The Year's Best Science Fiction, Tenth Annual Collection

A story average of 3.5 is not that amazing for something like this, but no doubt that overall it is a good collection. Dozois's Yearly Summation of 30-40 pages is worth bonus points, though, as as rating the whole book goes. Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Griffin's Egg - Michael Swanwick Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Even the Queen - Connie Willis Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Round-Eyed Barbarians - L. Sprague de Camp Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Dust - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Two Guys from the Future - Terry Bisson Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Mountain to Mohammed - Nancy Kress Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Coming of Vertumnus - Ian Watson Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple - Robert Silverberg Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Hammer of God - Arthur C. Clarke Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Grownups - Ian R. MacLeod Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Graves - Joe Haldeman Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Glowing Cloud - Steven Utley Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Gravity's Angel - Tom Maddox Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Protection - Maureen F. McHugh Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Last Cardinal Bird in Tennessee - Neal Barrett Jr. Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Birth Day - Robert Reed Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Naming Names - Pat Cadigan Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Elvis National Theater of Okinawa - Jonathan Lethem and Lukas Jaeger Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Territory - Bradley Denton Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : The Best and the Rest of James Joyce - Ian McDonald Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Naming the Flowers - Kate Wilhelm Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Snodgrass - Ian R. MacLeod Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : By the Mirror of My Youth - Kathe Koja Year's Best Science Fiction 10 : Outnumbering the Dead - Frederik Pohl Terran nuclear nightmare, moon mental mimetic mayhem amidst crisis predicted canoodling. 3.5 out of 5 The bleeding right to live how you like, mate. 4 out of 5 Woman goes for the big guns. 3 out of 5 A man is running an experiment in the ability to change times and geography for a simulated personality to see if it will cohere. At least that is what he thinks. 5 out of 5 Art nicker from next era is pleased with removal of knickers, so is ex-wearer of same. 4 out of 5 Emergency medicine restrictions. 3.5 out of 5 Vegie porn art magic investigation. 3.5 out of 5 Alien execution archaeology. 3.5 out of 5 Big space rock boom us without imparting a beating boof. 3.5 out of 5 Avuncular man baby. 3.5 out of 5 Creepy crawly chopped corpse dreams. 3 out of 5 Time travel chase needs fast result to avoid lava laving. 3.5 out of 5 Collision experiment singularity. 4 out of 5 Concentration camp changes. 4.5 out of 5 Captive creatures. 2 out of 5 Mysterious AI occasionally generous. 4 out of 5 Powers need care. 3.5 out of 5 Cross-cultural showbiz.

I read this collection over the space of four years, picking it up off and on. It was from no fault of the collection's, just my weird reading habits. In retrospect, it was probably Utley's story that had me stymied for so long. As normal, I disagree with Dozois' choices about 25%, 50% I could take or leave, and think the remaining 25% golden. This anthology series is one, however, that I would hate to do without, even given those odds. * Greg Egan, "Dust" -- The thing I like about Egan is that he writes science fiction similar to the kind I try to write--philosophical yet grounded in reality. It's not hard SF, yet it's not so wacko or adventure-based that it loses its message. This story is a nice mixture of the introspection of AI and cloning, the nature of self and reality. * Terry Bisson, "Two Guys from the Future" -- Bisson's always good for these light, but excellently done, clever stories. In this one he plays fast and loose with time travel and art. * Nancy Kress, "The Mountain to Mohammed" -- Kress continues her raid on the politics and issues of our time, this one taking a long view on the escalation of malpractice insurance and existing medical conditions. Her future is bleak, but there's a neat and clever ray of hope. * Ian Watson, "The Coming of Vertummus" -- Wow! What a ride. Watson here pulls out all the stops, doing a tiny version of what Robert Anton Wilson has made his life work: the very question of is history true, can it be trusted. But he goes beyond that and also delves into the question of trusting the mind after drugs. The ending is the only weak spot, petering out a bit to show the character's state, but all in all, great fun. * Robert Silverberg, "A Long Night's Vigil at the Temple" -- I don't care for the majority of Silverberg stories--they seem to go on forever with very little interesting things happening. This one is like a deep dive into the mind of a priest, the concept had promise, but the execution was boring. * Arthur C. Clarke, "The Hammer of God" -- I don't read that much hard SF--I never read much of it in the past either--but Clarke has always had a way of bringing me into a good nuts and bolt story, and it's nice to see that he hasn't lost his touch. Basically a study of a possible asteroid collision with the Earth, but also some nice jabs at politics and religion. * Ian R. McLeod, "Grownups" -- Kind of unsettling, in the "Bloodchild" soft of way, but not as ultimately affecting because it had no tie to our experience--some kind of connection to our sexual lives, not necessarily an explanation, but inferences beyond the obvious. * Joe Haldeman, "Graves" -- Seems like I've read this one before, possibly in Datlow's Annual? In any case, not bad, but nothing to give an award to either. Decent use of personal knowledge and experience with a supernatural slant. * Steven Utley, "The Glowing Cloud" -- This was way long for the subject, which seemed to me to be old hat anyway--that 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.