Product Description
This is the best short form science fiction of 2005, selected by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field. The short story is one of the most vibrant and exciting areas in science fiction today. It is where the hot new authors emerge and where the beloved giants of the field continue to publish. Now, building on the success of the first nine volumes, Eos will once again present a collection of the best stories of the year in mass market. Here, selected and compiled by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field, are stories with visions of tomorrow and yesterday, of the strange and the familiar, of the unknown and the unknowable. With stories from an all-star team of science fiction authors, "Year's Best Sf 11" is an indispensable guide for every science fiction fan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Thoughtfully-Collected Set of Science Fiction Stories
David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have done fine work collecting these 31 stories from authors who have also done some fine work.I enjoyed most of these stories very much.Although there were some that didn't work for me, there are none which I regret the time spent reading.I always appreciate well-written introductions with author bios, brief descriptions of their other work, and web addresses that point to more information.This volume met this expectation well--as I have come to expect from these editors.I had to do some winnowing to get my favorites down to these five:

Ken MacLeod's "A Case of Consilience" is a rare beast--a science fiction short story that treats religion with respect without sinking into either sarcasm or apology.A missionary's message that seems to go unheard by an alien fungal intelligence is accepted, slowly digested and finally understood.

Neal Asher's "Mason's Rats" describes a farmer's high-tech war with unwelcome invaders.And reminds us that winning allies can be as important as winning battles.

Paul McAuley's "Rats of the System" is space operate in the most complementary sense.Along with the action, readers learn about transcendent intelligences and two very different cultures' ways of dealing with them.

Bud Sparhawk's "Bright Red Star" describes the last mission of a squad of specialized commandos who will sacrifice their lives to keep human colonists from being captured and horribly used by an alien enemy.This is a particularly well-written story.

Alastair Reynolds' "Beyond the Aquila Rift" gives me one more reason to consider him a favorite author with a story outside of his usual universe.We learn a couple of things about how to help a space traveler who wakes up from "an unusually long hypersleep."

The collection does contain an unusually large number--ten of the thirty-one--of short science fiction stories that originally appeared in "Nature."I suppose this might irritate "Nature" subscribers who feel they aren't getting enough new material.I think all ten are good stories.None are among my favorites because a personal preference for longer stories.The editors' distribution of these stories among the longer stories has a positive effect on the reader's pacing through the collection.My favorite among these shorts is Peter Hamilton's "The Forever Kitten" for its sly wink at the difficulties of being a parent.

As always, I am grateful to be able read this collection on my iPhone Kindle app.Nothing beats reading great science fiction surreptitiously while in a meeting with other researchers, supposedly doing great science.I'm not sure it hurts the science all that much.It's a great collection.Enjoy it in your own way.

Not Free SF Reader
The editors certainly seem enamored of the rather short stories found in Nature magazine, and again I think that may hamper a rating, including lots of them, although it certainly adds to a variety.31 stories here, which is more than the equivalent Dozois volume, although the book is probably only 55% of the length, or something like that.

As such, a standard type edition of one of these Hartwell and Cramer volumes, with a 3.79 average.Only three standouts in the 31, McAuley, Reynolds and Doctorow.However, only 2 average stories, despite all the short pieces, so rather well done there, so along with the Year's Best SF 10 they have done a fine job avoiding stories of not much interest.

Apart from actual real natural disasters, they mention one anthology - Constellations by Peter Crowther, in the introduction, which would appear to have a lot of British SF talent in it, with stellar based stories the theme.

With all that, pretty much a 4.75 I think, and given this scale, may as well be a 5 given the consistency.


Year's Best SF 11 : New Hope for the Dead - David Langford
Year's Best SF 11 : Deus Ex Homine - Hannu Rajaniemi
Year's Best SF 11 : When the Great Days Came - Gardner R. Dozois
Year's Best SF 11 : Second Person, Present Tense - Daryl Gregory
Year's Best SF 11 : Dreadnought - Justina Robson
Year's Best SF 11 : A Case of Consilience - Ken MacLeod
Year's Best SF 11 : Toy Planes - Tobias S. Buckell
Year's Best SF 11 : Mason's Rats - Neal Asher
Year's Best SF 11 : A Modest Proposal - Vonda N. McIntyre
Year's Best SF 11 : Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch - Rudy Rucker
Year's Best SF 11 : The Forever Kitten - Peter F. Hamilton
Year's Best SF 11 : City of Reason - Matthew Jarpe
Year's Best SF 11 : Ivory Tower - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best SF 11 : Sheila - Lauren McLaughlin
Year's Best SF 11 : Rats of the System - Paul McAuley
Year's Best SF 11 : I Love Liver: A Romance - Larissa Lai
Year's Best SF 11 : The Edge of Nowhere - James Patrick Kelly
Year's Best SF 11 : What's Expected of Us - Ted Chiang
Year's Best SF 11 : Girls and Boys Come Out to Play - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 11 : Lakes of Light - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best SF 11 : The Albian Message - Oliver Morton
Year's Best SF 11 : Bright Red Star - Bud Sparhawk
Year's Best SF 11 : Third Day Lights - Alaya Dawn Johnson
Year's Best SF 11 : RAM Shift Phase 2 - Greg Bear
Year's Best SF 11 : On the Brane - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 11 : Oxygen Rising - R. Garcia y Robertson
Year's Best SF 11 : And Future King - Adam Roberts
Year's Best SF 11 : Beyond the Aquila Rift - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best SF 11 : Angel of Light - Joe Haldeman
Year's Best SF 11 : Ikiryoh - Liz Williams
Year's Best SF 11 : I Robot - Cory Doctorow


EGAN electronic eternal existence expensive.

4 out of 5


Baby deity a bother, makes me want to kill some

4 out of 5


Rat's eye armageddon.

3.5 out of 5


Zen and the art of personality maintenance.

4 out of 5


Soldier Unit.

4 out of 5


Genetic message.

3.5 out of 5


I dread to blow off my head.

4 out of 5


James Herbert book, and the natives are arming, if not as numerous.

3.5 out of 5


Not much left.

3 out of 5


Brane-assisted painter time-snatch.

3.5 out of 5


Kid stasis.

4 out of 5


A Better Way would be Highly Fantastic.

4 out of 5


Physics commune advances.

4 out of 5


Supercomputing antimeat plot.

4 out of 5


Transcendent hunter-killer chase experiment.

4.5 out of 5


Escape organ.

3 out of 5


Bad dogs and old stories.

4 out of 5


Simon already Says.

4 out of 5


Godmaking and removal, squid variety included.

3.5 out of 5


Star wrapping investigation.

3.5 out of 5


Sometimes it is just old directions.

4 out of 5


Conflict kill choices.

3.5 out of 5


Human revival project.

3.5 out of 5


Robot review parody.

3.5 out of 5


Counter-Earth trip.

3.5 out of 5


Greenie peace preferred.

4 out of 5


Programmed government's Arthurian overlord.

3.5 out of 5


Lost In Space.

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how
vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is.

4.5 out of 5


Thrilling Wonder Stories alien xmas deal.

4 out of 5


Kappa bad kid bit minder.

3.5 out of 5


Baby arrival brings brainy Big Brother bot researcher's defection and later reunion desires in multiple.

4.5 out of 5

Nice collection of SF.
You'll find very nice SF stories, although some might seem a little too short, they nevertheless reflect recent themes.

A very good science fiction book
I had a lot of fun reading this book.It has number of great stories that make you think about current political and social makings of the world and US.These stories raise number of questions and possibilities.
Overall, a very enjoyable book.

too many too short stories
It seems that Hartwell took one too many of the nano short stories
from the magazine 'nature' for this book. They are cute and clever,but a one page story from Ted Chiang? Come on, get real.
Most of the stories are good to very good, especially 'shelia',
'on the brane','oxygen rising'. It seems some of the stories are
begining to suffer from the rudy ruckner school of protoplasmic
farm tractors, something that stross and doctorow have been mucking around in for awhile. For some reason these 'organic fiction'novels have as much of a tendency to sicken one as to excite one. I enjoyed the majority of the book, I just wish
this tendency to publish really short stories would lighten up a
bit. ... Read more

Product Description
This title contains the best short form science fiction of 2006, selected by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, two of the most respected editors in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Year's Best SF 12 is Good Enough
David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have assembled 26 science fiction stories from those published in 2006.As usual, the introductions to each story contain author bios, web sites, brief descriptions of other works, and a non-spoiler characterization of the story in this collection.It is a good, but not a great collection.Three of the stories also appear in Gardner Dozois's [The Year's Best Science Fiction Twenty-fourth annual collection].

My five favorites:

Mary Rosenblum's "Home Movies" introduces a member of one of the world's newest professions, a trained rememberer who stores experiences to be sold and lost completely to her employer.Until she experiences some things worth remembering.

Alastair Reynolds' "Tiger, Burning" sends an investigator to solve a mystery in a different brane where physics is different, but human motivation is much the same.The guilty party is certain to be executed.

Michael Swanwick's "Tin Marsh" comes off a little like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.Two prospectors get on each other's nerves while searching for metal deposits on Venus.

In Robert Reed's "Rwanda" a father and son discuss a failed alien invasion of Earth and its aftermath.Some humans found opportunities to be merciful.

In Charlie Rosenkrantz's "Preemption" an fleet of alien assassins arrives to scour the earth of an ambitious species before it can become a galactic threat.

This isn't the best of the Best of SF series, but it is worth reading and provides a measure of enjoyment.I wonder why this book and the Year's Best SF 13 are the only recent books in the series that are not available on the Kindle?It makes reading them surreptitiously a lot more challenging.

Not even close to the best
It is really very hard to understand how these editors have managed to survive their own ineptitude. These stories are cliche efforts by minor voices in science fiction.As a reader I feel deceived, robbed, and worst of all, bored.If I were a top notch science fiction writer (Brin, Card, etc.) I would be pissed.Calling this the "best" of the year is a gross insult to the truly talented folks working the field. For someone new to the genre it would be very likely to cause them to decide SF is not their thing. Criminal neglect.I gave it two stars rather than zero because there are a couple of good stories by real SF writers (why did those authors allow their stories to be published alongside hack amateurs?)MOST IRRITATING is that the editors have the gall to tell us, in the preface, that they have careful chosen only true science fiction stories, rather than crossing the line into fantasy. If you can't fix it, lie about it....

Nice to be in print
As usual, David & Kathryn have assembled some of the best short SF of the year [for those stories first appearing in 2006].

