The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eighteenth Annual Collection [Hardcover]

Gardner Dozois (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2001 | Series: Year's Best Science Fiction

The twenty-three stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our being, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:

Stephen Baxter, M.Shayne Bell, Rick Cook, Albert E. Cowdrey, Tananarive Due, Greg Egan, Eliot Fintushel, Peter F. Hamilton, Earnest Hogan, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Paul J. McAuley, Ian McDonald, Susan Palwick, Severna Park, Alastair Reynolds, Lucius Shepard, Brian Stableford, Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Steven Utley, Robert Charles Wilson

Supplementing the stories is the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Gardner Dozois has become the most influential editor in science fiction, and his best-of-the-year anthologies show why. He has chosen 23 stories by masters such as Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Swanwick, Brian Stableford, and Greg Egan, as well as newer writers Severna Park, Tananarive Due, and Eliot Fintushel.

Standouts include "Tendeleo's Story," Ian MacDonald's powerful tale of people whose lives are changed by an alien invader that is slowly eating Africa; "The Suspect Genome," a mystery by Peter F. Hamilton; the slow but moving "Going After Bobo" by Susan Palwick; and "The Great Goodbye" by Robert Charles Wilson. Hugo nominees include "Radiant Green Star" by Lucius Shepherd, "Oracle" by Greg Egan, and "On the Orion Line" by Stephen Baxter.

Dozois's summation of the year in science fiction alone is worth the cost of admission to these annual collections. Along with his usual takes on publishing, literature, film, and more, Dozois delivers a retrospective on the state of science fiction in the year 2000. Contrary to those who claim science fiction is either dead or (at least) losing its heart and soul since the deaths of authors like Isaac Asimov and Robert J. Heinlein, Dozois emphatically argues that the health of SF has never been stronger. Discussing increased numbers of novels being published (he includes numbers to prove his point), discoveries of young new writers, ongoing evolution of the literature, and innovative viewpoints to mine, Dozois bubbles over with enthusiasm for the genre in which he made his name, as well as the coming century and its mysterious developments waiting to surprise and delight us. --Bonnie Bouman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This annual anthology is quite simply the best, most comprehensive look at today's SF, with 22 stories of consistently excellent caliber, some displaying gonzo writing and others displaying dizzyingly fabulous premises. Dozois has chosen stories that define the genre and its trends today--tales that show that SF continues to fruitfully forge across new boundaries.The alternative/parallel history is growing as a subgenre, with a sophisticated premise of the nature of alternative realities from Greg Egan's "Oracle" suggesting that humans can learn to control their destinies. Charles Stoss's "Antibodies" follows operatives working in parallel realities to stop artificial intelligences from attaining consciousness, with a surprise ending that ties the story up neatly and unexpectedly. And Rick Cook and Ernest Hogan show some impressive world-building in "Obsidian Harvest," a murder mystery set in a strange, beautifully worked alternative reality in Mexico, years after the natives drove away the Spanish invaders. The soldier-battling-evil story, a staple of SF, has grown sophisticated, with Alastair Reynolds's "Great Wall of Mars," Stephen Baxter's "On the Orion Line" and Stoss's "A Colder War" exploring the ambiguities and compromises inherent in warfare. Reynolds considers a soldier who realizes that the enemy may be in the right. Baxter's heroes fight inexplicable aliens attempting to slow human expansion. And Stoss's government operatives engage in battle via doors to other planets in an entry that contains a wryly amusing alternative-history take on the Oliver North scandal. Technology's impact on biology remains a rich vein as well. Ian McDonald considers an Africa being eaten by alien machines that may give humans amazing powers and control over their lives in "Tendeleo's Story"; Brian Stableford's "Snowball in Hell" considers a world in which animals can be tinkered with to create humans, thus complicating the nature and superiority of humanity; and Susan Palwick's oblique "Going After Bobo," the story of a boy whose cat runs away, turns into a delicate consideration of the role of electronic surveillance and how it comes to define a family.Finally, a few entries are remarkable for their excellent writing. Standouts include Stoss's two stories; Ursula K. Le Guin's first-contact yarn, told from the point of view of aliens, "The Birthday of the World"; Albert E. Cowdrey's hilarious "Crux," a time-travel adventure with a screwup protagonist; and Eliot Fintushel's amazing "Milo and Sylvie," about a young shape-shifter who painfully comes to learn about himself and his powers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (August 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312274653
• ISBN-13: 978-0312274658
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #541,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the reviews below --, August 13, 2001

By 

Joe Haldeman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eighteenth Annual Collection (Paperback)

Every customer review here is for the wrong book. They refer to _last_ year's Dozois collection. Somebody please fix this, so we can start with a clean slate. (I haven't read all the book yet, but it looks pretty good.) -- Joe Haldeman

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Standout edition of a standout series, February 27, 2002

By 

Brad Shorr "Brad Shorr" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eighteenth Annual Collection (Paperback)

This is the fifteenth edition I've read, and it's one of the strongest. As always, Dozois includes a wide range of styles and themes, from the lyrical to the hardest of hard science. So...while there's always something for everybody, you can't expect to enjoy every story. My favorites:

Good:
"Going After Bobo"--Heartwrenching, poetic character study, but the plot is pretty thin.
"Crux"--Dark detective story/social commentary set in a brutal post-holocaust future dominated by the Orient. Quite violent, with a fast paced and tighty knit plot.
"The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O"--Time travel with two amazing characters. Provocative, in-your-face prose.
"Radiant Green Star"--Another violent future world dominated by the Orient. This time it's a traditional mystery combined with a poetic coming-of-age story.
"Great Wall of Mars"--A cult of humans with networked implants battle unnetworked humans for survival. Lots of action, great speculation on the potential of the human mind.
"A Colder War"--Alternate Cold War history with aliens causing major problems for both sides. Confusing plot, but highly realistic narrative keeps it interesting anyway.

Great:
"The Suspect Genome"--Future world whodunit, set in an England where police work has been somewhat privatized. Brilliant plot construction and writing keep you engaged all the way.
"On the Orion Line"--Man versus powerful and inscrutable aliens deep in space, far in the future. Well developed characters, fast paced and straightforward plot.
"Obsidian Harvest"--Another future world detective story set in England. What makes this one extraordinary is the premise, where the Aztecs dominate the world--human sacrifices, feathered capes, lots of tequila. Add hard-boiled prose in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett (his "Red Harvest" is great) and you have something unforgettable.
"Patient Zero"--Nightmarish account of a dreadful near-future. Great plot, great characters, and makes some strong statements in only fifteen pages.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stellar anthology of fabulous fiction, September 24, 2001

By 

Fosky Bob "human" (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eighteenth Annual Collection (Paperback)

This latest edition of Gardner Dozois' long-running Year's Best SF anthology series is worth every penny. I enjoyed nearly every story in the volume and found it to be, on the whole, much stronger than previous year's editions.

Highlights of the volume include 'The Birthday of the World' by Ursula Le Guin; in which a race of 'gods' struggle for power, 'Crux' by Albert Cowdrey; a time travel adventure that has more similarities to the old pulp stories than most recent SF, 'Radiant Green Star' by Lucius Shepard; a fabulous story about an orphan's search for his father while he performs in a circus in Vietnam, 'Great Wall of Mars' by Alastair Reynolds; the story of a renegade colony on Mars and attempts to eradicate it, 'On the Orion Line' by Stephen Baxter; a story of war in space that I found to be one of Baxter's most literate and readable stories, 'A Colder War' by Charles Stross; a brilliant meld of Cthulu fiction and Cold War politics, and my favorite story in the volume 'Tendeleo's Story' by Ian McDonald; the story of a young girl in Africa who grows up amid invasion by alien spores.

Like all anthologies, not all stories will please all readers. I found 'Milo and Sylvie' by Eliot Fintushel to be WAY overlong, boring, and without a coherent plot. 'Snowball in Hell' by Brian Stableford bogged down with too much gengineering talk...too many big words, not enough plot extrapolation.

This truly is a collection of the Best SF of the year. There are only a handful of stories that didn't make the book that may have been deserving (stories by Jeffrey Ford, Kage Baker, Charles Sheffield, & Robert Reed spring immediately to mind). By and large the stories in this book are extremely well-written with fascinating plots. Consider 'Oracle' by Greg Egan, a story with thinly veiled characterizations of C.S. Lewis and Alan Turing...this is a story that science fiction is all about. With the exception of the two stories I mentioned earlier, there isn't a sub-par story in this collection. Highly recommended.