The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction 22nd Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois Read Free Book Online

deserve your attention. The strongest of these is Subterfuge , which, probably not coincidentally, considering my tastes, contains the highest per centage of science fiction (although all three anthologies contain a mix of SF and fantasy). Best stories here are by Neal Asher and John Meaney, but there are also good SF stories here by Pat Cadigan, Una McCormack, Tony Ballantyne, and others. The best of the fantasy stories are by Tanith Lee and Dave Hutchinson. The best story in Celebrations , an anthology commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the British Science Fiction Association, is a Phildickian SF piece by Alastair Reynolds, but there’s good work, both SF and fantasy, by Stephen Baxter, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Ken MacLeod, Dave Hutchinson, Brian Stableford, Liz Williams, and Molly Brown. The weakest of the three anthologies is Myth-Understandings, which features mostly fantasy. Best story here is Tricia Sullivan’s, although there’s also strong work by Liz Williams, Justina Robson, Pat Cadigan, Kari Sperring, and others.
    An odd item, another British small-press anthology, is The West Pier Gazette and Other Stories, Quercus One (Three Legged Fox Books), edited by Paul Brazier, an anthology of stories that have supposedly been previously published in electronic form on the members-only Quercus SF site (quercus-sf.com – although it doesn’t seem to have been updated for several years, and may be fallow). Half of the book is taken up by rather specialized Alternate History stories about alternate fates for the nowdestroyed West Pier in Brighton, England, hence the title, and the rest of the book is devoted to more generalized SF, fantasy, and slipstream stories. Best thing here is a high-tech literalization of Egyptian mythology by Liz Williams, but there are also good stories by Geoff Ryman, Lavie Tidhar, Andy W. Robertson, Chris Butler, and others.
    Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness , edited by Mike Allen, is a mixed science fiction/fantasy anthology, with a few slipstream stories thrown in for good measure. In an exceptional year for original anthologies, it doesn’t come in at the top of the heap, but there is a lot of good stuff here, and the cover, an effective use of an old painting, is lovely. The best story in Clockwork Phoenix , by a considerable margin, is an SF story by Vandana Singh, but there is also good work by John C. Wright, Cat Sparks, C. S. MacCath, and others. The best of the fantasy stories are by Tanith Lee, Marie Brennan, John Grant, Cat Rambo, Ekaterina Sedia, and others.
    Another good anthology, full of solid, enjoyable work, is Seeds of Change (Prime), edited by John Joseph Adams. Best story here by a substantial margin, and one of the best of the year, is Ted Kosmatka’s “N-Words”, but there is also good work to be had here from Ken MacLeod, Jay Lake, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Mark Budz, Tobias Buckell, and others
    2012 (Twelfth Planet Press), edited by Alisa Krasnestein and Ben Payne, delivers a smaller proportion of substantial work than Seeds of Change, although there are still worthwhile stories here by Sean McMullen and Simon Brown.
    There are probably no award-winners in Transhuman (DAW), edited by Mark L. Van Name and T. K. F. Weisskopf (title makes the subject matter self-explanatory, surely), but there is a respectable amount of good solid core SF. Best story here is by David D. Levine, but there are also good stories by Mark L. Van Name, Paul Chafe, Sarah A. Hoyt, Wen Spenser, and others.
    Future Americas (DAW), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers, and Front Lines (DAW), edited by Denise Little, are a bit more substantial than these DAW anthologies usually are. Best story in Future Americas is by Brendan DuBois; best story in Front Lines is by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The Dimension Next Door (DAW), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, was worthwhile but minor.
    Another pleasant surprise last year was the sudden appearance of two pretty