5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining but unenchanted, September 6, 2009
This review is from: The Best of the Best, Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels (Paperback)
I selected this book for the same reason I pick up any sci-fi anthology: I want to be introduced to new (to me) and interesting authors. I greatly dislike purchasing books and then find that the author's writing style does not succeed at immersing me into their world. I recognized a few old favorites in the list of novellas but was pleased to see a larger list of authors and stories that I have never heard of. Usually before my purchase I read the anthology's introduction to gain an understanding of why these particular stories were chosen (some anthologies carry themes or explore certain aspects of the human condition through various viewpoints and scenarios). I did not do that in this case but I truly wish I did.
The editor Gardner Dozois goes no further in explaining why he chose these stories other than to say that he found them great and that they personally appeal to them. While that's not necessarily off-putting it does mean that the range of stories can be limited. Oftentimes people like the same stories told in different ways. I feel that this was definitely the case in this anthology. Several of the stories carry the same theme or gimmicks.
Sailing to Byzantium and Outnumbering the Dead deal with characters experiencing the effects of longer lives. Beggars in Spain deals with this towards the end of the story. Byzantium tells the story of a non-POV character who is among the few that does not have a long life while Dead deals with the POV character coming to grips about not having a longer life. I suppose what bothered me the most about these two stories appearing in the same anthology is that they both used similar or the same terminology to explain what was going on. For instance, in both stories the characters who lived normal life spans (by our definition) are called being on "short-time". Additionally, after reading Beggars in Spain I began to suspect that the editor wished that all three stories existed in the same universe. These stories would not be so bad back-to-back if only they told more than one aspect of the story. Instead of focusing on how longer life is the best, and those that cannot obtain it are just going to have to deal and get over themselves, perhaps one of these should have been dropped in favor of a story explaining how longer life is detrimental to the human condition. And perhaps the inclusion of Mr. Boy was an attempt at creating this balance (the main character whose life is stalled at pre-adolescence) but fails in that it is now the 4th story of a particular theme in a collection of just thirteen stories.
Oceanic and Tendeleo's story both grapple faith as it is being challenged by indisputable scientific fact. Oceanic focuses more on challenging religions' "gut-feeling" faith proof while Tendeleo is more blatant by swallowing artifacts of faith by either covering it in alien green things or in human chaos, as is the case of the main character's father. Other stories pick up themes of faith as being hopeless but not as exclusively. While they present interesting ideas it doesn't help the individual story to have a similar themed story right next to it. They lose their effectiveness and well, splash, by becoming kind of preachy and depressing.
A smaller problem I had with this anthology is the lack of proofreading. While reading the stories I have found several horrific typos and misspellings. Things that are very obvious. This did nothing to help along my good opinion of the anthology.
Overall, if you share the same tastes in stories as Dozois you will find each novella entertaining and pleasing, no matter the author. If you do not, like me, then you will find little in the book to recommend itself.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Free SF Reader, March 9, 2008
This review is from: The Best of the Best, Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels (Paperback)
In his introduction Dozois says he has chosen from his favorite novellas in the first twenty volumes of his Year's Best Series, barring leaving out a couple that were being published at the time.
A length of which he is a fan, apparently : "Unlike many of today's novel, all too many of wihch strike me as novellas grossly padded-out to be five hundred pages long, there are rarely any wasted words in a novella".
Padding is right in a lot of books, couldn't agree more, but presumably length sells - although editors of course make heaps more work for themselves with longer novels. If you have to fix 120K words rather than 80K, anybody can work that one out.
This book came about, he says because the first volume, Best of the Best had novellas, too, but there were lots more to fit in. Apparently he has selected 100-120 over the life of the series, or thereabouts.
Seeing this volume is considerably shorter, as far as story count goes, it will run the risk of not having the chance to appeal to as many people on probability, I would think, given a selection of his own exactly particular taste, rather than a deliberate wider ranger.
Holds true for me, I think, as none of my own particular favorites of those volumes I have read, here, but The Hemingway Hoax is rather good.
So the score is only 3.69, which is lower than your standard 3.80 average score for his Year's Best series.
This, however, is still an excellent anthology.
Best of the Best 2 : Sailing To Byzantium - Robert Silverberg
Best of the Best 2 : Surfacing - Walter Jon Williams
Best of the Best 2 : The Hemingway Hoax - Joe Haldeman
Best of the Best 2 : Mr. Boy - James Patrick Kelly
Best of the Best 2 : Beggars In Spain - Nancy Kress
Best of the Best 2 : Griffin's Egg - Michael Swanwick
Best of the Best 2 : Outnumbering The Dead - Frederick Pohl
Best of the Best 2 : Forgiveness Day - Ursula K. LeGuin
Best of the Best 2 : The Cost To Be Wise - Maureen F. McHugh
Best of the Best 2 : Oceanic - Greg Egan
Best of the Best 2 : Tendeleo's Story - Ian McDonald
Best of the Best 2 : New Light On The Drake Equation - Ian R. MacLeod
Best of the Best 2 : Turquoise Days - Alastair Reynolds
Tedious travelogue and artificial lifetime constraints.
3 out of 5
Undersea communication research alien possession accomodation.
4 out of 5
Multiple serial murder mayhem over Ernie's multiversal missing manuscript mania.
4.5 out of 5
Not wanting to grow up attitude certainly isn't helped by mum's mechanical approach to parenting.
3.5 out of 5
Sleeping is a waste of time.
4 out of 5
Terran nuclear nightmare, moon mental mimetic mayhem amidst crisis predicted canoodling.
3.5 out of 5
Famous actor guy unluckily gotta die through space will fly.
3.5 out of 5
Ekumen embassy explosion entrapment unrest.
4 out of 5
Having to eat your dog will make you sad.
3 out of 5
A boy growing up in a backward fundamentalist community on another planet begins to understand how much the local biology has altered the people that live there, and why a religion surrounds this.
3.5 out of 5
A Kenyan woman and her community come to terms with an alien infestation, as the outsider who fancies her adapts as well.
4 out of 5
A story about a hermit-like SETI astronomer and his past relationships.
4 out of 5
I sea we have a problem.
3.5 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Big SF, April 1, 2011
Gardner Dozois reviewed twenty years of his annual Year's Best Science Fiction collections to create
The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction, Volume 1. The first volume contained mostly shorter fiction. This second volume is entirely devoted to novella-length stories; there are thirteen of them and they are reasonably good.
My four favorites:
Robert Silverberg's "Sailing to Byzantium" introduces us to a man from the 1980s who must cope with society tens of thousands of years in the future. We learn this new world along with him as he slowly discovers who and what is real. And what can be done about it.
Joe Haldeman's "The Hemingway Hoax" starts off as a 1950's crime story--and could have worked equally well staying within that genre. An aging college professor conspires with his former-student wife and an experienced con man to forge a few of Ernest Hemingway's lost manuscripts. This creates ripple effects everywhere.
Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain" examines a family with two non-identical twins, one normal and the other genetically engineered to not need sleep. How is it different growing up sleepless? And how does society react to sleepless adults who can learn and achieve more with those extra hours each day?
In Alastair Reynolds' "Turquoise Days" we encounter a planetary ocean containing all of the building blocks of life. It can change those who swim in it. Sometimes it is hard to understand, let alone appreciate, the nature of its gifts to the swimmers. Or what they can be used to accomplish.
These are good stories. Only a couple seem to run longer than necessary. Most entertain and engage the reader for their entire length. The collection is recommended for those who have not yet read these stories in other Dozois collections.
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