Year's Best SF 9

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Collection
Review: I've been reading the Year's Best anthologies for about five years, and have usually found them to be an invaluable resource in keeping up with the short science fiction form. Although by their very nature, these kinds of anthologies are almost always a mixed bag, I'd always found interesting, well-written and thought-provoking stories in each of them. In last year's edition the pickings were a little slim, but this year is probably the last time I'll bother with this series.

Most of the stories in this anthology are not much more than fine attempts. While some of them featured good writing and others fine ideas, none displayed all qualities or managed to keep me emotionally involved. There are a few standouts, but even they would only be considered fairly good when grading outside the covers of this book. Geoff Ryman's "Birth Days", for example, is an interesting exploration of the lives of gay men after the identification of the gene that causes homosexuality, but it falls apart under the weight of its own poor science. Michael Swanwick, usually so dependably good, has an interesting idea with "Coyote at the End of History", in which he transplants the Native American trickster deity to an era in which aliens live on Earth. Unfortunately, the cute premise never amounts to anything beyond cute - although the story's ending should be deeply affecting, it is nothing more than mildly clever. This is also the case with Joe Haldeman's "Four Short Novels" and Cory Doctorow's "Nimby and the Dimension Hoppers" - cute, clever, but devoid of emotion. As usual, the anthology features only one novella, but Hartwell and Cramer chose Rick Moody's "The Albertine Notes", probably one of the worst stories in the McSweeney's genre anthology of last year. A dense, impenetrable mess of endless sentences and shifting points of view, this entry doesn't deserve the place occupied in previous years by the likes of Ted Chiang.

By reading only a few stories from your basic award shortlist, it is easy to see that there is fantastic short SF being written today. It's a pity that Hartwell and Cramer seem incapable of either finding or recognizing it, and instead present their readers with technically and emotionally mediocre fare.

Rating:
Summary: This book ain't the one
Review: I've been working hard on a Ph.D. so it was with great relish that I turned to this book after getting some time for myself. However, I was sorely disappointed with what I read. Octavia Butler's story started off quite decently but the ending was not up to the rest of the story. And it was downhill from there. I've never read two science fiction stories in a row I haven't liked but this book represented a series of them. Some of the stories had good potential but the writers didn't develop them well and some were just not good. It is my opinion that many of the stories would have been much better if the writers had a publisher/mentor like the early sci fi authors who critiqued their stories and helped make them better. Perhaps critiquing or mentoring is what sci fi needs more of. I have started another sci fi anthology and already it is better than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Another year, more great stories
Review: One of these days, Kage Baker is going to get me into trouble. Not personally, of course (having never had the honour of meeting the lady), but her stories. See, the problem is that I'm such a big fan of hers that I now have to track down every thing she has written and at least read it. I happened upon this year's edition of Year's Best SF, the ninth, and saw that she had a story in it. Of course, this meant I had to buy it. However, doing this leaves me at the mercy of the rest of the stories. I'm not a big fan of hard SF stories, and I prefer fantasy to science fiction in any case. Will I have paid a lot of money (especially with Canadian prices) for a book that I only like 20 pages out of 500? Would this be the time that she's cost me more money then I want to spend?

Thankfully, no. While I didn't care for every story in Year's Best SF 9, I did like them well enough to thoroughly recommend the book. At 500 pages, there's a lot of stories in here, varying from hard science fiction to near-future character-driven stories, and everything in between. While Baker's story, "A Night on the Barbary Coast," is among the best stories in the collection, I would have to say that the best is actually John Varley's "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons."

Baker's story is another in the continuing adventures of The Company, where a bunch of immortal cyborgs try to make money for the time-traveling Dr. Zeus Corporation by harvesting soon to be extinct species of plants and animals, as well as other rare items that will eventually disappear. In this story, Joseph needs the botanist Mendoza to help him identify a rare fungus related to a quartz deposit that the Company wants in California. Their personal relationship has always been rocky, ever since Joseph forced her to sit and watch her English lover be burned at the stake, rather than intervene, in the 1550s. The story takes a nice twist at the end, but as ever Baker's strength is in the characterization, and the banter between the two protagonists. Mendoza is as anti-social as ever and Joseph is just as witty as he always is. It made me even more anxious for the next installment of the Company books.

Varley's "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons" is the story of an unstoppable line of alien beings, humanoid and apparently holding hands, are sweeping across the country, and ultimately, the planet. They are harvesting the world's butterflies for some unknown reason. Dr. Richard Lewis, an insect expert, is called upon to see if he can figure out why they are doing this. Slowly, with the help of other people (including a mathematical specialist), what these aliens are doing dawns on them, with possibly horrific consequences. I found this story fascinating, with the alien scourge being very mysterious and intriguing. There were a couple moments where I laughed, but the ending left me very cold, but in a good way. I even shivered. Now *that's* getting the reader involved in the story!

