[tdeanatoz@yahoo]

Gardner Dozois' retrospective anthology, THE BEST OF THE BEST: TWENTY YEARS OF THE YEAR'S BEST SCINCE FICTION, is now out from St. Martin's Press in hardcover and trade paperback. Here is the Table of Contents:

1 - BLOOD MUSIC, Greg Bear
2 - A CABIN ON THE COAST, Gene Wolfe
2 - SALVADOR, Lucius Shepard
2 - TRINITY, Nancy Kress
3 - FLYING SAUCER ROCK AND ROLL, Howard Waldrop
3 - DINNER IN AUDOGHAST, Bruce Sterling
3 - ROADSIDE RESCUE, Pat Cadigan
3 - SNOW, John Crowley
4 - THE WINTER MARKET, William Gibson
4 - THE PURE PRODUCT, John Kessel
6 - STABLE STRATEGIES FOR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT, Eileen Gunn
6 - KIRINYAGA, Mike Resnick
7 - TALES FROM THE VENIA WOODS, Robert Silverberg
8 - BEARS DISCOVER FIRE, Terry Bisson
10 - EVEN THE QUEEN, Connie Willis
11 - GUEST OF HONOR, Robert Reed
12 - NONE SO BLIND, Joe Haldeman
13 - MORTIMER GRAY'S HISTORY OF DEATH, Brian Stableford
13 - THE LINCOLN TRAIN, Maureen F. McHugh
13 - WANG'S CARPETS, Greg Egan
13 - COMING OF AGE IN KARHIDE, Ursula K. Le Guin
14 - THE DEAD, Michael Swanwick
14 - RECORDING ANGEL, Ian McDonald
14 - A DRY, QUIET WAR, Tony Daniel
15 - THE UNDISCOVERED, William Sanders
15 - SECOND SKIN, Paul J. McAuley
16 - THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE, Ted Chiang
17 - PEOPLE CAME FROM EARTH, Stephen Baxter
17 - THE WEDDING ALBUM, David Marusek
17 - 10 to the 16th TO ONE, James Patrick Kelly
17 - DADDY'S WORLD, Walter Jon Williams
18 - THE REAL WORLD, Steven Utley
19 - HAVE NOT HAVE, Geoff Ryman
19 - LOBSTERS, Charles Stross
20 - BREATHMOSS, Ian R. Macleod
20 - LAMBING SEASON, Molly Gloss

No author got more than one story in it, indeed some regular contributors to the first twenty years failed to place one here. This must have been an immense juggling act for Dozois, trying to get both the best possible story for each author and a good representation of the strongest years (Volumes 5 and 9 did not place a story here). I've read 20 of the 36 stories, and am fully intending to read them all. The stories by MacLeod, Kress, Egan and Ursula K. Le Guin are stand-outs.

[Lowlander]

Certainly a good selection of stories. Strange thing is
I read several of these stories in Year's Best Fantasy
anthologies (Gene Wolfe, Stirling, Terry Bisson). You can argue about Stirling and Bisson being science fantasy but the Wolfe story (Cabin on the Coast) is definetely fantasy.

[tdeanatoz@yahoo]

I was somewhat disappointed by his individual authors' selections. I would have found a way to include David Marusek's "We Were Out of Our Minds With Joy" instead of "The Wedding Album," Terry Bisson's "There Are No Dead" instead of "Bears Discover Fire," etc. And I'll always be upset that Frederik Pohl's "Outnumbering the Dead" failed to make it.