The Barnes & Noble Review
Who are the up-and-coming literary stars that will lead science fiction into its next golden era? New Voices in Science Fiction, an anthology edited by Mike Resnick, contains 20 short stories by some of the best and brightest writers in the genre. Included are never-before-published works by Cory Doctorow, Julie E. Czerneda, Kage Baker, and Susan R. Matthews, to name a few.

Noteworthy stories include David D. Levine's "Nucleon" and "Lifeblood" by Michael A. Burstein. Levine's tale revolves around the relationship between a commercial artist and the owner of a junkyard. While searching for odd gadgets for a new ad campaign, artist Phil James finds much more than that. Burstein's story focuses on Jewish mysticism. When Lincoln Kliman's son gets bitten by a vampire, he goes to a local synagogue for help. With only a few hours left to save the boy, Kliman -- a self-proclaimed agnostic -- must come face to face with his own beliefs.

According to Resnick, there is a good chance the next superstars of the genre are included in this collection. "Fifteen or twenty years from now, when the historians of the field name the ten best writers to break within three years, either direction, of the millennium, you'll find at least half of them in this book."

Incredibly diverse (stories run the gamut from hard-core sci-fi to horror to sardonic fiction) and utterly enthralling, this anthology is a winner. Paul Goat Allen