Gardner Dozois has become the most influential editor in science fiction, and his best-of-the-year anthologies show why. He has chosen 23 stories by masters such as Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Swanwick, Brian Stableford, and Greg Egan, as well as newer writers Severna Park, Tananarive Due, and Eliot Fintushel.

Standouts include "Tendeleo's Story," Ian MacDonald's powerful tale of people whose lives are changed by an alien invader that is slowly eating Africa; "The Suspect Genome," a mystery by Peter F. Hamilton; the slow but moving "Going After Bobo" by Susan Palwick; and "The Great Goodbye" by Robert Charles Wilson. Hugo nominees include "Radiant Green Star" by Lucius Shepherd, "Oracle" by Greg Egan, and "On the Orion Line" by Stephen Baxter.

Dozois's summation of the year in science fiction alone is worth the cost of admission to these annual collections. Along with his usual takes on publishing, literature, film, and more, Dozois delivers a retrospective on the state of science fiction in the year 2000. Contrary to those who claim science fiction is either dead or (at least) losing its heart and soul since the deaths of authors like Isaac Asimov and Robert J. Heinlein, Dozois emphatically argues that the health of SF has never been stronger. Discussing increased numbers of novels being published (he includes numbers to prove his point), discoveries of young new writers, ongoing evolution of the literature, and innovative viewpoints to mine, Dozois bubbles over with enthusiasm for the genre in which he made his name, as well as the coming century and its mysterious developments waiting to surprise and delight us. --Bonnie Bouman

From Publishers Weekly
Once again, Dozois serves up a pleasurable mix of established luminaries as well as the newer stars of the SF realm. In Dan Simmons's "Looking for Kelly Dahl," an elementary school teacher journeys from despair to love with a former student who has the ability to teleport to parallel earths where dinosaurs never fell, no one else exists or the 1970s never ended. Maureen McHugh also offers a tale of redemption in an alternate Civil War era, but this time, the underground railroad rescues white former slave owners who have relocated by the thousands to die of exposure on the frontier. In the tradition of the best SF, Geoff Ryman explores homelessness in a credibly violent future where beggars are routinely crucified by hungry mobs. Fans will especially appreciate Dozois's introduction of talented young writers who have yet to publish their own collections or novels. Notable among these is David Murasek, whose novella, "We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy," imagines the couple of the next century almost having it all?that is, until they are issued a permit to have a child. But the truth is that all of the 24 short stories or novellas are rewarding, which is really the most outstanding feature of this collection. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Of the many best-of-the-year science fiction annuals, Gardner Dozois' reigns supreme. This year's offering features the usual balance of veterans, such as grand masters Ursula LeGuin and Poul Anderson, and newcomers--William Sanders and David Marusek, for instance. The generous selection includes diverse themes and writing styles, ranging from nostalgia in Terry Bisson's tale of three friends' return to a rejuvenating childhood shrine to rigorous hard sf in Greg Egan's tale about a computer that turns lethal when programmed to test an "impossible" theorem. Dozois introduces each entry with a brief biography of its author and concludes the volume with a very long list of honorably mentioned stories. As always, must reading for aspiring sf authors as well as fans and an indispensable addition to sf collections. Carl Hays

From Kirkus Reviews
Twenty-four of 1995's best stories, selected by seven-time Hugo award-winning editor Dozois. Part of the contents will already be familiar to Kirkus regulars, since Ursula K. LeGuin's ``A Woman's Liberation'' appeared in her splendid Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995); while her ``Coming of Age in Karhide,'' along with Greg Egan's ``Wang's Carpets'' and Paul J. McAuley's ``Recording Angel,'' were featured in the wonderful New Legends (ed. Greg Bear, 1995). And Poul Anderson's ``Genesis,'' with Joe Haldeman's ``For White Hill,'' first saw daylight in the abstrusely imaginative Far Futures (ed. Gregory Benford, 1995). To mention some of the other, equally diverse and excellent, tales at random: Nancy Kress's ``Feigenbaum Number'' (chaos theory); Terry Bisson's nostalgia trip, ``There Are No Dead''; James Patrick Kelly's aliens and star-gateways, ``Think Like a Dinosaur''; Michael Swanwick's weird after-death existence, ``Radio Waves''; Pat Cadigan's virtual reality, ``Death in the Promised Land''; and David Marusek's information superhighway of the future, ``We Were Out of Our Minds with Joy.'' Essential reading. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Presents 23 of the finest science-fiction works of 1995, including stories by such diverse writers as Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Maureen F. McHugh, Mike Resnick, and 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

In science fiction's early days, stories often looked past 1984 to the year 2000 as the far unknowable future. Here now, on the brink of the twenty-first century, the future remains as distant and as unknowable as ever... and science fiction stories continue to explore it with delightful results:

Collected in this anthology are such imaginative gems as:

"The Wedding Album" by David Marusek. In a high-tech future, the line between reality and simulation has grown thin... and it's often hard to tell who's on what side.

"Everywhere" by Geoff Ryman. Do the people who live in utopian conditions ever recognize them as such?

"Hatching the Phoenix" by Frederik Pohl. One of science fiction's Grand Masters returns with a star-crossing tale of the Heechee--the enigmatic, vanished aliens whose discarded technology guides mankind through the future.

"A Hero of the Empire" by Robert Silverberg. Showing that the past is as much a province of the imagination as the future, this novelette returns to an alternate history when the Roman Empire never fell to show us just how the course of history can be altered.

The twenty-seven stories in this collection imaginatively take us to nearby planets and distant futures, into the past and into universes no larger than a grain of sand. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents.

Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

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

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.\

Kirkus Reviews

Twenty-five stories from 1998: some 2 stories and 48 pages shorter than last year's entry, the finished book will include an approximately 50-page editor's summation (not seen). Among the amazing odysseys to be enjoyed here: physicist Geoffrey A. Landis descends into a black hole; Ian McDonald jaunts beyond the end of the universe; Paul J. McAuley takes us to Europa; Michael Swanwick explores Io; Allan Steele ponders Mars; William Barton tours the moons of Saturn; and Cherry Wilder investigates strange occurrences aboard a space habitat. Elsewhere, leading Australian hard-SF writer Greg Egan describes a far-future coming-of-age/test of faith; Bruce Sterling tangles with high-tech spies; Ted Chiang impresses once again; immortality comes in two different flavors (from Ursula K. Le Guin and from Robert Charles Wilson) as do alternate worlds (an American variant from Howard Waldrop, a British one from Ian R. MacLeod), along with aliens and trade (Cory Doctorow), weird ghosts (Tanith Lee), genetics (Robert Reed), engineering (Stephen R. Baxter), vengeance (Chris Lawson), godlike humans of the far future (Tony Daniel), Cinderella (Gwyneth Jones), and more. Indispensable: hats off to the tireless and knowledgeable Dozois. .