Night Shade Books The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Four

Worth it for one story in particular...Umberlight...by Carolyn Ives Gilman !

Great book, delivered very fast, thanks :)

Some of the stories in this anthology are excellent, others not so much. There seems to be a huge range in the quality of the stories. Readability, too, is a problem in some stories. Some flow easily and are an absolute joy to read, others are staggered and stuttery, with strange styles and pacing. I respect Mr. Clarke's inclusion of Science Fiction from around the world, but sometimes I felt completely lost in different cultures and writing styles to the point where I lost the point of the story or even the will to finish it. I suspect understanding the audience may be a learned trait for anthology producers as the previous heavyweight in this field, Gardner Dozois, suffered from the same inconsistency in his earlier books. No matter. The stories that were good were so excellent it was still worth the purchase and I certainly don't want to discourage Mr. Clarke. We desperately need a good anthology every year!

My cousin wrote one of the stories in this book. I like science fiction and this has many short stories to read. I highly recommend it.

about the best that I can say for this book is that I feel that half of the stories were essentially unfinished.