The year's best science fiction Book

This is possibly my least favorite of this anthology series. There are quite a few stories that are mediocre or worse, and many of the good stories are decent yet utterly forgettable. There are a a couple of real standouts though: John Kessel's The Juniper Tree, which is complex and uncomfortable, and Tananrive Due's Patient Zero, which is a magnificent bit of creeping horror.

INDIVIDUAL STORY RATINGS AND COMMENTS

The Juniper Tree John Kessel
5 stars
Morally complex and uncomfortable. A riveting ending.

Antibodies Charles Stross
3.5 stars
I liked the concept and loved the ending; however, despite only being 15 pages long, it still dragged at times.

The Birthday of the World Ursula K. Le Guin
4 stars
A fascinating universe and examination of religion

Savior Nancy Kress
4 stars
A wonderful scifi short story composed of vignettes scoping centuries of Earth's development

Reef Paul J. MacAuley
3 stars
A dystopian short with a somewhat unsatisfactory ending

Going After Bobo Susan Palwick
3 stars
A scifi examination of family conflict and the fallout of grief

Crux Albert E. Cowdrey
4 stars
A scifi novelette in which a detective goes back in time to save the current world

The Cure for Everything Severna Park
2 stars
I'm deeply uncomfortable with the stereotypical portrayal of Indigenous people in this story.

The Suspect Genome Peter F. Hamilton
4 stars
A scifi, police procedural novelette that starts with the arrest and still catches you off guard with the twist

The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O Michael Swanwick
0 stars
DNF How I fucking hate this guy's writing. I have no idea what anyone sees in him.

Radiant Green Star Lucius Shepard
1 star
DNF White folks need to be conscientious when writing people of color. Does the Black man in your story really need to be owned, need to have been the subject of scientific experiment? Are you making any kind of statement with that, acknowledging the actual history of that, or just perpetuating certain imagery for the thrill with no moral purpose? Do the Asian women in your story need to be sexualized, described as demure yet sensual, perceived through the male, fetishist gaze with desires that only center around men's needs? No, they really don't.

Great Wall of Mars Alastair Reynolds
4 stars
Two brothers take off on a last chance mission to prevent a war. A complex sci-fi transhumanist tale.

Milo and Sylvie Eliot Fintushel
1 star
DNF So between this guy saying that someone was "almost a midget" but that was "okay" since the character didn't "act short" and talking about the "totemic soul" of a "primitive", I just don't care what happens in the story because, whatever it is, it's not worth getting slapped in the face with that sort of bigotry.

Snowball in Hell Brian Stableford
3 stars
I love the transhumanist concepts of this, but it's a bit repetitive

On the Orion LIne Stephen Baxter
4 stars
Trapped in the remains of a destroyed ship and facing imminent death, a young soldier fiercely clings to his training yet is given cause to ponder the philosophy of it.

Oracle Greg Egan
3.5 stars
I suspect I might have enjoyed this more if I understood the math and science in it better. I quite liked the ending though.

Obsidian Harvest Rick Cook & Ernest Hogan
1 star
DNF This is one of those modern hard-boiled style tales, only set in an alternate history. I've never been a fan of the style.

Patient Zero Tananarive Due
5 stars
A wonderful piece of creeping horror. Perfect to the word.

A Colder War Charles Stross
4 stars
A military man tries to fulfill his duty to country and family as the world sinks slowly into a Lovecraftian nightmare.

The Real World Steven Utley
4 stars
A disquieting short that leaves you wondering

The Thing About Benny M. Shayne Bell
3 stars
An interesting world with interesting characters, but not a particularly interesting story

The Great Goodbye Robert Charles Wilson
3 stars
Fun bit of flash fiction

Tendeléo's Story Ian McDonald 70/23
1 star DNF
A fascinating alien contact concept, but the story has a bit of a white savior feel to it despite being written with a black protagonist. There's something quite racially stereotypical about the roles assigned to the various characters as well.