Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2011 Edition" (anthology): Annotated table of contents & review

There is nothing still on it on Horton's own blog, but its ToC has been on internet since early this month. I was planning to write this after reading a good number of stories, but the rate at which I'm going suggests I'll find something else interesting long before I'm through!

The anthology collects editor's choice of short fiction originally published during 2010.

Table of contents (28 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author, editor, or publisher fetches more matching fiction. If I am aware of an online copy of a story, I include it too. If I've read a story, my rating appears in brackets. If I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Note the list is in order of my preference (where I've read the stories), rather than editor's ToC order (unread stories are in editor's order).

1. [ss] Peter Watts' "The Things" (A); download text/MP3; Clarkesworld, #40 (January 2010); fanfic: A retelling of John Campbell's "Who Goes There?" from the point of view of the alien.
   
   Also included in my "best of 2010" list. 
2. Carol Emshwiller's "No Time Like the Present" (B); download; Lightspeed, July 2010; butterfly effect: Immigrants have arrived from a dark future. 
3. [ss] Adam-Troy Castro's "Arvies" (B); download; Lightspeed, #3 (August 2010); horror: An extreme form of slavery. Very dark story.
4. [novelette] K J Parker's "Amor Vincit Omnia" (B); download; Subterranean Online, "Summer" (July-September) 2010; fantasy: What's most threatening to authority, government? A citizen who's beyond the government's power to hurt!
   
   Caution: Initial parts use far too much of ... is it Latin? I don't know the language, but almost gave up. Those funny words cease to be an issue once the story picks up.
5. Charles Yu's "Standard Loneliness Package" (B); download; Lightspeed, #6 (November 2010); brain dump: Outsource your pain, for a price!
6. Amal El-Mohtar's "The Green Book" (C); download; Apex Magazine, 1 November 2010; fantasy: Cannot make out the head or tail of it.
   There is a magical impossible-to-destroy notebook ("The Green Book") that can be used to chat with some dead - you write something, they write back! And some sort of sinister organization called "Sisters" that apparantly killed the dead you chat via the notebook & ominous implication they'll get to you too for having read their secret.
7. Charlie Jane Anders' "The Fermi Paradox is Our Business Model"; download; Tor.com, 11 August 2010: Not read.
   Note: Tor.com site seems to be down today. 
8. Paul M Berger's "Stereogram of the Gray Fort, in the Days of Her Glory"; download; Fantasy Magazine, 21 June 2010: Not read.
9. Damien Broderick's "Under the Moons of Venus"; download; Subterranean, Spring 2010: Not read.
10. C S E Cooney's "Braiding the Ghosts"; Mike Allen (ed)'s "Clockwork Phoenix 3": Not read.
11. Alexandra Duncan's "Amor Fugit"; F&SF, March/April 2010: Not read.
12. Willow Fagan's "The Interior of Mr. Bumblethorn's Coat"; download; Fantasy Magazine, 11 October 2010: Not read.
13. Neil Gaiman's "The Thing About Cassandra"; George R R Martin (ed)'s "Songs of Love and Death": Not read.
14. Elizabeth Hand's "The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon"; Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio (eds)' "Stories: All New Tales" (read first 4 stories online): Not read.
15. Samantha Henderson's "The Red Bride"; download; Strange Horizons, 5 July 2010: Not read.
16. Matthew Johnson's "Holdfast"; download; Fantasy Magazine, 6 December 2010: Not read.
17. Alice Sola Kim's "The Other Graces"; Asimov's, July 2010: Not read.
18. Bill Kte'pi's "Merrythoughts"; download; Strange Horizons, 22 March 2010: Not read.
19. Geoffrey A Landis' "The Sultan of the Clouds"; Asimov's, September 2010: Not read.
20. Yoon Ha Lee's "Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain"; download; Lightspeed, #4 (September 2010): Not read.
21. An Omowoyela's "Abandonware"; download; Fantasy Magazine, 28 June 2010: Not read.
22. Paul Park's "Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance"; F&SF, January/February 2010: Not read.
23. Robert Reed's "Dead Man's Run"; F&SF, November/December 2010: Not read.
24. Rachel Swirsky's "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window"; download; Subterranean, Summer 2010: Not read.
25. Matthew David Surridge's "The Word of Azrael"; Black Gate, #14 (February 2010): Not read.
26. Steve Rasnic Tem's "A Letter from the Emperor"; Asimov's, January 2010: Not read.
27. Gene Wolfe's "Bloodsport"; Jonathan Strahan & Lou Anders (eds)' "Swords and Dark Magic: The New Sword and Sorcery": Not read.
28. Christie Yant's "The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories"; download; John Joseph Adams (ed)'s "The Way of the Wizard": Not read.

Related.

1. Previous volumes in this series: 2010 Edition, 2009 Edition. Next volume: 2012 Edition.
2. Competing "best of 2010" anthologies: Dozois', Hartwell/Cramer's, Strahan's.
3. Fiction originally published during 2010.
4. My "best of 2010" list (links others' lists at bottom).
5. "Best of" lists; "good" fiction; "good" online fiction. 
6. Works of Rich Horton.
7. Short fiction anthologies, collections, magazines (only old pulps); all short fiction.

Credits: ToC here was seeded from oldcharliebrown; then expanded by me.

Note: I normally update list posts like this when I read one of the stories, find a new online link, etc. This post was last updated on 20 December 2011.