The Best of World SF: Volume 2

The Best of World SF #2

by Lavie Tidhar

Twenty-nine new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The second annual instalment to the 'rare and wonderful' (The Times) The Best of World SF Volume 1, this collection of twenty-nine stories, including eight original and exclusive additions, represents the state of the art in international science fiction.

Navigating around the globe, The Best of World SF Volume 2 features writers from Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Grenada, India, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, The Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Each story has been selected by World SF expert and award-winning author Lavie Tidhar. Taking us into space – Mars at first, then the stars – and then back to a strange, transformed Earth via AI, gods, aliens and the undead, the collection traces the ever-changing meaning of the genre from some of the most exciting voices writing today.

This is not a retrospective of what science fiction around the world used to look like. This is a snapshot of what some of it looks like now. And it's never been more exciting.

Reviews for The Best of World SF
'We need this anthology, and we need editors like Tidhar' The Times
'Just the start of a whole new game for speculative fiction authors around the world' LA Review of Books
'An excellent, lovingly curated collection' Financial Times
'This wonderful anthology should be a hit with any sci-fi fan' Publishers Weekly
'Tidhar gives a cheerful, fannish introduction to the stories, drawn from 26 countries on five continents, and encompassing a dizzying range of tones and approaches' The Times
'An outstanding assortment of international sci-fi shorts… a bold and powerful argument for non-Anglophone SF's potential to push the genre's boundaries.' Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Collections, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

635 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 13, 2022

About the author

Lavie Tidhar was raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has travelled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu.

Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century.

Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist.

Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy.

He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012).

Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie.

His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.

Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011).

Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012).

He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog , and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there.

He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers).

Tidhar lives with his wife in London.

Reviews

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of shorter works (from short stories to novellas) of speculative fiction (the editor hasn’t commented on what SF stands for, but a large share of works are far from ‘science’ as I understand it) from around the world, excluding the US and UK. While the title contains the word “best”, there are stories that have been never published before, those that were not selected by anyone except the editor, so this is primarily marketing. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for February 2023 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group.