This anthology includes the Hugo-nominated "Dawn, and Sunset, and All the Colours of the Earth" by Michael F. Flynn, his moving tale of love, loss, and fortitude of spirit in the face of an inexplicable disaster.

[Honesty compels me to confess that myself and a few other regulars of Mr. Flynn's AOL community made small contributions to the story at his request.]

The similarly themed "Rwanda" by Robert Reed and Gardner R. Dozois' dazzling "Contrafactual" also stand out.

Not Free SF Reader
An excellent anthology found here, with a story average of 3.90, and nothing that I didn't like at all, which is very nifty.

The editors also give a short intro/overview of the year in SF short stories, and point out they could have filled several volumes, especially with novellas.If you are talking about 4 star plus stories in a given year for a particular person, sounds reasonable to me.

Also each story intro has a little more interest than some other styles of doing this, so all in all, a great job.

If you ignore the always interesting Dozois novella-summaries in his Year's Best, on fiction alone this is the best Year's Best of the year, with the highest story average of the four (Dozois, Hartwell/Cramer, Horton, Strahan).

Year's Best SF 12 : Nancy Kress - Nano Comes to Clifford Falls
Year's Best SF 12 : Terry Bisson - Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Year's Best SF 12 : Cory Doctorow - When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth.
Year's Best SF 12 : Heather Lindsley - Just Do It.
Year's Best SF 12 : Gardner R. Dozois - Counterfactual.
Year's Best SF 12 : Edd Vick - Moon Does Run.
Year's Best SF 12 : Mary Rosenblum - Home Movies.
Year's Best SF 12 : Rudy Rucker - Chu and the Nants.
Year's Best SF 12 : Ian Creasey - Silence in Florence.
Year's Best SF 12 : Kameron Hurley - The Women of Our Occupation.
Year's Best SF 12 : Claude Lalumiere - This is the Ice Age.
Year's Best SF 12 : Eileen Gunn - Speak, Geek.
Year's Best SF 12 : Joe Haldeman - Expedition, with Recipes.
Year's Best SF 12 : Liz Williams - The Age of Ice.
Year's Best SF 12 : Michael Flynn - Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth.
Year's Best SF 12 : Gregory Benford - Applied Mathematical Theology.
Year's Best SF 12 : Carol Emshwiller - Quill.
Year's Best SF 12 : Alastair Reynolds - Tiger, Burning.
Year's Best SF 12 : Paul J. McAuley - Dead Men Walking.
Year's Best SF 12 : Daryl Gregory - Damascus.
Year's Best SF 12 : Michael Swanwick - Tin Marsh.
Year's Best SF 12 : Ian R. MacLeod - Taking Good Care of Myself.
Year's Best SF 12 : Stephen Baxter - The Lowland Expedition.
Year's Best SF 12 : Wil McCarthy - Heisenberg Elementary.
Year's Best SF 12 : Robert Reed - Rwanda.
Year's Best SF 12 : Charlie Rosenkrantz - Preemption.

Nano technology is available to all, so people that don't want to work innasty jobs, like, say, sanitation, or underpaid jobs like teaching and the police don't have to.

3.5 out of 5


If the future is nice, stay.

4 out of 5


Biowar makes geekfu and gruntwork a necessary combination afterwards.

5 out of 5


Behaviour modification commercialisation.

4 out of 5


Twenty year civil war coverage.

4.5 out of 5


Memory recording transfer rejection.

4.5 out of 5


Singularity reversal upload boy.

4 out of 5


Pisspot poor alien discovery speech recovery.

3.5 out of 5


Big bad brutal biatches.

3 out of 5


Quantum Cross creep.

3.5 out of 5


Smart mutt choice.

4 out of 5


Surviving undesirable cuisine.

3.5 out of 5


Incarceration escape avatar library retrieval liberation deal.

4 out of 5


Ferry removal machine.

3 out of 5


Microwaving g0d.

4 out of 5


Dino alien discovery.

3.5 out of 5


Brane circle future message creator inspiration warning investigation.

4.5 out of 5


Clone killer uncovered confrontation.

4 out of 5


Jaysus, that's a hell of an idea to spread around.

3.5 out of 5


"Naughty girl. Papa spank!" I wish! Wahhh!

4 out of 5


Disposing of yourself.

3.5 out of 5


Gutsy building time.

3.5 out of 5


Time Patrol lesson.

4 out of 5


Takeover migration rejection massacres.

4 out of 5


Alien canine annihilation education evolution protection.

4 out of 5

I sure hope that wasn't the best the year had to offer
There are about 3 or 4 good stories in this anthology. It leans heavily toward aimless, perfunctory end-of-the-world scenarios and bland conceits, and there are the usual "science diction" stories that take standard SF formulas and insert the pop-science buzzwords of the day ("nano" comes up a lot). I think the sense of "best" here is "best story by each author that appeared in some venue somewhere" and I guess a lot of them weren't really concentrating on short fiction that year or something. I will single out the Liz Williams story as memorably worthy.
In short, it could be worth 8 bucks, but don't let the "best" in the title fool you into thinking that this is the "best" in the sense in which we Earthlings normally use the term. ... Read more

Product Description
Once again, the year's finest flights of speculative imagination are gathered in one extraordinary volume, compiled by acclaimed editor and anthologist David G. Hartwell. From some of the most renowned visionaries of contemporary SF -- as well as new writers who are already making an indelible mark -- comes an all-new compendium of unparalleled tales of the possible that will enthrall, astonish, terrify, and elate. Stories of strange worlds and mind-boggling futures, of awesome discoveries and apocalyptic disasters, of universes light years distant and deep within the human consciousness, are collected here as SF's brightest lights shine more radiantly than ever before.

Customer Reviews (6)

The Best SF of Nearly a Decade Past
I've been working my way backward in time, reading progressively older editions of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's annual collection of the best science fiction stories.This edition did not disappoint.As usual, the story introductions were superbly-written.They contain the right mix of introduction to the author, samples of his or her work, and non-spoiling teasers for the story itself.An unexpected prize in this year's introductory material was a pointer to Thomas Disch's The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World, a critical and intelligent examination of science fictions influences and influence.

My favorite five of the nineteen stories are:

Nancy Kress's "Computer Virus" throws together a rogue artificial intelligence and a mother and two children who are held hostage by it.The outcome depends on human qualities rather than rational ones.

Michael Swanwick's "Under's Game" serves up a wry answer to a question that always nagged at me about Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.

Edward Lerner's "Creative Distruction" follows Justin Matthews as he solves his friend Alice's murder and uncovers the inter-stellar conspiracy behind it.The long-distance communications between civilizations are interestingly similar to those in Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon The Deep.

Ursula Le Guin's "The Building" takes an anthropologist's view of two races, the Aq and the Adaqo, who are slowly recovering from the Adaqo's "explosive expansion of population and technology" that decimated their planet.The cultures are ingeniously conceived, the writing admirable, and the moral somehow both understated and heavy-handed.

Alastair Reynolds' "Glacial" was both new and familiar.It stands alone as a classic science fiction mystery.We look over Nevil Clavain's shoulder as he puzzles out the reason everyone on a remote, ice-covered planet suddenly died.As a fan of other Nevil Clavain stories, I have conflicting feelings about encountering Nevil, Galiana and Felka as an odd, but close-knit little family.

All of the stories are good and worth reading.I may not be giving them the full praise they deserve because I am distracted.The prepaid Kindle version of Year's Best SF 15 has just appeared in my iPhone Kindle app.Forgive me as I quickly abandon the past in a leap to new visions of the future in the present.

Not Free SF Reader
The editorial pair here single out the 'Red Shift' anthology by Al Sarrantonio for mention a number of times, so likely worth a look.

Overall, it seems 2001 was a really good year for SF stories, and this volume starts brilliantly, and ends almost as well.This anthology averages a hugely impressive 3.97, and that is good enough for full marks.Four standout stories, and only two are average.

Year's Best SF 07 : Computer Virus - Nancy Kress
Year's Best SF 07 : Charlie's Angels - Terry Bisson
Year's Best SF 07 : The Measure of All Things - Richard Chwedyk
Year's Best SF 07 : Russian Vine - Simon Ings
Year's Best SF 07 : Under's Game - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 07 : A Matter of Mathematics - Brian Aldiss
Year's Best SF 07 : Creative Destruction - Edward M. Lerner
Year's Best SF 07 : Resurrection - David Morrell
Year's Best SF 07 : The Cat's Pajamas - James Morrow
Year's Best SF 07 : The Dog Said Bow-Wow - Michael Swanwick
Year's Best SF 07 : The Building - Ursula K. Le Guin
Year's Best SF 07 : Grey Earth - Stephen Baxter
Year's Best SF 07 : The Lagan Fishers - Terry Dowling
Year's Best SF 07 : In Xanadu - Thomas M. Disch
Year's Best SF 07 : The Go-Betweens - Lisa Goldstein
Year's Best SF 07 : Viewpoint - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best SF 07 : Anomalies - Gregory Benford
Year's Best SF 07 : Glacial - Alastair Reynolds
Year's Best SF 07 : Undone - James Patrick Kelly


House arrest.

5 out of 5


Killer robot case definitely not supernatural.

4 out of 5


Killer robot case definitely not supernatural.

4.5 out of 5


Illiterate people are easy, if you are aliens with territorial designs on Terra.

4 out of 5


Space Force firing performance needs junk food.

4 out of 5


Short cut.

3 out of 5


Alien nanotech radio plot.

4 out of 5


Father-son freeze.

4 out of 5


Brain in a jar down on the farm political ethics.

4 out of 5


Canine anti-tech adventures.

4 out of 5


Stonewalling.

3 out of 5


Alternate reality Big Whack human lack.

3.5 out of 5


A UN veteran, honored for his work in fighting a dangerous outbreak in the past, now lives with a new, strange botanical that is very valuable, and not very well understood.

4 out of 5


Welcome To the Pleasure Dome, not Frankie, not alive.

3.5 out of 5


Alien canine diplomacy.

"But you know, the dogs like us. That's got to count for something."

4.5 out of 5


Cash keepings off, rifled.

4 out of 5


Error observation religion.

4 out of 5


Clavain investigates why it is cold and almost all dead on a base.

4 out of 5


Future escape a problem of many dimensions.

4.5 out of 5

The Measure of All Things Worth the Price of the Book
SF 7 is a good compulation worth reading.However, "The Measure of All Things" by Richard Chwedyk is exceptional and worth the price of the book all by itself.It has made me want to track down and read more Chwedyk to see if The Measure is a fluke or indicative of his usual work.Read this story!Especially if you are involved in animal rescue.

