Year's Best SF 11

by David G. Hartwell (Editor, Contributor), Kathryn Cramer (Editor, Contributor), David Langford (Contributor)

Travel farther than you've ever dreamed Man has mused about the nature of our universe since he first gazed up in wonder at the stars. Now some of the most fertile imaginations in speculative fiction offer bold and breathtaking visions of "what's out there" and "what's next" in the eleventh annual celebration of the very best short SF to appear over the past year.

Once again, acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled an extraordinary collection featuring stunning works from modern masters as well as dazzling gems from brilliant new talents -- tales that carry the reader to the far corners of the galaxy and beyond, into hitherto unexplored regions. Get ready to take glorious flight on a journey to the miraculous.

Contents

xi • Introduction (Year's Best SF 11) • (2006) • essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
1 • New Hope for the Dead • (2005) • shortstory by David Langford
5 • Deus Ex Homine • (2005) • shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi
22 • When the Great Days Came • (2005) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois [as by Gardner R. Dozois ]
29 • Second Person, Present Tense • (2005) • novelette by Daryl Gregory
54 • Dreadnought • (2005) • shortstory by Justina Robson
58 • A Case of Consilience • (2005) • shortstory by Ken MacLeod
73 • Toy Planes • (2005) • shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell
77 • Mason's Rats • [Mason's Rats] • (1992) • shortstory by Neal Asher (variant of Mason's Rats I)
85 • A Modest Proposal • (2005) • shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
89 • Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch • (2005) • shortstory by Rudy Rucker
106 • The Forever Kitten • (2005) • shortstory by Peter F. Hamilton
111 • City of Reason • [Homesteader/Coordinator Group • 3] • (2005) • novelette by Matthew Jarpe
136 • Ivory Tower • (2005) • shortstory by Bruce Sterling
140 • Sheila • (2005) • shortstory by Lauren McLaughlin
156 • Rats of the System • (2005) • shortstory by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley ]
176 • I Love Liver: A Romance • (2005) • shortstory by Larissa Lai
180 • The Edge of Nowhere • (2005) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly
207 • What's Expected of Us • (2005) • shortstory by Ted Chiang
211 • Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play • [Darger and Surplus] • (2005) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
241 • Lakes of Light • [Xeelee] • (2005) • novelette by Stephen Baxter
262 • The Albian Message • (2005) • shortstory by Oliver Morton
266 • Bright Red Star • (2005) • shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
281 • Third Day Lights • (2005) • novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
305 • Ram Shift Phase 2 • (2005) • shortstory by Greg Bear
310 • On the Brane • (2004) • novelette by Gregory Benford
330 • Oxygen Rising • (2005) • novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
377 • And Future King . . . • (2005) • shortstory by Adam Roberts
387 • Beyond the Aquila Rift • (2005) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds
425 • Angel of Light • (2005) • shortstory by Joe Haldeman
435 • Ikiryoh • (2005) • shortstory by Liz Williams
448 • I, Robot • (2005) • novelette by Cory Doctorow

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Collections, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

David Geddes Hartwell was an American editor of science fiction and fantasy. He worked for Signet (1971-1973), Berkley Putnam (1973-1978), Pocket (where he founded the Timescape imprint, 1978-1983, and created the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing line), and Tor (where he spearheaded Tor's Canadian publishing initiative, and was also influential in bringing many Australian writers to the US market, 1984-date), and has published numerous anthologies. He chaired the board of directors of the World Fantasy Convention and, with Gordon Van Gelder, was the administrator of the Philip K. Dick Award. He held a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature.

He lived in Pleasantville, New York with his wife Kathryn Cramer and their two children.

Reviews

[Kevin Kuhn]

The “Year’s Best SF11” was published in 2006, containing the best tales of 2005. It includes thirty-one science fiction short stories. It’s chocked full of famous authors such as Joe Haldeman, Greg Bear, Alastair Reynolds, and Ted Chiang. I read it during the Holiday Break, which was perfect as I was juggling finalizing grading for four university courses (220 students) and a houseful of family. So every now and then, usually in the morning, I would get to sneak into a corner and read a short story.

