The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312187793 ISBN 13: 9780312187798

Publisher: St Martins Press, 1998

Synopsis

Collects short stories exploring themes of time and space travel, self-discovery, and science and technology.

About this title

Reviews

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.

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.

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

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312187793
• ISBN 13: 9780312187798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 623
• Editor: Dozois Gardner R.