"Social Dreaming of the Frin" by Ursula K. Le Guin - A quasi-sociological report on the people of the "plane" (which term is quite vague) of Frin who share one another's dreams. An actual fantasy story, and actually well-written.
There's no overt political messaging. If I didn't know previously know about it, I don't know if this would occur to me, but Le Guin was interested in Buddhism, and this does have significant Buddhist overtones. But it's not grotesque message-fic. It's a good story which also conveys the author's values. Even if I don't agree with those beliefs, I cannot say this is badly done.
"Five British Dinosaurs" by Michael Swanwick - I can't really call this a story. It's five separate tiny vignettes about dinosaurs. Some are fantasy, kind of. Some are just stories. There's barely enough in any one to actually call it a story. This seems more like a gimmick than fiction.
"The Green Word" by Jeffrey Ford - On the positive side, this is a fantasy story. On the negative side, this is ham-handed message fic. It is about mean, evil Christians in the middle ages persecuting wise, decent pagans. The pagan witch is a Mary Sue with unexplained fantastic physical abilities. The evil Christian king is literally named King Pious. He has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. He is stupid, selfish, hypocritical.
I can read well-written stories by people I disagree with, even appreciate them. This is trash which a reader will only like if he already agrees with the message.
"The Comedian" by Steve Chapman - This is an actual fantasy story about a family with a variety of psychic talents. It's not bad. It's very character focused, in a way that to me, smells a little of someone who wishes he were writing "literary" fiction but has decided that it's easier to get published in genre.
Actually fantasy, not overtly offensive. On the high side for this book.
"The Pagodas of Ciboure" by M. Shayne Bell - A very sick little boy in France (apparently leukemia, although not named most of the story) goes with his mother to the countryside to recover. While there, he meets some magical creatures called pagodas who, legend says, have healing powers. They help him and he ends up helping them, and growing up to be someone quite important.
Really good, actually. Again, no political nonsense. Almost an old school fairy tale. This may be my favorite story so far.
"From the Cradle" by Gene Wolfe - A young man who works in a book shop becomes interested in a rare book that is for sale on consignment. Although he can only see a page or two at a time, he becomes fascinated by its stories, which turn out to be a trail of breadcrumbs leading to . . . something else.
An odd mix of fairy tale and science fiction. Wolfe doesn't provide a complete picture, but a series of dots, and trusts his reader to find the whole. I'm quite certain I missed some things the first time through and should re-read this.
Excellent story.
So, I am currently halfway through by page count and just over halfway through counting by stories. What's the score so far?
Out of 15 stories:
Stories that are not fantasy or only maybe fantasy if you squint at it the right way: 6
Stories that are toxic political propaganda (some overlap with previous): 4
Just plain good fantasy stories? 5
Was this the best short fantasy fiction of 2002? No. I'd bet my life no. If I could still find it, I'd bet I could find stories written by nobodies on the internet from that year that were far superior to most of those published here.
It's stunning to me now, to see how far things had fallen already 20 years ago, and I hadn't even noticed it. And, as far as major publishing houses and such go, it's only been downhill since.
We can't accept this, and we can't wait for someone else to fix it. We have to create and support the culture we want.
Speaking of, you might take a look at my own book: The Mayor of Christ Mountain.
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