THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION

Another bumper crop of 25 tales culled from 1990's output, with no real standouts but maintaining a high standard overall. The famous names weigh in: Robert Silverberg (climatic change), Joe Haldeman (a short version of his recent missing-Hemingway- manuscripts novel), John Brunner (immortality), Michael Moorcock (a future Third World), Ursula K. Le Guin (a Hainish tale), and Kate Wilhelm's alien castaway. Not to forget such almost-as-famous contributors as: Bruce Sterling (religious-cultural clashes), Terry Bisson (the hilarious ``Bears Discover Fire''), Lucius Shepard and Robert Frazier (a chiller), Nancy Kress (disease colonies), Connie Willis (a comic modern El Dorado), Lewis Shiner (a what-if involving Nikola Tesla), and Pat Murphy (robot sex). And the remaining tales are equally diverse and stimulating, from longevity, chimeras, physics, cosmology, and transferable memories to rainmakers, alien invaders, and computer-reality. Another in a virtually indispensable series. Pity the price has gone into orbit, though.