The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection

Jonathan Hamilton

by Gardner Dozois (Editor), Robert Charles Wilson (Contributor), Vandana Singh (Contributor)

The thirty-two stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now.  Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:

John Barnes, Elizabeth Bear, Damien Broderick, Karl Bunker, Paul Cornell, Albert E. Cowdrey, Ian Creasey, Steven Gould, Dominic Green, Nicola Griffith, Alexander Irvine, John Kessel, Ted Kosmatka, Nancy Kress, Jay Lake, Rand B. Lee, Paul McAuley, Ian McDonald, Maureen F. McHugh, Sarah Monette, Michael Poore, Robert Reed, Adam Roberts, Chris Roberson, Mary Rosenblum, Geoff Ryman, Vandana Singh, Bruce Sterling, Lavie Tidhar, James Van Pelt, Jo Walton, Peter Watts, Robert Charles Wilson, and John C. Wright.

Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book both a valuable resource and the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination, and the heart.

xiii • Summation: 2009 (The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection) • essay by Gardner Dozois
1 • Utriusque Cosmi • (2009) • novelette by Robert Charles Wilson
18 • A Story, with Beans • [7th Sigma] • (2009) • shortstory by Steven Gould
25 • Under the Shouting Sky • (2009) • shortstory by Karl Bunker
32 • Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance • (2009) • novelette by John Kessel
55 • Useless Things • (2009) • shortstory by Maureen F. McHugh
68 • Black Swan • (2009) • novelette by Bruce Sterling
86 • Crimes and Glory • (2009) • novella by Paul J. McAuley
127 • Seventh Fall • (2009) • novelette by Alexander C. Irvine [as by Alexander Irvine ]
141 • Butterfly Bomb • (2009) • shortstory by Dominic Green
154 • Infinities • (2008) • novelette by Vandana Singh
175 • Things Undone • (2009) • novelette by John Barnes
205 • On the Human Plan • (2009) • shortstory by Jay Lake
213 • The Island • (2009) • novelette by Peter Watts
240 • The Integrity of the Chain • (2009) • shortstory by Lavie Tidhar
246 • Lion Walk • (2009) • novelette by Mary Rosenblum
274 • Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction • (2009) • shortstory by Jo Walton
282 • Three Leaves of Aloe • (2009) • novelette by Rand B. Lee
296 • Mongoose • [Boojum] • (2009) • novelette by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
312 • Paradiso Lost • (2009) • novella by Albert E. Cowdrey
353 • It Takes Two • (2009) • novelette by Nicola Griffith
377 • Blocked • (2009) • shortstory by Geoff Ryman
391 • Solace • (2009) • shortstory by James Van Pelt
404 • Act One • (2009) • novella by Nancy Kress
441 • Twilight of the Gods • (2009) • novelette by John C. Wright
459 • Blood Dauber • (2009) • novelette by Michael Poore and Ted Kosmatka
486 • This Wind Blowing, and This Tide • (2009) • novelette by Damien Broderick
502 • Hair • (2009) • novelette by Adam Roberts
521 • Before My Last Breath • (2009) • shortstory by Robert Reed
535 • One of Our Bastards Is Missing • (2009) • novelette by Paul Cornell
553 • Edison's Frankenstein • (2009) • novelette by Chris Roberson
567 • Erosion • (2009) • shortstory by Ian Creasey
577 • Vishnu at the Cat Circus • (2009) • novella by Ian McDonald

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

688 pages, Hardcover

First published June 29, 2010

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 3 out of 5]

Partial reread of Dozois #27, 2017 and 2021 (since I never finished in 2017). Go-to review is Mark Watson's, http://bestsf.net/the-years-best-scie... -- which has links to the stories then online (2011). Not one of the best anthologies in the series, but still has some excellent stories, and many more good ones.

Standout stories for me
* Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Mongoose. Deliciously creepy critters infest a space station. Copy online: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/bear_... 5+ stars, and on my 100 Best-ever list. Don't miss!

* John Barnes. Things Undone. A genuinely original time-travel story, of the "what if I go back and murder my grandfather" variety. But with a scarily effective time-police service. It's online, and you should read it: https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1932093... 4.5/5 stars.

* John Kessel. Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance. http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kesse... Not an easy story to summarize: just go read it. 4.5/5 stars

* Dominic Green. Butterfly Bomb. Even though I had no idea what was going on.... First rate story: 4/5 stars.

* Nicola Griffith. It Takes Two: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/griff...
An unusual, and first-rate, love story. Of a sort. 4 stars.

* Paul Cornell. One of Our Bastards Is Missing. Dozois describes the story as like a Great Game political story written by Charlie Stross. Fair enough, and one of a series. 4 stars for this one.
Podcast online: http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2012...

