The editors state : "We have remarked in the past that the average paperback anthology of fantasy or SF does not contain as many good stories as the average issue of Asimov’s or Fantasy & Science Fiction."

Can't disagree with that. In general, those magazines do rate more highly than your standard original anthology for fiction.

An interesting strategy they seem to be pursuing is publishing the odd non-English work, translated. This year it seemst hat was a bit easier with a specific volume already done, Cosmos Latinos, and a couple of stories here come from that.

Live Without a Net, Stars, and Space, Inc. are anthologies mentioned. Anders, Resnick and Czerneda.

This volume is easily the lowest rated of the Hartwell anthologies so far, and only a 3.55 average, with a lot of decent, and a few average or worse, and nothing standing out.

Stating in the past that they are only choosing obvious SF gets a bit wobbly with the Swanwick, etc., I think.

Year's Best SF 09 : Amnesty - Octavia E. Butler
Year's Best SF 09 : Birthdays - Geoff Ryman
Year's Best SF 09 : The Waters of Meribah - Tony Ballantyne
Year's Best SF 09 : EJ-ES - Nancy Kress
Year's Best SF 09 : Four Short Novels - Joe Haldeman
Year's Best SF 09 : Rogue Farm - Charles Stross
Year's Best SF 09 : The Violet's Embryos - Angélica Gorodischer
Year's Best SF 09 : Coyote at the End of History - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 09 : In Fading Suns and Dying Moons - John Varley
Year's Best SF 09 : Castaway - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 09 : The Hydrogen Wall - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 09 : The Day We Went Through the Transition - Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero
Year's Best SF 09 : Nimby and the Dimension Hoppers - Cory Doctorow
Year's Best SF 09 : Night of Time - Robert Reed
Year's Best SF 09 : A Night on the Barbary Coast - Kage Baker
Year's Best SF 09 : Annuity Clinic - Nigel Brown
Year's Best SF 09 : The Madwoman of Shuttlefield - Allen M. Steele
Year's Best SF 09 : Bread and Bombs - M. Rickert
Year's Best SF 09 : The Great Game - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best SF 09 : The Albertine Notes - Rick Moody

Stranger Community close job.

3.5 out of 5

Reproductive success strategies.

4 out of 5

Alien Suit Compliance life force.

4 out of 5

Medical remains.

4 out of 5

Immortality maintenance.

3.5 out of 5

Pastoral life breakdown.

3.5 out of 5

Purple power creation.

3.5 out of 5

Canine fable overload.

2.5 out of 5

Multidimensional collection switchoff.

4 out of 5

Mind blown.

3 out of 5

Alien library mind analysis Artificial assist.

4 out of 5

Power armour chase all over the place.

4 out of 5

Ancient inhabitant needed.

4 out of 5

Botany monopoly Frisco misery

3 out of 5

Artificial extensions, Clever Dolly.

3.5 out of 5

Not too chicken for music to return.

4 out of 5

Bad snow and strange candy.

3 out of 5

Muddy Star Wars.

3 out of 5

Blasted drug memories.

3.5 out of 5

4 out of 5

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

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I am on what is apparently going to be an eternal search for the perfect “Year’s Best of” collection. It all started many, many years ago when I discovered the Wollheim series (and to give you an idea how many “many’s” I’m talking about, I discovered it in the mid-70s.) The selections were the perfect blend of all aspects of science fiction, and a perfect blend of award winners with unknown discoveries. And I have every single year of this collection up to the final one in 1990. And so I go on with my search, looking for a perfect replacement. At its root, the biggest problem I have is trying to find that blend. The Dozois collections and the Hartwell/Cramer series seem too invested in hard science fiction. Yet, to get any of the softer side, you seem to have to go into fantasy collections, and that is just a little too much elf, wizards, and quests for me.

And so, with that background, you can already tell I’m not overly pleased with this collection. It has some good stories and it is an overall somewhat satisfying read, but it is not the next great set of collections; it is not the “Year’s Best of” that I will make sure I collect from the past and collect into the future. To Hartwell/Cramer’s credit, they seem to have done a very good job looking outside the traditional publication routes to find the stories they selected, including internet publication and foreign language. There are nice choices in here - good reads, satisfying reads - but not rush to the award ballot caliber. And, as often happens with anthologies, some not so good, including one I could not finish. (Keep in mind, I do my best to finish EVERYTHING I start reading. Shoot, I even finished The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I should have gotten a purple heart for that.) However, as the author notes in the introduction, “…the average paperback anthology of fantasy or SF does not contain as many good stories as the average issue of Asimov’s or Fantasy & Science Fiction.” And so it is with this hardcover collection – it has about the same hit and miss ratio as those magazines.

And, as to the search for the perfect “Year’s Best”, I guess I’ll continue with the one sure source I’ve found; the annual publication of the Nebula Award winners. I’ve got them all, and I’m still buying them ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/220669.htm...

Much the most interesting of the 2003 SF anthologies. The Dozois one remains definitive, and best value for money, and the Haber/Strahan one I found a bit disappointing. But this has a couple of my favourite stories from the Dozois again (none in common with Haber/Strahan, interestingly) and a number of gems. This includes two stories translated from Spanish, one of which I'm afraid I just couldn't get into, but the other one a fascinating riff on altering history (in this case, enduring that the post-Franco transition to democracy is not prevented). Lots of good stuff here which I wouldn't have otherwise been able to read. Recommended. ( )