Overall, I enjoyed the collection, there were several that I didn’t connect with, but that’s not unusual. It’s a good variety and well edited. My favorites were:

Second Person, Present Tense – My favorite in the collection. A mind-stretching story about a drug that causes the recipient to forget their self, a suicide of soul, but not of body. I found it fascinating, because there is some real science behind it, and because it has fascinating implications.

Mason’s Rats – A farmer discovers that the rats in his barn have become sentient and tool users. His cats have gone missing, and he enters into an escalating technical arms race against the rats. I could see this one play out in my mind like a movie.

A Modest Proposal for the Perfection of Nature – In some distant future, mankind has remade the earth into a utopia. We have created the perfect grain that feeds all of humanity. No other life exists on the planet, just humans and the ideal food supply. This allows mankind to live in a virtual world that meets our every need and want. What a nightmare.

The Forever Kitten – A very short tale of the invention of immortality. In just three and a half pages, Peter F. Hamilton tells a tale that you only realize is Lovecraftian Horror after you read the last sentence.

What’s Expected of Us – A short by Ted Chiang – that’s all I need to say.

Bright Red Star – A heartbreaking story about the ultimate war against the ultimate enemy and what that might turn us into. Really made me think.

A solid collection with some excellent stories and good variety of length, content, and theme. Four stars from me.

[Roddy Williams]

It could be argued that ‘Nature’ is helping to keep that odd phenomenon, the short short story, alive. The SSS – not to be confused with the Drabble, which is a microstory of one hundred words – presumably due to the space constraints for fiction within the magazine, runs to no more than four pages.
Thus SF has found an evolutionary niche in a non-fiction periodical, much as happened back in the Sixties and Seventies with Playboy, which regularly had its published stories reprinted in ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies.
Several SSS’s feature in this volume and very good they are too. The longer pieces are also excellent, although in many I am seeing very good writing but little innovation.
There are two so far that I find both innovative and exciting, Rudy Rucker’s ‘Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch’ and Daryl Gregory’s ‘Second Person, Present Tense’.


David Langford – New Hope for the Dead (Nature 2005)
Hannu Rajaniemi – Deus Ex Homine (Nova Scotia 2005)
Gardner R Dozois – When the Great Days Came (F&SF 2005)
Daryl Gregory – Second Person, Present Tense (Asimov’s 2005)
Justina Robson – Dreadnought (Nature 2005)
Ken Macleod – A Case of Consilience (Nova Scotia 2005)
Tobias S Bucknell – Toy Planes (Nature 2005)
Neal Asher – Mason’s Rats (Asimov’s 2005)
Vonda N McIntyre – A Modest Proposal (Nature 2005)
Rudy Rucker – Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch (Interzone 2005)
Peter F Hamilton – The Forever Kitten (Nature 2005)
Matthew Jarpe – City of Reason (Asimov’s 2005)
Bruce Sterling – Ivory Tower (Nature 2005)
Lauren McLaughlin – Sheila (Interzone 2005)
Paul McAuley – Rats of The System (Constellations 2005)
Larissa Lai – I Love Liver: A Romance (Nature 2005)
James Patrick Kelly – The Edge of Nowhere (Asimov’s 2005)
Ted Chiang – What’s Expected of Us (Nature 2005)
Michael Swanwick – Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play (Asimov’s Aug 2005)
Stephen Baxter – Lakes of Light (Constellations 2005)
Oliver Morton – The Albian Message (Nature 2005)
Bud Sparhawk – Bright Red Star (Asimov’s 2005)
Alaya Dawn Johnson – Third Day Lights (Interzone 200 2005)
Greg Bear – Ram Shift Phase 2 (Nature 2005)
Gregory Benford – On the Brane (Gateways 2005)
R Garcia y Robertson – Oxygen Rising (2005)
Adam Roberts – And Future King… (Nature 2005)
Alastair Reynolds – Beyond the Aquila Rift (Constellations 2005)
Joe Haldeman – Angel of Light (Cosmos #6 – Dec 2005)
Liz Williams – Ikiryoh (Asimovs, Dec 2005)
Cory Doctorow – I, Robot (Infinite Matrix – Dec 2005)





David Langford – New Hope for the Dead

A satirical tale in which the digitally preserved dead are recruited to police e-mail during a credit crunch.

