All the stories in this collection get a Pretty Good rating in my opinion. They kept me calm and entertained through several gruesome waits in hospitals and emergency rooms. The last story is the first hard sci-fi I ever read about molecular biology. Over my head, of course, but fun and a happy ending. How about that?

With a couple of exceptions, this book is composed of unreadable drivel. The two exceptions, though readable, are insufficiently developed to constitute meaningful reading. All stories appear to be experiments in various attempts to create a new form of exposition. I would consider them failed experiments. Some are just hard to read. Others have uninteresting subjects, and are just plain boring. I'm very much put off at ever buying an anthology from this group ever again, and I would very much recommend that no one waste their time and effort on this one.

The first story in the collection, "The Difference Between Love and Time", is the worst and I did not finish it. It was a fantasy story where the space time/continuum is a person. It was written in little snippets that went nowhere and was decidedly NOT hard SF.

I almost quit reading after that, but decided to give story two, "Maryon's Gift", a try. It was a story of a world that the discoverer wished to be preserved without any human interference, with never a human to enter even the atmosphere. It wasn't fantastic, but it was decent and at least plausible, so I continued on.

The third story, "Goldie", was well written, interesting and actual hard SF. It was a story of a unique sloth-like lifeform on another planet, with a unique ecosystem.

The fourth, "Wine Dark Deep", was just as good as "Goldie". It was a tale of a scientist discovering possible alien life, deep in a cave beneath the ocean.

The fifth, "Lichens", was interesting and well written, but was more fantasy then SF. It dealt with a time traveler going back in time to make a discovery in the future.

The sixth, "Beneath the Surface, A Womb of Ice", was a well written, interesting and definite hard SF story about the dangers of exploring the Martian surface.

The seventh, "Th Ploughshare and the Storm", was set in the far future, and involved humanities descendants. It was interesting, but felt more like imaginative rather than hard SF.

The eighth, "Cloudchaser", was one of the best stories in the collection. It was interesting and exciting, had great characterizations and left me wanting more from this author. It dealt with a unique collector and his efforts to protect his collection.

The ninth, "Critical Mass", was interesting and mysterious, but definitely not hard SF. The ending ruined it for me. It dealt with an artist past his prime dealing with a critic who is mysteriously destroying his art works.

The tenth, "Nonstandard Candles", was complete fantasy, and frankly not that interesting. It was adequate at least. It was a story of the last celestial mapmaker.

The eleventh, "The Abacus and the Infinite Vessel", was great hard SF, great characterization and an interesting story about immigration to Mars.

The twelfth, "Timekeepers Symphony", was interesting and well written, but was more fantasy than SF. It was a multitude of tales, all related in some way to the measurement of time.

The thirteenth, "I Give You the Moon", was a great story about life after humanity has ruined the world, and what they are doing about it. It did a great job of world building, while still leaving things mysterious.

The fourteenth, "A Stone's Throw", was a short, interesting story about two lovers separated onto two asteroids being used to bring humanity to another world. The protagonist is desperate to reunite with his lost love.

The fifteenth and final story, "Communion" was one of the best. It was great, plausible science fiction, with an exciting story. It dealt with spaceship crash and the pilot's AI trying desperately to save the mission and the pilot's life.

Also, the editor, Allan Kaster, makes a point of stating in the intro, "I like stories that push my reader buttons." Maybe this is the reason he included obviously-not-hard-SF stories in a collection of "The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories", he just wanted to push our buttons? I don't think I'll seek out collections by this editor again, but I'll definitely seek out more stories by some of the authors in the collection.

Hard Science Fiction: a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. That is not what we have here.

The first story "The difference between love and time" is a fantasy where the time/space continuum is a person. The problem is that that person is not very interesting.

I tried "Goldie". Somehow better, but, like many science fiction stories nowadays, it has no ending. The story just stops at one point. It could have stopped before, or continued.

Finally tried "The lichens", which sounded like there could be some science in there. Well, that story has in it the worst sin of a time-travel story: anachronisms. It is impossible for a Scottish woman in 1746 to look at lithographs that would not be invented for 50 years, or think that some boots look like moon boots. Also no time traveller would leave in the past artifacts from the present, the ultimate no-no in time travel.

The complier of this collection clearly has different ideas about what hard science fiction is than I have. I read the first story and a few of the shorter stories before giving up.

Some good some okay,some so,so.Overall an enjoyable book with a lot of interesting and entertaining stories.Worth the time to read.