Dozois Shares ToC for His “Very Best of the Best” Collection

Gardner Dozois in 2017. Photo by Mark Blackman.

Gardner Dozois has revealed his choices for The Very Best of the Best: 30 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction due out in December 2018 or January 2019.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • The Potter of Bones, by Eleanor Arnason
  • Rogue Farm, by Charles Stross
  • The Little Goddess, by Ian McDonald
  • Dead Men Walking, by Paul McAuley
  • Tin Marsh, by Michael Swanwick
  • Good Mountain, by Robert Reed
  • Where the Golden Apples Grow, by Kage Baker
  • The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter, by Alastair Reynolds
  • Glory, by Greg Egan
  • Finisterra, by David Moles
  • The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm, by Daryl Gregory
  • Utrinsque Cosmi, by Robert Charles Wilson
  • Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance, by John Kessel
  • Useless Things, by Maureen McHugh
  • Mongoose, by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette
  • Hair, by Adam Roberts
  • The Things, by Peter Watts
  • The Emperor of Mars, by Allen M. Steele
  • Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain, by Yoon Ha Lee
  • Martian Heart, by John Barnes
  • The Invasion of Venus, by Stephen Baxter
  • Weep For Day, by Indrapramit Das
  • The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi, Pat Cadigan
  • The Memcordist, by Lavie Tidhar
  • The Best We Can, by Carrie Vaughn
  • The Discovered Country, by Ian R. MacLeod
  • Pathways, by Nancy Kress
  • The Hand Is Quicker…, by Elizabeth Bear
  • Someday, by James Patrick Kelly
  • The Long Haul, From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May, 2009, by Ken Liu
  • Three Cups of Grief, By Starlight, by Aliette De Bodard
  • Calved, by Sam J. Miller
  • Emergence, by Gwyneth Jones
  • Rates of Change, by James S.A. Corey
  • Jonas and the Fox, by Rich Larson
  • KIT: Some Assembly Required, by Kathe Koja and Carter Scholz
  • Winter Timeshare, by Ray Nayler
  • My English Name, by R.S. Benedict

[Thanks to Mark Hepworth for the story.]

5 thoughts on “Dozois Shares ToC for His “Very Best of the Best” Collection

  1. Pingback: Dozois Reveals his Picks for the Very Best of the Best Collection – Toby Backman

  2. Better than it would have been in the old days, but still light on women.

    And isn’t it mostly white? I don’t know all the names.

  3. Huh. Cool. Wrong Swanwick, though, and the wrong Kelly. I’d have picked “King Dragon” and “Mr. Boy,” respectively. Because, y’know, of course I know better than the greatest living editor of SF short fiction. I could quibble with “Rogue Farm” for the Stross entry, but it’s a hell of a story.

    Also missing: one of the most affecting stories I have ever read, in any genre, “Cush,” by Neal Barrett, which appeared in the 11th annual.

    I’ve had half a mind to index the whole run online, with selected annotations, and maybe a sub-genre categorization.

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