Hannu Rajaniemi – Deus Ex Homine

A very well-written story involving man’s fight against a virus which transforms humans into godlike AIs.

Gardner R Dozois – When the Great Days Came

The first of the stories in this volume featuring rats (either literally or symbolically). A rat witnesses the meteor strike which initiates the human extinction event.

Daryl Gregory – Second Person, Present Tense

One of the best stories in this volume, Gregory tells the story of Therese, whose personality was wiped by a new illegal drug. Having had her personality and memories reassembled, Terry has trouble convincing her family and therapists and maybe herself that she is not the Therese who took the drug in the first place. Gripping and thought-provoking.

Justina Robson – Dreadnought

A grim slice of dark space opera where dead soldiers, mounted on the flanks of a damaged military space vehicle are employed to host a damaged AI.

Ken Macleod – A Case of Consilience

An update on James Blish’s seminal novel ‘A Case of Conscience’ in which a priest seeks to communicate with seemingly intelligent networks of fungus.

Tobias S Bucknell – Toy Planes

An interesting little piece which relates the West Indies entry into the space race, from the viewpoint of a young pilot.

Neal Asher – Mason’s Rats

The rats in this story have mutated into a tool-bearing species which are raiding the grain from an automated factory. The question is, who are the true rats when one examines the bigger picture.

Vonda N McIntyre – A Modest Proposal

Like Macleod’s story, this is also a response to an earlier piece, in this case Swift’s (?) ‘A Modest Proposal to Improve on Nature’.

Rudy Rucker – Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch

As befits the artist, this is a surreal and colourful piece in which an alien takes a woman back in time to kidnap her hero, Hieronymus Bosch. The alien appears to be planning some kind of art installation of his own, featuring the relationship between the two, but things do not go to plan

Peter F Hamilton – The Forever Kitten

A short and fairly standard piece from Hamilton, which again looks at one of his favourite themes, that of longevity. It has a shock ending, which is unexpected, despite the brevity of the tale.

Matthew Jarpe – City of Reason

Asteroid dwellers, in a universe where disaffected radicals can set up their own communities in the asteroid belt. A one-man ship intercepts another ship hidden inside an asteroid containing a young couple. The girl, however is not what she seems and they are carrying a nuclear weapon, to destroy the City of Reason. A tale of advanced human augmentation.

Bruce Sterling – Ivory Tower

A very brief tale about physicists setting up their own university on the internet

Lauren McLaughlin – Sheila

A beautifully atmospheric and engaging story about AIs, humans and religion. AI worship also features in the following story by Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley – Rats of The System

When transcendent AIs abandon Earth, fundamentalist sects proclaim them as gods and set about destroying anyone who dares to believe differently. A scientist and a pilot are attacked by the Fanatics while studying one such AI, who is dismantling a binary star system. The Rats here are metaphorical.

Larissa Lai – I Love Liver: A Romance

Just as the title says, a researcher falls in love with the liver he has designed.

James Patrick Kelly – The Edge of Nowhere

One of my favourite stories in this volume, this is set in a virtual world atop a plateau, where the residents can order anything they wish to be constructed. One of them, however, is trying to write The Great American Novel, and this original work provokes the interest of three intelligent dogs who suddenly appear, enquiring about the book.

Ted Chiang – What’s Expected of Us

Another excellent short piece from nature examining the concept of free will and determinism.

Michael Swanwick – Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play

A story which takes place in Arcadia, replete with artificially created gods such as Dionysus, satyrs, nymphs, and the author’s regular characters – Darger and Surplus. see also ‘The Dog said Bow-Wow’

Stephen Baxter – Lakes of Light

Part of Stephen Baxter’s ‘Xeelee Sequence’, this features a contact unit who find human colonies living under domes on a Xeelee constructed shell around a sun.

