The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois (Editor), Steven Utley, Ian McDonald

Collects more than two dozen science fiction tales written in the previous year to include pieces by such authors as John Kessel, Susan Palwick, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephen Baxter, Michael Swanwick, Paul J. McAuley, and Ian R. MacLeod.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

744 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2001

About the author

Gardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. He won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, both as an editor and a writer of short fiction.
Wikipedia entry: Gardner Dozois

http://us.macmillan.com/author/gardne...

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 reread just finished. No prior review, here anyway. Huh.
Here's the detailed review to read: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
She found a $1 copy at Goodwill!
Brian Davies' nice Dozois collections synopses. This is the last one he did: https://web.archive.org/web/200411280... (scroll to end).
And here is the ToC and story details: https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?252350
One of the better of the Dozois Years Best collections. Definitely worth a look if you missed it!
Quotes are from the Brian Davies synopses, linked above.

• The Juniper Tree • novelette by John Kessel. "A father and daughter emigrate to a sexually open lunar colony, but old values keep them from fitting in, and the father kills the daughter's lover."
OK+, 3 stars for my reread. Not online.
• Antibodies • short story by Charles Stross. "Undercover agents wait for signs of computational power that can create rampant AI, then destroy it before it can expand and infect other timelines." -- Brian Davies. 3.5 stars, a little dated now but still a striking story. Stross would go on to write more stories in this vein, such as the scary "Missile Gap" novella (2005), https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.c...
• Savior • novella by Nancy Kress. "An egg-shaped pod from deep space lands in Northern Minnesota and waits inert through 300 years of human turmoil to complete its mission." In the meanwhile, human civ. collapses and rebounds. The Egg sends a message to its makers. Good story, enigmatic ending. 4 stars.
• Reef [The Quiet War] • short novelette by Paul J. McAuley. "A scientist in a team hired to explore a lost planetoid that housed a microbial experiment must fight to preserve the deadly reef organisms from elimination." VG story, 4 stars by memory. Not reread this time. Copy online: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/mcau...
• Going After Bobo • novelette by Susan Palwick. "A boy whose father committed suicide faces the loss of another family member when his older brother lets his cat out into the hostile wilderness of Nevada." Reprint: https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/palw... 3.5-ish stars.
• Crux • novella by Albert E. Cowdrey. "An operative is hired to crack a terrorist organization that plans to go back in time to avert a holocaust and thereby destroy the present world." Novel that includes this story may be checked out at https://archive.org/details/crux00cow...
(free account required) Very fast-moving story of an alt-future where Ulan Baator rules rhe world!
• The Suspect Genome • novella by Peter F. Hamilton. "An unethical real estate speculator's land grab is derailed by a psychic cop investigating the murder of a soap opera celebrity." DNF reread, & I'm guessing this was a DNF my first time, too. Not recommended.
• The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O • short story by Michael Swanwick. "A time-travelling gypsy and a 16th century lady on the run from her powerful husband sell dinosaurs to the Roman Coliseum to fight gladiators!" Whoa. 4.5 stars! Not online, but in other collxns.
• Obsidian Harvest • novella by Rick Cook and Ernest Hogan. 4.5 stars, by memory. Not online. Near-great story!
• A Colder War • novelette by Charles Stross. My original review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... What if the Chthulhu Mythos was real, and controlling a new Cold War? Bleak indeed, but well worth reading. 4.5 stars on reread. Copy online: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories...
• Snowball in Hell • novelette by Brian Stableford. Not online, not reread thi time.
• The Real World • [Silurian Tales] • novelette by Steven Utley. A vignette in Utley's long series of "Silurian Tales". A real time-traveler goes to a party in Hollywood! Not much happens, but the women! Gorgeous. Not interested in a time traveler! Not online
• The Great Goodbye • short story by Robert Charles Wilson. "A boy and his grandfather, one a stock human and the other engineered for space exploration, say farewell for good." Not reread, and not online.
• Tendeléo's Story, novella by Ian McDonald. "A teenage girl in Africa becomes a refugee, a smuggler, a singer and finally a soldier as a result of alien spores that are slowly transforming the Earth." Not reread, but I vaguely recall liking it.

OK. I'm done! Your turn?

