Comments on: REVIEW: The Year’s Best Science Fiction #22 edited by Gardner Dozois

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 14:29:22 +0000

Ah, yes, here are those memorable quotes from “The Clapping Hands Of God”:

“Sometimes…I do not understand you people.”

“Hassan Maklouf was their leader, a man who had walked on eighteen worlds…On one, he had lost his soul.”

Classic.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:52:46 +0000

I like a classic story to have at least one classic line, and “The Clapping Hands Of God” has two-the one by one of the scientists how they sometimes just didn’t understand the others and the last, recapitulating line about the captain losing his soul.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:11:14 +0000

I loved this book! I adore short sf stories. My favourites in this collection were Mayflower II, Ten Sigmas, and, I have to say, The Clapping Hands Of God, all of which I found to be very thought-provoking. Most of the others were just good old-fashioned page-turning stories. The best thing about collections such as this one is that they provide an overview of the sf scene at that particular time, and they give me a sample of different authors for me to decide whether to read more of their work. All those sf books out there, and most of them I will never have time to read, unfortunately…guess it’s like a NOW greatest hits collection. One question, I bought the book in the UK as “The Mammoth Book Of SF 18″. Why is this so if there have been 22 collections? That’s just a quibble, though, and I can’t wait for number 23 later this year and to read the earlier ones!

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:05:24 +0000

To each his own. I guess I just wasn’t expecting that type of story. Or maybe I wasn’t in the mood? Hmmm…maybe I found another impediment to reading?

By: Mervius

Mervius — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:01:34 +0000

I thought Mother Aegypt by Kage Baker was awesome. I laughed and laughed at the finale.

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:12:31 +0000

Yep. Funny thing is, I had a chance to pick that one up on the cheap (overstock at bookclosouts.com) and passed on it because I never heard of him. My loss. |-)

By: John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 13:50:29 +0000

You said: “Time to look up Cowdrey’s longer works.”

Cowdrey has a terrific novel called CRUX, and he has a new novella called “The Revivalist” coming out in the March 2006 issue of F&SF.