Introduction (The Best of World SF: Volume 2) essay by Lavie Tidhar the author informs why he continues to collect not Anglo-American SF works – “Science fiction novels translated into English remain nearly non-existent. The opposite is of course not true – for nearly any other language, translations from English account for fifty per cent or more of all titles, and the figure is considerably higher for science fiction. The average non-Anglophone reader will be well-versed in American literature. The opposite, sadly, cannot be said to be true.” I second the statement, but with a caveat: this historic dominance of English-language SF led to much greater competition within the US/UK SF market and therefore top (not average/random) works from there are often subjectively more interesting. I hope that non-English SF market will continue to develop and such anthologies are definitely helping.
The Bahrain Underground Bazaar (2020) novelette by Nadia Afifi a great start for the book: an older woman with cancer visits a black market to experience recordings of other people’s deaths. A great ‘what if’ from how right now your surfing data are collected. 5*
The Ten-Percent Thief (2020) short story by Lavanya Lakshminarayan reads as a start of a novel: the city is divided into two and on the one side rich ones live, on the other – poor, so poor that they haven’t seen a tree! The thief from the poorest 10% tries to change the status quo. 3*
At Desk 9501... short story by Frances Ogamba the author usually writes fantasy/horror and it is felt: there is a possibility to spend time of your potential life to save others from death (literary following their souls before they enter some door). The protagonist is one of such savers of an insured person, he is not always successful and this complicates his life. 3*
Milagroso (2015) short story by Isabel Yap a protagonist with his family visits his childhood town for an annual feast, where a statue of a saint can create ‘real food’ – a very tasty much maybe not very healthy fruits, while the hero works at a company that produces fake fish. 2.5*
Bring Your Own Spoon (2017) short story by Saad Z. Hossain a story set in the same post-apoc far future with nanotech and djinns as his several novellas (see The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday). A cook cooperates with a djinn to open a restaurant in a poor part of the city. As good as the novellas. 4*
Blue Grey Blue (2016) short story by Yukimi Ogawa an island where local humans are of different colors, like a protagonist, who can turn ultramarine. He falls in love with a collector of blue hues… while I understand that it tries to play cultural appropriation issues, as fiction, the story is the weakest so far. 1*
Your Multicolored Life (2018) novelette by Xing He a piece which can be seen as a homage to older SF – there is a slave mining camp, guarded by robots and a character from there gives us one storyline, while a pampered scientist-revolutionary, served by robots elsewhere in this world – another. Some hints of Chinese party lines, which are similar to USSR party lines in SF about which I know a bit. The ending is appropriate and it raised my rating by 1 star. 3*
The Easthound (2012) short story by Nalo Hopkinson a version of zombie apocalypse, only everyone turns a monster upon puberty. A bunch of pre-puberty kids try to survive. A solid horror story, but I ain’t into horror. 3.5*
Dead Man, Awake, Sing to the Sun! short story by Pan Haitian another zombie tale, only there only poor turn undead to continue to work, which is an interesting social commentary, but here the ending simplified the story, lowering its rating. 3*
Salvaging Gods (2010) short story by Jacques Barcia there are a lot of interesting things to be found on waste dumps to repair. One of them are gods, or at least statues of ones. And some of them are able to grant wishes and do miracles, like the one repaired with the protagonist. A nice mix of SF/Fantasy but feels unfinished. 3.5*
The Next Move short story by Edmundo Paz-Soldán a piece-of-life kind of story set on some colony planet, which starts with a man with a gun getting on a roof and starting shooting random targets. There is no true plot, just look at the past of the murderer, his victims, and security forces to stop him, but it is just another day... I don’t appreciate most of such stories. 2*
The Child of Clay short story by Dilman Dila a robot society, a small village. They recreate by collecting dust balls and them smelting them at a forge-factory. A protagonist isn’t lucky with capturing balls, but wants kinds, she is shunned by other villagers, so she goes to the Tree, a kind of deity (?). a nice setup and an unexpected final twist. 4*
To Set at Twilight In a Land of Reeds (2020) short story by Natalia Theodoridou an older repairwoman, who lost her loved one, visits a rural android (?) Margarita, who supervises agricultural bots and tells them tales. A maudlin poignant story, which while another piece-of-life story, but with much better prose, but nothing really happening. 2.5*
The Beast Has Died (2015) short story by Bernardo Fernández [as by Bef] a steampunk alt-history Mexico, where Napoleon succeeded to install a monarchy there, but Benito Juárez (the real president of Mexico in 1858-1872) is in a prison in the US, near death, but getting ready to surprise all. I like ‘purity’ in my steampunk, so alt-versions of TV sets and even cellphones were a letdown for me. 2*
Twenty About Robots short story by Alberto Chimal a score of brief (half a page) pieces about robots, which reminded me a little of Stanisław Lem's The Cyberiad. 4*
The Regression Test (2017) short story by Wole Talabi a woman is invited to test whether the AI based on her dead mother-scientist mind-patterns is still her. A solid what-if with some action. 4*
Kakak (2015) short story by William Tham Wai Liang a cyberpunk about an android maid running away from abusive owners and meeting another android, who helps such as her. A nice piece, even if a love line at the end doesn’t really fit it. 3.5*
Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love (2020) short story by Usman T. Malik a man goes on a one-way trip to the nearest star in return for comprehensive medical care for his mother and ability to regularly transfer his consciousness to a bot to be with her. An interesting idea but too hazy on details. 3*
A Flaw in the Works (2020) novelette by Julie Novakova a homage to the SF work of a great Czech writer, a first contact but with an unusual ‘our’ side. 4*
When We Die on Mars (2015) short story by Cassandra Khaw Mars colonists are warned at the very start ‘You’re all going to die on Mars.’ What follows is their daily life, getting acquainted with each other stories, a borderline piece-of-life. 2.5*
The Mighty Slinger (2016) novelette by Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord a band of with a Calypso singer titled The Mighty Slinger and The Rovers tries to stand for workers, who are engaged in great construction projects (like a ring around the Sun) against corporations and authorities. To travel between projects they hibernate, often for years or decades, so the story develops over a considerable time. 3*
Corialis (2019) short story by T. L. Huchu a new colony, but this new land hasn’t yet agreed to cohabitate with newcomers. Maybe old practices help? 3*
The Substance of Ideas (2018) short story by Clelia Farris two kids growing up in a kibbutz near a (cursed?) remains of a spaceship, find a lucrative trade with visitors from city, even if it isn’t in line with traditions of their village. 3.5*
Sleeping Beauties (2012) short story by Agnieszka Hałas a woman pilot transfers hibernating prisoners within a Solar system and her backstory. Finally a totalitarian state instead of evil corps plus Christian jihadists. 3.5*
Waking Nydra novelette by Samit Basu is another take on the Sleeping Beauty, but this time from POV of a man, who follows a military woman Captain on a space station where the said beauty can be found. A bit too much mixed in the story, from shapeshifting aliens to soap operas. 2.5*
Between the Firmaments (2018) novella by JY Yang a protagonist is one of the last gods at a place, where invaded blasphemers (humans from Earth?) rule, who they can enslave gods. 2.5*
Whale Snows Down (2020) short story by Kim Bo-Young deep-water creatures see how humanity destroys oceans, a unique cli-fi. 4*
The Gardens of Babylon (2016) short story by Hassan Blasim a future Iraq, which other states (Germany and China are mentioned) have rebuilt. The protagonist is a game designer, who should base his product on 20-21th century Iraqi literature and now he seeks inspiration. 3*
The Farctory (2014) novella by K. A. Teryna a weird piece about a man, who lost his loved one and hides in an imagined world from reality. 3*

