The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year Volume One

Sith clicked the phone off. She opened the trunk of the car and tossed the phone into it. Being telephoned by ghosts was so . . . unmodern. How could Cambodia become a number one country if its cell phone network was haunted?

As I progressed through the book, I realised that a large number of the stories were to do with death in one form or another. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but was there something about 2006 that inspired authors to write about death and its aftermath, or did the editor have an affinity for those subjects that predisposed him to choose those stories?

After fifteen stories about death in a row, I was thrilled to come across something more light-hearted when I read "D.A." by Connie Willis, but it was straight back to death and destruction for the last few stories. The only two stories that I didn't really enjoy were "A Siege of Cranes" which was quite gruesome (although I liked the jackal-headed men and their quest to perform funeral rites for the dead of the world), and "Sob in the Silence" which I would say was horror rather than fantasy. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this anthology, particularly the science fiction stories. Several of the stories were familiar to me from other collections, but the Elizabeth Hand and Connie Willis were new to me and quite delightful surprises. The anthology slows down a bit in the middle, with some stories that are more propaganda than science fiction, but picks back up quickly. I'll be on the lookout for more of these.

A new series of books, or so we hope. I read this fully expecting not to like the fantasy part as much as the SF part, and that certainly turned out to be the case. What I have basically classified as SF to myself averages around 3.80, the fantasy part, 3.60.
Anyway, I have always looked at these sort of things as Best SF with bonus material.
In fact, fantasy is broadly defined here, from with boys, to child slaughtering horror.
The breakdown of genre is SF a bit under half - and the odd nebulous story that you could call SF would take it a bit over half, for those that are mostly interested in this as a science fiction book. For the rest, perhaps 60:40 fantasy to horror, by my classification, for those interested in that sort of thing one way or the other.
The editor gives a brief introduction, which is an historical overview of various 'Year's Best' series, and his own favorite editors of the past. Not sure whether it is short of choice, or for space reasons as he was trying to pack in as much story as possible. If that is the case, then perhaps publishers in a similar situation could consider longer editorial introduction with perhaps a url in the book, or even that as an excerpt or promo.
The story intros are brief, with a little bit of biography, and a little bit of introduction, and keeps to the right side of the line of reading like advertising. Speaking of which, this book actually has relevant advertisements for other books by the publisher. Normally, most people don't like advertising, but in the case of books, I find it good to have what else is available, with publisher's URL prominently available. Even if you just do the old fashioned one page list like was done in the past, that is fine. However, in this case you exactly get pretty high quality cover reproduction and blurbs, so quite well done.
So, to rate this, I give the SF part a 4.5, and the fantasy part a 4. If you like the non-SF genres more, I would think you are likely to call it the reverse.

SF and F Best 01 : How To Talk To Girls At Parties - Neil Gaiman
SF and F Best 01 : El Regalo - Peter S. Beagle
SF and F Best 01 : I Row-Boat - Cory Doctorow
SF and F Best 01 : In The House Of The Seven Librarians - Ellen Klages
SF and F Best 01 : Another Word For Map Is Faith - Christopher Rowe
SF and F Best 01 : Under Hell Over Heaven - Margo Langanan
SF and F Best 01 : Incarnation Day - Walter Jon Williams
SF and F Best 01 : The Night Whiskey - Jeffrey Ford
SF and F Best 01 : A Siege Of Cranes - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : Halfway House - Frances Hardinge
SF and F Best 01 : The Bible Repairman - Tim Powers
SF and F Best 01 : Yellow Card Man - Paolo Bacigalupi
SF and F Best 01 : Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy) - Geoff Ryman
SF and F Best 01 : The American Dead - Jay Lake
SF and F Best 01 : The Cartesian Theater - Robert Charles Wilson
SF and F Best 01 : Journey Into The Kingdom - M. Rickert
SF and F Best 01 : Eight Episodes - Robert Reed
SF and F Best 01 : The Wizards of Perfil - Kelly Link
SF and F Best 01 : The Saffron Gatherers - Elizabeth Hand
SF and F Best 01 : D.A - Connie Willis
SF and F Best 01 : Femaville 29 - Paul Di Filippo
SF and F Best 01 : Sob In The Silence - Gene Wolfe
SF and F Best 01 : The House Beyond Your Sky - Benjamin Rosenbaum
SF and F Best 01 : The Djinn's Wife - Ian McDonald

Ordinary party and alien chicks = run away.

3.5 out of 5
Witch boy sororal rescue.
4 out of 5
Asimovian reef revival survival.
4.5 out of 5
Taxonomically sheltered upbringing.
4 out of 5
Religiously correct landscaping writ large.
3 out of 5
Purgatory point scoring.
3.5 out of 5
Parental supervision control program subversion.
4.5 out of 5
Death booze corpse recall putdown getaway.
4 out of 5
Witch girl's zombie baby scorched earth revenge.
4.5 out of 5
Butterfly piecemeal.
2.5 out of 5
Broken soul ghost ransomer's burning to edit.
3 out of 5
Fallen biotech magnate takes insults badly.
4 out of 5
Surfeit of spirits.
3 out of 5
Tomb sex death escape is smoking.
4 out of 5
AI's secret hiring post double death act suicide promotion of philosophy.
4 out of 5
Rules for snogging. 1. Check for life. 2. Check if human.
3 out of 5
Tv invasion cancelled. Maybe.
4 out of 5
Scary sorcery lacks youthful replenishment.
4 out of 5
Archaeological expedition earthquake overflight.
3.5 out of 5
Space cadet Shanghai surprise.
4 out of 5
Tsunami refugeee imagineering exodus.
4 out of 5
Horrific writer's fate well deserved.
4 out of 5
Making a universal mess of it.
2.5 out of 5
Computer cops crimp AI's carnal cavorting with calisthenic chick.
4 out of 5
http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/09... ( )

In general, a lovely collection of stories. It shouldn't surprise me that my favorite was from Connie Willis, but it does. Just didn't feel like her writing, somehow. ( )