Front to back filled with a fantastic array of Science Fiction stories. Space Opera, Hard Sci Fi, weird stuff, contemplative fiction where the SF elements are very subtle, and all the feelings. Took me ages to read this complete volume, and I'll likely return to it in the future, picking a story or two at random to read. ( )

Really great collection. I started making a list of my faves, but it just ended up being half the stories. Really some of the best SF i've read in the last couple of years. ( )

Every year, editor Gardner Dozois publishes a collection of the best short science fiction published in the previous year; in 2017 we are now up to the 34th such volume. This is a very large book indeed, running to some 650+ pages and containing Dozois’s choices for the very best of the field. In addition, he provides a summation of changes in the publishing world as it pertains to science fiction, information about the best-reviewed sf books, films and television shows, how anthologies and magazines are doing, and a list of those connected to the sf field who had died in the previous year; he also includes a long list of honorable mentions at the end of the book, stories that did not quite make the cut for inclusion but that he feels should be searched out nonetheless. As with any such volume, my personal favourites (this year, by Carolyn Ives Gilman, Aliete de Bodard, Sam J. Miller, David Gerrold, Alaister Reynolds, Nina Allan, Ken Liu, Carrie Vaughn, Charlie Jane Anders and Ian McDonald) may not be the favourites of other readers, but the quality of the stories is excellent throughout. I don’t read as much science fiction as I used to, but this annual volume is indispensable in terms of keeping up with the best science fiction published in English; highly recommended! ( )