[DixieGal]

Finished: Year's Best SF 13

It's good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as usual because of a technical difficulty - it was in secure IMP format with smallish print. As my eyesight worsens, I'm finding that I have to use mobi2imp in order to get really large print. As for the stories themselves, about half had happy endings. The other half ended in doom and gloom. However, they were all truly good scifi, emphasis on the sci.

TOC:

1. Baby Doll by J Sinisalo
   Addresses a possible near future in which children ever more young live like favorite pop stars with drugs, sex, and overall jadedness. Frankly, it sort of scared me.
   
   
2. Aristotle OS by T Ballantyne
   I enjoyed this story about "upgrades" to operating systems that were based on the writings of various philosophers. The OS's edit writing to reflect the various philosophers' world view. Now, back in the 80's, Asimov wrote something similar that this story reminded me of. In Asimov's story, back at the dawn of personal computing and word processing, he tells a story of a writer being forced to use a word processor, which is "smart" and learns his writing style well enough to edit him, then suggest writing ideas, and eventually take over writing books in the writer's style, thereby removing the writer from significance.
   
   
3. The Last American by J Kessel
   Presented in the form of a documentary in the far future, when human history is being studied. To me, the subject of the documentary seems to be a blending of Columbus and Washington. He has mythological heroic deeds attributed to him, as well as, perhaps, exaggerated defeats and failings. Made me think of the History Channel documentaries.
   
   
4. Memorare by G Wolfe
   (This was one of the Fictionwise freebies when it became a finalist for the Nebula award last spring)
   This was my second reading of this story, and although it was good the first time around, it was better this time. Having foreknowledge of events made things that previously seemed significant stand out even more. It's the semi-near future, and private space travel within the solar system is becoming possible for the wealthy. Space, however, is dangerous, and it turns out that booby-trapped spacetombs are even deadlier. However, this story is about love and loss, with a scifi setting for the scene to play itself out. Four characters face love and betrayal in a crisis situation, and in the end, the good guy almost wins a bittersweet victory.
   
   
5. Plotters & Shooters by Kage Baker
   This is one for the gamer kids who got picked on in school. I didn't love it, but I finished it anyway. The intro calls it " 'Lord of the Flies for' " the technologic era. One of the gamers gains control over the bullies, but in doing so, becomes a bully himself.
   
   
6. Repeating the Past by P Watts
   I only read a page or two of this story before it put me to sleep. In that bit I read, it seemed to have something to do with the nazi holocaust.
   
   
7. No More Stories by S Baxter
   Dying mom thinks the universe revolves around her, according to narrator son. Surprise! It does! Quick read, but didn't seemed sort of superficial to me. I didn't get the usual scifi understory that emphasized the writer's objective. However, it was an entertaining read for the ride to work.
   
   
8. They Came from the Future by R Hitchcock
9. The Tomb Wife by G Jones
   See Memorare above. Similar story, but this one was much less interesting.
   
   
10. An Evening's Honest Peril by M Laidlaw
11. End Game by N Kress
12. Induction by Greg Egan
13. A Blue & Cloudless Sky by B Ribbeck
14. Reasons Not to Publish by G Benford
15. Objective Impermeability in a Closed System by W Shunn
16. Always by KJ Fowler
17. Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by K MacLeod
18. Artifice & Intelligence by T Pratt
19. Pirates of the Somali Coast by T Bisson
    This story is very very disturbing, becuase it starts out very innocent and funny, but quickly grinds down to terror. This story is written entirely in the form of emails from a boy on a cruise ship to his mother and his friend back home, Bug. When modern pirates attack the cruise ship, the boy is delighted. He shows no concern whatsoever about the escalating violence and death around him, and even joins in with the pirates to torture and murder passengers. When the navy finally arrives, the boy is the only one left alive. He is rescued, deemed a hero, and it appears that he has gotten away with sociopathic murder. But wait... the very ending is ambiguous - did the boy make the whole thing up?
    
    
20. Sanjeev & Robotwallah by I McDonald
21. Third Person by T Ballantyne
22. The Bridge by KA Goonan
    This was my 2nd favorite story in the book. I'm a sucker for stories about love, loss, and lonliness. This is also a murder mystery of sorts. However, calling it murder depends on how you view the civil rights of artificial intelligences. In a frightening world changed forever by nanotechnology, the detective is drawn into a web of deceit by a beautiful blonde who thinks she is an AI. However, it is human greed that ends in murder. I liked the blending of future fantasy world juxtaposed against a detective in the film noir motif.
    
    
23. As You Know, Bob by J Hemry
24. The Lustration by B Sterling
    I did not read this one. It just didn't capture my attention quickly enough to keep reading.
    
    
25. How Music Begins by J Van Pelt
    This was my favorite story in the book, and I was glad that my unhappiness with the small font didn't make me put the book down before reading the end. A junior high school band and their teacher are abducted from the band bus by aliens. Over the course of a few years of daily practice, the band finally plays the perfect concert and are beamed back home. However, during the course of their abduction, the teacher and band members mature into a team who seek perfection in their own lives. The story has a bittersweet ending, when the band realizes that the most musically gifted among them is the only one who never was returned home.