Customer Reviews

Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection

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

 

 

1. "New Light on the Drake Equations"...How do you take a story about a hermit sitting on a mountain waiting for aliens to contact him, and make it interesting? Not this way. Zzzz
2. "More Adventures on Other Planets"...Depressed and unpleasant scientist gets more depressed and unpleasant on a big virtual reality project. Turn the page, pass the Prozac. D
3. "On K2 with Kankaredes"...Mildly interesting man vs. nature yarn about mountaineers who let a giant alien bug tag along on a tough climb. C
4. Stories 4-8 too silly, confusing, boring, and/or unoriginal for me. Read at your own risk.
5. "The Chief Designer"...More fact than fiction, a mesmerizing and poignant account of the man who launched the Soviet space program. Top-flight character development. A+
6. "Neutrino Drag"...Whimsical, fast paced story set in San Diego features two unforgettable aliens. B
7. "Glacial"...Zillions of worms tunnel innocently through ice on a distant planet...or do they?? Only their mad scientist knows for sure. This one has it all: brilliant concept, solid characters, suspenseful plot. A+
8. "The Days Between"...Nightmarish space travel story marred only by its ultimate pointlessness. C
9. "One-Horse Town"...Well written, snappy, and literally multi-dimensional view of the Trojan War. A
10. "Moby Quilt"...Weird life in an alien ocean. Moves at the speed of mud. "Solaris" it's not. Zzzz
11. "Raven Dream"...Bittersweet, world-within-a-world story of loss and redemption. C
12. "Undone"...Maybe if I were smart enough to follow this convoluted story about time travel and shape shifting...no, I still wouldn't like it. D
13. "The Real Thing"...Near-in-the-future mogul (suspiciously reminiscent of Bill Gates) pollutes the Internet with diabolical, reality-bending commercialism. Gimme that old time Linux! Thematically heavy-handed, but cleverly written. B
14. "Interview: On Any Given Day"...Think they have problems now? Wait until you catch this terrifying glimpse of what's in store for the next batch of American teenagers. B
15. "Isabel of the Fall"...The Middle Ages make a comeback way in the future. Ingenious science blends surprisingly well with gloomy, gothic fable thick with religious overtones. B
16. "Into Greenwood"...Mind-blowing concept: sentient trees! Actually this spellbinding story is chock-full of great ideas. Convincing science and fascinating characters combine to create a totally believable --yet utterly alien--world. A+
17. "Know How, Can Do"...What does it mean to be human? What is love? What are the implications of genetic engineering on our very souls? Amusing story about the world's smartest petri dish packs a philosophical wallop! A
18. "Russian Vine"...Aliens gain upper hand on Earth by making humans illiterate. Dubious premise supported by shaky explanations and flimsy plot. D
19. "The Two Dicks"...Alternate history story has a sweaty Philip K. Dick struggling to escape a confusing, sinister, and nightmarish reality. Hey-just like one of his characters! Plus, there's another notable Dick in the mix that we just don't hear from enough these days. A
20. "May Be Some Time"...Heroic British explorer from 1912 gets frozen in Antarctica and defrosted in 2045 NYC. Unfortunately, not much happens after that. However: the story is worth reading, believe it or not, because of the author's brilliant use of old-time British idiom. B
21. "Marcher"...This one must have sneaked in while Mr. Dozios was on break. Read at your own risk.
22. "The Human Front"...Promising alternate history set in World War III Scotland takes a turn for the absurd three-quarters of the way through. They should have called it a book two stories ago. D

Gadner Dozois' year-end SF anthologies are always a feast for short fiction lovers. They are packed with some of the very best short SF stories of the previous year. This year's volume is no exception.

My favorite story from this year's collection is "The Chief Designer" by Andy Duncan. It details the secret history behind the Soviet space program. Duncan tells a beautiful and moving story that brought tears to my eyes by its conclusion.

Also of a very high quality are "Isabel of the Fall" by Ian MacLeod, "The Human Front" by Ken MacLeod, "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" by Michael Swanwick, & "One Horse Town" by Howard Waldrop & Leigh Kennedy.

