Year's Best SF 7

Rating:
Summary: An unexceptional gathering of current stars in the field
Review: Hartwell's not a particularly adept editor. He's taken with a lot of star power and evidently lets a writer's prestige be the only criterion for inclusion in his anthologies. Most of these stories are competently written, but they lack spark, that sense of wonder that used to fill the field until about 15 years ago. It's like a lot of rock music these days: great talent with nothing much to say. How some of these stories made it into a "year's best" book is beyond me, but one thing is clear. The science fiction field is running dry. No story here has a decent (or even a twist) ending. Nothing here is genuinely memorable. I so much wanted these anthologies to be a counterpoint to the drab Dozois anthologies, but they aren't. If this is the best we can do, then I'd say we're in trouble. (And the sad part is that younger readers don't know how good science fiction used to be.)

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Anthology, But I Prefer The Dozois Anthology.
Review: I find it thrilling to open such an anthology with all sorts of stories never encountered before. I'm not a person who has the funds to keep up with the magazines. So this should be a nice opportunity to read the 'best' stories of the past year.
Keep in mind that the editor{s} has his/her own ideas about what makes a good story. No bad words about these two editors here. A fine collection as always, however.
I'm not a fan of such mass-market paperback books, as they are often made of cheap paper. Worse still is the binding.
For more value for money go to the Gardner Dozois 'Best of the Year'.
Whatever you do, some of these stories are nice.
Happy reading.

Rating:
Summary: I love this annual collection
Review: I just love this collection. I tend to not read sci-fi because so much of it is poorly written, but this series is wonderful, full of so many great things, and for the most part well-written "The Measure Of All Things" is the real stand out this year but even the slower moving stories end up with something that really stretches the mind. This series of anthologies bring back the wonder of the stories I was introduced to in my youth. My favorite yearly anthology.

Rating:
Summary: I love this annual collection
Review: I just love this collection. I tend to not read sci-fi because so much of it is poorly written, but this series is wonderful, full of so many great things, and for the most part well-written "The Measure Of All Things" is the real stand out this year but even the slower moving stories end up with something that really stretches the mind. This series of anthologies bring back the wonder of the stories I was introduced to in my youth. My favorite yearly anthology.

Rating:
Summary: A Nice Anthology, But I Prefer The Dozois' Year Best.
Review: I'm not a person who has the funds (and probably time) to keep up with all or most of the f/h/sf magazines and original anthologies. I could buy one (or more), certainly, but then I want to receive the others too. Also, I trust that most of the best stories will eventually make their way into book format, anyway. There's always a number of books that collect best stories of a given year; I settle for one of these and all the stories I then read will be brand-new to me.

Each year there are the gems waiting to be read. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (editors of reviewed book) and Dozois (editor of the huge Year's Best SF Stories) are three of the finest editors around, each with his/her own ideas of what are the best stories of a given year.

But, I'm not an admirer of mass-market paperback books (such as the reviewed book is), as they are often made of cheap paper. Worse still is the binding.

Buy the Dozois Best of the Year if you want more stories for a somewhat higher price (but all packaged in trade paperback format). If only Hartwell's and Cramer's Best of the Years would come out in trade paperback, I would add them to my library without hesitation.