The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 23rd Annual Collection Read Online Free PDF Page B

this seems like the appropriate place to take a look at it. They managed three issues this year, one of them a double issue: Postscripts 18: This Is the Summer of Love, Postscripts 19: Enemy of the Good , and Postscripts 20/21: Edison’s Frankenstein , all edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers. These three volumes maintain a reasonably high level of literary accomplishment, although none of them matches 2008’s Postscripts 15; there’s good work in the three volumes by Chris Roberson, Lisa Tuttle, Daniel Abraham, Paul Park, M.K. Hobson, Matthew Hughes, Marly Youmans, and others.
    Pleasant but minor science fiction anthologies included Intelligent Design (DAW Books), edited by Denise Little, Gamer Fantastic (DAW Books), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, and a mixed SF and fantasy anthology, Warrior Wisewoman 2 (Norilana), edited by Roby James.
    Noted without comment is The New Space Opera 2 , edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan.
    The best original fantasy anthology of the year (although it contains a couple of SF stories) may have been Firebirds Soaring (Firebird), edited by Sharyn November, which featured excellent work by Jo Walton, Margo Lanagan, Chris Roberson, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ellen Klages, Louise Marley, and others. Troll’s Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales (Viking), edited by Ellen Datlow and Terry Windling, is aimed at a younger audience than most of their other collections of fairy tale retellings have been – best story here is by Kelly Link, although there’s also entertaining work by Peter S. Beagle, Garth Nix, Delia Sherman, Jane Yolen, and others.
    Pleasant but minor original fantasy anthologies included Swordplay (DAW Books), edited by Denise Little; The Trouble with Heroes (DAW Books), edited by Denise Little; Lace and Blade 2 (Norilana Books), edited by Deborah J. Ross; Ages of Wonder (DAW Books), edited by Julie E. Czerneda and Rob St. Martin; Strip Mauled (Baen Books), edited by Esther M. Friesner; Witch Way to the Mall (Baen Books), edited by Esther M. Friesner; Terribly Twisted Tales (DAW Books), edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg; Under the Rose (Norilana Books), edited by Dave Hutchinson; and Crime Spells (DAW Books), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Loren L. Coleman. There was also another installment in a long-running fantasy anthology series, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Swords and Sorceress XXIV (Norilana Books), edited by Elisabeth Waters.
    Noted without comment are Songs of the Dying Earth (Subterranean Press/HarperCollins UK), an anthology of new fantasy stories inspired by the work of Jack Vance, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, and The Dragon Book (Ace Books) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois.
    The year’s best original horror anthologies (although both have fantasy stories and even SF stories in them) were Lovecraft Unbound (Dark Horse Comics), a mixed original (mostly) and reprint anthology, and Poe (Solaris), an all-original, both edited by Ellen Datlow, and both collecting stories ‘inspired’ by the work of their respective authors (H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, naturally). The best story in Lovecraft Unbound happens to be the only SF story, by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear, but the book also has strong original work by Laird Barron, William Browning Spencer, Lavie Tidhar, Holly Philips, Richard Bowes, Marc Laidlaw, and others, and good reprint stuff by Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Chabon, and others. Poe features good work by Suzy McKee Charnas, Lucius Shepard, Pat Cadigan, Sharyn McCrumb, Glen Hirshberg, Laird Barron, Gregory Frost, Kim Newman, and others. Tesseracts Thirteen (Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy), edited by Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, functioned as a dedicated horror anthology this year. Twilight Zone: 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary (Tor Books), edited by Carol Serling, is self-explanatory. There were also a number of large retrospective reprint horror anthologies,