David G. Hartwell edits an
iteration of this
anthology every year, and the fifth volume just floated to the surface. This is cause for happiness: The previous four have been
uniformly excellent. He picks good 'uns,
writers who can actually write. This is a rare, strange, and wonderful thing in
SF. I'm damned if I'm going to wade through all that
amateurish crap in the magazines if the redoubtable
David G. Hartwell is willing to do the wading for such a modest fee.
Better yet, most of it's usually by writers I haven't heard of. That means very little since I'm so out of touch, but for me it's cool: This year the only ones I've heard of are
Kim Stanley Robinson (hrm,
bad omen),
Robert Reed (bummer; he sucks),
Brian Aldiss, and
Barry N. Malzberg.
Terry Bisson and
Greg Egan sound vaguely familiar. The other fifteen or so are obscure to me.