The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois (Editor)

Contents
13 • Introduction: Summation: 1985 • essay by Gardner Dozois
27 • The Jaguar Hunter • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
50 • Dogfight • (1985) • novelette by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson
69 • Fermi and Frost • (1985) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
84 • Green Days in Brunei • (1985) • novella by Bruce Sterling
129 • Snow • (1985) • shortstory by John Crowley
144 • The Fringe • [The Mormon Sea] • (1985) • novelette by Orson Scott Card
166 • The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things • (1985) • shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
178 • Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg
232 • Solstice • (1985) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly
265 • Duke Pasquale's Ring • [Doctor Eszterhazy] • (1985) • novella by Avram Davidson
304 • More Than the Sum of His Parts • (1985) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman
320 • Out of All Them Bright Stars • (1985) • shortstory by Nancy Kress
327 • Side Effects • (1985) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams
355 • The Only Neat Thing to Do • [Rift] • (1985) • novella by James Tiptree, Jr.
402 • Dinner in Audoghast • (1985) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling
414 • Under Siege • (1985) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
441 • Flying Saucer Rock & Roll • (1985) • novelette by Howard Waldrop
459 • A Spanish Lesson • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
486 • Roadside Rescue • (1985) • shortstory by Pat Cadigan
494 • Paper Dragons • (1985) • novelette by James P. Blaylock
510 • Magazine Section • (1985) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
522 • The War at Home • (1985) • shortstory by Lewis Shiner
526 • Rockabye Baby • (1985) • novelette by S. C. Sykes
551 • Green Mars • (1985) • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson
620 • Honorable Mentions: 1985 • essay by Gardner Dozois

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

624 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1986

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

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the most consistently strong of the first three collections I’ve read. Standouts were Lucius Shepard’s beautifully poetic “The Jaguar Hunter"; Frederik Pohl’s hauntingly allegorical “Fermi and Frost"; Robert Silverberg’s imaginatively elegiac “Sailing to Byzantium"; Nancy Kress’s quietly moving “Out of All Them Bright Stars"; James Tiptree, Jr.’s invigoratingly adventurous “The Only Neat Thing to Do"; and Kim Stanley Robinson’s seductively meditative “Green Mars." But there were plenty of others that were evocative, entertaining, enlightening, and inspiring.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

TOC and story summaries:
http://bestsf.net/the-years-best-scie...
https://web.archive.org/web/200411280...

It's amazing how many of these stories I remember clearly thirty years on. Just for fun, I'll essay a review based purely on memory and the story summaries linked above. You will note the high number of award winners and nominees in my list. Collection is 4.5/5 for reprinting these great stories, and more just a bit below (in memory).

Highlights:
Dogfight by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson * Nebula Novelette Nominee, Hugo Novelette Nominee. Holographic video games! Amazingly good story. 4.5/5, reread many times (altho not recently).

Fermi And Frost by Frederik Pohl * Hugo Short Story Winner. Nuclear war begins. A scientist and a little boy escape to Iceland. 5/5 in memory, many rereads.

Green Days In Brunei by Bruce Sterling * Nebula Novella Nominee. One of my favorite early Sterlings. A great story, easy 5/5, many rereads.

The Fringe by Orson Scott Card * Nebula Novelette Nominee, Hugo Novelette Nominee. A crippled teacher in post-apocalypse Utah, back when Card was writing really, really well. 4/5

Sailing To Byzantium by Robert Silverberg * Nebula Novella Winner, Hugo Novella Nominee. Classic Silverbob, 4/5

More Than The Sum Of His Parts by Joe Haldeman * Nebula Short Story Nominee. A cyborg gets "certain organs which do not normally feature in Science Fiction." Rough sex ensues. "Man of steel, Woman of kleenex." Ick. 3.7/5 stars

Side Effects by Walter Jon Williams. Black humor in medical trials gone wrong. 4.5/5, and I need to reread this one again.

Dinner In Audoghast by Bruce Sterling * Hugo Short Story Nominee. A truly remarkable dinner party in North Africa, circa 1000 AD. Remarkable historical fiction. 5/5 stars, many rereads. One of Sterling's very best stories.

Roadside Rescue by Pat Cadigan. A remarkably creepy alien-encounter story, one of her best. 4.5/5

OK, by this point I've pulled out my copy, and can confirm no obvious clunkers. Obviously a very good year for short SF! I wonder if this is the very best book of the series?

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

***** Introduction: Summation: 1985 • essay by Gardner Dozois
**** The Jaguar Hunter • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
**** Dogfight • (1985) • novelette by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson
*** Fermi and Frost • (1985) • short story by Frederik Pohl
***** Green Days in Brunei • (1985) • novella by Bruce Sterling
***** Snow • (1985) • short story by John Crowley
**** The Fringe • [The Mormon Sea] • (1985) • novelette by Orson Scott Card
*** The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things • (1985) • short story by Karen Joy Fowler
**** Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg
*** Solstice • (1985) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly
*** Duke Pasquale's Ring • [Doctor Eszterhazy] • (1985) • novella by Avram Davidson
*** More Than the Sum of His Parts • (1985) • short story by Joe Haldeman
*** Out of All Them Bright Stars • (1985) • short story by Nancy Kress
**** Side Effects • (1985) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams
***** The Only Neat Thing to Do • [Rift] • (1985) • novella by James Tiptree, Jr.
**** Dinner in Audoghast • (1985) • short story by Bruce Sterling
*** Under Siege • (1985) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
**** Flying Saucer Rock & Roll • (1985) • novelette by Howard Waldrop
*** A Spanish Lesson • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard
***** Roadside Rescue • (1985) • short story by Pat Cadigan
*** Paper Dragons • [Land of Dreams] • (1985) • novelette by James P. Blaylock
** Magazine Section • (1985) • short story by R. A. Lafferty
*** The War at Home • (1985) • short story by Lewis Shiner
**** Rockabye Baby • (1985) • novelette by S. C. Sykes
**** Green Mars • (1985) • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson

“The Jaguar Hunter,” Lucius Shepard — In contrast to a lot of his previously published work, which used the same steamy South American settings but were typically science fiction about the future of war, this is a fantasy story about an indigenous man forced to hunt a jaguar to placate his newly shrewish wife and a local entrepreneur. What it shares with his other stories is the great details of place—Shepard had a way of capturing foreign milieus and making them feel alive. The plot is also very nice here, with the motivations of the protagonist, his wife, the businessman, and the businessman’s son a perfect storm for driving the story to its inevitable conclusion. Recommended.