[Cindy]

99-cent buy from Goodwill. Keeping track of the stories I've read:

1 - John Kessel "The Juniper Tree" 2/5
    Generations of feminist social & technological engineering on the moon with a horrifying murderous guilt twist. Fell flat for me.

*27 - Charles Stross "Antibodies" 4/5
    I find Stross's blog very amusing and well-written but had never read any of his fiction, despite him being a very prolific author. This story is one that starts out as a maybe-two-star and quickly turns into a 4 or 5 star rating as the earth begins to fall out from under the feet of our protagonists. The beginning will remind you that this was written in 2000, but the end is mind blowing and amusing. Too much talking, though.

42 - Ursula K LeGuin "The Birthday of the World" 3/5
    An alternative mythology story that's quite confusing to get into, mostly because the writing is obtuse. I like that God is a man and a woman joined, so you have God Himself and God Herself who are considered one, but have separate religious and ceremonial jobs.

*64 - Nancy Kress "Savior" 5/5
Novella-length first contact story. An alien egg object lands in northern Minnesota. Humanity's interactions with the egg and humanity's own foibles spans many generations. A story of destruction and construction. Love the sociology SF of Kress.

549 - M. Shayne Bell "The Thing About Benny" 4/5
    Entertaining riff in near future world where many plants are extinct and a young savant who hunts down lost specimens in old office buildings. Oh, and it's a clever Abba tribute.

*555 - Robert Charles Wilson "The Long Goodbye" 5/5
    A brisk 2.5 pages gives you two differentiated human species 350 years in the future, a grandfather and grandson, space exploration and a huge twist. Awesome! I love RCW.

[V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate an anthology - I think the average mark for the stories (see below for individual comments, written as I read them) would not be a four. But the collection works as a whole, in its diversity.

I need to remember, though, that this whole series is not a short story collection. It's mainly novellas, not even novelettes. Longer work that one should approach with different expectations.

*****

*throws her hands up* OK, I give up. I'm gonna review this one story by story as it goes. Since my head insists on having opinions on each story and wanting to write them down:

John Kessel: "The Juniper Tree"
-- I dunno, I really dunno. It may have worked better as a novel with more time to actually develop the characters. The society is too unexplored for me (and yeah, too much a male perspective).

Charles Stross: "Antibodies"
-- oh, nice idea. Very nice. As always, Charlie's characters do not sparkle to me, but the story works and they are believable. And of course: the idea! Less the twist at the end, which was good, but more the basic idea. Oh!

Ursula K. Le Guin: "The Birthday Of the World"
-- almost more fantasy than science fiction (because of the prophecy - this one break the sf/fantasy wall), but oh, the perfect point of view, the world, the voice. And all the little things: how God's children are inbred without it ever being explicitly addressed. How the perspective changes from a child's view to that of a growing up woman.

Nancy Kress: "Savior"
-- Neat. Not wow. But very neat.

Paul J. McAuley: "Reef"
-- Space opera. With an interesting main character and working supporting roles, with very neat biology ideas and an interesting society structure. If you like space opera, this is yours. (I miss something that I can't put the finger on, but this may be because it's space opera and space opera is usually not mine.)

Susan Palwick: "Going After Bobo"
-- if this were a story by someone who does not usually write science fiction but writes literary fiction, they would not have labelled this one as sf. The future elements are tiny - the story was written in 2000 and I'm pretty sure all the technology was (almost) available back then already.
I love literary and I like this story a lot, even though it's ends on a bit too positive a note with too many explanations. But it's quiet and sad and feels real.

Albert E. Cowdrey: "Crux"
-- Grah! Are we trying to be edgy? The usual time paradox story. With some more detailed torture, some more exotic location, some even younger whores, some even more stinky aliens. It's not that bad. It's just - come on, this story has been told so often! And with more impact.

Severna Park: "The Cure For Everything"
-- Dreamlike and just not what one would expect. Good, definitely good. (Also one of the shortest stories of the book, with 15 pages only. A true short story, why the others tend to be novella-like.)

Peter F. Hamilton: "The Suspect Genome"
-- Perhaps not a story I will remember in a few years time in detail, but a good strong one that pulls of three intersecting points of view and believable characters.