While compiling the list of my favorite stories in this anthology, I realized the futility of the task. This book is packed with well-written and engaging stories. How could I not mention the stories from Robert Reed, James Patrick Kelly, Alastair Reynolds, Ian MacLeod (again), Chris Beckett, Michael Cassutt or Dan Simmons? They are all very good stories that deserve to be acclaimed loudly and enthusiastically.

I noticed an interesting trend in myself while I was reading this volume. I enjoyed almost every single story while reading it in this volume more than when I read them in their original publication. In fact, I actively disliked several of them (the Reed, the Kelly, & the Reynolds) after the first reading. Yet after reading them in this collection, I can see what fantastic stories they are. I think that stories sometimes get lost in their original publication. If a person subscribes to several fiction magazines, the pressure to read each story may cause the reader to read too quickly and skim over a story. I rely on editors like Gardner Dozois to bring my attention to the very best stories of the year.

This is a very strong volume. Dozois chooses excellent stories that represent the various schools of SF, providing an excellent overview of 'what's going on in SF'. If you're interested in short SF, you need to read this volume. Highly recommended.

For fans of science fiction, The Year's Best Science Fiction - Nineteenth Annual Collection, is a bag of treats. As Jim Hopper of the San Diego Union-Tribune has said, "At list price, it's still the best value for top-notch SF, by the page or by the pound."

Bear in mind, though, that when you buy in bulk, you are bound to get some gristle, fat and bone along with the red meat. Fortunately, (delicately mixing metaphors) the few bad apples do not spoil the rest of the barrel.

These stories cover the full spectrum of science fiction. They range from the comic to the sublime. They cover time periods from tens of millions of years ago to countless years in the future. They range from the Earth to planets orbiting distant stars. They even cross from one parallel universe to another with the greatest of ease. These thought-provoking stories stretch the imagination.

One selection, The Dog Said Bow, Wow, by Michael Swanwick (first appearing in Asimov's Science Fiction October/November, 2001 issue) won the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The plot of this story is a straightforward adventure story, reminiscent of the 1971 Hugo winning novella Ill Met in Lankhmar, by Fritz Leiber.

Set in a distant future where dogs have been modified to gain sentience, speech and the ability to walk upright, one dog, Sir Plus and his sidekick Darger, a human, embark on a swashbuckling adventure. However, lacking the tragic overtones of Ill Met in Lankhmar, which gave that story such depth, The Dog Said Bow, Wow, is light fare in comparison.

In Summation: 2001, Gardner Dozois gives what amounts to a state of the union address for the science fiction publishing world. Covering everything from fanzines through the major publishing houses, this fifty-four-page summation provides more than a bare bones summary of who is still around, who has departed and who has entered the field. This summation provides a prosaic reminder of just how much science fiction is a small business. In a world of high tech wizardry, the dreamers of such technological futures rely little on rockets, lasers or robots.

Science fiction is kept alive through the laborious work of diligent and creative authors. At the far end of this anthology is a listing of more than 300 stories, which were given an honorable mention. With the quantity and quality of science fiction available, the genre is alive and well.

Overall, this is a solid collection of short fiction, regardless of genre. If a few of the stories have slow and clumsy spots, they are all readable. Surprising, even a few of the more predictable stories elicit a shiver or two by their conclusion. Pound for pound, this is a well-balanced meal filled with food for thought.

Gardner Dozois, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction, has again assembled a solid collection of science fiction stories for The Year's Best Science Fiction - Nineteenth Annual Collection. Among the gems here are The Chief Designer, offering a glimpse at the Soviet Union's attempts at beating the Americans to the moon; and The Real Thing, a comic story of a future where information is the ultimate resource, whether or not it is factual. Ranging from new authors to old masters, these stories represent the best of the genre.

Based on the past couple of decades, next year's collection is sure to fire the imaginations of countless readers and writers.

One of the great pleasures of the summer is the chance to read the next volume in the collection of Mr. Dozois' anthologies, and this year's is one of the best in a long time.