“Dogfight,” Michael Swanwick and William Gibson — A classic cyberpunk story. A two-bit thief is run out of Washington, DC for his habitual shoplifting and finds himself on a bus headed south. Before he gets too far, he discovers a gambling sub-culture in a remote Virginia town that draws his attention like a moth to a flame. The classic cyberpunk elements are here: repurposed electronic hardware, drug usage, theft, and characters that you wouldn’t want to be friends with. The protagonist is an addict, and his victory is also his comeuppance, for, like most addicts, he’s blinded by what’s truly important to his life by what he’s addicted to.

“Fermi and Frost,” Frederik Pohl — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Green Days in Brunei,” Bruce Sterling — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Snow,” John Crowley — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“The Fringe,” Orson Scott Card — Card is a problematic writer for me. As a craftsman, he’s one off the best, but I find his plots and some of the motivations behind them troublesome. In some ways, he would be easier to take as a horror writer, for he’s excellent at scenes of cruelty and torture. But he is an SF writer, and what he uses those scenes for are not just to examine fear, but to question the future and what humans are capable of. This story feels a bit like an apocalyptic version off a Flannery O’Conner tale, one that puts a small town to the test. But, as in hiss Ender’s Game, the story revolves around the cruelty of children. Here that occurs without thee guidance and tacit approval of adults, and t he children in this situation are much closer to being adults—two of the young boys take the place of their fathers in the field after their fathers leave. To me, that makes a huge difference in the story and how the moral and ethical questions raised are perceived.

“The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things,” Karen Joy Fowler — Another story about memories, but this is one where the memories are haunting enough that the person feels guilty. The SF premise is that psychoanalysis has developed a method by which you can interact with those past memories such that they feel real. I liked the writing, but the plot itself broke down a bit for me—I had trouble believing in the psychotherapist and the technique, especially after she allowed the protagonist to repeat the experience the second, then the third time. This is a story about the Vietnam War, and while I understood the issues being addressed, it felt more apropos for those who lived during that time and had those experiences.

“Sailing to Byzantium,” Robert Silverberg — The pleasure of re-reading stories that one first read decades ago is that you come to them with new experience and a different perspective. When I read this tale of Silverberg’s in my 20s, I likely thought it an elaborate update of Michael Moorcock’s manic Dancers at the End of Time: a depiction of a far future where people can have anything they want, and so to pass the time they recreate ancient cities and import ancient people to interact with. But in my fifth decade of life, I’ve come to realize that what Silverberg was actually focused on wasn’t the endless possibilities of this future, but what essential immortality might mean for those of us who might have to consider shifting from these earthly bodies to something more constructed. In some ways, this is a cyberpunk story: what is the use of technology for but to extend one’s reach in the world? The other thing I can admire now about this story is how many details Silverberg is able to recast from the past, how knowledgeable (likely through hard-won research) he could be for the sake of creating this future that recreates the past. Recommended, for the older reader.

“Solstice,” James Patrick Kelly — Ostensibly about Stonehenge, this is really a drug story. As a non-user, I can’t say I cared for it that much. It’s not that the story tries to make drugs interesting or fascinating, although some might take it that way with its depiction of a future filled with designer drugs and artists that create them. The problem for me is the self-centered nature of the protagonist—a flaw that Kelly intends you to capture, and he does well in capturing it, but I just don’t care for him or his problems or the story itself. The connection with Stonehenge feels grafted on to lead up to the ending, with the protagonist running away from his problems once again. It’s well done; Kelly creates the milieu perfectly. I just didn’t like it, and after reading, felt that I needed to get cleansed.

“Duke Pasquale’s Ring,” Avram Davidson — I’m sure when I read this originally I did not care for it, as I preferred fiction at the time that was more straightforward. The Doctor Eszterhazy stories are anything but; my term for them would be “arch.” They are mannered fantasies of an ornate style that takes some getting used to, and are not for those who read fast, as the sentences require a fair amount of puzzling about them to fully comprehend what the author is saying. Other SF authors can come close to this style: Mervyn Peake, of course, and R. A. Lafferty, and Gene Wolfe when he wanted to. That said, I’ve grown in my reading to be able to appreciate the arch style, perhaps not enough to affect it in my own writing, although the temptation is sure to be there, as you can see from this summary. Mildly recommended.

“More Than the Sum of His Parts,” Joe Haldeman — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Out of All Them Bright Stars,” Nancy Kress — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“Side Effects,” Walter Jon Williams — Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

“The Only Neat Thing to Do,” James Tiptree, Jr. — This story has some similarities with the famous SF short, “The Cold Equations,” in that it involves a hitchhiker and an extremely tough decision. The story starts out all happy and light, made even more so by Tiptree telling the story using present tense instead of past. Coati Cass is a rich young woman with dreams of exploring the stars, a real Heinleinesque hero, all self-sufficient and wonderment. And she does extremely well in her plans, getting herself out to a far FedBase, refueled and supplied, and off on adventure. And that’s when she picks up the hitchhiker and things get a bit more serious. This story is what science fiction was meant for—it portrays both the excitement and danger of such an unlimited frontier full of surprises, and then it stays true to itself in evaluating what such things cost. Highly recommended, on my list of the best SF short stories written.

“Dinner in Audoghast,” Bruce Sterling — A narrative version of the Shelley poem Ozymandias in which the fantasy element is a fortune teller who let’s the group of four hedonists in on what’s likely to happen to them in the future. I actually like this story quite a bit for its color and its character insight, even if you kind of know from the beginning what the tale is going to be about (the epigram that starts the story gives that away).

“Under Siege,” George R. R. Martin — A decent story about a group of time travelers from a dystopic/apocalyptic future attempting to change the past by projecting their consciousness, with included knowledge, into people who might be able to affect decisions, in this case, a particular Finnish standoff with the Russians. Didn’t know the history, so I had to rely on Martin’s in-text explanation, which was fine, but as with any alternate history, a bit of a challenge for the reader. That said, I liked the description of how the technology might lead those in the past to think they were going insane: at one point, the character described it by comparing his experience to that of Joan of Arc. The ending was a bit of a surprise, but only a bit, and the denouement a bit pat.

