The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction. edited by Gardner Dozois
The Very Best of the Best is rated 83%.
AVERAGE STORY: 3.74
38 Stories : 3 great / 25 good / 7 average / 3 poor / 0 DNF
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Let’s get this on the table right at the start. The title is a lie. This does not cover the entire 35 years that Gardner Dozois edited ‘Best of the Year’ anthologies, but only 2002 to 2017. There are two other volumes with very similar names that cover the rest of that time.
With that out of the way, this is a fitting tribute to one of the Science Fiction genre’s most important editors. You’ll start to notice a Dozois-style as you read through this stories. He strongly favorited long novellas - some of which could have been published as stand alone books - with dense and interesting world-building. There is also a lot of action and violence in these stories. Full of the kind of action and excitement that one finds in Hollywood SciFi movies, but with substantively more thoughtful worlds.
While only three stories made the “Great List,” most of the ‘merely’ good stories are very well done and this collection is highly recommended. It is a good anthology to read as a way of discovering new writers to explore further.
“Good Mountain” by Robert Reed. It might be considered a glorified travelogue, but it does that so gracefully and through such an interesting world. I felt totally immersed in the world of floating wooden islands that coalesce long enough for civilizations to arise. What comes together must break apart. Hence the drama of this great story.
“The Invasion of Venus” by Stephen Baxter. Another Baxter story makes my Great List. One of the things that the universe should accomplish is humble us. This story does a great job of expressing that. Interstellar war breaks out in our solar system, but we aren’t party to it.
“Pathways” by Nancy Kress. Kress writes with great empathy for her characters. This is the story of a bright young woman with no education trying to save her family from a horrible genetic disease by courageously volunteering for a medical experiment that she doesn’t understand. I absolutely adored this.
The Very Best of the Best is rated 83%.
38 Stories : 3 great / 25 good / 7 average / 3 poor / 0 DNF
How do I arrive at a rating?
“The Potter of Bones” by Eleanor Arnason. 2002
Average. Well written but ultimately pointless story of a Cat-Person society and one woman who wants to study the fossil record.
“Rogue Farm” by Charles Stross. 2003
Good. A husband and wife work to drive off a “farm,” a grotesque being made of human and mechanical parts.
“The Little Goddess” by Ian McDonald. 2005
Good. In a very well realized future India, we follow a young woman destined for spiritual royalty and her life when that ends.
“Dead Men Walking” by Paul McAuley. 2006
Good. A military clone must risk revealing himself when a series of brutal murders occurs on his adopted planet.
“Tin Marsh” by Michael Swanwick. 2006
Good. A suspenseful cat and mouse game between two prospecting partners on Venus who’s relationship has gone very badly.
“Good Mountain” by Robert Reed. 2006
Great. Riding in the flesh of a giant animal across a planet being chased by apocalypse. This is a spectacularly well realized world, very different from our own, but never so different that you get lost. A travelogue through an alien landscape, with just enough suspense to drive the story.
“Where the Golden Apples Grow” by Kage Baker. 2006
Good. Two young boys from very different backgrounds and the hard life of long distance hauling on Mars.
“The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter” by Alastair Reynolds. 2007
Average. Feels like fantasy, but isn’t. The daughter from the title dodges an abusive man to end up at a witch’s house to get a lot of exposition about the world.
“Glory” by Greg Egan. 2007
Good. Provincial squabbles get in the way of exploration of an ancient civilization’s mathematic remnants.
“Finisterra” by David Moles. 2007
Good. The continents ride on the backs of enormous animals and our character has taken a job to kill one of them.
“The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm” by Daryl Gregory. 2008
Good. The brutal violent reality of living in the Super Villian’s home city.
“Utrinsque Cosmi” by Robert Charles Wilson. 2009
Average. From far beyond the universe, a woman visits herself when she was a girl, before she was ‘raptured’ by the Fleet.
“Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance” by John Kessel. 2009
Good. A fast-paced SF spy story with a monk and soldier on the run with a religion’s holy documents.
