This slab of a volume ate up a few days in an enjoyable fashion. The worst you can expect in a Dozois collection is worthy-but-dull-and-overlong. Outright bad is very rare; the stories are always sure to be well crafted and well-written. This edition is solid. Nothing boring, nothing spectacularly stand-out either. Memorable ones included Yellow Card Man and Nightingale, both rather nightmarish. Robbie The Row Boat was fun and clever. A good collection, overall. ( )

Some great stories, some not so great stories. Definitely required reading for Sci-fi fans. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1896524.html

Most of these stories were indeed fresh for me; four (I think) were Hugo nominees, and I'd read a couple of others in other collections (or possibly even in the original magazine publication). As usual, Dozois shows excellent taste, though my 2007 records are not in good enough shape to tell me if I think he got a better or worse result than the Hugo or Nebula nomination system. The story that stood out for me as a new discovery was Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Okanoggan Falls", a disturbing tale of alien occupation and human resistance. ( )

A survey like this is going to offer a variety a subgenres and styles, so you come in expecting to like some entries more than others. But it seems fair to come to a “year’s best” anthology expecting to like more stories than not, and I can’t say that was my experience with Dozois’ 2006 collection. In terms of individual story ratings, I found myself gaving a lot of ratings below 6 out of 10 (8 in all), so it’s perhaps not surprising that it took me over five weeks of on again, off again, reading to make it through this collection.

I felt like this book offered several stories which started with promising enough concepts, but then gave us unconvincing people who did unbelievable things. Some of the biggest disappointments for me were Alistair Reynolds “Signal to Noise,” in which a man has a chance to strive for closure with an alternate universe version of his recently deceased wife; David Levine’s “I Hold My Father’s Paws,” in which a man strives for closure with his long estranged, about-to-be-turned-into-a-dog (I kid you not), father; and even Ian McDonald’s Hugo Award winning “The Djinn’s Wife,” which left me utterly unconvinced, even if I didn’t really hate it.

Having said all that, one of the best things about these annual collections is always finding authors new to me, and that was the case again here. Three of my favorite stories in the book were from authors I had not previously read: Paolo Bacigalupi’s "Yellow Card Man," Benjamin Rosenbaum’s "The House Beyond Your Sky,” and Cory Doctorow’s very funny “I, Row-boat.” Other favorites were the always reliable Robert Reed’s “Good Mountain,” and Walter Jon Williams’ “Incarnation Day.” ( )

A better-than average edition of this series. Although there was not too much that really amazed me, almost everything in the book was a very good story with nothing I totally disliked.

My favorites:
"The Djinn's Wife" - Ian McDonald
"Incarnation Day" - Walter Jon Williams
"Riding the Crocodile" - Greg Egan

Least favorite:
"The Big Ice" - Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
"Okanoggan Falls" - Carolyn Ives Gilman
"Every Hole Is Outlined" - John Barnes

"I Row-Boat" - Cory Doctorow 4/5
An intelligent rowboat has to deal with a belligerent intelligent coral reef. Humorous post-singularity story.
"Julian: A Christmas Story" - Robert Charles Wilson 3.5/5
Two teens start to learn about the past in a post-apocalyptic future that suppresses knowledge of science.
"Tin Marsh" - Michael Swanwick 4/5
Venus miners get cabin fever. Entertaining action.
"The Djinn's Wife" - Ian McDonald 5/5
An Indian dancer marries an AI. Very good story in an interesting setting.
"The House Beyond Your Sky" - Benjamin Rosenbaum 3/5
A denizen of a house at the end of the universe, interacts with some of the inhabitants. Interesting.
"Where the Golden Apples Grow" - Kage Baker 3.5/5
On Mars, a boy from a farm colony and one who grew up with truckers share an adventure. Fun story.
"Kin" - Bruce McAllister 3/5
A boy hires an alien hitman.
"Signal to Noise" - Alastair Reynolds 4/5
People are able to temporarily switch into the bodies of their doubles in very similar parallel timelines. A man uses this to visit his wife, who just died in his own timeline. Good ideas about identity.
"The Big Ice" - Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold 2/5
A near-immortal member of the galactic ruling class is transformed by alien biological traces in an ice sheet.
"Bow Shock" - Gregory Benford 4/5
Academic politics and personal life conflict with a scientist's study of fast-moving neutron stars.
"To the River" - Justin Stanchfield 3.5/5
A woman is surgically altered in order to communicate with aquatic aliens. Good, but a little melodramatic.
"Incarnation Day" - Walter Jon Williams 4.5/5
In the outer solar system, children are raised as computer simulations and then incarnated into physical bodies when they come of age. Nice concept with some thought about what it takes to be considered a person.
"Far As You Can Go" - Greg Van Eekhout 3/5
A teenager and his robot friend try to find the ocean in an environmentally degraded future.
"Good Mountain" - Robert Reed 4/5
Disaster strikes a world where the inhabitants live on a continent made of floating vegetation. Great, original setting.
"I Hold My Father's Paws" - David D. Levine 3/5
A man has himself transformed into a dog in order to avoid the stresses of life.
"Dead Men Walking" - Paul J. McAuley 3.5/5
A bioengineered soldier attempts to blend in on a Uranus colony after a war.
"Home Movies" - Mary Rosenblum 4/5
A woman who creates surrogate memories for rich clients faces a difficult assignment. Good concept.
"Damascus" - Daryl Gregory 4/5
A blood-borne brain disease creates feelings of religious ecstasy. A scary, realistic story.
"Life on the Preservation" - Jack Skillingstead 4/5
Modern Seattle is preserved in a repeating time bubble in a post-apocalyptic world. Interesting concept.
"Yellow Card Man" - Paolo Bacigalupi 3/5
A refugee struggles to survive in Bangkok in a post-oil world. Good story, but with a very limited sf element.
"Riding the Crocodile" - Greg Egan 4.5/5
A couple attempts to contact the enigmatic aliens at the center of the galaxy as the last achievement of their lives. Great portrayal of a far-future civilization.
"The Ile of Dogges" - Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette 3/5
Time travelers attempt to rescue a lost play by Ben Johnson.
"The Highway Men" - Ken MacLeod 3.5/5
Conscripted highway workers meet up with a community living outside the system in a decaying future Britan., Fun but fairly typical MacLeod.
"The Pacific Mystery" - Stephen Baxter 4/5
Alternate history is a world where the Pacific contains a fold in space-time. Good, original concept.
"Okanoggan Falls" - Carolyn Ives Gilman 3/5
The citizens of a small town try to save it from occupying aliens who wish to build a mine there. I didn't find the aliens convincing.
"Every Hole Is Outlined" - John Barnes 3/5
Starship crews see ghosts about between the stars. Has an interesting culture, but the story never really makes sense.
"The Town on Blighted Sea" - A. M. Dellamonica 3/5
The losers from an alien-backed war on Earth deal with being refugees on an alien world.
"Nightingale" - Alastair Reynolds 4/5
A mercenary group is hired to extract a war criminal from an abandoned hospital ship. Good suspense with a nasty ending. ( )