The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection

Jammed chock-full of science fiction goodness, the 22nd Annual Edition of "The Year's Best Science Fiction" (2004) is exactly what any lover of science fiction will dream of. One of the themes I noticed in this edition is science fiction-based mystery stories. The settings ranged from the past to the present and on into the distant future. One piece - from Eleanore Arnason - called "The Garden" is a particularly interesting piece, since it is a science fiction story based from the point of view of aliens. The last story - a novella by Walter Jon Williams named "Investments" - particularly caught my interest. It is one of the mystery stories I mentioned earlier, and something about it left me ... unsettled. I can't figure out what or why, but I plan to re-read this story a few times and see if I can't pick up on what it was that affected me so profoundly. His writing style is reminiscent of Modesitt, so that could have been part of what captured my imagination so deeply. Basically, if you like science fiction, pick up this book. You will not regret it - and maybe you'll even find a new favorite author (like I did with Kage Baker and her amusing story "Mother Aegypt.")

A really solid entry in the Year's Best Science Fiction Series, resplendent with epic introduction and 'season overview'. Very consistent, this one. Nothing brilliant, but nothing poor, either. Just all around good, really, with an average of 3.80. Bacigalupi and Moles the two best. Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Inappropriate Behavior - Pat Murphy Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Start the Clock - Benjamin Rosenbaum Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Third Party - David Moles Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Voluntary State - Christopher Rowe Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Shiva in Shadow - Nancy Kress Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The People of Sand and Slag - Paolo Bacigalupi Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Clapping Hands of God - Michael F. Flynn Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Tourism - M. John Harrison Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Scout's Honor - Terry Bisson Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Men Are Trouble - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Mother Aegypt - Kage Baker Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Synthetic Serendipity - Vernor Vinge Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Skin Deep - Mary Rosenblum Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Delhi - Vandana Singh Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Tribes of Bela - Albert E. Cowdrey Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Sitka - William Sanders Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Leviathan Wept - Daniel Abraham Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Defenders - Colin P. Davies Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Mayflower II - Stephen Baxter Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Riding the White Bull - Caitlin R. Kiernan Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Falling Star - Brendan DuBois Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Dragons of Summer Gulch - Robert Reed Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Ocean of the Blind - James L. Cambias Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : The Garden: A Hwarhath Science Fictional Romance - Eleanor Arnason Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Footvote - Peter F. Hamilton Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Sisyphus and the Stranger - Paul Di Filippo Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Ten Sigmas - Paul Melko Year's Best Science Fiction 22 : Investments - Walter Jon Williams An autistic girl, operating a remote robot as part of an experiment finds a stranded man that needs rescuing. The man running this experiment has problems with priorities. 3.5 out of 5 Arrested development decision. 3.5 out of 5 Barbarians are smarter than they look. 4.5 out of 5 Southern Somatype. 3 out of 5 Stellar observation science ship conflict upload event horizon existence. 4 out of 5 Immortal ruined future's lack of taste for pets. 4.5 out of 5 World walking war woe. 4 out of 5 Shadow operators. 3 out of 5 Time travel for the NT, low battery means HS. 4 out of 5 Dame overload detection devilish. 4 out of 5 Devil too chicken for Company. 3 out of 5 Adult education. 3 out of 5 Filial facsimile repair choice declined. 4 out of 5 Past advice. 4 ou

A collection of recent sci fi, ranging across various topics. I've always been a fan of hard sci fi, and this collection contained a number of entertaining stories. A good value for the $$$.

Gardner Dozois routinely edits the best collection of the years short SF. If that's what you want then his is the one you buy first, all others second.

Each year this succession of trangressional thoughts and assumptions proves that award winning performance is well deserved. As always the anthology provides readers with insight into what is happening in scientific fictional accounts on the accord of what is actual realism. The evidence provided through the unusual accounts of the mind, through imagination if you will, shows that existence stands within the bounds of uncomfortable realism. Dozois fascinates the common critic in his match of intellect against Dr. Igbus, well-known Psychology professor from Stanford and writer of "Great Minds Think Alike", and proves that he has a grasp on the genre of science fiction.