Best of the Best Volume 2 - by Gardner Dozois (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For more than twenty years The Year's Best Science Fiction has been recognized as the best collection of short science fiction writing in the universe and an essential resource for every science fiction fan. In 2005 the original Best of the Best collected the finest short stories from that series and became a benchmark in the SF field. Now, for the first time ever, Hugo Award-winning editor Gardner Dozios sifts through hundreds of stories and dozens of authors who have gone on to become some of the most esteemed practitioners of the form, to bring readers the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels from his legendary series.
Included are such notable short novels as:

Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg
In the fiftieth century, people of Earth are able to create entire cities on a whim, including those of mythology and legend. When twentieth-century traveler Charles Philip accidentally lands in this aberrant time period, he is simultaneously obsessed with discovering more about this alluring world and getting back home. But in a world made entirely of man's creation, things are not always as they seem on the surface.

Forgiveness Day by Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin returns to her Hainish-settled interstellar community, the Edumen, to tell the tale of two star-crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart in this story of politics, violence, religion, and cultural disparity.

Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds
On a sea-wold planet covered with idyllic tropical oceans, peace seems pervasive. Beneath the placid water lurks an ominous force that has the potential to destroy all tranquility.

Contributors include: Greg Egan; Joe Haldeman; James Patrick Kelly; Nancy Kress; Ursula K. Le Guin; Ian R. MacLeod; Ian McDonald; Maureen F. McHugh; Frederick Pohl; Alastair Reynolds; Robert Silverberg; Michael Swanwick; Walter Jon Williams

With work spanning two decades, The Best of the Best, Volume 2 stands as the ultimate anthology of short science fiction novels ever published in the world.

Review Quotes

"Stories that couldn't be squeezed into 2005's "Volume 1: a baker's dozen of novellas and short novels, 1985-2002," arranged chronologically. Some of these tales originally appeared as standalone books, such as Robert Silverberg's 'Sailing to Byzantium' (a man from the 1980s adrift in a future so remote that technology has become magic), and Michael Swanwick's 'Griffin's Egg, ' wherein new brain chemicals enable controlled mental evolution. Others were expanded into full-length novels: Joe Haldeman's reality-shifting 'The Hemingway Hoax, ' Nancy Kress's sleepless 'Beggars in Spain' and Maureen F. McHugh's wayfaring 'The Cost to Be Wise.' Others represent the forefront of the new British invasion: 'Tendeleo's Story' is Ian McDonald's take on post-colonial Africa; Ian R. MacLeod's 'New Light on the Drake Equation' rescues the last and forgotten advocate of SETI from the depths of drunken despair; and Alastair Reynolds extends his far-future Demarchist/Conjoiner universe to look more closely at the incomprehensible alien Pattern Jugglers. If these aren't sufficiently diverse, Walter Jon Williams's researcher, in 'Surfacing, ' struggles to communicate with cryptic marine animals while being distracted by romance and a god-like alien. James Patrick Kelly's 'Mr. Boy' depicts a world where parents deliberately render their children's bodies permanently juvenile. Veteran writer-editor Frederik Pohl weighs in with 'Outnumbering the Dead, ' examining the role of mortality in a world of immortals. Ursula K. Le Guin returns to planets Werel and Yeowe and its South African-descended populace, in 'Forgiveness Day.' And Greg Egan, famed for his hard sci-fi, offers 'Oceanic, ' in which a young boy's religiousconvictions are put to the test. No question as to the quality of the material here"--"Kirkus Reviews" "Beginning with Robert Silverberg's poignant 'Sailing to Byzantium, ' this outstanding follow-up to Dozois's "Best of the Best Volume 1"(2005) pays homage to the science fiction novellas of the past two decades and by extension to the entire genre in all its varied glory. Michael Swanwick's 'Griffin's Egg' holds down the hard SF end, while Joe Haldeman's 'The Hemingway Hoax' is more of a fantastical mystery. Nancy Kress's 'Beggars in Spain' and Ian McDonald's heartwrenching 'Tendeleo's Story' describe two very different near futures where gifted minorities battle societal envy and fear. Far future ruminations on age and death include James Patrick Kelly's demented 'Mr. Boy, ' Frederik Pohl's somber 'Outnumbering the Dead' and Ian R. MacLeod's tender 'New Light on the Drake Equation.' Otherworldly culture clash appears in Ursula K. Le Guin's 'Forgiveness Day' as well as the bittersweet trio of Alastair Reynolds's 'Turquoise Days, ' Maureen F. McHugh's 'The Cost to Be Wise' and Walter Jon Williams's 'Surfacing.'"--"Publishers Weekly""

Praise for "The Best of the Best": "Gardner Dozois' YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION anthology, an annual volume of gigantic size and awesome range, has after twenty years become a wondrous trove of great stories and an archive that has immeasurable historical significance. Now Dozois has selected the best of the best." --Robert Silverberg
"If a science fiction fan from 1984 chanced to stumble into a time warp and pop up in the here and now, and wanted to know what had been happening in his favorite genre in the last twenty years, all you'd need to do was hand him a copy of Gardner Dozois's "Best of the Best," This is two decades of the best that science fiction has to offer, chosen by the most respected editor in the field...a copy belongs of the shelf of every SF reader." --George R.R. Martin, bestselling author of "A Game Of Thrones"""
""The Best of the Best" collected all in one volume is beyond terrific! It'll make nonreaders of science fiction realize why the genre has so many devoted fans, and the readers of science fiction hyperventilate. This is the cream of the cream of the crop! And all in one place! I "cannot" wait to read it!" --Connie Willis, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author
"The title says it all. If you like science fiction, you need this book! Gardner Dozois is the savviest editor alive, and his picks are brilliant, thought-provoking, and immensely entertaining. Sell your grandmother if you must, but buy this book!" --Michael Swanwick, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards "Dozois's "Best of the Year" volumes have had consistently high literary quallity. I've used them as a primary text for twenty years, teaching SF writing at MIT, and they always give the students interesting examples of the huge variety of stories that live under the SF tent." --Joe Haldeman, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of "The Forever War"

About the Author

Gardner Dozois (1947-2018), one of the most acclaimed editors in science-fiction, has won the Hugo Award for Best Editor 15 times. He was the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine for 20 years. He is the editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies and co-editor of the Warrior anthologies, Songs of the Dying Earth, and many others. As a writer, Dozois twice won the Nebula Award for best short story. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2011 and has received the Skylark Award for Lifetime Achievement. He lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.