Michael Swanwick: "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-o"
-- Thinking a bit more about it: I actually liked this one. Very short compared to all the others, but with a punch and just with enough glimpses into a world to make it work. Definitely fantasy, though, not high fantasy, but fantasy (which is what threw me off first, because this and therefore the punchline of the story was not what I *expected* in this collection - but for a fantasy story it works just perfectly).

Lucius Shepard: "The Radiant Green Star"
-- I liked the imagery and I loved, in parts, the language and the atmosphere created. Yet - somehow this story was lacking a heart. Also to me the setting did not seem really integral and this is something I need in a SF story. Or at least in this SF story. I mean, not a bad story per se, but also not one that would make me want to pick up more by the authors.

Alastair Reynolds: "Great Wall of Mars"
-- I liked this one. Now this story serves to quite a few of my reading kinks, particularly the hive-mind, the cold strong woman, and complex politics, so I may be a wee bit biased. It's also not a perfect story, but oh, one that definitely makes me want to read more. Enough to want to pick up at least some of the books set in the universe.

Eliot Fintushel: "Milo and Sylvie"
-- Sturgeon is indeed a good comparison and I do like Sturgeon's work, though this one is slightly uneven ...

Brian Stableford: "Snowball In Hell"
-- A bit preachy, but in a nice way. Really nicely done in the science part, even if not perfect in the execution. And, surprisingly, quite positive in the outlook.

Stephen Baxter: "On the Orion Line"
-- I read this one in some other collection (the military sf one? most likely - argh, how I hate it right now that my library is on the other side of the Atlantic) and neither remember it well enough to comment on it (which says something given how I read the military sf collection just a year ago; also here in Boston) nor remember liking it well enough to re-read it.

Greg Egan: "Oracle"
-- And there I am, thinking that maybe my taste changes; maybe the science fiction short story is not the perfect genre for me anymore, since so many of the stories fail to elicit real enthusiasm. And here comes Egan and writes this - clever and philosophical and real (there is Turing and there is Lewis, but not really, and the characters feel so incredibly real, so human) and yes, very, very hard when it comes to science. There is Goedel's conjecture and there are four-dimensional velocity vectors and there are rotations in complex spaces. And there is love and tragedy and meta-commentary on our own history. Just: yes, more of this please.

Rick Coon and Ernest Hogan: "Obsidian Harvest"
-- Another really fun one. Not super deep, but a fun, engaging read. I'd enjoy more of these!

Tananarive Due: "Patient Zero"
-- Not exactly bad, but neither inventive (I'm sure I've read this story more than once - and this was the most boring POV to tell it from), not especially good written.

Charles Stross: "A Colder War"
-- Huh. Charlie Stross writes a Lovecraftian story and I love it. Huh. Stranger things have happened, certainly, but this does not make this one not strange (I love Stross's blog, but his books so far rather underwhelmed; I much more prefer Greg Egan).

Steven Utley: "The Real World"
-- And another one that I read before, but did not remember in too much detail. It had a nice atmosphere, though, and was very character-driven, something I usually like.

M. Shayne Bell: "The Thing About Benny"
-- Most of the stories in this collection are not short stories, but rather novelettes and even novellas. This one is a short story. And a really good one.

Robert Charles Wilson: "The Great Goodbye"
-- micro-story with a really nice twist to it. Yay! More of those, please!

Ian McDonald: "Tendeléo's Story"
-- This is a slow going one, meditative almost. But also strong, honest, brutal. Deeply human. Deeply political. Deeply hopeful. (Though I feel mixed about the POV choice/changes, just needed to add that.)

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most sf/f collections are made of mildly enjoyable but ultimately forgettable short stories. There are a few truly terrible stories in each, and even fewer truly good ones. I think the idea of short stories as The way to start getting noticed doesn't help (far too many people attempt a form they suck at), but the real problem seems to be editors who accept any old drek. The only editor whose anthologies I've 100% enjoyed thus far has been Sharyn November. Even John Joseph Adams and Ellen Datlow have included some memorable stinkers in this collections.

But short story collections can give you fun-sized portions of stories, a tasting menu of various authors I've never heard of or never tried before, so I keep picking them up. To my pleasure, this is one of the best collections I've read in a while--nothing awful, and only a few stories too boring to read all the way through. The default in sf seems to be straight white American cis-dudes, so it was a pleasure to read so many stories with non-white, non-American, even non-dude protagonists. Set in alien-invaded-Nairobi, in nano-fueled-China, in a Vietnamese circus, on matriarchial-Mars, these are not your standard cookie-cutter settings and characters. And what a pleasure it was to read about them!

