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Overview
The future, the past, and life today are boldly imagined and reinvented in the twenty-five stories collected in this showcase anthology. Many of the field's finest practitioners are represented here, along with stories from promising newcomers. A useful list of honorable mentions and Dozois's insightful summation of the year in SF round out this anthology, making it indispensable for anyone interested in SF today.This award-winning collection continues to provide dozens of the best stories of the year, including works by renowned veterans and exciting newcomers, such as Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, Ursula K. Le Guin and Nancy Kress. Rounded out with a long list of honorable mentions, this remains the one book for every sci-fi reader.
Synopsis
Gardner Dozois, winner of nine Hugo Awards for best editor, pulls together the finest works of contemporary science fiction. This annual anthology, considered to be the definitive collection of the genre, blends together a wide variety of authors and styles. Space opera, Asimov, international science fiction writers, and hard sf are all found in this collection of 28 stories.
Publishers Weekly
As in previous volumes in this series, Dozois, who has won the Hugo for Best Editor 11 times, again presents a large helping of stellar short SF. Nine of the 27 stories are, quite appropriately, from his own magazine, Asimov's, which continues to dominate the various genre awards. Dozois also includes four stories each from Fantasy and Science Fiction and the British Interzone. Also represented are Analog, Amazing, Science Fiction Age, and two semi-pro magazines, Absolute Magnitude and the Australian Altair, as well as such original anthologies as Moon Shots, Not of Women Born and the Canadian Tesseracts. Among the high points are two time-travel pieces, Kage Baker's story of San Francisco before the great earthquake, "Son Observe the Time," and Michael Swanwick's pre-historic time-paradox tale, "Scherzo with Tyrannosaurus"; Eleanor Arnason's understated story of alien gender-role reversal, "Dapple"; Kim Stanley Robinson's "A Martian Romance," which is set not in the world of his Mars trilogy but in a subtly alternate universe; and Greg Egan's "Border Guards," hard-SF that imagines a future in which immortality is a given and soccer is played using the principles of quantum physics. Also included is quality fiction by such luminaries of the field as James Patrick Kelly, Frederik Pohl, Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg and Paul McAuley, plus such rising stars as David Marusek, Alastair Reynolds and Sage Walker. As usual, the anthology begins with a detailed survey of the year in SF and ends with a long list of Honorable Mentions. Dozois's annual volume remains a standard by which the field of SF should be judged. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewEditor extraordinaire Gardner Dozois' annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthology is like the Pro Bowl for writers of short-length sci fi; and, as has come to be expected over the last two decades, the 23rd edition more than adequately measures up to its long list of venerable predecessors. Included within this shelf-bending collection are works from some of the biggest names in the field: Stephen Baxter, Bruce Sterling, Joe Haldeman, Alastair Reynolds, Gene Wolfe, and Harry Turtledove, to name just a few.
Notable selections include "Beyond the Aquila Rift" by Reynolds, about a wayward starship that ends up at a surreal space station 150,000 light years from home, Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold's "The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Back from the Stars," which revolves around a billionaire who bootstraps it to deep space and back (almost), and "The Great Caruso" by Steven Popkes, a speculative gem about a nicotine-addicted woman with a mysterious form of lung cancer.