“Flying Saucer Rock & Roll,” Howard Waldrop — The fantastic element is a bit of an “abbess phone home”—that is, take away the flying saucer and the story would be relatively unchanged. And that’s the reason I don’t rate this higher. What’s left is great, and Waldrop does a masterful job of capturing doo-wop music in print—not an easy thing to do—as well as elements of kid gangs and crazy contests. I just wanted the science fiction to mean something for the whole story rather than just a means to the ending.

“A Spanish Lesson,” Lucius Shepard — An interesting science fiction tale from Shepard, who was extremely good at setting his stories in exotic, unlikely places, typically those interstitial areas where newcomers/tourists must interact with local/natives. In this case, it’s two-fold. The protagonist is a wannabe hipster who’s much younger than the crowd he’s trying to emulate, but then the twins move in who are even lower in esteem than him. In a fit of pique, he blows off the in-crowd and takes the side of the twins, and that starts a very weird relationships and revelation that truly does not go where you think it will. I’m unsure of his world-building and what it all means, and didn’t really feel invested in the story, however.

“Roadside Rescue,” Pat Cadigan — This is a seriously wicked story and I wish I had written it. A person awaiting roadside service has a good samaritan in a limo pull up and the driver offers to fix the car if the other driver will simply say a few words for his alien employer. Oh, such a simple premise, but what Cadigan does with it is a beauty. This was reprinted in Ellen Datlow’s Alien Sex anthology, so that gives you a bit of a clue as to what’s up, but it certainly doesn’t go where you think it’s going, and that’s what makes it work so well. Highly recommended.

“Paper Dragons,” James P. Blaylock — The style of this story is so different than most other stories of its time and totally different than my own, that I found the experience of reading it strange. For one, it doesn’t really have scenes—that is, there’s no give-and-take dialogue or actions. Everything is filtered through the point of view of the narrator who tends to be a bit impressionistic. The language recalls the more lurid prose of the pulp era—writers like Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith—although the story itself is the kind of small, slice of life thing that Blaylock excels at. What does it mean? The title gives you a clue, I think, that our ideas and hopes are just as elusive as paper dragons that are as flimsy as they are grand.

“Magazine Section,” R.A. Lafferty — Another tall tale from Lafferty, who specialized in these. They’re well done, but simply don’t appeal to me as I keep expecting something more from them, some insight or surprise, rather than exaggeration.

“The War at Home,” Lewis Shiner — A flash fiction fantasy fueled by the guilt surrounding the Vietnam war and what people did or didn’t do in it. It’s evocative, but plot-wise, I’m not sure I follow it, other than a shared delusion (arguably, shared guilt?) that leads to a total dissolution of society. Interesting, but not recommended.

“Rockabye Baby,” S.C. Sykes — It’s a well-done story with an interesting premise. Cody breaks his neck in a car accident, learns to live as a quadriplegic, then discovers a research program that can regenerate nerves, but at a price: the regeneration regresses your mind back to being a baby, so you lose all of your memories. Unfortunately, the ending didn’t complete the story for me as it was too open-ended. I see why Sykes chose that ending, but I felt unsatisfied with it.

“Green Mars,” Kim Stanley Robinson — This is the novella that started Robinson’s Mars work, and it’s a great start. The lead character is a former politician for the Reds, who wanted to keep the planet as Terrans found it, rather than terraforming the hell out of it. He, of course, was on the losing side in that battle, and steps down after 30 years in government. He joins a climbing expedition up Olympus Mons and Robinson gets to show us that he’s quite familiar with mountain climbing as the expedition works its way up a mountain that’s three times the height of Everest. The characters are well-drawn and unique, the adventure is realistic and reasonable, and the transformation of the character is believable in context. Solid work.

[Nathan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

As is the usual with anthologies like these, the quality can be hot or miss, though with this particular collection, there's an ample amount of names that are synonymous with good to great quality SFF fare-- Silverberg, Crowley, Lafferty, Pohl, Shepherd, Kress, Tiptree, Robinson, Gibson, Swanwick and Sterling, to name quite a few.

That said, with this grouping of stories, many of these writers were in their later years of their respective careers, and I'd say the majority of titles in here are good, but not particularly strong.

Expected standout is John Crowley's masterful short, Snow-- an exploration on grief and the fragility of memory. Silverberg's novella, Sailing to Byzantium, is another highlight that discusses aging and nostalgia. Joe Haldeman's The Sum of All his Parts is a grisly and succinct tale about evil being brought to the surface when its narrator is given a new, artificially powerful body.

The only one I actively disliked (unsurprisingly, perhaps, given my distaste for his acclaimed novel, Ender's Game) was Orson Scott Card's The Fringe, which seems to continue a mean-spirited thread consistent with Ender's Game-- something I just find rather off-putting. Card really seems to believe most human beings are malicious, odious psychopaths. But, considering his own politics, maybe it's just a confession in disguise.

quick aside; Swanwick and Gibson's Dogfight is something I already read in the latter's collection, Burning Chrome earlier this year.

[Jeppe Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a really solid collection of stories. Might not agree with everything Dozois has included. I think there are at least a handful of unnecessary fantasy stories included, but the average quality is pretty high. Some absolute classics as well that still stand the test of time 35 years later.

The highlights for me:

"Snow" by John Crowley is a really well written story and a concept not too far from current technology with an automated drone recording a persons life. Though we wouldn't have any technical problems with storing 8000 hours video today, but I rather like the explanation for the random limitations - that it was to prevent it being searchable and indexable.

"The Fringe" by Orson Scott Card. The settings is typical post-apocalyptic, but what makes it interesting is the unique character of Carpenter - a wheelchair bound teacher who tries his best to protect the good of the community even though he is personally attacked.

"Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg is one those classic novellas that still stand the test of time. Has been reprinted several times. It tells the story of a current century man suddenly finding himself in a weird far future where people spend time recreating historic cities to walk around in as tourists. The story conveys really well a far future that we couldn't possibly understand properly.

"Out Of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress is a very short about an alien encounter on a small diner. The aliens are already here and some people clearly dont like them and we just get a glimpse of a regular day for a waitress and her encounter with an alien guest. I think Kress manages to tell a lot without really telling us too much.

"Side Effects" by Walter Jon Williams is a somewhat horrifying story about doctor being very eager to push various experimental drugs to his patiens. This could more or less be taking place today as well as in 1985, so a bit light on science fiction-ish speculation, but a good story regardless.

