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A review by austinbeeman
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois
5.0
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: TWENTY FIRST ANNUAL COLLECTION
RATED 90% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.97 OUT OF 5
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
You cannot say you don’t get your money’s worth from a Gardner Dozois Best of the Year. These are big books, full of lots of stories, with very small font. Dozois doesn’t shy away from reprinting novellas if the stories deserve it. The physical volumes stand proud on the shelf surrounded by the unending epics of 21st Century SFF publishing.
Thankfully, these are quite good anthologies. Some of the most essential SF reading in any year they were published. This 21st Annual - covering stories first published in 2003 - is better than most. Lots of diversity of style and tone. The stories are exceptional reading, made even more pleasing by the fact that few of these stories are well known.
Here are Five Stories that Made The Great List:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
The Ice • (2003) • novella by Steven Popkes. The story starts with the silly premise in which a young man discovers that he is the illegal clone of Hockey Legend Gordie Howe. It ripples into a deeply human story of love, death, privilege, disadvantage, identity, family, perseverance, and just the very nature of what makes up a life. I cannot overstate how deep and human this is.
June Sixteenth at Anna's • (2003) • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A quietly heartbreaking story. In the future, people are able to capture moments of the past in various qualities of virtual reality. An old man, grieving the death of his wife, watches a famous holocording of a few hours of conversation in a New York restaurant, months in advance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A holocording that captured a moment with his wife.
The Green Leopard Plague • [College of Mystery] • (2003) • novella by Walter Jon Williams. In the future bodies can be changed at will and no one ever dies the ‘realdeath.’ A woman who is currently living as a mermaid, hired to research the moments when a famous economist went off-the-grid in Europe. Cutting between the mermaid and the story of the economist, we get drawn into the mystery of the future and a violent thriller through France and Italy, culminating in two discoveries that change the world and our perception of it.
Anomalous Structures of My Dreams • (2003) • novelette by M. Shayne Bell. A severely ill patient with AIDS shares a room with a patient who has a “strange form of pneumonia.” It slowly becomes apparent than this isn’t pneumonia. He has been infected with technology from a laboratory and that technology is building something within his body. Something that could completely reshape the world. Smart concept and an excellent ratcheting of tension.
Awake in the Night • (2003) • novella by John C. Wright. A dark and beautiful nightmare. It is millions of years in the future. The sun is dead and the last of humanity lives in a pyramid - The Redoubt. They are watched by haunting and horrible things including monsters that move slowly over hundreds of years and others that can destroy the body and the soul. This is a baroque and stunning quest across a hideous landscape in the hope of rescuing a friend that has disappeared into the darkness. A masterpiece of style, mood, and creativity.
***
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: TWENTY FIRST ANNUAL COLLECTION IS RATED 90%.
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Off on a Starship • (2003) • novella by William Barton
Good. A young boy - who has read and watched a lot of Science Fiction - sneaks abroad a flying saucer when in lands in a Virginia field. He observes many wondrous things and eventually builds a relationship with a robot on an alien world.
It's All True • [Moment Universes] • (2003) • novelette by John Kessel
Good. A movie recruiter travels to the past to try to entice Orson Welles to escape his failing life and come make films in the future where he is respected.
Rogue Farm • (2003) • short story by Charles Stross
Good. A husband and wife work to drive off a “farm,” a grotesque being made of human and mechanical parts.
The Ice • (2003) • novella by Steven Popkes
Great. The story starts with the silly premise in which a young man discovers that he is the illegal clone of Hockey Legend Gordie Howe. It ripples into a deeply human story of love, death, privilege, disadvantage, identity, family, perseverance, and just the very nature of what makes up a life. I cannot overstate how deep and human this is.
Ej-Es • (2003) • short story by Nancy Kress
Good. At the site of a colony collapse, a small team of Corps explorers discover some survivors who have retreated into a degraded life full of joy and invisible friends.
