Rourke's World of Science Encyclopedia Book

This one took me ages to finish - perhaps because it started with somewhat weak stories and did not overall contain as many strong one as other in the collection. That said, everyone needs to go and read Kristine Kathryn Rusch "Craters" NOW (also available at Lightspeed Magazine), it's so short and so amazing. And Elizabeth Bear's "Tideline" (also available as podcast that I haven't yet listened to here) was very much a worthy Hugo winner.

David Moles: "Finisterra"
Some fancy world-building, but otherwise rather meh and vague and somehow feeling very steam-punky (without any steam punk to it; and yes, steam-punky means bad for me). Also I am more and more annoyed by complex engineering problem being solved or having to be solved by individual people.

Ken MacLeod: "Lighting Out"
Technically OK, but pointless and absolutely forgettable.

John Barnes: "The Ocean is a Snowflake, Four Billion Miles Away"
An another one of the technically well executed but utterly forgetable ones.

Gwyneth Jones: "Saving Tiamaat"
This was neat, but I almost suppose that this is because all the other stories were so bad and this had both some emotional impact and some bigger scope to it.

James Van Pelt: "Of Late I Dreamt of Venus"
SO bad. SO bad. Cardboard characters does not even start describing it. Research? Zero. Working characters? Zero. Working world? Zero. Believable corporations? Nope. What is this story even doing in a book published in this century. not even mentioning that it's a "best of"-book?

Ian McDonald: "Verthandi's Ring"
My problem with all these stories is that they read like Golden Age. Oh, the surface is different. There is more modern science and some of the characters use "she" as a pronoun. but the heart is still the same. And I am a New Wave girl, I need social science and psychology and societies and religion and working characters and literary.

Una McCormack: "Sea Change"
This one has potential, but I wish we had gotten more of the story: more of the characters, more of the world.

Chris Roberson: "The Sky is Large and the Earth is Small"
This one had it's moments - especially the narrators despair over the old man's ramblings -, but overall was not very new and the ending was kind of meh.

Greg Egan: "Glory"
I loved the needle "ship", but the rest of it was rather weak for Egan. He knows how to write this with far more emotional impact and more believable characters.

Robert Silverberg: "Against the Current"
For some reason I had to think about Thomas Disch's "Descending" - which was so much better. (Although you may like this story more if you know SF better than I do or are quite a bit older ...)

Neal Asher: "Alien Archeology"
Ugh ... Stupid, and more stupid with a mix in of convenient deus ex machina technology when necessary.
However, the Gabbleduck was cute.

Ted Chiang: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate"
Hugo for this one? Seriously? I love old Arabic tales (not only the 1001 night ones, but also Nazami, etc.) and even with this background and my general love for the exploration of free will in science fiction (I will write this story, I will ...) it left me rather meh.
(Besides, it's pure fantasy. Now it does not matter for the Hugo, but it very much does for this collection.)
I heard so many good things about Ted Chiang; I will definitely give him another try, but only in an anthology. This one does not make me want to pick up a whole book of his stories.

Justin Stanchfield: "Beyond the Wall"
Very atmospheric. Not deep (I think), but a very good read.

Bruce Sterling: "Kiosk"
Boring in both, idea and execution. The only remotely redeeming thing was the joke about the three traits of politicians and mainly because it reminded me of a joke we tend to make about parts for spacecrafts.

Stephen Baxter: "Last Contact"
Nicely melancholic, although not all logical ends meet.

Alastair Reynolds: "The Sledge-Maker's Daughter"
I know that Reynolds can create intricate worlds within one short story. This is not one of those short stories. This is a wild jumble of words and pieces, shards of colorful glass that does not produce a work of art, rather a kitschy exhibit at a local art fair.

