Worlds Vast and Various: Stories Book

A collection of short fiction can be an excellent intro to a writer whom you're not familiar with. But--as any Gregory Benford fan would likely tell you--Worlds Vast and Various might not be the best way to get to know this enormously likable and talented author. Which is not to suggest that there aren't some great stories here--there are, like the Greg Bear-edited "A Calculus of Desperation" and the F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired novella "As Big as the Ritz," to name just two. But like similar hodgepodge affairs, drawn from many sources and stages of a career, Worlds shouldn't be considered comprehensive or representative of Benford's best work. Benford himself admits to including the oldest story, 1969's "The Scarred Man," in part "to show how badly one can write and still get a start." (His other reason for including the short, though, turns out to be far more interesting.) Caveats aside, these 12 stories do demonstrate what the Campbell- and Nebula-winning Benford does best: tight hard-SF that's plausible for both its science and its characterization. (Or, in the case of the dark "A Dance to Strange Music," the clever and deliberate omission of characterization.) Benford is inarguably one of the genre's big guns, alongside dons like Greg Bear and Paul J. McAuley, with whom Benford shares the distinction of being an accomplished scientist to boot (he teaches plasma physics and astrophysics at UC-Irvine). Any way you cut it, a collection of Benford stories is going to be worth your time whether you're already familiar with his work or not. But if you're not, consider a longer piece--like Cosm or Timescape--to get properly acquainted. --Paul Hughes Read More