http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1701532.html

Good if somewhat gloomy selection of short SF first published in 2006; the only one I had read before was Michael Flynn's "Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth", which was also the only one of the 26 stories here to make it to either Hugo or Nebula shortlist (though the Locus Best Novelette winner, Cory Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth", is also here). Other stories here that I liked included Gardner Dozois' "Counterfactual" and Carol Emshwiller's "Quill". ( )

[Amy] Recently, we resolved to read more short fiction. To that end, we picked up a large pile of, among other things, these Year's Best anthologies. I'm slightly dubious about the wisdom of this, in retrospect - this volume contained a couple of stories I thoroughly enjoyed (I particularly liked "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth", likewise "Quill"), several I liked but which made me uneasy (which I grant is one of the potential roles of good SF, so I shan't hold that against them), some I actively disliked, and some I don't remember now so can't have thought much of them one way or another.

The overarching sense I got from the selections, though, was one of doom, of despair. As I almost never read genre magazines and other primary sources for short fiction, I don't actually know if this captures the sense of that which was available in 2006, but if so, that must surely say something about the zeitgeist. Kind of depressing, really. I mean, I love a good post-apocalypse, y'all know that, but this was just one disaster after another, with very few exceptions. With almost no alterations, this could have been a theme anthology titled The End of the World as We May Yet Know It (and Only Some of Us Feel Fine).

And most of it didn't fit my post-apocalyptica tastes anyway, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. All in all, worth reading, but perhaps should be taken in small doses, leavened with light-hearted YA or something.
[ http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2009/03/years_best_sf_12_david_... ]

The quality of the stories in the 12th edition of Hartwell and Cramer's YEAR'S BEST SF is below par, but there were still some good selections this year. My favorites included Nancy Kress's "Nano Comes to Clifford Falls," Gardner Dozois's alternate history story "Counterfactual," Joe Haldeman's stinger "Expedition, with Recipes," Paul McAuley's far-future thriller "Dead Men Walking," and Robert Reed's unusual alien-invasion scenario "Rwanda." Cory Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" is a competently-executed disaster story, sure to appeal to his fans, while Edd Vick's "Moon Does Run" is one of the few good-quality SF stories set in the Caribbean. ( )