A Nice Anthology, But I Prefer The Dozois' Year Best.
I'm not a person who has the funds (and probably time) to keep up with all or most of the f/h/sf magazines and original anthologies. I could buy one (or more), certainly, but then I want to receive the others too. Also, I trust that most of the best stories will eventually make their way into book format, anyway. There's always a number of books that collect best stories of a given year; I settle for one of these and all the stories I then read will be brand-new to me.

Each year there are the gems waiting to be read. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (editors of reviewed book) and Dozois (editor of the huge Year's Best SF Stories) are three of the finest editors around, each with his/her own ideas of what are the best stories of a given year.

But, I'm not an admirer of mass-market paperback books (such as the reviewed book is), as they are often made of cheap paper. Worse still is the binding.

Buy the Dozois Best of the Year if you want more stories for a somewhat higher price (but all packaged in trade paperback format). If only Hartwell's and Cramer's Best of the Years would come out in trade paperback, I would add them to my library without hesitation.

I love this annual collection
I just love this collection.I tend to not read sci-fi because so much of it is poorly written, but this series is wonderful, full of so many great things, and for the most part well-written"The Measure Of All Things" is the real stand out this year but even the slower moving stories end up with something that really stretches the mind.This series of anthologies bring back the wonder of the stories I was introduced to in my youth.My favorite yearly anthology. ... Read more

Product Description
"Whatever you admire in someone, you have in yourself--if only but a glimmer. In fact, when a person's talent, virtue, skill or attitude strikes you as amazing, you can be sure it's something you want more of for yourself. You are ready, willing, and able to incorporate it into your repertoire of assets."--from the Introduction

Change the Way You See Everything was a breakthrough book, which presented a transformational philosophy known as Asset-Based Thinking, or "ABT." That book was able to instill success-oriented habits in even the most die-hard cynic, and inspired thousands to shift their thinking to reap monumental rewards both in work and in life. Now the authors are back to expand this powerful notion of Asset-Based Thinking--to guide people on how to change one's own power, influence, and impact on the world. So while the first book taught readers how to view their world differently, this next book shows them how to see themselves differently. It will reveal that everyone is a leader in their own way, and that, through ABT, every person can plug into their unique power. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Excellent service
Book arrived in mint condition (as far as I can tell--I haven't looked at every single page yet) and within a week of ordering. Vendor used high-quality packing materials--indicated to me that they really cared that I'd be satisfied with my order. Would definitely use again.

Stimulating
From the first page this book is different--different lay out and an inspiring message and process that can unleash your creativity and compassion. Very Worthwhile!

This book will help our teachers and students change the way they see everything
I stumbled across this book in a library.After browsing through it, I immediately bought three copies, to have and to share with colleagues.Our K-12 charter school, StarShine Academy [...] has a philosophy based on holistic learning and individual empowerment, both for teachers and for students.We work to create a culture of positivity, helping all participants use positive goals in preference to negative restrictions.This book is highly aligned with our approach, and every page helps remind us where we're going and how to get there.

Amazing.
I am new to the concept of Asset-Based Thinking and boy am I glad I happened upon this book!

It is - quite simply - a must read for everyone.Entrepeneurs, teachers, parents, managers, executives, stay-at-home mothers, coaches, teenagers, etc.

The ease of the book is what first drew me to it ... the option to simply open at any point in the book and glean some sage suggestions and advice.Or reading front cover to back cover.

The photos, the exercises, the impact.Just amazing!

Asset-Based Thinking, The Sequel
I have been a fan of asset-based thinking (ABT) since learning about the concept in Kathy and Hank's first book, "Change the Way You See Everything."

What I love about ABT is that it provides a language for those of us who focus on what we have/strengths versus dwelling on what you lack (deficits).

All too often if you look at the positive side of things, you become labeled a bright-eyed optimist, or a Pollyanna. Asset-based thinking is much more than a 'the glass is half-full.'

This second book in the series, "Change the Way You See Yourself" maps out the tools step-by-step to help the reader discover their strengths, source of power, ways to influence and more.

It's perfect for those trying to figure out what they want/should do with their life... It's just as good for the seasoned leader hoping to refine their focus.

What's also great is asset-based thinking is a strong foundation for other self-help methods... It doesn't conflict, but serves as a base... a foundation.

I highly recommend "Change the Way You See Yourself," as well as their first title "Change the Way You See Everything." (You don't need the first to understand the second... but they *do* support each other). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Horror that seeps through the very cracks of your home
In this anthology of 16 stories, Kathryn Cramer has assembled a wide mix of original fiction about haunted houses. Sometimes it is the homes themselves that are haunted, and sometimes, it is the people that are haunted by the homes. Some of the stories are more traditional-ghost ridden, horrific- but many of the stories are more psychologically based. Though every anthology has its good and bad stories, only one among the group Penelope Comes Home by M.J. Engh seemed to be a `clinker' in my eyes, the only story the book could have done without. It's not a bad story but it is a 50 page long story that could have been written easily in 15 pages so it drags on much more than I prefer. The rest were quite good and well worth reading.

The stories are:

***Out of Sight, Out of Mind by Jack Womack
***Takes from a New England Telephone Directory by James Morrow -(this story is great!)
***Firetrap by Greg Cox
***The Art of Falling Down by Jonathan Carroll
***The Cairnwell Horror by Chet Williamson- (One of the most horrifying stories I've ever read)
***Erosion by Susan Palwick
***Happy Hour by Ian Watson
*** The Haunted Boardinghouse by Gene Wolfe
*** Inside the Walled City by Garry Kilworth (So creepy, this is one of those stories that stays with you after you're done reading it)
*** Grandmother's Footsteps by Gwyneth Jones
*** Madame Enchantia and the Maze of Dream by Jessica Amanda Salmonson
*** Slippage by Edward Bryant
*** The House on Rue Chartres by Richard A. Lupoff
*** House Hunter by Sharon Baker
*** Penelope Comes Home by M.J. Engh
*** Cedar Lane by Karl Edward Wagner

So if you're looking for something to keep you up at night and make you wonder if the sounds of your house settleing are that or something far more sinister, then this is the perfect book to reach for. Just don't be surprised if you have to have a bit of light in order to go to sleep, if for no other reason than to better see what your house may be up to when it thinks you're not looking...
... Read more

Product Description

The thirteenth annual collection of the previous year's finest short-form sf is at hand. Once again, award-winning editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have gathered together a stunning array of science fiction that spans a veritable universe of astonishing visions and bold ideas. Hitherto unexplored galaxies of the mind are courageously traversed by some of the most exciting new talents in the field—while well-established masters rocket to remarkable new heights of artistry and originality. The stars are closer and more breathtaking than ever before—and a miraculous future now rests in your hands—within the pages of Year's Best SF 13.

Customer Reviews (12)

Love this Anthologies
This #13 may not be the greatest of the series,
i mean there are years and there are Years if you know
what i mean. But this one i liked better than #11
and it has got some very good stories, for example
End Game by Nancy Kress, she is a regular,
The Tomb Wife by Gwynesth Jones
No more Stories by Stephen Baxter i will never forget "Timeships"
Baby Doll by Johanna Sinisalo
Memorare by Wolfe was pretty ok

and many others...

I think i liked almost all the stories

Again compared to Great Years like in the late 1990's
it looks a bit poorer but still pretty good SF

Anyway, I guess it is a matter of taste, and i just happen to
like this anthology by Hartwell and Cramer

so give it a try

Now i am gonna start #14 and cant wait for June when #15 comes out..
This #13 I did not read when it came out
i had too many books those years, in which i took a 2 years vacation
from SF, and started reading other topics.

Good selection...
The collection started slow, with the first few stories actually disappointing me. However, somewhere along, the stories got better and I started liking most of the rest. A few of my favorites include "Memorare" by Gene Wolfe, "End Game" by Nancy Kress (this one was particularly scary), and "The Bridge" by Kathleen Ann Goonan. One especially disturbing story I didn't like for its theme was "Pirates of Somali Coast" - not because it was not well written, but because it's just plain disturbing. All in all, it's a book with a good selection.

Enough good stories to get by
The collection was rather disappointing for a "best of" and got off (to me) with a terrible start with the somewhat offensive "Baby Doll", which doesn't even seem to qualify as SF and is very heavy-handed in its message. The start wasn't helped by "Memorae", by Gene Wolfe, in the fourth slot, a story with excellent potential marred by the romantic and anti-romantic interactions of the characters.

"Plotters and Shooters" may be the best, snappy and amusing. Another favorite, "How Music Begins", was a very fresh (to me) take on alien abduction with an unusally dominant role for music for a SF story.

The others range from a few that are pretty good to some with no appeal, leading to an overall average rating. Don't be afraid to skim or abandon some of the stories if they don't engage fairly early.

Waste of Time
I did not consider most of the stories to be Sci-Fi. Worst stories I have ever read.

Not Very Interesting Stories
I don't know. Maybe I'm spoiled by John Varley, but none of the stories in this collection were that interesting, including the Gene Wolfe one that they felt was "the best sci-fi story of the year."

Very 'meh' collection, my opinion.Very disappointed. ... Read more

Product Description

Unique visions and astonishments—new stories by:

Customer Reviews (8)

excellent scifi readin
Another fantastic book in the most consistently outstanding scifi short story series that I've encountered.I like rich, interesting, mind-bending scifi with good character development.This book delivers.

Excellent collection of "new" shorts
I usually make it a (sometimes hurtful) habit to ingest these yearly anthologies.I grabbed this one at the library last week and, as tropish as it sounds, haven't been able to put it down.Reynold's "Fury" is a fun, entirely interesting little space opera with a universe paradoxically well fleshed out for a short; it had me wishing there was an entire saga out there, somewhere.Certainly more upbeat than Reynold's usually plodding fare."The Scarecrow's Boy", rightly compared to "The Littlest Toaster" I went into with lowered expectations and came out deeply impressed."N-Words", while a fairly typical story of its type, I enjoyed.Those were the stories that really stuck out to me.The rest were certainly good.

Excellent Stories, Helpful Introductions
I read and enjoyed each of the 21 stories in David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's collection from 2008 science fiction stories.The introductions were just the right mix of author bios and pointers to other works.I particularly appreciated the inclusion of web addresses for most authors so I could find out more about them immediately after enjoying one of their stories.

My favorite six stories all had a strong character focus, using future settings and new technologies as background to the concerns of interesting people.

Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Arkfall" is a planetary romance that follows the developing relationships between crewmembers of a living submarine as it drifts through unmapped territory under an alien ocean.

Kathleen Ann Gooman's "Memory Dog" shows how the right dog can be a woman's best friend--and her best link to the past and future.

Alastair Reynolds' "Fury" reminds us that our oldest, darkest debts are sometimes paid by those we hold close.

Jeff VanderMeer's "Fixing Hannover" shows a castaway engineer's value to those who pull him from the sea--and those who come to take him home.

Mary Rickert's "Traitor" and Sue Burke's "Spiders" are each enjoyable on their own, but more so as a contrasting pair.Taking a darker and lighter view, respectively, they illustrate how a child, awash in too much information from the world, can muster the wisdom to focus on what is important.We wonder what becomes of them.

I offer my gratitude for the Kindle version that allowed me to read these stories unobtrusively during a series of boring monologues by the senior executives in my agency.Their collective misunderstanding of the smile on my face during their orations is certain to benefit my career.This collection is worth your time in similar or better circumstances.

good gift for a sci-fi reader
I purchased this as a gift for my son-in-law who is a sci-fi enthusiast.My daughter said that as soon as it arrived he sat right down that evening and began reading it. He found it an interesting book of short stories as he could finish one in a sitting; also, he was able to read some of the new offerings for the year this way.

Well Chosen
This is a well chosen collection. I enjoy the format for the SF## series. The short introductory bios, with web addresses, allow me to further explore the authors of stories I liked. I have to agree with those that have said the price it right. In contrast to the negative reviewer, I am buying the book so that I *don't* have to explore the internet, reading everything published to find the gems. I am paying for the curatorial effort and for the story in print so I can read it wherever and whenever I care to, and to have someone recommend new authors I may like. This years collection is very satisfying and entertaining. ... Read more

Product Description

The door to fantastic worlds, skewed realities, and breathtaking other realms is opened wide to you once more in this third anthology of the finest short fantasy fiction to emerge over the past year, compiled by acclaimed editor David G. Hartwell. Rarely has a more magnificent collection of tales been contained between book covers -- phenomenal visions of the impossible-made-possible by some of the field's most accomplished literary artists and stellar talents on the rise. Year's Best Fantasy 3 is a heady brew of magic and wonder, strange journeys and epic quests, boldly concocted by the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Swanwick, Tanith Lee, and others. Step into a dimension beyond the limits of ordinary imagination . . . and be amazed!. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good anthology
Usually I buy an anthology just for one or two stories by my favourite authors.I picked this one up for the Nalo Hopkinson story, 'Shift,' which turned out to be about Ariel & Caliban from The Tempest, but I was pleasantly surprised to find several other stories I liked.Neil Gaiman's story is good, of course, and is a tribute to Ray Bradbury, about a gathering of the seasons.Michael Swanwick has two stories in this Year's Best, and both turn out to be really short; 'Five British Dinosaurs' and 'Cecil Rhodes in Hell' are both funny, but in different ways.'The Pagodas of Ciboure' I had read in some other anthology a long time ago, and liked.What city dweller knew slugs could be so fearsome?I was a little disappointed in the Ellen Klages story, since I was hoping for a lot from it, but Naomi Kritzer's 'Comrade Grandmother' made up for it.It's a terrific story about Baba Yaga's participation in World War II.And of course there's an Ursula K Le Guin story too.All in all, a great anthology.

Another winning collection of short fantasy
Once again, it's time for the annual Year's Best Fantasy volume, edited by David G. Hartwell.This year's version, volume 3, has even more goodness than last year's version did.Twenty-nine stories in all, ranging from short 3-page stories to 40 page ones, by some of the biggest names in the field.This is the perfect sampler to see what's going on in the Fantasy world, to see who the up-and-comers are, and get a taste of what they're offering.On the strength of some of the stories in this volume, I'm definitely going to check out a couple that I've never tried before.

I'd say that this volume is better than last year's edition, just because there weren't any stories that I didn't like.There were some that were weaker than others, of course, but no real clunkers in the bunch.It has fantasy for every taste, from urban fantasy to other worlds, if you've got a taste for the stuff, this book will satiate it.I will, of course, include a list of the stories at the end of the review so you can check them out and see if there are any authors that you particularly like.

I love the short fiction format, especially when it's done well.There are some standout entries in this year's edition, capped off with a short little piece by Michael Swanwick called "Five British Dinosaurs."This one is extremely short, but a lot is carried in a small package.It's about the discovery of dinosaur bones in Great Britain in the 19th century, along with the discovery that there are some living specimens hanging around in the British aristocracy.This story is hilarious and I found myself laughing throughout it's brief span.The thought of a walking dinosaur speaking in proper British English, disputing the reconstruction of the bones of his ancestors, is priceless.Swanwick gives the dinosaurs a lot of personality, along with a lot of arrogance."Things were definitely better run in the Mesozoic?But mammals knew their place then."Swanwick has the honour of being the only person with two stories included, but they are both very short and so I figure Hartwell decided that he could afford the space.

Another standout is Steve Popkes and his story, " A Fable of Saviour & Reptile."This is a re-telling of the Jesus story, from the point of view of a talking turtle that befriends Jesus when he's young.The turtle is suitably haughty, given his long life span and his infinite patience (given the fact that it takes him a long time to get anywhere).It's an interesting take on the whole Messiah story, but if you can get past the irreligious tone of the story, it is very heartwarming.Hartwell warns in his prologue to it "Do note the word 'fable' in the title."While it gives an alternate view of Jesus and his life (including filling in the missing thirty or so years that the Bible doesn't include), it is very respectful the idea behind the story.The turtle is characterized wonderfully, and Jesus is too if you can get past the fact that he does drink when he's younger (getting a little drunk with the turtle) and he has a wife and son.It's a story about the power of myth and how humans can attach meaning to anything if it will help them get through life and possibly throw off the yoke of oppression.There are some very touching moments and conversations between the two of them, especially when the turtle comforts Jesus in his cell right before he's crucified.This is probably the best story in the book, and I am definitely going to track down some more by this guy.

Other particularly good stories are Kage Baker's "Her Father's Eyes" (a tale of a young girl and the boy she meets and befriends on a plane), Neil Gaiman's "October in the Chair" (a typical Gaiman tale about stories and the people who tell them, this time a group of god-like beings), and "A Prayer for Captain LaHire" by Patrice E. Sarath (a story of three knights who followed Joan of Arc until she burned, and the horror that they discover a fourth disciple has unleashed).Finally, there is P.D. Cacek's "A Book, by its Cover."This is a wonderful little tale about a Jewish boy in the aftermath of Kristallnacht in Berlin, and the bookshop owner who he believes is doing evil things afterward.It's has a wonderful message about books and the effects that they can have on a person.

If there are any weaknesses in the book, they are purely my personal feeling.I'm not a big fan of Tanith Lee, though I know that she is very popular.Thus, her story "Persian Eyes" didn't do a whole lot for me.In it, a Roman noble family is destroyed by the work of a slave girl and her magic eyes.It was more interesting to me than her entry in last year's book, but not by much.Also, "The Pagodas of Ciboure" just dragged on a little too long for my tastes.In it, a sick boy is healed by some French fairy creatures called "pagodas," though he has to save them from an onslaught of slugs first.It's cute, and it's well-told, but it's just too long.

That being said, I did enjoy even those stories.This is just a top-notch collection of short fantasy.Hartwell has done it again, pulling together a varied group of stories that can't help but satisfy.If you're a fantasy fan and like the short fiction genre, this is definitely the book for you.Hartwell has another winner, and I can't wait for next year's edition.

David Roy

Excellent Anthology
Most of the anthologies I've read in the genre of Fantasy/Scifi and horror are mixed bags of personal likes and dislikes of the editors...some of which are a bit too gory, too 'realistic' or just have what I'd like to call 'fantasy around the edges'. This series is really 'the best'...not the usual commercially bland mixes (see, Bob Silverberg's Legends), but a good mix of quirky, new authors as well as some well known names (Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee) with a nice blend of both light hearted and serious fantastic tales. Standouts would be: Gene Wolfe's From the Cradle, Naomi Kritzer's Comrade Grandmother, and Michael Swanwick's Five British Dinosaurs. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Not Free SF Reader
A reasonable collection of fantasy, with a 3.55 average.The best stories being Garth Nix's very funny and clever giant monster short, and Laird Barron's horror piece.

There is a quite brief piece by the editors about the state and source of stories in general, and each individual tale is prefaced with further info.

A solid 4, this book

Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Eating Hearts - Yoon Ha Lee
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Denial - Bruce Sterling
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Fraud - Esther Friesner
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Sunbird - Neil Gaiman
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Shard of Glass - Alaya Dawn Johnson
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Farmer's Cat - Jeff Vandermeer
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Crab Apple - Patrick Samphire
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Comber - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Walpurgis Afternoon - Deliah Sherman
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Monster - Kelly Link
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Robots and Falling Hearts - Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Still Life with B00bs - Ann Harris
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Heads Up Thumbs Down - Gavin J. Grant
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Newbie Wrangler - Timothy J. Anderson
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Being Here - Claude Lalumière
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Mom and Mother Theresa - Candas Jane Dorsey
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : The Imago Sequence - Laird Barron
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Magic in a Certain Slant of Light - Deborah Coates
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Single White Farmhouse - Heather Shaw
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Read It in the Headlines! - Garth Nix
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Niels Bohr and the Sleeping Dane - Jonathon Sullivan
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Mortegarde - Liz Williams
Year's Best Fantasy 6 : Inside Job - Connie Willis


Perfect magician, belt up and bonk.

3 out of 5


We're dead, stupid.

3.5 out of 5


Pregnant unicorn variation end.

4 out of 5


"I have a presentiment of doom upon me," ..."And I fear it shall come to us with barbecue sauce."

4 out of 5


Racist memory power runaway.

4 out of 5


Moggie ursa major makes troll mob minor.

3.5 out of 5


Dryad heart dump.

3 out of 5


Swiftly tilting city.

4 out of 5


Witchiness good for gardens.

3.5 out of 5


Hey, Bungalow Jim
I Might Eat Him

3.5 out of 5


Reality altering with replicating rodent robots. With a bit of mechanical criticism of the critical literary abilities of people.

3.5 out of 5


Mendicant mammaries.

4 out of 5


Sound of music is Matchless.

3 out of 5


Gud is bloody lazy, Zep Boy.

3.5 out of 5


Can't see this one, maybe that's us.

