine from his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor many times.
Worldmakers: Science Fiction Adventures in Terraforming FROM THE PUBLISHER
When mankind moves out to the stars, the colonists of the future will remake the worlds they inhabit in their image. Included here are twenty stories from the most imaginative writers in the field, including:
Poul Anderson * Stephen Baxter * Gregory Benford * Arthur C. Clarke * Greg Egan * Joe Haldeman * Philip Jennings * William H. Kieth * Geoffrey A. Landis * Ian McDonald * Richard McKenna * Laura Mixon * G. David Nordley * Robert Reed * Kim Stanley Robinson * Pamela Sargent * Cordwainer Smith * Bruce Sterling * John Varley * Roger Zelazny
These are the stories of the explorers and pioneers who transform their destinations in the image of their distant home—exciting tales of alien landscapes and the struggle to make them suit human desires.
Author Biography: Gardner Dozois edits the Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies and Asimov's SF magazine from his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor many times.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Hugo-winner Gardner Dozois offers a sizable anthology of classic tales of man's efforts to remake other worlds in Earth's image: Worldmakers: SF Adventures in Terraforming. Contributors of these vivid visions of space colonies include Arthur C. Clarke, Pamela Sargent, Poul Anderson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
From the late Poul Anderson's politically dated but dramatically timeless tale of an attempt to turn a hostile planet into a utopian paradise ("The Big Rain") to Laura J. Mixon's depiction of a young woman's struggle to rescue her loved ones from death on an ice-encrusted world ("At Tide's Turning"), the 20 stories in this anthology explore a variety of approaches to the concept of terraforming worlds. Including tales (many published only in magazines) by Arthur C. Clarke, Kim Stanley Robinson, Pamela Sargent, and other sf veterans, this theme anthology covers six decades of hard-science sf and belongs in most collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Twenty previously published stories, assembled by SF's most prolific editor, in which writers old and new imagine how other planets might be shaped into havens for human life. Like time machines and faster-than-light space travel, terraforming is a familiar SF concept that accepts as almost inevitable the notion that human beings will use technology to turn hostile extraterrestrial environments into something resembling vacation destinations. In his introduction, Dozois, the indefatigable assembler of some 80 anthologies in 30 years, finds that a new fascination with terraforming is part of a larger trend in which locations within our solar system are again being used as settings for "hard science" adventures. Avoiding stories about orbiting space colonies, Dozois prefers mostly tales of variously reconfigured Mars and Venus. At one extreme is late grandmaster Poul Anderson's "The Big Rain." Here, the poisonous Venusian landscape (think of Siberia with formaldehyde winds) is a metaphor for the fascist regime running the planet. At the other is newcomer G. David Nordley's vision of a Venus so similar to Bermuda that the only way to beat the crowd of eager colonists is to take a wild, thrilling sky glide down from space. A Mars inexplicably gripped in an ice age seems more like an enchanted version of the northern California coast to a group of natives in Kim Stanley Robinson's "A Martian Romance." The godlike powers turn a psychotic into a saint in Ian MacDonald's "Catherine Wheel," a world-making consultant into an accessory to murder in Robert Reed's "A Place in the Shade," and a brash creative genius into Promethean destroyer in Roger Zelazny's "Keys to December." A varied,interesting, and worthy examination of human characters whose need to change their environment is inextricably linked to their need to change themselves.
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