Also included in Dozois' annual compilation is his in-depth summation of the year in science fiction. Encompassing every aspect of the genre (magazine sales, imprint launches and closures, awards, conferences, related films and television shows, etc.), the 30-page yearly summary is, to some, just as interesting -- and historically significant -- as the collection of elite stories featured afterward. Science fiction fans wondering about the state of the genre should definitely read this anthology, which features not only many of sci-fi's firmly established superstars but also the best and brightest newcomers -- an essential addition to any serious science fiction fan's collection. Paul Goat Allen
Publishers Weekly -
Dozois's Year's Best, like any successful representative of a large constituency, sometimes suffers from blandness and inconsistency. As usual, it's oversized23 stories, nearly 600 pagesand includes a variety of types of SF as well as near-horror, fantasy and humor. Five of the stories are final nominees for Nebulas, and two new ``Hainish'' stories by Ursula LeGuin were nominated for Tiptree Awards; ``The Matter of Segrri'' won. No story here is less than competent and professional; but, with a few exceptions, there is a voiceless sameness in the writing, practically a house style, that over so many pages grows tedious. (Nearly half the stories, by page count, come from the Dozois-edited Asimov's Science Fiction.) A number are flawed (``hard'' SF stories about ``aliens'' that think just like humans) or unremarkable, but these are outweighed by many fine pieces and by standouts such as LeGuin's ``Forgiveness Day,'' perhaps the best story in the book; Eliot Fintushel's ``New Wave''-like ``Ylem''; William Sanders's ``Going After Old Man Alabama'' and Terry Bisson's ``The Hole in the Hole,'' both of which are winning and funny; Katherine Kerr's chilling ``Asylum''; and Michael Bishop's grand and humane ``Cri de Coeur.'' Dozois's intelligently and ably put-together anthology does its stated job as well as any one book or editor could. Even with competition, it would still be the best of the Best. (July)Publishers Weekly
This annual anthology remains the best one-stop shop for short fiction, and it's a must for fans of literary SF. The notion of intelligence links several stories. Nancy Kress, in "Computer Virus," posits an intelligent computer program trying to save its life, but it does so by risking that of a child. The dense and busy "Lobsters" by Charles Stross considers the implications of denying intelligent uploaded constructs here, of lobsters human rights or autonomy. Michael Blumlein's zany "Know How, Can Do," easily the best story, posits a self-aware worm linked to a human brain, told from the point of view of the worm, "Flowers for Algernon"-style, as it acquires human intelligence, language and emotions. Alternative realities remain a productive theme. In "The Two Dicks," Paul McAuley posits an alternative reality where Philip K. Dick, who in this world wrote mainstream fiction instead of SF, meets Nixon. Ken MacLeod's ambitious, character-driven "The Human Front," set in an alternative reality just a little different from ours, describes a man's growth toward adulthood in a war-torn Britain. Dan Simmons, Alastair Reynolds, Maureen F. McHugh and Paul Di Filippo also contribute especially memorable tales. Although one could quibble with Dozois's choices and there are one or two clunkers in here this anthology is an enjoyable read that overall maintains high standards of quality and variety. It's essential for SF fans who simply don't have time to separate the wheat from the chaff on their own. (July 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.Publishers Weekly
As in previous volumes in this series, Dozois, who has won the Hugo for Best Editor 11 times, again presents a large helping of stellar short SF. Nine of the 27 stories are, quite appropriately, from his own magazine, Asimov's, which continues to dominate the various genre awards. Dozois also includes four stories each from Fantasy and Science Fiction and the British Interzone. Also represented are Analog, Amazing, Science Fiction Age, and two semi-pro magazines, Absolute Magnitude and the Australian Altair, as well as such original anthologies as Moon Shots, Not of Women Born and the Canadian Tesseracts. Among the high points are two time-travel pieces, Kage Baker's story of San Francisco before the great earthquake, "Son Observe the Time," and Michael Swanwick's pre-historic time-paradox tale, "Scherzo with Tyrannosaurus"; Eleanor Arnason's understated story of alien gender-role reversal, "Dapple"; Kim Stanley Robinson's "A Martian Romance," which is set not in the world of his Mars trilogy but in a subtly alternate universe; and Greg Egan's "Border Guards," hard-SF that imagines a future in which immortality is a given and soccer is played using the principles of quantum physics. Also included is quality fiction by such luminaries of the field as James Patrick Kelly, Frederik Pohl, Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg and Paul McAuley, plus such rising stars as David Marusek, Alastair Reynolds and Sage Walker. As usual, the anthology begins with a detailed survey of the year in SF and ends with a long list of Honorable Mentions. Dozois's annual volume remains a standard by which the field of SF should be judged. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|VOYA