2.5 out of 5


No Aunt, just gimme shelter.

3 out of 5


Awful art lust trephination escape cave meld.

4 out of 5


Predicting dirigible desperation.

4 out of 5


Architectural pr0n, same?

3.5 out of 5


Very large Daikaiju font.

4.5 out of 5


Statue sword-slinger saves scientist.

4 out of 5


World Tree gatespeaking wyvern blood lecture dissection decision.

3.5 out of 5


Making monkeys of mediums.

4 out of 5



4 out of 5

Bizarre and beautiful
YEAR'S BEST FANTASY 6, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, is an engaging anthology of the absurd, the fantastic, the beautiful, and the horrifying, comprising twenty-three stories written by some of the best in the industry. The tales range from light and whimsical, as in "Still Life with Boobs" by Anne Harris, to dark and chilling, as in Laird Barron's much-acclaimed novella, "The Imago Sequence," which has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award in the long fiction category for 2005.

The book comes in with a tiger in Yoon Ha Lee's elegant parable "Eating Hearts," and goes out with a tiger, in Connie Willis's smartly crafted homage to H. L. Mencken entitled "Inside Job." Kelly Link's outstanding "Monster" is a tongue-in-cheek modern-day version of Beowulf in a boys' summer camp; and Bruce Sterling's satirical "The Denial" brings to mind the genius of Isaac B. Singer. Authors include Esther M. Friesner, Neil Gaiman, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Jeff VanderMeer, Patrick Samphire, Gene Wolfe, Delia Sherman, Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout, Gavin J. Grant (husband to Kelly Link), Candas Jane Dorsey, Timothy J. Anderson, Claude Lalumière, Deborah Coates, Heather Shaw, Garth Nix, Jonathon Sullivan, and Liz Williams.

Award recipient David G. Hartwell is the senior editor at Tor/Forge Books, the publisher of THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, and the author of AGE OF WONDERS.

World Fantasy Award winner Kathryn Cramer is an editor at THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION. She has also co-edited the outstanding anthologies, THE ASCENT OF WONDER, THE HARD SF RENAISSANCE, and the YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION series.

YEAR'S BEST FANTASY 6 is highly recommended reading for anyone who enjoys variety in the fantastic.
... Read more

Product Description
omething exciting has been happening in modern SF. After decades of confusion, many of the field's best writers have been returning to the subgenre called, roughly, 'hard SF'-science fiction focused on science and technology, often with strong adventure plots. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present an immense, authoritative anthology that maps the development of this form, argues for its special virtues and present pre-eminence-and entertains us with some spectacular storytelling along the way. Included are major stories by contemporary and classic names like Poul Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Paul McAuley, Frederik Pohl, Robert Reed, Charles Sheffield, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, and Vernor Vinge. The Hard SF Renaissance will be an anthology that SF fans will treasure-and argue over!-for years to come.Amazon.com Review
Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Hard SF Renaissance (2002) is a thematic sequel to their 1994anthology The Ascent of Wonder. The first anthology argued that "[t]here has been a persistent viewpoint that hard [science fiction] is somehow the core and the center of the SF field." The Hard SF Renaissance asserts that hard SF has truly become the heart of the genre and supports its assertion by assembling nearly a thousand pages of short stories, novelettes, and novellas originally published between the late 1980s and early 2000s. A different theory says hard SF stories are engineering puzzles disguised as fiction; The Hard SF Renaissance repudiates this theory in regard to modern hard SF. Most of the selections have strong prose and rounded characters, several are classics, and gadget-driven clunkers are mercifully few.

Contributors to The Hard SF Renaissance range from SF gods like Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frederik Pohl; to promising newcomers like Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder, and Peter Watts; and to acclaimed SF writers not usually associated with hard SF, like James Patrick Kelley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, and Michael Swanwick.

You may have noticed the lack of women in that list. It reflects the book: the 30-odd contributors (some with two stories) include only three women (Nancy Kress, Joan Slonczewski, and Sarah Zettel, with one story each). Some eyebrow-elevating omissions are Eleanor Arnason, Catherine Asaro, Nicola Griffith, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Connie Willis, all of whom have written hard SF stories in the period covered by The Hard SF Renaissance. They've certainly written SF harder than the book's implicit definition (the book reprints Kim Stanley Robinson's fine story "Sexual Dimorphism," in which fossil DNA serves as a metaphor for the protagonist's failing relationship; a few cosmetic changes and this SF story would be mainstream). The absence of several crucial authors makes The Hard SF Renaissance a less-than-definitive anthology of late-20th-century hard SF. --Cynthia Ward ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Hard SF of the `90s Defined and Demonstrated
This edited volume assembled by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer contains 41 "hard science fiction" stories sampled from the best writers of the 1990s.It stands alone as a collection, but is best seen as a continuation of their previous anthology, The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF.Their similarly-themed Space Opera Renaissance is a logical next read.

My favorite stories are:

Greg Egan - Wang's Carpets.A new kind of life is both hard to detect and understand.
Robert Reed - Marrow.A long-term mission on a generation ship redefines long-term.
Joe Haldeman - For White Hill.Just another love story on home planet Earth.
Karl Schroeder - Halo.A fight-against-terrorism story with characters who never meet.
Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High - Convinces you to read--or not read--Rainbows End, depending on your taste.
Sarah Zettel - Kinds of Strangers.How do marooned astronauts respond to stress?

This is a particularly good collection--there was not a single story I didn't like.SF readers should scan the table of contents before buying, however, since these stories have all appeared elsewhere.The book's preface and brief introductions to each story add significant value.They contain the usual author bios and pointers to other story collections, novels and series.Each intro also presents each author's definition of "hard SF" and excerpts informatively from the authors' own descriptions of their work.The editors' inclusive definition of hard SF as technology and concept-driven science fiction allows entry to an intriguing variety of stories and perspectives.The authors' definitions enrich this definition and teach us interesting lessons about the evolution of science fiction during the 1990s.

I recommend the book to science fiction readers who enjoy solid stories in this genre.I further recommend it to Kindle and iPhone users who want something good to read during the snippets of found time in their hectic schedules.

Hard SF of the `90s Defined and Demonstrated
This edited volume assembled by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer contains 41 "hard science fiction" stories sampled from the best writers of the 1990s.It stands alone as a collection, but is best seen as a continuation of their previous anthology, The Ascent of Wonder: The Evolution of Hard SF.Their similarly-themed Space Opera Renaissance is a logical next read.

My favorite stories are:

Greg Egan - Wang's Carpets.A new kind of life is both hard to detect and understand.
Robert Reed - Marrow.A long-term mission on a generation ship redefines long-term.
Joe Haldeman - For White Hill.Just another love story on home planet Earth.
Karl Schroeder - Halo.A fight-against-terrorism story with characters who never meet.
Vernor Vinge - Fast Times at Fairmont High - Convinces you to read--or not read--Rainbows End, depending on your taste.
Sarah Zettel - Kinds of Strangers.How do marooned astronauts respond to stress?

This is a particularly good collection--there was not a single story I didn't like.SF readers should scan the table of contents before buying, however, since these stories have all appeared elsewhere.The book's preface and brief introductions to each story add significant value.They contain the usual author bios and pointers to other story collections, novels and series.Each intro also presents each author's definition of "hard SF" and excerpts informatively from the authors' own descriptions of their work.The editors' inclusive definition of hard SF as technology and concept-driven science fiction allows entry to an intriguing variety of stories and perspectives.The authors' definitions enrich this definition and teach us interesting lessons about the evolution of science fiction during the 1990s.

I recommend the book to science fiction readers who enjoy solid stories in this genre.I further recommend it to Kindle and iPhone users who want something good to read during the snippets of found time in their hectic schedules.

Fantastic collection
Excellent collection of varied and interesting hard science fiction stories.Skip the introductions (they are mostly quotes cribbed from an encyclopedia of SF with a weird political fixation); go right to the stories.There are some astonishing pieces here and only a couple of clunkers.

Excellent selection of stories, great introductions
Don't underestimate the size of this volume! It's almost 1,000 large pages in small print.
Excellent selection of real hard SF stories. An inspiring and challenging read. I found myself alternating between dictionary, encyclopedia and video searches (google video and youtube) in order to try and wrap my head around many of the concepts.
The editors did a truly masterful job in selecting, introducing and ordering the stories to achieve a full immersion into science, politics and futurism. The introductory notes that precede each story are brief, but do a great job of placing the author into the proper scientific and political context. I never realized just what a tight knit club hard SF is.
The focus of most stories is not science alone, however. Most take place in the near future, and in imagining the future, the authors cannot and do not ignore the politics, economics and sociology that would be required to achieve it. Make no mistake, these guys are hard core Libertarians for the most part. Thanks to this book, I am giving money to the Ron Paul campaign!
I also never quite realized that hard SF doesn't confine itself to physics alone. There are stories by biologists, statisticians and geneticists.
If i were a natural sciences teacher, I would require my students to get this book.
I recommend taking your time with this anthology. I paused in my reading of it to check out novels and other stories by a number of the authors included here.
I think of this anthology as a text book, or maybe a syllabus, for the hard science fiction fan.

Not Free SF Reader
A really fine, top quality selection of stories. The other writing by the editors is also really good, talking about the SF, the politics, and a piece about each writer, that is enough to boost it to the 5 level, give the stories themselves average 3.8 out of 5. Or, call the whole thing 4.8 out of 5 if you like, rounded up.

