Year's Best SF 15

Name: Year's Best SF 15
Rating: 4.667 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9780061995538

By David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer

Publisher Description

An annual celebration of the finest short form science fiction of the past year, editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s Year’s Best science fiction anthologies are widely acclaimed and eagerly awaited—and Year’s Best SF 15 lives up magnificently to its name! Featuring thrilling new tales by such speculative fiction luminaries as Stephen Baxter, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, Geoff Ryman, Bruce Sterling, and a host of others, Year’s Best SF 15 opens the door into a universe of wonders.

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Year's Best SF 15 Reviews

4.5

Jennifer

Created over 1 year ago

Jared Brown

Created over 5 years ago

Steve Stuart

Created over 13 years ago

“I normally like The annual https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13390.David_G__Hartwell and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/237474.Kathryn_Cramer compilations, because of their focus on pure sci fi, without much intrusion from fantasy, horror, steampunk or other subgenres that don't feel compelled to include science in their fiction. As the editors say in the introduction, "this book is full of science fiction---every story in the book is fairly clearly that and not something else." Unfortunately, the editors failed to meet their own standards this time, and included several interlopers. These include "The Unstrung Zither", a smart fantasy story that is heavily imbued with Eastern symbolism, mysticism and even magic, but only lightly connected to reality. The editors' filter also let through a pair alternate-history stories ("Donovan Sent Us" and "This Peacable Land; or The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe") that are merely historical fiction (post-Hitler and post-Lincoln), without even the slightest bit of science involved in their their deviation from reality. In "Edison's Frankenstein", the point of deviation from our world is made abundantly clear, but here it depends on the discovery of "prometheum", a fantastical substance that provides an unlimited source of free energy. Alternate history stories are actually featured quite heavily in this volume, with six of 24 stories falling into this category. The other alternate history stories are good, though, and earn their place in a best-of science fiction anthology by using science and technology in clever ways to explain, justify and provide context to their alternate pasts and futures. Among the remaining stories, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27167.Peter_Watts ' "The Island" is superb, a story of interstellar exploration with a masterful blending of despair and wonder, tech toys and human elements, dense jargon and singing prose. I also really enjoyed https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6458461.Brian_Stableford 's "The Highway Code", an entertaining story that gave me an entirely different view of what the future might be like once Google's autonomous vehicles take over the roads. "Attitude Adjustment", by https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2851726.Eric_James_Stone , is a rare example of a style of Asimovian sci-fi story that is nearly extinct: the clever protagonist who uses her wits and physics to think her way out of a disastrous situation. We can always use more of this kind of story. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2868678.Mary_Robinette_Kowal 's "The Consciousness Problem" and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/716549.Charles_Oberndorf 's "Another Life" both explore the consequences of being able to wake up with your mind in a body different than the one it remembers. Oberndorf's story weaves these ideas together with themes of sex, gender identity, and love in a compactly multilayered story. I agree with the editors that it might be the best of the selection.”

About David G. Hartwell

David G. Hartwell is a senior editor of Tor/Forge Books. His doctorate is in Comparative Medieval Literature. He is the proprietor of Dragon Press, publisher and bookseller, which publishes The New York Review of Science Fiction, and the president of David G. Hartwell, Inc. He is the author of Age of Wonders and the editor of many anthologies, including The Dark Descent, The World Treasury of Science Fiction, The Hard SF Renaissance, The Space Opera Renaissance, and a number of Christmas anthologies, among others. Recently he co-edited his fifteenth annual paperback volume of Year's Best SF, and co-edited the ninth Year's Best Fantasy. John Updike, reviewing The World Treasury of Science Fiction in The New Yorker, characterized him as a "loving expert." He is on the board of the IAFA, is co-chairman of the board of the World Fantasy Convention, and an administrator of the Philip K. Dick Award. He has won the Eaton Award, the World Fantasy Award, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award forty times to date, winning as Best Editor in 2006, 2008, and 2009.