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Tarfumes.com - The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (Year's Best Science Fiction)
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List Price: $21.95
Our Price: $14.93
Your Save: $ 7.02 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.0876208
EAN: 9780312363352
ISBN: 0312363354
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 704
Publication Date: 2007-07-10
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2007-07-10
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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The twenty-eight stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:
* Cory Doctorow * Robert Charles Wilson * Michael Swanwick * Ian McDonald * Benjamin Rosenbaum * Kage Baker * Bruce McAllister * Alastair Reynolds * Jay Lake * Ruth Nestvold * Gregory Benford * Justin Stanchfield * Walter Jon Williams * Greg Van Eekhout * Robert Reed * David D. Levine * Paul J. McAuley * Mary Rosenblum * Daryl Gregory * Jack Skillingstead * Paolo Bacigalupi * Greg Egan * Elizabeth Bear * Sarah Monette * Ken MacLeod * Stephen Baxter * Carolyn Ives Gilman * John Barnes * A.M. Dellamonica
Supplementing the stories are the editor’s insightful summation of the year’s events and a 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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An excellent volume of the series
Comment: A better-than-average edition of this series. Although there was not too much that really amazed me, almost everything in the book was a very good story with nothing I totally disliked.
My favorites:
"The Djinn's Wife" - Ian McDonald
"Incarnation Day" - Walter Jon Williams
"Riding the Crocodile" - Greg Egan
Least favorite:
"The Big Ice" - Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
"Okanoggan Falls" - Carolyn Ives Gilman
"Every Hole Is Outlined" - John Barnes
"I Row-Boat" - Cory Doctorow 4/5
An intelligent rowboat has to deal with a belligerent intelligent coral reef. Humorous post-singularity story.
"Julian: A Christmas Story" - Robert Charles Wilson 3.5/5
Two teens start to learn about the past in a post-apocalyptic future that suppresses knowledge of science.
"Tin Marsh" - Michael Swanwick 4/5
Venus miners get cabin fever. Entertaining action.
"The Djinn's Wife" - Ian McDonald 5/5
An Indian dancer marries an AI. Very good story in an interesting setting.
"The House Beyond Your Sky" - Benjamin Rosenbaum 3/5
A denizen of a house at the end of the universe, interacts with some of the inhabitants. Interesting.
"Where the Golden Apples Grow" - Kage Baker 3.5/5
On Mars, a boy from a farm colony and one who grew up with truckers share an adventure. Fun story.
"Kin" - Bruce McAllister 3/5
A boy hires an alien hitman.
"Signal to Noise" - Alastair Reynolds 4/5
People are able to temporarily switch into the bodies of their doubles in very similar parallel timelines. A man uses this to visit his wife, who just died in his own timeline. Good ideas about identity.
"The Big Ice" - Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold 2/5
A near-immortal member of the galactic ruling class is transformed by alien biological traces in an ice sheet.
"Bow Shock" - Gregory Benford 4/5
Academic politics and personal life conflict with a scientist's study of fast-moving neutron stars.
"To the River" - Justin Stanchfield 3.5/5
A woman is surgically altered in order to communicate with aquatic aliens. Good, but a little melodramatic.
"Incarnation Day" - Walter Jon Williams 4.5/5
In the outer solar system, children are raised as computer simulations and then incarnated into physical bodies when they come of age. Nice concept with some thought about what it takes to be considered a person.
"Far As You Can Go" - Greg Van Eekhout 3/5
A teenager and his robot friend try to find the ocean in an environmentally degraded future.
"Good Mountain" - Robert Reed 4/5
Disaster strikes a world where the inhabitants live on a continent made of floating vegetation. Great, original setting.
"I Hold My Father's Paws" - David D. Levine 3/5
A man has himself transformed into a dog in order to avoid the stresses of life.
"Dead Men Walking" - Paul J. McAuley 3.5/5
A bioengineered soldier attempts to blend in on a Uranus colony after a war.
"Home Movies" - Mary Rosenblum 4/5
A woman who creates surrogate memories for rich clients faces a difficult assignment. Good concept.
