Gardner Dozois (Rogues) and George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones) edit Old Venus, a diverse collection of masterful speculative fiction. These 16 short stories tell of a long-forgotten, fictional Venus, a planet with world-spanning oceans; year-round, sun-blocking clouds; and a fear-inducing, yet intriguing, set of strange alien lifeforms and dazzling Venusian artifacts. Old Venus harkens back to the planet as it was imagined in the days of pulp fiction--a lush, human-inhabitable yet alien setting based on our limited understanding (at the time) of Earth's nearest sunward neighbor.
Brilliant science fiction authors like Gwyneth Jones, Joe Haldeman, Eleanor Arnason, Garth Nix, Stephen Leigh and Elizabeth Bear contribute to this collection with stories as varied and wonderful as the history of science fiction itself. Jones's "A Planet Called Desire" evokes a pulp-fiction past with larger-than-life hero John Forrest, adding a feminist overlay to her depiction of a subjugated alien population and a woman in search of her missing son. Arnason's "Ruins" pits a Russian colony against a CIA presence on Venus, in a conflict that centers on a mysterious alien-created crater and attached military base. This story also entertains with a delightfully smart alien "pterosaur" named Baby and a National Geographic photographer robot named Maggie.
It's a heady ride through some of the best short fiction around from authors and editors who know how to craft tight, thrilling narratives, and who play with established genre tropes to great effect. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor