Customer Reviews

The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been reading Dozois's annual collection of science fiction since the 3rd volume, and every year I am amazed at the consistent quality of the stories he selects. Every story is always enjoyable, and every volume always has a few gems that usually turn to be the best science fiction I read in a given year, regardless of length. This year is no exception.

I think my favorite thing about this series is the shear size, which allows Dozois to include several novella-length stories, while still having room for a good mix of shorter length fiction as well. This year's volume includes several novellas that are not to be missed.

My favorite story is the lead-off novella, "The Wedding Album" by David Marusek. It is set in the same future as his incredible "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy" and I would be hard-pressed to say which story I prefer. "The Wedding Album" is the story of a young couple's marriage and future life, as explored through the viewpoint of virtual simulations of themselves taken on the day of their marriage. The story is both entertaining and poignant, and Marusek's vision of the future is dazzling.

Also not to be missed is the final novella in this volume, Kage Baker's "Son Observe the Time." Set in the same timeline as her novels In the Garden of Iden and Sky Coyote, this story stands on its own, and I think is the best writing Baker has produced to date. In it, representatives of a future company are in San Francisco just before the 1906 earthquake. They cannot change the past, but they are attempting to salvage as much art and knowledge as they can before the quake. Unfortunately, some of the company's own distant past emerges to cause problems even as the earthquake approaches... A fantastic story.

This rest of the stories in this volume are just as worth reading. I especially enjoyed the stories by Geoff Ryman, Eleanor Arnason, Robert Reed, Greg Egan, and James Patrick Kelly.

Was 1999 the greatest year ever for short SF? Definately not. That's exactly why reading through Volume 17 of Gardner Dozier's "The Year's Best Science Fiction" is worth the investment. I wish I had the time to buy and read the great SF magazines like Asimov's and Interzone. But I don't; so I let the editor and his associates do it for me.

When I read books in this series, I start by skipping to the editor's comments at the beginning of each story. Gardner's degree of narrative excitement generally helps the reader quickly decide which stories to enjoy first. Also, the reader will find many authors in each volume that should list among their favorites in the genre.

Highlights from Volume 17 include:

1. "The Wedding Album", by David Marusek. Highly original and creative. This story seems just on the verge of possibility as our 21st Century technology rapidly advances. Use a daytimer? Remember, kids today don't know what a daytimer is. Maybe their Palm will tell them what it did back in the old days.

2. "10 (to the 16th Power)", by James Patrick Kelly. Haunting. Really. Read it.

3. "People Came From Earth", by Stephen Baxter. Have enjoyed many previous Baxter pieces in the "Year's Best" series. This story is very short, very well done, and very sad.

4. "Hatching the Phoenix", by Frederick Pohl. Give me all the Heechee you can. Please. Especially stuff this good.

5. "A Martian Romance", by Kim Stanley Robinson. Essential for fans of the already classic Mars series.

6. "Son Observe the Time", by Kage Baker. Best written story in the entire Company series. Worth the price of the book in itself. Everything else is gravy.

All these gems, plus: Ben Bova, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Tanith Lee, Robert Silverberg, and many other fine modern writers. Short works are the foundation of SF. Books like the Dozier edited "Year's Best" series help remind fans that most creative and fun ideas don't necessarily require 300 or more pages to provide major enjoyment.

Previous volumes have rated higher, but this year's effort contains many good stories fans want to read. I would most accurately rate this book at 3.80 stars, rounded up to 4.00.

The only trouble with a year's best anthology is that it invariably includes some stories you don't like-and leaves out some you thought were great. Such are the vagaries of taste. That said, Gardner Dozois's seventeenth annual collection of the Years Best Science Fiction offers plenty of worthy things to read. Many of the stories feature highly imaginative settings-Robert Reed's "Winemaster" comes to mind at once, as does Kage Baker's "Son Observe the Time." And there are compelling stories from well-known writers: James Patrick Kelly uses childhood and cold war fears while Michael Swanwick integrates dinosaur fantasies with human frailty. But perhaps one of the most important thing this anthology does is introduce readers to newer and less well-known writers. Chris Lawson's "Written in Blood" impressed me when I first read it in Asimov's-such a quirky turn on what we know of DNA. "The Dragon of Pripyat" by Karl Schroeder gives us hint of a future just around the corner. And Richard Wadholm's "Green Tea" shows what a sure hand can do when combining a vivid imagination with very old concepts of love and revenge. His world includes wondrous elements chemistry hasn't yet found; his people cut commodities deals in the Bright Matter Exchange and live in worlds along the French Violet. But the part of the story that breaks my heart every time is when the narrator wonders what his friend Frances saw in him: "A man of honesty beneath the lies, compassion beneath the avarice? You will find this most amusing-because I could not bear to let her down, I would have been that man." Read this collection. Be overwhelmed by the great stories in it, and argue with your friends about the ones you think don't qualify. And mark the new writers: you're going to want to read more from them.