Hard SF Renaissance : Gene Wars - Paul J. McAuley
Hard SF Renaissance : Wangs Carpets - Greg Egan
Hard SF Renaissance : Genesis - Poul Anderson
Hard SF Renaissance : Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Hard SF Renaissance : On the Orion Line [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter
Hard SF Renaissance : Beggars in Spain [Beggars in Spain] - Nancy Kress
Hard SF Renaissance : Matters End - Gregory Benford
Hard SF Renaissance : The Hammer of Gud - Arthur C. Clarke
Hard SF Renaissance : Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly
Hard SF Renaissance : Mount Olympus [Return to Mars] - Ben Bova
Hard SF Renaissance : Marrow - Robert Reed
Hard SF Renaissance : Microbe - Joan Slonczewski
Hard SF Renaissance : The Lady Vanishes - Charles Sheffield
Hard SF Renaissance : Bicycle Repairman [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling
Hard SF Renaissance : An Ever-Reddening Glow - David Brin
Hard SF Renaissance : S3xual Dimorphism - Kim Stanley Robinson
Hard SF Renaissance : Into the Miranda Rift - G. David Nordley
Hard SF Renaissance : The Shoulders of Giants - Robert J. Sawyer
Hard SF Renaissance : A Walk in the Sun - Geoffrey A. Landis
Hard SF Renaissance : For White Hill - Joe Haldeman
Hard SF Renaissance : A Career in Sexual Chemistry - Brian M. Stableford
Hard SF Renaissance : Reef - Paul J. McAuley
Hard SF Renaissance : Exchange Rate - Hal Clement
Hard SF Renaissance : Reasons to Be Cheerful - Greg Egan
Hard SF Renaissance : Griffins Egg - Michael Swanwick
Hard SF Renaissance : Great Wall of Mars - Alastair Reynolds
Hard SF Renaissance : A Niche - Peter Watts
Hard SF Renaissance : Gossamer [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter
Hard SF Renaissance : Madam Butterfly - James P. Hogan
Hard SF Renaissance : Understand - Ted Chiang
Hard SF Renaissance : Halo - Karl Schroeder
Hard SF Renaissance : Different Kinds of Darkness - David Langford
Hard SF Renaissance : Fast Times at Fairmont High - Vernor Vinge
Hard SF Renaissance : Reality Check - David Brin
Hard SF Renaissance : The Mendelian Lamp Case - Paul Levinson
Hard SF Renaissance : Kinds of Strangers - Sarah Zettel
Hard SF Renaissance : The Good Rat - Allen Steele
Hard SF Renaissance : Built Upon the Sands of Time - Michael F. Flynn
Hard SF Renaissance : Taklamakan [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling
Hard SF Renaissance : Hatching the Phoenix [Heechee (Robinette Broadhead)] - Frederik Pohl
Hard SF Renaissance : Immersion - Gregory Benford



Gene Wars - Paul J. McAuley

4 out of 5


Wangs Carpets - Greg Egan

5 out of 5


Genesis - Poul Anderson

3.5 out of 5


Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson

4 out of 5


On the Orion Line [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter

4 out of 5


Beggars in Spain [Beggars in Spain] - Nancy Kress

4 out of 5


Matters End - Gregory Benford

3.5 out of 5


The Hammer of God - Arthur C. Clarke

3.5 out of 5


Think Like a Dinosaur - James Patrick Kelly

4.5 out of 5


Mount Olympus [Return to Mars] - Ben Bova

4 out of 5


Marrow - Robert Reed

3.5 out of 5


Microbe - Joan Slonczewski

4 out of 5


The Lady Vanishes - Charles Sheffield

3.5 out of 5


Bicycle Repairman [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling

4 out of 5


An Ever-Reddening Glow - David Brin

3.5 out of 5


Sexual Dimorphism - Kim Stanley Robinson

4 out of 5


Into the Miranda Rift - G. David Nordley

4 out of 5


The Shoulders of Giants - Robert J. Sawyer

3.5 out of 5


A Walk in the Sun - Geoffrey A. Landis

3 out of 5


For White Hill - Joe Haldeman

2.5 out of 5


A Career in Sexual Chemistry - Brian M. Stableford

3.5 out of 5


Reef - Paul J. McAuley

4 out of 5


Exchange Rate - Hal Clement

3.5 out of 5


Reasons to Be Cheerful - Greg Egan

4.5 out of 5


Griffins Egg - Michael Swanwick

3.5 out of 5


Great Wall of Mars - Alastair Reynolds

4.5 out of 5


A Niche - Peter Watts

4 out of 5


Gossamer [Xeelee] - Stephen Baxter

4 out of 5


Madam Butterfly - James P. Hogan

3 out of 5


Understand - Ted Chiang

4.5 out of 5

Halo - Karl Schroeder

4 out of 5


Different Kinds of Darkness - David Langford

4 out of 5


Fast Times at Fairmont High - Vernor Vinge

4 out of 5


Reality Check - David Brin

3.5 out of 5


The Mendelian Lamp Case - Paul Levinson

4 out of 5


Kinds of Strangers - Sarah Zettel

3 out of 5


The Good Rat - Allen Steele

3.5 out of 5


Built Upon the Sands of Time - Michael F. Flynn

3 out of 5


Taklamakan [Chattanooga] - Bruce Sterling

4 out of 5


Hatching the Phoenix [Heechee (Robinette Broadhead)] - Frederik Pohl

4 out of 5


Immersion - Gregory Benford

4 out of 5 ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Hard to read
Whilst the stories in this volume are for the most part well written. The problem that I had with it is that the font is way to small. I do most of my reading at night and even with my reading glasses I struggled with this book.

Not Free SF Reader
The editor says in the introduction they changed format possibly to present more work, and says he'd really like to publish half a million words.He doesn't say how large the wordcount was in the last book, or in this one, but presumably this is bigger.

Changing format of course will piss off collectors who like to have consistent looks, and the electronic collectors too, who as far as I can see now don't have one to buy.

He saysthey have deliberately chosen a wide range of stories (which certainly apperas to be true), and stayed away from novella type work for length reasons.

Fantasy collections that have a lot of mundane stuff are never going to rate amazingly highly for me, but there are some pleasant surprises - Pimpf I had read before, and that is a cool story, and another Eternal Champion milieu tale from Moorcock.

The standout is Laird Barron's Hallucigenia, and he is singled out as possibly being a major talent.Given the three stories of his I have read so far (5,4,3) for a 4 average, sounds pretty reasonable to me.His story here is what I would call something like a cross between Lucius Shepard and Brian Lumley, and definitely great.

Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Build-a-Bear - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Pimpf - Charles Stross
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Four Fables - Peter S. Beagle
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Potter's Daughter - Martha Wells
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Thin On the Ground - Howard Waldrop
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter - Geoff Ryman
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Osteomancer's Son - Greg van Eekhout
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Yours Etc - Gavin Grant
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Sea Air - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : I'll Give You My Word - Diana Wynne Jones
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Bea and her Bird Brother - Gene Wolfe
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Bonny Boy - Ian R. Macleod
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Ghost Mission - L. E.Modesitt, Jr.
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Christmas Witch - M. Rickert
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Roaming Forest - Michael Moorcock
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Show Me Yours - Robert Reed
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Lepidopterist - Lucius Shepard
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : The Double-Edged Sword - Sharon Shinn
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : Hallucigenia - LairdBarron
Year's Best Fantasy 7 : An Episode of Stardust - Michael Swanwick


Competitive teddies.

3 out of 5


Bob Howard manages to get told off for not playing MMORPG's enough at work, given that is his current assignment, to stop real monsters gaining a foothold there.

He even gets an intern, asthe Laundry finds a kid who gets in deeper than he should while playing and hacking, and hands him to Bob. They go on a bit of a dungeon bash to save the day.

4 out of 5


Bad jokes two many.

3 out of 5


Fairy girl's hands like clay.

2 out of 5


Mexican trip brain sucker cutoff escape.

3.5 out of 5


Surfeit of spirits.

3 out of 5


Hierarch restructuring.

4 out of 5


Dead girl ghost correspondence.

3 out of 5


Garden monster penchant for swimming is infectious.

3 out of 5


Coven trap fraternal dictionary defense.

4 out of 5


Hereditary problems.

2.5 out of 5


Orphan changes.

3.5 out of 5


Poetic sp00k sp00ks.

3.5 out of 5


Bad bone girl.

3.5 out of 5


Rackhir the Red Archer travelling meets a princess of Immryr, luckily for him with what they get involved in.

4 out of 5


Time for drug revenge.

3.5 out of 5


Cocoon people's master conquest plan cropped at the top.

4 out of 5


Paralysis no longer in the cards.

3.5 out of 5


Things that are definitely not better than a kick in the head by an equine?

Being taken over by entities from the Outer Dark.

5 out of 5


Just a vixen for a con.

4 out of 5





3.5 out of 5
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Overly academic, and not much space opera
* Most of this anthology is composed of stories.However, the editors also incomprehensibly include one entire novel and two excerpts.The novel is long, based in someone else's universe and not very good.One of the excerpts is quite good, but there's little I like less than an excerpt - if you do buy the novel, you've already read part of it.If you don't, you've only read part of the story.

* Normally, I enjoy the little bios and blurbs that precede or succeed stories in an anthology.In this case, however, the editors have taken such an academic tone that it pretty much kills your interest in reading the stories themselves.I also disagree with their definitions of 'space opera'.I read and considered their position, but found it uninformative, and the various categories of space opera they suggest have little to do with the stories included, and less to do with other work produced in those periods.Anthologies often have a feeling not so much of consistent concept as of "random stories we got from our friends."This one is no different.You won't really learn much about space opera (by any definition) here.

* The editors make much of a posited distinction between British and US science fiction.I suppose they may be right - they quote a lot of people (mostly British) who seem to agree.But I read a LOT of science fiction (both British and US), and I've never thought much about it.I like certain authors and not others; some are British, some are American.Their nationality has made zero difference to my enjoyment or selection criteria.So while it's a big deal to the editors, at least one very well-read member of the audience couldn't care less.

* Leaving aside the pompous analysis, the artificial distinctions, the random selection, and the occasional bit of novel... - this anthology does collect some good work, and a wide selection of authors.If you can pick it up cheap at a discount bookstore, go to it.Otherwise, I suggest looking elsewhere.I certainly won't be picking up the editors' companion volume (Hard SF Renaissance).

An overly long primer
'Space Opera Renaissance' begins with a brief history of the written genre and then proceeds to "travel through time" by presenting works from the various periods mentioned.The stories are of wildly varying quality and length; two of the longest I decided to skip reading after a dozen pages or so: "Ms Midshipwoman Harrington" by David Weber because I got sick of the amazingly fawning way that the military officers were portrayed (did a stint of 8 years enlisted in the US Navy, so that's my bias) and "The Survivor" by Donald Kingsbury because it was told from a very strange perspective that wasn't sitting well with me.

About the only issue I had with the collection was its sheer size; by including so many stories, the chances of finding ones you don't like are sure to increase.

Its okay
This is a big book and it felt like a big book to read since I could easily put it down. Lots of stories. Some good, some not so good. The surprising thing about this book was that it wasn't more upbeat. When I think of Space Opera I think Star Wars but that kind of fun is a throwback in todays Sci-Fi universe. These stories were very modern and although thought provoking a lot ended with a feeling of 'so what' or 'where's the fun'. The Kennedy Effect

Uneven read, but better as a literature study
If you are a sci-fi fan just looking for a fun read, you may find this short story collection includes older stories of the sort that have clouded the image of sci-fi as based on serious science (e.g., a story taking place on a HUGE alien world, headed toward earth where its gravity will surely pull Earth away, yet our intrepid heroes land and walk around just fine?).Many other stories are classic, grand space opera as it developed across decades.

