The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourteenth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois (Editor)

Presents 23 of the finest science-fiction works of 1995, including stories by such diverse writers as Michael Bishop, Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Maureen F. McHugh, Mike Resnick, and others.

Contents
ix • Summation: 1996 • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • Immersion • (1996) • novella by Gregory Benford
47 • The Dead • (1996) • shortstory by Michael Swanwick
56 • The Flowers of Aulit Prison • [Probability Universe] • (1996) • novelette by Nancy Kress
82 • A Dry, Quiet War • (1996) • novelette by Tony Daniel
99 • Thirteen Phantasms • (1996) • shortstory by James P. Blaylock
109 • Primrose and Thorn • [Primrose] • (1996) • novelette by Bud Sparhawk
142 • The Miracle of Ivar Avenue • (1996) • novelette by John Kessel
167 • The Last Homosexual • (1996) • shortstory by Paul Park
178 • Recording Angel • (1996) • shortstory by Ian McDonald
188 • Death Do Us Part • (1996) • shortstory by Robert Silverberg
203 • The Spade of Reason • (1996) • shortstory by Jim Cowan
218 • The Cost to Be Wise • (1996) • novelette by Maureen F. McHugh
254 • Bicycle Repairman • [Chattanooga] • (1996) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
279 • The Weighing of Ayre • (1996) • novelette by Gregory Feeley
311 • The Longer Voyage • (1996) • novelette by Michael Cassutt
330 • The Land of Nod • [Kirinyaga • 10] • (1996) • novelette by Mike Resnick
350 • Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland • (1996) • shortstory by Gwyneth Jones
362 • The Lady Vanishes • (1996) • shortstory by Charles Sheffield
373 • Chrysalis • (1996) • novelette by Robert Reed
407 • The Wind Over the World • [Silurian Tales] • (1996) • novelette by Steven Utley
430 • Changes • (1996) • shortstory by William Barton
445 • Counting Cats in Zanzibar • (1996) • shortstory by Gene Wolfe
457 • How We Got In Town and Out Again • (1996) • novelette by Jonathan Lethem
475 • Dr. Tilmann's Consultant: A Scientific Romance • (1996) • novelette by Cherry Wilder
492 • Schrödinger's Dog • (1996) • novelette by Damien Broderick
518 • Foreign Devils • [War of the Worlds] • (1996) • novelette by Walter Jon Williams
535 • In the MSOB • (1996) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter
539 • The Robot's Twilight Companion • (1996) • novella by Tony Daniel
590 • Honorable Mentions: 1996 • essay by Gardner Dozois

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

594 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1997

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

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this years ago & forgot to review it - what a crime against Goodreads! This was the Dozois annual collection that got my sf reading out of the deep freeze - it had been orbiting around one of Neptune's moons, it was cold, it was dead, but the first four stories in this book

Immersion by Gregory Benford
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
The Flowers of Aulit Prison by Nancy Kress
A Dry Quiet War by Tony Daniel

made me think wow, what have I been missing. So I went on a mission to grab all these handsome Dozois annual collections and now I have a dozen or so I haven't even started and they are HUGE. It's so easy to buy a 600 page book but it takes so long to read it.

I found out recently that many people who use audiobooks listen to the books a DOUBLE speed. They want to finish books quicker too and they have devised this simple method. But when it was demonstrated to me itsoundedlikeprosewithabsolutelynopunctuationandmybraincouldnottakeit.

[Jemppu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Notes in the reading updates below).

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Partial reread, 2019. Excellent anthology, as always.
Highlights:
• The Dead • (1996) • short story by Michael Swanwick. Zombies as cheap labor. MCs GF takes a zombie lover. He gets a short, sharp shock. Nebula and Hugo Nominee (1997 Awards). 4 stars.
• A Dry, Quiet War • novelette by Tony Daniel. "A veteran from the great war at the end of time returns to his quiet homeworld to find his town and his old lover terrorized by other marauding veterans." [Brian Davies]. 5+ stars, Daniel's best and the best story in the anthology.
• Bicycle Repairman • novelette by Bruce Sterling. Titular MC accidentally gets involved in political intrigue. One of Sterling's best, 4.5 stars. Many rereads. Hugo Novelette winner
• Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland • short story by Gwyneth Jones. Sexy immersive fantasy role-playing psychotherapy. My favorite of her shorts, 4.5 stars.
• The Robot's Twilight Companion • novella by Tony Daniel. An AI mining robot and its operator face a political revolution. Daniels had a really good year. 4 stars.
-- and plenty more runners-up! The Benford, Sparhawk, McHugh, Sheffield, Utley . . . .

