Centaurus: The Best of Australian Science Fiction [Hardcover]

Really bloody good, mate.

This is a very impressive collection. Average rating 4.15 out of 5. The editors are fairly aggressive in saying that this is the best oz sf collection put together, but it appears they are pretty much right. Van Ikin's Australian Science Fiction, taking the 'modern' section and not the excerpts, which would be an unfair comparison, is a touch under 4. Looking at what I have read of Gerrand's Best Australian Science Fiction Writing that will be be a decent score, but not likely this high.

Not that I have read all the older anthologies, either, but I will sometime. The fact is though, that Egan and Dowling mostly were not in those. The second editions of the Strahan and Congreve et. al. Year's Bests in each case are around the 3.75 mark or so, and the McNamara collections a bit under that. However, that is to be expected, given they are looking at the 'new', not the best of what is available, and all are collections that a fan (or student) of oz sf will want to have.

Centaurus : Flowering Mandrake - George Turner
Centaurus : The Mountain Movers - A. Bertram Chandler
Centaurus : Things Fall Apart - Philippa C. Maddern
Centaurus : Written in Blood - Chris Lawson
Centaurus : Pie Row Joe - Kevin McKay
Centaurus : A Map of the Mines of Barnath - Sean Williams
Centaurus : My Lady Tongue - Lucy Sussex
Centaurus : Wang's Carpets - Greg Egan
Centaurus : The Dominant Style - Sean McMullen
Centaurus : Borderline - Leanne Frahm
Centaurus : Privateers' Moon - Terry Dowling
Centaurus : Re-deem the Time - David J. Lake
Centaurus : Matters of Consequence - Shane Dix
Centaurus : The Total Devotion Machine - Rosaleen Love
Centaurus : The Colonel's Tiger - Hal Colebatch
Centaurus : The Soldier in the Machine - Russell Blackford
Centaurus : From Whom All Blessings Flow - Stephen Dedman
Centaurus : Looking Forward to the Harvest - Cherry Wilder
Centaurus : The Magi - Damien Broderick
Centaurus : The Chance - Peter Carey

Vegetable methuselah's Kal-Elesque odyssey, and brief Phoenix rising.

5 out of 5

A Waltzing Spaceshipa goes The Rock.

4.5 out of 5

Dying bequest gives hope to bizarre scientific research.

4 out of 5

Religious DNA transcription is a killer vulnerability.

4.5 out of 5

Firestarter's mistake, mate.

4 out of 5

A man goes looking for his brother, but all is definitely nowhere even close to being remotely anything like it seems in a really large, very strange underground structure.

3.5 out of 5

Separatist scout girl breaks leg, nicks rescuers Shakespeare, does him, leaves, gets married.

4 out of 5

A conservative transhuman polis sets out to search for alien life on other planets. The planet they find surprises them in a bit way, as the carpetlike inhabitants seem to grow by a pattern described by an obscure mathematician. Their nature allows them to perform as a Turing machine, and they are running one pretty impressive simulation.

A story you might just have to read a bit of twice.

5 out of 5

Genetically regulated society's cyborg wildcard.

4 out of 5

Interdimensional megavirus.

5 out of 5

An inventor who has a device that can access haldane field information is involved in complicated politics, but overreaches in his archaeological collecting. He changes his will to leave some very important things to Tom.

5 out of 5

Space race wimpout = backwards people.

4.5 out of 5

Obsessed woman's child simulation exam.

4 out of 5

Standover nannybot.

4 out of 5

Pacified revisionist pacifists slow to believe in The Cat Men From Outer Space.

3.5 out of 5

Paracognitive reflex research enhanced by music and dance.

5 out of 5

Interdimensional matriarchal world's menstrual communion feared and underrated.

4 out of 5

Postcrash time viewing. With androids.

3.5 out of 5

Long space exploration voyages and religion don't mix.

3 out of 5

Locals realise alien body changers worse than yanks.

3 out of 5

I am one of the authors represented in Centaurus, and obviously I'm biased to that extent.

All right...now that's out of the way, I honestly believe that this is one of the better science fiction anthologies around and that the authors whose work it contains are worth getting to know. Since the start of the 1990s, Australian science fiction has had a huge renaissance, with such writers as Greg Egan, Sean Williams and Sean McMullen becoming prominent internationally and others having success on a lesser scale, both at home and overseas. This book includes work from all the main Aussie writers of the past few decades, and includes some of their best pieces going back to the 1970s. Most of these are substantial stories - they are robust and gutsy, with some strong themes and characters. What's more, you won't find a better opportunity to sample good work by all the Australian writers in one place, and to judge for yourself what the fuss is about.