There are definitely some other good ones too. There's Allen M. Steele's "The Madwoman of Shuttlefield," the story of a musician befriending an old hermit in a run-down section of a far-off colony world where the original colonists aren't too happy with the influx of new people. There's also "The Waters of Meribah" by Tony Ballantyne, which involves the creation of an alien species by turning a rapist into one. The end result isn't quite what the scientists expected. Finally, there's "Night of Time," by Robert Reed. This is a story of a man whose job it is to restore memories, and how an alien known for remembering everything has come to him because he has forgotten one small item. The character work in this story is great, with special kudos for the alien's assistant, whose earliest memories appear to be of food and feasts. As with most of these stories, there's a nice twist near the end to lead the reader down a different path then expected. Most of the other stories certainly had their strong moments and I enjoyed reading them. They just weren't the best.

The only exceptions were some of the harder SF stories, and that could very well just be a matter of personal taste. Even these stories, however, were interesting in their own way. Stephen Baxter's "The Great Game" is the only one that I really had a problem with other than that, and it's mostly to do with the one-dimensional aspect of the story. A military team is inserted onto a planet to extract an academician who has been studying the planet's problems to see if the Xeelee are involved. If so, a war could erupt. This is an anti-war story that portrays something like the military industrial complex here on Earth, but makes the general in favour of starting the war way too obvious. It's a caricature more than a character.

If you like your science fiction in short doses, this is a great anthology. I am not as versed in the science fiction field as I am fantasy, but I'd say there's definitely a good cross-section of the best of the field in 2003. The stories are definitely interesting, and if there's better stuff out there, then the field is pretty healthy. Highly recommended.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: Another year, more great stories
Review: One of these days, Kage Baker is going to get me into trouble. Not personally, of course (having never had the honour of meeting the lady), but her stories. See, the problem is that I'm such a big fan of hers that I now have to track down every thing she has written and at least read it. I happened upon this year's edition of Year's Best SF, the ninth, and saw that she had a story in it. Of course, this meant I had to buy it. However, doing this leaves me at the mercy of the rest of the stories. I'm not a big fan of hard SF stories, and I prefer fantasy to science fiction in any case. Will I have paid a lot of money (especially with Canadian prices) for a book that I only like 20 pages out of 500? Would this be the time that she's cost me more money then I want to spend?

Thankfully, no. While I didn't care for every story in Year's Best SF 9, I did like them well enough to thoroughly recommend the book. At 500 pages, there's a lot of stories in here, varying from hard science fiction to near-future character-driven stories, and everything in between. While Baker's story, "A Night on the Barbary Coast," is among the best stories in the collection, I would have to say that the best is actually John Varley's "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons."

Baker's story is another in the continuing adventures of The Company, where a bunch of immortal cyborgs try to make money for the time-traveling Dr. Zeus Corporation by harvesting soon to be extinct species of plants and animals, as well as other rare items that will eventually disappear. In this story, Joseph needs the botanist Mendoza to help him identify a rare fungus related to a quartz deposit that the Company wants in California. Their personal relationship has always been rocky, ever since Joseph forced her to sit and watch her English lover be burned at the stake, rather than intervene, in the 1550s. The story takes a nice twist at the end, but as ever Baker's strength is in the characterization, and the banter between the two protagonists. Mendoza is as anti-social as ever and Joseph is just as witty as he always is. It made me even more anxious for the next installment of the Company books.

Varley's "In Fading Suns and Dying Moons" is the story of an unstoppable line of alien beings, humanoid and apparently holding hands, are sweeping across the country, and ultimately, the planet. They are harvesting the world's butterflies for some unknown reason. Dr. Richard Lewis, an insect expert, is called upon to see if he can figure out why they are doing this. Slowly, with the help of other people (including a mathematical specialist), what these aliens are doing dawns on them, with possibly horrific consequences. I found this story fascinating, with the alien scourge being very mysterious and intriguing. There were a couple moments where I laughed, but the ending left me very cold, but in a good way. I even shivered. Now *that's* getting the reader involved in the story!

There are definitely some other good ones too. There's Allen M. Steele's "The Madwoman of Shuttlefield," the story of a musician befriending an old hermit in a run-down section of a far-off colony world where the original colonists aren't too happy with the influx of new people. There's also "The Waters of Meribah" by Tony Ballantyne, which involves the creation of an alien species by turning a rapist into one. The end result isn't quite what the scientists expected. Finally, there's "Night of Time," by Robert Reed. This is a story of a man whose job it is to restore memories, and how an alien known for remembering everything has come to him because he has forgotten one small item. The character work in this story is great, with special kudos for the alien's assistant, whose earliest memories appear to be of food and feasts. As with most of these stories, there's a nice twist near the end to lead the reader down a different path then expected. Most of the other stories certainly had their strong moments and I enjoyed reading them. They just weren't the best.

The only exceptions were some of the harder SF stories, and that could very well just be a matter of personal taste. Even these stories, however, were interesting in their own way. Stephen Baxter's "The Great Game" is the only one that I really had a problem with other than that, and it's mostly to do with the one-dimensional aspect of the story. A military team is inserted onto a planet to extract an academician who has been studying the planet's problems to see if the Xeelee are involved. If so, a war could erupt. This is an anti-war story that portrays something like the military industrial complex here on Earth, but makes the general in favour of starting the war way too obvious. It's a caricature more than a character.