"The Only Neat Thing To Do" by James Tiptree Jr. was one of the highlights for me. We follow a young woman going on her first solo space trip, without her parents permission. She gets sort of infected by a strange lifeform that is also childlike. The story takes a bit to get going but gets really interesting once she gets infected with the young lifeform. Makes for a really great dynamic and character study with these two young beings both on a similar adventure but very different species. The problem they face is reminiscent of "The Cold Equations" and their solution is simply beautiful.

"Rockabye Baby" by S.C. Sykes is a heartbraking story about Cody getting in a wheelchair after an accident and he has to come to terms with his new life. Cody is a really well drawn character. I could feel and understand his struggles. But - I still wasn't convinced with the ending. Even though there is a potential cure for him, he would risk ending up basically dead because all his memories will be gone. To me that would be the same as being dead if it is just your body that survives. My issue is that it doesn't seem like he would be that desperate to risk the experiment. On the contrary, Cody seems to have accepted his new life situation much better than Sharkey. I don't think the story conveyed convincingly why Cody was so eager for this treatment.

With "Green Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson the anthology ends on a high note. The story is rather straightforward about a group of mountaineers doing a climb on the tallest mountain on a terraformed Mars. It is not set in the same universe as the "Green Mars" novel, but it is easy to see how Robinson explored several concepts that were used in the trilogy. People living hundreds of years with imperfect memory and the political resistance to the terraforming of Mars are both a big part in his later trilogy. Reminded me a lot of Robinsons novel "Antarctica". Similar mix of trekking in the wilderness combined with various environmental issues.

[Princessjay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A typical collection, some decent stories, a few excellent ones. More than anything, this is a glimpse of the fears and dreams and preoccupations from 3 decades past, some of which can't help but seem quaint, and others, remain relevant even today.

Nevertheless, due to that very disconnection, I found much of this collection a chore to go through.

YMMV.


THE JAGUAR HUNTER - Lucius Shepard
3 STARS
A native Indian man sent to kill a magical jaguar, who turns out to be a beautiful woman of his tribe and also guardian to another world he fears yet yearns to go.

Hmm. I'm conflicted as to how I feel about this one. On the one hand, this is lyrical and beautifully crafted, a man caught between myths of his culture and the greed of the new world. And yet, as I read this, I cannot stop thinking this is such a MAN story. Of course death would appear as a beautiful, seductive woman who insta-love/want him, who is mysterious, unfathomable, and will lead him to either death or ultimate freedom. Hmf.

DOGFIGHT - Michael Swanwick & William Gibson
4 STARS
A thief finds new fascination with a neuro-driven combat game, becomes determined to play against a top player. In his drive to do, he alienates everyone, crosses boundaries, destroys his opponent utterly, and ends up with empty victory.

Raw feelings in this one. An old, much-written story in new clothes, and one especially designed for nerds and geeks. A good read.

FERMI & FROST - Frederik Pohl
2 STARS
Realistic imagination of how the world might end in nuclear holocaust.

Written in the 60s, and shows. Has not aged well. Nowadays reads as melodramatic and lacking in finesse.

GREEN DAYS IN BRUNEI - Bruce Sterling
SKIPPED

Found this one difficult to absorb, couldn't read more than a couple of pages.

SNOW - John Crowley
3.5 STARS
Precursor to the current 24/7 selfie-culture, a flying WASP records a person for 8,000 hours, but replays in random access. A man views footage from his dead wife as video slowly degrades.

Memory is more than footage. Our human minds provides enhancement, significance, and discards the meaningless quotidian. Recordings can never describe a person; our internal narratives create and recreate each of us anew, with every iteration.

THE FRINGE - Orson Scott Card
4 STARS
In a post-apocalyptic, food-scarce society that has fallen back upon farming to survive, a teacher with cerebral palsy whistleblows on farmers in the small community hoarding a portion of their produce for black market sale. 3 of his students threw him into a crick to die, and with much hardship, he survived, yet did not reveal the students names.

Perspective from a complicated, difficult-to-like but morally upright man, who must deal with his own envy of those who are physically healthy, feels a calling to educate and preserve civilization, yet glimpses the ultimate pointlessness of it all.

THE LAKE WAS FULL OF ARTIFICIAL THINGS - Karen Joy Fowler
3 STARS
Woman go through therapy, re-living recreated (from her memories) scenario to relieve the life-long guilt of a long-ago relationship. Somehow the therapy is intruding into her waking life..

Workmanlike.

SAILING TO BYZANTIUM - Robert Silverberg
4 STARS
A 20th century man found himself living in 50th century, companion to a woman Gioia. They travel through the fanciful recreations of historical cities, and he slowly comes to realize the truth of what he is, and the world.

Deceptively simple, a slowly-unwinding mystery full of heart. I disagree with the conclusion, however. She -- that specific iteration of her -- would be dead, no matter how accurately she is reconstructed, and that to the reconstructed her and others she might as well be alive.

SOLSTICE - James Patrick Kely
2 STARS
A lonely, twisted man creates a daughter/clone 25 years younger, raises her and makes her his lover and daughter and possessive, all amidst the background of high-tech artisanal drugs and, for some reason, the Stonehenge.

Ugh. Self-indulgent.

DUKE PASQUALE'S RING - Avram Davidson
SKIPPED

No idea what the heck this one is about. Obtuse, cryptic writing style.

MORE THAN THE SUM OF HIS PARTS - Joe Haldeman
3.5 STARS
Cyborg limbs demonstrate the principle that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Diary of an engineer is injured while working in space, and installed with cybernetics, which smoothly transitioned from utter joy at his acquired power to casual disregard of other humans and becoming an evil mastermind.

The ending is either cliched or a clever twist, I can't decide -- hinting strongly that, although the previous evil has been subdued, the current "hero" moves toward that same fate..

OUT OF ALL THEM BRIGHT STARS - Nancy Kress
2.5 STARS
Small town diner meeting with friendly alien, reflecting small-minded sides of humanity.

SIDE EFFECTS - Walter Jon Williams
NO RATING
Irresponsible doctors and pharmacology industry personnel, prescribing random drugs to poor people, with random side effects.

I confess to wildly skimming through this one. Very anti-Greed-Is-Me 80s vibe. Essentially skipped.

