The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories

Having been reading a lot of new SF/Fantasy genre, I expected very little. I was pleasantly surprised. This collection of short SF stories is mostly very good, and some are really excellent. The only bad piece is Of The Beast In The Belly. It is so bad that I do wonder how the editor decided to include it in this collection (unless it is under the Editor's Nom De Plume). The Seven Birthdays start extremely well, but has a problem how to end itself, as many other short stories do. Sexteen Questions is well written, but its unmitigated put-down of academia, emphasizing its learned stupidity, is rather far fetched. Number Nine Moon again starts very well but ends clumsy. Chasing Ivory is one of my two favorites. Very well constructed, good lyrical prose, and believable. Something Happened Here... is well written but has the obvious problem of pretty much all SciFi. There are three ways to describe something alien and ununderstandable: 1. Painstakingly try to explain every manifestation in scientific/pseudoscientific terms-tedious to say the least; 2. To write as if everything is obvious, except the reader is too dense to understand the tech or the spirit of the fantastic world that the author created-usually results in a moronic pseudosci/tech/spiritual babble; 3. To write in such a way that the context explains the phenomena without seeming to do it - This is really the mark of the great writer. This story is well written but takes the second method and therefore fails. Red King is a very good detective story placed in a cyber world. Vortex is sort of echo of Odyssey 2001, but again ends quite lamely. The Visitor From Taured is another best choice. Excellent prose, great concept, and fabulous ending. Bravo! The Seventh Gamer takes the third place, being a new twist on the gamers VR world. Very very clever. And finally-Fieldwork, well written in a Ursulesque style and very enjoyable.

Quality stories. Some short, some longer. Good blend of millieus also. Could stand to lose some of the LGBTQ strains. Felt forced.

This is a terrific collection of short science fiction. Every story was priceless. If you like SF you will enjoy this one.

Subsequent volumes were somewhat better but one really can only rely on "Best of" collections covering several years or on Hugo award winning collections.

I accidentally re-bought the book and ended up re-reading all of the stories, thought I had read them previously. All worthwhile and a great way to while way the hours.

Some are hackneyed, but at least a few are gems! Not easy to please a scientist who has been reading scifi for 60+ years, but this collections hits the mark

Advanced technology subtle and does not dominate the story line, but adds to the story flow. Well done and cohesieve.

I had high hopes for this book being it was supposed to be a compilation of great stories from up and coming authors. Sadly, it was very disappointing. There is maybe one story in the whole book that was interesting and worth reading.

Competent 'read and forget' stories. Nothing that stayed in the mind,

Mostly good

Great - some real SF with clear plots.

Consistently high quality writing. Interesting premises and well developed characters. A very enjoyable read! Really liked this anthology a lot

While I had read half the stories already, the joy of rereading them and reading other hard SF stories was too attractive, so I purchased the collection.I was delighted, I found all of the stories excellent, engrossing, and entertaining. Weak stories? None that I thought that of. Strongest stories? Those by Craig DeLacey and Alastair Reynolds.Enjoy!!