sleepyboi2988's review
2.0
This one is super tough to rate because there were some really excellent tales in this book...but on the other hand there were quite a few I found to be completely off the mark. Unfortunately there seemed to be no middle ground. Either they were great or terrible. :(
zoes_human's review against another edition
4.0
11 of the 30 stories in this also appear in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection. These would include three of the best stories: "Today I Am Paul" by Martin L. Shoemaker, "Calved" by Sam J. Miller, and "Meshed" by Rich Larson. It also includes the two I least liked from this collection: "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan" by Ian McDonald and "A Murmuration" by Alastair Reynolds. I didn't even bother to finish the former.
So what does this new series have to offer that Dozois' award winning The Year's Best Science Fiction collections do not?
For one thing, better introductions for the book and the individual stories. I'm interested in the overall state of affairs of science fiction and short work, but TYBSF's summation is 28 pages long and reads like a company report. Neil Clarke gives the same overview, in laymen's terms, in 6. Likewise, the individual introductions to the stories in TYBSF go on a bit longer than needed, seeming to sometimes attempt to list everything ever written by the author. Clarke keeps them short here - a paragraph, a couple of their more significant works.
It also offers 19 stories that aren't in the other volume. Even better, 16 of those were strong stories, warranting 4 or 5 star stories from me. The remaining 3 were good. I wasn't wowed but I liked them.
So which to read? Well, who says you can't have two collections? After all, between the two, there are still 44 distinct stories in addition to the 11 repeats. Other than the introductory material, which many don't even read, I'd call it a draw between these two magnificent science fiction collections.
So what does this new series have to offer that Dozois' award winning The Year's Best Science Fiction collections do not?
For one thing, better introductions for the book and the individual stories. I'm interested in the overall state of affairs of science fiction and short work, but TYBSF's summation is 28 pages long and reads like a company report. Neil Clarke gives the same overview, in laymen's terms, in 6. Likewise, the individual introductions to the stories in TYBSF go on a bit longer than needed, seeming to sometimes attempt to list everything ever written by the author. Clarke keeps them short here - a paragraph, a couple of their more significant works.
It also offers 19 stories that aren't in the other volume. Even better, 16 of those were strong stories, warranting 4 or 5 star stories from me. The remaining 3 were good. I wasn't wowed but I liked them.
So which to read? Well, who says you can't have two collections? After all, between the two, there are still 44 distinct stories in addition to the 11 repeats. Other than the introductory material, which many don't even read, I'd call it a draw between these two magnificent science fiction collections.
sundarayamrita's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
oleksandr's review against another edition
4.0
This is an anthology of short SF works (from short stories to novellas) collected by x, who is the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Clarkesworld a monthly science fiction and fantasy magazine first published in October 2006 and currently one of the major SFF publications, with quite a few of SFF works, which ended up in nominee lists of Hugo, Nebula, Locus and other SFF awards. This is his first annual collection of SF stories. A few of them ended up in awards’ lists or even won.
The contents:
Introduction: A State of the Short SF Field in 2015 a general state of the genre and SF market. The general move toward online in magazines, but high reliance of kickstart-type one-time efforts but problems with sustainability. Surprisingly, no mention of Puppies scandal.