THE ONLY NEAT THING TO DO - James Tiptree, Jr.
3.5 STARS
The tone of a 60s YA adventure story yet dark subject matter. A young girl goes secretly adventuring out into space and encounters an equally-young alien whose lifestyle is to takeover the brain of host animals and forming a single symbiosis. As time passes in their journey toward the alien's home world, they slowly come to realize that this strange symbiosis is fatal to humans, and both sacrifices themselves by diving into the nearest sun.

A lovely, straight forward story that started out slow, but culminate to describe a lovely but doomed friendship between two very goodhearted young creatures.

DINNER IN AUDOGHAST - Bruce Sterling
3.5 STARS
Audoghast is a rich African empire in the 1000s. A rich man dines sumptuously with 3 friends and beauteous courtesans, and a prophet telling total truth of Africa's eventual destruction and fall of the Arabian world.

Describing what could have been 1 night out of the 1001 Nights. Those who live in luxurious now could never recognize truth, when it is so unpalatable.

UNDER SIEGE - George R. R. Martin
4 STARS
In an unknown apocalyptic future, a deformed mutant with time traveling abilities is part of a governmental, last-ditch project that sends his mind back in history, into that of a Finnish Colonel in the 1800s, trying to influence history to avert their nuclear-disaster future. He ends up flouting the suggestions to send the historical figure on a suicide mission, kills his future body, and lives a long life slightly-merged with the Colonel, changing the future in his own way.

Twisted and strange and poignant. A reminder that GRR Martin is indeed a good writer.

FLYING SAUCER ROCK & ROLL - Howard Waldrop
SKIPPED

A SPANISH LESSON - Lucius Shepard
3.5 STARS
Pseudo-biographical. Young Lucius in the 60s spent sometime by the beaches in Costa del Sol, living hedonistic expat lifestyle, until a pair of brother and sisters came. They are small, strange-looking, identical, and behaved strangely. Lucius gets close to them, and discovers that they are clones, and escaped from another universe -- dystopic, totalitarian, horrifying, utterly controlled by an undead Hitler and his legion of shadows. They escaped to this universe through an interdimensional tunnel, which they are trying close to stop potential capture. During the night they chose to close the tunnel, humans interfered, causing the brother to self-sacrifice by stepping back into the tunnel to lead enemies away. Lucius, from a sense of guilt, takes a nearly-silent sister to a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery, and upon leaving her there, has a realization about American sense of voyeurism over other people's pain and yet not truly willing to help.

Was doing great as a slowly-unraveling story for 3/4 of the way. The glimpse of alien world is fantastically grim and cruel, a Third Reich from a fevered nightmare. The moralizing, at the end however, I could have done without -- even the narrator himself said that this moralizing after a story's climax are said to be a weakness of his, even as he went on to say in this instance it was justified. Hm. It wasn't justified.

ROADSIDE RESCUE - Pat Cadigan
2.5 STAR
Earth and alien encounter. An Earth man with car troubles got picked up by an alien and his Earth employee, who scares him because the alien enjoys the sound of frightened people.

Straight-forward.

PAPER DRAGONS - James P. Blaylock
3 STARS
Magical Realism story of a strange California, where the narrator lives a normal life where giant worms eats his tomato plants, with one neighbor fanatic about the migration of giant, even car-sized, crabs that caused some destruction in the neighborhood, destroying a pseudo-living semi-mechanic semi-living paper dragon of another neighbor, who spends a year unsuccessfully rebuilding something similar.

A famous story, and one I recognize as being well-written. I always find it difficult to understand Magical Realism, though, where the protagonist always go about their flat, "normal" everyday lives even as wild fantastic things pass before their eyes.

MAGAZINE SECTION - R. A. Lafferty
3 STARS
A man writes seemingly-fantastical stories for Sunday Magazines, and increasingly finding himself out of a job because people could no longer believe them, despite their truths.

THE WAR AT HOME - Lewis Shiner
2.5 STARS
People who have never gone to Nam are racked by vivid hallucinations /memories of all its trauma. One man's descent into a PTSD that is not his own.

Very short story. Perhaps vivid, but Nam as a subject ... feels very distant to me. This story did not age well.

ROCKABYE BABY - S. C. Sykes
4 STARS
A man broke his neck and becomes a paraplegic, loses all his former life, yet in the process became drawn to reading, learning, and found his artistic talent. And then, he encountered an experimental treatment that would enable him to regrow all his limbs, yet at the same time would wipe clean all his memories. A paraplegic friend had taken that choice, became healthy yet intensely miserable, and eventually killed himself. The man himself, facing that same choice, hesitates, hesitates... yet finally decides to take the same plunge.

Another story of man trapped inside a husk of a body. Vivid illustration of a dilemma -- what constitutes a person if not all the memories and emotions and experiences? Without that, we are nothing. And yet, who's to say in that situation, most of us wouldn't make the same choice.

GREEN MARS - Kim Stanley Robinson
4 STARS
Roger, a member of the Red party, having quit his government position and in a depression over his failures to prevent Mars from being turned into another Earth. He becomes part of a team to climb Olympic Mons. Climb requires close attention to the here-and-now, a kind of physical meditation, and in the process, Roger begins to recognize the beauty of Mars, which remains regardless whether it is covered with Earth flora and fauna. He also reunites with Eileen, who was his lover hundreds of years in past, who tells him some of the philosophy she is reading. He comes to learn that one's past need not be immutable, a burden, but that life forces us to constantly re-evaluate the past, thereby changing it. At the end, he learns to love this new Mars.

I now understand why this series is so popular. It is written with the focus that mainstream literary novels have, examining the details and concerns of human life, written in vivid, present-focused prose, yet set in a fantastic new world, in the near future with some believable projected new technology. An interesting story.

