Ellen Datlow is one of the leading anthologists in SF and fantasy. She has been nominated for the Hugo Award for best editor and has won the World Fantasy Award. In Vanishing Acts she has gathered together an extraordinary group of stories, including a long novella by Ted Chiang (whose last story won the Theodore Sturgeon Award for Best Story of 1998), that cohere around the idea of endangered species -- interpreted to include in some cases the human race. This book may be the best new SF anthology of the year.