Ian McDonald: "Sanjeev and Robotwallah"
This is not the first take on the "what would it be really like if teenagers did pilot giant war robots" question I read. And this one does not get it - the whole genre, at least the good ones among them, are not about androgynous teenage boys piloting giant alien robots. Sure, the giant robots are ego extensions. But it's always about the metaphors, about the pains of growing up and finding oneself. Ignore the metaphor and write a take on how this dream would work in reality and you have something that may sound sharp (and be read as such by someone whose growing was not deeply influences by Neon Genesis Evangelion) but is hollow in the middle (and lacks a proper explanation why teenage boys; it will never work if it's not a metaphor or a world as meticulously constructed as "Ender's Game").

Michael Swanwick: "The Skysailor's Tale"
This may have been a good novel, but as a short story it's both too much and not enough. And I could really do without that adolescent purple prose approach to sex.

Vandana Singh: "Of Love and Other Monsters"
Oh yes. The feeling this one creates, the voice of the narrator, the vast, rich background world that exists in hints, the ending (I was not sure about it, but then I realized it was because I wanted it to be different so, so much - it could not, not in the logic of the story; once you are burned, it's forever ...). This one is very good.

Greg Egan: "Steve Fever"
Very, very nice. The only reason I am not singing praise here is that this is Egan and I know that he can pack even more of a punch in his stories. But very, very nice and with an other author it would be even very good.

Kage Baker: "Hellfire at Twilight"
Nope. Does not work. Perhaps if I knew the characters, this one would shine, but as a short story of it's own it lacks impact (in spite of the topic) and depth and making me feel for the character. Also, this kind of time-travelling premise is just off to me.

Brian Stableford: "The Immortals of Atlantis"
Now that is an interesting one - it was OK but nothing spectacular until the ending. And then it was really good. I like stories that manage that; take an old idea and add an emotional punch, something that really hurts and is really memorable.

Pat Cadigan: "Nothing Personal"
I am not sure that the ending really ties everything together, but I liked the atmosphere this one created. And that feeling of Dread? Oh, be happy if this was not something you could understand the very first moment it was mentioned.

Elizabeth Bear: "Tideline," which went on to win the 2008 Hugo award for best short story
Yep, that one is a worthy Hugo winner. (Perhaps I should really change my opinion about Bear and read a few of her short stories. As opposed to her novels, I seem to enjoy them a lot.)

Keith Brooke: "The Accord"
At that's another one where the ending actually makes the story a lot better than I would have had expected. Very neat.

Nancy Kress: "Laws of Survival"
This one would have worked much better without listing the actual laws - that made it slide towards kitsch, which is rather unfortunate, because the idea was a really interesting one.

Tom Purdom: "The Mists of Time"
Seriously, what did I just read? Either I fully misunderstood the author or this is one of the biggest pieces of crap in sf form I've read in a while ....

Kristine Kathryn Rusch: "Craters"
This one is simply amazing - read it. Even and especially if you are not a science fiction fan. This could be today. Or tomorrow. Not let the genre label deter you; if it did not have one, if it were published in one of the "literary" magazines, you would not even know and would read it.
[Available online in the Lightspeed Magazine here]

Ted Kosmatka: "The Prophet of Flores"
Once again, the idea is somewhat neat, the execution is lacking both in terms of making you actually feel anything for the characters and in terms of inner coherency of the story, its believability. I don't believe that any kid could have build what the main character built. Nor is it believable how he will survive in the end.

Benjamin Rosenbaum & David Ackert: "Stray"
This one is rather fantasy than science fiction - that said, it's a nice story, told in an interesting voice.

Robert Reed: "Roxie"
This is not a new story, now. But gosh, is it strongly written. Like with his "Katabasis" (read in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection), the summary says nothing about what the story is really about. About how it makes you feel. This is not one of the great ship stories - actually, it is one of those which you may not even classify as science fiction were it not written by a science fiction author and published in a science fiction collection. But oh, it is good.

Gregory Benford: "Dark Heaven"
The beginning was interesting is well written, but it went down the moment McKenna "worked Buddy over" - seriously, and then we should still emphasize with the character? It went down from there - suddenly there was the partner that was kind of mentioned before but in the end only introduced to be killed, all with the crying widow, and the alien "solution" was just meh in terms of how it worked to actually solve the story.