"Damascus" - Daryl Gregory 4/5
A blood-borne brain disease creates feelings of religious ecstasy. A scary, realistic story.
"Life on the Preservation" - Jack Skillingstead 4/5
Modern Seattle is preserved in a repeating time bubble in a post-apocalyptic world. Interesting concept.
"Yellow Card Man" - Paolo Bacigalupi 3/5
A refugee struggles to survive in Bangkok in a post-oil world. Good story, but with a very limited sf element.
"Riding the Crocodile" - Greg Egan 4.5/5
A couple attempts to contact the enigmatic aliens at the center of the galaxy as the last achievement of their lives. Great portrayal of a far-future civilization.
"The Ile of Dogges" - Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette 3/5
Time travelers attempt to rescue a lost play by Ben Johnson.
"The Highway Men" - Ken MacLeod 3.5/5
Conscripted highway workers meet up with a community living outside the system in a decaying future Britan., Fun but fairly typical MacLeod.
"The Pacific Mystery" - Stephen Baxter 4/5
Alternate history is a world where the Pacific contains a fold in space-time. Good, original concept.
"Okanoggan Falls" - Carolyn Ives Gilman 3/5
The citizens of a small town try to save it from occupying aliens who wish to build a mine there. I didn't find the aliens convincing.
"Every Hole Is Outlined" - John Barnes 3/5
Starship crews see ghosts about between the stars. Has an interesting culture, but the story never really makes sense.
"The Town on Blighted Sea" - A. M. Dellamonica 3/5
The losers from an alien-backed war on Earth deal with being refugees on an alien world.
"Nightingale" - Alastair Reynolds 4/5
A mercenary group is hired to extract a war criminal from an abandoned hospital ship. Good suspense with a nasty ending.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another Bad Anthology
Comment: Two good stories: Tin Marsh, by Swanwick, and Kin, by Bruce McCallister. The rest were poorly written, plotted, and realized short stories. Yawners to say the least. This best of has warn out its welcome years ago.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good stories, just maybe too much of the same
Comment: The Dozois best science fiction anthology is always a doorstop, and I can't complain that they skimp on word count. He always includes a number of novellas as well as the many short stories. But I've noticed in the past few years, and this year is no exception, that the stories tend to take on a certain sameness toward the end. Those last few stories get to be a slog, and it doesn't really matter whose stories they are.
The stories here merit inclusion, but there are too many of similar theme and tone, and most are grim. Few pages are devoted to short fiction by women, and you see the same authors year after year. They are good authors, but I would think that in any given year the best stories should come from a more diverse group. Possibly not -- I haven't read all of them.
But of the stories that did stand out to me:
Kage Baker's "Where the Golden Apples Grow" is an affecting, stark, city mouse/country mouse-type story about two martian-born boys trying to grow up in difficult times.
"The Djinn's Wife," by Ian McDonald, starts slow but builds as it chronicles a dancer's infatuation with an artificial intelligence in a future India.
"I Hold My Father's Paws," by David Levine, is a rare spot of humor in the anthology, although the humor is pretty dark. It is about a man relationship to his absentee father, and to say any more would probably just ruin it.
Best of all (and yes, I'm biased, since I live in a very small town in Wisconsin) is Carol Ives Gilman's "Okanoggan Falls." It may be that loving this story requires understanding how thoroughly Gilman nails small town life, but trust me, it's accurate. It's also a nice little story of alien invasion.
Altogether, a lot of end-of-the-world (in one way or another) going on in this anthology. It may be best taken in small doses.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Year's Best Short Fiction anthology, hands down
Comment: I stopped reading this series years ago, but I randomly picked this one up at the book store and started to skim. Within minutes, I was hooked. This is a superb collection of short stories from a wide variety of authors that just made all my other "best" anthologies of the year hang their dog ears in shame.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Free SF Reader
Comment: You could call this an excellent example of this particular series perhaps, as the average for these stories is 3.86, and a couple I have read have gone over 4. Still, a rather good effort to put that together. You certainly won't be detecting much of a sense of humour in this one, though, in general.
