The Year's Best Science Fiction, Vol. 20

Gardner Dozois, Editor The Years Best Science Fiction, Vol. 20

Breathmoss - IAN R. MACLEOD

The Most Famous Little Girl in the World - NANCY KRESS

The Passenger - PAUL J. MCAULEY

The Political Officer - CHARLES COLEMAN FINLAY

Lambing Season - MOLLY GLOSS

Coelacanths - ROBERT REED

Presence - MAUREEN F. MCHUGH

Halo - CHARLES STROSS

In Paradise - BRUCE STERLING

The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars - IAN MCDONALD

Stories for Men - JOHN KESSEL

To Become a Warrior - CHRIS BECKETT

The Clear Blue Seas of Luna - GREGORY BENFORD

V.A.O. - GEOFF RYMAN

Winters Are Hard - STEVEN POPKES

At the Money - RICHARD WADHOLM

Agent Provocateur - ALEXANDER IRVINE

Singleton - GREG EGAN

Slow Life - MICHAEL SWANWICK

A Flock of Birds - JAMES VAN PELT

The Potter of Bones - ELEANOR ARNASON

The Whisper of Disks - JOHN MEANY

The Hotel at Harlan’s Landing - KAGE BAKER

The Millennium Party - WALTER WILLIAMS

Turquoise Days - ALASTAIR REYNOLDS

ISBN 0-312-30859-0 (he)

THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION TWENTIETH ANNUAL COLLECTION. Copyright © 2003 by Gardner Dozois. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

0-312-30860-4 (tp)

FIRST EDITION: JULY 2003

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

The editor would like to thank the following people for their help and support: Susan Casper, Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Peter Crowther, David Pringle, Eileen Gunn, Nisi Shawl, Mark Watson, Sheila Williams, Brian Bieniowski, Trevor Quachri, Paul Frazier, Mark R. Kelly, Mark Watson, Gary Turner, Marty Halpern, Jayme Lynn Blaschke, Byron R. Tetrick, Richard Freeborn, Robert Silverberg, Cory Doctorow, Michael Swanwick, Charles Stross, Craig Engler, Linn Prentis, Vaughne Lee Hansen, Jed Hartman, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Susan Marie Groppi, Patrick Swenson, Tom Vander Neut, Andy Cox, Steve Pendergrast, Laura Ann Gilman, Alastair Reynolds, Warren Lapine, Shawna McCarthy, David Hartwell, Darrell Schweitzer, Robert Sawyer, Jennifer A. Hall, and special thanks to my own editor, Marc Resnick.

Thanks are also due to Charles N. Brown, whose magazine Locus [Locus Publications, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, $49 for a one-year subscription (twelve issues) via second class; credit card orders (510) 339-9198] was used as an invaluable reference source throughout the Summation; Locus Online (www.locusmag.com), edited by Mark Kelly, has also become a key reference source. Thanks are also due to the editors of Science Fiction Chronicle (DNA Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 2988, Radford, VA 24143-2988, $45 for a one-year/ twelve-issue subscription via second class) was also used as a reference source throughout.

Introduction - Summation: 2002