The Very Best of the Best

35 Years of The Year's Best Science Fiction

By: Gardner Dozois - editor

Narrated by: Vivienne Leheny, Will Damron

A 2020 Locus Award Finalist for Best Anthology

"[Vivienne Leheny and Will Damron's] characterizations are poignant and widely varied, their delivery soulful and immersive, and their pacing attuned to each new world. Ideal for fans of short stories and science fiction." (AudioFile magazine)

For the first time in a decade, a compilation of the very best in science fiction, from a world authority on the genre.

For decades, The Year's Best Science Fiction has been the most widely read short science fiction anthology of its kind. Now, after 35 annual collections comes the ultimate in science fiction anthologies. In The Very Best of the Best, legendary editor Gardner Dozois selects the finest short stories for this landmark collection, including short fiction from authors such as Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Greg Egan, Stephen Baxter, Pat Cadigan, and any many more.

©2019 Gardner Dozois (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2020 Locus Awards Nominee

it is what it says it is

An excellent collection of great stories. listen to it an enjoy word word word

Great value ..! hours of listening for 1 credit..

Hours of listening for one credit. Some pretty weird stories, a couple modern sexual mentions that may be offensive. But mostly good stories. I listen at night as a distraction to go to sleep.

very enjoyable listen

Narrators were varied and all good.
The stories were also varied in tone and type, really enjoyed this book

Uneven, sometimes wonderful

For a collection that bills itself as “The Very Best of the Best”, the quality is very hit or miss. Some stories, like “The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter”, “Finisterra” “The Little Goddess” and a few whose titles escape me at the moment are top-rate. Some of the others are pretty boring. Most are somewhere in the middle—listenable, but not memorable. And the performances are mediocre—somewhat flat. All in all, not a great collection, but with a few gems that will stay with you.

Finally a book title which is true in every sense

Arguably the best of the best, each story is a masterpiece, thank you for collating the stories in one edition.
A time space above the rest.

great story

An eventually evident scientific concept described with passion of and for the premise...very enjoyable!

So Worth a Credit!

This is a HUGE collection of phenomenal fiction; and it’s all SOOOO good!
Almost 40 hours of the stories deemed the absolute best by the long time editor of the Year’s Best series, Gardner Dozois.
(My favorite one was the short story upon which the classic Sci-fi Horror movie The Thing was based.)
The title really says it all. If you enjoy sci-fi short stories, you will not be disappointed by this brilliant collection!

The first short story collection I've listened to.

I enjoyed the stories in this collection, hopefully it doesn't set an unreasonable standard for any short story collections I read in the future.

Best stories are in the beginning.

Seemed to have gone downhill on the last few stories. I don’t need to listen to again.

Another excellent collection of stories.

This is another great collection of Science Fiction short stories. I highly recommend this book.