The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection (Paperback)

~ Gardner R. Dozois (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Another bumper crop of 25 tales culled from 1990's output, with no real standouts but maintaining a high standard overall. The famous names weigh in: Robert Silverberg (climatic change), Joe Haldeman (a short version of his recent missing-Hemingway- manuscripts novel), John Brunner (immortality), Michael Moorcock (a future Third World), Ursula K. Le Guin (a Hainish tale), and Kate Wilhelm's alien castaway. Not to forget such almost-as-famous contributors as: Bruce Sterling (religious-cultural clashes), Terry Bisson (the hilarious ``Bears Discover Fire''), Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier (a chiller), Nancy Kress (disease colonies), Connie Willis (a comic modern El Dorado), Lewis Shiner (a what-if involving Nikola Tesla), and Pat Murphy (robot sex). And the remaining tales are equally diverse and stimulating, from longevity, chimeras, physics, cosmology, and transferable memories to rainmakers, alien invaders, and computer-reality. Another in a virtually indispensable series. Pity the price has gone into orbit, though. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Annually assembling the best science fiction of the year, this series continues to live up to its name with the most original, innovative, and wonderful short fiction published in 1990. A thorough summary of the year in science fiction and a long list of recommended reading round out this volume, rendering it the one book for every reader.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Bluejay (June 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312060092
• ISBN-13: 978-0312060091
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #98,725 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #10 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dozois, Gardner
  #78 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Anthologies
  #79 in	Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Short Stories

• This is item 8 in The Year's Best Science Fiction Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, May 31, 2008

By	Blue Tyson "- http://freesf.blogspot.com" - See all my reviews

Book publishing numbers up again, according to Dozois. He points out one interesting statistic - 57% of new SF books were part of a series or something like that, as opposed to original.

This volume too is up from the last one, making it to 3.70, so with the usual long summary and recommended reading list bonus points, a solid 4.5 on its now.

Three standout stories, too.


Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Mr. Boy - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Shobies' Story - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Caress - Greg Egan
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : A Braver Thing - Charles Sheffield
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : We See Things Differently - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : And the Angels Sing - Kate Wilhelm
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Past Magic - Ian R. MacLeod
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Bears Discover Fire - Terry Bisson
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The All-Consuming - Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Personal Silence - Molly Gloss
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Invaders - John Kessel
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Cairene Purse - Michael Moorcock
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured His Larinks A Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk - Dafydd ab Hugh
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Tower of Babylon - Ted Chiang
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Death Artist - Alexander Jablokov
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The First Since Ancient Persia - John Brunner
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Inertia - Nancy Kress
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Learning to Be Me - Greg Egan
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Cibola - Connie Willis
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Walking the Moons - Jonathan Lethem
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Rainmaker Cometh - Ian McDonald
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Hot Sky - Robert Silverberg
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : White City - Lewis Shiner
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : Love and S3x Among the Invertebrates - Pat Murphy
Year's Best Science Fiction 08 : The Hemingway Hoax - Joe W. Haldeman


Not wanting to grow up attitude certainly isn't helped by mum's mechanical approach to parenting.

3.5 out of 5


Look, it's full of stars.

3 out of 5


An enhanced policeman gets entangled in a billionaire's bizarre Dr Moreau creations as art and save the child schemes.

4 out of 5


Black bagged mate's Nobel notebook space travel cribbing award speech shocker.

4 out of 5


Downtrodden rock tour coke killer.

4 out of 5


Alien escapee local journalism.

4 out of 5


Nailing the ex for cloning.

3.5 out of 5


Hibernatin's a big ol' waste of time.

4 out of 5


Deadly deviant dishes means fungus faced diner's chef leavetaking.

4 out of 5


Boat builder death story.

3.5 out of 5


Alien Flash of conquistador history waffle.

3 out of 5


Sister's alien lovechild leaving lethality.

4 out of 5


Plague Dogs leveler love.

4.5 out of 5


Built like a brick lighthouse tunnelway to heaven.

3.5 out of 5


Please kill the real me, I deserve it.

3.5 out of 5


No Xerxes, no Spartans, no kids.

4 out of 5


Quarantine lack of collapse restraint.

4.5 out of 5


A man learns to come to terms with the Jewel or Ndoli device - which is also mentioned in Border Guards, and has a bit of a different reaction with a glitch to others.

3 out of 5


Sunshine city time.

3.5 out of 5


Virtually stuck here, by Jove.

3 out of 5


Seven year drought breaker stranger sighting.

3 out of 5


Berg SOS mutiny seeya.

4 out of 5


Big night light.

4 out of 5


Radiation rooted robomum.

3 out of 5


Multiple serial murder mayhem over Ernie's multiversal missing manuscript mania.

4.5 out of 5





4.5 out of 5

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wrong book description below, November 2, 1999

By	"crosenbe" (Los Angeles CA USA) - See all my reviews

As a die-hard fan, you can't go wrong with Gardner Dozois' collections. However, please note that Amazon's reviews have gone haywire on these compilations. The attached text refers to the 13th annual edition, not this one.