The basic problem with any anthology is that it's fairly doubtful that every story selected will be a good read. That said, Gardner Dozois does a reasonably good job of sorting out the wheat from the chaff and including mostly good stories. However, after reading this year's collection, I'd have to say that either last year was a bad year for short fiction or Dozois is losing his touch. This is still an "okay" collection of short SF, but it's not as good as collections from previous years. In fact, rather than being really sci fi, some (particularily the first few) of the stories seemed more like horror. "The Wedding Story" which was the lead off story set the tone for the entire volume -- depressing and creepy. While depressing and creepy stories definitely have their place in this collection, there were too many of them. I like sci fi that makes me think, not sci fi that creeps me out.

That said, if you're thinking about buying this book, it is still reasonably good sci fi. However, rather than relying on a year end compendium to get your short fiction, how about supporting the magazines that give you the short fiction? Instead of spending your money on this book, think about getting a subscription to Asimov's or Analog or one of the other sci fi magazines? Those are the source of most of the stories in this book and hey, if you're going to get mixed good and bad stories anyway, why not go directly to the source. It would be money better spent.

Gardner Dozois does a good job editing various SF stories to get the best in this 17 edition.766 pages and 27 stories. 3/4s of the stories he selects are great/good. A few OK and two I thought totally stunk. There is a wide assortment of time, space and subject matter enough for any SF reader.

Especially liked Mount Olympus by Ben Bova( my favorite in this edition as I'm a life member of the Mars Society).Can you imagine the excitement of flying an aircraft on Mars to the largest volcano in the solar system, climbing into it, discovering the volcano is not totally dead and finding life and trapped liquid water.

Also like 10 16 to 1 by James Patrick Kelley and a time funnel story about a big money recreational program to see real Dinos in the past gone terribly wrong by a man's son getting eaten by a T Rex.

At the end of the book is a good list of honorable mentions. Also Gardner lists some of the other works and awards by the various authors before each story. If you like a particular author or story there is info for you to go find and read other works by the same author.

No collection of stories is going to have all 5 star ratings of all stories for all readers. Buy the book. Most of the stories you probably will like. I liked this book so much I'm going to get different years collection of The Years Best Science Fiction by Gardner Dozois at reduced prices.

Another excellent collection of stories (3.80 average). The introduction and summation is perhaps even longer, and again is worth the bonus. A bit odd to just have watched one of the movies he was talking about here, as well - The Whole Wide World.


Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : The Wedding Album - David Marusek
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Ten16 to 1 - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Winemaster - Robert Reed
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Galactic North - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Dapple: A Hwarhath Historical Romance - Eleanor Arnason
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : People Came from Earth - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Green Tea - Richard Wadholm
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : The Dragon of Pripyat - Karl Schroeder
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Written in Blood - Chris Lawson
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Hatching the Phoenix - Frederik Pohl
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Suicide Coast - M. John Harrison
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Hunting Mother - Sage Walker
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Mount Olympus - Ben Bova
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Border Guards - Greg Egan
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Scherzo with Tyrannosaur - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : A Hero of the Empire - Robert Silverberg
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : How We Lost the Moon A True Story by Frank W. Allen - Paul J. McAuley
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Phallicide - Charles Sheffield
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Daddy's World - Walter Jon Williams
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : A Martian Romance - Kim Stanley Robinson
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : The Sky-Green Blues - Tanith Lee
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Exchange Rate - Hal Clement
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Everywhere - Geoff Ryman
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Hothouse Flowers - Mike Resnick
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Evermore - Sean Williams
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Of Scorned Women and Causal Loops - Robert Grossbach
Year's Best Science Fiction 17 : Son Observe the Time - Kage Baker


If you think the only intelligent conversation you can get is talking to yourself, Sim Polis is the place for you.

