he front cover states that this is “the year’s best SF and Fantasy,” but that’s rather misleading. There’s a fantasyish story, sure, but this short fiction collection is 95% science fiction. It contains two poems, two short stories, two novelettes, a novella, and an excerpt from a novel, along with some commentary on genre writing. The fiction is all Nebula nominees and winners, of course, while the two poems are the Rhysling winners for 2003.

The first two inclusions were, to my mind, the weakest pieces in the book. I’m sure Severna Park’s "The Cure For Everything" was deep and thought-provoking and all that, but it’s fading fast. It made little impression on me.

Ditto for Jack Williamson's "The Ultimate Earth." In her introduction, Kress states that it’s a portion of the author’s novel; perhaps this prejudiced me against it, but I did find that it read like part of a larger work rather than a full story in its own right. The ending seemed to conclude one secondary character’s emotional journey, (which was barely touched on throughout the rest of the novella), but I didn’t feel that Williamson did enough with his leads. This is terrible, I know, but I almost wonder if the author's age were a larger factor than his prose. (He was ninety-four in 2003). Then again, perhaps I'm just not sci fi enough to 'get it.'

The rest of the stories, however, are very good. Kelly Link’s “Louise’s Ghost” was a reread for me, and I was more than happy to return to it. It drew me straight in and held me spellbound straight through to the end. It’s my very favourite sort of contemporary fantasy: the supernatural is an everyday part of life, and it helps the characters come to certain realizations. The writing is just gorgeous, too.

James Patrick Kelly’s “Undone” grabbed me right away with its strong voice and punchy narrative. It has a rather dark premise, but I still found it a ton of fun. It’s exactly the sort of science fiction I like.

Ditto for Mike Resnick’s “The Elephants on Neptune.” It’s witty, thought-provoking, and a hell of a lot of fun. I had a blast with it.

Finally, the excerpt of Catherine Asaro’s THE QUANTUM ROSE caught my interest and made me want to see what would happen next for the main character. More than that, though, it introduced an interesting world that I’d like to learn more about. I’m not prepared to rush right out and get myself a copy, but I’ll certainly keep an eye out for it.

Overall, I enjoyed this quite a bit... but whenever I finish a short story collection, I ask myself if there’s anything therein that I’d be sorry never to return to. I’d definitely like to read both “Louise’s Ghost” and “The Elephants on Neptune” again, but I already have the one in another yearly anthology and have been able to find the other for free online. I think I should be able to pass this along to another reader.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )