This third volume of the year's best science fiction and fantasy features thirty stories by some of the genre's greatest authors, including Carol Emshwiller, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Hand, Paul Park, RJ Parker, Robert Reed, Rachel Swirsky, Peter Watts, Gene Wolfe, and many others. Selecting the best fiction from Asimov's, F&SF, Strange Horizons, Subterranean, Tor.com, and other top venues, The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy is your guide to magical realms and worlds beyond tomorrow.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rich Horton assembles a mixed best-of-the-year bag containing both science fiction and fantasy. The collection includes nineteen short stories, four novelettes, and five novella-length stories. There is a roughly equal balance between the two genres, with a few stories of uncertain classification.
My tastes run to science fiction, so four of my five favorites are from this group. They are:
Yoon Ha Lee's "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" gets my vote for the best story of the year. A woman guards an ancient weapon that can remove pieces of the past. Large pieces. The dialogue between the two main characters is reminiscent of the book-long bar discussion in The January Dancer.
Amal El-Mohtar's "The Green Book" presents excerpts from an unusual book that corresponds with some of its readers. Read it if you love books.
Peter Watts' "The Things" is a retelling of John Carpenter's "The Thing" from the perspective of... well, the thing. That poor thing.
Robert Reed's "Dead Man's Run" is a murder mystery complicated by the continuing existence of the murdered man's backup created to handle routine phone calls. Of course it has all of his friends' cell phone numbers.
Damien Broderick's "Under the Moons of Venus" is easily the strangest science fiction story in the collection. A man tries to follow most of the human race to Venus. But he can't quite find a ride.
This is a reasonably good collection and worth the reader's time and engagement. I'll admit that reading the fantasy stories temporarily pushed me out of my science fiction rut. Not a bad thing, nor unenjoyed.
My tastes run to science fiction, so four of my five favorites are from this group. They are:
Yoon Ha Lee's "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain" gets my vote for the best story of the year. A woman guards an ancient weapon that can remove pieces of the past. Large pieces. The dialogue between the two main characters is reminiscent of the book-long bar discussion in The January Dancer.
Amal El-Mohtar's "The Green Book" presents excerpts from an unusual book that corresponds with some of its readers. Read it if you love books.
Peter Watts' "The Things" is a retelling of John Carpenter's "The Thing" from the perspective of... well, the thing. That poor thing.
Robert Reed's "Dead Man's Run" is a murder mystery complicated by the continuing existence of the murdered man's backup created to handle routine phone calls. Of course it has all of his friends' cell phone numbers.
Damien Broderick's "Under the Moons of Venus" is easily the strangest science fiction story in the collection. A man tries to follow most of the human race to Venus. But he can't quite find a ride.
This is a reasonably good collection and worth the reader's time and engagement. I'll admit that reading the fantasy stories temporarily pushed me out of my science fiction rut. Not a bad thing, nor unenjoyed.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Neodoering
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The stories in this anthology cover a lot of ground. They broach a lot of subjects in both sci-fi and fantasy and present works from many sub-genres. Accordingly, whatever your taste is in speculative fiction, you should find something here to please you. The styles vary a great deal as well, and whether you want something soothing, something jarring, something gritty and ugly or something uplifting to the soul, again you should find something here for you.
I had a few problems with this work, all relatively small but enough to cost it a star. First, I read other "Best of" anthologies, and some of the stories in this one, I've run across before. I don't like buying the same stories over and over again; this is a waste of my money and reading time. Second, one of the drawbacks in an anthology is the very variety I was extolling above. You need an author introduction to each piece, and a story introduction, so you can tell what the story is about and its style, so you can find one you want to read that day. Other anthologies do this, and you can accordingly go through and read the intros to each piece to get a feel for what is where. With this collection there are no intros (there are author bios in the back, not with their stories, which I found annoying), and I found the best approach was simply to flip to page one and start reading straight through. The pleasure in this approach is never knowing what you'll get and enjoying each piece as it comes. The annoyance is having to read each story to know what it's about, so you can't pick pieces to suit your mood for that day. You just have to take your chances. Since it's not much work to provide a couple of sentences summarizing each piece, I would rather the editor do that and let me choose what to read when I want to read it. Finally, the quality of the pieces in this collection vary a good bit. Some, like "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," are very crisp and sharp and strong, and some, like "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance," blather on for 60 pages and make no sense whatsoever.
Overall, though, this is a rich collection that will take you to many worlds and give you a nice overview of current trends in fantasy and science fiction. Annoyances aside, this work should give you many hours of enjoyment and possibly introduce you to some new authors whose longer works you can then go out and find, for your reading enjoyment. Have fun!
I had a few problems with this work, all relatively small but enough to cost it a star. First, I read other "Best of" anthologies, and some of the stories in this one, I've run across before. I don't like buying the same stories over and over again; this is a waste of my money and reading time. Second, one of the drawbacks in an anthology is the very variety I was extolling above. You need an author introduction to each piece, and a story introduction, so you can tell what the story is about and its style, so you can find one you want to read that day. Other anthologies do this, and you can accordingly go through and read the intros to each piece to get a feel for what is where. With this collection there are no intros (there are author bios in the back, not with their stories, which I found annoying), and I found the best approach was simply to flip to page one and start reading straight through. The pleasure in this approach is never knowing what you'll get and enjoying each piece as it comes. The annoyance is having to read each story to know what it's about, so you can't pick pieces to suit your mood for that day. You just have to take your chances. Since it's not much work to provide a couple of sentences summarizing each piece, I would rather the editor do that and let me choose what to read when I want to read it. Finally, the quality of the pieces in this collection vary a good bit. Some, like "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," are very crisp and sharp and strong, and some, like "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance," blather on for 60 pages and make no sense whatsoever.
Overall, though, this is a rich collection that will take you to many worlds and give you a nice overview of current trends in fantasy and science fiction. Annoyances aside, this work should give you many hours of enjoyment and possibly introduce you to some new authors whose longer works you can then go out and find, for your reading enjoyment. Have fun!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Elliot
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I will confess at the outset that I am of two minds about contemporary science fiction. On the one hand, nearly all the SF being published today is smoothly written, with none of the clunky prose and cardboard characterization that plagued the pulp magazines of the 1940s and 50s. On the other, most of the good SF ideas have already been used, and its harder for today's writers to create the sense of wonder that characterized the field in decades past. Many contemporary authors write in a self-consciously "literary" style that I find off-putting (and sometimes borderline incomprehensible).
This is a *big* anthology, with more than two dozen pieces, including a number of novellas and novelettes, about evenly divided between science fiction and fantasy. I didn't like all the stories-- in fact, I probably liked less than half-- but I still give this book four stars, because it does contain some excellent stories. On the science fiction side, I liked Geoffrey Landis's "The Sultan of the Clouds," an old-fashioned SF tale at heart, for all its modern stylings; "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Its Glory," by Paul M. Berger, a seemingly-conventional story with a real sting in its tail; and the genuinely odd "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon," by Elizabeth Hand. Peter Watts' "The Things" is a re-telling of John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" (the basis for the movie "The Thing" and its re-makes), this time told from the alien's perspective; the idea sounds cutesy, but the execution is flawless. I bet Campbell would have liked it. Robert Reed's "Dead Man's Run" is a bit overlong, but is a fascinating murder mystery which makes clever use of believable AI technology.
On the fantasy side, I enjoyed "Amor Vincit Omnia," by K.J. Parker, an old-fashioned story about a student wizard, but beautifully told; Rachel Swirsky's "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," which successfully straddles the line between old-school fantasy and modern literary affectations; and Willow Fagan's "The Interior of Bumblethorn's Coat," which is not old-fashioned in the slightest, but nonetheless worked for me because of its hallucinatory imagery. Gene Wolfe's "Bloodsport" was a well-told sword and sorcery fantasy, although I felt it go downhill at the end.