Here's a good story-by-story memory-aid (minor SPOILERS if you haven't read it):
https://web.archive.org/web/200411280...
And another, spoiler-free:
http://bestsf.net/years-best-science-...

[Kevin Groosalugg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Immersion (Gregory Benford) was a solid story. I also enjoyed The Flowers of Aulit Prison (Nancy Kress), Death do us part (Robert Silverberg), The Cost to be Wise (Maureen McHugh), Bicycle Repairman (Bruce Sterling), and Chrysalis (Robert Reed). But by FAR the best two in this book were the two Tony Daniel stories, A Dry, Quiet War and The Robot's Twilight Companion. Both of these stories will haunt me for a while and I have to read more of him. I'm tempted to give it 4 stars just for introducing me to Mr. Daniel, but there were too many entries that were uninteresting. Dozois does a good job mixing all kinds of science fiction into the book so there is something for everyone.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection had some great material in it, including Nancy Kress' brilliant "Flowers of Aulit Prison", Robert Reed's weird "Chrysalis", Bruce Sterling's silly "Bicycle Repairman" and two works by Tony Daniel. This book made me buy Tony Daniel's later novels and collections. Also was my first introduction to Jonathan Lethem, though I didn't know it at the time.

[Cindy]

99-cent buy from Goodwill.

[Manuel Vazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume continues Gardner Dozois' superb best of the year anthologies of science fiction stories. As usual the editor provides a comprehensive summary of the last year in science fiction ranging from print media to television and everything in between.

Immersion by Gregory Benford: 3.5
The survival story of a man and his wife are attacked by greedy businessmen while in a unique safari where they get to control apes through a neural link.

The Dead by Michael Swanwick: 4
The story of a man weighing a job offer to work for a company in the business of providing zombie labor

The Flowers of Aulit Prison by Nancy Kress: 5
The story of a woman works in an undercover mission to regain reality after she became unreal when she killed her sister

A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel: 2
1st worst story of the anthology: Veterans from a war in the ends of time battle it out over control(?) of a small town

Thirteen Phantasms by James P. Blaylock: 4.5
A man begins mailing old mail order catalog requests and is in for a surprise when his letters are responded

Primrose and Thorn by Bud Sparhawk: 2
2nd worst story of the anthology: A story about sailing ships in Jupiter and overcoming acrophobia?

The Miracle of Ivar Avenue by John Kessel: 5
A murder mystery in the 1940s where a detective must come to reckon with the fact that the murdered man is somehow still living out his life

The Last Homosexual by Paul Park: 3.5
A bleak look into a future Louisiana where Christians took over the government and declared homosexuality an infectious disease

Recording Angel by Ian McDonald: 3
The journey of an investigator to observe fist-hand a xenoforming process

Death Do Us Part by Robert Silverberg: 4.5
The sad story of a young woman in love with a centennial man that may not be "good for her"

The Spade of Reason by Jim Cowan: 5
The "ravings" of a man that has received a message from God through a random message/text generator

The Cost to Be Wise by Maureen F. McHugh: 2
3rd worst story of the anthology: *A story of pacifist people threatened by hostile neighbors

Bicycle Repairman by Bruce Sterling: 5
The crazy story of a bicycle repairman that is ambushed by a federal agent after he is entrusted a secret package unbeknownst to him

The Weighing of Ayre by Gregory Feeley: 4.5
The story of a British man sent to spy on Dutch lens-makers to find ways to make better microscopes to make bio-weapons

The Longer Voyage by Michael Cassuit: 4
The differing reactions of two brothers when finding out that the interstellar mission to Alpha Centauri is post-poned indefinitely

The Land of Nod by Mike Resnick: 5
Honorable Mention: Koriba's last tale where he must reckon, back on earth, with the failure of his utopian world, Kirinyaga.

Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones: 5
2nd best story of the anthology: A woman receiving a treatment of therapy through virtual reality is betrayed by a virtual partner

The Lady Vanishes by Charles Sheffield: 5
The story of a scientist tasked with finding his missing ex after she disappeared while researching stealth technology

Chrysalis by Robert Reed: 5
1st best story of the anthology: A girl specifically created to be an interspecies communicator aboard a planet ship must reckon with the fact that humans outside of the ship may not be fully extinct

The Wind Over the World by Steven Utley: 2.5
A story that shown how high are the stakes when time travel goes wrong

Changes by William Barton: 4
The retelling of a man's life and how he constantly fails to watch a space launch in person and is instead relegated to watch them remotely through different means each time

Counting Cats in Zanzibar by Gene Wolfe: 4.5
A conversation in a ship between a woman that delayed the creation of fully general artificial intelligence and a "man" that tries to show her that wat she did was a mistake.

How We Got In Town and Out Again by Jonathan Lethem: 3
A glimpse into the fture world of endurance virtual reality competitions. (This story gets an honorary 5 just from the cum challenge alone)

Dr. Tilmann's Consultant A Scientific Romance by Cherry Wilder: 3
The travels of an English nurse working for a rich Russian family and her encounters with a doctor that with the help of an alien treats schizophrenia

Schrodinger's Dog by Damien Broderick: 5
3rd best story of the anthology: The story of a group of quantum physicists and the lengths their company will go to prove the many worlds hypothesis

Foreign Devils by Walter Jon Williams: 4
A retelling of The War of the Worlds from China in the times of the Manchu dynasty (1800's)

In the MSOB by Stephen Baxter: 3
A glimpse into the last days of the last man to walk on the moon at a retirement home

The Robot's Twilight Companion by Tony Daniel: 3.5
The story of a robot with the personality? mind? of a human geologist adventures to the center of the earth in a scientific expedition

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I usually do, I've rated each story individually and used the average rating to determine my star rating. Unlike other years, none of the stories here hit the 5 level, as they all had some issues that kept them from being true classics to me. There were a few blah stories in the mix, unfortunately, but most of them were solid. My average was a 3.

Immersion - 4 (solid adventure, very close to being superb, but the plot developments felt a bit arbitrary)
The Dead - 3 (I think the idea was better than the execution)
The Flowers of Aulit Prison - 3 (the first "alien" story of the bunch, and I feel like I should have liked this more than I did)
A Dry, Quiet War - 4 (a very clever story, but I felt like it just missed out on being superb)
Thirteen Phantasms - 4 (this was a fun little palate cleanser after the very serious opening stories)
Primrose and Thorn - 3 (the climax was a great little adventure scene, but the rest of the story wasn't quite at that level)
The Miracle of Ivar Avenue - 4 (I really enjoy John Kessel's writing, and he's very good here)
The Last Homosexual - 3 (moving but very dated at this point in history)
Recording Angel - 3 (weirdly enough, last year's volume featured an unrelated story also named Recording Angel. This one is solid and feels like it was the germ of an almost-novel)
Death Do Us Part - 3 (nasty but effective little tale)
The Spade of Reason - 4 (enjoyable and very original)
The Cost to Be Wise - 3 (sad, but there's a real Chekhov's gun situation with the plot that never pays off)
Bicycle Repairman - 3 (creative story, but I'm not a big fan of cyberpunk, unfortunately, so it didn't grip me)
The Weighing of Ayre - 2 (not really SF at all, and not particularly exciting based on its length)
The Longer Voyage - 2 (some good ideas, but they didn't come together well for me)
The Land of Nod - 4 (I'm a big fan of the Kirinyaga stories, and even though this isn't the strongest, it's still a solid ending to the series)
Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland - 2 (sexy, but not too much going on besides that. I feel like this would have benefited from some "fleshing" out)
The Lady Vanishes - 3 (another fun, amusing story)
Chrysalis - 4 (probably my favorite story of the bunch, and it almost hits greatness except it falls apart a little at the end)
The Wind Over the World - 3 (I enjoy the setting, but the story itself took some odd turns and ended a bit abruptly)
Changes - 3 (it's a series of vignettes with an ending that doesn't quite gel)
Counting Cats in Zanzibar - 2 (I appreciate what Gene Wolfe was trying to do, but it wasn't very interesting to me)
How We Got In Town and Out Again - 4 (now this was a lot of fun and a great change of pace in a world that I wouldn't mind visiting again)
Dr. Tilmann's Consultant: A Scientific Romance - 4 (another enjoyable and somewhat gentler story, even given the seriousness of the setting)
Schrödinger's Dog - 3 (there's a lot going on here, and it's very creative, but it's a bit of a mess in the end)
Foreign Devils - 3 (it feels weirdly historically accurate, which is a great compliment for a story like this)
In the MSOB - 2 (probably the worst story in the bunch, just bland)
The Robot's Twilight Companion - 4 (a very strong tale and a fitting end to the collection, so close to being a classic except for the very odd politics that bear no resemblance to the real world - even of the 1990s - and the way the whole thing doesn't quite come together in the end to be as profound as it wants to be)

