David H.’s Reviews > The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection > Status Update

Snake-Eyes - Maddox: A messed up cyberpunk tale. Not enthused.

The Gate of Ghosts - Fowler: Somewhat creepy fantasy story involving an imaginative kid and an anxious mother.

The Winter Market - Gibson: An electronic dream artist dies after uploading, and her producer ponders about how they met and what this means for their future working relationship.

Jeff Beck - Shiner: This guy really loves Jeff Beck, and makes a wish he'll regret.

Surviving - Moffett: Exploring the psychology of a recovered feral-child.

Down and Out in the Year 2000 - Robinson: The life of a poor man in DC in the future year of 2000. Very depressing.

Fair Game - Waldrop: Reread. Hemingway in a surreal moment.

Video Star - Williams: Cyberpunk story about a heist, kinda liked it.

Sallie C. - Barrett, Jr.: This felt like a Waldropian story in concept, but I didn't really enjoy it.

The Prisoner of Chillon - Kelly: A messed up character from "Solstice" is involved in a tech heist and finds a new path forward.

Chance - Willis: A magical-realism tale of a woman thinking about the role of chance in her life and the possibility of change.

And So to Bed - Turtledove: Fantastic alt-history using Samuel Pepys's diary, but with Homo erectus in the Americas.

The Pure Product - Kessel: It started out really interesting, but I hate drug/hallucination scenes.

Grave Angels - Kearns: Lovely coming-of-age type story where Tim makes friends with a Black gravedigger who is not all he appears.

Tangents - Bear: Two outsiders find a common cause in another dimension.

Into Gold - Lee: All that glitters is not gold.

Sea Change - Baker: A slight overreaction to being sent to boarding school.

Covenant of Souls - Swanwick: Peter's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Pretty Boy Crossover - Cadigan: Reread. A Pretty Boy is offered the chance to be uploaded.

Against Babylon - Silverberg: A California wildfire is caused by aliens, and a pilot reflects on his relationship with his wife.

Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes - Sucharitkul: A young man in 1970s Thailand hooks up with an American anthropologist, and oh yeah, aliens.

R & R - Shepard: An American soldier in Guatemala considers his fate, plus there are psychics.

Hatrack River - Card: The first 5 chapters of his novel "Seventh Son," which I've read many times before.

Strangers on Paradise - Knight: A researcher investigates a dead poet on another planet and makes a startling discovery, and leaves a present behind.