Year's Best SF 16

by David G. Hartwell (Editor, Contributor), Kathryn Cramer

A dazzling new collection of the finest short form science fiction from the previous year, compiled once again by World Fantasy and Hugo Award-winning editors by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, Year’s Best SF 16 features some of the brightest stars of the genre—including Gregory Benford, Cory Doctrow, Joe Haldeman, and Michael Swanwick. From space travel to time travel to journeys through the mind, brilliant and original speculative fiction is alive and well and magnificently celebrated in this splendid compendium of plausible wonders.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Short Story Collection

577 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 11, 2012

About the author

David Geddes Hartwell was an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He worked for Signet (1971-1973), Berkley Putnam (1973-1978), Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint, 1978-1983, and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he spearheaded Tor's Canadian publishing initiative, and was also influential in bringing many Australian writers to the US market, 1984-date), and has published numerous anthologies. He chaired the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and, with Gordon Van Gelder, was the administrator of the Philip K. Dick Award. He held a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature.

He lived in Pleasantville, New York with his wife Kathryn Cramer and their two children.

Reviews

[Gardy (Elisa G) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erano anni che non leggevo un Year's Best SF (in questo caso il 16, corrispondente al 2011) e sono rimasta molto sorpresa nel constatare che i vari generi ibridi tra fantascienza e qualcos'altro (steampunk, fantasy, filosofia new age) regnano incontrastati sulla raccolta.

In soldoni, i racconti non sono malaccio (a sentire chi segue fedelmente la pubblicazione, il 2011 è stata un'annata piuttosto fortunata) e la qualità media è buona. Ci sono clamorosi scivoloni, quello sì, ma credo dipenda molto anche dal gusto del singolo lettore (per esempio io odio quelle reminiscenze sfilacciate new age che regnano sovrane nello sconclusionatissimo "Somadeva: un sutra del fiume celeste").

Il problema è che di racconti dal contenuto esclusivamente improntato sul lato fantascientifico se ne contano veramente pochi e l'unico "puro" è, non a caso, "Non svegliare il can che dorme" di Joe Haldeman (forse l'autore più famoso all'interno della raccolta, sicuramente uno dei più anziani).

In sostanza mi è piaciuto discretamente, ma posso capire chi ne rimarrà deluso perché sul totale l'elemento SF è veramente scarso.

Qualche consiglio:
-Assolutamente sì: "Non svegliare il can che dorme", "Graffiti nella Biblioteca di Babele", "Petopia", "Penombra", "Dalla Lontana Cilenia", "Il ragazzo di Jackie", "La mano buona", "Tutto l'amore del mondo"
-Manco morta: "Somadeva: un sutra del fiume celeste", "La casa di un uomo è il suo castello", "Fantasmi che ballano con le arance"

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am cautious of collections, but was pleasantly surprised by this. The writing was of a consistently competent standard, with some fresh ideas and some new writes as well as a few more well known. It seems to be popular to create new dystopias-perhaps the world vision is bleaker in a world with pointless wars, crumbling economies and imminent climate collapse. 2 stories appealed to me in particular-The Cassandra project by Jack McDevitt which is a good spin on the conspiracy theories about the moon landings, and Jackie's Boy by Steven Popkes, an optimistic dystopic story about a talking elephant.

[Kersplebedeb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection just gets worse and worse every year - i don't know if it's me, or the editors. But i tend to think the latter.

There were stand-out stories, ones that made reading the book worthwhile, and because of which i know i'll get #17 next year. For instance,Graffiti in the Library of Babel, Jackie's Boy are each exceptionally good stories, and The Cassandra Project and A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation were not bad either. The problem is, those latter two should have set the bar for the bulk of the book's 21 stories, and there should have been more than two to make me go wow.

A disappointment.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful set of stories more then one of them I wanted to pull back the cover of the book to read just a little more, see what happened after the talking elephant and its calf keep taking care of the one legged boy. Do they beat and cut off another finger of the soldier that learned the truth so that he forgets again. yes I enjoyed it.

[Kamitsuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

• Non svegliare il can che dorme, Joe Haldeman ***
Un soldato torna sul pianeta in cui ha perduto la memoria del tempo trascorso lì.

• Bimba e l'oceano, Kay Kenyon *****
Una bambina e suo nonno vivono su un'isola di rifiuti nel Pacifico gestita da nanomacchine.

• Petopia, Benjamin Crowell ****
Un robo-peluche aiuta due ragazzini a fare soldi.

• Il Mercato dei ricordi, Nina Kiriki Hoffman *****
Ad una fabbricante di ricordi è vietato ricordare.

• Una valutazione preliminare dell'equazione di Drake - Estratto delle Memorie del Capitano di Astronave Y. T. Lee, Vernor Vinge ****
Missione esplorativa su un pianeta in cerca di forme di vita passate o presenti tra scienziati competitivi, troupe televisiva e cuochi creativi.

• Tutto, più o meno, Terry Bisson ***
Una creatura viene portata a casa da un addetto delle pulizie che la sottrae senza troppo scalpore al laboratorio dove è stata creata.

• Somadeva: una Sutra del Fiume Celeste, Vandana Singh **
Una storia da mille e una notte a bordo di un'astronave.

• Sotto le lune di Venere, Damien Broderick ***
Pochi umani sono rimasti sulla Terra: sono tutti andati su Venere. O forse è solo pazzia?

• Tutto l'amore del mondo, Cat Sparks ***
Dopo una recente apocalisse nuove coppie si formano in un paesino australiano.

• Live al Budokan, Alastair Reynolds ****
I nuovi spettacoli di rock'n'roll devono essere sempre più eccezionali, con star da fine del mondo.

• Graffiti nella biblioteca di Babele, David Langford ***
Strani segni vengono rilevati nella biblioteca digitale globale. Saranno dei messaggi?

• La casa di un uomo è il suo castello, Michael Swanwick *****
Una casa senziente e un detective troppo perspicace.

• Come diventare un dominatore di Marte, Catherynne M. Valente **
Discorso inconcludente in un corso su come diventare dominatore di Marte.

• Dalla lontana Cilenia, Karl Schroeder *****
Più realtà virtuali si sovrappongono alla realtà fisica. Un esperto di plutonio e un'appassionata di steampunk giocheranno nei vari livelli.

• Gli Zebralli, i Demoni e i Dannati, Brenda Cooper ***
Coloni su un pianeta ostile vorrebbero allevare gli Zebralli locali (che sono quelli in copertina).

• Penombra, Gregory Benford ***
Solo poche persone sul pianeta sono scampate ad una catastrofe, in due pagine scarse si capisce il perché.

• La mano buona, Robert Reed **
Americano in Francia con interprete ostile ma amico, guardie con problemi di flatulenza e minacce nucleari.

• Il Progetto Cassandra, Jack McDevitt *****
Un addetto alle relazioni con la stampa indaga su foto pubblicate da un giornale scandalistico che ritraggono una cupola sulla luna.

• Il ragazzo di Jackie, Steven Popkes ***
Avventura on the road con protagonisti un'intelligente elefantessa e un ragazzino rimasto solo in un futuro post-apocalittico.

• Tredici chilometri, Sean McMullen ****
Tredici chilometri non sembrano tanti, ma sono una bella frontiera se considerati in verticale, in mongolfiera.

• Fantasmi che ballano con le arance (L'album della Famiglia Parke, Numero IV), Paul Park *
Lunga e noiosa digressione tra alberi genealogici e riflessioni vaneggianti.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Year’s Best SF 16 continues the long-standing tradition of celebrating the sharpest, most thought-provoking short fiction in contemporary science fiction. Curated by two of the genre’s most respected editors, David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, this volume gathers a dazzling range of voices from established masters like Joe Haldeman and Gregory Benford to innovators such as Cory Doctorow and Michael Swanwick.

Each story reveals a different facet of speculative thought: the physics of space travel, the paradoxes of time, and the psychological frontiers of human consciousness. Yet beneath the technology and wonder lies an underlying question of what it means to be human in the face of constant transformation. Hartwell and Cramer’s editorial precision ensures a balance of literary excellence, scientific imagination, and emotional resonance.