The Bellman • [Anna-Louise Bach] • (2003) • novelette by John Varley
Average. Action packed thriller on a domed lunar city. A pregnant police officer makes herself ‘bait’ for a serial killer who is killing pregnant women.
The Bear's Baby • [Holy Ground Trilogy] • (2003) • novella by Judith Moffett
Good. Aliens came and made the human race sterile. With the help of some humans, the aliens are starting to bring back Earth’s ecology and native animals. One of these men works with bear cubs, finds his job unceremoniously ended by alien authorities, and sneaks back into the woods. He will find something he never expected. Something that the aliens are desperate to hide.
Calling Your Name • (2003) • short story by Howard Waldrop
Average. A man get electricuated and wakes up in a world that seems the same except for much of the details of history went differently. No one knows the Beatles and Nixon was never President, etc….
June Sixteenth at Anna's • (2003) • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Great. A quietly heartbreaking story. In the future, people are able to capture moments of the past in various qualities of virtual reality. An old man, grieving the death of his wife, watches a famous holocording of a few hours of conversation in a New York restaurant, months in advance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A holocording that captured a moment with his wife.
The Green Leopard Plague • [College of Mystery] • (2003) • novella by Walter Jon Williams
Great. In the future bodies can be changed at will and no one ever dies the ‘realdeath.’ A woman who is currently living as a mermaid, hired to research the moments when a famous economist went off-the-grid in Europe. Cutting between the mermaid and the story of the economist, we get drawn into the mystery of the future and a violent thriller through France and Italy, culminating in two discoveries that change the world and our perception of it.
The Fluted Girl • (2003) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
Good. Fiefdoms are back, with celebrities and the ultra wealthy performing all the functions that used to be for government. Every person is heavily genetically modified. Wealthy stars have eternal youth. Security is a mix of jackal, wolf, and human. The ‘fluted girl’ is trapped as an adolescent, with ultra fragile bones that make her a literal erotic musical instrument.
Dead Worlds • (2003) • short story by Jack Skillingstead
Good. He served the interstellar war effort as an Eye, but the cost was that he is mentally destroyed and cannot be human without his medication. On leave, he starts a relationship with a widow after hitting her dog with his car.
King Dragon • (2003) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. One of Swanwick’s “Hard Science Fantasy” stories. A dragon is shot down over a small town and takes control of it. He enlists the help of a young man, whom the dragon empowers to work on his behalf.
Singletons in Love • (2003) • novelette by Paul Melko
Good. The cohesion of a cluster - humans who live as a one consciousness - is disrupted by the discovery of a man who is a singleton. Just one person in one brain.
Anomalous Structures of My Dreams • (2003) • novelette by M. Shayne Bell
Great. A severely ill patient with AIDS shares a room with a patient who has a “strange form of pneumonia.” It slowly becomes apparent than this isn’t pneumonia. He has been infected with technology from a laboratory and that technology is building something within his body. Something that could completely reshape the world. Smart concept and an excellent ratcheting of tension.
The Cookie Monster • (2003) • novella by Vernor Vinge
Good. A customer support specialist working for an important tech company receives a strange email that leads her down a path that will challenge everything she believes. Even the nature of her own existence.
Joe Steele • (2003) • short story by Harry Turtledove
Good. What if Joseph Stalin became president instead of Franklin D Roosevelt? This is more of a thought experiment and less of an actual story, but this is smart, sharp, and snarky.
Birth Days • (2003) • short story by Geoff Ryman
Average. A gay man celebrates a series of birthdays during which he is outed, tries to ‘cure’ homosexuality, and become the first pregnant man.
Awake in the Night • (2003) • novella by John C. Wright
Great. A dark and beautiful nightmare. It is millions of years in the future. The sun is dead and the last of humanity lives in a pyramid - The Redoubt. They are watched by haunting and horrible things including monsters that move slowly over hundreds of years and others that can destroy the body and the soul. This is a baroque and stunning quest across a hideous landscape in the hope of rescuing a friend that has disappeared into the darkness. A masterpiece of style, mood, and creativity.
