Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
For the first time ever, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has assembled the best science fiction and the best fantasy stories of the year in one volume. More than just two books for the price of one, this book brings together over 200,000 words of the best genre fiction anywhere. Strahan's critical eye and keen editorial instincts have served him well for earlier best of the year round-ups in the "Best Short Novels", "Science Fiction: Best of" and "Fantasy: Best of" series, and this is his most impressive effort yet.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Not Free SF Reader
7 Sep 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A new series of books, or so we hope. I read this fully expecting not to like the fantasy part as much as the SF part, and that certainly turned out to be the case. What I have basically classified as SF to myself averages around 3.80, the fantasy part, 3.60.
Anyway, I have always looked at these sort of things as Best SF with bonus material.
In fact, fantasy is broadly defined here, from with boys, to child slaughtering horror.
The breakdown of genre is SF a bit under half - and the odd nebulous story that you could call SF would take it a bit over half, for those that are mostly interested in this as a science fiction book. For the rest, perhaps 60:40 fantasy to horror, by my classification, for those interested in that sort of thing one way or the other.
The editor gives a brief introduction, which is an historical overview of various 'Year's Best' series, and his own favorite editors of the past. Not sure whether it is short of choice, or for space reasons as he was trying to pack in as much story as possible. If that is the case, then perhaps publishers in a similar situation could consider longer editorial introduction with perhaps a url in the book, or even that as an excerpt or promo.
The story intros are brief, with a little bit of biography, and a little bit of introduction, and keeps to the right side of the line of reading like advertising. Speaking of which, this book actually has relevant advertisements for other books by the publisher. Normally, most people don't like advertising, but in the case of books, I find it good to have what else is available, with publisher's URL prominently available. Even if you just do the old fashioned one page list like was done in the past, that is fine. However, in this case you exactly get pretty high quality cover reproduction and blurbs, so quite well done.
So, to rate this, I give the SF part a 4.5, and the fantasy part a 4. If you like the non-SF genres more, I would think you are likely to call it the reverse.
SF and F Best 01 : How To Talk To Girls At Parties - Neil Gaiman.
SF and F Best 01 : El Regalo - Peter S. Beagle
SF and F Best 01 : I Row-Boat - Cory Doctorow
SF and F Best 01 : In The House Of The Seven Librarians - Ellen Klages
SF and F Best 01 : Another Word For Map Is Faith - Christopher Rowe
SF and F Best 01 : Under Hell, Over Heaven - Margo Langanan
SF and F Best 01 : Incarnation Day - Walter Jon Williams.
SF and F Best 01 : The Night Whiskey - Jeffrey Ford.
SF and F Best 01 : A Siege Of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : Halfway House - Frances Hardinge.
SF and F Best 01 : The Bible Repairman - Tim Powers
SF and F Best 01 : Yellow Card Man - Paolo Bacigalupi
SF and F Best 01 : Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) - Geoff Ryman
SF and F Best 01 : The American Dead - Jay Lake
SF and F Best 01 : The Cartesian Theater - Robert Charles Wilson
SF and F Best 01 : Journey Into The Kingdom - M. Rickert
SF and F Best 01 : Eight Episodes - Robert Reed
SF and F Best 01 : The Wizards of Perfil - Kelly Link
SF and F Best 01 : The Saffron Gatherers - Elizabeth Hand
SF and F Best 01 : D.A - Connie Willis
SF and F Best 01 : Femaville 29 - Paul Di Filippo
SF and F Best 01 : Sob In The Silence - Gene Wolfe.
SF and F Best 01 : The House Beyond Your Sky - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : The Djinn's Wife - Ian McDonald
Ordinary party and alien chicks = run away.
3.5 out of 5
Witch boy sororal rescue.
4 out of 5
Asimovian reef revival survival.
4.5 out of 5
Taxonomically sheltered upbringing.
4 out of 5
Religiously correct landscaping writ large.
3 out of 5
Purgatory point scoring.
3.5 out of 5
Parental supervision control program subversion.
4.5 out of 5
Death booze corpse recall putdown getaway.
4 out of 5
Witch girl's zombie baby scorched earth revenge.
4.5 out of 5
Butterfly piecemeal.
2.5 out of 5
Broken soul ghost ransomer's burning to edit.
3 out of 5
Fallen biotech magnate takes insults badly.
4 out of 5
Surfeit of spirits.
3 out of 5
Tomb s*x death escape is smoking.
4 out of 5
AI's secret hiring post double death act suic1de promotion of philosophy.
4 out of 5
Rules for snogging. 1. Check for life. 2. Check if human.
3 out of 5
Tv invasion cancelled. Maybe.
4 out of 5
Scary sorcery lacks youthful replenishment.
4 out of 5
Archaeological expedition earthquake overflight.
3.5 out of 5
Space cadet Shanghai surprise.
4 out of 5
Tsunami refugeee imagineering exodus.
4 out of 5
Horrific writer's fate well deserved.
4 out of 5
Making a universal mess of it.
2.5 out of 5
Computer cops crimp AI's carnal cavorting with calisthenic chick.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Anyway, I have always looked at these sort of things as Best SF with bonus material.
