Matter of opinion

[threemonkeys]

At Conflux 3, Bill Congreve persuaded me to buy three books from him from the MirrorDanse offerings. Two of them, by Mark Lawson and Chuck McKenzie, were superb. However I had a bit more trepidation about the third - Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy volume 2 edited by Bill and Michelle Marquardt. The reason for my misgivings were based around vol 1 which despite having many good stories didn't really work as a collection for me. However Bill and others assured me that vol 2 is a better work. So it proved.

All the stories in this collection are good and it didn't suffer from as many odd juxtapositions as the first volume. Nor did the quality drop off leaving a flat feeling at the end. Again - it is a collection of very good stories. But I still don't feel sold by it as a collection. It works better but for reasons I can't quite put my finger on I just feel it could be better still. Some of it might be related to the story selection by particular authors whose work I have read from the year in question. I'm sure there are stories from that period which I enjoyed more than the ones chosen. The selected ones are good but perhaps it could be better. Or not. It is just a feeling - not something I really feel the need to research deeply. When it comes down to it, such things come down to taste. Clearly the editors and I have some minor differences. Minor only since I think the right authors were included.

Fuzzy thoughts I know. Next time I read one of these anthologies (and there will be a next time if one is published) I think I will approach it differently. Not read it as an volume but as a series of individual works. Perhaps I will put a pause between each. Or not. The thoughts are still fuzzy.

Comments

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

The thing to remember about Years Best collections is that they are all, inevitably, someone or others opinion as to what was the best in the field. There can be no definitive 'best' of anything creative.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Absolutely - which is why I chose the heading for this post. But a good part of my misgivings are not about the selection of what is best but how they are presented.