My favorite story in the collection was probably "Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald. Tendeleo Bi is a fantastic main character, strong, smart, devoted but with believable moments of childish self absorption, unapologetic and fierce. Her quest, first to save her village from the encroaching alien spores, then to create another home, kept me flipping through the pages. I was reading so fast I almost missed a major plot point!
Susan Palwick's "Going After Bobo" is as poignant a portrait of a kid's search for his cat as any story I had to read in English class. Palwick gives us the story in bits and pieces, only revealing a snippet at a time, and it worked beautifully. Less sf than I expected, but well-told.
Another favorite was "Obsidian Harvest" by Rick Cook and Ernest Hogan. Basically a classic private-eye story, but told in an alternate version of MesoAmerica where huetlacoatls live alongside humans. Our narrator, Tworabbit, aka Lucky, has been cast out of his noble family for some heinous crime, and now makes a living as a thug and investigator for a local crime boss. I hope this idea gets turned into something longer because I was intrigued by the world and the characters.

I liked the basic premises behind "Antibodies" by Charles Stross and Greg Egan's "Oracle," but the punch of it got lost. If they were half as long, they'd be twice as good.

Paul McAuley's "Reef" is written well, but kinda pointless. I liked the main character (a woman without genetic mods but with a sense of fair play) and the world where citizenship must be earned or bought, but there wasn't much to the plot.

Albert Cowdrey's "Crux" would have been one of my favorites except for the ending, which rather ruined the bittersweet concept of trying to prevent a cataclysm but thereby erase the present.

I wanted to like Steven Utley's "The Real World," in which a robot from the future comes back to prevent Alan Turing's persecution and help him accelerate the pace of scientific progress. Weirdly enough, the story gets bogged down in a vilification of C.S.Lewis and Christianity in general.

M. Shayne Bell's "The Thing About Benny" and Robert Charles Wilson's "The Long Goodbye" are both exactly long enough for the cute, classic twists on stories that they tell.

Ursula K Le Guin's "The Birthday of the World" and Nancy Kress's "Savior" were both great, but I'd read each of them too many times before.

Others were just too long, not well-written, or had a forgettable premise. I found these to be: Peter Hamilton's "The Suspect Genome," in which an unscrupulous businessman is framed for one murder after committing another; Lucius Shepard's "Radiant Green Star," which is an unending tale of a boy growing up in a Vietnamese circus while training to avenge his family's death; propaganda for the Singularity in Alastair Reynold's "Great Wall of Mars"; the saccharine "Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due; the just plain boring "A Colder War" by Charles Stross; and the hardly intelligible "Milo and Sylvie" by Eliot Fintshel.

Overall, fewer paragraphs of infodumps and technobabble explanations (although still far too many for my tastes) and more characterization than I'm used to getting from sf. 2000 was a pretty good year for the genre, apparently!

[Timons Esaias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, so I'm only 16 years behind on this one. I buy the Dozois Best SF anthologies (as I did the Hartwell anthologies) every year, but in the first decade of this century I didn't get to reading them very often. As a result, a random half-dozen are still piled in my to-be-read assembly area.

The good thing about these collections, though, is that they tend to bear up well over time. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, especially the last third of the collection. (I will note, however, that it's a six-grimace anthology. Hmmm.)

The reliable Michael Swanwick has a fun story in here, but it's Fantasy, not SF. Eliot Fintushel's "Milo and Sylvie" caught my fancy, with its imagination and memorable dialogue. "Obsidian Harvest" by Rick Cook & Ernest Hogan is a noir detective story set in an alternate history where the Aztecs still rule, but there are dinosaurs in South America. Including intelligent ones.

Charles Stross has two stories here, and the second one, "A Colder War", is a riot of 1980's politics mashed up with H.P. Lovecraft. That story is out of control.

