A consistently award-winning collection once again provides the best science fiction stories of the year, featuring work by veterans and newcomers including Michael Bishop, Nancy Kress, Ursula Le Guin, Mike Resnick, Geoff Ryman, Brian Stableford, and many others.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Dozois's Year's Best, like any successful representative of a large constituency, sometimes suffers from blandness and inconsistency. As usual, it's oversized?23 stories, nearly 600 pages?and includes a variety of types of SF as well as near-horror, fantasy and humor. Five of the stories are final nominees for Nebulas, and two new "Hainish" stories by Ursula LeGuin were nominated for Tiptree Awards; "The Matter of Segrri" won. No story here is less than competent and professional; but, with a few exceptions, there is a voiceless sameness in the writing, practically a house style, that over so many pages grows tedious. (Nearly half the stories, by page count, come from the Dozois-edited Asimov's Science Fiction.) A number are flawed ("hard" SF stories about "aliens" that think just like humans) or unremarkable, but these are outweighed by many fine pieces and by standouts such as LeGuin's "Forgiveness Day," perhaps the best story in the book; Eliot Fintushel's "New Wave"-like "Ylem"; William Sanders's "Going After Old Man Alabama" and Terry Bisson's "The Hole in the Hole," both of which are winning and funny; Katherine Kerr's chilling "Asylum"; and Michael Bishop's grand and humane "Cri de Coeur." Dozois's intelligently and ably put-together anthology does its stated job as well as any one book or editor could. Even with competition, it would still be the best of the Best.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Anyone interested in contemporary short sf should own this volume"
---Washington Post Book World
"All of the stories in the collection are thought-provoking and well-written, succeeding on their own as stories quite apart from the genre label."
---Arizona Daily Star
"This anthology represents contemporary SF at its very best. . . . There's little doubt that Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s---the finest editor in the world of short SF."
---Publishers Weekly
"For anyone interested in sf short stories, this is the best---indeed, the only---place to start."
---Kirkus Reviews
---Washington Post Book World
"All of the stories in the collection are thought-provoking and well-written, succeeding on their own as stories quite apart from the genre label."
---Arizona Daily Star
"This anthology represents contemporary SF at its very best. . . . There's little doubt that Dozois is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s---the finest editor in the world of short SF."
---Publishers Weekly
"For anyone interested in sf short stories, this is the best---indeed, the only---place to start."
---Kirkus Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection,
By
This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection (Hardcover)
The 12th Annual Collection had been a missing piece of my continuous set of the The Year's Best Science Fiction. It took a little while to find it and like so many others, I found it at Amazon, at a 'Like new' used price. Careful and prompt delivery. Another "thanks".
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Free SF Reader,
By Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twelfth Annual Collection (Hardcover)
A very nice average of 3.83 for this volume, but a novella heavy book, so only 23 stories. Only a couple of average and one dodgy story to go along with the fine intro (some quotes below) and summary, gives this book top marks.
There are several standouts, topped by George Turner's brilliant 'Flowering Mandrake'. On the book front, along with losses and musical chairs 'the new Tor, Orb and Forge lines...and Warner Aspect'. Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Forgiveness Day - Ursula K. Le Guin Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : The Remoras - Robert Reed Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Nekropolis - Maureen F. McHugh Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Margin of Error - Nancy Kress Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Cilia-of-Gold - Stephen Baxter Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Going After Old Man Alabama - William Sanders Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Melodies of the Heart - Michael F. Flynn Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : The Hole in the Hole - Terry Bisson Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Paris In June - Pat Cadigan Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Flowering Mandrake - George Turner Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : None So Blind - Joe Haldeman Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Cocoon - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge - Mike Resnick Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Dead Space for the Unexpected - Geoff Ryman Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Cri de Coeur - Michael Bishop Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : The Sawing Boys - Howard Waldrop Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : The Matter of Seggri - Ursula K. Le Guin Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Ylem - Eliot Fintushel Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Asylum - Katharine Kerr Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Red Elvis - Walter Jon Williams Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : California Dreamer - Mary Rosenblum Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Split Light - Lisa Goldstein Year's Best Science Fiction 12 : Les Fleurs du Mal - Brian M. Stableford Ekumen embassy explosion entrapment unreast. 4 out of 5 Serious space ship sucker sc@m. 3.5 out of 5 AI constraints. 3.5 out of 5 Breeding philosophy nanotage. 4 out of 5 Mercurial alien life relationship. 4 out of 5 May? Marie? What's the diff? 3.5 out of 5 Slow age memory cure. 4 out of 5 Lunar halfway rover Volvo. 3.5 out of 5 Roborecorder pimping. 3.5 out of 5 Vegetable methuselah's Kal-Elesque odyssey, and brief Phoenix rising. 5 out of 5 Supergenius, you see. Not. 4 out of 5 A private policeman investigates a bombing of a biological research centre looking into natal protection of babies, when he stumbles across the fact of the company moving anyone not died in the wool h3t3ro away from the project, and realises they are also experimenting with preventing non-hetero births by controlling maternal stress factors. 4.5 out of 5 Human pest hard to eradicate. 4 out of 5 Corporate performance pressure. 4 out of 5 Tau Ceti? Not Epsilon Eridani? Holy Crow! 4.5 out of 5 Music caper stop. 3 out of 5 Men's lib ratio. 4 out of 5 Time constant, nup. 3 out of 5 Red carded American neo-fascist critic. 4 out of 5 Jailhouse rock to the left, ghost bro. 4 out of 5 When feeling all Quakey, any mum will do. 3.5 out of 5 Just passed around. 2.5 out of 5 The Case of Rappacini's Daughter On the Island of Doctor Moreau. 4.5 out of 5
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
