Uncommonly good. A genuinely readable collection of SF short stories. Nice variety. I'd sworn off anthologies for a while because so many were so poor. My favorite was "Cheats."The balance was tilted toward dystopias, but that's understandable of a book published in 2009. Don't read the intros, it only spoils the fun.

Arkfall **** I was swept away to a new world - a great adventure. (And no small reminder of how my family talks...)Orange *** Cute, and surprisingly-readable, despite the gimmickMemory Dog ** Wish-fulfilment for hippies. Not for me.Pump Six *** A dystopia that's all the more painful because of its plausibility.Boojum *** Not bad, but nothing really surprising here either.Exhalation ***** SF at its best. The allegory is obvious, but it also works on its own as an internally-consistent world.Trait...

I found the stories a bit uneven. They were all undeniably well written, they just weren't all too my taste. There were an excessive number of depressing stories set in dystopic futures with unhappy endings, for example. But there were also many stories that I enjoyed a great deal, stories that moved me and made me think.

Just like all the others in this series, some of the stories are good, some I can't figure out and some I do not like. What more can you say about collections.

My subjective best of the best:"Arkfall"/Carolyn Ives Gilman. (Cool underwater adventure with "biotechnology and great characters)."Memory Dog"/Kathleen Ann Goonan. (Dogs and SF work well together, Very emotional!)"Pump Six"/ Paolo Bacigalupi. His boss reminds me of my boss! Dystopian future living among idiots ala Kornbluth's "the Marching Morons"."Boojum"/Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Interesting space opera about space pirates (although the grammar was a bit clunky). The "Lavinia Whately...

All excellent stories - a couple really got me thinking, and that's good. The best strategy for reading this book is to read one story a day and let it simmer for awhile. More than that and you risk SF overload, which can lead to blurry vision and headaches. Pace yourself and you should be okay. If I had the book in front of me I would name the outstanding stories; unfortunately, I don't, so I will have to hope to update this review soon.

Stories I especially enjoyed include:Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, "Boojum"Cory Doctorow, "The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away"Vandana Singh, "Oblivion: A Journey"Jason Sanford, "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain"

This is a great collection! I really liked Jason Sanford's "The Ships Like Clouds, Risen by Their Rain". Truly visionary! I previously recommended Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi. The title story is published herein.

I likely purchased this book at a yard sale, and have kept it in my car, to have something to read when my wife goes shopping for clothes, gardening stuff, etc.; so it’s been read sporadically, over the past 2½ years. This collection is from 2008, the year of the Big Short, when the US economy experienced a decided downturn. In the Introduction by the editors, they indicate that the same thing happened in the publishing industry, specifically in the SF magazine business, which saw a decrease in

Very good anthology featuring a variety of sci-fi.

3.5 stars. The following authors have good or great stories:Paolo Bacigalupi, although his story just ends;Ted Chiang;Cory Doctorow, with a good twist ending;M. Rickert;Michael Swanwick;Ted Kosmatka;Alastair Reynolds - the winner of this book;Mary Rosenblum;Jeff Vandermeer

Since I read the big Science Fiction anthology by Gardner Dozois religiously every year, I hardly ever pick up another best of anthology for fear of duplication. This year my friend Bonnie mentioned this anthology and there was only one duplicated story.Anyway -- it's a pretty decent anthology and a good read. Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman is the first, and perhaps best storyy of the bunch, certainly one I will remember. It's hard for me to consider these the "best" stories of the year, it's mo...

As with any collection, it contained the usual mix of good, OK, and bad stories....some of the interesting ones included "Orange" by Gaiman, "The House Left Empty" by Reed, "Fury" by Reynolds, "Spiders" by Sue Burke and, my favorite, "Fixing Hanover" by Jeff VanderMeer.

My Favorites"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang"The Scarecrow's Boy" by Michael SwanwickStory-By-Story Reactions"Arkfall" by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Waterworld setting inspired by recent discoveries about Saturn's moons, unfortunately while the terrain was fresh and new, the characters were stereotyped knock-offs. Will people in the far future with Japanese names really be obsessively passive, and guys named "Jack" really act like they just escaped from a spaghetti western? i guess so..."Orange" by Neil Gai...

Looking through the titles in this collection, I determined I HAD already read it, and most likely this year, and again, too, though I can most clearly remember a few choice stories from it, such as the N Words, The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away, and Mitigation.So this serves a mark to myself as a reminder so that I don't pick it up again - though these are all top-quality, I'm interested in seeing something different.If I did happen to pick it up again by accident, I

Many of these stories fall outside of my definition of science fiction. However, like most anthologies, there are some jewels. I enjoyed seven of the 21 stories: Pump Six, Boojum, Exhalation, The Scarecrow's Boy, N-Words, Fury, and Fixing Hanover.

TOC:Arkfall - Carolyn Ives Gilman - good, poetic. an underwater world, japanese-ish culture, almost a coming of age type story.Orange - Neil Gaiman - "clever" concept, only answers to an interrogation of a teenage girl.Memory Dog - Kathleen Ann GoonanPump Six - Paolo BacigalupiBoojum - Elizabeth Bear & Sarah MonetteExhalation - Ted ChiangTraitor - M. RickertThe Things that Make Me Weak and Stange GetEngineered Away - Cory DoctorowOblivion: A Journey - Vandana SinghThe House Left Empty - Robert R...

Read this anthology because of the story "Boojam" by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. Very derivative of the Sci-Fi show Farscape (which I loved), but a different enough of a take to interest. The one by Neil Gaiman was also pretty fun.

...i racconti davvero belli stanno della prima metà del volume, come sempre solertemente spezzettato da Urania, intitolata Nove Inframondi.Qui la qualità media è molto più insoddisfacente, soprattutto considerando i blasonati nomi coinvolti, che risultano stantii rispetto a quanto scritto nella stessa annata da altre penne non così stagionate.

As with any anthology there are hits and misses. Gaiman, Singh, Doctorow, and Chiang were the hits and Paolo Baci... and M. Richert were the misses for me. There are also wonderful new authors I've discovered in this volume.