The Long Way Home • (2003) • short story by James Van Pelt
Average. The spaceship with the last hope for humanity appears to to destroyed, even while humanity appears to destroy itself. But pieces of both still remain and start to converge.
The Eyes of America • (2003) • short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
Good. It is 1904 and Teddy Roosevelt has been assassinated. It appears that William Jennings Bryan will win the presidency until the Republicans nominate Thomas Edison. In response, Tesla joins Bryan’s campaign with new technology.
Welcome to Olympus, Mr. Hearst • (2003) • novella by Kage Baker
Good. Immortal beings from The Company are at Hearst Mansion for a party and they have a special offer for Mr Hearst.
Night of Time • [The Great Ship Universe] • (2003) • short story by Robert Reed
Good. A small, quiet story of a memory expert who discovers a hidden secret when attempting to help an alien remember something from his past.
Strong Medicine • (2003) • short story by William Shunn
Average. Nanotechnology means that a doctor has nothing to do. Until the apocalypse comes.
Send Me a Mentagram • (2003) • short story by Dominic Green
Good. Antarctic ice fields are patrolled by American and Russian submarines, but a small vessel makes a dangerous, skin-peeling discovery.
And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon • (2003) • short story by Paul Di Filippo
Good. A man’s greatest fear is realized when his girlfriend moves in and their smart-products start forming sentient conglomerations (blebs.)
Flashmen • (2003) • novelette by Terry Dowling
Good. Flash men are called out of retirement to enter a Landing in Australia. These giant alien craft arrive and shut-down thousands of people. This FlashMen have to pay a horrible price to get them back.
Dragonhead • (2003) • short story by Nicholas A. DiChario [as by Nick DiChario]
Average. A young man is unresponsive to the outside world after having a chip inserted into his head.
Dear Abbey • (2003) • novella by Terry Bisson
Good. A professor and a Chinese refugee hop around the future with a focus on the ecology of the planet and the future destiny of mankind.
RATED 90% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 3.97 OUT OF 5
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
You cannot say you don’t get your money’s worth from a Gardner Dozois Best of the Year. These are big books, full of lots of stories, with very small font. Dozois doesn’t shy away from reprinting novellas if the stories deserve it. The physical volumes stand proud on the shelf surrounded by the unending epics of 21st Century SFF publishing.
Thankfully, these are quite good anthologies. Some of the most essential SF reading in any year they were published. This 21st Annual - covering stories first published in 2003 - is better than most. Lots of diversity of style and tone. The stories are exceptional reading, made even more pleasing by the fact that few of these stories are well known.
Here are Five Stories that Made The Great List:
https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
The Ice • (2003) • novella by Steven Popkes. The story starts with the silly premise in which a young man discovers that he is the illegal clone of Hockey Legend Gordie Howe. It ripples into a deeply human story of love, death, privilege, disadvantage, identity, family, perseverance, and just the very nature of what makes up a life. I cannot overstate how deep and human this is.
June Sixteenth at Anna's • (2003) • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. A quietly heartbreaking story. In the future, people are able to capture moments of the past in various qualities of virtual reality. An old man, grieving the death of his wife, watches a famous holocording of a few hours of conversation in a New York restaurant, months in advance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A holocording that captured a moment with his wife.
The Green Leopard Plague • [College of Mystery] • (2003) • novella by Walter Jon Williams. In the future bodies can be changed at will and no one ever dies the ‘realdeath.’ A woman who is currently living as a mermaid, hired to research the moments when a famous economist went off-the-grid in Europe. Cutting between the mermaid and the story of the economist, we get drawn into the mystery of the future and a violent thriller through France and Italy, culminating in two discoveries that change the world and our perception of it.
Anomalous Structures of My Dreams • (2003) • novelette by M. Shayne Bell. A severely ill patient with AIDS shares a room with a patient who has a “strange form of pneumonia.” It slowly becomes apparent than this isn’t pneumonia. He has been infected with technology from a laboratory and that technology is building something within his body. Something that could completely reshape the world. Smart concept and an excellent ratcheting of tension.
Awake in the Night • (2003) • novella by John C. Wright. A dark and beautiful nightmare. It is millions of years in the future. The sun is dead and the last of humanity lives in a pyramid - The Redoubt. They are watched by haunting and horrible things including monsters that move slowly over hundreds of years and others that can destroy the body and the soul. This is a baroque and stunning quest across a hideous landscape in the hope of rescuing a friend that has disappeared into the darkness. A masterpiece of style, mood, and creativity.
***
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: TWENTY FIRST ANNUAL COLLECTION IS RATED 90%.
29 STORIES : 5 GREAT / 18 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Off on a Starship • (2003) • novella by William Barton
Good. A young boy - who has read and watched a lot of Science Fiction - sneaks abroad a flying saucer when in lands in a Virginia field. He observes many wondrous things and eventually builds a relationship with a robot on an alien world.
It's All True • [Moment Universes] • (2003) • novelette by John Kessel
Good. A movie recruiter travels to the past to try to entice Orson Welles to escape his failing life and come make films in the future where he is respected.
Rogue Farm • (2003) • short story by Charles Stross
Good. A husband and wife work to drive off a “farm,” a grotesque being made of human and mechanical parts.
The Ice • (2003) • novella by Steven Popkes
Great. The story starts with the silly premise in which a young man discovers that he is the illegal clone of Hockey Legend Gordie Howe. It ripples into a deeply human story of love, death, privilege, disadvantage, identity, family, perseverance, and just the very nature of what makes up a life. I cannot overstate how deep and human this is.
Ej-Es • (2003) • short story by Nancy Kress
Good. At the site of a colony collapse, a small team of Corps explorers discover some survivors who have retreated into a degraded life full of joy and invisible friends.
The Bellman • [Anna-Louise Bach] • (2003) • novelette by John Varley
Average. Action packed thriller on a domed lunar city. A pregnant police officer makes herself ‘bait’ for a serial killer who is killing pregnant women.
The Bear's Baby • [Holy Ground Trilogy] • (2003) • novella by Judith Moffett
Good. Aliens came and made the human race sterile. With the help of some humans, the aliens are starting to bring back Earth’s ecology and native animals. One of these men works with bear cubs, finds his job unceremoniously ended by alien authorities, and sneaks back into the woods. He will find something he never expected. Something that the aliens are desperate to hide.
Calling Your Name • (2003) • short story by Howard Waldrop
Average. A man get electricuated and wakes up in a world that seems the same except for much of the details of history went differently. No one knows the Beatles and Nixon was never President, etc….
June Sixteenth at Anna's • (2003) • short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Great. A quietly heartbreaking story. In the future, people are able to capture moments of the past in various qualities of virtual reality. An old man, grieving the death of his wife, watches a famous holocording of a few hours of conversation in a New York restaurant, months in advance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A holocording that captured a moment with his wife.
The Green Leopard Plague • [College of Mystery] • (2003) • novella by Walter Jon Williams
Great. In the future bodies can be changed at will and no one ever dies the ‘realdeath.’ A woman who is currently living as a mermaid, hired to research the moments when a famous economist went off-the-grid in Europe. Cutting between the mermaid and the story of the economist, we get drawn into the mystery of the future and a violent thriller through France and Italy, culminating in two discoveries that change the world and our perception of it.
The Fluted Girl • (2003) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi
Good. Fiefdoms are back, with celebrities and the ultra wealthy performing all the functions that used to be for government. Every person is heavily genetically modified. Wealthy stars have eternal youth. Security is a mix of jackal, wolf, and human. The ‘fluted girl’ is trapped as an adolescent, with ultra fragile bones that make her a literal erotic musical instrument.
Dead Worlds • (2003) • short story by Jack Skillingstead
Good. He served the interstellar war effort as an Eye, but the cost was that he is mentally destroyed and cannot be human without his medication. On leave, he starts a relationship with a widow after hitting her dog with his car.
