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Jane Yolen and Patrick Nielsen Hayden are formidable editors, but even they had a formidable job when they set out to write The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens. As Yolen admits in the introduction, very little fiction is written expressly for teens. This means the stories for Year’s Best had to be dug out of adult anthologies, magazines, and digests.
Whatever the effort, the results are worth it. The collection doesn’t shy away from the darker side of fantasy. David Gerrold’s “Dancer In The Dark” is a claustrophobic nightmare, where a confused boy struggles through a world without light, joy or even hope. Adam Stemple remembers the dark side of fairy tales in “A Piece of Flesh,” as the natural consequences of old myths destroy a modern girl’s life. But the bulk of the collection is more optimistic. . Theodora Goss deals with prejudice head on, but “The Wings of Meister Wilhelm” still manage to fly past the chains of society. Delia Sherman’s lighthearted “CATNYP” takes on the changeling myth from the other side of the fairy veil, in a story that tromps practical earthy human sense all over fairy delicacy. Many of the selections, notably Lynette Aspey’s “Sleeping Dragons,” condense the complexity and nuance of a full novel into short stories of undiluted power. Others, like Garth Nix’s “Endings”, revel in the open ends and suggestiveness allowed to short stories. All are mature enough to entertain adult readers, while focusing on issues of especial interest to adolescent readers.
While the selected stories never condescend to their supposed teenage audience, their editor’s notes too often do. The explanatory notes are especially deadly for the shorter stories. A note dictating the importance of reader interpretation gives Garth Nix’s “Endings” a patronizing overtone absent from the brief tale itself. Leah Bobet’s “Displaced People,” brief at two pages, still seems too long once the main conceit has been distilled and overexplained by the notes. A couple of the longer stories suffer unduly, too. “Sergeant Chip” loses much of its emotional impact when the story’s main twist is hinted at in overbroad terms before tension can even begin to build. And the panicked disclaimer about outdated prejudices before Rudyard Kipling’s “They” seems directed more at overprotective parents than the supposed teenage audience.
But a few excessive liner notes can’t wreck such a solid collection. And perhaps the heavy-handed introductions earn their keep by providing tips on other, older, or different fiction work that would otherwise be unknown to younger readers. You may want to skip the liner notes, but don’t skip The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens.
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The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens: First Annual Edition