Today I Am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker a robot that emulates Alzheimer patient’s relatives and this inadvertently gives self-awareness. 4* nominated for Nebula
Calved by Sam J. Miller father-son conflict in environmentally devastated world. A dad works long shifts in sea after emigrating from drowned USA, worries that his teenage son stopped enjoying their times together. 2.5*
Three Bodies at Mitanni by Seth Dickinson a group of three astronaut judges are sent on a mission across the universe – find seeded centuries ago human colonies and if they changed enough to rival ‘traditional’ humans – destroy them. another take on post-humanity, but with a lot of bickering. Nice ideas, mediocre execution. 3*, was nominated for AnLib
The Smog Society by Chen Qiufan a strange story about an old guy whose wife left him and who joins the group that monitor smog data and relation between pollutions and psychic issues. 3*
In Blue Lily’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard a girl accidentally brings an epidemy, which affects both humans and living ships. A group of scientists investigate. 2*
Hello, Hello by Seanan McGuire a scientist works on software that helps AI to understand a sign language, like her deaf siter uses. From her sister’s videophone someone calls and tries to communicate with her kids, hidden behind a generic image generated by that sign recognition. The surprise I guessed almost instantly. 2.5*
Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang Hugo award winner for the best novelette. A story of a man, who works on separating garbage in the Third Space – the worst part of Beijing built in three spaces, from almost utopic First with individual houses and self-driving clean cars to ‘ordinary’ second that produces for the First and finally the Third that works on waste disposal of the first two. I think that class system was too bluntly done. 2.5*
Capitalism in the 22nd Century by Geoff Ryman a group of people are gathered (thousands?) to be sent from Earth, they are modified for new environments, but were they told truth? 2*
Hold-Time Violations by John Chu some kind of strange pocket universe, with different competing groups which fight over keeping that reality version or changing it 2*
Wild Honey by Paul McAuley an interesting post-apoc, where an old woman works with genetically modded bees, which generate honey with specific qualities, including healing. A local gang came to cure their member and maybe loot. 3*
So Much Cooking by Naomi Kritzer a quarantine story years before COVID-19 – a cooking blog entries by a women, who has to cope with ever lesser variety of food and ever greater number of dependents. 3.5*
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn a team of investigators come to a little town, to find out why of coop members in pregnant w/o a document allowing it. I cannot see originality. 1*
Another Word for World by Ann Leckie two groups co-habitate on a planet, representatives of both go to a meeting on a flyer, which it shot from the sky. Losing computer that translated they have to find a way to understand each other. 2*
The Cold Inequalities by Yoon Ha Lee while the title clearly references the famous ‘Cold Equations’, the story’s protagonist (AI?) likes books among digitized materials a colony ship carries, while a stowaway appears… 2*
Iron Pegasus by Brenda Cooper a woman pilot and her android(?) companion answer to a distress signal to find out that a human has died and a companion (which lacks rights of a person) is alone. 2*
The Audience by Sean McMullen a first crewed ship travels to a planet beyond Oort cloud, a great ocean under ice cover. An attempt to break ice leads to vanishing of several members (from their suits) and discovering another life. 3.5*
Empty by Robert Reed a bizarre piece about a world after humans went extinct with different AIs solving problems. 2*
Gypsy by Carter Scholz a ship from environmentally devastated Earth, with POVs of each member as the ship moves to another star to restart the mankind. As they go, different accidents happen, decreasing their number. 3*
Violation of the TrueNet Security Act by Taiyo Fujii a world, where internet as we know it is dead after an attack. A new system bases on quantum computing and no anonymity. The protagonist works checking old sites attempting to connect to the new net to wipe them off. 2.5*
Damage by David D. Levine a fighter ship AI with a personality and built-in love of its pilot. The war between Earth and asteroids, the latter ('our' side) are losing and plan a desperate mission that will leave millions dead. 3*
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin remains of humanity live underwater on Venus, which is still bombareded by comets in a terraforming project. They lost a war to some aliens, who decided to keep Venus project going. An interesting take on post-human low tech civilization in ocean. 3.5*
