Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection" (2010, anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

Gardner Dozois posted the ToC of the 2010 edition of his long running series in one of the threads of Asimov's Forum a week back, with this caveat: "this is possibly a bit premature, since I've still yet to hear back from an author, but given that it's somebody I've used in the Best before, I'm willing to take a chance." Anthology will contain short fiction first published during the year 2009.
Caution: Asimov's Forum pages have a tendency to vanish after a while. Don't be surprised to find the link above dead if you are reading this page a few months after my posting date.

The number in brackets at the beginning of each entry is the story's serial number in Dozois' original ToC order. This may be useful because of a hunch I have: few modern "best of year" anthologies have more than 2 or 3 stories worth reading, & they tend to be concentrated among the first two, last two, & a few middle entries. Since there are 32 stories, this hypothesis should place the good ones among #1, 2, 16, 17, 31, & 32; let's see.

Table of contents (32 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author, editor, or publisher fetch more matching fiction. Where I'm aware of online copies, I include download links too. My rating is in brackets. Where I have a separate post on a story or major comments on it in a larger post, link on story title goes there.

1. [07] Paul McAuley's "Crimes and Glory" (B); download; Subterranean Online, Spring 2009; space opera: A man is smelling something fishy in a "good" offer of aliens to humanity...
2. [01] Robert Charles Wilson's "Utriusque Cosmi"; read online (no download); Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2": Not read.
3. [02] Steven Gould's "A Story, With Beans"; Analog, May 2009: Not read.
4. [03] Karl Bunker's "Under the Shouting Sky"; download; Cosmos, #28 (August/September 2009): Not read.
   
5. [04] John Kessel's "Events Preceding the Helvetican Revolution"; read online (no download); Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2": Not read.
6. [05] Maureen F McHugh's "Useless Things"; Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "Eclipse Three": Not read.
7. [06] Bruce Sterling's "Black Swan"; F&SF, (when) 2009 (or is it Interzone, #221?): Not read.
8. [08] Alexander Irvine's "Seventh Fall"; download; Subterranean Online, Summer 2009: Not read.
   
9. [09] Dominic Green's "Butterfly Bomb"; Interzone, #223: Not read.
10. [10] Vandana Singh's "Infinites"; Vandana Singh's "The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet" (coll?): Not read.
11. [11] John Barnes' "Things Undone"; download; Jim Baen's Universe, December 2009: Not read.
12. [12] Jay Lake's "On the Human Plan"; download; Lone Star Stories, February 2009: Not read.
13. [13] Peter Watts' "The Island"; read online (no download); Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (eds)' "The New Space Opera 2": Not read.
14. [14] Lavie Tidhar's "The Integrity of the Chain"; download; Fantasy Magazine, 27 July 2009: Not read.
15. [15] Mary Rosenblum's "Lion Walk"; Asimov's, January 2009: Not read.
16. [16] Jo Walton's "Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction"; download; tor.com; 6 February 2009: Not read.
17. [17] Rand B Lee's "Three Leaves of Aloe"; F&SF, September 2009: Not read.
18. [18] Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear's "Mongoose"; Ellen Datlow (ed)'s "Lovecraft Unbound": Not read.
19. [19] Albert E Cowdrey's "Paradiso Lost"; F&SF, June/July 2009: Not read.
20. [20] Nicola Griffith's "It Takes Two"; Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "Eclipse Three": Not read.
21. [21] Geoff Ryman's "Blocked"; F&SF, October/November 2009: Not read.
22. [22] James Van Pelt's "Solace"; Analog, June 2009: Not read.
23. [23] [novella] Nancy Kress' "Act One"; Asimov's, March 2009: Not read.
    
24. [24] John C Wright's "Twilight of the Gods"; John Joseph Adams (Ed)'s "Federations": Not read.
25. [25] Ted Kosmatka & Michael Poore's "Blood Dauber"; Asimov's, October/November 2009: Not read.
26. [26] Damien Broderick's "This Wind Blowing, and This Tide"; Asimov’s, April/May 2009: Not read.
27. [27] Adam Roberts' "Hair"; Sara Maitland (Ed)'s "When It Changed": Not read.
28. [28] Robert Reed's "Before my Last Breath"; Asimov's, October/November 2009: Not read.
29. [29] Paul Cornell's "One of Our Bastards is Missing"; George Mann's "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction 3": Not read.
30. [30] Chris Roberson's "Edison's Frankenstein"; Postscripts, #20/21: Not read.
31. [31] Ian Creasey's "Erosion"; Asimov's, October/November 2009: Not read.
    
32. [32] Ian McDonald's "Vishnu at the Cat Circus"; Ian McDonald's "Cyberabad Days" (coll?): Not read.

Related.

1. Competing "best short fiction of 2009" anthologies: Horton's, Strahan's.
2. Previous volumes of this anthology series: 2009 edition (#26); whole series (including "Best of the Best" books).
3. Works of Gardner Dozois.
4. All anthologies (annotated but infrequently updated list of anthologies & collections).
5. My "best of 2009" fiction list (includes others' "best of 2009" lists at bottom).
6. "best of" lists.
7. Pre-order this book at Amazon.

Fact sheet.

First published: To be published during the later half of 2010 (in July, I think).

Note: I normally update anthology posts as I read stories, find online links for a story, etc. This post was last updated on 3 January 2010.