“Useless Things” by Maureen McHugh. 2009
Good. In post-apocalyptic New Mexico, a woman tried to make a small living designing high quality dolls, but a chance encounter will change how she views her world.
“Boojum” (inaccurately titled as “Mongoose”) by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. 2009.
Good. A living pirate ship. A horrible booty. An act of mercy. A new frontier.
“Hair” by Adam Roberts. 2009
Average. A tech wiz tries to use a genetic modification to save the starving poor.
“The Things” by Peter Watts . 2010
Poor. “Who’s Goes There?” retold from the alien’s perspective. Hard to focus on with a stupid and offensive ending.
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele. 2010
Good. Tragedy drives an astronaut into the worlds of fictional Mars.
“Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee. 2010
Good. Chinese-infused story of a woman in command of a powerful weapon. She is hired to use a weapon that will destroy a person entire lineage.
“Martian Heart” by John Barnes. 2011
Good. SF love story about teenage convicts who have a second chance on Mars. Touching.
“The Invasion of Venus” by Stephen Baxter. 2011
Great. Interstellar war forces humanity to understand its place in the universe.
“Weep For Day” by Indrapramit Das. 2012
Good. On a planet with permanent Dayside and Nightside, a family trip to see a “Nightmare” starts a chain reaction that will change a young woman’s life - and the future of the entire planet.
“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi” by Pat Cadigan. 2012
Poor. A story about people who change species, but it has nothing interesting to say and is written in an unintentionally unpleasant voice.
“The Memcordist” by Lavie Tidhar. 2012
Good. A future “Influencer” is watched by millions as he searches the galaxy for his lost love.
“The Best We Can” by Carrie Vaughn. 2013
Average. Bureaucracy and other nonsense frustrate an astronomer who has discovered an alien probe near Jupiter
“The Discovered Country” by Ian R. MacLeod. 2013
Good. A perfect digital afterlife is the setting for a man who is sent to reconnect with a former lover who holds a position of power in this ‘world.’
“Pathways” by Nancy Kress. 2013.
Great. Heroic tale of a bright, uncultured, mountain girl who is willing to undergo scientific testing for help discover a cure for her family’s rare genetic disease..
“The Hand Is Quicker…” by Elizabeth Bear. 2014.
Good. The wealthy in the future have a Digital skin that keeps their view of the world pristine and interesting. Until you are unable to make payments.
“Someday” by James Patrick Kelly. 2014
Poor. Strange mating rituals amongst a group of humans who have different biology.
“The Long Haul, From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009” by Ken Liu. 2014
Good. A cozy alternate steampunk history journey by Zeppelin from China to Las Vegas.
“Three Cups of Grief, By Starlight” by Aliette De Bodard. 2015
Good. Two siblings mourn their scientist mother’s death. On is a civil servant. The other is a sentient spaceship.
“Calved” by Sam J. Miller. 2015
Good. An immigrant who fled NY for Sweden tries very hard to have a good relationship with his teenage son leading him into a devastating and ironic mistake.
“Emergence” by Gwyneth Jones. 2015
Average. Lots of creative speculation that never comes around to a compelling story. AI issues of sentience, slavery, immortality and culture difference come to a head when a woman much return to earth from the Outer Worlds.
“Rates of Change” by James S.A. Corey. 2015
Good. In an world where people transfer their consciousness to other bodies, a mother has trouble dealing with a son who chooses to live in a body designed for beneath the sea.
“Jonas and the Fox” by Rich Larson. 2016
Good. A revolutionary poet hides with his family until a tragic death and a surprise discovery change the entire situation.
“KIT: Some Assembly Required” by Kathe Koja and Carter Scholz. 2016
Average. Christopher Marlowe (Elizabethan playwright) is brought back from the dead as an AI.
“Winter Timeshare” by Ray Nayler. 2017
Good. A couple spends a year together in Istanbul - in artificial bodies - and that causes problems with the local population.
“My English Name” by R.S. Benedict. 2017.
Good. The challenges of having a life and relationships when you are an unknown thing trying to live within a human body.
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