The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson

Robinson's award-winning novels (the Mars Trilogy, Galileo's Dream) often unjustly overshadow his brilliant short stories, an error that this impressive collection will do much to correct. "Venice Drowned" chronicles Carlo Tafur's heartbreak as he saves Venice's treasures from the rising waters by selling them to foreigners. The profound and profoundly emotional "Lucky Strike" describes one man's struggle with his conscience during WWII. A family faces a variety of uncertainties at the onset of a new ice age in "Glacier," and the title character of "The Blind Geometer" works his way through a mathematical mystery that may prove lethal. Robinson is equally at home in the furthest reaches of the cosmos and among scotch-swilling NASA scientists stuck in traffic, and every story pivots around a different fascinating idea that will hit readers right in that "sense of wonder" SF sweet spot. (Aug.)