Most of the short story collections I buy are reprints, meaning that they’ve been through at least two layers of editorial control. First in the publication that originally printed them (Asimov’s Magazine, or the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction etc.), and then by the editor of the collection (usually Gardner Dozois, whose taste nicely coincides with my own).

With Eclipse One, the first of a proposed new series from Nightshade Books, Jonathan Strahan is trying to do something different. This is not one of the many annual “best of” anthologies, but a collection of new fiction in the vein of the old Universe collections edited by Terry Carr.

When I read this in Strahan’s Introduction, I sat up and paid attention, because I have fond memories of Terry Carr’s annual Best Science Fiction of the Year collections, which all had the familiar Gollancz yellow cover and were a staple of my library borrowing in my teens and twenties. I don’t recall reading many of the Universe collections, however, which were a different beast entirely. A brand new collection of stories especially commissioned is a much riskier prospect than the quality assurance offered by a Best Of collection.

So what do we get here? Fifteen stories, some familiar names, 260-odd pages, and a fair mixture of fantasy and SF. Rather than the doorstop-style 300,000-word volumes put out by Dozois each year, this feels more like an extra thick edition of a quarterly magazine. Conspicuous by its absence is the New Space Opera or anything resembling Hard Science. Instead you get the quirky, the odd, the mysterious, and the purely fantastical. It’s a nice mixture, actually, recalling the Gollancz collections of the 70s and 80s. The opener is typical: “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse” by Andy Duncan is just the type of offbeat story Terry Carr might have chosen, and it’s neither fish nor fowl, really. I couldn’t tell you whether it’s supposed to be SF or fantasy, or both, or neither. It’s just a slice of life, slightly mystical, personal, and poignant.

The well known names here include Garth Nix, Gwyneth Jones, and Bruce Sterling. Given the vast quantity of short SF I read, I wasn’t all that familiar with the writers here, partly because they come from a fantasy background. I was pleased to see the Gwyneth Jones story (because I particularly enjoyed her entry in the latest Dozois collection), and I’ve discovered quite a few writers I’ll seek out for further reading. The short length isn’t an issue, either, because the stories within are so different from each other that you find yourself reading at a more ruminative pace.

My one complaint is that the cover price ($14.95 or £7.35) is a bit steep, though I guess the price is worth paying to support new writing. There are a number of cheaper options available in the Used section on Amazon. Eclipse Two is due October 2008, according to the publisher’s web site.

Certainly worth seeking out if you have a jones for new SF beyond the Best Of annuals.