Book Review: The Year's Best Science Fiction (2006)

Published by http://www.nemira.ro/

I’ll only review a few of the stories. Since Nemira skipped several stories from the original collection not bothering to translate them, then I feel I can take the liberty to do the same.

The Little Goddess – Describes the life of a little girl chosen and raised to be a goddess until she bleeds. It focuses on her life inside the temple, her learning, banishment after an accident and how she finds a purpose for her life in the real world becoming something close to what a goddess should be not only in name.

Beyond the Aquila Rift – It deals with long distance space travel and the danger of being away from home for too long. Dunno why it brought in my head images that would better associate with the title ‘The Restaurant at The End of The Universe’.

Triceratops Summer – What would one do if told an entire summer is going to be relived in the near future? Take a vacation and travel and try to indulge itself in things he or she likes best? That’s what our hero thinks too. Still he and his wife end up spending it at home looking at the triceratops brought from the past by a glitch in time.

Camouflage – On a giant ship inhabited by various species of aliens a mysterious man is hired to catch a murderer. Only that in the end it turns out that no one is who they seem to be, neither the man, his employer, or the woman whose husbands are killed one by one and who he is hired to protect.

A Case of Consilience – Something about a priest who manages to communicate with a species of fungus through an accident/self sacrifice. Not so interesting.

The Blemmye's Strategem – This one is set back in time being more fantasy than sci fi. It’s a bit grotesque and heavily written. Didn’t like it.

In the Quake Zone – Probably my favorite story from the collection. A private investigator travels through time to prevent a series of murders on the gay scene of a 50’s LA. He breaks some rules and he’s brought to the distant future for a career change.

The Children of Time – Several generations of children in the future, how they see the world and what this one has come to. Boring stuff.

Little Faces – This must be the answer to In the Quake Zone. The male population has disappeared leaving only the women in lesbian relationships travel the space in their ships.
Softly Spoke the Gabbleduck – An action packed story with a big alien thrown in for fun. Enjoyable enough.

Angel of Light – Interesting perspective of what value and signification things can have for various people.

Burn – The life of a firefighter injured in the line of duty and who is part of a community formed around a religious sect.

As a whole the collection is well done and I’m definitely going to buy the next volumes.

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Written for “Scrie ca sa primesti…o carte”