The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirteenth Annual Collection

For this series, this is a down volume, with a Jekyll and Hyde personality. On one hand, it has three of my all time favorite stories ever : Wang's Carpets, Luminous, and the Death of Captain Future. On the other, it has three below average and three average stories, which is quite a lot for a best of the year selection. The Swanwick is a fantasy story, as far as I could see, too in fact, it won a fantasy award, as such. If I never see another story about someone's Marilyn Monroe fantasy, that would be too soon. Kelly's Think Like A Dinosaur is also excellent. Only a 3.67 average, for the stories, so I'd call this one, with the perhaps longer than usual detailed introduction around a 4.75 score. Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : A Woman's Liberation - Ursula K. Le Guin Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Starship Day - Ian R. MacLeod Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : A Place with Shade - Robert Reed Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Luminous - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : The Promise of God - Michael F. Flynn Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Death in the Promised Land - Pat Cadigan Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : For White Hill - Joe Haldeman Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Some Like It Cold - John Kessel Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : The Death of Captain Future - Allen M. Steele Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : The Lincoln Train - Maureen F. McHugh Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy - David Marusek Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Radio Waves - Michael Swanwick Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Wang's Carpets - Greg Egan Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Casting at Pegasus - Mary Rosenblum Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Looking for Kelly Dahl - Dan Simmons Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Coming of Age in Karhide by Sov Thade Tage em Ereb of Rer in Karhide on Gethen - Ursula K. Le Guin Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Genesis - Poul Anderson Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Feigenbaum Number - Nancy Kress Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Home - Geoff Ryman Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : There Are No Dead - Terry Bisson Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Recording Angel - Paul J. McAuley Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Elvis Bearpaw's Luck - William Sanders Year's Best Science Fiction 13 : Mortimer Gray's History of Death - Brian M. Stableford Slave teachings. 4 out of 5 Virtual maintenance check. 3.5 out of 5 Crazy changer chick. 3.5 out of 5 A pair of researchers have found a defect in mathematics, where something can be true and false at the same time. This leads to them going on the run to keep the power of changing reality out of corporate hands, and leads them to a startling discovery. "Alison gave me a strange look. "You still don't get it, do you, Bruno? You're still thinking like a Platonist. The universe has only been around for fifteen billion years. It hasn't had time to create infinities. The f

The Kansas guy pretty much said what I think, except Poul Anderson wrote some good stuff. Also the hard sf by Egan was pretty good. "Recording Angel" was pretty good. I get the feeling this new series of McAuley's is in the Universe of this story. The summation was a little gloomy, but I'm hopeful the science fiction magazines won't die.

Although I did not enjoy every story, I respected them. Meaning the ones I did not like I am sure someone else would. The ones I liked best were "Think Like a Dinosaur", "The Lincoln Train", "Genesis", & "Feigenbaum's Number". Although I'd like to say the title character in "Looking for Kelly Dahl" is quite interesting & memorable. "Think Like a Dinosaur" is good for people who liked the idea in Tom Godwin "The Cold Equation's", but thought it was sappy. It also has interesting aliens. "The Lincoln Train" introduced me to Maureen F. McHugh (which is a mixed blessing), still it's a good Alternate History story vividly written. Poul Anderson has written some of my most & most hated novels. Still "Genesis" is an interesting far future tale. My favorite part is more alternate history involved. "Feigenbaum's number" introduced me to Nancy Kress (mostly a good thing) it mixes math & Platonism. These stories (especially the Kress) are more emotional then I am used to sf being. Still it is a fairly varied mixture that even contains some hard sf. My only complaint is that he could have chosen less confusing stories that were under ten pages. (or just not included stories that short since he obviously doesn't like them that short)