Anthologies are a mix... some stories you won't like. This one got a 5 for most stories were great, even rereadable, which for me is a rarity. ( )

This collection of a large number of stories runs to about 500 pages. It covers a selection of stories from a number of places from the year 2005. I'm thinking that 2005 was not a very good year, if I used this selection as a judge. There are some themes in here, whether a reflection of what the editors thought was current or just random chance I don't know, but religion is a heavily recurring element to these stories. (Religion is an element of many science fiction stories but it seemed a little overdone in this collection.) Artificial intelligence is everywhere and posthuman and transhuman and a few other buzzwords of the day like to get thrown around in many of the stories. Oh, and rats (as in rodents). There is also an odd excessive number of 2 1/2 page stories from the magazine 'Nature'. There were several stories in here that I just could not bother to finish. I had some other problems with this collection, but 'nuff said. I was more than a little disappointed.

There were however a handful of very good stories in this collection. One of the standout pieces for me was 'Bright Red Star' by Bud Sparhawk. A small scene in a future war where humanity has hard choices. I had read this story many years ago when it appeared in Asimov's magazine but it seems to have had a stronger impression this time. Another one is an Alastair Reynolds novelette (almost a novella) titled 'Beyond the Aquila Rift'. I had read this one before in 2011 in a collection of Reynold's stories that I really liked. It is an oddly affecting story, a space opera setting but with a small focal point of characters who have gone far astray, beyond the limits of normal travel. I also liked R Garcia y Robertson's 'Oxygen Rising' that focuses on a peacekeeper in a future war among altered humans. Inventive and comes with a twist. ( )

David Langford: "New Hope for the Dead" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Hannu Rajaniemi: "Deus Ex Homine" (Originally in Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction, 2005)
Gardner R. Dozois: "When the Great Days Came" (Originally in F&SF, 2005)
Daryl Gregory: "Second Person, Present Tense" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Justina Robson: "Dreadnought" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Ken MacLeod: "A Case of Consilience" (Originally in Nova Scotia, 2005)
Tobias S. Buckell: "Toy Planes" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Neal Asher: "Mason's Rats" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Vonda N. McIntyre: "A Modest Proposal" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Rudy Rucker: "Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch" (Originally in Interzone, 2005)
Peter F. Hamilton: "The Forever Kitten" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Matthew Jarpe: "City of Reason" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Bruce Sterling: "Ivory Tower" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Lauren McLaughlin: "Sheila" (Originally in Interzone, 2005)
Paul McAuley: "Rats of the System" (Originally in Constellations, 2005)
Larissa Lai: "I Love Liver: A Romance" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
James Patrick Kelly: "The Edge of Nowhere" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Ted Chiang: "What's Expected of Us" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Michael Swanwick: "Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Stephen Baxter: "Lakes of Light" (Originally in Constellations, 2005)
Oliver Morton: "The Albian Message" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Bud Sparhawk: "Bright Red Star" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Alaya Dawn Johnson: "Third Day Lights" (Originally in Interzone, 2005)
Greg Bear: "Ram Shift Phase 2" (Originally in Nature, 2005)
Gregory Benford: "On the Brane" (Originally in Gateways, 2005)
R. Garcia y Robertson: "Oxygen Rising" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Adam Roberts: "And Future King..." (Originally in Postscripts, 2005)
Alastair Reynolds: "Beyond the Aquila Rift" (Originally in Constellations, 2005)
Joe Haldeman: "Angel of Light" (Originally in Cosmos, 2005)
Liz Williams: "Ikiryoh" (Originally in Asimov's, 2005)
Cory Doctorow: "I, Robot" (Originally in The Infinite Matrix, 2005)

A solid collection with a little too much emphasis on short-short stories. Best stories: "Bright Red Star", "Oxygen Rising", "Beyond the Aquila Rift", "I, Robot"

Contents:
"New Hope for the Dead" - David Langford ****
Humorous story about paying for an uploaded afterlife.
"Deus Ex Homine" - Hannu Rajaniemi ****
A posthuman attempts to adjust to being a normal human again.
"When the Great Days Came" - Gardner S. Dozois ***
A day in the life of a New York rat.
"Second Person, Present Tense" - Daryl Gregory ****
A drug raises questions about the nature of consciousness and identity.
"Dreadnought" - Justina Robson ***
Thoughts of a soldier on a starship.
"A Case of Consilience" - Ken MacLeod ****
A missionary attempts to preach to a fungal life form.
"Toy Planes" - Tobias S. Buckell **
Short-short about the Jamaican space program
"Mason's Rats" - Neal Asher ***
Rats learn to fight their high-tech exterminators.
"A Modest Proposal" - Vonda N. McIntyre ***
Short-short. Complete biological control of the ecosystem.
"Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch" - Rudy Rucker ***
A modern slacker teams up with Bosch to save the universe from an alien that wants to collect it.
"The Forever Kitten" - Peter F. Hamilton ***
Short-short about an immortality drug
"City of Reason" - Matthew Jarpe ****
War among colonies in the Oort cloud
"Ivory Tower" - Bruce Sterling ***
Short-short about future collaborative physics
"Sheila" - Lauren McLaughlin ***
An AI rebel works against the restrictions imposed by humans. Interesting ideas but didn't quite feel like a complete story.
"Rats of the System" - Paul McAuley ****
Human factions fight while AI's reconstruct their solar system.
"I Love Liver: A Romance" - Larissa Lai **
Short-short. An artificial liver goes berserk.
"The Edge of Nowhere" - James Patrick Kelly ***
People in a virtual world try to make more of their lives.
"What's Expected of Us" - Ted Chiang ***
Short-short. Effects of proving that free will does not exist.
"Girls and Boys Come Out To Play" - Michael Swanwick ****
African researchers try to create real version of the Greek gods in a far future Greece.
"Lakes of Light" - Stephen Baxter ***
The human empire looks to assimilate colonists on a high gravity artifact. Xeelee story.
"The Albian Message" - Oliver Morton ***
Short-short. Contents of an alien probe
"Bright Red Star" - Bud Sparhawk *****
Marines save colonists from an alien threat.
"Third Day Lights" - Alaya Dawn Johnson ***
Natives of a pocket universe learn why humans have come there.
"Ram Shift Phase 2" - Greg Bear ***
Review of a computer-written novel
"On the Brane" - Gregory Benford ****
Travel to a parallel earth in a universe with less mass.
"Oxygen Rising" - R. Garcia y Robertson ****
A human negotiator is involved in a war between humans and various bioengineered human descendants.
"And Future King..." - Adam Roberts ***
A robot politician is created with the personality of King Arthur.
"Beyond the Aquila Rift" - Alastair Reynolds ****
A hyperspace jump goes wrong and leaves a ship captain stranded on a distant station.
"Angel of Light" - Joe Haldeman ***
A follower of "Crislam" finds an ancient SF magazine.
"Ikiryoh" - Liz Williams **
A god separates out negative aspects of its personality.
"I, Robot" - Cory Doctorow ****
A policeman in a repressive, future North America must deal with his wife who defected to technologically advanced Eurasia. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/705321.html

There was only one story out of 31 here that failed to really engage my interest (OK, some of them were very short) and two that I thought were really good and would not have come across otherwise. I liked very much R Garcia y Robertson's "Oxygen Rising", about future war, peacekeeping and sex, and Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" struck me as one of the great sf and religion stories (OK, it references many of the others, but that if anything is a strength). ( )