Ian R. MacLeod's "New Light on the Drake Equation' is lyrical and touching, but his second story, "Isabel of the Fall" seems meandering and pointless. Michael Swanwick's "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" is outrageously entertaining. "Have Not Have" is, I believe, part of Geoff Ryman's forthcoming novel "Air," and is a story of an Asian/Muslim/Russian community on the brink of a worldwide technological breakthrough, filled with wonderful characters and great humor. "The Days Between" by Allen M. Steele is an inevitably tragic tale with a peculiar twist, and Waldrop and Kennedy's "One-Horse Town" shows us the poignant intersecting of time and space. Michael Blumlein's hyperkinetic, poetic, "Know How, Can Do" suggest that the human brain will remain the same no matter where you put it. My favorite, however, is "Russian Vine" by Simon Ings, a haunting and exotic tale of how a conquering race of aliens make their victims illiterate in order to achieve their goals, a story so mesmerizing I just had to read it twice. Words can't do the stories justice, and there are some clinkers here (Stross' much-praised "Lobsters" is very annoying), but overall this is the best buy in science fiction you're liable to get all year! And we are especially proud that Mr. Dozois is a native Philadelphian! I look forward eagerly to Collection number 20!

[...]
Earlier, I had reviewed the 18th volume of this annual anthology (check out my review) and along with deserved praise, one of the nits that I picked was the fact that it had hardly any short-stories. Eighty percent of fiction contents was novellas and novelettes. Now comes this 19th edition and I find that this is a much more balanced collection as far as story lengths are concerned.

Here are some basic facts and figures about the physical content of volume. The book starts with an editorial summation of science fiction in the year 2002. Then follow 26 stories. And the last part of the book is a list of honorable mentions.

Of the 26 stories, 9 are from Asimov's, 5 from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 5 from Sci-Fiction (scifi.com), 2 from Interzone, 1 from Red Shift, 1 from Starlight 3 (which had also been reviewed in the pages of Shelf-Life a few issues ago), 1 from Analog, 1 from Spectrum SF 5, and 1 from a chapbook.

Let us now examine some trends exhibited in this collection.

Though, as mentioned above, this volume does have some short stories, none of them are less than 7000 words. It may mean that: (1) bending down to the demands of the market, writers have stopped writing short stories that are really short; or (2) there are no good short story writers around (Fredric Brown, can you come back from the spirit world? We need you.); or (3) Gardner Dozois cannot sink his teeth into really short short works - not up his alley.

Another trend: all the authors represented in this collection are professionals with years of sales behind them. Not a single story in this collection would qualify as a Campbell award nominee.

The editor's concentration still remains on the print magazines and anthologies. The only webzines the editor seems to have referred are Sci Fiction, Infinite Matrix and Strange Horizons. I don't know if having a pro status for a magazine is a criteria for the inclusion of its stories in these annual collection. [...]

Let us now look at the contents:

The summation, as usual, is exhaustive, interesting and informative. Most of the stories are competently written (not surprising since - as stated above - all the writers represented here are professionals). This may well be the best SF of 2001 but there is not a single story in this collection that stands out as a classic, trend-breaker, significant or earth-shaking.

My personal favorites among the stories were: The Dog Said Bow-wow by Michael Swanwick (Swanwick seemed to have had a lot of fun with this one), The Two Dicks by Paul McAuley (Philip K. Dick in an alternate reality - how could it not be interesting?), May Be Some Time by Brenda W. Clough (another historical character here) and Marcher by Chris Beckett (people who can hop dimensions by eating something).

Other enjoyable stories are: Ian R. MacLeod: New Light on the Drake Equation, Michael Cassutt: More Adventures on Other Planets, Dan Simmons: On K2 With Kanakaredes, Nancy Kress: Computer Virus, Andy Duncan: The Chief Designer, Jim Grimsley: Into Greenwood, and Maureen F. McHugh: Interview: On Any Given Day. Time travel is still alive and well in Undone by James Patrick Kelly and The Human Front by Ken MacLeod.

Overall: The collection is worth a read.

It has been years since Dozois has been able to put together a collection like this! After several years of disappointing and mediocre collections, this anthology has again reached greatness. If this collection is any indication of a trend in the overall quality of short SF being written, then we are all in for a great reading future!