No Placeholder for You, My Love by Nick Wolven a weird word where people (?) live in a constant party, and meet each other only once, maybe a group of simulations to find some optimum? 2*
Outsider by An Owomoyela a planet was colonized centuries ago, people changed to adept to the new environment, including a kind of telepathy. A ship from Earth comes, with a single runaway, but the story from a person from this new colony. 3*
The Gods Have Not Died in Vain by Ken Liu the middle story out of three, much better to read from the start, which is in [b:The End is Nigh|18870640|The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392378542l/18870640._SY75_.jpg|26869750]. 3.5*
Cocoons by Nancy Kress some alien form cocoons humans and they re-appear changed, but is any change for worse? A new glance on an old alien invasion. 3*
Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World by Caroline M. Yoachim a new list of seven wonders, some closely following the classic ones, which a linked by a story of several persons as mankind grows, withers and dies. 3*
Two-Year Man by Kelly Robson there are classes of (hu)man – 2, 4, 8 years, lowest to highest, but who set the hierarchy and is it justified? A 2-year janitor brings from work a baby/being scheduled for an incinerator. 2.5*
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer Hugo winner, one of the best stories of the 2010s, now extended to at least two YA novels. A remake of x’s story (referenced openly in the text) about an AI that guides people to make the world a better place. 5*
Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan by Ian McDonald a story set in Venus of old SF, where it was a lustrous jungle / ocean world. A very pleasant homage. 4*
Meshed by Rich Larson a sport recruiter checks a potential young star for basketball, but the boy don’t want to install a usual monitoring/control system because it was related to a war trauma of his granddad. 3.5*
A Murmuration by Alastair Reynolds a researcher observes flocks of birds, finds how they a like neuron networks. 4*
The contents:
Introduction: A State of the Short SF Field in 2015 a general state of the genre and SF market. The general move toward online in magazines, but high reliance of kickstart-type one-time efforts but problems with sustainability. Surprisingly, no mention of Puppies scandal.
Today I Am Paul by Martin L. Shoemaker a robot that emulates Alzheimer patient’s relatives and this inadvertently gives self-awareness. 4* nominated for Nebula
Calved by Sam J. Miller father-son conflict in environmentally devastated world. A dad works long shifts in sea after emigrating from drowned USA, worries that his teenage son stopped enjoying their times together. 2.5*
Three Bodies at Mitanni by Seth Dickinson a group of three astronaut judges are sent on a mission across the universe – find seeded centuries ago human colonies and if they changed enough to rival ‘traditional’ humans – destroy them. another take on post-humanity, but with a lot of bickering. Nice ideas, mediocre execution. 3*, was nominated for AnLib
The Smog Society by Chen Qiufan a strange story about an old guy whose wife left him and who joins the group that monitor smog data and relation between pollutions and psychic issues. 3*
In Blue Lily’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard a girl accidentally brings an epidemy, which affects both humans and living ships. A group of scientists investigate. 2*
Hello, Hello by Seanan McGuire a scientist works on software that helps AI to understand a sign language, like her deaf siter uses. From her sister’s videophone someone calls and tries to communicate with her kids, hidden behind a generic image generated by that sign recognition. The surprise I guessed almost instantly. 2.5*
Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang Hugo award winner for the best novelette. A story of a man, who works on separating garbage in the Third Space – the worst part of Beijing built in three spaces, from almost utopic First with individual houses and self-driving clean cars to ‘ordinary’ second that produces for the First and finally the Third that works on waste disposal of the first two. I think that class system was too bluntly done. 2.5*
Capitalism in the 22nd Century by Geoff Ryman a group of people are gathered (thousands?) to be sent from Earth, they are modified for new environments, but were they told truth? 2*
Hold-Time Violations by John Chu some kind of strange pocket universe, with different competing groups which fight over keeping that reality version or changing it
Spoiler
actually an attempt to revive one’s motherWild Honey by Paul McAuley an interesting post-apoc, where an old woman works with genetically modded bees, which generate honey with specific qualities, including healing. A local gang came to cure their member and maybe loot. 3*