And, as usual, plenty of other stories that are well-worth reading, and just a few clunkers. But still, must have been a lean year.

Reading other's reviews, it's interesting how different readers pick different favorites. About the only story loved by (almost) everyone was "Mongoose".

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a while to get through this one, but I'm glad I did. It was like reading a science fiction magazine in which almost all of the stories were good!

Here were my favorites:

Vandana Singh: "Infinites"
Peter Watts: "The Island"
Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette: "Mongoose"
Albert E. Cowdrey: "Paradiso Lost"
James Van Pelt: "Solace"
Ian McDonald: "Vishnu at the Cat Circus"
Robert Charles Wilson: "Utriusque Cosmi"
John Kessel: "Events Preceding the Helvetican Revolution"
Ted Kosmatka & Michael Poore: "Blood Dauber"
Ian Creasey: "Erosion"

The best was "Infinities" and the most fun to read was "Mongoose".

The Worst Chemistry award goes to the cyberpunk "Edison's Frankenstein", featuring an alien substance called "Promethium" which sets water to boil, and converts charcoal to more Promethium. Promethium revolutionizes industry in the alternate Earth of this story by providing limitless fuel for steam engines.

Let's ignore for the moment the fact that there is an actual chemical element called Promethium (in fairness, not discovered until after the time of this story) which decidedly lacks these properties. How might Promethium set water to boil? There are two possibilities. The first would be that Promethium and water result in an exothermic reaction when brought into contact, liberating heat to boil the water.

We can rule out this possibility, however, because we are also told that Promethium converts charcoal into more Promethium. Although I know of no analogous chemical or nuclear process, let's suppose one exists. Thermodynamics demands that it would have to obey the Conservation of Energy Law, which states that you can't get something for nothing. Consequently, we can conclude that alien Promethium cannot have intrinsically more energy than charcoal.

Which means that alien Promethium must cause water to boil not by liberating heat, but rather by reducing its boiling point below room temperature. The problem is, you couldn't actually power a steam engine with water boiled in this manner, because it would generate no more pressure than dew. Steam engines work because the steam that drives them is hot, not because it is gaseous. Otherwise, you could run an engine with ordinary air.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

If this is the best science fiction of 2009, 2009 does not appear to have been a great year for science fiction. That's not to say I didn't enjoy any of it--"Useless Things," "Infinities," "Things Undone," "Mongoose," "Three Leaves of Aloe," and "Act One" all stood out for me in their own way, and other stories were pleasant if ultimately fairly forgettable. But a number of stories had an undercurrent of unexamined misogyny that made the collection as a whole an unpleasant experience for me.

(As one example, "This Wind Blowing, and This Tide" is emotionally centered on a man struggling over his guilt for his son's death. What about his son's mother? Her existence is brought up and dismissed in a single sentence: "Shortly after Song-Dam's eighth birthday--his mother long since escaped back into the whorehouse alleys she and I had both come from--I took him with me on a business trip to Palo Alto." Look, this is science fiction. If you don't want to write about women, you have options! Uterine replicators! Biotech parthenogenesis! Not . . . this. There is one other woman in the story; she sleeps with the protagonist in hope of career advancement and he calls her an "exploitative bitch.")

If I give star ratings story by story and average them I come up with 2.6. I am feeling charitable today and have rounded up.

[Stephen Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mammoth but woolly

When I was a kid, way back in the 70s, I devoured hundreds of SF novels. I loved the genre and still have a huge affection for it. But today I find it difficult to find contemporary SF writers that fill me with the sense of wonder achieved by the old masters (Dick, Delany, Farmer, Zelazny, to name but a few). So when I saw this I thought I’d give it a go in the hope that I might discover some new talent. It proved something of a disappointment. Although there are some good stories in here the majority are uninspiring and in some cases downright dull. It’s not possible to review them all here so I’ll just mention the ones I liked. My favourite was Crimes and Glory by Paul J. McAuley, a writer I’ve heard of but never read before. It’s an interplanetary mystery that’s both entertaining and inventive. Other notable stories are Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance by John Kessel, Things Undone by John Barnes, Mongoose by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Solace by James Van Pelt, and Twilight of the Gods byJohn C. Wright. All of the above were interesting in their own particular ways and I will seek out more work by the authors. Of the rest there are a few reasonably good reads (Butterfly Bomb by Dominic Green, Blocked by Geoff Ryman, One of Our Bastards is Missing by Paul Cornell) alongside a dozen or more duds. I guess the fact that I’ve discovered a handful of new authors is a good result; it’s just a shame that so many of the stories failed to impress.

