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New Skies: An Anthology of Today's Science Fiction
New Skies...imaginative stories for a new generation of science fiction fans. Here are writers such as Philip K. Dick, Orson Scott Card, Jane Yolen, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson, Steven Gould, Connie Willis, Spider Robinson, and many more. Here is a careening adventure along the outside of a tower looming miles above the ground, and a tale of desperate survival on the deadly surface of the Moon. Here is a world in which children divorce their parents, and the story of a four-dimensional boy in a three-dimensional world. Here are future young people rebuilding after terrible disasters, and here is a story of the future development of baseball...on Mars. Nightmarish or whimsical, irreverent or swashbuckling, each of these stories is an adventure in imagination. Journey from the here and now into New Skies.
275 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
19 books13 followersPatrick James Nielsen Hayden, often abbreviated as PNH, is an American science fiction editor, fan, fanzine publisher, essayist, reviewer, anthologist, teacher and blogger. He is a World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award winner (with nine nominations for the latter award), and is a Senior Editor and the Manager of Science Fiction at Tor Books. He changed his last name to "Nielsen Hayden" on his marriage to Teresa Nielsen (now Teresa Nielsen Hayden) in 1979.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 20, 2020
New Skies is an eclectic collection of science fiction short stories by various authors. Some of these authors are well known and others not so much. It is edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. A list of the authors is as follows - Terry Bisson , Greg Van Eekhout , Jane Yolen , Greg Bear , Philip K. Dick ,Nancy Kress , Maureen F. McHugh , Kim Stanley Robinson , Orson Scott Card , Robert Charles Wilson , Geoffrey A. Landis , Steven Gould , Spider Robinson , Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, Connie Willis , Will Shetterly , David Langford. I will not try to review each story but I will say that some are very good and others are just barely readable. Overall the book was worth reading.
February 24, 2020
This was a dollar store paperback -- a worthwhile find.
Successful both as Young Adult and Science Fiction, NEW SKIES features seventeen short stories by various well-known writers in the genre. I'm fairly widely read, so I had actually read a few of this anthology's stories elsewhere before.
I peg the theme of this collection as "new perspectives" or "exploring what's real/normal". Both themes are sure to resonate with tween/teen readers, as they simultaneously think they know everything and voraciously seek new experiences "out there".
A few stories cleverly use the device of "the alien gaze" to examine humanity. What will aliens think of us if they're a superior species? Are we quaint? Absurd? Primitive? Savage?
What will aliens think of us if we treat them like we treat other minority populations currently in our midst?
What will "aliens" think of us if they're human in fact, but of an utterly different culture/history?
A few of these stories use dystopian futures or alternative histories to toy with the idea of what everyday life and human resourcefulness might look like if circumstances are radically different to what's familiar.
A couple of these stories were really very compelling. "A Walk in the Sun" by Geoffrey A. Landis was a marooned-in-space nail-biter with extensive internal monologue that reminded me a little of "The Martian". Stephen Gould's "Peaches for Mad Molly" featured some of the most unique, thought-provoking world building I've ever read in any story, let alone a short story. I sure wish it was a 1K+-page trilogy instead of a short story.
A couple of the stories were a bit twee or confusing, so I'm removing a single star. All in all this is a great quick read.
Successful both as Young Adult and Science Fiction, NEW SKIES features seventeen short stories by various well-known writers in the genre. I'm fairly widely read, so I had actually read a few of this anthology's stories elsewhere before.
I peg the theme of this collection as "new perspectives" or "exploring what's real/normal". Both themes are sure to resonate with tween/teen readers, as they simultaneously think they know everything and voraciously seek new experiences "out there".
A few stories cleverly use the device of "the alien gaze" to examine humanity. What will aliens think of us if they're a superior species? Are we quaint? Absurd? Primitive? Savage?
What will aliens think of us if we treat them like we treat other minority populations currently in our midst?
What will "aliens" think of us if they're human in fact, but of an utterly different culture/history?
A few of these stories use dystopian futures or alternative histories to toy with the idea of what everyday life and human resourcefulness might look like if circumstances are radically different to what's familiar.
A couple of these stories were really very compelling. "A Walk in the Sun" by Geoffrey A. Landis was a marooned-in-space nail-biter with extensive internal monologue that reminded me a little of "The Martian". Stephen Gould's "Peaches for Mad Molly" featured some of the most unique, thought-provoking world building I've ever read in any story, let alone a short story. I sure wish it was a 1K+-page trilogy instead of a short story.
A couple of the stories were a bit twee or confusing, so I'm removing a single star. All in all this is a great quick read.
August 13, 2009
Really good collection of Hugo and Nebula award winners brought together for this YA anthology. Great stories all, good intro to young adults perspective in sci-fi.
September 10, 2018
This was a wonderful collection of stories, Patrick Nielsen Hayden did a wonderful job of compiling stories. My favorite was
A Letter from the Clearys
. It's no wonder that A Letter from the Clearys has won so many awards. I was fascinated by it.
Authors in this book were well known in the Sci-Fi genre, authors like Phillip K. Dick and Orson Scott Card. It was lovely.
