http://speculiction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/review-of-best-science-fiction-and.ht... ( )

Sith clicked the phone off. She opened the trunk of the car and tossed the phone into it. Being telephoned by ghosts was so . . . unmodern. How could Cambodia become a number one country if its cell phone network was haunted?

As I progressed through the book, I realised that a large number of the stories were to do with death in one form or another. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but was there something about 2006 that inspired authors to write about death and its aftermath, or did the editor have an affinity for those subjects that predisposed him to choose those stories?

After fifteen stories about death in a row, I was thrilled to come across something more light-hearted when I read "D.A." by Connie Willis, but it was straight back to death and destruction for the last few stories. The only two stories that I didn't really enjoy were "A Siege of Cranes" which was quite gruesome (although I liked the jackal-headed men and their quest to perform funeral rites for the dead of the world), and "Sob in the Silence" which I would say was horror rather than fantasy. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this anthology, particularly the science fiction stories. Several of the stories were familiar to me from other collections, but the Elizabeth Hand and Connie Willis were new to me and quite delightful surprises. The anthology slows down a bit in the middle, with some stories that are more propaganda than science fiction, but picks back up quickly. I'll be on the lookout for more of these.

In general, a lovely collection of stories. It shouldn't surprise me that my favorite was from Connie Willis, but it does. Just didn't feel like her writing, somehow. ( )

342 ( )