2024 the best sci fi books review
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The multiple Locus Award-winning annual collection of the year's best science fiction stories.
In the new millennium, what secrets lay beyond the far reaches of the universe? What mysteries belie the truths we once held to be self-evident? The world of science fiction has long been a porthole into the realities of tomorrow, blurring the line between life and art. Now, in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection, the very best SF authors explore ideas of a new world. This venerable collection brings together award-winning authors and masters of the field.
Featuring short stories from acclaimed authors such as Indrapramit Das, Nancy Kress, Alastair Reynolds, Eleanor Arnason, James S.A. Corey & Lavie Tidhar, an extensive recommended reading guide and a summation of the year in science fiction, this annual compilation has become the definitive must-read anthology for all science fiction fans and readers interested in breaking into the genre.
ASIN : B0786KZ98V
Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin; Annual edition (July 3, 2018)
Publication date : July 3, 2018
Language : English
File size : 3630 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 709 pages
Reviewer: Neodoering
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent Selection of Sci-fi Stories to Amaze You
Review: Every year Gardner Dozois puts together this anthology, and he offers so many tales that you are all but guaranteed to like some of them. I figure that if there are three stories I really enjoy in an anthology, it was a successful anthology. So in that spirit, have a blast with this book and post a review when you are done.
Reviewer: DJB25
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: It was and will remain a series full of some great stories
Review: I have most of the entire series. So very sad to see the passing of Mr. Dozois. He knew how to put together some truly fine compilations of the years best science fiction. He will be missed.
Reviewer: Ralph L. Reiley
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The last of the series
Review: I am about half way through this collection of stories. While it is not the best of the series, it is certainly better than the last few. With 35 books in the series, a monumental work overall. Mr. Dozois will be missed.
Reviewer: Shertex
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book of sci-fi short stories
Review: Great Book and great book series for those interested in a y arâs worth of great short S I-if stories. Unfortunately this is likely to be the last in the series make it all the more reason to enjoy this treasure.
Reviewer: Jonathan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: It's not rocket science. Oh, wait - yes it is.
Review: What else can I tell you? Get this book. In fact, get the complete series. It *IS* rocket science - and a whole lot more.
Reviewer: M Bishop
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Still the best of the best of the year collection.
Review: Not the best collection but entertaining none the less. I always look forward to each years collection, I have read them all, and I will continue to do so.
Reviewer: Mark Fitzpatrick
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A mixed bag
Review: There were a few fun stories. Some that I wanted to end sooner. The nice thing is the stories were so varied. You never knew what you were getting from one to the next. Many were thoughtful and thought provoking. Some deeper themes and messages underlying the plot.
Reviewer: JP
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great read but depressing
Review: This edition is a bittersweet read as the editor died shortly before it was released. The stories are well-written but thus far have been somewhat depressing; 2017's zeitgeist appears to have been "we're doomed but we'll try to make the best of it and likely fail".
Reviewer: John McManus
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The most recent collection from one of our favourite editors is one of the best in a long time. Clearly tilted toward the "hard" side of the science fiction choices from last year there is something for everyone. Unfortunately it is our editors last. We will miss his taste in future selections.
