The Year's Best Science Fiction

"Most of the rising costs of books comes from the truly horrendous system of distribution and marketing, as inefficient a system as it is possible to imagine" so says the editor in 1991. In 1992, no sign of book publishing slowing down, it seemed. A postage hike helped to kill all sorts of magazines. SF book numbers continued to rise in general, however. Not a good year for original anthologies, apparently. However, he apparently liked Peter McNamara and Margaret Winch's Alien Shores, an Australian anthology that is a mixture, and also mentions Mortal Fire, by Terry Dowling and Van Ikin, and Paul Collins' Metaworlds. A somewhat similar in quality to the year before anthology, average higher at 3.68, and no dodguy story. Which means on adjusted score, this book is better, with Egan's 'The Moat' as the standout. Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Beggars in Spain - Nancy Kress Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Living Will - Alexander Jablokov Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : A Just and Lasting Peace - Lois Tilton Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Skinner's Room - William Gibson Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Prayers on the Wind - Walter Jon Williams Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Blood Sisters - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : The Dark - Karen Joy Fowler Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Marnie - Ian R. MacLeod Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : A Tip on a Turtle - Robert Silverberg Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Ubermensch! - Kim Newman Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Dispatches from the Revolution - Pat Cadigan Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Pipes - Robert Reed Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Matter's End - Gregory Benford Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : A History of the Twentieth Century with Illustrations - Kim Stanley Robinson Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Gene Wars - Paul J. McAuley Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : The Gallery of His Dreams - Kristine Kathryn Rusch Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : A Walk in the Sun - Geoffrey A. Landis Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria - Ian McDonald Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Angels in Love - Kathe Koja Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Eyewall - Rick Shelley Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Pogrom - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : The Moat - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Voices - Jack M. Dann Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : FOAM - Brian W. Aldiss Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Jack - Connie Willis Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : La Macchina - Chris Beckett Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : One Perfect Morning with Jackals - Mike Resnick Year's Best Science Fiction 09 : Desert Rain - Mark L. Van Name and Pat Murphy Sleeping is a waste of time. 4 out of 5 Double self shutdown. 3.5 out of 5 SS rebel kid. 3.5 out of 5 Old bridge crosser. 3 out of 5 Buddha bloke's brain busting b1tch burn. 3.5 out of 5 Placebo death override. 4 out of 5 Tunnel rats,

SF has come a long way. The closest comparison I can perhaps find in my personal library is The Giant Book of Science Fiction Stories (Edited by Martin Greenberg) - 101 50s-70s magazine SF stories - and the difference is chalk and cheese. This may be an unfair comparison: Dozois' collections' stories are generally a few thousand words longer, however they add more than quantity. They still all have that key short SF story element, a novel `What if?' idea - but the way they realise these ideas is much more impressive than the bare bones of their predecessors. Maybe Greenberg was filling up space (although there are some excellent stories within the deluge), but Dozois was picking the cream from 1991. I could pick out some favourites, but each of these stories are undeniably well written. They all have individual recognisable characters - rather than stock ones. They can write potent settings, can pace a story. Alas these virtues are more the exception than the rule in much earlier fiction I've read. Maybe SF hasn't come a long way, rather I'm just fortunate to have found a good filter in Dozois which I didn't find in Greenberg. You could validly look at a collection like this as a sampler to suggest whose novels might be worth seeking out. However I found myself really relishing the short story format again - rather I'm pleased that this is the 9th in a series, and I'll be seeking out other collections. If they're of this calibre - and this impressive consistency - I'm in for some excellent reading.

As with other editions of Gardner Dozois' collections, a Sci-Fi fan can't go wrong. A brief warning, however, the titles and reviews listed here belong to the 13th annual edition, and are not what you get in this edition.

One more volume in the definitive best science fiction series. If you want to read the best, here it is.