As a collection, Year’s Best SF 16 captures not just the best of one year in science fiction, but a snapshot of the genre’s ongoing evolution where imagination, intellect, and insight converge to illuminate possible futures.

[Caleb Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with most of these anthologies, largely forgettable, but occasionally you find a gem. For me, that was “To Hie from Far Cilenia,” an all-too-brief augmented reality tale worthy of William Gibson. I also liked “Graffiti in the Library of Babel” (a story about receiving an extraterrestrial message via an online repository of literature) and “Jackie’s boy” (in which a boy befriends a genetically modified elephant in post-apocalyptic America). If you find yourself in possession of this volume, in my opinion you can read those three and skip the rest without missing out on too much.

[Anna Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed bag as usual.
I was actually thinking "hey, this might be quite okay" until I got to the last story and went... "huh?"

Maybe it's the editors' styles, but these pieces tend to be pretty wordy and/or reflective, and at times pretty old-school.

(The number 16 is a bit confusing. This was published in 2011 and is a collection of best SF published in 2010. 16 = the 16th year they've done this anthology. So no, it isn't a 2016 anthology.)

[Regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed a few of the stories, namely A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Graffiti in the Library of Babel, The Cassandra Project, and Castoff World (particularly enjoyed for the well-done embodiment of the phrase “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”), but overall was not terribly impressed.

May look into some of the older years, as mentioned by other reviews, but definitely won’t go out of my way to look for newer editions.

[Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has a few really good stories but most of them are so-so. The final story is a novella that I found painfully boring and almost completely off-genre. It barely counts as a science fiction story.

[Alessandro Brazzalotto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buona raccolta con alcuni racconti notevoli.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite anthology series! I have already read 1-15 and this makes 16. A variety of stories selected by the two best editors ever (David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer)

[Earl Truss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this series of books. This one though was the best of all of them. Several interesting stories and only a few that I did not like, mainly because they were more like fantasy.

[The Poor Person's Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many 5 start stories here from some of the grandmasters of sci fi, and some from new authors I never heard of.

[Jarezal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como en toda antología se pueden encontrar historias que te gusten mucho y otras que preferirías no haber perdido el tiempo con ellas. En esta recopilación hay un par de muy buenas ideas e historias originales y algunas que mañana ya habré olvidado.

Sleeping Dogs – 3/5 – Un militar que vuelve al lugar de su última misión de la cual no tiene recuerdos para probar una nueva droga y descubrir qué ocurrió realmente.

Castoff World – 3/5 – La historia de una niña y su abuelo navegando en una isla de deshechos.

Petopia – 3/5 – Un juguete termina en las cosas de África y unos hermanos le sacarán todo el partido posible.

Futures in the Memories Market - 4/5 – Una mujer se dedica a obtener fantásticas memorias de sus viajes y venderlos. Ella lo olvida todo pero los demás pueden comprarlos y vivirlos como si hubieran estado allí. Esta es la historia de uno de sus guardaespaldas.

A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs of Star Captain Y.-T. Lee – 3/5 – Uno de los títulos más largos que he visto en una historia nos narra la exploración y asentamiento de un nuevo mundo.

About It – 2/5 – Historia sobre una criatura producto del trabajo en laboratorio.

Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra – 2/5 – Una historia sobre contar historias que mezcla el pasado y el futuro.

Under the Moons of Venus – 3/5 - ¿Médico o paciente? La percepción de la realidad depende de cada uno.

All the Love in the World – 5/5 – Bonita historia post-apocalíptica. Una chica es dejada por su pareja cuando llega “la nueva” y pese a todo va a buscar las medicinas que necesita.

At Budokan – 1/5 – Me costó hasta empezar esta historia. ¿Zombies músicos? ¿Robots músicos? ¿Robots gigantes músicos? ... ¿¿Dinosaurios músicos?? ¿Pero qué…?

