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12/18/2009 8:30:44 AM
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oldcharliebrown
Posts 49
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Niall Harrison has nicely worked out the venues:
1. “It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse 3, ed Jonathan Strahan)
2. “Three Twilight Tales”, Jo Walton (Firebirds Soaring, ed Sharyn November)
3. xxx
4. “The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2, ed. Jonathan Strahan/Gardner Dozois)
5. “Ferryman”, Margo Lanagan (Firebirds Soaring)
6. “A Wild and Wicked Youth”, Ellen Kushner (F&SF, April/Mary 2009)
7. “The Pelican Bar”, Karen Joy Fowler (Eclipse 3)
8. “Spar“, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld)
9. “Going Deep”, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, June 2009)
10. “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown”, Holly Black (The Eternal Kiss ed. Trisha Telep)
11. “Zeppelin City“, Michael Swanwick & Eileen Gunn (Tor.com)
12. “Dragon’s Teeth”, Alex Irvine (F&SF, December 2009)
13. “This Wind Blowing, and This Tide”, Damien Broderick (Asimov’s, April/May 2009)
14. “By Moonlight”, Peter S. Beagle (We Never Talk About My Brother, Peter S Beagle)
15. “Black Swan”, Bruce Sterling (Interzone)
16. “As Women Fight”, Sara Genge (Asimov’s, December 2009)
17. “The Cinderella Game”, Kelly Link (Troll’s Eye View ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling)
18. “Formidable Caress”, Stephen Baxter (Analog, December 2009)
19. “Blocked”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF, October/November 2009)
20. “Truth and Bone”, Pat Cadigan (Poe, ed. Ellen Datlow)
21. “Eros, Philia, Agape“, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com)
22. “The Motorman’s Coat”, John Kessel (F&SF, June/July 2009)
23. “Mongoose”, Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear (Lovecraft Unbound, ed. Ellen Datlow)
24. “Echoes of Aurora”, Ellen Klages (What Remains, Aqueduct Press)
25. “Before My Last Breath”, Robert Reed (Asimov’s, October/November 2009)
26. “Jo Boy”, Diana Wynne Jones (The Dragon Book, ed Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois)
27. “Utriusque Cosmi”, Robert Charles Wilson (The New Space Opera 2)
28. “A Delicate Architecture”, Catherynne Valente (Troll’s Eye View)
29. “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles, Kij Johnson (Tor.com)
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12/29/2009 6:46:52 AM
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gdozois
Posts 4260
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I'll be able to finalize my Table of Contents within the next couple of days.
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12/29/2009 11:13:58 AM
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RandyBeck
Posts 1804
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I wonder if it'll also have a story title that can't be disclosed until we approach zero hour.
--
"It is this or that -- all the universe or nothing. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"
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12/29/2009 10:40:20 PM
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gdozois
Posts 4260
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Well, this is possibly a bit premature, since I've still yet to hear back from an author, but given that it's somebody I've used in the Best before, I'm willing to take a chance. So the TOC for BEST SF 27 is:
UTRIUSQUE COSMI, Robert Charles Wilson--New Space Opera 2.
A STORY, WITH BEANS, Steven Gould--Analog.
UNDER THE SHOUTING SKY, Karl Bunker--Cosmos.
EVENTS PRECEDING THE HELVETICAN REVOLUTION, John Kessel--New Space Opera 2.
USELESS THINGS, Maureen F. McHugh--Eclipse Three.
BLACK SWAN, Bruce Sterling--Interzone.
CRIMES AND GLORY, Paul McAuley--Subterranean
SEVENTH FALL, Alexander Irvine--Subterranean
BUTTERFLY BOMB, Dominic Green--Interzone.
INFINITES, Vandana Singh--The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet.
THINGS UNDONE, John Barnes--Jim Baen's Universe.
ON THE HUMAN PLAN, Jay Lake--Lone Star Stories.
THE ISLAND, Peter Watts--New Space Opera 2.
THE INTEGRITY OF THE CHAIN, Lavie Tidhar--Fantasy.
LION WALK, Mary Rosenblum--Asimov's.
ESCAPE TO OTHER WORLDS WITH SCIENCE FICTION, Jo Walton--Tor.com.
THREE LEAVES OF ALOE, Rand B. Lee--F&SF.
MONGOOSE, Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette--Lovecraft Unbound.
PARADISO LOST, Albert E.Cowdrey--F&SF.
IT TAKES TWO, Nicola Griffith--Eclipse Three.
