Far Horizons: All New Tales from the Greatest Worlds of Science Fiction

Silverberg (The Alien Years) now does for SF what his recent anthology Legends did for fantasy, collecting new tales by a number of the world's greatest SF writers set in the universes of their best-known series. Some entries--such as Ursula K. Le Guin's ""Old Music and the Slave Women,"" from her Ekumen series; Dan Simmons's ""Orphans of the Helix,"" a further tale of the Hyperion Cantos; and Greg Bear's ""The Way of All Ghosts,"" set in his Thistledown universe--stand more or less independent of what has preceded them. Others--such as Joe Haldeman's ""A Separate War,"" set in the future of The Forever War, or Orson Scott Card's ""Investment Counselor,"" which relates an episode in the early life of Ender Wiggin--are essentially engaging footnotes, filling in worthwhile bits of information that never made it into previous novels. Still others, David Brin's ""Temptation,"" for example, from his Uplift series, continue an author's on-going stories beyond the reach of the major works. Also included are a new tale by Nancy Kress, set in the world of the Sleepless; an interesting addition to Frederik Pohl's Tales of the Heechee; an early episode in Gregory Benford's Galactic Centers series; a new story by Silverberg himself, set in the alternate universe of Roma Eterna; and the first solo tale of the Ship Who Sang that Anne McCaffrey has written in years. All the stories are, at a minimum, very good, and several are outstanding. The Le Guin and Simmons contributions are particularly worthy of award consideration. This is an important anthology that should appeal to all serious readers of SF. (May)