A review by zoes_human
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One by Neil Clarke
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.