Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection [Paperback]

Gardner Dozois (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 23, 2003 | Series: Year's Best Science Fiction

Widely regarded as the one essential book for every science fiction fan, The Year's Best Science Fiction (Winner of the 2002 Locus Award for Best Anthology) continues to uphold its standard of excellence with more than two dozen stories representing the previous year's best SF writing. This year's volume includes Ian R. MacLeod, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Maureen F. McHugh, Robert Reed, Paul McAuley, Michael Swanwick, Robert Silverberg, Charles Stross, John Kessel, Gregory Benford and many other talented authors of SF, as well as thorough summations of the year and a recommended reading list.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Stalwart sf fans will most likely find Dozois' twentieth stout annual anthology as satisfying as any of its predecessors. The authors represented in it range from multiple-award winners Gregory Benford, Nancy Kress, and John Kessel to skilled newcomers Molly Gloss and Chris Beckett. In-betweeners in terms of prize winning and output include Ian MacLeod, Ian McDonald, Bruce Sterling, and Eleanor Arnason, who should write much more. Dozois has again cast his net widely, drawing Geoff Ryman's entry from a chapbook and Walter Jon Williams' from the electronic media. As usual, sf magazines are leading resources, with Asimov's and Fantasy and Science Fiction leading the pack in total contributions and Inter zone coming in third. Selections from original anthologies are fewer this year, though. As long as the short story remains an important form for sf, Dozois' anthologies will be required reading for the genre's fans. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Great stories are the bulk of the book, by wonderful writers whom you'd maybe not find without Dozois' diligence."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (July 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312308604
• ISBN-13: 978-0312308605
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Few Good Hits, October 9, 2003

By 

Brad Shorr "Brad Shorr" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

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

Breathmoss,Ian MacLeod. Overlong coming of age story set in a far future world inhabited almost completely by women. Heavy atmosphere, light plot. C-

The Most Famous Little Girl in the World, Nancy Kress. The grim backdrop of war and terrorism over the next seventy years is much more interesting than the story about two cousins who take a lifetime to patch up their differences. C

The Passenger, Paul McAuley. Engaging but essentially routine yarn about a space ship salvage crew whose strange new passenger is either malevolent or cute as a button. C+

The Political Officer, Charles Finlay. Political intrigue aboard a Soviet-flavored military spaceship where each officer seems to have his own insidious agenda. B-

Lambing Season, Molly Gloss. Kindhearted shepherdess encounters alien. Another promising premise wasted in an inconclusive, overly subtle plot. C-

Coelacanths,Robert Reed. Variously constructed humans subsist in a hostile, multi-dimensional far future world. Weighty speculation on the fine line between evolution and devolution, natural and supernatural. B

Presence, Maureen McHugh. Realistic, heartrending character study of a couple dealing with Alzheimers, a new cure, and its unsettling side effect. B+

Halo, Charles Stross. Cacophonous, dense, hard science narrative concerns a cybernetic teenager who flees to Jupiter to escape Mom, who just doesnt understand her! C-

In Paradise, Bruce Sterling. USA circa 2022Romance in the land of the not so free and the home of Homeland Security. Sorry, but not even close to Sterling offerings from previous volumes. C

The Old Cosmonaut by Ian McDonald. An old cosmonauts pipe dream of pioneering Mars is strangely fulfilled. C

Stories for Men, John Kessel. Men on a vast matriarchal lunar colony must chose between easy, killer sex and socio-political equality. Quite the conundrum! Great characters, plot, social commentary and psychological exploration. A

To Become a Warrior, Chris Beckett. In a socially stratified future England, a gang of world-shifting thugs offers an alienated lowlife some ancient means of payback. Fast-paced narrative with fascinating characters and street jargon. A

The Clear Blue Seas of Luna, Gregory Binford. A (mumbo) jumbo ode to terraforming. Zzzz

V.A.O., Geoff Ryman. Life stinks for Gen-Y geriatrics, so they hack their way out. Vivid characters, snappy dialog, diabolical schemes, and something sorely lacking in this volumehumor. A

Winters Are Hard, Steven Popkes. Man has self physically altered so he can sleep with she-wolves and slaughter wild elk. Can happiness ensue? C

At the Money,Richard Wadholm. Monotonous tale of cosmic radioactive waste arbitrage in an ultra-free market far future. Zzzz

Agent Provacateur, Alexander Irvine. A boy alters and unalters history around WW2. C

Singleton, Greg Egan. All you need to enjoy this AI saga of making babies the new-fashioned way is a couple doctorates in quantum theory and philosophy. C-

Slow Life, Michael Swanick. A plucky explorer discovers life on Titan. Well drawn setting but well worn plot. C

A Flock of Birds, James Van Pelt. Gripping, realistic, poetic, and touching look at the aftermath of an all-out biological war, set in a desolate 2011 Denver. A

The Potter of Bones, Eleanor Arnason. This fantasy story about evolution unfolds about as rapidly. In (yet another) female dominated society, a potter literally pieces together a theory of how her rodent-like race of homosexual furballs came into being. Super. D

The Whisper of Disks, John Meaney. The Bryonic Woman: genius makes jillions thanks to her jazzed up genes. C

The Hotel at Harlans Landing, Kage Baker. Ultracreepy goings-on in a remote logging town in the 1930s. Well crafted horror, and at long last, a crisp, clear ending. B+

The Millennium Party, Walter Jon Williams. A wry and refreshingly brief look at the digitalization of man, far, far in the future. B

Turquoise Days, Alistair Reynolds. Better late than never. A majestic tale of an inscrutably sentient ocean and its interplay with humans both kind and evil. A page-turner with unforgettable imagery. A+

31 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars For sophisticated, refined reading, November 7, 2003

By 

Taylor Rand "samuraijack" (Florida, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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

I can't tell you what a letdown this anthology is. Almost every story is either too self-consciously literary, plotless, or more concerned with creating atmosphere than providing a compelling reason to continue reading. I read every story - some more than once - but few were particularly memorable.