Reviewer: P J
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I recieved what I assume may be the very final edition of "The Years Best Science Fiction" this morning.And I should think, certainly for anybody who has annually bought and probably enjoyed reading many of the hundreds of carefully selected short stories in the English version of this anthology since 1987, well, this is going to be a rather sad moment to pause and reflect upon for many reasons. The absolutely first and foremost amongst these will be that Gardner Dozois , its editor, who has chosen every single one of those stories for well over thirty years, sadly passed away on 27th May 2018, shortly after finishing this edition. It will be even more strikingly poignant for readers to note that his wife, Susan Casper, died last year, and she is listed in the sad losses to the scifi, fantasy and horror genres piece that always comes at the very end of summation year. I can barely imagine how Gardner managed to write such a painful thing , but then he has had to do that bitter duty for so many of writers, colleagues and friends over the passing decades.Personally I, as an avid reader of sci fi since I was a lad , feel I owe G.D a substantial measure of thanks and gratitude for his continual guidance, excellence of choice and the often deep wisdom that he imparted as an editor for many in the field of science fiction .His subtle influence had a marked effect on what I was able to choose to read and enjoy as a busy working adult, simply because I often didn't have the time to go spend ages guessing which novels I may have liked reading based on dust jacket blurbs alone. There is often a lot of uncertainty over a budding authors talents that makes reading a new novel always a risky business and had it not been for this annual collection, which was so often acted as such a great introduction to many of them, well then I guess a large number of very strong stories, and one or two brilliant ones would have been lost to me. Pre Amazon and the Internet, I'd say alot of writers , publishers and eventually even book shop owners owed him a great deal for some of the writing success , recognition and applause that he probably helped to eventually lay at their doors.Its directly from the short story choices he made in these yearly collections that I discovered such new writers as William Gibson, Greg Bear, Charles Stross, Micheal Swanwick,Lucius Shepard ,Greg Egan, and Ted Chaig to name but a few of my current favourites. And they became that simply because he had the foresight to spot and include them as the "up and coming best " that was there for that year and probably many going forward. Like I said I found I frequently agreed with him and went out and bought their novels based on his careful introductions.That he also regularly was able to include many new stories by the older greats of the field that had kept me company as a youth was also a delight, authors such as Silverberg, Stableford, Le Guin, Waldrop, and Scott Card to name but a few again. Its been fascinating to watch how new ideas, emerging technologies ,global science studies and modern social changes shaped and were woven into new imaginatively designed fresh story fabrics created by these seasoned professionals, then note how some of them would then disappear ,often for years , only to re-emerge to totally surprise me with knock out punch to the literary skull that I didn't see coming. It was always strangely thrilling. I was also hugely appreciated of the effort he put into his yearly summation of the field, which enabled me to go back and look for connected works I might otherwise have missed. My bookshelves are groaning appreciatively under the weight of the many volumes I subsequently bought because of the well informed nature of what he included in his yearly reviews, particularly with sci fi artists artbooks and subscription information . I know a few of the selections Gardner has made in the later volumes have been viewed by some, including myself , as perhaps not the best or brightest there may have been out on release that year. But I suspect many of those choices made may have been a reflection of what he felt represented was happening in the real world, to him and society, as well as that of sci fi in general, there certainly seemed a darker and more quietly depressing and sombre tone to many of tales in the later editions. But if that's what many authors he choose are detecting and writing about more frequently then perhaps he was absolute right to have include more of them each year.However, it would be totally unfair not to point out that he almost always unfailingly managed to land some absolute gems in amongst all those others , which isn't really surprising because the sheer size and number of stories in each volume was often astonishing. There are always going to be those that will prefer some topics and themes to others, but the choice and range was always so pleasingly large per volume , I think most people should be able to find at least a couple in there to really admire and like.And the real point of gratitude for me is that I still go back and reread the ones I really enjoyed because I still so often remember them years later. And that, in this busy, busy internet age, for a short story, is definitely a minor miracle.So thank you Mr Dozois. I'm going to miss this annual collection and the kind and knowlegable guidance that arose from its pages, in both the years passed and those forward into a future where you so often choose to dwell. Voyage well and safely out there amongst the heavens. "The journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path... One that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass... And then you see it. White shores... and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise...â¦." Gandalf the White.PS (I'll post my review of the selection sometime in the future, its going to take a while to wade through them all!)I do have an immediate suggestion. Read this from the very last story and work forward. I couldn't get into the first two stories, so I restarted with the novella "Nexus". Its a delight, complex and yet really entertaining, all you could want from a sci fi story. And from there going forward the stories have been pretty strong, with a recurrent theme that seems to link them.I've actually finished it on 3rd October. Its not a classic Years Best , because perhaps ,rather sadly, there's not a lot that's great being written. More than a few of the stories have a very melancholic atmosphere to them, I'm growing tired that the most seemingly controversial element of them is often about sexuality, and that over the years the volumes have grown to feel much less about sci fi , and much more about current social commentary with science fiction elements chucked in. I really enjoyed about four of the stories, "Nexus" being my favourite, and the quality of the writing is high but reading a fair number of them felt like a slog. And thats a sad note to end the series on.
Reviewer: Jeff Kasper
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I own all 35 editions of the Year's Best Science Fiction and Dozois never failed to put together excellent stories. This edition is no exception. I feel like he and I were similar in tastes. So sad that he is gone. Hopefully someone will take up the mantle and keep releasing these collections!
Reviewer: martin williams
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: after reading these collections every year for over 30 years its so sad to know this is the last one as Gardner Dozois has died.They became an institution for me I could always rely on a good and sometimes excellent selection of all types of Science Fiction.
Reviewer: [email protected]
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Not a great selection but overall worth reading