Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47999 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-10
• Released on: 2007-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Like a giant sequoia towering over a copse of maple trees, Hugo-winner Dozois's annual shelf-bending collection of the year's best SF continues to overshadow all other anthologies. Highlights include Greg Egan's Riding the Crocodile about two immortals who yearn to do something grand and audacious before they consciously end their lives; Cory Doctorow's I, Row-Boat which chronicles a theological dispute between an artificially intelligent boat and a sentient coral reef; and Alastair Reynolds's Signal to Noise an unexpectedly intimate story about a scientist's attempt to contact his recently deceased wife across quantum realities. This yearly anthology is required reading for every serious SF fan.
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From Booklist
In assembling the twenty-fourth edition of this celebrated annual, veteran editor Dozois stuck to the formula he has used for all the previous 23 volumes by picking personal favorites. The lack of any stricter editorial guidelines may be surprising, but Dozois' keen eye for craftsmanship has helped him compile superior collections year in and year out, and it doesn't fail him now. Volume 24 presents more than two-dozen authors expanding on themes ranging from the loss of culture on a postapocalyptic Earth to life on a terraformed Mars. In the opening story, by Cory Doctorow, an AI-enhanced rowboat is unsettled enough by a religion called Asimovism to contemplate electronic suicide. Michael Swanwick's Tin Marsh recounts the fate of two isolated Venusian miners who begin to loathe each other. Other tales describe a human child's alliance with an alien assassin, explore humanity's fate in neighboring universes, and more, much more. Veterans and rising stars alike ensure the continued vitality of a series that is the standard-bearer of sf's leading edge. Hays, Carl

Review
Praise for THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL COLLECTION:
“For a broad and eclectic overview of SF and its varieties, Dozois’s huge anthology remains essential.” –Gary K. Wolf, LOCUS Magazine
 
“Gardner Dozois is of course the granddaddy of the annual anthology...His housebrick of a collection…is the closest thing the field has to a single ‘canon-forming’ volume.” –Strange Horizons magazine

Customer Reviews

Good stories, just maybe too much of the same
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.

The Year's Best Short Fiction anthology, hands down
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.

Not Free SF Reader
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