The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 1

A new series of books, or so we hope. I read this fully expecting not to like the fantasy part as much as the SF part, and that certainly turned out to be the case. What I have basically classified as SF to myself averages around 3.80, the fantasy part, 3.60. Anyway, I have always looked at these sort of things as Best SF with bonus material. In fact, fantasy is broadly defined here, from with boys, to child slaughtering horror. The breakdown of genre is SF a bit under half - and the odd nebulous story that you could call SF would take it a bit over half, for those that are mostly interested in this as a science fiction book. For the rest, perhaps 60:40 fantasy to horror, by my classification, for those interested in that sort of thing one way or the other. The editor gives a brief introduction, which is an historical overview of various 'Year's Best' series, and his own favorite editors of the past. Not sure whether it is short of choice, or for space reasons as he was trying to pack in as much story as possible. If that is the case, then perhaps publishers in a similar situation could consider longer editorial introduction with perhaps a url in the book, or even that as an excerpt or promo. The story intros are brief, with a little bit of biography, and a little bit of introduction, and keeps to the right side of the line of reading like advertising. Speaking of which, this book actually has relevant advertisements for other books by the publisher. Normally, most people don't like advertising, but in the case of books, I find it good to have what else is available, with publisher's URL prominently available. Even if you just do the old fashioned one page list like was done in the past, that is fine. However, in this case you exactly get pretty high quality cover reproduction and blurbs, so quite well done. So, to rate this, I give the SF part a 4.5, and the fantasy part a 4. If you like the non-SF genres more, I would think you are likely to call it the reverse. SF and F Best 01 : How To Talk To Girls At Parties - Neil Gaiman. SF and F Best 01 : El Regalo - Peter S. Beagle SF and F Best 01 : I Row-Boat - Cory Doctorow SF and F Best 01 : In The House Of The Seven Librarians - Ellen Klages SF and F Best 01 : Another Word For Map Is Faith - Christopher Rowe SF and F Best 01 : Under Hell, Over Heaven - Margo Langanan SF and F Best 01 : Incarnation Day - Walter Jon Williams. SF and F Best 01 : The Night Whiskey - Jeffrey Ford. SF and F Best 01 : A Siege Of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum SF and F Best 01 : Halfway House - Frances Hardinge. SF and F Best 01 : The Bible Repairman - Tim Powers SF and F Best 01 : Yellow Card Man - Paolo Bacigalupi SF and F Best 01 : Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) - Geoff Ryman SF and F Best 01 : The American Dead - Jay Lake SF and F Best 01 : The Cartesian Theater - Robert Charles Wilson SF and F Best 01 : Journey Into The Kingdom - M. Rickert SF and F Best 01 : Eight Episodes - R