It’s not immediately obvious, but the year in question is 1998. This whopper of a book, containing over a quarter million words of fiction, begins with a 50-page summary of all the science fiction novels, short stories, collections, magazines, movies, TV shows, and more that appeared in 1998. It’s humorous in retrospect that editor Gardner Dozois says South Park is beginning to grow repetitive and he predicts its influence is beginning to wane, since it’s still making new episodes over twenty years later.

“That I have left my tales intact, complete with imperfections, serves not as proof of my dishonesty, but the opposite! Any blame lies not with the poor author who writes with the strictest regard to honesty, but with the events themselves.”

Pyrotechnicon is a fantastical, whimsical novel in which Cyrano de Bergerac has to face off against a man who’s part billiard table, a giant microscopic organism, a house made of birds, and other fantastical wonders. It’s pre-steampunk science fiction based on 17th century scientific ideas taken to their logical conclusions.

The stories in this collection have good atmosphere, with an unsettling, melancholy tone. They’re full of well-researched details which helps to immerse you in the world of the story. Most of the stories have supernatural elements, but not all. Many of the protagonists are lonely outsiders cut off from the rest of society.

Again, Dangerous Visions, published in 1972, was the follow up to the successful anthology Dangerous Visions. Each story has an introduction written by Ellison and an afterword written by the author. In some cases, the introduction and afterword are longer than the story itself.

In many of the introductions, Ellison tells us a third anthology in the series titled The Last Dangerous Visions is going to be published soon, and even shares the names of some of the authors who will appear. Alas, this third volume was never published during his lifetime. I get the impression Ellison wanted to include every prominent science fiction author of the time in these three volumes, but wasn’t able to pull it off since new writers kept coming along. (Ellison’s executor, J. Michael Straczynski, announced plans to publish a slimmed-down version of The Last Dangerous Visions in 2020, but it still hasn’t seen the light of day as of this writing.)

The novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is similar to the movie Blade Runner which was based on it, but also very different. Rick Deckard is married rather than single and surprisingly, owns an electric sheep. Since animals are nearly extinct, owning one is a status symbol. Those who can’t afford a real animal, buy electronic facsimiles. Due to the lack of animals, everyone on earth is a vegetarian through necessity and eating meat is considered atrocious.

Deckard, like most men, wears a lead codpiece to keep the radiation in the atmosphere from making him infertile. Most humans have left for the colonies, so Earth is nearly empty. Radiation has turned some people into mutants called specials. (In addition to Deckard, the other major viewpoint character is John Isidore, a special with diminished mental capacity who’s not allowed to go to the colonies.)