There were quite a few stories in this anthology I didn't enjoy, and a few I didn't understand at all, but there were enough excellent stories in the mix for me to give this a (qualified) recommendation.
This is a *big* anthology, with more than two dozen pieces, including a number of novellas and novelettes, about evenly divided between science fiction and fantasy. I didn't like all the stories-- in fact, I probably liked less than half-- but I still give this book four stars, because it does contain some excellent stories. On the science fiction side, I liked Geoffrey Landis's "The Sultan of the Clouds," an old-fashioned SF tale at heart, for all its modern stylings; "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Its Glory," by Paul M. Berger, a seemingly-conventional story with a real sting in its tail; and the genuinely odd "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon," by Elizabeth Hand. Peter Watts' "The Things" is a re-telling of John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" (the basis for the movie "The Thing" and its re-makes), this time told from the alien's perspective; the idea sounds cutesy, but the execution is flawless. I bet Campbell would have liked it. Robert Reed's "Dead Man's Run" is a bit overlong, but is a fascinating murder mystery which makes clever use of believable AI technology.
On the fantasy side, I enjoyed "Amor Vincit Omnia," by K.J. Parker, an old-fashioned story about a student wizard, but beautifully told; Rachel Swirsky's "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window," which successfully straddles the line between old-school fantasy and modern literary affectations; and Willow Fagan's "The Interior of Bumblethorn's Coat," which is not old-fashioned in the slightest, but nonetheless worked for me because of its hallucinatory imagery. Gene Wolfe's "Bloodsport" was a well-told sword and sorcery fantasy, although I felt it go downhill at the end.
There were quite a few stories in this anthology I didn't enjoy, and a few I didn't understand at all, but there were enough excellent stories in the mix for me to give this a (qualified) recommendation.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another solid collection of sci-fi and fantasy
OVERVIEW
If you're like me, you read annual "best of" collections because you want to get a sense of what is going on in your favorite genre(s) - Who are the hot new... Read more
If you're like me, you read annual "best of" collections because you want to get a sense of what is going on in your favorite genre(s) - Who are the hot new... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Michael Lichter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never Disappoints!
I get my wife one every Christmas.
Always something she looks forward to.
This is my "go-to" gift when I'm not sure what else she likes!
Always something she looks forward to.
This is my "go-to" gift when I'm not sure what else she likes!
Published 2 months ago by dahens1
3.0 out of 5 stars
Only OK choice of stories
Some of the stories are excellent, but more are only OK. I think I was expecting a better choice of stories. That is just my taste, though, other people may love all the stories.
Published 5 months ago by whalsey
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some great some mediocre
The majority of the short stories are excellent but with few exceptions the longer stories seemed achingly overlong and under edited. Read more
Published 6 months ago by AmyCQ
4.0 out of 5 stars
Always a good read
These collections are almost always a good deal for catching up on the many hundreds of stories published each year. Wish there wasn't so much fantasy but...
Published 10 months ago by Ed Van Sicklin
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyed the stories....
I enjoyed almost all the stories in this collection. Some left me rather cold at the end considering the investment made in the time it took to read the story, but the majority... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Cat
1.0 out of 5 stars
LAME!!!
Well, i actually found this anthology to be quite "lame"! The science fiction was weak in the "science " and the fantasy was disjointed mumblings of a bunch of amateurs! Read more
Published 11 months ago by C.C.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The excuses of a mean book critic
As a reader of many, many reviews, I have to admit I'm more alarmed by the number of dull ones than the number of unkind ones. Read more
Published 13 months ago by William Dennehy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read.
A great collection of science fiction stories. My favorite story was No Time Like the Present, but they were all very good. I will keep buying these books every year.
Published 15 months ago by Woka
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sci--fi anthology
This item was given as a gift, and we have not received feedback on it yet. It appears to have a wide selection of stories. It was packaged well, and in good condition.
Published 15 months ago by J. Thomas
