Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. 2003

Author: David G. Hartwell
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Features: In 2002, reading magazines was a great experience, whether it was professional magazines or semi-professional ones. That year, novelettes were particularly strong, and there were over a hundred noteworthy short stories worth considering. Therefore, for new readers of this series, we want to repeat what is usually not said: this science fiction anthology represents the best middle and short science fiction fiction published in 2002. But to include all the best short stories would likely require two or three anthologies of this size—even then, it would not include all the best novelettes. We believe that while it is practically impossible to include everything in one large book, providing representative best works year after year also includes offering a substantial diversity of excellent works. Thus, in order to fit certain works within the limited space, we had to sacrifice some valuable works. Our overall selection principle is: this book is entirely science fiction—every story in it is a science fiction story and nothing else. We deeply respect horror fiction, fantasy fiction, speculative fiction, slipstream fiction, and postmodern literature. As a companion to this book, we (Catherine Krzeminski and David G. Hartwell) edited the paperback Best Fantasy of the Year. If you also enjoy fantasy short stories, you can check out that book. However, in this book, we only select science fiction.