Year's Best SF 3

If Free Space and Decalog 5 were some of the best anthologies of the year, then it was a poor year for anthologies, that is for sure. Not that very many ever come out in general. It would seem from the couple of Year's Bests for this year not the best year for SF stories in general, as far as outstanding pieces of work go. Lots of good stories here is all. Again he has been able to avoid including average pieces, in general. Overall score here is just 3.73 there, which is below the general Year's Best standard. Year's Best SF 03 : Petting Zoo - Gene Wolfe Year's Best SF 03 : The Wisdom of Old Earth - Michael Swanwick Year's Best SF 03 : The Firefly Tree - Jack Williamson Year's Best SF 03 : Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City - William Gibson Year's Best SF 03 : The Nostalginauts - S. N. Dyer Year's Best SF 03 : Guest Law - John C. Wright Year's Best SF 03 : The Voice - Gregory Benford Year's Best SF 03 : Yeyuka - Greg Egan Year's Best SF 03 : An Office Romance - Terry Bisson Year's Best SF 03 : Itsy Bitsy Spider - James Patrick Kelly Year's Best SF 03 : Beauty in the Night - Robert Silverberg Year's Best SF 03 : Mr. Pale - Ray Bradbury Year's Best SF 03 : The Pipes of Pan - Brian M. Stableford Year's Best SF 03 : Always True to Thee in My Fashion - Nancy Kress Year's Best SF 03 : Canary Land - Tom Purdom Year's Best SF 03 : Universal Emulators - Tom Cool Year's Best SF 03 : Fair Verona - R. Garcia y Robertson Year's Best SF 03 : Great Western - Kim Newman Year's Best SF 03 : Turnover - Geoffrey A. Landis Year's Best SF 03 : The Mendelian Lamp Case - Paul Levinson Year's Best SF 03 : Kiss Me - Katherine MacLean Year's Best SF 03 : London Bone - Michael Moorcock The good old days when we ruled the Earth. 4 out of 5 Posthuman a tad fragile on holiday. 3.5 out of 5 Visitor flaming. 3.5 out of 5 Ordinary urban art. 3 out of 5 Past prom obsession. 3 out of 5 Anti-buccaneering intelligence is powerful. 4 out of 5 Readings not illegal, yknow. Just anti, thats all. So they let me off with six weeks of grouping. 3.5 out of 5 Medical technology advances are making surgery unnecessary in the wealthier countries. A surgeon takes a trip overseas to somewhere less fortunate to do some work, and comes across an interesting project. 4 out of 5 Micros3rf working environment. 3 out of 5 Girlbot minder actor's filial substitute. 3.5 out of 5 Quisling proxy punishment payback. 4 out of 5 Blowup useless death. 4 out of 5 Growth target overrun epidemic. 3.5 out of 5 Emotional models. 3.5 out of 5 Immigrant music. 4 out of 5 Double substitution original disposal iteration complications. 4 out of 5 Virtual hunt escape reality run riches. 4 out of 5 Railway intimidation resistance. 4 out of 5 Pretty boy assistance explanation. 4 out of 5 Bioluminescent bombs. 4 out of 5 Frog research. 4 out of 5 Antique people bit popularity. 4 out of 5

