The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual Collection

A definite return to form from the year before, this book averaging 3.75. There are four excellent stories in this volume. A bit of fantasy, some black humour, but a considerably more interesting group of work this time. Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Rachel in Love - Pat Murphy Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Dream Baby - Bruce McAllister Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Flowers of Edo - Bruce Sterling Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Forever Yours Anna - Kate Wilhelm Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : At the Cross-Time Jaunters' Ball - Alexander Jablokov Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Dinosaurs - Walter Jon Williams Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Temporary King - Paul J. McAuley Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Perpetuity Blues - Neal Barrett Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Buffalo Gals Won't You Come Out Tonight? - Ursula K. Le Guin Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Pardoner's Tale - Robert Silverberg Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Glass Cloud - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Evening and the Morning and the Night - Octavia E. Butler Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Night of the Cooters - Howard Waldrop Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Angel - Pat Cadigan Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Shades - Lucius Shepard Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Faithful Companion at Forty - Karen Joy Fowler Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Candle in a Cosmic Wind - Joseph Manzione Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Emir's Clock - Ian Watson Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Ever After - Susan Palwick Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Forest of Time - Michael F. Flynn Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Million-Dollar Wound - Dean Whitlock Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : The Moon of Popping Trees - R. Garcia y Robertson Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Diner - Neal Barrett Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : All the Hues of Hell - Gene Wolfe Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Halley's Passing - Michael McDowell Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : America - Orson Scott Card Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : For Thus Do I Remember Carthage - Michael Bishop Year's Best Science Fiction 05 : Mother Goddess of the World - Kim Stanley Robinson The life of a superintelligent chimp, the result of scientific experimentation into sign language. She is helped by some humans. 3.5 out of 5 Nam Talent squad rebellion. 4.5 out of 5 Local art ideas, one demon. 3 out of 5 Love letter time analysis. 4 out of 5 Critic revenge. 4 out of 5 Evolution specialisation inflexibility devastation. 4.5 out of 5 Love 'em, but you can't leave them if they kill you. 4 out of 5 Play waiting surprise. 3 out of 5 Don't eat the salmon. 2.5 out of 5 If you can hack it here, you can hack it anywhere. Unless the aliens get better at android collaborator impersonators. 4.5 out of 5 Alien architecture requirements are quite whacky. 4 out of 5 Concentration of disease. 4 out of 5 That sheriff is

Dozois is, and has long been, one of the best editors and anthologizers in all of SF. The anthology ranges over the many different sub-genres of Science Fiction, and I therefore cannot say I enjoyed all of his stories; nevertheless, all were well-written, and some of the stories were among the best I've ever read. I strongly recommend this and any other of Dozois' "Year's Best..." series.