Of course that's only my opinion; more sophisticated readers and graduates of writing seminars and workshops will love the "crafted imagery" and "inspired strangeness" of Dozois' choices.

"BREATHMOSS." On a virtually all-female world, a young girl comes-of-age and recognizes her destiny.

A long, slow story, dense with made-up words with almost no clue or context, and descriptive paragraphs that go on and on, Breathmoss is more of a fantasy novella than a science fiction story. Atmospheric? Yes. Interesting? No.

"STORIES FOR MEN." Seventeen-year-old Erno lives in in a female-dominated moon colony where males are prized mainly for the ability to pleasure women - and yet he's not happy.

This is one of better stories. It's a novella, with a plot, memorable characters, things happening, lives and societies hang in the balance - in a way. The ending was timid, to put it mildly. And maybe I'm too sensitive - but is there some law out there requiring all science fiction stories have strong, intelligent females putting up with weak, spoiled boys?

"TURQUOISE DAYS." Naqi and her sister are scientists on the isolated water-world of Turquoise where the ocean is more aware of outsiders than they realize.

It's a very low-key story of love and loss and so placid that I could hardly stay awake the two times I read it. An evil man comes to this peaceful world with evil intentions. Good ending, though, if you can reach it.

Those three stories account for over 25% of the book. There are 26 stories in total and they're not all so dreary as the novellas, although they do try.

"THE PASSENGER." Maris Delgado and her space-salvage crew find a passenger in a long-abandoned vessel who is more than she appears to be.

Good short story, in comparison to all those "I'm a writer creating atmosphere" stories, but let's face it: the mysterious stranger picked up by a ship isn't a new idea and there's no one moment here that adds much.

"COELACANTHS." Evolution of humanity into several species of brave, self-reliant women burdened with bumbling boys, and cartoonish males.

Four parallel stories with humanity living in some hazy far distant and distinctly unrecognizable universe where they may be no more than a sort of virus or vermin. There's this naked over-the-top male narrator ranting about humanity's advances and I don't know what it all adds up to and I don't care. Stories like this, I think, are more likely than not, jokes on the readers.

I'd just finished reading "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol. 1 1929-1964" and what a contrast! The old-fashioned writers were amazingly entertaining. There are dozens of outstanding memorable stories there.

When I compare "Coelacanths" with James Blish's "Surface Tensions" I see the great gulf between writers trying to show off for other writers and a writer like Blish telling a riveting story.

This anthology is writing seminar and writing workshop stuff. I wince when I think of a casual reader who wants to find out if science fiction is for him or her, and unfortunately finds this book. It's poison.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ...concluded, August 17, 2003

By 

Ryan Mckay - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

"Slow Life" starts off well, with a small group of explorers collecting data on Titan. However, when one of the characters is contacted by an alien collective intelligence in her sleep, the story turns sour, and despite a decent sense of humor, it comes to a silly overly excited conclusion.

"A Flock Of Birds" has a great atmosphere, with a handful of individuals wandering the barren landscape of an America after a devastating war. The careful attention to his tasks as a birder parallel his devotion to keeping a fellow survivor alive. The returning flocks of birds become an obvious yet still affecting metaphor against the images of a New York City marathon from a video that is played multiple times over the course of the story. That in ten years, a birder could forget what a pigeon looks like seems ridiculous, but one could argue that this shows the true depth of his psychological damage, which was carefully masked until this point.

"The Potter Of Bones" has an interesting story set in an alternate matriarchal past; however, the narration is very intrusive (e.g. "This story is about...," "At this point, the story needs to describe...," disjointed transitions, indications that this is a work of non-fiction cobbled together from artifacts by some of the characters, followed by lengthy fictive exchanges and descriptions, etc), and (with the exception of some clever debates between the potter and the Goddess in her dreams) the dialogue is reminiscent of the stilted exchanges of characters in a video game. For instance, the most common response people think or say to the red-furred potter is "Hah!"

"The Whisper of Disks" is another strong offering taken from Interzone, taking place through multiple generations of an eccentric family's existence. Though the protagonist becomes one of the most powerful women alive, she is unable to discover much about her past, but through a series of vignettes across time, we see that she intuits what she cannot know about her genetic history.

"The Hotel At Harlan's Landing" is a somewhat entertaining but easily forgettable tale of the supernatural which seems closer to the genre of horror than that of sci-fi.

"The Millennium Party" could probably be called flash fiction, being as it is so short. It is more a skeletal idea put to paper rather than an actual story.

"Turquoise Days" completes the collection, following the shortest story with what appears to be the longest. Published as a chapbook, it seems unnecessarily long, though it has a few memorable passages.