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another "clear off my dusty bookshelf" book.

Anthologies are a mixed bag, and I usually only find a handful of great stories. Collections by a single author have a better ROI. But this truly felt like "the year's best." A solid 50% of the stories I loved, and there were quite a few more that I really liked. The ones I didn't enjoy were mostly attributable to taste - despite what I wish, cyberpunk is never going to be my thing.

I do have a quibble with some of the tales barely qualifying as SF. I mean, yes, historical fiction about science can technically be called "science fiction," but probably should be set aside in favor of something more true to the genre.

It's also surprisingly not dated, despite being published over 20 years ago. The one exception, The Last Homosexual, posits a world where social diseases are treated as biological diseases. Remember when politicians used the term "social diseases"? What's that? You weren't born yet? Ah well.

Top Five:
The Dead by Michael Swanwick
The Flowers of Aulit Prison by Nancy Kress
A Dry, Quiet War by Tony Daniel
The Cost to be Wise by Maureen F McHugh
Chrysalis by Robert Reed

I'll definitely check out more books in this anthology series. The editor has a great eye for quality material.

[Bill Borre]

"Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland" by Gwyneth Jones - wc

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorites: Bicycle Repairman, Schrodinger's Dog, the Robot's Twilight Companion.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these collections and have been trying to fill in the volumes that I am missing. I picked this up at a used book store during a trip last year.

Editor Gardner Dozois does a great job of picking the best stories from the year and collecting them into one volume of approx. 250,000 words of fantastic science fiction. Almost as valuable as the stories themselves are his "state of the genre" forwards where he discusses trends in publishing, novel, movies, anthologies, and notable happenings in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genres.

This collection is from 1996 and is typical of these volumes (if typical can be used for something that is excellent in its own right). It is interesting by itself to see the world as it was in 1996, even if through such an admittedly small keyhole as science fiction. Movies of note: Independence Day and Twelve Monkeys.

The stories in this collection are varied in subject matter and generally excellent. I enjoyed particularly the Gregory Benford, Mike Resnick, Robert Reed, and Gene Wolfe stories, but almost all were very well-written. A difference between stories from 2007 and 1996 is the tone - it seems to be more optimistic then: even the dystopic stories seem to be a little brighter, a little cleaner, a little less bleak. And there were fewer of them in this collection from 1996 than in the 2007 collection.

If you are a fan of the genre, you should pick this or any of its brethren up if you happen to run across them.

[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...

[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.

[Timon Karnezos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standouts were "A Dry, Quiet War" and "Bicycle Repairman".

[Michallevy]

English edition

[o · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, gave up on this one. I gave each of the stories ten pages, and only ended up reading the entirety of two or three. Not my favorite collection; better luck next time.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories made me wonder what their criteria was for the award.... but others were good!

[Patrick]

2/6/12: "The Miracle of Ivar Avenue" by John Kessel
2/7/12: "The Lady Vanishes" by Charles Sheffield
2/9/12: "Counting Cats in Zanzibar" by Gene Wolfe
2/17/12: "In the MSOB" by Stephen Baxter

[Aneil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly unreadable, boring pieces. I'm glad I only paid $7.99 for the Kindle version, and will be donating/giving it away as soon as I can.

[Darth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much in here grabbed my attention, and nothing sparked my imagination. I usually love collections of shorts, but this was not my fave.