As usual, the highly useful summation and introduction gives information, and tries to round up for the reader the magazine sources for those that are mostly interested in core science fiction, without generally having to put up with fantasy/horror/slipstream etc., when they don't want too. He also talks a bit about books and other media, and I agree with most of this except for V for Vendetta, a movie of which this household approved. It sounds like Dozois hadn't read this, from his comment.
By now you could fill one of these huge volumes with his intros, too, if he ever needs a project.
Overall, a top notch editorial job on display here.
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : I ROW-BOAT - Cory Doctorow
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : JULIAN A CHRISTMAS STORY - Robert Charles Wilson
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : TIN MARSH - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE DJINN'S WIFE - Ian McDonald
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE HOUSE BEYOND YOUR SKY - Benjamin Rosenbaum
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : WHERE THE GOLDEN APPLES GROW - Kage Baker
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : KIN - Bruce McAllister
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : SIGNAL TO NOISE - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE BIG ICE - Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : BOW SHOCK - Gregory Benford
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : IN THE RIVER - Justin Stanchfield
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : INCARNATION DAY - Walter Jon Williams
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : FAR AS YOU CAN GO - Greg Van Eekhout
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : GOOD MOUNTAIN - Robert Reed
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : I HOLD MY FATHER'S PAWS - David D. Levine
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : DEAD MEN WALKING - Paul J. McAuley
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : HOME MOVIES - Mary Rosenblum
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : DAMASCUS - Daryl Gregory
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : LIFE ON THE PRESERVATION - Jack Skillingstead
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : YELLOW CARD MAN - Paolo Bacigalupi
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : RIDING THE CROCODILE - Greg Egan
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE ILE OF DOGGES - Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE HIGHWAY MEN - Ken MacLeod
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE PACIFIC MYSTERY - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : OKANOGGAN FALLS - Carolyn Ives Gilman
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : EVERY HOLE IS OUTLINED - John Barnes
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : THE TOWN ON BLIGHTED SEA - A. M. Dellamonica
Year's Best Science Fiction 24 : NIGHTINGALE - Alastair Reynolds
Asimovian reef revival survival.
4.5 out of 5
Conscripts in a fallen future like snakes more than Indy does.
3 out of 5
"Naughty girl. Papa spank!" I wish! Wahhh!
4 out of 5
Computer cops crimp AI's carnal cavorting with calisthenic chick.
4 out of 5
Making a universal mess of it.
2.5 out of 5
Road trip not good.
3.5 out of 5
A boy and a alien hitman come to an understanding.
5 out of 5
Quantum reality spousal coordination.
4.5 out of 5
Sororcidecicle's inhuman regeneration return.
4 out of 5
An astronomer researching an obscure phenomenon struggles with tenure, a woman, and trying to work out if what he is seeing is natural or not.
4 out of 5
Underwater translation leavetaking gift.
4 out of 5
Parental supervision control program subversion.
4.5 out of 5
Witch robot sea stop swap.
3.5 out of 5
Colony vermiform prolongation oxygen depletion destruction.
3 out of 5
A dog's life for me.
4 out of 5
Clone killer uncovered confrontation.
4 out of 5
Memory recording transfer rejection.
4.5 out of 5
Jaysus, that's a hell of an idea to spread around.
3.5 out of 5
Daily alien revisit.
3 out of 5
Fallen biotech magnate takes insults badly.
4 out of 5
A couple of then 10K year old posthumans decide to attempt to contact some aliens known as the Aloof for obvious reasons. This inspires others to some innovation.
4 out of 5
Playing with past censorship.
3.5 out of 5
Air rage war road rollers into bandit chopper brake break.
4 out of 5
Alternate ratzi monster zeppelin expedition shows Pacific that time forgot lives up to hyperbole.
4 out of 5
Alien invasion imitation co-operation landscaping strategy.
4.5 out of 5
Long voyaging ship's sudden crew loss requires slave freedom and spectral viewing.
4 out of 5
Squid pr0n relatively Ruthless solution.
4 out of 5
Hospital ship joined.
4 out of 5
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