The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifteenth Annual Collection

Starred review from May 4, 1998
There's little doubt that Dozois (Dying for It) is to the 1980s and 1990s what John W. Campbell Jr., was to the 1940s and 1950s--the finest editor in the world of short SF. Asimov's, which he edits, routinely earns half or more of the short-fiction nominations for the Hugo and Nebula awards each year, and his anthologies are equally strong. This collection features nine clearly deserving stories from Asimov's, plus 19 other excellent pieces from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog, Science Fiction Age, Interzone and a variety of original anthologies and less well-known magazines. The stories range widely in type, from the highly literate work of John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly to the hard SF of G. David Nordley and Geoffrey A. Landis; from the alternate history of William Sanders and Howard Waldrop to the upscale space opera of Walter Jon Williams and Robert Reed. Among the best-known writers represented are Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress and Gregory Benford. Of particular interest is the large number of non-American writers. Brits Paul J. McAuley, Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald and Brian Stableford, along with the hot Australian writer Greg Egan (represented by two stories), contribute nearly half the volume. Also included are Dozois's usual summation of the year in SF and his valuable list of honorable mentions. This anthology represents contemporary SF at its very best. (June) FYI: Dozois is a nine-time winner of the Hugo Award for best editor.

Starred review from July 3, 1995
Dozois's Year's Best, like any successful representative of a large constituency, sometimes suffers from blandness and inconsistency. As usual, it's oversized--23 stories, nearly 600 pages--and includes a variety of types of SF as well as near-horror, fantasy and humor. Five of the stories are final nominees for Nebulas, and two new ``Hainish'' stories by Ursula LeGuin were nominated for Tiptree Awards; ``The Matter of Segrri'' won. No story here is less than competent and professional; but, with a few exceptions, there is a voiceless sameness in the writing, practically a house style, that over so many pages grows tedious. (Nearly half the stories, by page count, come from the Dozois-edited Asimov's Science Fiction.) A number are flawed (``hard'' SF stories about ``aliens'' that think just like humans) or unremarkable, but these are outweighed by many fine pieces and by standouts such as LeGuin's ``Forgiveness Day,'' perhaps the best story in the book; Eliot Fintushel's ``New Wave''-like ``Ylem''; William Sanders's ``Going After Old Man Alabama'' and Terry Bisson's ``The Hole in the Hole,'' both of which are winning and funny; Katherine Kerr's chilling ``Asylum''; and Michael Bishop's grand and humane ``Cri de Coeur.'' Dozois's intelligently and ably put-together anthology does its stated job as well as any one book or editor could. Even with competition, it would still be the best of the Best.

July 1, 1998
When he launched it, Dozois' annual was the first of its kind in some time that was big enough to really represent a year's short sf output. It still is, although shorter sf is not flourishing as prolifically and, with the decline of the sf magazine, is harder to track. This year's helping includes hardy perennials such as Robert Silverberg and Nancy Kress, as well as Gregory Benford with new collaborator Stephen Baxter, and a host of other accomplished short-fictioneers with varying degrees of professional seniority, for Dozois casts his net across the whole range of shorter-length sf. The stories are, on the average, highly readable. Figure in the usual year-in-review sections, not available for review, and the lengthy list of honorably mentioned stories that Dozois didn't include, and you have yet another sturdy pillar of the sf collection. ((Reviewed July 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)

June 28, 1993
Although Dozois ( Geodesic Dreams ) has assembled a collection of 24 very good stories and enhances it with a useful list of runner-up titles, one suspects these tales betray Dozois's idiosyncratic taste more than they represent ``the year's best.'' Consider Ian R. MacLeod's alternative speculation on the Beatles. ``Never quite made it to the very top,'' says one woman in this story, which finds an unemployed, 50-year-old John Lennon smoking, drinking and picking the fluff off his feet, while Paul, George, Ringo and Stuart Sutcliffe--who never did make it to the top--are still plugging along. It may be entertaining to Beatles fans, but not much more than that. Frederick Pohl describes how ``vid'' superstar Rafiel Gutmaker-Fensterborn, a mortal in a largely immortal society, give his final performance (in a tap-dance version of Oedipus Rex ) and finally evades oblivion the old-fashioned way: parenthood. Nancy Kress gives a grim picture of the near future in which gene scans for potential disease can be used to deny people employment and health insurance and doctors who dare treat the uninsurables can endanger their own lucrative careers and risk becoming professional outcasts.

Starred review from June 25, 2001
This annual anthology is quite simply the best, most comprehensive look at today's SF, with 22 stories of consistently excellent caliber, some displaying gonzo writing and others displaying dizzyingly fabulous premises. Dozois has chosen stories that define the genre and its trends today—tales that show that SF continues to fruitfully forge across new boundaries.The alternative/parallel history is growing as a subgenre, with a sophisticated premise of the nature of alternative realities from Greg Egan's "Oracle" suggesting that humans can learn to control their destinies. Charles Stoss's "Antibodies" follows operatives working in parallel realities to stop artificial intelligences from attaining consciousness, with a surprise ending that ties the story up neatly and unexpectedly. And Rick Cook and Ernest Hogan show some impressive world-building in "Obsidian Harvest," a murder mystery set in a strange, beautifully worked alternative reality in Mexico, years after the natives drove away the Spanish invaders. The soldier-battling-evil story, a staple of SF, has grown sophisticated, with Alastair Reynolds's "Great Wall of Mars," Stephen Baxter's "On the Orion Line" and Stoss's "A Colder War" exploring the ambiguities and compromises inherent in warfare. Reynolds considers a soldier who realizes that the enemy may be in the right. Baxter's heroes fight inexplicable aliens attempting to slow human expansion. And Stoss's government operatives engage in battle via doors to other planets in an entry that contains a wryly amusing alternative-history take on the Oliver North scandal. Technology's impact on biology remains a rich vein as well. Ian McDonald considers an Africa being eaten by alien machines that may give humans amazing powers and control over their lives in "Tendeléo's Story"; Brian Stableford's "Snowball in Hell" considers a world in which animals can be tinkered with to create humans, thus complicating the nature and superiority of humanity; and Susan Palwick's oblique "Going After Bobo," the story of a boy whose cat runs away, turns into a delicate consideration of the role of electronic surveillance and how it comes to define a family.Finally, a few entries are remarkable for their excellent writing. Standouts include Stoss's two stories; Ursula K. Le Guin's first-contact yarn, told from the point of view of aliens, "The Birthday of the World"; Albert E. Cowdrey's hilarious "Crux," a time-travel adventure with a screwup protagonist; and Eliot Fintushel's amazing "Milo and Sylvie," about a young shape-shifter who painfully comes to learn about himself and his powers.(July 20)FYI: There's also a simultaneous paper edition ($18.95, ISBN 0-312-27478-5).

May 26, 2008
The 25th installment of editor extraordinaire Dozois's annual collection packs a wallop. Standout selections include Stephen Baxter's “Last Contact,” a decidedly understated hard SF tale wherein an astrophysicist and her elderly mother prepare for the looming end of the universe; “Sanjeev and Robotwallah” by Ian McDonald, a meticulously detailed coming-of-age story in a future India where a young boy learns firsthand the realities of war; and Ted Chiang's Nebula-winning “The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate,” a powerfully emotional—and edifying—story about a Baghdad merchant who travels back in time to seek redemption for the errors of his youth. In a detailed introduction, Dozois credits online magazines, small press collections and several new annual original anthology series with making it a banner year for short science fiction.