The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 13 (Mammoth Books)

I actually liked this one. Very short compared to all the others, but with a punch and just with enough glimpses into a world to make it work. Yet - somehow this story was lacking a heart. Also to me the setting did not seem really integral and this is something I need in a SF story. Or at least in this SF story. I mean, not a bad story per se, but also not one that would make me want to pick up more by the authors.

Now this story serves to quite a few of my reading kinks, particularly the hive-mind, the cold strong woman, and complex politics, so I may be a wee bit biased. It's also not a perfect story, but oh, one that definitely makes me want to read more. Enough to want to pick up at least some of the books set in the universe. Really nicely done in the science part, even if not perfect in the execution. And, surprisingly, quite positive in the outlook. And here comes Egan and writes this - clever and philosophical and real there is Turing and there is Lewis, but not really, and the characters feel so incredibly real, so human and yes, very, very hard when it comes to science.

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There is Goedel's conjecture and there are four-dimensional velocity vectors and there are rotations in complex spaces. And there is love and tragedy and meta-commentary on our own history. Rick Coon and Ernest Hogan: Not super deep, but a fun, engaging read. I'd enjoy more of these! Charlie Stross writes a Lovecraftian story and I love it. Stranger things have happened, certainly, but this does not make this one not strange I love Stross's blog, but his books so far rather underwhelmed; I much more prefer Greg Egan.

It had a nice atmosphere, though, and was very character-driven, something I usually like. This one is a short story. And a really good one. More of those, please! But also strong, honest, brutal.

Apr 12, Wealhtheow rated it liked it Shelves: There are a few truly terrible stories in each, and even fewer truly good ones. I think the idea of short stories as The way to start getting noticed doesn't help far too many people attempt a form they suck at , but the real problem seems to be editors who accept any old drek. But short story collections can give you fun-sized portions of stories, a tasting menu of various authors I've never heard of or never tried before, so I keep picking them up.

To my pleasure, this is one of the best collections I've read in a while--nothing awful, and only a few stories too boring to read all the way through. The default in sf seems to be straight white American cis-dudes, so it was a pleasure to read so many stories with non-white, non-American, even non-dude protagonists. Set in alien-invaded-Nairobi, in nano-fueled-China, in a Vietnamese circus, on matriarchial-Mars, these are not your standard cookie-cutter settings and characters.

And what a pleasure it was to read about them!

Tendeleo Bi is a fantastic main character, strong, smart, devoted but with believable moments of childish self absorption, unapologetic and fierce. Her quest, first to save her village from the encroaching alien spores, then to create another home, kept me flipping through the pages.

I was reading so fast I almost missed a major plot point! Susan Palwick's "Going After Bobo" is as poignant a portrait of a kid's search for his cat as any story I had to read in English class. Palwick gives us the story in bits and pieces, only revealing a snippet at a time, and it worked beautifully. Less sf than I expected, but well-told. Basically a classic private-eye story, but told in an alternate version of MesoAmerica where huetlacoatls live alongside humans. Our narrator, Tworabbit, aka Lucky, has been cast out of his noble family for some heinous crime, and now makes a living as a thug and investigator for a local crime boss.

I hope this idea gets turned into something longer because I was intrigued by the world and the characters. I liked the basic premises behind "Antibodies" by Charles Stross and Greg Egan's "Oracle," but the punch of it got lost. If they were half as long, they'd be twice as good. Paul McAuley's "Reef" is written well, but kinda pointless.

I liked the main character a woman without genetic mods but with a sense of fair play and the world where citizenship must be earned or bought, but there wasn't much to the plot. Albert Cowdrey's "Crux" would have been one of my favorites except for the ending, which rather ruined the bittersweet concept of trying to prevent a cataclysm but thereby erase the present.

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I wanted to like Steven Utley's "The Real World," in which a robot from the future comes back to prevent Alan Turing's persecution and help him accelerate the pace of scientific progress. Weirdly enough, the story gets bogged down in a vilification of C. Lewis and Christianity in general. Others were just too long, not well-written, or had a forgettable premise.

I found these to be: Peter Hamilton's "The Suspect Genome," in which an unscrupulous businessman is framed for one murder after committing another; Lucius Shepard's "Radiant Green Star," which is an unending tale of a boy growing up in a Vietnamese circus while training to avenge his family's death; propaganda for the Singularity in Alastair Reynold's "Great Wall of Mars"; the saccharine "Patient Zero" by Tananarive Due; the just plain boring "A Colder War" by Charles Stross; and the hardly intelligible "Milo and Sylvie" by Eliot Fintshel.

Overall, fewer paragraphs of infodumps and technobabble explanations although still far too many for my tastes and more characterization than I'm used to getting from sf. Okay, so I'm only 16 years behind on this one. I buy the Dozois Best SF anthologies as I did the Hartwell anthologies every year, but in the first decade of this century I didn't get to reading them very often.

