Customer Reviews

Year's Best SF 2: Vol 2 (Year's Best SF (Science Fiction))

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

 

 

A pretty standard entry for the series. Of course, a standard entry for one of these is basically better than any other SF anthology you could come across, barring the odd rare beast like New Legends or The New Space Opera, or excellent retrospective reprint anthologies like, say, the Best of the Nebulas or the Hard SF Renaissance. This should in no way to be taken to mean that it is an average book.

The average per story is 3.78, which is close to what all the volumes I have come across come out to, overall.

Plenty of good stories, but the one I like the most is Bisson's. Some light-hearted tales to be found here for a change of pace, as well. While of the over 4s there is only 1, there are only 2 under 3.5's to balance that out.

Sometimes it stands out that writers are a bit of an older crowd, you get stories about the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and others in various volumes, so while they are speculating about technology, it isn't often with current media stars involved in the future, in the same way these are done, it seems.

Year's Best SF 02 : After a Lean Winter - Dave Wolverton
Year's Best SF 02 : In the Upper Room - Terry Bisson
Year's Best SF 02 : Thinkertoy - John Brunner
Year's Best SF 02 : Zoomers - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 02 : Out of the Mouths - Sheila Finch
Year's Best SF 02 : Breakaway Backdown - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best SF 02 : Tobacco Words - Yves Meynard
Year's Best SF 02 : Invasion - Joanna Russ
Year's Best SF 02 : The House of Mourning - Brian M. Stableford
Year's Best SF 02 : Life Edit - Damon Knight
Year's Best SF 02 : First Tuesday - Robert Reed
Year's Best SF 02 : The Spear of the Sun - David Langford
Year's Best SF 02 : Counting Cats in Zanzibar - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 02 : Bicycle Repairman - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best SF 02 : Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland - Gwyneth Jones
Year's Best SF 02 : Doblin's Lecture - Allen M. Steele
Year's Best SF 02 : The Bride of Elvis - Kathleen Ann Goonan
Year's Best SF 02 : Forget Luck - Kate Wilhelm
Year's Best SF 02 : Nonstop to Portales - Connie Willis
Year's Best SF 02 : Columbiad - Stephen Baxter


Jack London's War of the Worlds.

3.5 out of 5


VR bug underwear girl, dead like me.

4.5 out of 5


Marmaduke repair.

3.5 out of 5


Body network trading.

4 out of 5


Talk like a Venatixian.

3.5 out of 5


Colony life change.

4 out of 5


Dealing with sinners.

4 out of 5


The trouble with Ulpians.

3.5 out of 5


Addicted to hos and pros.

4 out of 5


Timeline change machine.

4 ou to f5


Presidential projection dinner.

3.5 out of 5


Father Brown in Space, GKC.

4 out of 5


Android associate sharkfood.

4 out of 5


Celibate cycle geek bags black bag babe burglar thanks to baton boo-boo.

4 out of 5


Sword and sorcery virtual sex therapy.

4 out of 5


Serial killer speech.

4 out of 5


The King has left the planet. Still plenty of mutants around though.

3 out of 5


Survival trait study.

3 out of 5


The Williamson time tour.

4 out of 5


From the Earth To Mars.

3.5 out of 5





4.5 out of 5

The second in a series for Hartwell. Once again he gathers an eclectic group of Science Fiction writers that cover a wide variety of sub-sections to the genre. He has included two tributes to science the fiction forefathers Well and Verne. My personal favorite of this anthology was 'The Bride of Elvis', a tongue and cheek look at a religion developed around the death of the King. I also loved 'Counting Cats in Zanzibar' by Gene Wolfe. A robot story about a contract killing. If you are looking for easy reading that can also provoke thought, this is a good place to start.

It opens with a tribute to H.G. Wells and ends with an homage to Jules Verne.In the middle are 18 more stories that span from side to side of the SF spectrum and, even though they might not be all in the reader's preferences, are sure worth reading, if not thought-provoking. Talking about preferences, I can't help mentioning Terry Bisson's "In the upper room" and Damon Knight's "Life edit" as the best of the lot. Look forward for number 3, and 4, and...

This is the second volume of David Hartwell's annual anthology of science fiction stories. It contains twenty stories, each with an introduction to the story's author and the author's other works. The first volume in Hartwell's series was a good beginning; this one sets the pattern for a great series.

My five favorite stories are listed below.

Dave Wolverton's "After a Lean Winter" is very consciously H. G. Wells's content written in the style of Jack London. There's more to it than a mid-winter dog fight.

Sheila Finch's "Out of the Mouths" is about the language and culture that both human and alien children learn as part of growing up. Even when the adults who love them don't quite understand.

Gene Wolf's "Counting Cats in Zanzibar" is about a woman on the run from her past. When it catches up with her, she embraces it.

Bruce Sterling's "Bicycle Repairman" has become a cyberpunk classic. More than anything it is a portrait of a low-key, high-tech social outcast. Well, there is more than one, actually.

Connie Willis' "Nonstop to Portales" pays homage to a Grand Master of science fiction and his vision of the future. And it's a good story about an ordinary man deciding whether to spend time in a little time where nothing seems to happen.

The introductions in this volume, while adequate, are briefer than those found in later volumes. I am glad that this early form changed into the more extended treatment of each author and their other works that is characteristic of later books in this series. Hartwell's longer introductions add a great deal to the reader's enjoyment. This collection is recommended for its well-crafted stories and the editor's good taste in selecting them.

I love the way this collection was put together. All of the stories were well-written and easy to follow, and most of them were quite thought-provoking. One of the best books I've ever read!

I found this book at a used book store. Some of the entries listed on the dust cover intrigued me so I bought it for a buck. Money well spent? Hardly.

Many of the authors in this collection apparently thought that writing in the present tense somehow makes their work seem "experimental" and "edgy" or that it "blurs the line" between story and reality. Bull. For me, and surely if I feel this way then there must be others (there's about 1 in 6,000,000,000 odds that I'm wrong) I cannot read a book that is written in present tense without being instantly disconnected from the work. I still read through all of these stories somehow, but it was painful. Here's a hint for any future writers: You don't want to do ANYTHING that disconnects your reader from your book. If they are asking questions like "Why did they write this way?" instead of "What will happen next?" then you've failed.

Anyway, "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland" reads like something you might see if Lifetime bought out the Sci-Fi channel. The moral actually is that men want control of sex and we don't care how we get it, and if that means that we are "forced" into raping, then hey, that's just how the cookie crumbles. Don't even get me started on "The Bride of Elvis." "Thinkertoy" was probably the best one of the bunch, but that's not exactly a high compliment, and I wouldn't blame it for being so good so much as everything else being so bad. "In the Upper Room" is about a guy who apparently likes to rebel against authority and do what he can if he won't get caught, never mind the fact that there is no characterization explaining how this behavior began or why he seems unable to stop even when his life is clearly in danger. I couldn't make much sense out of "Tobacco Words." "Zoomers" tries to be some cutting edge, Blade Runner-esque ultra-sleek story. Key word: tries.

A serious disappointment from start to finish.