Year's Best SF 7 [Mass Market Paperback]

David G. Hartwell (Author), Kathryn Cramer (Author)

Book Description

Series: Year's Best SF (Science Fiction) | Publication Date: June 4, 2002

The latest annual collection of outstanding science fiction stories features the contributions of Brian W. Aldiss, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Benford, David Morrell, Gene Wolfe, Terry Bisson, and Michael Swanwick, among other notable masters of the speculative fiction genre. Original.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David G. Hartwell is a Senior Editor at Tor/Forge Books. He is the proprietor of Dragon Press, publisher and bookseller, which publishes The New York Review of Science Fiction. He is the author of Age of Wonders and the editor of many anthologies, including The Dark Descent, Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment, The World Treasury of Science Fiction, Northern Stars, The Ascent of Wonder (co-edited with Kathryn Cramer), and a number of Christmas anthologies. Recently he edited his sixth annual paperback volume of Year's Best SF and co-edited the new Year's Best Fantasy. He has won the Eaton Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Poll and has been nominated for the Hugo Award twenty-four times to date.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061061433
• ISBN-13: 978-0061061431
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathryn Cramer is a writer, anthologist, & Internet consultant who lives in Pleasantville, New York. She won a World Fantasy Award for best anthology for The Architecture of Fear, co-edited with Peter Pautz; she was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for her anthology Walls of Fear. She co-edited several anthologies of Christmas and fantasy stories with David G. Hartwell and now does the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Year's Best SF with him. She is on the editorial board of The New York Review of Science Fiction, (for which she has been nominated for the Hugo Award many times). She is a consultant with the Scientific Information Group for Wolfram Research.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best SF of Nearly a Decade Past, June 4, 2010

By 

John M. Ford "johnDC" (near DC, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Year's Best SF 7 (Year's Best SF (Science Fiction)) (Kindle Edition)

I've been working my way backward in time, reading progressively older editions of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's annual collection of the best science fiction stories. This edition did not disappoint. As usual, the story introductions were superbly-written. They contain the right mix of introduction to the author, samples of his or her work, and non-spoiling teasers for the story itself. An unexpected prize in this year's introductory material was a pointer to Thomas Disch's The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World, a critical and intelligent examination of science fictions influences and influence.

My favorite five of the nineteen stories are:

Nancy Kress's "Computer Virus" throws together a rogue artificial intelligence and a mother and two children who are held hostage by it. The outcome depends on human qualities rather than rational ones.

Michael Swanwick's "Under's Game" serves up a wry answer to a question that always nagged at me about Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

Edward Lerner's "Creative Distruction" follows Justin Matthews as he solves his friend Alice's murder and uncovers the inter-stellar conspiracy behind it. The long-distance communications between civilizations are interestingly similar to those in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep.

Ursula Le Guin's "The Building" takes an anthropologist's view of two races, the Aq and the Adaqo, who are slowly recovering from the Adaqo's "explosive expansion of population and technology" that decimated their planet. The cultures are ingeniously conceived, the writing admirable, and the moral somehow both understated and heavy-handed.

Alastair Reynolds' "Glacial" was both new and familiar. It stands alone as a classic science fiction mystery. We look over Nevil Clavain's shoulder as he puzzles out the reason everyone on a remote, ice-covered planet suddenly died. As a fan of other Nevil Clavain stories, I have conflicting feelings about encountering Nevil, Galiana and Felka as an odd, but close-knit little family.

All of the stories are good and worth reading. I may not be giving them the full praise they deserve because I am distracted. The prepaid Kindle version of Year's Best SF 15 has just appeared in my iPhone Kindle app. Forgive me as I quickly abandon the past in a leap to new visions of the future in the present.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, January 28, 2008

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year's Best SF 7 (Mass Market Paperback)

The editorial pair here single out the 'Red Shift' anthology by Al Sarrantonio for mention a number of times, so likely worth a look.

Overall, it seems 2001 was a really good year for SF stories, and this volume starts brilliantly, and ends almost as well. This anthology averages a hugely impressive 3.97, and that is good enough for full marks. Four standout stories, and only two are average.

Year's Best SF 07 : Computer Virus - Nancy Kress
Year's Best SF 07 : Charlie's Angels - Terry Bisson
Year's Best SF 07 : The Measure of All Things - Richard Chwedyk
Year's Best SF 07 : Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Year's Best SF 07 : Under's Game - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 07 : A Matter of Mathematics - Brian Aldiss
Year's Best SF 07 : Creative Destruction - Edward M. Lerner
Year's Best SF 07 : Resurrection - David Morrell
Year's Best SF 07 : The Cat's Pajamas - James Morrow
Year's Best SF 07 : The Dog Said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 07 : The Building - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best SF 07 : Grey Earth - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best SF 07 : The Lagan Fishers - Terry Dowling
Year's Best SF 07 : In Xanadu - Thomas M. Disch
Year's Best SF 07 : The Go-Betweens - Lisa Goldstein
Year's Best SF 07 : Viewpoint - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 07 : Anomalies - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 07 : Glacial - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best SF 07 : Undone - James Patrick Kelly


House arrest.

5 out of 5


Killer robot case definitely not supernatural.

4 out of 5


Killer robot case definitely not supernatural.

4.5 out of 5


Illiterate people are easy, if you are aliens with territorial designs on Terra.

4 out of 5


Space Force firing performance needs junk food.

4 out of 5


Short cut.

3 out of 5


Alien nanotech radio plot.

4 out of 5


Father-son freeze.

4 out of 5


Brain in a jar down on the farm political ethics.

4 out of 5


Canine anti-tech adventures.

4 out of 5


Stonewalling.

3 out of 5


Alternate reality Big Whack human lack.

3.5 out of 5


A UN veteran, honored for his work in fighting a dangerous outbreak in the past, now lives with a new, strange botanical that is very valuable, and not very well understood.

4 out of 5


Welcome To the Pleasure Dome, not Frankie, not alive.

3.5 out of 5


Alien canine diplomacy.

"But you know, the dogs like us. That's got to count for something."

4.5 out of 5


Cash keepings off, rifled.

4 out of 5


Error observation religion.

4 out of 5


Clavain investigates why it is cold and almost all dead on a base.

4 out of 5


Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5

3.0 out of 5 stars The Measure of All Things Worth the Price of the Book, May 19, 2006

By 

Bonner '62 (Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Year's Best SF 7 (Mass Market Paperback)

SF 7 is a good compulation worth reading. However, "The Measure of All Things" by Richard Chwedyk is exceptional and worth the price of the book all by itself. It has made me want to track down and read more Chwedyk to see if The Measure is a fluke or indicative of his usual work. Read this story! Especially if you are involved in animal rescue.