Oliver Morton – The Albian Message

Aliens have apparently left messages encoded in human DNA which points to a location at the Trojan asteroids.

Bud Sparhawk – Bright Red Star

A grim militaristic tale highlighting the realities of war and desensitisation.

Alaya Dawn Johnson – Third Day Lights

‘a strange creature living within a bizarre ‘body’ with a two-dimensional friend, is visited by a human. He is able to respond to the challenges which she sets him, and reveals that humanity is in the process of retrieving all humans who may or may not have ever lived, before using the energy from all universes, no matter how strange.’ from bestsf.net

Greg Bear – Ram Shift Phase 2

Another short short story from Nature


Gregory Benford – On the Brane

Humans visit a parallel Earth in a universe which is dying far faster than ours, where the laws of physics are very different and intelligent life of a very odd sort has evolved on Earth.

R Garcia y Robertson – Oxygen Rising

A human negotiator is involved in a war between humans and various bioengineered human decendants

Adam Roberts – And Future King…

King Arthur is recreated and decides to run for government. Another very short piece from ‘Nature’

Alastair Reynolds – Beyond the Aquila Rift

Reynolds is expert at the incredibly dense universe he creates. Here, we find a ship which has taken the wrong turn somehow through a wormhole and ended up somewhere else, but exactly how far have they travelled, and for how long?

Joe Haldeman – Angel of Light

In the future Ahmad Abd al-kareem, an adherent of Chrislam finds a preserved copy of the Summer 1944 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories belonging to an ancestor. After much soul-searching he takes it to the bazaar and barters it to an alien for an eternal light.

Liz Williams – Ikiryoh

A fascinating story about Japanese society and a woman who is asked to look after a child which has been given the bad spirit of the ruler, an Ikiryoh. While the bad spirit is trapped in the child, the ruler will be kind and beneficent.

Cory Doctorow – I, Robot

One of the best stories in this collection, it follows a man whose brilliant wife defected to the East where technological controls are less severe, and he suspects she is responsible for the recent terrorist software attacks on the West.

[Rena Sherwood]

Well, here's an awkward moment for me. I had read one of the later books in this series and was blown away so I was really looking forward to this one. It wound up being that second really disastrous date sorta scenario.



And it was spectacularly unimpressive. I finished reading it less than a week ago and I can barely remember any of it. There's just nothing memorable here. No "Nightfall" material for future generations to "ooo" and "ahh" over.

Which is a real shame because the book looks gorgeous. There aren't any 40 page micro-print "year in review" potboilers to slog through before you get to the stories. You just jump right in. The print was large enough for my old eyes and the book didn't pull any arm muscles when I lifted it (and yes -- I have hurt my arms lifting a heavy book. But I haven't sued. Because I'm just so effing nice.)

Selections seemed to be picked because they fell into certain themes:

1) Rodents: Because when you think "mouse" or "rat" you naturally think "scifi."



2) Post-humanity. At first I thought WHEE because no idea can make me happier than the thought of all humanity dropping dead (including me -- at least I'd die laughing) and the rest of the planet kicking merrily along. But no. Apparently, that's NOT what "post-humanity" means. It means people figure out ways of being immortal. Bummer.

3) Branes. And I am spelling it correctly. It's short for "membrane" and it's not worth trying to describe. Once you figure it out it becomes too lame to spare a memory cell on.

4) Sub-referencing previous scifi novels, stories or worlds that I haven't read yet:

[Frankenoise]

Really is one of the most disappointing line up of short stories I've read. So many are not even four pages long, which makes them totally forgettable. For some reason there's a lot of stories from a magazine called Nature, which I never heard of, and a few stories about rats. Yeah, plain boring rats! The only thing saving this collection from being a total disaster is the excellent stories by Baxter and Reynolds.

[Judy]

Lots of great sci-fi in this collection.

[Andrew Brooks]

Anthologies are a mix... some stories you won't like. This one got a 5 for most stories were great, even rereadable, which for me is a rarity.