As the writer of the "starts slow, picks up steam" reviewer wrote, the first three stories in this book are real snoozers. I might have tried going farther, but the book has so many typographical errors that it became distracting. If you're the editor of an anthology, it seems like you'd have two basic tasks: Pick good stories, and check for typos. The first one is entirely a matter of taste, but isn't the second one kind of straightforward?

This is an excellent collection (4.00 average), continuing the great work from the year before, with the extensive summation at the beginning as usual.

Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : New Light on the Drake Equation - Ian R. MacLeod
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : More Adventures on Other Planets - Michael Cassutt
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : On K2 with Kanakaredes - Dan Simmons
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : When This World Is All on Fire - William Sanders
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Computer Virus - Nancy Kress
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Have Not Have - Geoff Ryman
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Lobsters - Charles Stross
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Dog Said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Chief Designer - Andy Duncan
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Neutrino Drag - Paul Di Filippo
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Glacial - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Days Between - Allen M. Steele
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : One Horse Town - Howard Waldrop and Leigh Kennedy
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Moby Quilt - Eleanor Arnason
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Raven Dream - Robert Reed
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Undone - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Real Thing - Carolyn Ives Gilman
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Interview: On Any Given Day - Maureen F. McHugh
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Isabel of the Fall - Ian R. MacLeod
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Into Greenwood - Jim Grimsley
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Know How Can Do - Michael Blumlein
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Two Dcks - Paul McAuley
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : May Be Some Time - Brenda W. Clough
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : Marcher - Chris Beckett
Year's Best Science Fiction 19 : The Human Front - Ken MacLeod

A story about a hermit-like SETI astronomer and his past relationships.

4 out of 5

Cancer bad anywhere.

3 out of 5

On a really big mountain, a human and an alien mountaineer come to an understanding.

4.5 out of 5

Flaming ruined.

3 out of 5

House arrest.

5 out of 5

Fashion business.

4 out of 5

A way ahead of the curve ideas man helps out some intelligent sea types.

5 out of 5

Canine anti-tech adventures.

4 out of 5

Space tech, cheaply preferred.

4.5 out of 5

A fun bunch of stuff. How can you not like a human alien space race, when the alien is called Spacedog, and a 50s throwback? Ok, well I couldn't care less about the 50s, really, in general, but this was done well. Macho drag racing in space, gangs, cliques, and you could almost smell the Fonz hanging around in the crowd watching the action.

4 out of 5

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

4 out of 5

Early rising not a good idea.

4.5 out of 5

Trojan bones aplenty.

3.5 out of 5

Tentacles more fun than it looks, sea adventuring a bit more stressful.

4.5 out of 5

Small tribe.

3.5 out of 5

Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5

Timetravel copyright surprises.

4.5 out of 5

Adolescent lifestyle.

3.5 out of 5

Mirrorflash death.

4 out of 5

Alien family fortunes.

3 out of 5

Madam I'm Adam, and smart for a worm, too.

4 out of 5

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

4 out of 5

Political Phil.

3.5 out of 5

Exploration future recovery adjustment.

4 out of 5

Dimensional bureaucracy.

4 out of 5

Stalin shot, Scots shooting, space stalag.

4 out of 5

I will say that the opening essay that takes up about 20 pages is one of the most insightful things I have read dealing with Scifi in recent years. However the rest of the book is no where near as interesting. The stories are entirely to metaphysical and cyberpunky for my tastes. I stuck with this for ten stories sorry, i'm not going to force myself to read something out of some kind of misguided sense of obligation.

Overall-For better entertainment ht yourself in the head with a brick, it will cost you less money.

I bought this for my wife (I haven't read any sf for about 5 years - just haven't had the time and I'm consumed by the Civil War these days). She's any avid sf reader and swears this is the best anthology she's read in several years (she got a copy at the library then insisted I buy her a copy - that's how much she liked it).

I figure it must be good so there's a good chance that I'll give it look too.

The wife is a fan of Bear, Card and other's I consider fairly modern sf writers, but she cut her teeth on Asimov, Farmer, Niven, etc. So I trust her judgement, maybe you should too.