So Much Cooking by Naomi Kritzer a quarantine story years before COVID-19 – a cooking blog entries by a women, who has to cope with ever lesser variety of food and ever greater number of dependents. 3.5*
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn a team of investigators come to a little town, to find out why of coop members in pregnant w/o a document allowing it. I cannot see originality. 1*
Another Word for World by Ann Leckie two groups co-habitate on a planet, representatives of both go to a meeting on a flyer, which it shot from the sky. Losing computer that translated they have to find a way to understand each other. 2*
The Cold Inequalities by Yoon Ha Lee while the title clearly references the famous ‘Cold Equations’, the story’s protagonist (AI?) likes books among digitized materials a colony ship carries, while a stowaway appears… 2*
Iron Pegasus by Brenda Cooper a woman pilot and her android(?) companion answer to a distress signal to find out that a human has died and a companion (which lacks rights of a person) is alone. 2*
The Audience by Sean McMullen a first crewed ship travels to a planet beyond Oort cloud, a great ocean under ice cover. An attempt to break ice leads to vanishing of several members (from their suits) and discovering another life. 3.5*
Empty by Robert Reed a bizarre piece about a world after humans went extinct with different AIs solving problems. 2*
Gypsy by Carter Scholz a ship from environmentally devastated Earth, with POVs of each member as the ship moves to another star to restart the mankind. As they go, different accidents happen, decreasing their number. 3*
Violation of the TrueNet Security Act by Taiyo Fujii a world, where internet as we know it is dead after an attack. A new system bases on quantum computing and no anonymity. The protagonist works checking old sites attempting to connect to the new net to wipe them off. 2.5*
Damage by David D. Levine a fighter ship AI with a personality and built-in love of its pilot. The war between Earth and asteroids, the latter ('our' side) are losing and plan a desperate mission that will leave millions dead. 3*
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin remains of humanity live underwater on Venus, which is still bombareded by comets in a terraforming project. They lost a war to some aliens, who decided to keep Venus project going. An interesting take on post-human low tech civilization in ocean. 3.5*
No Placeholder for You, My Love by Nick Wolven a weird word where people (?) live in a constant party, and meet each other only once, maybe a group of simulations to find some optimum? 2*
Outsider by An Owomoyela a planet was colonized centuries ago, people changed to adept to the new environment, including a kind of telepathy. A ship from Earth comes, with a single runaway, but the story from a person from this new colony. 3*
The Gods Have Not Died in Vain by Ken Liu the middle story out of three, much better to read from the start, which is in [b:The End is Nigh|18870640|The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392378542l/18870640._SY75_.jpg|26869750]. 3.5*
Cocoons by Nancy Kress some alien form cocoons humans and they re-appear changed, but is any change for worse? A new glance on an old alien invasion. 3*
Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World by Caroline M. Yoachim a new list of seven wonders, some closely following the classic ones, which a linked by a story of several persons as mankind grows, withers and dies. 3*
Two-Year Man by Kelly Robson there are classes of (hu)man – 2, 4, 8 years, lowest to highest, but who set the hierarchy and is it justified? A 2-year janitor brings from work a baby/being scheduled for an incinerator. 2.5*
Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer Hugo winner, one of the best stories of the 2010s, now extended to at least two YA novels. A remake of x’s story (referenced openly in the text) about an AI that guides people to make the world a better place. 5*
Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan by Ian McDonald a story set in Venus of old SF, where it was a lustrous jungle / ocean world. A very pleasant homage. 4*
Meshed by Rich Larson a sport recruiter checks a potential young star for basketball, but the boy don’t want to install a usual monitoring/control system because it was related to a war trauma of his granddad. 3.5*
A Murmuration by Alastair Reynolds a researcher observes flocks of birds, finds how they a like neuron networks. 4*
tclinrow's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
frakalot's review
4.0
I had lost interest about half way through and delayed finishing this for a few months but I had a bit more fun in the second half. The very last short story was my favourite and although I have a natural aversion to cat stories I quite liked the cat pictures story in this collection.