I took this with me on Labor Day, when my family went to climb a mountain in Colorado (thus A Letter from the Clearys was even more fitting). It was a ten hour car trip and along the road I read certain stories aloud.
The stories I actually read out loud were: A Letter from the Clearys, Peaches for Mad Molly, A Walk in the Sun, Salvage, and They're Made of Meat.
Authors in this book were well known in the Sci-Fi genre, authors like Phillip K. Dick and Orson Scott Card. It was lovely.
I took this with me on Labor Day, when my family went to climb a mountain in Colorado (thus A Letter from the Clearys was even more fitting). It was a ten hour car trip and along the road I read certain stories aloud.
The stories I actually read out loud were: A Letter from the Clearys, Peaches for Mad Molly, A Walk in the Sun, Salvage, and They're Made of Meat.
October 21, 2020
This is a YA.
4 🌟 They're Made Out of Meat, by Terry Bisson
(The reason I checked out this book.)
4 🌟 A Walk in the Sun, by Geoffrey A. Landis
(I have read this at least 3 times.)
3 🌟 Peaches for Mad Molly, by Steven Gould
4 🌟 Serpent's Teeth, by Spider Robinson
2 🌟 Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen, by Deborah Doyle and James D. MacDonald
2 🌟 A Letter from the Cleared, by Connie Willis
2 🌟 Brian and the Aliens, by Will Shetterly
2 🌟 Different Kinds of Darkness, by David Langford
2 🌟 Will You Be an Astronaut, by Greg van Eekhout
1 🌟 Cards of Grief, by Jane Yolen
4 🌟 Tangents, by Greg Bear
5 🌟 The Alien Mind, by Philip K. Dick
2 🌟 Out of All Them Bright Stars, by Nancy Kress
3 🌟 The Lincoln Train, by Maureen F. McHugh
3 🌟 Arthur SternbACH Brings the Curve Ball to Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
3 🌟 Salvage, Orson Scott Card
3 🌟 The Great Goodbye, by Robert Charles Wilson
4 🌟 They're Made Out of Meat, by Terry Bisson
(The reason I checked out this book.)
4 🌟 A Walk in the Sun, by Geoffrey A. Landis
(I have read this at least 3 times.)
3 🌟 Peaches for Mad Molly, by Steven Gould
4 🌟 Serpent's Teeth, by Spider Robinson
2 🌟 Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen, by Deborah Doyle and James D. MacDonald
2 🌟 A Letter from the Cleared, by Connie Willis
2 🌟 Brian and the Aliens, by Will Shetterly
2 🌟 Different Kinds of Darkness, by David Langford
2 🌟 Will You Be an Astronaut, by Greg van Eekhout
1 🌟 Cards of Grief, by Jane Yolen
4 🌟 Tangents, by Greg Bear
5 🌟 The Alien Mind, by Philip K. Dick
2 🌟 Out of All Them Bright Stars, by Nancy Kress
3 🌟 The Lincoln Train, by Maureen F. McHugh
3 🌟 Arthur SternbACH Brings the Curve Ball to Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
3 🌟 Salvage, Orson Scott Card
3 🌟 The Great Goodbye, by Robert Charles Wilson
March 10, 2021
As with most anthologies, this dollar store book was a mixed bag. Worth reading in my opinion... It's not nearly as YA as the description suggests.
Some standouts are "They're Made Out of Meat," "Serpents' Teeth," and "Different Kinds of Darkness." While there are quite a few solid ones, there are also those that never grabbed my attention that I didn't really enjoy. Still, the pros outweigh the still readinle cons.
Some standouts are "They're Made Out of Meat," "Serpents' Teeth," and "Different Kinds of Darkness." While there are quite a few solid ones, there are also those that never grabbed my attention that I didn't really enjoy. Still, the pros outweigh the still readinle cons.
June 13, 2020
A collection of short stories billed as "Young adult". Most of them were good.
April 15, 2021
Some really good stories, some so so stories. Overall worth the $1 I payed for it.
July 2, 2009
PNH is talented at shifting the gold from the dross: his collections are always better than the generally crap anthologies usually produced.
A personal favorite is Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat," in which aliens about to make First Contact with us are horrified by what they find. Sci fi short stories are much more likely to have a surprise one-two punch at the end, one that warps assumptions made during the story. This anthology has some great ones: Spider Robinson's "Serpents' Teeth," Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald's "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen," and Robert Charles Wilson's "The Great Goodbye." Two other standouts are David Langford's "Different Kinds of Darkness" (I just love this type of school story, which for some reason reminded me of that story where there's only one day every 7 years where you can go outside on Mars, and one little girl is really excited about it but the other kids lock her in a closet so she misses it. It's actually a really dark children's story that always made me angry but thirteen years later, I still remember it.) and Greg van Eekhout's "Will You Be an Astronaut?" which reads like a very creepy children's story. I should mention that Jane Yolen's "Cards of Grief" is a pointless meander of a story that is clearly *supposed* to have a shocking ending but is instead very obvious, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" is a boring sports story with no point at all, and Orson Scott Card's "Salvage" is a story about Mormons post-apocalypse, and though narrated by a non-Mormon it made me uncomfortable.
