As per the last several, Hartwell and Cramer point out they could have done three volumes this size with all the good stories they found.

The editors mention a couple of anthologies as decent, but mostly not for SF, and single out Peter Crowther's Mars Probes as the best of the lot for the year, although not with huge enthusiasm - however they ahve selected some stories from this book.

Not as many standout stories here this year, and as such, only a 3.77 average.

Year's Best SF 08 : In Paradise - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best SF 08 : Slow Life - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 08 : Knapsack Poems - Eleanor Arnason
Year's Best SF 08 : At Dorado - Geoffrey A. Landis
Year's Best SF 08 : Coelacanths - Robert Reed
Year's Best SF 08 : Flight Correction - Ken Wharton
Year's Best SF 08 : Shoes - Robert Sheckley
Year's Best SF 08 : The Diamond Drill - Charles Sheffield
Year's Best SF 08 : The Seasons of the Ansarac - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best SF 08 : Halo - Charles Stross
Year's Best SF 08 : I Saw the Light - Terry Bisson
Year's Best SF 08 : A Slow Day at the Gallery - A. M. Dellamonica
Year's Best SF 08 : Ailoura - Paul Di Filippo
Year's Best SF 08 : The Names of All the Spirits - J. R. Dunn
Year's Best SF 08 : Grandma - Carol Emshwiller
Year's Best SF 08 : Snow in the Desert - Neal Asher
Year's Best SF 08 : Singleton - Greg Egan
Year's Best SF 08 : Geropods - Robert Onopa
Year's Best SF 08 : Afterlife - Jack Williamson
Year's Best SF 08 : Shields of Mars - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 08 : Patent Infringement - Nancy Kress
Year's Best SF 08 : Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel - Michael Moorcock

Phone dead? Let's walk instead.

3 out of 5

Flying first contact breakdown breakthrough confession comeback.

4 out of 5

Single bodied monster.

3 out of 5

Port wife.

3.5 out of 5

Life history lesson appearance.

3 out of 5

Space elevator a bit of an albatross.

4 out of 5

Smart footwear very annoying.

3.5 out of 5

Alien artifacts are a boy's best friend.

3.5 out of 5

Migratory pattern.

4 out of 5

Life aboard the Field Circus for Amber, with some occasional advice from dad.

5 out of 5

Moonlight message SETI trip.

4 out of 5

Alien art, human art, crazy people.

4 out of 5

Rejuvenation prevention murder motives.

4 out of 5

AIs, ain't Jacks worth it?

4 out of 5

Superpowers not inherited it seems, as a young girl is taken in by her famous grandmother after the death of her parents.

4 out of 5

Immortality bounty is more than a load of old bollocks.

4 out of 5

A scientist couple decide to have an artificial child, some years after a natural pregnancy miscarries.

"Carlos said breezily, “Why not? There are so many others now. Sophie. Linus. Theo. Probably a hundred we don't even know about. It's not as if Ben's child won't have playmates.” Adai — Autonomously Developing Artificial Intelligences — had been appearing in a blaze of controversy every few months for the last four years. A Swiss researcher, Isabelle Schib, had taken the old models of morphogenesis that had led to software like Zelda, refined the technique by several orders of magnitude, and applied it to human genetic data. Wedded to sophisticated prosthetic bodies, Isabelle's creations inhabited the physical world and learnt from their experience, just like any other child."

There is plenty of discrimination, but their daughter has plans for all the other quantum branches in the long run, given the technology she has already.

4 out of 5

Old fashioned posse.

3.5 out of 5

Death scam skip.

3.5 out of 5

Planetary romance end.

4 out of 5

Gene litigant genie.

4 out of 5

Are your MacShards, gunning?

3 out of 5

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

If this was the best of the year, it was a bad year for science fiction. There were a total of three stories I considered worth the effort of having read. Unless you just want to own the complete set, skip this one. ( )