Each year science fiction's premiere short fiction editor, Gardner Dozois, collects dozens of excellent stories in a chunky volume that is eagerly anticipated by readers and writers alike. The 15th annual collection includes 28 stories in all, culled from the pages of Dozois's magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, as well as from competing publications, anthologies, and even a few online fiction zines. The names read like a Who's Who of the sci-fi field: Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Peter F. Hamilton, Gregory Benford, Walter Jon Williams, and more. The stories are the best of the best, selected with Dozois's always keen eye for excellence. The anthology also includes an invaluable summation about the state of the science fiction publishing field, and a list of honorable mentions (think of them as almost-made-its) for 1997. --Craig Engler

From Publishers Weekly
There's little doubt that Dozois (Dying for It) is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950sAthe finest editor in the world of short SF. Asimov's, which he edits, routinely earns half or more of the short-fiction nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards each year, and his anthologies are equally strong. This collection features nine clearly deserving stories from Asimov's, plus 19 other excellent pieces from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog, Science Fiction Age, Interzone and a variety of original anthologies and less well-known magazines. The stories range widely in type, from the highly literate work of John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly to the hard SF of G. David Nordley and Geoffrey A. Landis; from the alternate history of William Sanders and Howard Waldrop to the upscale space opera of Walter Jon Williams and Robert Reed. Among the best-known writers represented are Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress and Gregory Benford. Of particular interest is the large number of non-American writers. Brits Paul J. McAuley, Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald and Brian Stableford, along with the hot Australian writer Greg Egan (represented by two stories), contribute nearly half the volume. Also included are Dozois's usual summation of the year in SF and his valuable list of honorable mentions. This anthology represents contemporary SF at its very best. (June) FYI: Dozois is a nine-time winner of the Hugo Award for best editor.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
When he launched it, Dozois' annual was the first of its kind in some time that was big enough to really represent a year's short sf output. It still is, although shorter sf is not flourishing as prolifically and, with the decline of the sf magazine, is harder to track. This year's helping includes hardy perennials such as Robert Silverberg and Nancy Kress, as well as Gregory Benford with new collaborator Stephen Baxter, and a host of other accomplished short-fictioneers with varying degrees of professional seniority, for Dozois casts his net across the whole range of shorter-length sf. The stories are, on the average, highly readable. Figure in the usual year-in-review sections, not available for review, and the lengthy list of honorably mentioned stories that Dozois didn't include, and you have yet another sturdy pillar of the sf collection. Roland Green

From Kirkus Reviews
paper 0-312-19033-6 Another mind-bogglingly huge compendium of 28 stories that first appeared in 1997, sniffed out by editor Dozois, whose nose for a good yarn is as keen as ever. The contributors include: Robert Silverberg (conquering aliens); Paul J. McAuley (spies on a space habitat); Nancy Kress (a harassed future executive); two stories from the up-and-coming Greg Egan, both set in his native Australia; Stephen Baxter (alternate worlds); Gwyneth Jones (a tempestuous future Europe); a typically weird entry from Howard Waldrop; Michael Swanwick (far-future ``posthumans''); Walter Jon Williams (an explorer returns from the stars); Ian McDonald (a still troubled future Ireland); a realistic Mars mission from Gregory Benford and Elisabeth Malartrez; and others less famous but no less worthy. For anyone interested in sf short stories, this is the best--indeed, the only--place to start. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
"Essential reading for short-story fans." --Kirkus Reviews

"Capacious, conscientious, and cogent, the annual volume is eagerly awaited." --Washington Post Book World

"Provides something for every taste...An absolute must." --Booklist

"Dozois's lengthy and personally punctuated Summation of the Year is the rich icing on the fat cake." --Tangent

"For anyone who stopped reading sci-fi years ago because it seemed intelligent fare had been swept aside by novelizations and jokey kid stuff, this anthology is an eye-opener.' --Dallas Morning News


Review
"Essential reading for short-story fans." --Kirkus Reviews

"Capacious, conscientious, and cogent, the annual volume is eagerly awaited." --Washington Post Book World

"Provides something for every taste...An absolute must." --Booklist

"Dozois's lengthy and personally punctuated Summation of the Year is the rich icing on the fat cake." --Tangent

"For anyone who stopped reading sci-fi years ago because it seemed intelligent fare had been swept aside by novelizations and jokey kid stuff, this anthology is an eye-opener.' --Dallas Morning News


Review
"Essential reading for short-story fans." --Kirkus Reviews

"Capacious, conscientious, and cogent, the annual volume is eagerly awaited." --Washington Post Book World

"Provides something for every taste...An absolute must." --Booklist

"Dozois's lengthy and personally punctuated Summation of the Year is the rich icing on the fat cake." --Tangent

"For anyone who stopped reading sci-fi years ago because it seemed intelligent fare had been swept aside by novelizations and jokey kid stuff, this anthology is an eye-opener.' --Dallas Morning News


Book Description
Gardner Dozois, science fiction's foremost editor, consistently selects the field's best work each year with this showcase anthology. This year's collection presents sterling work from veterans and newcomers alike, including Stephen Baxter, Alan Brennert, Carolyn Ives Gilman, James Patrick Kelly, Geoffrey A. Landis, Paul J. McAuley, Robert Reed, William Sanders, Howard Waldrop, and many others. Rounded out with Dozois's insightful Summation of the Year in SF and a long list of Honorable Mentions, this anthology is the book for every science fiction fan.


About the Author
Gardner Dozois, is a longtime editor of Asimov's SF magazine, has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor nine times. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Each year, Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction anthology wins plaudits for the quality and scope of its selections, not to mention its artful blend of new faces and crowd-pleasing veterans. (The summation of the year and recommended reading list have also become must-read items for devotees of the genre.) This 19th installment includes works by Nancy Kress, Robert Reed, Geoff Ryman, Allen Steele, Michael Cassott, and many others.