Graffiti in the Library of Babel – 4/5 – Un primer contacto diferente.

Steadfast Castle – 4/5 – Original historia compuesta enteramente por el diálogo entre un policía y una casa. Sólo diálogo, sin acotaciones de narrador.

How to Become A Mars Overlord – 3/5 – Consejos para conquistar Marte y todos los Martes de ahí arriba.

To Hie from Far Cilenia – 5/5 – Gran historia sobre vidas alternativas y mundos dentro de mundos. El siguiente paso a los juegos de rol masivos.

The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned – 3/5 – Otra historia de conquista de un nuevo planeta.

Penumbra – 3/5 – Historia demasiado corta como para que deje alguna impresión. Bien escrita pero nada realmente destacable.

The Good Hand – 5/5 – En un mundo alternativo los EEUU rigen el destino del mundo decidiendo qué tecnologías pueden usar los demás países y cuáles no. Un empresario estadounidense se encuentra en Francia cuando comienza una crisis.

The Cassandra Project – 4/5 – En la vuelta del hombre a la Luna los rusos publican unas fotos de los primeros viajes en los que se puede ver una construcción.

Jackie’s-Boy – 5/5 – Éxodo de un niño y una elefanta que… ¿habla? Emotiva.

Eight Miles - 5/5 – Historia de ambiente steampunk para alcanzar las ocho millas de altitud con un globo.

Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance – 1/5 – Sigo sin saber qué trata de contarse con esta historia. Larga de narices y encima finaliza la antología. Mala elección.

[Alytha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished another short story collection, for a change ;)

This is the 2011 edition, thus the best stories of 2010.

Some really quite good stuff in this one:

Petopia by Benjamin Crowell: a couple of kids from the slums somewhere in Africa find a cast-off high-tech AI toy which turns their life quite upside down.
Futures in the Memory Market by Nina Kiriki Hofman: a story about Geeta Tilrassen, a future star of a kind of entertainment where you sample the emotions, memories and sensual input of the star, who herself doesn't have much of a life, as she has to give up her memories, live with handlers, and is forbidden from using her own prgramms. One of her bodyguards has a crush on her, and decides to break some rules for her.
About It by Terry Bisson: a lovely, sad story about a janitor at a genetic lab, who takes home a cloned Bigfoot to save it from being euthanised.
Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra by Vandana Singh: a spacetraveller who has lost her memories reactivates the mind of a classic Indian author to keep her company in her travels. However, suddenly, he finds himself back in his own life, telling his secret crush about a strange woman in a spaceship...reminded me of the dreaming butterfly theory. Nice story.
At Budokan by Alastair Reynolds: really liked that one. In the near future, robots are the big thing in rock music, and Buddy makes his money touring with robot versions of Metallica. But then, his old business partner Jake comes up with something even more spectacular: T-Rexes genetically engineered to play the guitar and rock. Just as nuts as it sounds :)
Graffiti in the Library of Babel by David Langford is a different take on the first contact with aliens plot, as they communicate through highlighting passages in books. Quite interesting.
Steadfast Castle by Michael Swanwick is a kind of murder mystery play for two actors: a policeman, and an intelligent house. Really good.
To Hie from far Cilenia by Karl Schroeder is a very complex story, about 50 pages long, about the near future, where online nations are just as real as geographical ones in terms of economy and politics, and both a load of uranium and a woman's son go missing and have to be retrieved. Had a certain feel of Snow Crash to it. Very complex setting with an interesting premise.
The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt: Once, a dome was discovered on the dark side of the Moon, and within it a message that can never be published...nice little conspiracy story.
Jackie's Boy by Steven Popkes: another long and complex story, set after the Apocalypse around the Mississipi river. A young boy and an intelligent talking elephant decide to go look for an elephant herd on the other side of the river. Really good one.
Eight Miles by Sean McMullen: a steampunk story about hot-air ballooning :) What's not to like. Also, a very interesting revelation within the story.

So, out of a total of 21, there's 11 really good stories. Then, you have a handful of decent, if not terribly spectacular stories, but, unfortunately, also quite a lot of really bad ones (6) that don't make much sense and are pretty much a waste of space.