As a result, a random half-dozen are still piled in my to-be-read assembly area. The good thing about these collections, though, is that they tend to bear up well over time. I enjoyed this one quite a bit, especially the last third of the collection. I will note, however, that it's a si Okay, so I'm only 16 years behind on this one. I will note, however, that it's a six-grimace anthology. Eliot Fintushel's "Milo and Sylvie" caught my fancy, with its imagination and memorable dialogue. Charles Stross has two stories here, and the second one, "A Colder War", is a riot of 's politics mashed up with H.

That story is out of control. I quite liked Tananarive Due's "Patient Zero". It's a heartbreaking account of the end of humanity, told via the journal of one of the early victims. There's a very tight little gem of a story by M. Shayne Bell "The Thing about Benny" which I would suggest to teachers as a fine example of how to tell a big story climate change and ecological collapse by following one person doing a job created by that situation. One could also teach Robert Charles Wilson's flash fiction "The Great Goodbye", though it might come off as a mere gimmick piece. What I admired was the compression of a historical Singularity into the lives of a grandfather and grandson.

It was emotionally engaging before the ending, and in a flash that's a nice trick. The last piece in the book is a novella from Ian McDonald's Chaga universe, which is enthralling and emotionally powerful. I'm struggling with Luna right now though it has its moments , and it was nice to be reminded of why McDonald is on my "buy everything" list. The disappointment for me was the Alastair Reynolds story. But that's always the risk with science fiction. Mar 11, Rena Sherwood rated it it was ok Shelves: Long and tedious anthology book-ended by Dozios' self-indulgence.

Most of the stories and novellas are completely forgettable. The only story that stuck in my mind after all these years I read it about was about Bobo the doomed cat. Skip this anthology and go for the sixth annual collection Nov 18, Rich rated it liked it.

Usual thing, some very good some not so much ,only one that i didn't bother to finish. Overall a worthwhile read. Jan 15, Maryanne added it. Jack plants juniper trees, Rosalind is kid friend Corey. Jack kills corey whose mom is Eva Jacks lover. Rosalind covers for him.

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Antibodies - Aliens on earth messing with this timeline goes bad, antibodies destroy interrogators and they leave this earth. The Birthday of the World - God kingdom falls. Ze and Tazu marry no kids sister and brother match Savior - space object waits centuries. Wei Wu Wei's A. Object sends unknown radiation to constellation Cassiopera. Reef - Reef on asteroid. Spores get expelled to space. Going After Bobo - Lost cat on mountain brings family together. Crux - Future dark complex and boring. The Cure for Everything - Indians in Amazon being made to move out.

Maria wants to help integrate them. He leaves with her. The Suspect Genome - Lar pick - Developer kills hippy old man then is accused of killing another man. Kid killer hide in boot of sister's car as she goes to soon to be brother-in-law black mailer The Raggle Tggle Gypsy-o - Lar pick- Motorcycle highway of time travel. Kills father and marries Tan and is rich. Great Wall of Mars - Nevil and brother Warren. Nevil goes to co-joiners to make peace.

Galiana helps him and he is transenlightenment. Nano machines in brain. Milo and Sylvie - Shape shifter but doesn't know it. Milo is helped by Dr. Devore and Sylvie to understand his condition. Snow ball in Hell - Pigs that are human!! On the Orion Line - Kid on war ship that gets hit and is the only one to survive, but choose to go back to war family. Oracle - Robert Stoney gay tortured by M5 in tiger cage in a basement somewhere. Rescued by android woman timeline changer Helen.

Helen leaves for a ne timeline. Jack won't believe it isn't Satan. Obsidian Harvest - Uncle Tlaloc Tzin mayan stuff. Patient Zero - Kid in isolation survived disease from dad. Ben takes care of him. Veronic a nice nurs get needle stick and dies. Mauigut from hjaiti turors him. Tells him how to find food and what is good to eat.

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She gets sick and gives him code to his room door. Then does not return. Roger afraid of nuclear war and it comes because the Russians are using thing from fift that eat entire villages in Afghanistan. He ends up in rift waiting until earth is ok again. The Real World - Ivan pedologist soil studier goes through time rift to the Palezoic and Silurian seas.

Brother Don writer movie, and Michelle Ivan's niece. The Thing About Benny - Benny is a weirdo who knows plants and searches for plants extinct in the wild that people have in pots. He listens only to Abba. He names a plant after Abba's Agnetha who is dead. The Great Goodbye - Kid and new human gramp go to museum then later sees gramps off on interstellar flight only new humans go. Tendeleo's Story - Set in Kenya. Ten is a kid and the Chaga is taking over the southern hemisphere.

Lives with mom, dad and sister Little Egg. Crush of people fleeing the 50M a day advance of the Chaga and its new plops. She escapes by blackmailing and getting a UN chip. If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Mammoth Book of Book 13 Paperback: Robinson Publishing October 12, Language: Be the first to review this item Amazon Best Sellers Rank: I'd like to read this book on Kindle Don't have a Kindle?

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois

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