librarianmage's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
pearseanderson's review
3.0
These are the best? 31 stories, and only seven of them really did something for me: Three Bodies; Hello, Hello; So Much Cooking; Bannerless; The Cold Inequalities; Two-Year Man; and Meshed. I'm not saying the rest were bad, just that, I dunno, I expected some others. Where my Tamsyn Muir at? After Best American SFF 2016, I'm more confused about others: Tor.com originals? Charlie Jane Anders? A better Ken Liu piece? Again, who knows, a handful of them felt like prequels and first chapters (Bannerless clearly was, but it worked as a standalone piece. Others not so much). Again, I couldn't finish Robert Reed. For me, a few too many were about first contact + space camp colonization—I know Neil just finished a Galactic Empire anthology, but I would've loved more of those types. Fewer astrophysicists, more civil engineers. I've read so much from this year of SFF I'm kinda sick of it. Some of these stories taught me how much the science fiction genre needs to improve. Infodumping has not fared well. First sentences and introductory paragraphs need work. Characters lack most memorable features. But these are fine stories. These are from the future of SF. These are increasingly diverse, increasingly interesting, but overall this anthology only pushed a couple buttons.
dmturner's review
4.0
This mammoth volume assembles three score proper science fiction stories from the year 2015. Everything in it has the "what if this goes on?" variety of plot. Some of the stories are set in the near future, some farther off, and reading all of them gave this reader the feeling that I was in a hall of mirrors with endless reflections going off in all directions, providing different perspectives on some of the same ideas.
One takeaway of the field represented here was that many of the stories were cluttered with invented vocabulary and names as a substitute for vividness, and focused too much on world-building or on the technical details of the various sciences they drew from. But that could be my reaction because I am drawn to lucidity and simplicity in stories. I particularly enjoyed Nancy Kress's "Cocoons," "Martin Shoemaker's "Today I Am Paul," and Naomi Kritzer's "Cat Pictures, Please" for those reasons, and also because they seemed more story-like than some of the others, with characters I cared more about. I confess that I grew up reading SF in a time when it shared more clarity and story structure with modern YA, so I sometimes get impatient.
There were a lot of common themes in the stories; space travel, culture, politics, war, diplomacy. Many of the stories focus on the provisional nature of identity in a universe populated by avatars, machine consciousnesses, and altered humans. The last story posited consciousness in a murmuration of starlings. Some stories had travel portals to get around the vast distances of space, while others used generation ships, stasis, or stored data to get humans or their successors from one place to another.
The brief biographies of authors prefacing each story were an intimidating roster of publications. Having pulled away from hard science fiction after my first few decades (I moved into reading more fantasy), I was unfamiliar with many of the names. This is a good introduction to the present-day field, and I recommend it.
One takeaway of the field represented here was that many of the stories were cluttered with invented vocabulary and names as a substitute for vividness, and focused too much on world-building or on the technical details of the various sciences they drew from. But that could be my reaction because I am drawn to lucidity and simplicity in stories. I particularly enjoyed Nancy Kress's "Cocoons," "Martin Shoemaker's "Today I Am Paul," and Naomi Kritzer's "Cat Pictures, Please" for those reasons, and also because they seemed more story-like than some of the others, with characters I cared more about. I confess that I grew up reading SF in a time when it shared more clarity and story structure with modern YA, so I sometimes get impatient.
There were a lot of common themes in the stories; space travel, culture, politics, war, diplomacy. Many of the stories focus on the provisional nature of identity in a universe populated by avatars, machine consciousnesses, and altered humans. The last story posited consciousness in a murmuration of starlings. Some stories had travel portals to get around the vast distances of space, while others used generation ships, stasis, or stored data to get humans or their successors from one place to another.
The brief biographies of authors prefacing each story were an intimidating roster of publications. Having pulled away from hard science fiction after my first few decades (I moved into reading more fantasy), I was unfamiliar with many of the names. This is a good introduction to the present-day field, and I recommend it.
kayswear's review
4.0
Good selections. For 30+ years Gardner Dozois' Best Of series was all you needed to read. This isn't quite that; it's less encyclopedic, less SF news and background but it'll do in his absence.
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