Twenty-three stories make up the tenth annual edition of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's Best SF, from sources as diverse as the traditional (Analog and Asimov's) to the literary (Denver Quarterly) and authors from not just the default USA and UK, but also Canada, Australia, and even France.
"Sergeant Chip" by Bradley Denton opens the anthology, the story of an enhanced dog sent to serve in a thinly disguised near-future Afghanistan. When tragedy strikes his company, Chip assumes leadership of his new 'pack.' This is a story powered by outrage and a fierce moral purpose too often absent from traditional SF of the last few years. It is a powerful piece of polemic, and an outstandingly moving story about sacrifice and responsibility.
Many of the stories deal with time travel; notable amongst these are "Scout's Honour" by Terry Bisson, in which an autistic savant discovers an internet post from a man claiming to have traveled back in time to study Neanderthals, and James L. Cambias wonderful zeppelin-centric "The Eckener Alternative," reminiscent of A Sound of Thunder, had that been done properly, and "Time, As It Evaporates," by Jean-Claude Dunyach, in which an isolated Muslim village alone survives a catastrophe that leaves it surrounded by tides of time rising and falling, with devastating effect on the villagers..
Other common themes are artificial intelligences, and indeed, the very nature of intellect; chief amongst these are Ken Liu's "The Algorithms for Love," about a woman who has suffered a psychological breakdown, Canadian Glenn Grant's "Burning Day," a terrific noir-esqe story written from an android's point of view, and "Wealth," by Robert Reed, in which an AI starts to plan the evacuation of a terraformed Mars. A similar theme --an updating of Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God--" informs "Act of God" by Jack McDevitt, but without the AIs.
Other highlights are Liz William's "Loosestrife" -set in a post-global warming London in which a retarded girl leaves her 'baby' while she goes out to forage, and "the Cascade" by Sean McMullen, about the first landing on Mars as watched on television by a pair of new lovers..
It could be argued that not all of Hartwell & Cramer's choices are SF -- Matt Hughes' obviously Jack Vance-inspired "Mastermindless," verges on fantasy with its depiction of 'the penultimate age of Old Earth,' but they are all interesting, as is usually the case with this excellent series.