[Ari Pérez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jaguar Hunter LUCIUS SHEPARD ***
Dogfight WILLIAM GIBSON / MICHAEL SWANWICK ***
Fermi and Frost FREDERIK POHL ***
Green Days in Brunei BRUCE STERLING ***
Snow JOHN CROWLEY ***
The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things KAREN JOY FOWLER ***
Sailing to Byzantium ROBERT SILVERBERG *****
More Than the Sum of His Parts JOE HALDEMAN ***
Out of All Them Bright Stars NANCY KRESS ***
Side Effects WALTER JON WILLIAMS ***
Dinner in Audoghast BRUCE STERLING ***
A Spanish Lesson LUCIUS SHEPARD ***
The Fringe ORSON SCOTT CARD **
Solstice JAMES PATRICK KELLY **
The Only Neat Thing to Do JAMES TIPTREE, JR. **
Under Siege GEORGE R. R. MARTIN **
Flying Saucer Rock & Roll HOWARD WALDROP **
Duke Pasquale's Ring AVRAM DAVIDSON *
Roadside Rescue PAT CADIGAN ****
Paper Dragons JAMES P. BLAYLOCK **
Magazine Section R. A. LAFFERTY **
The War at Home LEWIS SHINER ***
Rockabye Baby S. C. SKYES ***
Green Mars KIM STANLEY ROBINSON **

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this third anthology, Dozois has carefully collated some wonderful stories, ranging from the mythological through to the gloriously mundane. In a way, when you can write a standard 'quest' story with only vague elements of science fiction, then the acceptance of the genre has been made complete.

[Thad Ligon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid collection of short stories circa 1985.

[Austin Beeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: THIRD ANNUAL COLLECTION
RATED 81% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.83
24 STORIES : 7 GREAT / 9 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF

It is fitting that this anthology ends with Kim Stanley Robinson’s masterful tale of mountain climbing on Mars, for this is a collection with some soaring peaks. Some of these stories would be considered on any list of Best SF of the 1980s. Unfortunately, it also contains a few ‘average’ tales and one story that I DNF’d (Avram Davidson - always Avram Davison.)

The Great Stories:

Dogfight • (1985) • novelette by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick. A classic masterpiece of Cyberpunk. A small time crook becomes a master as a virtual game of airplane dogfights. He also befriends a wealthy young woman. Their lives collide in tragic ways.

The Fringe • (1985) • novelette by Orson Scott Card. There is such humanity in Card’s work. A handicapped teacher on the frontier is terrorized by his students after he reported their criminal parents to the authorities. Raw, dangerous, human, and with some real courage and hope.

Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg. One of the greatest stories of the far future. A man from the 20th century is transported to far far future where people build and explore cities of the past. A wealth of lush detail, believably strange situations, and deep worth-building. This is an hypnotic epic.

Out of All Them Bright Stars • (1985) • short story by Nancy Kress. Brief and full of import. A waitress in a diner serves an alien, but learns a hard truth about humanity that she never wanted to know. One of those stories that transcend the genre and could be enjoyed by anyone who loves literature.

The Only Neat Thing to Do • (1985) • novella by James Tiptree, Jr. A young woman joyrides through space, solves a mystery, meets an alien, and has to make some very hard decisions. A fun and mysterious piece of space opera that slowly turns into something you don’t expect.

A Spanish Lesson • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard. What starts as a memoir of a bohemian life in Spain, becomes a mysterious investigation of the neighbors, and explodes to a weird tale of alternate universe Hilter and weird monsters.

Green Mars • (1985) • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson. This is a story of mountain climbing on Mars’ highest mountain, but there is a hell of a lot of interesting character develop going on behind the scenes. The adventure of the climb is riveting, suspenseful, and full of more thrilling detail than I thought possible. Really special stuff.

***

THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: THIRD ANNUAL COLLECTION IS RATED 81%.

24 STORIES : 7 GREAT / 9 GOOD / 7 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 1 DNF


The Jaguar Hunter • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard

Good. Magical Realism of a man sent to fight a Jaguar to save his family.

Dogfight • (1985) • novelette by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick

Great. A cyberpunk classic of a small-time crook who is an expert at a game of virtual dogfights (the airplane kind) and his friendship with a wealthy college girl.

Fermi and Frost • (1985) • short story by Frederik Pohl

Average. A thought experiment of life during a nuclear winter.

Green Days in Brunei • (1985) • novella by Bruce Sterling

Good. A cyberpunk thriller of a tech guy who finds love and violence in a country that is resisting technology.

Snow • (1985) • short story by John Crowley

Good. A man remembers his old lover in video snippets recorded and preserved by a video “Wasp.”

The Fringe • (1985) • novelette by Orson Scott Card

Great. A powerfully emotional story. On the fringes of civilization, a handicapped teachers terrorized by his students because he turned their criminal fathers in to the authorities.

The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things • (1985) • short story by Karen Joy Fowler

Average. A woman engages in virtual reality therapy to deal with emotional pain around an ex-lover who died in Vietnam.

Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg

Great. A masterful far future novella, in which a man of The Present is whisked to the 50th Century and explores love, life, and touristic leisure.

Solstice • (1985) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly

Good. A tight and nasty little thriller featuring a drug designer, cloning, and Stonehenge.

Duke Pasquale's Ring • (1985) • novella by Avram Davidson

DNF. Another bit of unreadable fantasy drivel from an author that doesn’t connect with my aesthetics at all.

More Than the Sum of His Parts • (1985) • short story by Joe Haldeman

Average. A damaged man is put together with robotic parts - including sexual ones - and spirals into violence and sadism.

Out of All Them Bright Stars • (1985) • short story by Nancy Kress

Great. When a waitress in a diner meeting an alien, she learns things about humanity that she’d rather never have learned.

Side Effects • (1985) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams

Average. A barely SF story about a corrupt doctor doing clinical trials with prescription drugs.

The Only Neat Thing to Do • (1985) • novella by James Tiptree, Jr.

Great. Thrilling and heart-wrenching at once. A young woman out for fun adventure in her spaceship comes across alien life that lives in her head —- and is forced to make some very difficult decisions.

Dinner in Audoghast • (1985) • short story by Bruce Sterling

Good. Sumptuous story of dinner and fortune telling in an ancient forgotten Arab-African city.

Under Siege • (1985) • novelette by George R. R. Martin

Good. Cool time travel story about a geek mutant who embodies a man in 1808 to attempt to stop the devastation of the Soviet Union by changing a siege in the past.

Flying Saucer Rock & Roll • (1985) • novelette by Howard Waldrop

Average. Violent Doo-Wop gangs, concerts, blackouts, drinking piss, and maybe some aliens.

A Spanish Lesson • (1985) • novelette by Lucius Shepard

Great. A countercultural young man befriends his neighbors in Spain, which ultimately leads to portals to another world full of alternate dystopian Hitler.

Roadside Rescue • (1985) • short story by Pat Cadigan

Good. A kinky tale of an alien who helps a man with his broken down car.

Paper Dragons • (1985) • novelette by James P. Blaylock

Good. Slipstream crazy with giant crabs, steampunkish dragons, tinkerers, and the California coast.

