Gardner Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty First Annual Collection" (2004): 29 stories

Note: 2008 edition (Vol 25) annotated ToC - in case you mistakenly landed at this page.
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Below is the full table of contents. Where a story is available as a free download, I mark it with "*" prefix; download link is provided here as well as in my review article.

Stories I have read come first, ranked by quality - best first; my rating follows (in brackets), plus a very short summary. Where I have posted a review, link on story title takes you there.

1. * William Barton's "Off on a Starship"; Asimov's; download.
   
2. * John Kessel's "It's all True"; scifi.com; download.
   
3. * Charles Stross' "Rogue Farm"; download.
   
4. * Steven Popkes' "The Ice"; Asimov's; download.
   
5. * Nancy Kress' "Ej-Es"; download as MP3.
   
6. John Varley's "The Bellman"
7. Judith Moffett's "The Bear's Baby"
8. Howard Waldrop's "Calling Your Name"
9. Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "June Sixteenth at Anna's"
10. * Walter Jon Williams' "The Green Leopard Plague"; Asimov's; download.
    
11. Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Fluted Girl"
12. Jack Skillingstead's "Dead Worlds"
13. Michael Swanwick's "King Dragon": Fantasy?
    
14. Paul Melko's "Singletons In Love"
15. M Shayne Bell's "Anomalous Structures Of My Dreams"
16. Vernor Vinge's "The Cookie Monster"; Analog.
    
17. * Harry Turtledove's "Joe Steele"; download as MP3.
    
18. Geoff Ryman's "Birth Days"
19. * John C Wright's "Awake In the Night"; download.
    
20. James Van Pelt's "The Long Way Home"
21. * Geoffrey A Landis' "The Eyes Of America"; scifi.com; download.
    
22. Kage Baker's "Welcome To Olympus, Mr Hearst"
23. Robert Reed's "Night Of Time"; May 2003.
    
24. * William Shunn's "Strong Medicine"; Salon, November 10, 2003; download.
25. Dominic Green's "Send Me a Mentagram"; Interzone.
    
26. * Paul Di Filippo's "And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon"; scifi.com; download: Humor?
    
27. Terry Dowling's "Flashmen"
28. Nick DiChario's "Dragonhead"
29. Terry Bisson's "Dear Abbey"

Fact sheet

Editor: Gardner Dozois
First published: 2004
See also: Gardner Dozois's "Year's Best" & "Best of Best" anthology series.