The Best of Connie Willis
Award-Winning Stories
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Few authors have had careers as successful as that of Connie Willis. Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and recently awarded the title of Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Willis is still going strong. Her smart, heartfelt fiction runs the gamut from screwball comedy to profound tragedy, combining dazzling plot twists, cutting-edge science, and unforgettable characters.
From a near future mourning the extinction of dogs to an alternate history in which invading aliens were defeated by none other than Emily Dickinson; from a madcap convention of bumbling quantum physicists in Hollywood to a London whose Underground has become a storehouse of intangible memories both foul and fair—here are the greatest stories of one of the greatest writers working in any genre today.
All ten of the stories gathered here are Hugo or Nebula award winners—some even have the distinction of winning both. With a new Introduction by the author and personal afterwords to each story—plus a special look at three of Willis’s unique public speeches—this is unquestionably the collection of the season, a book that every Connie Willis fan will treasure, and, to those unfamiliar with her work, the perfect introduction to one of the most accomplished and best-loved writers of our time.
Praise for The Best of Connie Willis
“Filled with warmth and sadness, great drama, witty dialogue, characters you will care about and moments that you will remember for a long time.”—SFF World
“If anyone can be named ‘best science fiction writer of the age,’ it’s Connie Willis, and these stories are the best of her best. Truly.”—Analog
“Ranging from the hilarious to the profound, these stories show the full range of [Connie] Willis’s talent for taut, dazzling plots, real science, memorable characters, penetrating dialogue and blistering drama.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Thank goodness [for] Connie Willis, who says many things that desperately need saying in more than one delightful way.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“The Best of Connie Willis? Isn’t that like sorting through diamonds?”—Lytherus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This anthology demolishes any attempt to pigeonhole SFWA Grand Master and Science Fiction Hall of Famer Willis (Blackout/All Clear). Her six Nebula Awards and 10 Hugo Awards confirm her eminence in speculative fiction, but her versatile range and forthright wit wouldn't be out of place in the literary mainstream. The gradual revelations of horror through a young girl's narration in "A Letter from the Clearys" and the madcap comedy of quantum physics playing against randomness in everyday life in "At the Rialto" bear overtones of Shirley Jackson, an acknowledged influence. "Death on the Nile" plumbs identity loss and suggestions of reversion to the past, with no Hercule Poirot to set things straight. Contemporary satire appears in "Even the Queen," wherein the woes of menstruation are used to skewer hippie feminists. Whimsy also appears in "All Seated on the Ground," in which a young woman's experience with a frosty aunt gives her confidence to deal with sulky aliens. Confirmed Willis fans will find interesting reflections in the author's afterwords, and the reader for whom this diverse selection is an introduction will find incentives to build on the acquaintance.