I quite liked Tananarive Due's "Patient Zero". It's a heartbreaking account of the end of humanity, told via the journal of one of the early victims. There's a very tight little gem of a story by M. Shayne Bell ("The Thing about Benny") which I would suggest to teachers as a fine example of how to tell a big story (climate change and ecological collapse) by following one person doing a job created by that situation. One could also teach Robert Charles Wilson's flash fiction "The Great Goodbye", though it might come off as a mere gimmick piece. What I admired was the compression of a historical Singularity into the lives of a grandfather and grandson. It was emotionally engaging before the ending, and in a flash that's a nice trick.

The last piece in the book is a novella from Ian McDonald's Chaga universe, which is enthralling and emotionally powerful. I'm struggling with Luna right now (though it has its moments), and it was nice to be reminded of why McDonald is on my "buy everything" list.

The disappointment for me was the Alastair Reynolds story. It seemed to have a plot/logic hole in it big enough to shoot a thousand rockets through. But that's always the risk with science fiction.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long and tedious anthology book-ended by Dozios' self-indulgence. Most of the stories and novellas are completely forgettable. The only story that stuck in my mind after all these years (I read it about 2006) was about Bobo the doomed cat. Skip this anthology and go for the sixth annual collection (1988.)

Selections:

* "Summation: 2000" by Our Editor.
* "The Juniper Tree" by John Kessel.
* "Antibodies" by Charles Stross.
* "The Birthday of the World" by Ursula K. LeGuin.
* "Savior" by Nancy Kress.
* "Reef" by Paul J. McAuley.
* "Going After Bobo" by Susan Palwick.
* "Crux" by Albert E. Cowdry.
* "The Cure for Everything" by Severna Park.
* "The Suspect Genome" by Peter F. Hamilton.
* "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O" by Michael Swanick.
* "Radiant Green Star" by Lucius Shepherd.
* "Great Wall of Mars" by Alastair Reynolds.
* "Milo and Sylvie" by Eliot Fintushel.
* "Snowball in Hell" by Brian Stableford.
* "On the Orion Line" by Stephen Baxter.
* "Oracle" by Greg Egan.
* "Obsidian Harvest" by Rick Cook & Ernest Hogan.
* "Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due.
* "A Colder War" by Charles Stross.
* "The Real World" by Stephen Utley.
* "The Thing About Benny" by M. Shayne Bell.
* "The Great Goodbye" by Robert Charles Wilson.
* "Tendeleo's Story" by Ian McDonald.
* "Honorable Mentions: 2000" by Our Editor.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

every single one of these collections is essential reading for true fans of science fiction short stories... each lengthy volume has a stellar array of all mini-genres and areas of powerfully influential science fiction: hard science, speculative, steampunk, alien invasions, apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic, space opera, fantasy, aliens, monsters, horror-ish, space travel, time travel, eco-science, evolutionary, pre-historic, parallel universes, extraterrestrials... in each successive volume in the series the tales have advanced and grown in imagination and detail with our ability to envision greater concepts and possibilities... Rod Serling said, "...fantasy is the impossible made probable. science fiction is the improbable made possible..." and in the pages of these books is the absolute best the vastness of science fiction writing has to offer... sit back, relax, and dream...

[Patrick McNamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thrilled to have found this anthology, and to know that there are 34 more editions to delve into (not to mention the "Best of the Best" series that Gardner Dozois also curated). I read 15 out of 23 stories in this book, equating to 270 pages. After a certain point I lost the desire to commit to the multiple 50+ page stories.

My journey originally started by trying to find a print version of "A Colder War" by Charles Stross, not realizing that I could find it online. I am beyond happy to have stumbled across this treasure trove of sci-fi instead.

It's surprising how differently every story impacted me. It's also surprising how negative of an impact some stories had on me in a collection of the "best" of the year 2000. I think that's a good thing though, and it's a testament to how much variation there is here. There's something for everybody!

Before I review each story, I want to say that as a whole, I strongly recommend that any reader pick this up. If you like sci-fi, there's plenty here for you. If you like fantasy, I'd suggest reading “Obsidian Harvest," it's novella-length. Even non-fans of either genre can find some grounded gems like "Going After Bobo." The blurbs before each story can also point you towards each author's other work in different genres.

Here are my reviews for each story I read:

“Antibodies” by Charles Stross — 4/5
Lot of dense techno speak, which is a bit dated but still cool. Also a cool concept and an interesting take on AI.

