Year's Best Science Fiction Book

It's hard to write a review of an anthology. In the case of a year's best collection, the constraints imposed more or less guarantee uneven quality in the selections (or a rather short book). On top of that, I had already encountered several of these pieces in another anthology, so that took some of the fun out of the book overall. The editors seemed to have relied rather heavily on the authors for collecting biographical and analytical information on the stories, depriving me of what is usually one of my favorite parts of an anthology: the criticism that comes with it. I did, of course, enjoy many of the pieces. "Rwanda" by Robert Reed was a little creepy but very thought provoking. Heather Lindlsey's "Just Do It!" would have been even more enjoyable if it had seemed less credible. "When Sysadmins Ruled the World" was a little hokey, but I enjoyed Doctorow's writing. "Applied Mathematical Theology" also had some good food for thought. "Damascus" was scary, but mostly in a good way, and I found myself believing a rather tough character to sell. Overall, the book is well worth the investment for people who like speculative fiction, but the stories tend to run to the apocalyptic, so if that's not an interest for you, I'd say to choose a different year.