The Year's Best Science Fiction (Paperback)

In a rarity for me, some of my favourite stories in the book were more on the hard science side than is usual for my taste. There is Stephen Baxter's excellent "Mayflower II," which deals with a generation ship on a trip to the far reaches of the galaxy and beyond, and what happens in the meantime. On the very edge of the solar system, there is a colony that has hidden itself away the alien Qax who had conquered the Earth. Now, the Coalition of Interim Governance has freed Earth, and is on its way to the colony. Five generation ships are dispatched to save as many of the colony's citizens as possible. On Rusel's ship, the "Pharaoh" of the ship has decided that they are going to journey all the way across the galaxy, a trip that will take many thousands of years. The story is Rusel's, and how he becomes virtually immortal, and how the citizens of the ship begin to devolve as time goes on. It's a truly horrifying story in a way, demonstrating what isolated societies can become over time. For a while, I was beginning to get bored with the story, as it's not really my favourite type of story and it was quite long. However, I soon got wrapped up in this society, and Rusel's severance from his own humanity. It's a slow story in some ways, but the ideas behind it just grab you and don't let you go. It's probably the best story in the book.

Another great story is "The Clapping Hands of God" by Michael F. Flynn. In this one, a gate has opened to another world. Teams of scientists go through these gates to explore the worlds, but this one just happens to be inhabited by an intelligent species. Hassan Maklouf is the leader of this particular expedition, and he is in charge of making sure they are not seen by the inhabitants, as well as making all the decisions. The studies are going well, with some progress being made on studying their language as well as their culture. Theories are presented for why they act in certain ways, especially when an apparently martial rally is seen. This is followed by what appears to be a couple spending their last night together. Then things really start to go wrong, as Hassan discovers that they aren't the only invaders here. There are two main characters in this story, Hassan and a female anthropologist, Iman. There are some romantic sparks between them, even as they both try to act like proper Moslems. However, the broader story is their conflict once things start to go wrong, as Iman is the humanitarian scientist and Hassan is the practical one. The ending is tragic, all the more so because of the hints of their relationship earlier in the story. It was very nice to see a story where the characters' religions were just part of their character, rather than a main part of the story. While these two are the main characters, all of the other scientists are also well done, giving the story a broad tapestry on which to weave its magic.

While those two stories were the best of the lot in my opinion, other strong stories included "The Tribes of Bela" by Albert Cowdrey (a series of grisly murders on a remote mining colony are symptoms of a planet that's trying to reclaim itself and expel the invaders), "Leviathan Wept," by Daniel Abraham (a member of a futuristic anti-terrorism squad discovers that fanaticism comes in all shapes and sizes, including possibly his own), and "Investments," by Walter Jon Williams (a space opera that gives us illegal business dealings as well as a star cluster shooting out x-rays that could destroy the planet, making the investigation of the business dealings kind of moot). Most of the other stories in this volume were also quite good, or at least readable.

Some choices I did disagree with, however. As I said above, "Mother Aegypt" isn't one of Baker's best stories. It has a strong first three-quarters, but then fell apart for me at the end. "Start the Clock," by Benjamin Rosenbaum, was a nice little story but I didn't find the world that believable and thus I wouldn't include it among the best of the year. Finally, I didn't really care for "The Defenders," by Colin P. Davies, when I first read it in Asimov's. It didn't improve when I read it again here. It was decent, but again not one of the best.

One thing I do have to say about the quality of this anthology, however, is that the copy editing was horrendous. Typos were all over the place, a few words were wrong here and there. I usually don't notice these things, as I'm sure they exist in almost every book that's out there. When I do notice them, however, it must really be bad. That being said, I really did enjoy this anthology, and while it's not as good as the 21st edition, it is definitely worth picking up if you like science fiction. Dozois is one of the best editors out there, and it shows once again.

David Roy