[Earl Truss]

Most of the stories were good. A few were fantasy rather than science fiction. Almost half were four pages stories that were originally published in Nature magazine.

[Jessica Lerbs]

I enjoyed more than half of them, so, a successful anthology for me!

[Scott Golden]

A couple of issues detract from the overall quality of this collection: 1) An over-dependence on stories from the journal Nature; stories which, while written by competent professional writers, are short-shorts and for the most part don't amount to much more than story sketches (more Ideas than actual Stories). 2) The same limiting factor faced by the series as a whole -- a relatively narrow definition of what constitutes "science fiction", coupled with a seeming desire to identify and then dwell on a prevalent theme (in this case, Artificial Intelligence) of stories that appeared during the year under review. Actively searching for trends as a method for selecting stories does NOT lend itself to presenting a healthy variety of story-types. There is still plenty of good material here, but adventurous readers might also wonder about What Might Have Been.

[Andrew (M)]

This collection is one of the stronger in the series, which is saying alot. The story "Second Person, Present Tense" is so well written and moving that it alone makes the book worthwhile. There is plenty of other good stuff here too, like "Sheila", "Ram Shift Phase 2", and "Forever Kitten". I found that a few too many of the stories had religious overtones or themes for my taste, but that's just a personal preference and not a reflection of the quality of the stories. But really, how many stories can you read in a row with the theme: "technology has made us like unto gods, let's explore what remains of our humanity"?

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/705321.html[return][return]There was only one story out of 31 here that failed to really engage my interest (OK, some of them were very short) and two that I thought were really good and would not have come across otherwise. I liked very much R Garcia y Robertson's "Oxygen Rising", about future war, peacekeeping and sex, and Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" struck me as one of the great sf and religion stories (OK, it references many of the others, but that if anything is a strength).

[Joseph]

Subjective Favorites:
"Second Person, Present Tense"/Daryl Gregory.
"A Case of Consilience"/Ken MacLeod.
"Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch"/Rudy Rucker.
"The Edge of Nowhere"/ James Patrick Kelly.
"What's Expected of Us"/Ted Chiang.
"Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play"/Michael Swanwick.
"Third Day Lights"/Alaya Dawn Johnson.
"And Future King..."/Adam Roberts.
"Beyond the Aquila Rift"/Alastair Reynolds.

[Karen]

As with any collection of short stories, some you like, some you don't. I do recommend reading short stories every so often, even if you prefer novels, because the really good stories are so rewarding.

[David Nichols]

Contains Alastair Reynolds’ “Beyond the Aquila Rift," Gardner Dozois's "When the Great Days Came" (a perfect vignette for those days when one feels like a rat), and Bud Sparhawk's gripping and well-written horror story "Bright Red Star."

[Bill Borre]

"And Future King" by Adam Roberts - Artificial personality King Arthur conquers Britain and institutes middle age reform.

"When the Great Days Came" by Gardner Dozois - wc
"The Forever Kitten" by Peter F. Hamilton - wc
"Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch" by Rudy Rucker - wc

[Christy]

Of course, because it has Daryl's story Second Person, Present Tense
[http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0702/Se...]

[bluetyson]

Year's Best SF 11 (Year's Best Sf) by David G. Hartwell (2006)

[Ed]

Many short stories, ranging from really good to meh, but almost all thought-provoking. The great thing about an anthology is that if one isn't so good, you've only invested 20 pages!

[Maryanne]

Year's Best SF11 02072010
Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer 2006


Some good stuff.

[Anna]

A fun collection of science-fiction shorts: some silly, some curious and some of them truly inspirational. No surprise that stories by Peter F. Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds pleased me the most.

[Darla Ebert]

Greatly. And Gravely. Disappointed.

[Dan Clore]

I especially recommend:

Ken MacLeod, "A Case of Consilience"
Rudy Rucker, "Guadalupe and Hieronyus Bosch"
Michael Swanwick, "Girls and Boys, Come out to Play"
Cory Doctorow, "I, Robot"