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Most of the stories were good. A few were fantasy rather than science fiction. Almost half were four pages stories that were originally published in Nature magazine.
As with any collection of short stories, some you like, some you don't. I do recommend reading short stories every so often, even if you prefer novels, because the really good stories are so rewarding.
A fun collection of science-fiction shorts: some silly, some curious and some of them truly inspirational. No surprise that stories by Peter F. Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds pleased me the most.
Subjective Favorites: "Second Person, Present Tense"/Daryl Gregory. "A Case of Consilience"/Ken MacLeod. "Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch"/Rudy Rucker. "The Edge of Nowhere"/ James Patrick Kelly. "What's Expected of Us"/Ted Chiang. "Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play"/Michael Swanwick. "Third Day Lights"/Alaya Dawn Johnson. "And Future King..."/Adam Roberts. "Beyond the Aquila Rift"/Alastair Reynolds.
Many short stories, ranging from really good to meh, but almost all thought-provoking. The great thing about an anthology is that if one isn't so good, you've only invested 20 pages!
Lots of great sci-fi in this collection.
http://nhw.livejournal.com/705321.html[return][return]There was only one story out of 31 here that failed to really engage my interest (OK, some of them were very short) and two that I thought were really good and would not have come across otherwise. I liked very much R Garcia y Robertson's "Oxygen Rising", about future war, peacekeeping and sex, and Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" struck me as one of the great sf and religion stories (OK, it references many of the others, but that if any...
Contains Alastair Reynolds’ “Beyond the Aquila Rift," Gardner Dozois's "When the Great Days Came" (a perfect vignette for those days when one feels like a rat), and Bud Sparhawk's gripping and well-written horror story "Bright Red Star."
I especially recommend:Ken MacLeod, "A Case of Consilience"Rudy Rucker, "Guadalupe and Hieronyus Bosch"Michael Swanwick, "Girls and Boys, Come out to Play"Cory Doctorow, "I, Robot"
A couple of issues detract from the overall quality of this collection: 1) An over-dependence on stories from the journal Nature; stories which, while written by competent professional writers, are short-shorts and for the most part don't amount to much more than story sketches (more Ideas than actual Stories). 2) The same limiting factor faced by the series as a whole -- a relatively narrow definition of what constitutes "science fiction", coupled with a seeming desire to identify and then dwel...
Year's Best SF 11 (Year's Best Sf) by David G. Hartwell (2006)
This collection is one of the stronger in the series, which is saying alot. The story "Second Person, Present Tense" is so well written and moving that it alone makes the book worthwhile. There is plenty of other good stuff here too, like "Sheila", "Ram Shift Phase 2", and "Forever Kitten". I found that a few too many of the stories had religious overtones or themes for my taste, but that's just a personal preference and not a reflection of the quality of the stories. But really, how many storie...
Anthologies are a mix... some stories you won't like. This one got a 5 for most stories were great, even rereadable, which for me is a rarity.
The “Year’s Best SF11” was published in 2006, containing the best tales of 2005. It includes thirty-one science fiction short stories. It’s chocked full of famous authors such as Joe Haldeman, Greg Bear, Alastair Reynolds, and Ted Chiang. I read it during the Holiday Break, which was perfect as I was juggling finalizing grading for four university courses (220 students) and a houseful of family. So every now and then, usually in the morning, I would get to sneak into a corner and read a short st...
Of course, because it has Daryl's story Second Person, Present Tense[http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0702/Se...]
It could be argued that ‘Nature’ is helping to keep that odd phenomenon, the short short story, alive. The SSS – not to be confused with the Drabble, which is a microstory of one hundred words – presumably due to the space constraints for fiction within the magazine, runs to no more than four pages.Thus SF has found an evolutionary niche in a non-fiction periodical, much as happened back in the Sixties and Seventies with Playboy, which regularly had its published stories reprinted in ‘Year’s Bes...
Well, here's an awkward moment for me. I had read one of the later books in this series and was blown away so I was really looking forward to this one. It wound up being that second really disastrous date sorta scenario.And it was spectacularly unimpressive. I finished reading it less than a week ago and I can barely remember any of it. There's just nothing memorable here. No "Nightfall" material for future generations to "ooo" and "ahh" over.Which is a real shame because the book looks gorgeous...
Greatly. And Gravely. Disappointed.
Year's Best SF11 02072010Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer 2006Some good stuff.