King Dragon • (2003) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
Good. One of Swanwick’s “Hard Science Fantasy” stories. A dragon is shot down over a small town and takes control of it. He enlists the help of a young man, whom the dragon empowers to work on his behalf.
Singletons in Love • (2003) • novelette by Paul Melko
Good. The cohesion of a cluster - humans who live as a one consciousness - is disrupted by the discovery of a man who is a singleton. Just one person in one brain.
Anomalous Structures of My Dreams • (2003) • novelette by M. Shayne Bell
Great. A severely ill patient with AIDS shares a room with a patient who has a “strange form of pneumonia.” It slowly becomes apparent than this isn’t pneumonia. He has been infected with technology from a laboratory and that technology is building something within his body. Something that could completely reshape the world. Smart concept and an excellent ratcheting of tension.
The Cookie Monster • (2003) • novella by Vernor Vinge
Good. A customer support specialist working for an important tech company receives a strange email that leads her down a path that will challenge everything she believes. Even the nature of her own existence.
Joe Steele • (2003) • short story by Harry Turtledove
Good. What if Joseph Stalin became president instead of Franklin D Roosevelt? This is more of a thought experiment and less of an actual story, but this is smart, sharp, and snarky.
Birth Days • (2003) • short story by Geoff Ryman
Average. A gay man celebrates a series of birthdays during which he is outed, tries to ‘cure’ homosexuality, and become the first pregnant man.
Awake in the Night • (2003) • novella by John C. Wright
Great. A dark and beautiful nightmare. It is millions of years in the future. The sun is dead and the last of humanity lives in a pyramid - The Redoubt. They are watched by haunting and horrible things including monsters that move slowly over hundreds of years and others that can destroy the body and the soul. This is a baroque and stunning quest across a hideous landscape in the hope of rescuing a friend that has disappeared into the darkness. A masterpiece of style, mood, and creativity.
The Long Way Home • (2003) • short story by James Van Pelt
Average. The spaceship with the last hope for humanity appears to to destroyed, even while humanity appears to destroy itself. But pieces of both still remain and start to converge.
The Eyes of America • (2003) • short story by Geoffrey A. Landis
Good. It is 1904 and Teddy Roosevelt has been assassinated. It appears that William Jennings Bryan will win the presidency until the Republicans nominate Thomas Edison. In response, Tesla joins Bryan’s campaign with new technology.
Welcome to Olympus, Mr. Hearst • (2003) • novella by Kage Baker
Good. Immortal beings from The Company are at Hearst Mansion for a party and they have a special offer for Mr Hearst.
Night of Time • [The Great Ship Universe] • (2003) • short story by Robert Reed
Good. A small, quiet story of a memory expert who discovers a hidden secret when attempting to help an alien remember something from his past.
Strong Medicine • (2003) • short story by William Shunn
Average. Nanotechnology means that a doctor has nothing to do. Until the apocalypse comes.
Send Me a Mentagram • (2003) • short story by Dominic Green
Good. Antarctic ice fields are patrolled by American and Russian submarines, but a small vessel makes a dangerous, skin-peeling discovery.
And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon • (2003) • short story by Paul Di Filippo
Good. A man’s greatest fear is realized when his girlfriend moves in and their smart-products start forming sentient conglomerations (blebs.)
Flashmen • (2003) • novelette by Terry Dowling
Good. Flash men are called out of retirement to enter a Landing in Australia. These giant alien craft arrive and shut-down thousands of people. This FlashMen have to pay a horrible price to get them back.
Dragonhead • (2003) • short story by Nicholas A. DiChario [as by Nick DiChario]
Average. A young man is unresponsive to the outside world after having a chip inserted into his head.
Dear Abbey • (2003) • novella by Terry Bisson
Good. A professor and a Chinese refugee hop around the future with a focus on the ecology of the planet and the future destiny of mankind.