So, in conclusion, a very ambivalent collection. Fortunately, still with more good than bad stories.

7/10

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of some of the best stories of the year 2010, in the opinions of the editors, at least. As usual, sometimes they really hit on my tastes, and sometimes are wide off the mark.

Most of the stories were mildly enjoyable, but didn't leave much impression. In fact, now, reading back over the table of contents, a few I completely struggle to remember what they're about. That said, there were some bright spots... one that I thought I was going to dislike, based on the introduction and type of story it was, but actually enjoyed... Damien Broderick's "Under the Moons of Venus." I also enjoyed David Langford's "Graffiti in the Library of Babel" about aliens using a bizarre method to make first contact. My absolute favorite in the book, though, was Karl Schroeder's "To Hie From Far Cilenia," which was apparently his entry in the shared-world METAtropolis: The Dawn of Uncivilization set in the near urban future, and deals with using virtual worlds to form new societies and affect reality in weird ways... it's hard to describe, and honestly, I think I may need to read it a few times to grasp fully, but I loved the feeling of my mind stretching. It treads on a few of the ideas that make up a small portion of his novel Lady of Mazes which is one of my favorite SF novels ever.

On the downside... while I can't really call it bad, just very much not to my tastes, Paul Park's "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance", which closes out the anthology, completely left me cold and had me mentally saying "shut up and get to the point" several times. I probably would also have to read it several times to grasp what it's about... the difference, in this case, I would never WANT to read it again.

But overall, as these things usually go, it's a fairly pleasant anthology.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eugenie Markham is trying to find a way to protect her twins from the powers that are after them. It is prophesied that her son will be the one to overtake the human race, and therefore the other Kings and Queens of the Otherworld are out to get him, whether it be to stop him or make sure that it will happen. Either way, Eugenie knows that she needs to keep her babies and self safe. She decides to leave the Otherworld until they are born, and takes refuge with a Shaman in Alabama. She feels distant from her lands and anxious for the babies to come, and when her stepfather returns after the babies are born a month early she knows there is something wrong. Eugenie is forced to leave her babies in the care of the hospital and her new family to return to the Otherworld to stop the blight that is killing off their lands. Can she figure out how to stop this force against her and her other rulers? Will she be able to keep her babies safe from harm, and will she be able to make the right choices?



I had not read the other books in this series and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to connect with the characters easily and that the story was able to stand on its own. I thought that the characters were well described and the past events were defined for me. I think that it was a good book and shows that no matter what parents (and others) want what is best for their children and the children of others. The story also had interesting twists in it that kept your attention throughout the book so that when you thought you would know how it was going to end you might be surprised. All in all a great read.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection of short-form SF I've read in quite a while. All the stories are top-notch, with a wide mix of voices, settings, topics, length, styles and approaches. There are tales of post-apocalypse, space adventure and genetic modification; there are children and old men and guitar-playing dinosaurs and even a sort of steam-punk female Napoleon.

The only disappointment was the last one, a modern riff on the Benandanti -- I'm a fan of updated/retold folklore and fairy tales and I don't mind unreliable narrators or meta-fiction so I was intrigued at first, but in the end this comes across as too self-conscious an exercise in cleverness by both the narrator and the author.

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graffiti nella Biblioteca di Babele
Antologia, su Urania Millemondi n° 59 del Maggio 2012.
21 racconti di 21 autori. Purtroppo, rispetto ad altre antologie della serie, non l’ho gradita molto. A parte l’ottimo Dalla Lontana Cilenia di Karl Schroeder ed il buono Graffiti Nella Bibliotaca di Babele di David Langford, per il resto manca di qualità.
Tutto sommato a parte questi due racconti, sono oltre la sufficienza altri 2 o 3 brani, ed il resto è finito in fretta nel dimenticatoio.
Si salvano di certo Il Progetto Cassandra di McDevitt; il postapocalittico Il Ragazzo di Jackie di Popkes; forse il racconto di Vinge dal titolo troppo lungo per essere ricordato. Il resto è polvere.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most anthologies I have read, I rarely like all the stories in it. There were a couple I really

struggled with and had to give up on but there some good to very good stories in this book. The ones I really

liked are:

