Year's Best SF 11

David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have done fine work collecting these 31 stories from authors who have also done some fine work. I enjoyed most of these stories very much. Although there were some that didn't work for me, there are none which I regret the time spent reading. I always appreciate well-written introductions with author bios, brief descriptions of their other work, and web addresses that point to more information. This volume met this expectation well--as I have come to expect from these editors. I had to do some winnowing to get my favorites down to these five: Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" is a rare beast--a science fiction short story that treats religion with respect without sinking into either sarcasm or apology. A missionary's message that seems to go unheard by an alien fungal intelligence is accepted, slowly digested and finally understood. Neal Asher's "Mason's Rats" describes a farmer's high-tech war with unwelcome invaders. And reminds us that winning allies can be as important as winning battles. Paul McAuley's "Rats of the System" is space operate in the most complementary sense. Along with the action, readers learn about transcendent intelligences and two very different cultures' ways of dealing with them. Bud Sparhawk's "Bright Red Star" describes the last mission of a squad of specialized commandos who will sacrifice their lives to keep human colonists from being captured and horribly used by an alien enemy. This is a particularly well-written story. Alastair Reynolds' "Beyond the Aquila Rift" gives me one more reason to consider him a favorite author with a story outside of his usual universe. We learn a couple of things about how to help a space traveler who wakes up from "an unusually long hypersleep." The collection does contain an unusually large number--ten of the thirty-one--of short science fiction stories that originally appeared in "Nature." I suppose this might irritate "Nature" subscribers who feel they aren't getting enough new material. I think all ten are good stories. None are among my favorites because a personal preference for longer stories. The editors' distribution of these stories among the longer stories has a positive effect on the reader's pacing through the collection. My favorite among these shorts is Peter Hamilton's "The Forever Kitten" for its sly wink at the difficulties of being a parent. As always, I am grateful to be able read this collection on my iPhone Kindle app. Nothing beats reading great science fiction surreptitiously while in a meeting with other researchers, supposedly doing great science. I'm not sure it hurts the science all that much. It's a great collection. Enjoy it in your own way.

The editors certainly seem enamored of the rather short stories found in Nature magazine, and again I think that may hamper a rating, including lots of them, although it certainly adds to a variety. 31 stories here, which is more than the equivalent Dozois volume, although the book is probably only 55% of the length, or something like that. As such, a standard type edition of one of these Hartwell and Cramer volumes, with a 3.79 average. Only three standouts in the 31, McAuley, Reynolds and Doctorow. However, only 2 average stories, despite all the short pieces, so rather well done there, so along with the Year's Best SF 10 they have done a fine job avoiding stories of not much interest. Apart from actual real natural disasters, they mention one anthology - Constellations by Peter Crowther, in the introduction, which would appear to have a lot of British SF talent in it, with stellar based stories the theme. With all that, pretty much a 4.75 I think, and given this scale, may as well be a 5 given the consistency. Year's Best SF 11 : New Hope for the Dead - David Langford Year's Best SF 11 : Deus Ex Homine - Hannu Rajaniemi Year's Best SF 11 : When the Great Days Came - Gardner R. Dozois Year's Best SF 11 : Second Person, Present Tense - Daryl Gregory Year's Best SF 11 : Dreadnought - Justina Robson Year's Best SF 11 : A Case of Consilience - Ken MacLeod Year's Best SF 11 : Toy Planes - Tobias S. Buckell Year's Best SF 11 : Mason's Rats - Neal Asher Year's Best SF 11 : A Modest Proposal - Vonda N. McIntyre Year's Best SF 11 : Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch - Rudy Rucker Year's Best SF 11 : The Forever Kitten - Peter F. Hamilton Year's Best SF 11 : City of Reason - Matthew Jarpe Year's Best SF 11 : Ivory Tower - Bruce Sterling Year's Best SF 11 : Sheila - Lauren McLaughlin Year's Best SF 11 : Rats of the System - Paul McAuley Year's Best SF 11 : I Love Liver: A Romance - Larissa Lai Year's Best SF 11 : The Edge of Nowhere - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best SF 11 : What's Expected of Us - Ted Chiang Year's Best SF 11 : Girls and Boys Come Out to Play - Michael Swanwick Year's Best SF 11 : Lakes of Light - Stephen Baxter Year's Best SF 11 : The Albian Message - Oliver Morton Year's Best SF 11 : Bright Red Star - Bud Sparhawk Year's Best SF 11 : Third Day Lights - Alaya Dawn Johnson Year's Best SF 11 : RAM Shift Phase 2 - Greg Bear Year's Best SF 11 : On the Brane - Gregory Benford Year's Best SF 11 : Oxygen Rising - R. Garcia y Robertson Year's Best SF 11 : And Future King - Adam Roberts Year's Best SF 11 : Beyond the Aquila Rift - Alastair Reynolds Year's Best SF 11 : Angel of Light - Joe Haldeman Year's Best SF 11 : Ikiryoh - Liz Williams Year's Best SF 11 : I Robot - Cory Doctorow EGAN electronic eternal existence expensive. 4 out of 5 Baby deity a bother, makes me want to kill some 4 out of 5 Rat's eye armageddon. 3.5 out of 5 Zen and the art of personality maintenance. 4 out of 5 Soldier Unit. 4 out of 5 Genetic message.

You'll find very nice SF stories, although some might seem a little too short, they nevertheless reflect recent themes.

It seems that Hartwell took one too many of the nano short stories from the magazine 'nature' for this book. They are cute and clever,but a one page story from Ted Chiang? Come on, get real. Most of the stories are good to very good, especially 'shelia', 'on the brane','oxygen rising'. It seems some of the stories are begining to suffer from the rudy ruckner school of protoplasmic farm tractors, something that stross and doctorow have been mucking around in for awhile. For some reason these 'organic fiction'novels have as much of a tendency to sicken one as to excite one. I enjoyed the majority of the book, I just wish this tendency to publish really short stories would lighten up a bit.

I have enjoyed "Year's best SF" since the anthology series had started to be edited by Hartwell and Cramer. This year is a very good year for Sci Fi. This year there is a wide variety of stories to both make you laugh and think or both at the same time. The stories run from 40+ page novellas to 2 page shorties. The one thing they all have in common is very good stories. This year was boon for Hard Sci Fi. Once again Gregory Benford has written a gem. "On the Brane" explores an alternate universe where the inhabitants appeal for help as their universe is dying and they know it. He magically weaves both the hard sci fi and emotions together to write a very powerfull story. Joe Haldeman has written a "Angel of Light" which skillfully blends religion and sci fi toghether very well to bring out a trully wonderfull Christmas tale. "Second Person Present Tense" looks at a drug that eliminates a person's mind and how family a tries to rebridge the gap with their daughter, who has regained her faculties, but is not the same person emotionally or mentally. "Years Best Sci Fi 11" is one of the best years releases in years for this anthology series. There isn't a miss among the stories and some of them a true gems. Highly Recommended.