The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Three Paperback – April 3, 2018

Perfect to consume a couple stories a night.

KJP Mini review of the stories, The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 3 (Kindle Edition) “A Series of Steaks”, Vina Jie-Min Prasad (she’s a new writer) -- I didn’t love this story about counterfeiting food. It was fun reading, interesting & technical, but I don’t see how it merits inclusion in this volume. (org. published in Clarkesworld mag., JAN. 2017)“Holdfast”, Alastair Reynolds – clearly an homage to Longyear’s ENEMY MINE. This time with a far different ending of the two combatants. Excellent work, as expected from this author. (org. published in ‘Extrasolar’ anthology, 3/1/2018)“Every Hour of Light and Dark”, Nancy Kress – SUPERB story! Takes place in three timelines. A very good angle on physical object time travel and another one on counterfeiting, this time works of art are being forged & transported (e.g., Vermeer’s art) in 4 dimensions. Nancy Kress knocks it out of the park. (KJP, 4/5/2018) (org. published in OMNI, Dec. 2017)--“The Last Novelist (or a Dead Lizard in the Yard)”, Matthew Kressel. Another “OK” story about a writer who still uses cursive along with pen & ink (org. published in Tor.com, MAR. 2017) on an earth-like world in a future maybe 500 years from now.“Shikasta”, Vandana Singh. This novella starts out really well with the first crowd-funded, robotic spacecraft on an extra solar adventure to the titular star’s planet, perhaps just 20 years in the future – this is a SUPERB story. However, how could a project like this be crowd-funded unless you have several multi-billionaires funding it and high-fractional, sub-c spacecraft speed? (org. published in an anthology, ‘Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities’ , DEC. 2017) [Dorris Lessing, her 1979 book wrote “Colonised Planet 5, Shikasta” which I bet inspired Singh’s story slightly]“The Martian Obelisk”, Linda Nagata (Tor.com 2017) I read this last year as well and loved it in reread as much as the first time. Another near future Earth is doomed from man’s planet poisoning and 8.x magnitude earthquakes; this suspenseful story is full of Martian poignancy around a new high-concept architectural memorial on the red planet and human settlements nearby.“Focus”, Gord Sellar, from Analog 2017. I did not like this short story; most likely I missed its point. Seems to me that there were maybe 40 other stories from last year’s Analog much better. I’ve liked Sellar’s work but not this one that involves Korea and Vietnam and some sort of 5G cell phone workers’ revolution. ANALOG readers via the ANLAB poll, however, voted “Focus” into the top six short stories in the magazine for the year; what do I know? LOL – let’s see where it finishes (to be announced approx. 6/19/2018).“Wind Will Rove”, Sarah Pinsker, from Asimov’s 2017. Loved this novella (and it got cover treatment in the magazine). A large, interstellar generational ship finds new ways to remember earth’s history; the focus of this story is fiddlers. Her story is full of hard and soft sciences.- KJP 4/9/2018 update“Shadows of Eternity”, Gregory Benford, originally published in ‘Extrasolar’, edited by Nick Gevers [I own this top-notch book]. This excellent story is about the remote exploring (and past research data review) of multitudes of earthlike worlds in the galaxy with a variety of life; it takes place 400 years from now where the lunar surface is again represented as key to man’s base to the stars. It’s a coming-of-age story of an academic who discovers something key (and perhaps a partial explanation for the Fermi Paradox).“The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse”, Kathleen Ann Goonan, originally published in ‘Extrasolar’ (ed. Gevers) ‘’[wiki]The Alcubierre drive or Alcubierre warp drive is a speculative idea based on a solution of Einstein's field equations in general relativity as proposed by theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre, by which a spacecraft could achieve apparent faster-than-light travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum (that is, negative mass) could be created.’’ … (A 2D visualization of an Alcubierre drive shows the opposing regions of expanding and contracting spacetime that displace the central region. Rather than exceeding the speed of light within a local reference frame, a spacecraft would traverse distances by contracting space in front of it and expanding space behind it, resulting in effective faster-than-light travel.) With that being said, LOL, this story… (“…Long, complex, and some­what mystical [this story] starts with a group of supergenius children stealing a luxury spaceship, more or less an ocean liner that travels space, and taking it on a voyage of both inner and outer discovery that leaves them transformed in ways they couldn’t have anticipated. -Dozois) The story is as much fantasy & mysticism as it is science fiction, therefore my rating for it is just average – Ken.To recap, 10 stories reviewed, six of them are 3 to 4 stars (my highest) rating.Remaining to review: 16 stories (as of 4/17/2018)

great anthology

I'd really rate this 2.5 but they don't let you rate half stars. I personally found that the better stories were towards the last 1/3 of the book. The first 1/3 of the book comprised stories that were not IMHO sci fi rather they were stories of oddities and strange occurrences that just happened to occur at some undetermined point in the future

All good stories.

Most of the stories I enjoyed. They challenged my vocabulary. It has been a long time since I have felt the need to use a dictionary. Several of the stories were too deeply philosophical and disjointed for my taste, but just might be someone else's "cup of tea"

Better quality stories than I expected.

Some of the stories were very compelling. Some were a bit trying. Some left you wanting more.

This massive tome contains stories of all sorts, meant for readers whose tastes cover the entire gamut of styles, tropes, themes and approaches. A large number of such works were overlong, tedious to the point of being self-defeating, proving that the authors were taking stuff a bit too seriously, in the process compromising the basic idea of storytelling. Amidst such arid works were scattered few verdant and refreshing works as well. For me, they were~1. A Series of Steaks— Vina Jie-Min Prasad2. Holdfast— Alastair Reynolds3. The Martian Obelisk— Linda Nagata4. Shadows of Eternity— Gregory Benford5. Uncanny Valley— Greg Egan6. Meridian— Karin Lowachee7. Extracurricular Activities— Yoon Ha Lee8. In Everlasting Wisdom— Aliette de Bodard9. An Evening with Severyn Grimes— Rich Larson10. The Secret Life of Bots— Suzanne PalmerI can only pray that the editor eschews his agenda-driven preferences for huge but boring works in future. Greater emphasis upon short, sharp, smart and witty works would make these anthologies much more enjoyable, in my opinion.

I loved the variety of stories.They are very well written and so interesting and thought- provoking.I loved this book.

A good selection of stories. Some interesting concepts involved,and very good narrative content. Some of the ideas were particularly involved.

Some of the stories are extremely weak (admittedly I am a space opera fan) and are more on the fantasy spectrum. Still, not bad.

The book itself was delivered extremely quickly.....as for the selection, sadly not as good as vol one but not too bad....