solid collection of short stories from 2004 and a good companion to Dozois' annual collection. The leadoff story, "Sergeant Chip" by Bradley Denton, starts this off well. ( )

In the first volume, Hartwell said that he wouldn't pick Science Fantasy, but here he has a story from a series of explicit science fantasy, in the Jack Vance Dying Earth vein, as they put it here. So with that, and what is in the last volume, appears the range of story here has changed. Cramer's influence, perhaps? Although the Hughes story actually does have a discussion of magic, and how much rubbish that it actually is, or may be, so maybe that is their point, there.

Anyway, somehow they have carried the bat. Managed to pull off a selection with no average stories, even if a couple are maybe wavering that way. A very high average of 3.93, leading with a standout, and back-to-back with Utley and McMullen.

Twenty-three above average stories and mostly 4 star or better has to be a 5 star anthology.

Year's Best SF 10 : Sergeant Chip - Bradley Denton
Year's Best SF 10 : The First Commandment - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 10 : Burning Day - Glenn Grant
Year's Best SF 10 : Scout's Honor - Terry Bisson
Year's Best SF 10 : Venus Flowers at Night - Pamela Sargent
Year's Best SF 10 : Pulp Cover - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 10 : The Algorithms for Love - Ken Liu
Year's Best SF 10 : Glinky - Ray Vukcevich
Year's Best SF 10 : Red City - Janeen Webb
Year's Best SF 10 : Act of God - Jack McDevitt
Year's Best SF 10 : Wealth - Robert Reed
Year's Best SF 10 : Mastermindless - Matthew Hughes
Year's Best SF 10 : Time As It Evaporates - Jean-Claude Dunyach
Year's Best SF 10 : The Battle of York - James Stoddard
Year's Best SF 10 : Loosestrife - Liz Williams
Year's Best SF 10 : The Dark Side of Town - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best SF 10 : Invisible Kingdoms - Steven Utley
Year's Best SF 10 : The Cascade - Sean McMullen
Year's Best SF 10 : Pervert - Charles Coleman Finlay
Year's Best SF 10 : The Risk-Taking Gene as Expressed by Some Asian Subjects - Steve Tomasula
Year's Best SF 10 : Strood - Neal Asher
Year's Best SF 10 : The Eckener Alternative - James L. Cambias
Year's Best SF 10 : Savant Songs - Brenda Cooper

Dog's days of war PR betrayal promotion.

4.5 out of 5

Global inventory Australian effects.

4 out of 5

Cogent defense spread.

4 out of 5

Time travel for the NT, low batter means HS.

4 out of 5

Terraforming projections.

4 out of 5

Alien impregnation.

3.5 out of 5

Not smart baby makers.

4 out of 5

Annoying universe jumpers.

3.5 out of 5

Demon wife's timeloop harem deathmatch.

4 out of 5

Cosm creator cleanout.

4 out of 5

AI evolution price.

4 out of 5

Ugly, dumb, financial peril.

3.5 out of 5

Useless prayer time.

4 out of 5

History mix, unmastered.

4 out of 5

Tank kid.

3.5 out of 5

Expensive advice tour.

3.5 out of 5

Paleozic packrat's seamonkeyesque garden's SpokesMom.

“Not do like this.” Mr. Cahill sighed. “You’re here to make the arrest of your career, and the best you can come up with is, Not Do Like This. The rhetoric of crime fighting has devolved lamentably since the days when the weed of crime bore bitter fruit. Please proceed, officers.”

4.5 out of 5

A university student meets a woman involved with a radical planetary society, who have plans to deal with the current chickenfaecal version of space travel.

4 out of 5

Not from the larger pool.

4 out of 5

Tong study.

3.5 out of 5

Can't cure everyone without Fido's help.

4 out of 5

Zeppelin future adjustment.

4 out of 5

Doctored double AI fed multiversal self search strikeout.

4 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/01... ( )

A few interesting stories are scattered among a number of disappointing selections. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/571392.htm...

Anyway, this is a nice collection; no particular standout story for me, though I did enjoy Glenn Grant's "Burning Day" (for once, a cute anthropomorphic robot story that didn't make me cringe), Neil Asher's "Strood", James Stoddard's re-telling of American history in "The Battle of York", and two stories which included Islam in slightly different sfnal ways (Jean-Claude Dunyach's "Time, as it Evaporates.. ." and Pamela Sargent's "Venus Flowers at Midnight"). There were several time-travel stories that didn't really take that sub-genre anywhere it hasn't been before, and a couple that I really didn't understand, and two that for some reason chose to feature brilliantly intelligent women with autism as their protagonists. I also didn't like the extent to which the editors felt they had to reveal details of the plots of what are, in the main, already pretty short stories in their introductions to each piece. But still, you can't really complain about 22 pieces of generally good short fiction for $7.99. ( )