"The Birthday of the World" Ursula K. Le Guin — 2/5
This story was not my cup of tea, not sure why. I would give it a 1/5 but I respect the amount of characters and locations that the author juggled. This also didn't really feel like sci-fi either, at least what I'd expect when I think of the genre. No real exploration of technology or science.

“Savior” by Nancy Kress — 5/5
Beautiful story with many vastly different characters, all incredibly interesting. Tied with "Going After Bobo" for my favorite story of the anthology. Definite page-turner.

"Reef" by Paul J. McAuley — 4/5
Dense, hard sci-fi. What I was expecting from this anthology. The whole second half was exhilarating.

"Going After Bobo" by Susan Palwick — 5/5
Man, this one was incredible. It gripped me from the very beginning. Beautifully written, excellent execution, and superb timing of the delivery of important details. Very light on the sci-fi too, but that didn't detract from the narrative at all. I listened to "Best of Joachim Heinrich | Beautiful Ambient Mix" on YouTube while I read and it really suited the story.

"The Cure for Everything" by Severna Park — 3/5
Kind of a weird ending, but the premise was awesome. Never thought that a sci-fi story could revolve around genetics, but I'm now learning that it's quite common (even “Snowball in Hell” in this very anthology is rooted in genetics).

“The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O” by Michael Swanwick — 2/5
More fantasy than sci-fi, really. Had to dock a point for dated language. I don’t think I’d recommend this one.

“Snowball in Hell” by Brian Stableford — 4/5
Really cool hard sci-fi concept, but it was almost entirely made up of conversations. The first half was really cool but it wasn’t too interesting after that. I still think it deserves a 4/5 though.

“On the Orion Line” by Stephen Baxter — 3/5
I couldn’t fully get into this one for some reason, but although I wasn’t gripped the whole time, there was some cool hard sci-fi and combat in here. Plot wasn’t bad. I also liked the philosophy in here and the world building of humanity in the far future. With that said, I would recommend some of the other stories in the anthology before this one.

“Obsidian Harvest” by Rick Cook & Ernest Hogan — 4/5
Another story that didn’t feel like sci-fi at all. The editor of the anthology said it was “alternate history,” but I’m not really buying that. Presented itself much more like fantasy with hints of 20th century technology. Still a cool mystery and very interesting world-building around Mexican mythological archetypes. Definitely felt unique.

“Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due — 5/5
I’m surprised more people haven’t mentioned this story. Bit of a slow start, but what a page turner it becomes when it picks up. Excellent natural exposition about the state of the world outside of where the main character is. Great writing from the chosen POV of a child. I’d recommend this story to anyone.

"A Colder War" by Charles Stross — 5/5
I love me some Lovecraft, and that mythos was integrated beautifully in this story. I only picked this collection up because of this entry. Definitely denser than I expected, and I was surprised with where the story went.

“The Real World” by Steven Utley — 3/5
Not very gripping, though when they were actually doing the sci-fi thing (time travel) it was cool. I don’t know, I just didn’t love it. Plus there was so much talk about barely covered breasts at a party that it came off as kind of cringe. I read this one last and I wish I left the super short "The Great Goodbye" as the final treat.

“The Thing About Benny” by M. Shayne Bell — 4/5
Fun character study, and a very simple and straightforward premise. Short too which was nice.

“The Great Goodbye” by Robert Charles Wilson — 5/5
2.5 pages long, with a lot packed into it. Big-time speculative piece of the far future, and I thought it was also a great contemplation of what current humans are like in comparison to what we could become.

[Amy Peavy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last story in the book was called: Tendeléo's Story, by Ian McDonald. It was dark, but written in such a soothing tone. I am left with the sense of wonder I was missing in many other stories in the collection. I found many of the stories too scientific or mathematical for my taste. All of the stories were well written, but that doesn't mean I had to enjoy them all.

[Ogden Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 2001. The only stories that were memorable to me were The Juniper Tree by John Kessel, which takes place on the moon and is about a world with different gender rules, etc. The Radiant Green Star by Lucious Shepard, which is about a traveling circus in Vietnam. And Tendeleo's Story by Ian McDonald, which is about an alien unmanned craft that lands on earth and changes it with billions of tiny nano-machines.

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usual thing, some very good some not so much ,only one that i didn't bother to finish.
Overall a worthwhile read.

[PauL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in Italian so maybe is not the #18.