A personal favorite is Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat," in which aliens about to make First Contact with us are horrified by what they find. Sci fi short stories are much more likely to have a surprise one-two punch at the end, one that warps assumptions made during the story. This anthology has some great ones: Spider Robinson's "Serpents' Teeth," Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald's "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen," and Robert Charles Wilson's "The Great Goodbye." Two other standouts are David Langford's "Different Kinds of Darkness" (I just love this type of school story, which for some reason reminded me of that story where there's only one day every 7 years where you can go outside on Mars, and one little girl is really excited about it but the other kids lock her in a closet so she misses it. It's actually a really dark children's story that always made me angry but thirteen years later, I still remember it.) and Greg van Eekhout's "Will You Be an Astronaut?" which reads like a very creepy children's story. I should mention that Jane Yolen's "Cards of Grief" is a pointless meander of a story that is clearly *supposed* to have a shocking ending but is instead very obvious, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" is a boring sports story with no point at all, and Orson Scott Card's "Salvage" is a story about Mormons post-apocalypse, and though narrated by a non-Mormon it made me uncomfortable.
April 11, 2007
Again aimed at teens; again with the whiny people with trivial problems.
Has Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out Of Meat," for which alone it would be worth the cover price.
Other terrific stories:
Geoffrey Landis' "A Walk in the Sun" (about a teen stranded on the moon, and hey! her problems are not trivial!)
Spider Robinson's "Serpents' Teeth" (about a world where kids can divorce their parents)
Debra Doyla and James D. Macdonald's "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen" (a post-plague story that starts out sounding like fantasy)
Greg van Eekhout's "Will You Be an Astronaut?" (shaped like a kids' book and very very impressive)
Nancy Kress's "Out of All Them Bright Stars" (which almost reads like non-SF, like a realist short story, except for having an alien in it).
Has Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out Of Meat," for which alone it would be worth the cover price.
Other terrific stories:
Geoffrey Landis' "A Walk in the Sun" (about a teen stranded on the moon, and hey! her problems are not trivial!)
Spider Robinson's "Serpents' Teeth" (about a world where kids can divorce their parents)
Debra Doyla and James D. Macdonald's "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen" (a post-plague story that starts out sounding like fantasy)
Greg van Eekhout's "Will You Be an Astronaut?" (shaped like a kids' book and very very impressive)
Nancy Kress's "Out of All Them Bright Stars" (which almost reads like non-SF, like a realist short story, except for having an alien in it).
Read
June 11, 2010It's an anthology of science fiction, that's all been written since 1981. The book came out in 2003. If you thought science fiction was dead -- as I certainly did -- (or had forgotten that it existed), this book grabs you by your shoelaces and ties them onto a nearby gremulon (a 26th Century streetcar). I just made that up, but you start to love inventing the falsely futurist. Too bad that a nuclear war has occurred in nearly every story. What's up with that? Can't we envision something nice, like giant fields of strawberries, tended by happy Saturnian elves?
And it has Philip K. Dick!
And it has Philip K. Dick!
July 11, 2012
There is some real gold inside of this anthology. Some of the writing I thought was targeted toward a younger audience. I enjoyed the sensible science fiction though. Nothing was over-the-top ridiculus or confusing or over-detailed like some sci fi writers out there. As a reader, I felt I was given choice selected samples of sci fi stories. Even if I didn't like one short story, I had another chance in a few pages to read one I did like. The stories are diverse and individually worthy for the attention of a large audience.
March 28, 2012
I'm not usually big on short stories, but I really enjoyed this collection. The editor did an excellent job of gathering several different sub-sets in the genre of science fiction. The stories range from comedic to dark to entertaining. I really liked reading short stories by different well known sci-fi authors, such as Philip Dick and Orson Scott Card. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi.
July 8, 2007
YA scifi short story collection. Totally enjoyable. Includes stories by Philip K. Dick, Orson Scott Kard, Jane Yolen, Spider Robinson, Maureen McHugh...
My favorite was "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Some fairly straightforward stories, but some with particularly cool concepts.
My favorite was "Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson. Some fairly straightforward stories, but some with particularly cool concepts.
November 2, 2008
Great compilation of inspiring SF short stories, many of them winners of Hugo and Nebula awards from authors such as Connie Willis, Philp K. Dick, Greg Bear and Orson Scott Card. The length of the works compiled here, plus the variety of theme (adventure, coming of age, tolerance, etc) make this an excellent read for young people.
August 21, 2008
A pretty good mix of sci-fi. I think a few of them I read before, one made me laugh out loud, one or two I think I could read to my 5yr old or have him read them to himself. Was a good book to have on the train to read in short bursts.
September 23, 2010
A good introduction to SF for younger adult readers, but if you've read a lot of SF in the shorter form, you will most likely get a huge case of Deja Vu - too many stories have appeared in too many other collections....
August 21, 2011
I'm not usually a fan of short story anthologies, but this one was fabulous. The first three stories in the book were just riveting. The stories really run the gamut of the SciFi genre, which was fun.
April 27, 2011
While some stories leave you lost, others are pretty brilliant, like a story about a group of kids training themselves to handle brain-killing math problems.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews