The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois Read Free Book Online Page B

Book of Endings (Twelfth Planet Press), by Deborah Biancotti; and We’ll Always Have Paris (William Morrow), by Ray Bradbury.
    Strong as this year was in collections, it was even stronger for big retrospective career-spanning collections. There was a bumper crop of them, including: The Best of Gene Wolfe (Tor Books), by Gene Wolfe; Wild Thyme, Green Magic (Subterranean Press), by Jack Vance; Trips: The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Four (Subterranean Press), by Robert Silverberg; The Best of Michael Moorcock (Tachyon Publications), by Michael Moorcock; The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard (W. W. Norton & Company), by J.G. Ballard; The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume One: Threshold (NESFA Press), by Roger Zelazny; The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume Two: Power & Light (NESFA Press), by Roger Zelazny; The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume Three: This Mortal Mountain (NESFA Press), by Roger Zelazny; The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume Four: Last Exit to Babylon (NESFA Press), by Roger Zelazny; The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 1: Call Me Joe (NESFA Press), by Poul Anderson; The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 2: The Queen of Air and Darkness (NESFA Press), by Poul Anderson; Rise of the Terran Empire (Baen Books), by Poul Anderson; Selected Short Stories of Lester del Rey, Volume I: War and Space (NESFA Press), by Lester del Rey; Magic Mirrors (NESFA Press), by John Bellairs; The Shadow on the Doorstep (ISFiC Press), by James P. Blaylock; The Return of the Sorcerer: The Best of Clark Ashton Smith (Prime Books), by Clark Ashton Smith; The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume 1: The Variable Man and Other Stories (Prime Books), by Philip K. Dick; The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume 2: Breakfast at Twilight and Other Stories (Prime Books), by Philip K. Dick; Mysteries of the Worm (Chaosium), by Robert Bloch; and Slow Sculpture, Volume XII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (North Atlantic Books), by Theodore Sturgeon.
    It should be clear from these lists that there would essentially be no such things as genre short-story collections without the small presses; with the occasional exception of a collection from a trade publisher like Tor or Baen or Ace, most collections these days are done by small press publishers. As you can see, Subterranean and NESFA Press have become particularly important in this area in recent years.
    It should also be pointed out that a wide variety of “electronic collections,” often called “fiction bundles,” too many to individually list here, are also available for downloading online, at sites such as Fictionwise and ElectricStory; the Science Fiction Book Club continues to issue new collections as well.
    There were a good number of big retrospective reprint anthologies this year, particularly in horror. Among the nonretrospectives, the crop of ‘Best of the Year’ anthologies were, as usual, probably your best bet for your money. This crop has been winnowed a bit, and also rearranged, from its peak a couple of years back, but there are still a lot of them. Science fiction was covered by two and a half anthologies (actually, technically, by two anthologies and by two separate half anthologies): the one you are reading at the moment, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection from St. Martin’s Griffin, edited by Gardner Dozois; Year’s Best SF 14 (Eos), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer; and by the science fiction half of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three (Night Shade Books), edited by Jonathan Strahan (the “half-a-book,” although, of course, in practice it won’t divide this neatly). Rich Horton’s Science Fiction: The Best of the Year series is on hiatus, and will be reinvented in 2010 as The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2010 , which will dedicate half the book to SF coverage and half to fantasy. There will