BLOCKED, Geoff Ryman--F&SF.
SOLACE, James Van Pelt--Analog.
ACT ONE, Nancy Kress--Asimov's
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, John C. Wright--Federations.
BLOOD DAUBER, Ted Kosmatka & Michael Poore--Asimov's.
THIS WIND BLOWING, AND THIS TIDE, Damien Broderick--Asimov's.
HAIR, Adam Roberts--When It Changed.
BEFORE MY LAST BREATH, Robert Reed--Asimov's.
ONE OF OUR BASTARDS IS MISSING, Paul Cornell--Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Three.
EDISON’S FRANKENSTEIN, Chris Roberson--Postscripts 20/21.
EROSION, Ian Creasey--Asimov's
VISHNU AT THE CAT CIRCUS, Ian McDonald--Cyberabad Days.
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12/30/2009 12:21:35 AM
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bluetyson
Posts 1074
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Thanks!
--
Free SF - Not Free SF Megablog | Free SF Reader | Not Free SF Reader | Super Reader - Superhero Prose Fiction | Space Opera Reader
Leigh Brackett (ology) | Laird Barron (ology) | Paolo Bacigalupi (ology) | Greg Egan (ology) | Alastair Reynolds (ology) | Cordwainer Smith (ology) | Charles Stross (ology) | Ted Chiang (ology)
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12/30/2009 9:27:41 AM
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oldcharliebrown
Posts 49
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Amazon just got copies of Horton's, so that's probably why Amazon hasn't shipped it yet 
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12/30/2009 2:21:54 PM
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dolphintornsea
Posts 499
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Another stellar collection!
Sometimes I think well, this year has been pretty average ... but when you see a TOC like that, and all the concentrated excellence in it, you have to change your mind.
Nice to see Lavie Tidhar's debut.
I'm also particularly pleased to see the inclusion of Maureen McHugh's story "Useless Things", which didn't find a place in the Strahan or Horton anthologies.
Nice to see Asimov's solidly represented (when I scanned the TOC, I was quite worried at the halfway mark )
This is also the first year that I would probably have chosen the same opening story as the editor!
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12/30/2009 2:56:38 PM
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Rich Horton
Posts 343
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I will say that the single story that I most regretted not having in my book was "Useless Things". (Though actually, I would add two stories that I saw a bit too late: Andy Duncan's "The Dragaman's Bride" and John Barnes's "Things Undone".)
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12/30/2009 3:35:53 PM
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dolphintornsea
Posts 499
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Interesting to note that "Mongoose", by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, and "The Island", by Peter Watts, were chosen by all three editors - a very nice marketing point for the authors concerned!
Fourteen other stories were chosen by two of the three esteemed editors - I'll post a list when we have the TOC of YBSF 15, edited by Hartwell & Cramer (which, if the last volume is anything to go by, should be available only in mid-March).
So far, 11 stories from Asimov's are featured in one of the Bests, versus 7 from F & SF. That's a very strong showing by Asimov's, especially when you consider that two of the Bests include fantasy stories, a category in which Asimov's is underweight. I count 9 fantasy stories published in Asimov's this year, remembering that I'm only halfway through the December issue.
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12/30/2009 4:27:01 PM
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gdozois
Posts 4260
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I thought that F&SF was strong in fantasy this year, and relatively weak in SF, which it didn't publish much of. ASIMOV'S was exactly the reverse--strong in SF, weaker in fantasy; somehow the fantasy in ASIMOV'S just doesn't strike me as as good as the fantasy in F&SF. They definitely had the edge in SF, though.
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12/30/2009 4:36:06 PM
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Fabrice D.
Posts 921
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But there was one really strong SF story in F&SF: "Blocked" by Geoff Ryman!
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12/30/2009 4:48:06 PM
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gdozois
Posts 4260
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And I used it, too, along with Cowdrey's "Paradiso Lost" and Lee's "Three Leaves of Aloe." Nevertheless, strong SF stories were a bit scarce on the ground in F&SF this year.
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12/30/2009 4:53:17 PM
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Gordon Van Gelder
Posts 186
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I agree we had a weak year for SF, though I was hoping Alexandra Duncan's "Bad Matter" would make the cut. Your anthology looks like another good one overall, though I confess that last year's looked stronger to me.
In your reading, Gardner, did you find more stories than usual had a downbeat tone? It seemed that way to me this year.
---Gordon V.G.