[Owen Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

a vey high quality and uniform collection of works - Gardners usual standard : )

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites: 'The Juniper Tree', 'Milo and Sylvie', 'The Colder War'.

[Maryanne]

The Years Best Science Fiction 18th annual collection
edited Gardner Dozois


The Juniper Tree - Jack Balden daughter Rosalind emigrate to society of Cousins 2085 on far side of moon. Jack plants juniper trees, Rosalind is kid friend Corey. Jack kills corey whose mom is Eva Jacks lover. Rosalind covers for him. Eva recreates Corey. Jack kills himself.

Antibodies - Aliens on earth messing with this timeline goes bad, antibodies destroy interrogators and they leave this earth.

The Birthday of the World - God kingdom falls. Ruaway saves them. Aliens become God. Ze and Tazu marry no kids (sister and brother match)

Savior - space object waits centuries. Wei Wu Wei's A.I. disappears after "I understand, Good bye".Object sends unknown radiation to constellation Cassiopera.

Reef - Reef on asteroid. Margaret goes in. Spores get expelled to space. Yay! Kuipers Belt.

Going After Bobo - Lost cat on mountain brings family together. Sad!

Crux - Future dark complex and boring.

The Cure for Everything - Indians in Amazon being made to move out. Maria wants to help integrate them. He leaves with her.

The Suspect Genome - Lar pick - Developer kills hippy old man then is accused of killing another man. Kid killer hide in boot of sister's car as she goes to soon to be brother-in-law black mailer


The Raggle Tggle Gypsy-o - Lar pick- Motorcycle highway of time travel.

Radiant Green Star - Kid lives with cirus Vietnam, uncle Vang really grandfather. Loves Tan. Kills father and marries Tan and is rich.

Great Wall of Mars - Nevil and brother Warren. Nevil goes to co-joiners to make peace. Borgish! Galiana helps him and he is transenlightenment. Nano machines in brain.

Milo and Sylvie - Shape shifter but doesn't know it. Milo is helped by Dr. Devore and Sylvie to understand his condition.

Snow ball in Hell - Pigs that are human!! Bio-engineering.

On the Orion Line - Kid on war ship that gets hit and is the only one to survive, but choose to go back to war (family).

Oracle - Robert Stoney (gay) tortured by M5 in tiger cage in a basement somewhere. Rescued by android woman timeline changer Helen. Robert does inventions. Helen leaves for a ne timeline. Jack won't believe it isn't Satan.

Obsidian Harvest - Uncle Tlaloc (Tzin) mayan stuff. Huetlacoatl races. Toltectecuhtli idiot hi-priest? puts Huetlacoatl eggs in human people tied to tables to co-join the two species. Disinfects with Tequila. Luck = Two Rabbits tells the story.

Patient Zero - Kid in isolation survived disease from dad. Dr. Ben takes care of him. Everyone is dying. Veronic a nice nurs get needle stick and dies. Ms. Mauigut from hjaiti turors him. Tells him how to find food and what is good to eat. She gets sick and gives him code to his room door. Then does not return. He leaves.

A Colder War - Project Koschei from WWII - big secret - alien machines can destroy things found in time rift. in Ukraine. Roger afraid of nuclear war and it comes because the Russians are using thing from fift that eat entire villages in Afghanistan. He ends up in rift waiting until earth is ok again.

The Real World - Ivan pedologist soil studier goes through time rift to the Palezoic and Silurian seas. Brother Don writer movie, and Michelle Ivan's niece.

The Thing About Benny - Benny is a weirdo who knows plants and searches for plants extinct in the wild that people have in pots. He listens only to Abba. He names a plant after Abba's Agnetha who is dead.

The Great Goodbye - Kid and new human gramp go to museum then later sees gramps off on interstellar flight only new humans go.

Tendeleo's Story - Set in Kenya. Ten is a kid and the Chaga is taking over the southern hemisphere. Lives with mom, dad and sister Little Egg. Crush of people fleeing the 50M a day advance of the Chaga and its new plops. She escapes by blackmailing and getting a UN chip. Goes to England falls in love with Sean. Get hurt and heals real fast. Sent back to Africa. Sean finds her by luck and the chip. They go and live in the Chaga.

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading the previous installment of The Mammoth Book of Science Fiction, I was frankly a little hesitant to start on this one.