Magazine Section • (1985) • short story by R. A. Lafferty

Average. Quirky story of a man writing “true tall tales” in various newspapers.

The War at Home • (1985) • short story by Lewis Shiner

Average. Americans who didn’t fight in Vietnam, start getting flashbacks and PTSD about the war.

Rockabye Baby • (1985) • novelette by S. C. Sykes

Good. Parapalegic man discovers a new life after his injury. A friend at the inpatient facility may have a way to be healed, but at very high cost.

Green Mars • (1985) • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson

Great. Incredibly detailed and suspenseful story of mountain climbing Mars’ highest peak.

[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...

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m making my way through all 35 of these books. Great reading at about $5-10 a copy used from Amazon. I have to give Dozois credit for picking great stories-some better than others but most worth reading. These older volumes have authors well known today who were them just starting out. A particular favorite was Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Green Mars” about a group of climbers ascending Olympus Mons-a first version of his great Red Blue Green Mars trilogy. George R. R. Martin is here with a story I liked better than Game of Thrones. While Dozois is gone, there is a legacy of hours of great reading that he left still available at bargain prices.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction sure took off slowly. Here we've got another pretty uneven anthology, the last published by Bluejay Books. St Martin's would pick up the series for its remaining 32 books. Three novellas here are top-notch, but do little to even out the other cup of the balance, already filled with forgettable material. The trend of publishing semi-sci-fi stories set in the the dreaded "On Earth, Near Future" continued into 1985.

Story breakdown:

• The Jaguar Hunter • novelette by Lucius Shepard: unrated
I avoid this author, so this work will be excluded from the average.

• Dogfight • novelette by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick: 1*
I don't know what I'm reading here. Can't even tell if it's cyberpunk-ish or not. That's how bad this is written.

• Fermi and Frost • short story by Frederik Pohl: 2*
After an all-out nuclear war, a scientist finds shelter in Iceland and ponders the Fermi paradox. Pointless.

• Green Days in Brunei • novella by Bruce Sterling: 2*
Semi-cyberpunk-ish plot in the actual Kingdom of Brunei, some little time into the future. Nothing to write home (to mom) about.

• Snow • short story by John Crowley: 1*
Another on Earth near future setting. Some kind of memory recording devices that follow you around in the form of wasps are all the fashion. I tried, but was unable to progress past five pages.

• The Fringe • novelette by Orson Scott Card: 2*
This must be the worst piece of Orson Scott Card ever. We learn about the setting through a school-kid's eyes: some kind of semi-post-apocalyptic setting, with "settlers" trying to reclaim land in North America. The setup is good enough, but the plot is going nowhere.

• The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things • short story by Karen Joy Fowler: 2*
More "OENF-ness". Great. A solution's been found to communicate with people from one's past. A woman talks to a dead husband. Some soul searching, some ethics being raised, nothing ground-breaking.

• Sailing to Byzantium • novella by Robert Silverberg: 5*
A masterpiece by Silverberg here in style, idea, and delivery. Sometime in the deep future (finally, the deep future), robots are able to rebuild ancient cities and humans are the tourists to visit them.

• Solstice • novelette by James Patrick Kelly: 2*
Some Stonehenge history mixed in with a near-future designer drug convention. The style was pleasant, but if this story tried to convey any message, it went totally over my head.

• Duke Pasquale's Ring • novella by Avram Davidson: 1*
Some kind of alternate 19th century Italy I believe is the setting for this one. Can't be sure as I was unable to progress past 10 pages.

• More Than the Sum of His Parts • short story by Joe Haldeman: 2*
Man is turned into cyborg after a work-related accident, then slowly turns to crime. At least this is set on the Moon.

• Out of All Them Bright Stars • short story by Nancy Kress: 1*
Extra-terrestrial walks into an American diner. Waiters have various reactions to it.

• Side Effects • novelette by Walter Jon Williams: 1*
After ten pages of New York doctors discussing various drugs, I dropped an F word and moved to the next story.

• The Only Neat Thing to Do • novella by James Tiptree, Jr.: 4*
Finally, a proper science-fiction story set in outer space. A first contact situation with a symbiotic alien life form which gets out of hand when the aliens lose controls of their hosts.

• Dinner in Audoghast • short story by Bruce Sterling: 3*
If previous story was "classic" science-fiction, this one is "classic" NOT science-fiction. Set in North Africa in the 11th century, this is actually surprisingly well-written; unfortunately it's only about a dinner between several aristocrats poking fun at a prophet.

• Under Siege • novelette by George R. R. Martin: 2*
Scientists from a dystopian future attempt to prevent the Soviet Union from existing by interfering in a 19th century war between Tsarist Russia and Sweden. A lot of history info-dumping, and not enough originality.

• Flying Saucer Rock & Roll • novelette by Howard Waldrop: 1*
A bunch of high-school kids discuss said musical genre and some aliens. Unreadable.

• A Spanish Lesson • novelette by Lucius Shepard
Still not reading this author.

• Roadside Rescue • short story by Pat Cadigan: 1*
Someone talks to an alien inside a limousine. Snorefest.

• Paper Dragons • novelette by James P. Blaylock: 1*
Another NOT science-fiction story. Something to do with sea crabs invading an island. Disgusted, I stopped after just a few pages.

• Magazine Section • short story by R. A. Lafferty: 1*
NOT science-fiction again. A series of meaningless newspaper articles detailing various unconnected bizarre events across the United States.

• The War at Home • short story by Lewis Shiner: 1*
Something about Vietnam. Extremely short and incomprehensible.

• Rockabye Baby • novelette by S. C. Sykes: 2*
Doctors find "panacea", but patients receiving it will also have the brain "rebooted" to pre-natal state. A quadriplegic ponders whether to go for it or not.

• Green Mars • novella by Kim Stanley Robinson: 4*
This novella is set in a different timeline from his famous Mars trilogy. Otherwise it is pretty similar. A group of long-lived humans who have settled on a by now terraformed Mars attempt to climb Mons Olympus. A lot of mountain climbing and areology details clutter this story a little, but ultimately don't take away from its stunning narrative force.

Weighted average comes out to 2.27. Rounding down.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume started a longtime annual engagement with Dozios’s annual collections.

[Manuel Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

As in prior editions, the editor provides an amazing state-of-the-science-fiction industry introduction and forewords to each story.