3 out of 5


Time traveler wants kid to save the world, at least with Galaxy and Green Lantern preparation he has a decent shot at it.

4.5 out of 5


Mini machine men get alien hideout help in large scale real estate speculation.

3.5 out of 5


Remontoire returned, resurrected, revenged, rescued.

4 out of 5


Crossdressing sexless actor girl gets in over her head.

2.5 out of 5


Remnant population, lunar style.

3 out of 5


Hot shot space accidents.

4 out of 5


Chernobyl release prevention chase.

4 out of 5


Religious DNA transcription is a killer vulnerability.

4.5 out of 5


Solar klabooey viewy.

4 out of 5


Bikie paraplegia cyber-isolation.

4 out of 5


Mountain lion man finishes off his old mum.

3.5 out of 5


More than one planet's geology now in the Guinness Book of Records.

4 out of 5


It is about human immortals, and how they deal with people and society when living so long. One man joins back into life, and meets the best quantum soccer player going around, and loses a friend.

The discovery is made is that she is one of the earliest immortals, instrumental in posthuman travel to other planets, and knows what death is actually like, and has to work out how to relate to the new people.

Now, I can't get this story out of my head, like happens with songs sometimes, so, I am upgrading this, 5 stars, given I reread it recently and hadn't read it for quite a wihle.

And, as far as Australian goes, as far as pixel-stained technopeasant wretches, well, I'd hate to be caught paraphasing the Devil Went Down to Georgia, but, he's the best there's even been.

5 out of 5


T. Rex man dinner inspires time message to self.

4.5 out of 5


Desert domain.

3 out of 5


Big zapper boo-boo buggers satellite.

4.5 out of 5


Hard-on for boss research gives cult-killing opportunity.

4 out of 5


Dead boy's program needs maturity.

3 out of 5


Possibly Dead Mars.

3 out of 5


War character study.

3.5 out of 5


Local directions.

4 out of 5


Fun family.

3.5 out of 5


Lengthened infirmity situation requires euthanatory weeding.

4 out of 5


Lost in slow motion software personality translation.

3.5 out of 5


Time and space travel dimensional balance.

4 out of 5


Saving before quaking.

3.5 out of 5

The Year's Best Science Fiction 17th Annual Collection is a masterpiece. Edited by the famous gardner Dozois, he is a longtime editor of Asimov's Science Fiction, and the editor of many science fiction anthologies. Each story is wonderfully written and is great science fiction, ranging from the not so distant future...To thousands of years into the future.

Amazingly, David Marusek has stolen *another* collection; "The Wedding Album" alone is worth the price of admission here. (I think I have borrowed that phrase from Dozois!)

_TYBSF_ is easily the most value for the SciFi buck you can get in any given year. Dozois' customary "Year in Review" summation serves double duty: entertainment and shopping guide. The story choice is always superb, and it would be hard to say enough about the sheer page volume -- the access to several worthy novellas in a single volume is nice.

Actually, I think this is a slightly down year for the stories themselves. There are a lot of strong old-school pens included (legacy SciFi, I like to call it), but the stories by the Big Names tend to visit ground already trod upon; compare Egan's maddeningly distant and well-realized future (not completely removed, I think, from his novel, _Diaspora_) and you might see what I mean.

And the Marusek! Oh, the Marusek!

If you have made it to this review, you would likely be quite satisfied with the book. Highly recommended.

PAGES MISSING -- AROUND PAGE 510 TO 560
Wonderful boook, as usual -- I like this anthology series. But my first copy has a binding error! I can't read two stories.

Also, Dozois tends to include items that I personally would consider as fantasy rather than sci-fi. But there's plenty of "hard science" to go around. The final story "Son Observe the Time" was particularly riveting to me.

I'm about halfway thru this and trying to decide whether or not to sell it to a used bookstore without finishing. I kept thinking, maybe it's me, maybe there's something wrong with my attention span that I lose interest in these stories half way thru. They all seem too long, unfocussed. What they really feel like is novels that have been brutally hacked down to the maximum allowable length for short stories. The quality puzzles me because I'm almost always happily surprised by the quality and variety of short sf I read in the zines. I haven't followed this anthology over the years, but this particular edition, imho, shows bad selection and worse editing.