As a literature study, this is the best collection I have seen.It exposes the reader to fine examples decade by decade, showing how the definition and image of "space opera" has evolved.Not to say it's only worthwhile as an academic work, I enjoyd it overall as a vacation read.

Not Free SF Reader
Firstly, the Space Opera Renaissance is a good book, and one that has been fascinating me for a while, now. You can see this by the story average of 3.61 over a significant number of stories. Throw in the intro and the story intros and you have something approaching excellent, even. You could stretch the rating for the book to 4.25, perhaps.

Hartwell and Cramer are clear leaders as far as editors go in writing introductions to stories, where they actually do provide opinion and guidance, rather than a dry, used car salesman list of previous publications and upcoming work that might be as much science fiction as Snow White or Law and Order, and not relevant at all. While it is nice to promote writers and not hurt the poor darlings feelings - that shouldnt' bother editors, they do that every day with a whole bunch of 'No', it is their job, after all. Lists of publications ignore the silly geographically split up publishing market, and might be irrelevant to large chunks of the readers who only hang out in bookshops, anyway.

They are also unafraid to mention URLs or other resources relevant to these pieces, and editors in general could do this for space reasons when they want to expand on something a little more. So this part is very well done, and usually I read those first in their anthologies.

It is also commendable for the variety of stories and tone included, humour included.

Anyway, rambling on about this at great and likely boring length is done at the usual notfree spot for anyone that cares, and is way too long for here. The problems I see here are story choice, and actually being more clear to the unfamiliar about what they see Space Opera as, and story and author choices - two whole novels, basically? etc.

Still, a really interesting book worth having.

Space Opera Renaissance : The Star-Stealers - Edmond Hamilton
Space Opera Renaissance : The Prince of Space - Jack Williamson
Space Opera Renaissance : Enchantress of Venus - Leigh Brackett
Space Opera Renaissance : The Swordsmen of Varnis - Clive Jackson
Space Opera Renaissance : The Game of Rat and Dragon - Cordwainer Smith
Space Opera Renaissance : Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany
Space Opera Renaissance : Zirn Left Unguarded the Jenghik Palace in Flames Jon Westerly Dead - Robert Sheckley
Space Opera Renaissance : Temptation - David Brin
Space Opera Renaissance : Ranks of Bronze - David Drake
Space Opera Renaissance : Weatherman - Lois McMaster Bujold
Space Opera Renaissance : A Gift from the Culture - Iain M. Banks
Space Opera Renaissance : Orphans of the Helix - Dan Simmons
Space Opera Renaissance : The Well Wishers - Colin Greenland
Space Opera Renaissance : Escape Route - Peter F. Hamilton
Space Opera Renaissance : Ms Midshipwoman Harrington - David Weber
Space Opera Renaissance : Aurora in Four Voices - Catherine Asaro
Space Opera Renaissance : Ring Rats - R. Garcia y Robertson
Space Opera Renaissance : The Death of Captain Future - Allen Steele
Space Opera Renaissance : A Worm in the Well - Gregory Benford
Space Opera Renaissance : The Survivor - Donald Kingsbury
Space Opera Renaissance : Fools Errand - Sarah Zettel
Space Opera Renaissance : The Shobies Story - Ursula K. Le Guin
Space Opera Renaissance : The Remoras - Robert Reed
Space Opera Renaissance : Recording Angel - Paul J. McAuley
Space Opera Renaissance : The Great Game - Stephen Baxter
Space Opera Renaissance : Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel - Michael Moorcock
Space Opera Renaissance : Space Opera - Michael Kandel
Space Opera Renaissance : Grist - Tony Daniel
Space Opera Renaissance : The Movements of Her Eyes - Scott Westerfeld
Space Opera Renaissance : Spirey and the Queen - Alastair Reynolds
Space Opera Renaissance : Bear Trap - Charles Stross
Space Opera Renaissance : Guest Law - John C. Wright

Hey! You! Get offa my Sun!

3.5 out of 5


It's all over if the Martian Vampires nuke us, Red Rover.

3 out of 5


Stark goes looking to find a lost friend he thinks is in trouble, and ends up fomenting a slave rebellion, among other things.

4 out of 5


Spear carrier bad guy goes for the exhausted Indy solution.

3.5 out of 5


Another actual use for a live cat. Fight you little bastich.

4 out of 5


Time to teach ourselves.

3.5 out of 5


Spoof Opera.

4 out of 5


Dolphin escape and magic time diaspora subservience scheme rejection.

3.5 out of 5


Lends us your Romans for some cut price hack and slash.

3.5 out of 5


It's cold outside, but it gets so hot a time in here.

4 out of 5


Talking smoking gun.

3 out of 5


Hyperion kid and Shrike buddy pay a visit for some teleporting fun.

3.5 out of 5


Grot stop's bad art garotte.

4 out of 5


Old ship find time shift.

4 out of 5


Tactically reduced.

4 out of 5


Crankenshaft cyborg art conflict.

3 out of 5


Space slavers can't Sink The Pink.

3.5 out of 5


"Heroes are hard to find. We need to welcome them whenever they appear in our midst. You've just got to be careful to pick the right guy, because it's easy for someone to pretend to be what they're not.
Captain Future is dead. Long live Captain Future."

5 out of 5


This wormhole is mine.

4 out of 5


Call me Mellow-Yellow, hyperspatial bloodnut monkey-female.

3 out of 5


AI whispering gives me a headache.

4 out of 5


Look, it's full of stars.

3 out of 5


Serious space ship s*cker scam.

3.5 out of 5


Personality variations don't quite cut it, universal aims are worth a shot though.

4 out of 5


Muddy Star Wars.

4 out of 5


Are your MacShards gunning?

3 out of 5


Spoof Opera opera.

3 out of 5


Ferret girl proves vital in time tweaking titans massive personality conflict.

3.5 out of 5


A girl's friendship with an AI leads to physical relationship and with it, the evolution past the legal sentience barrier.

4 out of 5


"Space war is gudawful slow."

Everything is also not as it seems in this conflict, partly as a result of the above.

3 out of 5


Share intelligence.

4 out of 5


Anti-piracy intelligence is powerful.

4 out of 5
... Read more

Product Description
Filled with detailed charts, stories, and quotations of well-known people who explain the process and how to use it. Good, practical guidance for those ready to make changes. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Best self and group improvement book I've read in years!
This is the best book about self-improvement, group facilitation, and business that I have read in years, going all the way back to Covey's "7 Habits... Book."

Dr. Cramer exhibits unbridled optimism grounded by realism, and expects the same from those following her advice. The constant themes of creativity, resilience, and constructive growth over reactivity, despair, and corrective discipline make a lot of sense.

My only reason for not giving this 5 stars is I would have preferred a shorter book... though I am hard-pressed to recommend what should be cut. On that note, the book is very well-organized, and you can quickly find the main points and exercises if you wish.

I heartily recommend this to anyone facing insurmountable obstacles and not enough resources, especially someone in an organizational setting.

When the going gets tough, the tough get creative!
Somebody once told me that when the clothes washer was invented, it freed up an enormous amount of time for women, who then did...more laundry!They ended up right back where they were, only with larger piles of clothes to wash.

These days we use our Palm Pilots and Day Planners and cell phones and multi-tasking skills to squeeze more productivity out of each day.And with each precious minute we save, we do...exactly the same things.

Now Dr. Cramer has come along to wake us up. Faster, harder, and smarter sometimes works in the short term, but for the long haul we need to rethink our whole agenda.Tackling the world's largest "to do" list is not really a life plan.Using Dr. Cramer's six steps, we can shape a compelling vision of what we want to achieve, so that everything we do fuels - and is fueled by - this greater purpose.Instead of faster, harder, and smarter, we learn to live richer, deeper, and wiser.

Dr. Cramer shows us how to recognize our deepest desires and how to tap into our greatest capabilities.By infusing our lives with meaning, we can let go of frustration and irrelevant tasks, and intead focus on what we need to do to achieve a future that will bring us joy and satisfaction.

Accessing Creative Solutions Under Intensive Pressures
What happens to enormously capable people when they are vastly overloaded with work?In too many cases, these individuals will focus all their energies on work, while building intense stress loads that reduce their effectiveness.The result is either failure to get the job done or eventual burnout.The personal lives of those involved are often left in total disarray in the process.

Dr. Cramer instead suggests that you step back and find a new solution that does not rely on working faster, harder and smarter.For example, ask yourself whether the task needs to be done at all.Often, the overwhelming task is a waste of time.A good example would be marketing programs that primarily bring in unprofitable customers.

In this interesting book, Dr. Cramer emphasizes ways to manage your psychological state that will help you step outside the day-to-day tasks to establish an effective strategy for accomplishing what you really want.When Faster, Harder, Smarter Is Not Enough is intended to be your coach and personal guide to "enlarge our capacity to be creative under fire."As a result, you will turn "stress into success" and be "energized rather than drained."

Her advice is supported by case histories from her executive coaching practice over 20 years, and exercises to help you build awareness and skills for being more creative.One of the most interesting ones is building a life map to see your patterns for getting into and out of overload situations.The book contains a continuing case history of a CEO who got out of touch with his real goals, and wanted to change.This example also shows the many ways that these methods can be employed throughout an organization.

She emphasizes 6 elements:

(1)" . . . see the big picture (externally) and . . . be aware of your emotional landscape (internally)."To do this, she encourages you to be curious and committed, while being intuitive and aware.

(2)" . . . imagine the best possible outcome and . . . become energized by how excellent it is."

(3)" . . . concrete yet flexible plan for achieving your goal, and . . . give up any counterproductive ideas or habits that might sabotage your efforts."This requires being imaginative, visionary, observant, and innovative.

(4)" . . . involve in your game plan those you love and those you need."Here you need to be influential and collaborative, articulate and persuasive.

(5)" . . . implant your plan, watch your progress, overcome the obstacles that present themselves, and learn to capitalize on conflict."Here, you are trying to be resilient and resourceful, fearless and authentic in your actions.

(6)"Enjoy your achievements . . . and do it all over again!"To do this, be passionate, proactive, inspired and confident.

You start with developing a list of long-term personal and professional goals, " . . . then connect the dots."You will do this by becoming richer in mental and emotional resources, deeper in your thinking, and wiser in your choices.You will also become better at avoiding your deepest habits of harmful blind reaction.