The one piece of dross comes from an unexpected source: William Gibson and his story "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City". It's a minute, camera-eye examination of a cardboard structure in a Tokyo subway and obviously inspired by J.G. Ballard's work. I detected no point to the series of descriptions, or, indeed, anything of a fantastical or science fictional nature. Nancy Kress' "Always True to Thee, in My Fashion" gives us a witty satire with a world where the seasonal variations of fashion cover not only clothes but also your pharmaceutically modulated attitudes.. The caged dinosaur of Gene Wolfe's "Petting Zoo" represents not only the lost childhood of the story's protagonist but a vitality lost from the race of man. Tom Cool gives us "Universal Emulators" with its future of economic hypercompetition that has created a black market for those who impersonate, in every way, the few employed professionals. In effect, the emulators grant them an extra set of hands. Its plot and characters would have done Roger Zelazny proud. The voice of past science fiction writers echos through many of the anthology's best stories. Jack London's _The Sea Wolf_ provides the inspiration for Michael Swanwick's "The Wisdom of Old Earth". Its heroine realizes, despite whatever dangers she overcomes guiding posthumans through the Pennsylvania's jungles, she will never bootstrap herself into being their equal. H.G. Wells looms over Robert Silverberg's "Beauty in the Night". Its child hero undertakes the first successful assassination of the brutal aliens that have occupied Earth, but his reasons have more to do with his oppressive father rather than the aliens' behavior. John C. Wright's "Guest Law" is a welcome return to the flashy decadence of Cordwainer Smith's fiction. Its hero, a slave-engineer, watches in disgust as his aristocratic overlords corrupt the customary requirements of hospitality to justify piracy in deep space. Gregory Benford's "The Voice" responds to Ray Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451_. Here the convenience of implanted intelligent agents, hooked up to a computer network, led to literacy fading, and not a repressive regime of firemen. Benford agrees with Bradbury about literacy's value but also undercuts him on the supremacy of writing as a means of communication. James Patrick Kelly and Brian Stableford tackle similar themes in two excellent tales about children, the needs they fufill for parents, and the possiblity of replacing them with surrogates. The heroine of Kelly's "Itsy Bitsy Spider", estranged from her actor father for 23 ages, is horrified to discover that her enfeebled father's legal guardian is also equipped to simulate her as a child. Stableford's "The Pipes of Pan" has a future recovering from ecological catastrophe where real children are not allowed. However, parents can have children genetically altered to never age and reproduce. But those children suddenly start growing up.Jack Williamson's "The Firefly Tree" is a Bradbury-like

As with most anthologies, there are some hits and misses depending on the reader's personal taste. Easily recognizable SF conventions are recognizable in some, but a new, intriguing spin is put on them to put things in a new light. Some stories, however, are just bizarre. "Thirteen Views of a Cardboard City" by William Gibson is just that, thirteen views of a city at different angles and locations. My favorites were "Petting Zoo" by Gene Wolfe, "The Firefly Tree" by Jack Williamson, "The Nostalginauts' by S.N. Dyer, "The Voice" by Gregory Benford, "Mr. Pale" by Ray Bradbury, and "Great Western" by Kim Newman. There were other good ones, but these stand out.

They complement each others strengths & weakness quite well. Dozois chooses more long serious stuff while Hartwell chooses more short humorous stuff. Humor & shorts was the one area I thought Dozois' was weak, but Hartwell's covers that pretty well. To be brutally honest though this isn't quite as impressive as Dozois' usually is. There were fewer stories I hated, but also fewer that impressed me. In its defense it did a better job with the truly SHORT stories & three of that kind were by "legends" in the field. Legends meaning those respected for decades. Williamson's surprised me by being more aware of the modern world then I expect a 90 yr old be. If that's sounds insulting let me say it was more aware of the modern world then I'll probably be at 90. It was nice to see a Katherine MacLean story anywhere since her works have largely disappeared. Vintage Bradbury's still in print so it wasn't really necessary to pick one of his stories except to have a big name linked to the anthology. Bisson's story about office romance is the kind of story I usually don't like, but I was surprised to find it was one of the ones I liked best. It was a great deal more risque then the others & since some seemed Young Adult I was surprised by it. By the way the risque parts were what I meant by "kind of story I usually don't like" well that & the computer jargon was a bit heavy. The Kress, Dyer, & Purdom I enjoyed in Asimov's. Tom Cool's was also good, but that name is so goofy I'm guessing it has to be real. Benford's "Voice" retread old ground, but I liked it anyway. I could go on & on & rate each story, but I'll stop there. In Dozois' a story generally amazes or infuriates me, in Hartwell's I generally liked it or was indifferent. I didn't avoid reading some the way I do with Dozois' so I'm of a mostly mixed opinion. Nevertheless if Rusch is coming out with one I think I'd probably stop buying this one before I'd stop buying Dozois'. One last thing "Turnover" by Landis was neat in that it talked about a scientific debate I'd just recently heard about, but I think he wrote "Ouroboros" which was the best short/humorous story I'd read last year. I hope it's in Dozois', but his isn't really good with short humorous stories. Oh well I still have the issue of Asimov's it's in I was just hoping it would get recognition. I just mentioned that because some reviewer was saying Landis wrote more worthy stories that year, but I thought I understood the choice since he was trying to counter-balance Dozois'lack of short/humorous stories.