[Nemezida · Rating 3 out of 5]

This time, I decided to read short prose. That’s why I got my hands on the anthology The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection, edited by the famous Gardner Dozois.

This collection was first published in 2010. It consists of 32 short stories and novellas written in 2009.

The selection of short prose in the volume is quite varied; better works are traditionally diluted with weaker ones.

Here are five stories that I genuinely enjoyed:

- Mongoose by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette;
- Under the Shouting Sky by Karl Bunker;
- Crimes and Glory by Paul McAuley;
- The Island by Peter Watts;
- Lion Walk by Mary Rosenblum.

I discovered several new authors, got acquainted with the genre trends of sci-fi that year, and got my share of pleasure from reading the anthology.

I sincerely wouldn’t mind reading something like this in the future.

[Ian Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy every story in this but I loved most of them. As always, these anthologies provide a glimpse into what the best writing in the genre looks like at a particular time. For those of us who don’t/can’t keep up with what is being written it’s also a useful way of keeping abreast of the genre. For the sake of this being a review, my favourites were the Bunker, Kessel, McHugh, Rosenblum, Cowdrey, Roberts and Reed.

[Bill Borre]

“Under the Shouting Sky” by Karl Bunker - Saunders and Robeson discover an alien beneath the ice on Enceladus. Saunders attempts to make it back to base but Robeson thinks the discovery is worth sacrificing his life for as they have no way of marking the alien's position. Robeson remains with the alien until both their bodies can be recovered.

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heavy collection of short stories, of a consistently decent quality. Took me an age to wade through, picking up, putting down (sometimes for months at a time), picking up again... But why not? No rush. Excellent collection to have on the go.

[John Hodgkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardner Dozois was the grandmaster of collecting SF stories and damned good ones at that. In this collection he has gathered an excellent cross-section of writers and stories, which he did virtually all the time. Great reading and I can thoroughly recommend any of the number of these anthologies.

[Sarah Giacomo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stories were okay--the editing was terrible, especially toward the end.

[Achernar]

There were intresting ideas but none of the stories really grabbed me nor made me want more.

[Dmitry Verkhoturov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid set of interesting high-quality stories from wide variety of authors.

[Steve Portigal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good collection; the overall quality of entries in this series certainly vary from year to year, but I read almost all of the stories and liked quite a few of them.

[Owen Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

as always a good collection of short stories - some exceptional

[Clay Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been reading Gardner Dozois’ Years Best of Science Fiction tomes for a number of years. The truth is I believe I’ve missed the last two years of the series.

Well it appears that a lot can happen in two years. In this 27th Collection I was somewhat surprised by the tone and subject matter of Dozois’ collection.

Lately I’ve been hearing about a ‘sea change’ in science fiction writing. Young writers are coming into the field and they aren’t writing about space or robots as such. In many of the new tales told here in the 27th edition I was left at times wondering when it was going to ‘kick-in’ Indeed I didn’t really find much to interest me until about half way through. Seems to me that too many of these tales from these writers (many of them unknown to me and young) were more about fantasy fiction and the psychology of upper ‘Chick-Lit’ considerations!

There are one or two standouts which I will get to soon… but on the way out of the book I’m scrolling through about a million honorable mentions that Mr. Dozois decided NOT to let into the book. I was thinking, boy I sure wish I could read some of those. This collection just isn’t up to Gardner’s high standards! As a Science Fiction reader from the past I was looking for a bit more Imagination from these tales and much, much more bite.

I was very impressed, however with Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monettes’ story MONGOOSE, these two ladies are from the old school and very powerful writers! In their story about a man and his mongoose, cleaning out multi-demensional critters. I found much to cheer about!

To be honest Mongoose was perhaps the only story in the entire collection that to me is even memorable.

True that I’m personally not taking it well this ‘sea change’ that seems to be happening. I don’t want you to skip this book as it is the top in the science fiction kingdom as far as anthologies go. Yet I musn’t fear to speak honestly about my own understanding of matters! And perhaps steer you to a more preferred collection of Dozios’ about as I said 2 years ago!

I’d love for you, however, to buy this latest collection and place some of your views here in this post someday. Not because I’m unsure, only that you may disagree.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the first few stories lag in interest and quality, most of this anthology is of excellent writing and thoughtfulness. The stories are written by a diverse group of authors, and to my pleasure the protagonists stretch across the range of human experience: women, women of color, men of color, and sexual minorities narrate and star alongside the straight white male staples of science fiction. This attention to diverse viewpoints offers an enriching and engaging spread of fiction for the modern reader.