The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 13, which features stories that were selected in 1999, was disappointing. Many big names in the SF world featured, but their output was lacking in a large variety of ways. Does Mr Dozois add these stories to his anthologies because of their author's fame or does he actually make decisions based on the stories quality..It really made me wonder...

But, I had already bought a copy of The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 14 (2000) on a previous shopping spree so it was dutifully sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read. That and the amazing cover of the book (I love those even though they have really nothing to do with any of the content) made me start reading again.

So far, only one disappointing entry by Ursula Le Guin but both Charles Stross and Nancy Kress come with all guns blazing as they enter the realms of Mammoth SF 14.

Just finished 'The Reef' by Gardner R. Dozois and 'Going After Bobo' by Susan Palwick. 'The Reef' is disappointing as it misses the whole point of being a short story. The narrative takes forever to explain the origin and evolution of the reef and then seems to hurry towards a half-hearted space-race and conclusion. Sorry, but not impressed with that one.

'Going after Bobo' however is a sensitive and well-written yarn. I wouldn't really classify it as Science Fiction though, although perhaps the concept of a GPS tracker on an animal was quite foreign in 2000. Now, in 2017 it seems just an 'every-day' kind of thing. Definitely worth a read though.

So far this anthology has me wanting more....

The stories further on in the book are again hit and miss I'm afraid. I might give this series of books a rest for awhile as I simply haven't got the time to read through pages and pages only to discover that I don't really like the story after all.

[Jp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardner Dozois is the Babe Ruth of SF editors. A friendly discussion would no doubt mention John Campbell and some of the early 20th century pulps, and we could both agree that steak today is fish tomorrow. Dozois's eye is unparalleled. If there is a good story to found in the English language, I'm convinced Dozois has sampled it or published it. His batting average is king in my book. The cherry on top is that his editing and published anthologies have no discernible style other than that the stories are SF and usually good (and as varied as possible which I appreciate). Don't get me wrong, Gardner Dozois DOES have bad anthologies and collections, but I'm convinced it's the same principle as a wine year. His taste and judgement has soured me on other anthologies and I have to force myself to read others (of which there are many). I would stack his anthologies up against the Hugo and Nebula award winners any day of the week, .... heck year! Anyway, these anthologies ('The Year's Best Science Fiction') are right up there.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best in the series, with my favorite Charles Stross story, "A Colder War", and one of my favorite Lucius Shepard stories, "Radiant Green Star". I hadn't read much (any?) of either of these authors at this point and afterwards, made it a point to browse their back catalog. This collection includes other great stories by LeGuin, Albert E Cowdrey, Baxter, Egan, Rick Cook & Ernest Hogan, and Ian McDonald. The Nancy Kress and Egan stories were among the favorites for both authors.

This was one of the few collections whose cover I still recall.

[John Devlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read one sci-fi book a year, this is the one. Always stories of high caliber with a few tossed in that will keep you thinking weeks later, not to mention the collection is a primer for what science and technology everyone will be talking about five to ten years from now.

[Ralph · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I learned most from this book is that "year's best" books can be terribly boring. To be fair, not all the stories were bad, there were some I thought were fantastic, just not enough to rate it higher. I read to be entertained, not to bored, and reading this book was a chore.

[Kevin Groosalugg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it's my mindset, but this wasn't as good as the others I've read. It had some really good stories: Patient Zero, Great Wall of Mars, and the final one by Iam MacDonald, but overall most seemeed like filler to me.

[Dean Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

these stories are not hot and cold; they are warm and cold. The cold are really cold. too bad. Some i would not even mention in a science fiction compilation. The best? Really? There must be some very bad stuff out there —

[Monica Madaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly liked the stories with a biology emphasis. I liked M. Shayne Bell's "The Thing About Benny," and Sverna Park's "The Cure for Everything," thought they're both a bit to glibly dystopian.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievable. It's not that every single story is a 5, but most are good to great. Some truly creative stories in this series.

[Shapostrozny]

a couple good short stories/some bad.

[Kevin Gallan]

27/617

[Avel Rudenko · Rating 3 out of 5]

About Bobo the cat. Bland story, great SS for passing time. Sadly, Bobo disappears.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth the time it took.

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

wasn't able to finish this one...had to return.