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12/30/2009 6:11:48 PM
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dolphintornsea
Posts 499
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I'm still trying to finish the December Asimov's before pumpkin time on New Year's Eve (don't really have to, since you can still vote until the end of January; it just seems right somehow). I found another fantasy story in the December issue, which makes roughly 10 for the year. Among the fantasy stories in Asimov's, there was no "26 Monkeys" this year, but I did like "The Monsters of Morgan Island" by Sandra McDonald.
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12/30/2009 8:47:22 PM
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Rich Horton
Posts 343
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"Bad Matter" intrigued me, indeed, but I personally felt it didn't quite deliver on its promise. But Alexandra Duncan is for sure a writer to watch.
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12/30/2009 10:13:01 PM
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jason
Posts 123
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I'm disappointed none of the anthologies picked "Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (originally published in Interzone, reprinted in Apex Magazine). This was one of the best SF stories of the year, and one of the few I had to read multiple times.
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12/30/2009 10:49:10 PM
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bluetyson
Posts 1074
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Nah, it's not. Speaking of FSF though, there was the Oberndorf story.
--
Free SF - Not Free SF Megablog | Free SF Reader | Not Free SF Reader | Super Reader - Superhero Prose Fiction | Space Opera Reader
Leigh Brackett (ology) | Laird Barron (ology) | Paolo Bacigalupi (ology) | Greg Egan (ology) | Alastair Reynolds (ology) | Cordwainer Smith (ology) | Charles Stross (ology) | Ted Chiang (ology)
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12/30/2009 10:52:39 PM
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gdozois
Posts 4260
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Some awareness of the Recession/Depression/Economic Collapse has definitely seeped into the field, as witness Maureen McHugh's "Useless Things" and Jo Walton's "Escape To Other Worlds With Science Fiction." Downbeat, depressing stories about bleak dystopias where life is miserable and there is little or no hope for things getting better in the future have been the fallback position or default setting for SF for several years now, though. As I mentioned in a couple of Locus reviews this year, this has become so prevalent that even when an anthology makes a conscious attempt to do positive, hopeful stories, the stories in the book are often bleak and hopeless anyway, as if SF writers can't think of anything else, something I chalk up to intellectual and imaginative laziness.
I should point out, though, that stories in my book such as "Utriusque Cosmi," "Seventh Fall," "A Story, With Beans," "Infinities," "On the Human Plan," "Solace," "Three Leaves of Aloe," "It Takes Two," "Butterfly Bomb," "Act One," "Integrity of the Chain," and others, are largely life-affirming in their own peculiar ways (some of those ways peculiar, admittedly, but I wouldn't call any of them despairing or hopeless).
I agree with Rich about Alexandra Duncan's story--marks her as a writer to watch, but wasn't quite up to "Best of the Year" level.
My Best contains four novellas and several quite long novelettes, a couple of them just a few hundred words under the cutoff, and might have contained Charles Stross's "Palimpsest" if I hadn't run into problems getting permissions; ditto Greg Egan's "Hot Rock". Also gave serious thought to using John C. Wright's novella "The Far End of History." If I hadn't already used Robert Charles Wilson's "Utriusque Cosmi," I might well have used his "The Peaceable Land, or the Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe."
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12/31/2009 1:15:37 AM
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Dario
Posts 251
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gdozois wrote:
Downbeat, depressing stories about bleak dystopias where life is miserable and there is little or no hope for things getting better in the future have been the fallback position or default setting for SF for several years now, though...(snip)...as if SF writers can't think of anything else, something I chalk up to intellectual and imaginative laziness.
So, so true.
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12/31/2009 4:54:55 AM
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bluetyson
Posts 1074
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gdozois wrote:
My Best contains four novellas and several quite long novelettes, a couple of them just a few hundred words under the cutoff, and might have contained Charles Stross's "Palimpsest" if I hadn't run into problems getting permissions; ditto Greg Egan's "Hot Rock". Robert Charles Wilson's - I might well have used his "The Peaceable Land, or the Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe."
Yep, all these are quality.
Pretty good bunch of SF collections
Egan
Stross
Reynolds
McDonald
For the one year
--
Free SF - Not Free SF Megablog | Free SF Reader | Not Free SF Reader | Super Reader - Superhero Prose Fiction | Space Opera Reader
Leigh Brackett (ology) | Laird Barron (ology) | Paolo Bacigalupi (ology) | Greg Egan (ology) | Alastair Reynolds (ology) | Cordwainer Smith (ology) | Charles Stross (ology) | Ted Chiang (ology)
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