Highlights of the anthology:
Useless Things, by Maureen F. McHugh
Butterfly Bomb, by Dominic Green
Infinities, by Vandana Singh
The Island, by Peter Watts
Lion Walk, by Mary Rosenblum
Three Leaves of Aloe, by Rand B. Lee
It Takes Two, by Nicola Griffith
Solace, by James Van Pelt
Hair, by Adam Roberts

[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...

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardner Dozois' YBSF compilations are some of the best short story collections out there. I'm a huge fan of short fiction and of sci fi short fiction in particular and have been a long-time reader of this series. However, the past several years, I've fallen behind on reading YBSF collections because they're so giant and I can't easily cart them around with me. Hooray for e-books! I read through this from cover to cover and, although not every story was to my personal taste, I really enjoyed it. I'm very glad to get back to reading YBSF. Dozois always had a fine touch as editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine and, although he retired from Asimov's several years ago, his fantastic skills at story selection and compilation are well displayed by this collection.

[Magnus Itland]

I bought this (well, the Kindle edition) to read the story "Infinities" by Vandana Singh. It had impressed a close online friend to the point of "wow".

To be honest, I don't feel this particular story was science fiction, as the only extraordinary part was the mathematician visiting the realm of mathematics physically (or so he believes) on two occasions. In the context, this is a religious experience more than anything, the character even compares it briefly to the Prophet being given a tour of Heaven. It is also as a tale of the soul that the story resonates with me (and my friend, it seems).

I have not read the other stories and probably won't. Thus, no rating.

[Janet Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've truly never in my life read a book with anywhere near this many errors. I stopped counting at a dozen and there were quite a few more. Near the end it got super sloppy, with multiple times where 2 on one page were wrong, or three typos in a story, and just... wow. Pay your editors for the right amount of time or get some to do the job right, but this is absolutely embarrassing. (Actual review? A very mixed bag, as I'd expect for one this big, but I mostly enjoyed it. "Act One" by Nancy Kees was especially good.)

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gotta hand it to Dozois on this one. While there were a few duds (as I am now expecting in every anthology) I can see that Dozois made an honest attempt to represent the broad spectrum of current SF. I'm a picky SF reader (i.e. tend to like the hard stuff with superior writing skill) and I count 12 stories that were superb. Several others were good. I've already read Robert Charles Wilson's "Utriusque Cosmi" twice and I'm sure I'll read a few other stories a second time.

[Ron Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, the annual Dozois "best of" anthology has lots of great stories in it. I tend to pick and choose which stories to read in this annual series, since Dozois collects a wide range of sf stories, not all of which are to my taste; even so, there were over a dozen I thought were excellent, and a number more I considered very good. For a full table of contents, see its Wikipedia pg.

[Robert Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

This huuuge book took me nearly 2 years to read (off and on) but it was well worth the effort. I coughed up the full admission price for this one, which is rare for me, but it was good value for the £9.99 I paid.
Anything else I say would mean talking about individual stories, but because there are about 30 of them I just ain't gonna do that, but there's a good range - something for pretty much everyone. Read it yourself!

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having read volumes 8-26 w/ a great deal of wonder( I look forward every year to the latest installment). I was sorely disappointed w/#27. Instead of making me wish for what would happen next, I was left wondering is that it? Perhaps this was a bad year for short fiction. Nevertheless, it will take several more years of weak fare to make me give up this yearly treat.

[Ellen (Elf TajMuttHall) Finch]

Pre-read observation: It's now sitting on my to-read shelf. I have read every one of these books cover to cover (although I'm a few years behind, just now reading 22nd). They're not all to my taste, but they're all readable and well written and I appreciate that Dozois has to cover a great deal of ground to ensure that everyone's ideas about what's the best will appear.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collects the best short science fiction of 2009, which seems like it was not that great a year for short fiction. The collection has a lot of good stories, but not a lot of great of memorable ones. My favorites were "The Island" by Peter Watts and "Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald. As always, Dozois provides a good summary of the year in SF.

[Sheldon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read a few short stories so far and could not understand how this could be the year's best. I'm still plodding through in the hopes that they left the best stories for later in the book.

I couldn't finish this book. I had to stop.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couple of winners, bunch of real dopey stories too and some just mediocre hack stuff. Is this really the best out there, I doubt it. So far I liked Utriusque Cosmi, Black Swan, Things Undone, the Island, Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction, Solace.

[Gevera Piedmont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of this whole collection, I LOVED one story (Mongoose) and disliked one (Twilight of the Gods). The most disappointing thing was the poor proofreading. Tons of misspellings, typos, homonyms & missing words. Can't remember that problem in any previous collection.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, solid stuff. Unlike some years, where some exceptional works are included, this collection had many works I felt were good but not outstanding, and I think this was the majority of the stories. Some of these stories I'd already read in New Space Opera (also edited by Dozois).