The Best of Connie Willis

Starred review from May 6, 2013
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.

April 15, 2013
Ten award-winning stories, 1982-2007, plus three equally well-regarded award acceptance speeches, from the much-celebrated author (All Clear, 2011, etc.). Hard to say which of these stories is the most famous; probably "Fire Watch" (Hugo winner), in which a time traveler helps save St. Paul's cathedral from incendiaries in 1940. Not far behind would be "The Last of the Winnebagos" (Hugo and Nebula winner), depicting a future in which dogs are extinct, and the Humane Society, mutated into a crypto-fascist police organization, is liable to shoot you for accidentally running over a coyote; or the wrenching post-apocalyptic "A Letter from the Clearys" (Nebula winner). Returning to the "Fire Watch" theme, "The Winds of Marble Arch" (Hugo) explores a London Underground haunted by the ghosts of the Blitz. And in "Death on the Nile" (Hugo), the protagonists are dead but don't know it--an idea that Willis would explore in more depth in her brilliant novel Passage. The remaining tales show off Willis' gift for comedy. Who else, for instance, could write about menstruation ("Even the Queen," Hugo and Nebula) and make it screamingly funny? In "All Seated on the Ground" (Hugo), weird alien visitors do nothing but stand around and glare disapprovingly. Who better than Emily Dickenson ("The Soul Selects Her Own Society," Hugo) to save Earth from Wellsian Martian invaders or arch-skeptic H. L. Mencken ("Inside Job," Hugo) to debunk a fake psychic? Finally, in "At the Rialto" (Nebula), attendees of a quantum physics conference at a Hollywood hotel stumble into delightfully probabilistic chaos. Ranging from the hilarious to the profound, these stories show the full range of Willis' talent for taut, dazzling plots, real science, memorable characters, penetrating dialogue and blistering drama--and may guide inquisitive readers toward her equally accomplished and acclaimed novels.

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June 1, 2013
In her humble and reflective introduction to this collection, spanning 25 years of Hugo and Nebula Awardwinning short fiction, Willis describes how she fell so madly in love with sf short stories in her youth that she's still writing them 40 years later. Her passion comes through in the vision and variety represented in this collection, from haunting futures ( A Letter from the Clearys; The Last of the Winnebagos ) to wryly funny portrayals of scientists, academics, and aliens ( All Seated on the Ground; At the Rialto ). Famous figures such as Emily Dickinson ( The Soul Selects Her Own Society ) and H. L. Mencken ( Inside Job ) save the world in unexpected ways, and women's issues take on new meaning in Even the Queen. Fire Watch expresses Willis' fascination with the compassion and resilience of Londoners during the Blitz, while the eerie Death on the Nile philosophically confronts the inevitability of death, ideas that come together in Winds of the Marble Arch and are explored in later novels. Three signature award-acceptance speeches are also included. This is the essential Willis collection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)