Best Science Fiction: 20th Annual Collection

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Breathmoss by Ian R. MacLeod
The Most Famous Little Girl in the World by Nancy Kress
The Passenger by Paul McAuley
The Political Officer by Charles Coleman Finlay
Lambing Season by Molly Gloss
Coelacanths by Robert Reed
Presence byMaureen F. McHugh
Halo by Charles Stross
In Paradise by Bruce Sterling
The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars by Ian McDonald
Stories for Men byJohn Kessel
To Become a Warrior by Chris Beckett
The Clear Blue Seas of Luna by Gregory Benford
V.A.O. by Geoff Ryman
Winters are Hard by Steven Popkes
At the Money by Richard Wadholm
Agent Provocateur by Alexander Irvine
Singleton by Greg Egan
Slow Life by Michael Swanwick
A Flock of Birds by James Van Pelt
The Potter of Bones by Eleanor Arnason
The Whisper of Disks by John Meaney
The Hotel at Harlan's Landing by Kage Baker
The Millenium Party by Walter Jon Williams
Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds
Honorable Mentions: 2002


Summation 2002

Although critics continued to talk about the "Death of Science Fiction" throughout 2002 (some of them with ill-disguised longing), the unpalatable fact (for them) is that science fiction didn't die this year, and doesn't even look particularly sick. In fact, sales for many genre titles were brisk, and not only were there not fewer books published this year than last, several new book lines were added that swelled the total and are going to swell it more next year (and this isn't even counting print-on-demand titles and books sold as electronic downloads from internet Web sites, things much more difficult to keep track of than traditionally printed-and-distributed books). Nor, to my eyes anyway, was there any noticeable fall-off in literary quality. Sure, there's plenty of crap out there on the bookstore shelves, just as there's always been. But there's also more quality SF of many different flavors and varieties (to say nothing of the equally diverse range of quality fantasy titles) available out there this year than any one person is going to be able to read, unless they make a full-time job out of doing so (even the professional reviewers have difficulty keeping up!). In fact, an incredibly wide spectrum of good SF and fantasy, both new titles and formerly long-out-of-print older books, are probably more readily available to the average reader now -- in many different forms and formats -- than at any other time in history. All of which indicate to me that nailing the coffin-lid shut on the genre, smearing ashes on your face, and trotting out the obituaries might be just a bit premature.