Dozois's massive collection of science fiction short stories from 2005 starts, as have other years' anthologies, with a look at the world of publishing. Thus brought up to speed on the health of various SF publishers and publications, the reader can delve into thirty short stories, where soft or social SF seems to predominate. The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Back from the Stars by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold uses an SF premise to explore the relationship between two people from different countries and with different agendas. Daryl Gregory's intriguing Second Person, Present Tense questions the definition of self and whether one knows it when one sees it. The time-hopping detective of In the Quake Zone by David Gerrold reflects on changes to society, sexuality, and technology. On the other hand, Stephen Baxter's The Children of Time examines a potential future of earth and its human inhabitants with nary a plot on which to hang. Typical of a large collection of stories, this twenty-third compilation is an excellent way to receive exposure to SF authors of all stripes-old, new, accomplished novelists, and short story devotees. The trends cropping up this time around include the environment damaged or run amok, artificial intelligence, and the world of the near future. None of these concepts break new ground but a few stories do stand out, including Second Person, Present Tense, whereas a few others seem dull in comparison-The Children of Time. It is more hit than miss, with something for nearly everyone except, perhaps, the lover of space opera or chaste romance.Library Journal
From David Marusek's tale of a future where reality's borders collide with the unreal ("The Wedding Album") to Kage Baker's latest novella featuring the time-traveling "Company" ("Son Observe the Time"), the 27 stories in this annual collection bear witness to the vitality of the sf short story. Including tales by Tanith Lee, Frederick Pohl, Hal Clement, Michael Swanwick, and others, this volume displays the best and brightest of the genre to good advantage. Suitable for most sf or short story collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\Library Journal
Dozois has again selected the best short sf of 1996 for inclusion in this award-winning anthology series. Among the 27 writers are Gregory Benford, John Kessel, Robert Silverberg, Maureen F. McHugh, Bruce Sterling, Charles Sheffield, and Stephen Baxter, with contributions covering romance, aliens, a high-tech future, the space program, Africa, scientific thriller, hard science, and cyberpunk. Highly recommended for all sf collections.Kirkus Reviews
As ever, Dozois leads his anthology with a homerun by Ian R. MacLeod and follows it with a second MacLeod, "Isabel of the Fall." Two dozen tales give ballast to this voyage into SF and fantastic realism, including MacLeod's "New Light on the Drake Equation," which takes place perhaps a century from now. The story turns on Tom Kelly, a fading SETI scientist who's on a French hilltop radio-scanning the heavens for First Contact and using as his guide the Drake Equation, which helps map the likely areas an alien culture might try to contact us from. The fallible equation is less certain than he is, but Tom has great assurance about contact-for a number of decades. During them, he's visited by his ex-lover, the star-crossed Terr, a hyperenthusiast who exhausts subjects that interest her and who left Tom to take up flying with wings attached to a newly improved back musculature (Tom took up drinking to pass the time). Aside from descriptions of marvelous scientific advances in personal grooming, little confronts the reader except many pages of fine writing about waiting, waiting, waiting. "Isabel of the Fall" is a future children's story looking back at the urchin Isabel, who was taken into the Dawn Church, became a Dawn singer, and had to climb the minaret daily to clean the great mirrors that collect light from heaven-until she had a great fall . . . Also outstanding: Dan Simmons's "On K2 with Kanakaredes," about a trio of climbers forced to accept the company of a bug-shaped, six-legged alien, Kanakaredes from Aldebaran, when they climb Everest. And not to be missed: Nancy Kress's "Computer Virus"-about a mother whose home is invaded by-well, check the title. True fiction. The pure stuff.From the Publisher
Praise for The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-second Annual Collection
"Hugo winner Dozois shows off the dazzling range of the genre in his annual compendium.... The range of stories indicates that SF still doesn't know the meaning of the word boundaries."
---Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The most prestigious of the several best-of-the-year fantasy and SF anthologies never fails to enchant and to showcase SF's leading edge. In it, high-quality contributions by a generous cross section of veterans, rising stars, and newcomers---twenty-nine authors in all---constitute a balanced mixture of ideas and voices."
---Booklist
"Huge multiplicity of first-rate fiction...Is the polished platter underlying a huge layer cake of exquisite reading."
---The San Diego Union-Tribune