Having co-authored a book on developing better decision-making and action habits, I found this approach to creating the right psychological environment for such changes to be very interesting.I thought that points two and four above are important, and are often forgotten in the rush to accomplish.I suspect that the best use of this book is in combination with any of the many excellent books about how to become more creative, to add more focus into the psychological space that this book creates.Without more specific content on the technology of creating these solutions, those who employ this book will create better solutions . . . but ones that I suspect are much less than their full potential to achieve through their organizations.

After you finish exploring these more resourceful states, I encourage you to think about how you allocate your time.Breaking patterns of where you spend too much time that is not supportive of your real intentions is a great way to get started!

Always spend time to think through the questions of whether the work needs to be done, how it can be done vastly better, and how you can get enormously greater results from the same effort.The more overwhelming the situation seems, the more important it is to do this!

... Read more

Product Description
There is magic in our world
. . . and in others.

The fertile imagination can cultivate wondrous things, aided by ancient myths and memory, enduring childhood dreams and desires, and the power of cultural archetypes. Once again, award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer reap a magnificent crop of superior fantasy short fiction -- the finest to blossom over the past twelve months. A cornucopia of remarkable tales from some of the field#146;s most acclaimed artists -- Neil Gaiman, Octavia Butler, Tanith Lee, and Michael Swanwick, to name but a few -- as well as stunning new works from emerging young talents, Year's Best Fantasy 4 is a collection as magical as its illustrious predecessors, a feast for every true connoisseur of fantastic literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A jaunt thru the interestingly bizarre
It has been a long time since I read some fantasy fiction, so I was surprised at what a good impression this collection made.There were enough unusual and twisted and mature pieces here to keep me reading. There are also pieces that can work for teenage readers as well as adults - I read two of them to a group of 6th graders."Dragon's Gate" by Pat Murphy was just perfect for my students - it is a story that features a young teen girl who tracks down a dragon and makes friends with the creature.It is well written and plays with a few cliches in an interesting manner. "Catskin" by Kelly Link displayed an outrageous sensibility - very imaginative and, so far as I can tell, unique.

Famous Neil Gaiman contributes a well-written little story about a group of men in a London club that builds well to a mediocre ending.Terry Dowling writes about a "sciamantium", a mirrored room from that supposedly leads to supernatural revelations.Another really good one is "Moonblind" by Tanith Lee, in which the hunters of a village conducts periodic hunts of werewolves.One of the hunters finds a baby werewolf, and contrary to all tradition, decides to hide it and nurture it.Brendan Duffy's story is another strange one - about a spritelike creature created by a scientist in a previous century.There are discussions of "ovism vs. preformation" and the church's views on science."Fable from a Cage" by Tim Pratt was another good, strange chiller.Lucius Shepard was part of the cyberpunk movement, and he writes in an overblown style that has its charms.He contributes a weird, violent piece set in South America.In Ellen Klage's story, a girl gets picked on and pushed around by her bitchy, trophy wife stepmother. A black maid befriends her and shows her some old school magic spells and tricks, which turn out to work all too well.In Robert Sheckley's "The Tales of Zanthius", the author creates an interesting rural community populated by people, zombies, werewolves, and witches.In a story by Gene Wolfe, an insane psychiatrist travels thru a violent dream world - pretty good.

All in all, this was a good collection - more interestingly bizarre than I had expected. Looks like I should add some occasional fantasy to my reading diet.

A few good stories
Maybe I have completely different tastes than the editors of this anthology, or maybe there just wasn't a whole lot of excellent fantasy published in 2003 but I found Year's Best Fantasy 4 to be a hit and miss affair.Many of the stories are decent but nothing special.A few are pretty bad.Even the usually reliable Neil Gaiman has a misfire with the dull "Closing Time."Kelly Link's "Catskin" is just plain bizarre (but I suspect it's supposed to be).Among the few excellent stories are the Nebula Award winner "Basement Magic" by Ellen Klages, a clever update on the fairy-godmother story;
One Thing About the Night" by Terry Dowling, a creepy ghost story involving a mirrored room; and "Dragon's Gate" by Pat Murphy, a well-told high-fantasy quest adventure.There are also some good stories by Lucius Shepard and Terry Bisson.I should also mention the editor's introductions to the stories often contain plot spoilers so I recommend reading those after reading the story.

Some good stories, though not as good as last year's
Having recently finished David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer's Year's Best SF 9 because of Kage Baker's story, imagine my horror when I discovered that, for the first time since Book 1 of their Year's Best Fantasy series, there would not be a Baker story in this year's edition.I decided to soldier on, however, as the other stories have always been exceptional.I would just have to read a book that did not contain a Baker story.*shudder*

Now, all kidding aside (I love Baker, but I'm definitely exaggerating above), the stories in Year's Best Fantasy 4 did not grip me like they have in past years.In fact, going back and writing out the story titles and authors for the list below, I'm having trouble remembering what a few of them are about.Some are charming in their own way, but didn't excite me.Others left me with disturbing images (and not the pleasurably disturbing ones that good horror novels leave)."Catskin," by Kelly Link, is about a witch's son and the cat that has become the dead witch's revenge.The cat creates a cat suit for the boy out of the skin of all the other dead cats that the witch had taken care of, and they go out to avenge the witch, dealing with the other witch who poisoned her.Not my cup of tea.Even the mostly reliable Michael Swanwick's story isn't up to his usual standard, though it is mildly entertaining."King Dragon" is about a world of elves and dragons, but this world is brutally technological.The dragons are intelligent, but they are also mechanical constructs.In an attack on a village, one of the dragons crash-lands, demands that the village cater to him in order to eventually fix him, and takes a boy to be his eyes, ears, and feet.The boy becomes very powerful in the village, a resistance group forms and the boy has to eventually decide whether he likes the power he has (despite the horror of his master) or if he is loyal to his village.It's an interesting story, but I found I didn't really like the atmosphere that much.

So what's good about Year's Best Fantasy 4?There are three really good ones."Basement Magic," by Ellen Klages, is about a young girl with a horrible stepmother, and a maid who knows just a little bit of that voodoo that you do so well.She quickly befriends the girl and, after seeing how the stepmother treats the girl, decides to help protect the girl with a couple of spells.The girl takes things just a little too far, however.This tale was very sweet, but not too sweet.The characters are interesting and I just loved the friendship that grew between these two people.The ending is actually quite surprising, and sad in a way.I loved it.

Another good one is "Dragon's Gate," by Pat Murphy.In this one, a girl tells a story of the ice women in a bar near the glacier.They are upset and her mother goes into a coma-like state.The girl must travel up the mountain pass and get some blood from the dragon there, the dragon that has killed every expedition that has gone after it.Upon getting there, the girl finds things a lot different then she expected.The story has a nice twist to it, with the dragon being a credible character in its own right.The little bit of history of the area is interesting, also tying directly into the outcome of the story, which is nice too.Excellent stuff.

Finally (both in this review and the book itself), there is "Almost Home," by Terry Bisson.This story is a voyage of discovery and the beginning of a new life.Troy and Bug are two boys who enjoy fishing in "Scum Lake," a big pond that's out by the old horse track.Troy discovers that various aspects of the track (the announcers' booth and other bits) are beginning to form what looks like an aeroplane (you know, one of those older types).When it finally forms, they are able to take Troy's deformed cousin for a ride.They discover, past the seemingly endless desert, a community that is almost, but not quite, exactly like theirs.The story only contains these three characters, and Bisson captures the wonder and the fear of kids going on an exploration of the unknown vividly.It's kind of sad, but contains an uplifting ending.It's also quite imaginative, with this plane being powered by electrolytes from soda pop.This was an excellent ending for the book.

Very few of the stories in Year's Best Fantasy 4 left me cold.There's "Catskin" as mentioned above, but also Neil Gaiman's story ("Closing Time") also did.Perhaps this is because I'm getting tired of the motif of people within the story telling a weird story themselves.It's starting to get a bit old, and since the story that was being told didn't inspire me, it just sort of fell flat.Others were ok, but nothing special.Surprisingly, Tanith Lee's story ("Moonblind") was one that I actually enjoyed, which just may indicate that my feelings about a Year's Best Fantasy book may be inversely proportional to how much I like Lee's story.The past two books have contained Lee stories that I didn't like, and I liked those volumes a lot better than this one.

Still, my disappointment with this year's edition does not mean it's not worth picking up.It's still a great collection, just not as good as past years'.If you're a short fantasy fan (as in a fan of short fantasy, not meaning a height-challenged fan), I would definitely recommend that you pick this book up.Just make sure you pick up the first three as well.There's some good stuff there.

David Roy ... Read more

Product Description
Wayne State Univ., Detroit, MI. Presents information on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for orthopedic disorders in children. Addresses congenital and developmental disorders as well as a wide range of common injuries. Also discusses orthopedic manifestations of neuromuscular disorders. DNLM: Orthopedics--Child. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

NEED TO KNOW WHERE TO GET OTHER BOOKS
.I'M LOOKING FOR THE BOOK BY PEG HEINLIFE'S TOO SHORT NOT TO LIVE IT AS A TEXAN ... Read more

Product Description
In this highly acclaimed audio version of her ground-breaking book, nationally recognized health psychologist Kathryn Cramer, Ph.D., outlines her proven method for adjusting to life's crises. Whether you have experienced death, divorce, illness, job loss or financial setback, Dr. Cramer's four-step growth system will keep you moving forward.

Stages of self-empowering growth:

• Challenge: identifying threats and turning them into opportunities

• Exploration: discovering the rules to your new reality of living

• Invention: masterminding new success strategies

• Transformation: putting your life back in balance

After listening to this life-enhancing audio, you will be able to develop the inner strength and resilience to cope with any traumatic life event. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A keeper for your bookcase to realign your compass again
Great book for anyone who reflects upon life and the events that dynamically control all of us.In a time of crisis in your life, or just a time to sit down and reach our for sound thinking about life's experinencesand how to handle them, this book is a valuable resource.I loaned mineout a few years ago.I kept good notes in my daily diary taken from it,and I am reordering a copy today solely resulting from reading the gems init.It is practical, informative, educational, and well documented. ... Read more

Product Description
Because bad things do happen to good people, here is a groundbreaking--and uniquely practical--book about surviving devasting change. Motivated by her own reaction to the tragic death of her younger brother, Dr. Kathryn Cramer has developed the tools through which someone dealing with a traumatic life event can emerge healthy, productive, and ready for rewarding relationships. ... Read more