In fact, fantasy is broadly defined here, from with boys, to child slaughtering horror.
The breakdown of genre is SF a bit under half - and the odd nebulous story that you could call SF would take it a bit over half, for those that are mostly interested in this as a science fiction book. For the rest, perhaps 60:40 fantasy to horror, by my classification, for those interested in that sort of thing one way or the other.
The editor gives a brief introduction, which is an historical overview of various 'Year's Best' series, and his own favorite editors of the past. Not sure whether it is short of choice, or for space reasons as he was trying to pack in as much story as possible. If that is the case, then perhaps publishers in a similar situation could consider longer editorial introduction with perhaps a url in the book, or even that as an excerpt or promo.
The story intros are brief, with a little bit of biography, and a little bit of introduction, and keeps to the right side of the line of reading like advertising. Speaking of which, this book actually has relevant advertisements for other books by the publisher. Normally, most people don't like advertising, but in the case of books, I find it good to have what else is available, with publisher's URL prominently available. Even if you just do the old fashioned one page list like was done in the past, that is fine. However, in this case you exactly get pretty high quality cover reproduction and blurbs, so quite well done.
So, to rate this, I give the SF part a 4.5, and the fantasy part a 4. If you like the non-SF genres more, I would think you are likely to call it the reverse.
SF and F Best 01 : How To Talk To Girls At Parties - Neil Gaiman.
SF and F Best 01 : El Regalo - Peter S. Beagle
SF and F Best 01 : I Row-Boat - Cory Doctorow
SF and F Best 01 : In The House Of The Seven Librarians - Ellen Klages
SF and F Best 01 : Another Word For Map Is Faith - Christopher Rowe
SF and F Best 01 : Under Hell, Over Heaven - Margo Langanan
SF and F Best 01 : Incarnation Day - Walter Jon Williams.
SF and F Best 01 : The Night Whiskey - Jeffrey Ford.
SF and F Best 01 : A Siege Of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : Halfway House - Frances Hardinge.
SF and F Best 01 : The Bible Repairman - Tim Powers
SF and F Best 01 : Yellow Card Man - Paolo Bacigalupi
SF and F Best 01 : Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) - Geoff Ryman
SF and F Best 01 : The American Dead - Jay Lake
SF and F Best 01 : The Cartesian Theater - Robert Charles Wilson
SF and F Best 01 : Journey Into The Kingdom - M. Rickert
SF and F Best 01 : Eight Episodes - Robert Reed
SF and F Best 01 : The Wizards of Perfil - Kelly Link
SF and F Best 01 : The Saffron Gatherers - Elizabeth Hand
SF and F Best 01 : D.A - Connie Willis
SF and F Best 01 : Femaville 29 - Paul Di Filippo
SF and F Best 01 : Sob In The Silence - Gene Wolfe.
SF and F Best 01 : The House Beyond Your Sky - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : The Djinn's Wife - Ian McDonald
Ordinary party and alien chicks = run away.
3.5 out of 5
Witch boy sororal rescue.
4 out of 5
Asimovian reef revival survival.
4.5 out of 5
Taxonomically sheltered upbringing.
4 out of 5
Religiously correct landscaping writ large.
3 out of 5
Purgatory point scoring.
3.5 out of 5
Parental supervision control program subversion.
4.5 out of 5
Death booze corpse recall putdown getaway.
4 out of 5
Witch girl's zombie baby scorched earth revenge.
4.5 out of 5
Butterfly piecemeal.
2.5 out of 5
Broken soul ghost ransomer's burning to edit.
3 out of 5
Fallen biotech magnate takes insults badly.
4 out of 5
Surfeit of spirits.
3 out of 5
Tomb s*x death escape is smoking.
4 out of 5
AI's secret hiring post double death act suic1de promotion of philosophy.
4 out of 5
Rules for snogging. 1. Check for life. 2. Check if human.
3 out of 5
Tv invasion cancelled. Maybe.
4 out of 5
Scary sorcery lacks youthful replenishment.
4 out of 5
Archaeological expedition earthquake overflight.
3.5 out of 5
Space cadet Shanghai surprise.
4 out of 5
Tsunami refugeee imagineering exodus.
4 out of 5
Horrific writer's fate well deserved.
4 out of 5
Making a universal mess of it.
2.5 out of 5
Computer cops crimp AI's carnal cavorting with calisthenic chick.
4 out of 5
4.5 out of 5
Not bad for the price, but not great either. A rocky start to the series.
21 Jan 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There were a slew of stories that I just couldn't get through and gave up on, but the ones I could get through weren't too bad.
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Couldn't stand it, stopped halfway through
Femaville 29 - Held my interest and killed some time, but no big revelations here
The Djinn's Wife - Moderately Enjoyable
The quality is consistently inconsistent throughout.
If you're a Strahan fan and are considering buying this, just do it, the low price justifies the so-so quality.
Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Couldn't stand it, stopped halfway through
Femaville 29 - Held my interest and killed some time, but no big revelations here
The Djinn's Wife - Moderately Enjoyable
The quality is consistently inconsistent throughout.
If you're a Strahan fan and are considering buying this, just do it, the low price justifies the so-so quality.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
