Who besides Hank Davis knew there were so many science fiction stories about Christmas! Here are two volumes of Yuletide stories with a wide variety so there’s something here for everyone. Some of the stories are classics, some are recent. I liked Manly Wade Wellman’s “On the Hills and Everywhere” as well as S. N. Dyer’s “Space Aliens Saved My Marriage.” If you’re looking for something to ignite your Holiday Cheer, these stories will do it!
TABLES OF CONTENTS:
VOLUME 1:
KRIS KRINGLE GOES KOSMIC by Hank Davis
DANCE IN BLUE by Catherine Asaro
LOBO, ACTUALLY by Mark L. Van Name
ON THE HILLS AND EVERYWHERE by Manly Wade Wellman
ANGEL IN FLIGHT by Sarah H. Hoyt
MAD HOLIDAY by George O. Smith
THE GRIMNOIR CHRONICLES: DETROIT CHRISTMAS by Larry Correia
THE VAMPIRES WHO SAVED CHRISTMAS by S. N. Dyer
AND VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS . . . by S. N. Dyer
THE SEASON OF FOREGIVENESS by Poul Anderson
DUMB FEAST by Mercedes Lackey
ROADS by Seabury Quinn
NEWSLETTER by Connie Willis
VOLUME 2:
•Introduction: the shape of Christmas to come / by Hank Davis
• Angel of light / by Joe Haldeman
• And to all a good night / by Tony Daniel
• Christmas card / by Connie Willis
• Away in a manger / by Wen Spencer
• Happy Birthday, dear Jesus / by Frederik Pohl
• Shepherds and wolves / by Sarah A. Hoyt
• In the psirit of Christmas / Tee Morris
• Wormhole magic / Marianne Plumridge
• A Christmas in amber / by Scott William Carter
• Space aliens saved my marriage / by S. N. Dyer
• Zwarte Piet’s tale / by Allen Steele
• How Thorvald the bloody-minded saved Christmas / By Esther Friesner
• Julian : a Christmas Storu / by Robert Charles Wilson.
I want those covers for my Christmas cards!
Deb, you’re right about those covers: very eye-catching!
Consider me thoroughly impressed! I had no idea … Thanks George.
Sergio, I had no idea there were that many SF Christmas stories out there. Color me surprised, too!
Another former DAPA-EMmer makes good. I’ve read several Christmas-themed mystery collections but did not know about these. I’ll look for them/
Jeff, Hank Davis has done some fine work with BAEN BOOKS collections. I have another Hank Davis collection ready for another FFB in 2015.
He’s also done Halloween-themed collections for Baen, like IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM.
Jeff, it won’t surprise you to learn I have a copy of IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM, too.
No, I’m not surprised. Baen has done some really good collections and I like the colorful covers too.
Jeff, some people complain the BAEN BOOKS covers are “over the top” and garish, but I really like their wackiness.
George, I’m impressed too. Christmas in sf stories has never occurred to me. Frederik Pohl is the only writer I’m familiar with. And I love the covers too. Thanks for this post.
Prashant, the surprising thing to me is that not only did Hank Davis find enough good science fiction stories to fill one volume, but he found more to fill a second volume, too!
There was just a post on SF Signal the other day about holiday SF and no one could think of any… and here they are. Cool. Good to see Hank Davis still making good books at Baen.
Prashant, you should also be familiar with Poul Anderson, I’ve posted on his work several times.
Rick, Poul Anderson wrote about EVERYTHING! He had enormous range.
George, I posted a link to this post over on SF Signal in the comments on that Mind Meld post. Maybe someone will come and look.
Rick, thanks for the link!
Well…there are a lot of sf stories about just about anything important. And “Over the Hills and Everywhere” is not sf…and certainly the happiest of John the Balladeer stories…if we include fantasies, I’m mildly surprised that the editor overlooked “Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R.” by Harlan Ellison and “Nackles” by Donald Westlake…but these are somewhat less happy Xmas stories, if still humorous…”The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke being a bit more sober altogether…
Todd, I love “Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R.”!
Ah yes, I’d forgotten Clarke’s “The Star”.