Sleeping Dogs by Joe Haldeman
The Vernor Vinge story I mentioned last week
All The Love in the World by Cat Sparks
A Budokan by Alastair Reynolds
Steadfast Castle by Michael Swanwick
The Hebras and Demons and the Damned by Brenda Cooper
The Good Hand by Robert Reed
The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt
Jackie's-Boy by Steven Popkes

Some of these authors were new to me and I will be searching out some of their other work if I can it.

[Sharon Eudy Neufeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some recent SF leaves me cold. There is a current spate of "mood pieces" which evoke some exotic locale but provide little or no characterization. Then there are the "what is reality?" pieces which simply strike me as self-indulgent. But when you exclude those, the remaining pieces in this anthology don't disappoint. There's a colony world I want to move to tomorrow, aliens who charm and the prospect of interstellar travel. All with less abuse of conservatives and Christians than I have seen in years. What a relief to be able to relax into worlds with different problems than ours.

[Michael Blackmore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading this series since the first volume and I have to admit I'm doing it more out of momentum than anything else. There's always a couple of good stuff but I'm finding more and more of them I simple skip since he tends to prefer trends in SF that simple don't appeal to me anymore. Too many post Armageddon tales or nanotech magic tales, etc.

Maybe next year will be better or not. Perhaps its just time to see if there is another of the many annual anthologies out there nowadays that would appeal to me more.

[Bill Borre]

"A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs of Star Captain Y.-T. Lee" by Vernor Vinge - A captain of a starship discusses the Drake equation with his crew after a stardrive allows access to any star in the galaxy and no alien civilization is detected.

"Steadfast Castle" by Michael Swanwick - A police officer meets his end when investigating a murder reveals the killer is a machine intelligence so in love with her master that she is willing to sacrifice herself to aid his flight from implication in the victim's death.

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthology was too deep space heavy for my taste. I found some of the stories to be a bit of a bore. But there's always a few standouts in any collection. I was quite fond of Alistair Reynolds's "At Budokan" which was a bizarre romp about dinosaurs playing rock music as well as "The Cassandra Project" by Jack McDevitt which centers on photos of a mysterious dome on the moon that predated the first lunar landing.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Some of the stories I enjoyed greatly while others were a slog. I guess that's the way with a short story collection; in including a variety of SF stories something is bound not to appeal to me. That being said most of the stories were good. Special mention goes to "To Hie from Far Cilenia" which I quite enjoyed, both story wise and for the ideas on how near future technology and society may develop.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay collection of "recent" (ca 2011) short SF; nothing to rave about but a good choice for bus/lunch reading. Like most such anthologies, a real mixed bag - a few great stories; some interesting/amusing vignettes; and some downright wastes of time.

Particularly enjoyable were "Castoff World," "Steadfast Castle," "The Good Hand," and the excellent but depressing "The Cassandra Project." Also really enjoyed the almost-novella length "Jackie's Boy."

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed a few of the stories in this collection, particularly Cat Sparks' "All the Love in the World", David Langford's "Graffiti in the Library of Babel", and Alastair Reynolds' "At Budokan.

The standouts to me though were Michael Swanwick's "Steadfast Castle", and Karl Schroeder's "The Hie from Far Cilenia". Both involve mystery, and the blending of human and artificial intelligence.

[Fabio Tassi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I migliori racconti SF del 2010 (The Year's Best SF n.16).
Apprezzabile la scelta di mettersi in pari con l'edizione americana originale in modo da presentare la produzione piu' recente di short stories (sperando che anche i volumi mancanti della serie - 14 e 15 - vengano tradotti e recuparti al piu' presto in un'altra edizione).

[Alan Mcrae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this to be so-so reading. Obviously with several different contributing authors, some stories are more liked than others. However I liked the fact that I get an idea of the authors, that I wish to continue reading.