If you like your science fiction in short doses, this is a great anthology. I am not as versed in the science fiction field as I am fantasy, but I'd say there's definitely a good cross-section of the best of the field in 2003. The stories are definitely interesting, and if there's better stuff out there, then the field is pretty healthy. Highly recommended.

David Roy

Rating:
Summary: Best on this anthology series in years
Review: This SF Years best is one of the best, David and KAtheren have put out in the past 3 years. I did not like last year, except for a couple of stories, such as "The Dog said Bow Wow" but this is good stuff.

All stories were good Nancy Kress, Ballantino, Bear, Baxter disapoint me, i loved the way he writes "Timeships" ranks amongst my OLD time Favs.
But hold your breath until you get to the end. A master writer but one who claims Genre is a librarian's problem. He is not known to write SF, nevertheless a good writer is a good writer in any context. Rick Moody is the name and the story is "Albertine Notes"
what an incredible Time-Travel story, totaly different from anything else i have ever read. Has similarities to "Vanilla Skies" i think.

Enjoy it, I did.

Pay special attention to the Argentinian writer who just got translated after 20 years. She is top of the line, her story in a way similar to the famous classic "Forbidden Planet", though more romantic, well she is a woman after all so romance is got to be there.

Rating:
Summary: Best on this anthology series in years
Review: This SF Years best is one of the best, David and KAtheren have put out in the past 3 years. I did not like last year, except for a couple of stories, such as "The Dog said Bow Wow" but this is good stuff.

All stories were good Nancy Kress, Ballantino, Bear, Baxter disapoint me, i loved the way he writes "Timeships" ranks amongst my OLD time Favs.
But hold your breath until you get to the end. A master writer but one who claims Genre is a librarian's problem. He is not known to write SF, nevertheless a good writer is a good writer in any context. Rick Moody is the name and the story is "Albertine Notes"
what an incredible Time-Travel story, totaly different from anything else i have ever read. Has similarities to "Vanilla Skies" i think.

Enjoy it, I did.

Pay special attention to the Argentinian writer who just got translated after 20 years. She is top of the line, her story in a way similar to the famous classic "Forbidden Planet", though more romantic, well she is a woman after all so romance is got to be there.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshment for a Post-Nebula Fan
Review: What I like best about science fiction is its vast facility for plot, setting, tone, and characters--the essences of story-telling. I like my stories dark, far-flung, imaginative, and well-crafted. That's what I like about this book. I virtually never hand out 5-star ratings, but for a good read at a value price, I think this collection's hard to beat... a star in the series and good on its own.

I've been reading SF anthologies for three decades, beginning with the old series that inspired this one (Donald Wollheim's "World's Best SF" in the 70s-80s). When Wollheim died I transfered my annual allegiance to the Nebula Award winners; over the past several years, though, I feel like the Nebulas have steadily gone downhill, and I've reluctantly stopped buying the anthologies. This series is what I buy annually now. Those who like the latest Nebula winners may not, therefore, like this collection.

I own each volume in this series, and I've often thought I keep buying them just because one story years ago really impressed me. This year, several do; the tales by Joe Haldeman, John Varley, and Michael Swanwick alone are worth the price, and those in-between don't bore. Caveats: Not all stories worked for me (true for any anthology); Hartwell emphasizes that his selections are science-based, but hard science isn't a threshold requirement and I think he now simply means he doesn't include Fantasy (one here borders on magic realism); finally, veteran SF readers will recognize most all the writers... in other words, the authors mostly have been around awhile, and few new or unfamiliar writers made the cut, as usual. But the $8 I spent on this was a bargain, and those who want an entertaining cross-section of the genre with bang for the buck will likely find more than a few stories to like here.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshment for a Post-Nebula Fan
Review: What I like best about science fiction is its vast facility for plot, setting, tone, and characters--the essences of story-telling. I like my stories far-flung, imaginative, and well-crafted. That's what I like about this book. I virtually never hand out 5-star ratings, but for a good read at a value price, I think this collection's hard to beat... a star in the series and good on its own.

For many years I read the Nebula Award winners as examples of the best science fiction had to offer. Over the past several years, though, I feel like the Nebulas have steadily gone downhill, and I've reluctantly stopped buying those anthologies. I've transferred my annual purchase allegiance to this series, and this is my favorite of the nine hands down.

The tales by Joe Haldeman, John Varley, and Michael Swanwick alone are worth the price, and those in-between don't bore. In addition, Rick Moody's volume-ending novella is one of the best tales to spin off the elusive-reality themes that Philip Dick wove in "Palmer Eldritch" and "Ubik" that I've ever read, and that's high praise for me. Caveats: Not all stories worked for me (true for any anthology). Hartwell emphasizes that his selections are science-based, but hard science isn't a threshold requirement and I think he now simply means he doesn't include Fantasy (one here borders on magic realism). Finally, veteran SF readers will recognize most all the writers... in other words, the authors mostly have been around awhile, and few new or unfamiliar writers made the cut, as usual. But the $8 I spent on this was a bargain, and those who want an entertaining cross-section of the genre with bang for the buck will likely find more than a few stories to like here.