16 August 2009

Reading Year's Best SF 14 (Hartwell and Cramer)

I am gradually making my way through Hartwell and Cramer's Year's Best SF 14 (EOS, 2009) and thought I would rate the stories out of four stars as I go, perhaps with some occasional commentary.

1. Carolyn Ives Gilman, "Arkfall" ***

2. Neil Gaiman, "Orange" ** 1/2

3. Kathleen Ann Goonan, "Memory Dog" *** 1/2

4. Paolo Bacigalupi, "Pump Six" ****

5. Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, "Boojum" *** 1/2

6. Ted Chiang, "Exhalation" ****

7. M. Rickert, "Traitor" ** 1/2

8. Cory Doctorow, "The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" **

9. Vandana Singh, "Oblivion: A Journey" **

10. Robert Reed, "The House Left Empty" ** 1/2

11. Michael Swanwick, "The Scarecrow's Boy" ** 1/2

12. Ted Kosmatka, "N-Words" ***

13. Alastair Reynolds, "Fury" ** 1/2

14. Ann Halam, "Cheats" ** 1/2

15. Jason Sanford, "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain" ** 1/2

16. Mary Rosenblum, "The Egg Man" ***

17. Daryl Gregory, "Glass" ***

18. Jeff VanderMeer, "Fixing Hanover" ***

19. Rudy Rucker, "Message Found in a Gravity Wave" *** 1/2

20. Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell, "Mitigation" *** 1/2

21. Sue Burke, "Spiders" ***