ANNOTATION

This award-winning collection continues to provide dozens of the best stories of the year, including works by renowned veterans and exciting newcomers, such as Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, Ursula K. Le Guin and Nancy Kress. Rounded out with a long list of honorable mentions, this remains the one book for every sci-fi reader.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The future, the past, and life today are boldly imagined and reinvented in the twenty-five stories collected in this showcase anthology. Many of the field's finest practitioners are represented here, along with stories from promising newcomers. A useful list of honorable mentions and Dozois's insightful summation of the year in SF round out this anthology, making it indispensable for anyone interested in SF today.

SYNOPSIS

Gardner Dozois, winner of nine Hugo Awards for best editor, pulls together the finest works of contemporary science fiction. This annual anthology, considered to be the definitive collection of the genre, blends together a wide variety of authors and styles. Space opera, Asimov, international science fiction writers, and hard sf are all found in this collection of 28 stories.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Dozois's Year's Best, like any successful representative of a large constituency, sometimes suffers from blandness and inconsistency. As usual, it's oversized23 stories, nearly 600 pagesand includes a variety of types of SF as well as near-horror, fantasy and humor. Five of the stories are final nominees for Nebulas, and two new ``Hainish'' stories by Ursula LeGuin were nominated for Tiptree Awards; ``The Matter of Segrri'' won. No story here is less than competent and professional; but, with a few exceptions, there is a voiceless sameness in the writing, practically a house style, that over so many pages grows tedious. (Nearly half the stories, by page count, come from the Dozois-edited Asimov's Science Fiction.) A number are flawed (``hard'' SF stories about ``aliens'' that think just like humans) or unremarkable, but these are outweighed by many fine pieces and by standouts such as LeGuin's ``Forgiveness Day,'' perhaps the best story in the book; Eliot Fintushel's ``New Wave''-like ``Ylem''; William Sanders's ``Going After Old Man Alabama'' and Terry Bisson's ``The Hole in the Hole,'' both of which are winning and funny; Katherine Kerr's chilling ``Asylum''; and Michael Bishop's grand and humane ``Cri de Coeur.'' Dozois's intelligently and ably put-together anthology does its stated job as well as any one book or editor could. Even with competition, it would still be the best of the Best. (July)

Publishers Weekly

This annual anthology remains the best one-stop shop for short fiction, and it's a must for fans of literary SF. The notion of intelligence links several stories. Nancy Kress, in "Computer Virus," posits an intelligent computer program trying to save its life, but it does so by risking that of a child. The dense and busy "Lobsters" by Charles Stross considers the implications of denying intelligent uploaded constructs here, of lobsters human rights or autonomy. Michael Blumlein's zany "Know How, Can Do," easily the best story, posits a self-aware worm linked to a human brain, told from the point of view of the worm, "Flowers for Algernon"-style, as it acquires human intelligence, language and emotions. Alternative realities remain a productive theme. In "The Two Dicks," Paul McAuley posits an alternative reality where Philip K. Dick, who in this world wrote mainstream fiction instead of SF, meets Nixon. Ken MacLeod's ambitious, character-driven "The Human Front," set in an alternative reality just a little different from ours, describes a man's growth toward adulthood in a war-torn Britain. Dan Simmons, Alastair Reynolds, Maureen F. McHugh and Paul Di Filippo also contribute especially memorable tales. Although one could quibble with Dozois's choices and there are one or two clunkers in here this anthology is an enjoyable read that overall maintains high standards of quality and variety. It's essential for SF fans who simply don't have time to separate the wheat from the chaff on their own. (July 23) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

As in previous volumes in this series, Dozois, who has won the Hugo for Best Editor 11 times, again presents a large helping of stellar short SF. Nine of the 27 stories are, quite appropriately, from his own magazine, Asimov's, which continues to dominate the various genre awards. Dozois also includes four stories each from Fantasy and Science Fiction and the British Interzone. Also represented are Analog, Amazing, Science Fiction Age, and two semi-pro magazines, Absolute Magnitude and the Australian Altair, as well as such original anthologies as Moon Shots, Not of Women Born and the Canadian Tesseracts. Among the high points are two time-travel pieces, Kage Baker's story of San Francisco before the great earthquake, "Son Observe the Time," and Michael Swanwick's pre-historic time-paradox tale, "Scherzo with Tyrannosaurus"; Eleanor Arnason's understated story of alien gender-role reversal, "Dapple"; Kim Stanley Robinson's "A Martian Romance," which is set not in the world of his Mars trilogy but in a subtly alternate universe; and Greg Egan's "Border Guards," hard-SF that imagines a future in which immortality is a given and soccer is played using the principles of quantum physics. Also included is quality fiction by such luminaries of the field as James Patrick Kelly, Frederik Pohl, Ben Bova, Robert Silverberg and Paul McAuley, plus such rising stars as David Marusek, Alastair Reynolds and Sage Walker. As usual, the anthology begins with a detailed survey of the year in SF and ends with a long list of Honorable Mentions. Dozois's annual volume remains a standard by which the field of SF should be judged. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

From David Marusek's tale of a future where reality's borders collide with the unreal ("The Wedding Album") to Kage Baker's latest novella featuring the time-traveling "Company" ("Son Observe the Time"), the 27 stories in this annual collection bear witness to the vitality of the sf short story. Including tales by Tanith Lee, Frederick Pohl, Hal Clement, Michael Swanwick, and others, this volume displays the best and brightest of the genre to good advantage. Suitable for most sf or short story collections. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal