Turning Back the Hands of Time: The Art and Science of Physical Change Book

Finally finished this one - they take a long time, and I have a whole ton of them to get through. But I figured out that the job is made easier if I exclude two of the horrible sub-genres of sf :

1. Alternative history - bah, who cares about this stuff, it's not sf; even if it turns out Hitler was a robot or the Emperor Caligula was a genetically modified ant or if Arkansas was colonised by Charles Dickens.

2. Science fiction comedy stories. They're never very funny. It must be admitted that Gardner Dozois, bless him, had a soft spot for both these types.

In this Dozois the best story is Papa by Ian R MacLeod, a real heart-wrencher about growing old in a near future society where there is just too much assistance available from technology. Second best is Flashback by Dan Simmons, all about a near future where they've got this drug called flashback - when you take it your mind inhabits 20 minutes of one of your best ever memories (sex for most people) - everybody is hooked on it, and the story follows a small gang of 15 year-olds who've got themselves a gun in order to do a random murder and then replay the murder via flashback, so they can all appreciate the various details they missed when it was happening in reality.

Both these stories are so sharp. That's what I read sf for.