The ratings given are based on personal enjoyment and may or may not reflect the quality of writing of each story.

The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard: 4
A man fights a jaguar that is more than meets the eye.

Dogfight by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson: 4
A story where the protagonist wins, but at what cost?

Fermi And Frost by Frederik Pohl: 4.5
A story about a possible answer to the Fermi paradox and the what ifs of nuclear war.

Green Days In Brunei by Bruce Sterling: 4
A prophetic story about the rise of remote hiring. A man finally stands up to his grandpa and rejects wealth just like the woman he loves stands up to hers and rejects her royal title to escape together.

Snow by John Crowley: 5
A story about the persistence of memory and its ephemeral nature.

The Fringe by Orson Scott Card: 5
Wow, just wow. This story played in my head like a movie as I was reading it. A story about survival, doing what is right regardless of the consequences to preserve civilization.

The Lake Was Full Of Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler: 4
A story about overcoming trauma through inner dialogue with "other" people.

Sailing To Byzantium by Robert Silverberg: 5
1st best story of the anthology: Wow three volumes in a row that there is again a 5/5 story by Robert Silverberg. This time a story about immortality.

Solstice by James Patrick Kelly: 4
Hmm, very interesting story about a father, drugs and Stonehenge.

Duke Pasquale's Ring by Avram Davidson: 1
1st worst story of the anthology: There are stories that make me question my policy of always reading until the end before rating and this is one of them. Something about a ring desired by an evil medium and a doctor protecting the King of Sicily who is the owner.

More Than The Sum Of His Parts by Joe Haldeman: 4
A man turned cyborg turned serial killer turned terrorist turned dead.

Out Of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress: 5
3rd best story of the anthology: a story about power and how lacking it forces us to treat others.

Side Effects by Walter Jon Williams: 2
3rd worst story of the anthology: A story about a doctor that wants to make more money and carelessly prescribes drugs to menopausal women and makes them pregnant. This story had potential, especially if it had bothered to explore the morality conundrums of all characters, but alas it was mostly wasted.

The Only Neat Thing To Do by James Tiptree, Jr.: 5
2nd best story of the anthology: A story of friendship between a human explorer and her brain "parasite" friend.

Dinner In The Audoghast by Bruce Sterling: 3
This reminds me of Manifest Destiny in the 1st volume where a character foretells the future and it ends up coming true. Not much else.

Under Siege by George R. R. Martin: 5
Is earth worth saving from nuclear war if it means you would have never lived your life? Read and find out.

Flying Saucer Rock & Roll by Howard Waldrop: 1
2nd worst story of the anthology: I am sure it probably had something to offer more than rock and roll and UFO's, but I couldn't find it.

A Spanish Lesson by Lucius Shepard: 4.5
I do not know how to describe this one... an immigrant in Spain meets a couple of "twins" that were created as a part of the Nazi's breeding programs and ends up stumbling upon an alternate reality ruled by the Nazis. A morale is provided at the end of the story that although I agree with it, I am having a hard time seeing how it relates to the rest of the story.

Roadside Rescue by Pat Cadigan: 5
Extraordinary story that made me ponder the question: If you were sexually "used" by an alien, would you be able to tell?

Paper Dragons by James P. Blaylock: 3
The animals presented in this story were beautifully described, especially the procession of crabs of ever increasing size. Unfortunately I did not connect with the plot about repairing a paper dragon damaged by a crab, so it could fly again

Magazine Section by R. A. Lafferty: 3
It was a story alright, the story of a man with multiple wives (three I think) anf how he ends up dealing with all of them.

The War At Home by Lewis Shiner: 2
I did not really see how this was science fiction. Very short story about PTSD developing on people in the USA that never fought in the Vietnam war.

Rockabye Baby by S.C. Sykes: 5
A story that asks would you be able to sacrifice yourself mentally to recover yourself physically?

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson: 4
So many ideas to explore, not enough time. This story would be better suited to be a novel in order to fully explore the concepts it presents such as people with 300+ year lifespans, biological design of species, Martian politics, etc.

[Stefan Johnsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first collection that I've read by Gardner Dozois regarding science fiction short stories. I am not highly impressed by the this collection of stories as some are borderline science fiction. Some stories read as if they are fiction why a hint(sprinkle) of science or the unknown added in such as Flying Saucer Rock & Roll, Duke Pasquale's Ring, and The War at Home.
I got this collection because it had short stories from well known authors such as Orson Scott Card and George R.R. Martin. The former being good and the latter a great short story.

Of the short stories i really liked and recommend from this collection are:
Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg, More Than the Sum of His Parts by Joe Haldeman, The Only Neat Thing to Do by James Tiptree, Jr., Under Siege by George R.R. Martin, and Rockabye Baby by S. C. Sykes.

[Ken Papai · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of THE BEST Annuals there is of the past 40 years. This one covers the best science fiction published in 1985. I bought this book June 1986 and have reread a few stories since then.
My favorite stories? Pohl's FERMI and FROST; Sterling's GREEN DAYS in Brunei; Silverberg's SAILING to BYZANTIUM; Kress' OUT OF ALL THEM BRIGHT STARS.
The final story in this collected, GREEN MARS by KSR is also outstanding.

[Craig Harding · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought from a second hand store. Mostly dated or very boring stories. The book is VERY long, with 24 stories. I speed read a lot of them as I just couldn't get into them, with the notable exception of 'Sailing to Byzantium', which was quite good.

[Nathaniel Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much gold in this mine, I would recommend skipping this Year's Best.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of decent stories. Definitely worth the read.

[Dale H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fabulous volume!

[Bill Borre]

"Roadside Rescue" by Pat Cadigan - Etan's vehicle breaks down on the road and he is accosted by a man who works for an alien whose sexual preference is a man's voice speaking in fear. After the man fixes Etan's vehicle and his employer gets what he wants from Etan Etan is given some money and the pair go on their way.

"The Lake Was Full of Artificial Things" by Karen Joy Fowler - wc
"Dogfight" by William Gibson & Michael Swanwick - wc
"Green Days in Brunei" by Bruce Sterling - wc

[John Devlin · Rating 3 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.

[bluetyson]

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection by Gardner R. Dozois (1986)

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

some very good storytellers.

[Zach Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stories, not a bad collection

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites: "Fermi and Frost", "Green Days in Brunei", and "Green Mars".