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

7+ As I intend my star rating to reflect my personal enjoyment of a book, and not really a standard of 'objective quality' (if that even exists), I think this for me relatively low score can be justified. But at the same time I think everyone interested in international science fiction (so not just from English and American authors) and especially short stories, would do well to read this, as almost everybody will find something to love here, will encounter new authors from possibly unexpected places, and will gain new appreciation of the width of the SF-genre and the questions it can be used to ask (and answer). Just for the initiative of editor Lavie Tidhar to collect 29 short stories from all different countries and from other authors than those in volume 1 this deserves five stars. But as Tidhar explains in his introduction, these stories were not collected based on 'objective quality' but according to his personal taste (and many are from his friends or authors he knew already from his travels around the world). And sadly it just happens that my taste is different from Tidhar's. I had read some of his work in 'Best SF of the year'-collections and found his stories well written, having a great sense of place, using literary devices, but lacking in the clear and wonderful idea's I like SF for. I'm just more of a hard SF-fan, while he likes literary SF that follows in the footsteps of the 'New Wave'. Which is fine, but it means a lot of the stories here are slice of life-stories or dreamlike observations without a classical story structure. Or they use imaginative prose, with lots of weirdness, just to create ambiance (or 'vibes' as the cool kids say these days) without underlying plot. The focus is often on the characters with a lot of them in a melancholy atmosphere, which is great, but in SF that I like I expect a bit of scientific exploration. So no, I did not like all stories in this collection. But! I read all of them and found something to enjoy in most of them at least. They were all interesting windows in other places and cultures, and showed that all cultures imagine the future and share the same dreams and fears. SF is truly a worldwide genre. I also must applaud the way the collection was ordered, with a build up form near future to far away planets and weirdness, and stories often coupled thematically.
So, what were, at least to my personal taste (preferring plot driven stories, and hard SF) the best ones in this collection?
I was blown away by 'The Regression Test' by Nigerian author Wole Talabi, which has a great SF-concept, in which a woman is asked to question an AI copy of her mother, to see if it is still recognizeably her. Well written too, with a great conclusion. I'm glad I already have a short story collection by Talabi on my TBR-pile and after reading this, it rises to the top!
Opening story 'The Bahrain Underground Bazaar' from Nadia Afifi I had read before, but still managed to grip me. It has a great SF-idea at its core but uses that to illuminate a very personal situation. Well written, with well realised relationships between the characters.
'Your Multicolored Life' by Chinese author Xing He didn't have that exceptional prose, but the story about two dystopia's meeting, was well thought out, and the conclusion was well realised.
Nalo Hopkinson adds a tense horror story in 'The Easthound'.
I read a collection of stories by Tobias S. Buckell before, that I enjoyed, and coming from Barbados he is able to deliver commentary on colonialism from the inside out. Here he teams up with Karen Lord for 'The Mighty Slinger' a great SF story about a calypso band playing their songs in a solar system that is quickly transformed. I had a grin on my face the whole time I read this story. It has some great idea's too, like cohorts of people waking one year and then sleeping 25 - and what happens when you miss a shift ...
'Sleeping Beauties' by Agnieszka Halas from Poland is another great hard SF story in a transformed solar system, but here a dystopian dictatorship rules over the outer planets and the protagonist fears their retribution when something goes wrong on a transport. Well written and I was absorbed by this tense tale.
Mexican author Bef plays with steampunk and alternate history in his story 'The Beast Has Died' that is not too serious, plays with chronology and it's clear he had a lot of fun writing this (as I had reading it).
'Bring your own spoon' by Saad Z. Hossain was a fun cyberpunky tale of a grim future world where a cook finds a way to create beauty still ...
Neon Yang's 'Between the Firmament' read like a fantasy story, and I liked it.
Finally, as someone who loves the deep sea and deep sea critters, I must note 'Whale Snows Down' by Korean author Kim Bo-Young. Short, but poignant.
As you can see, even if I do not share the preferences of the editor, there were still a lot of stories here I enjoyed, enough to make buying this book worthwile. If you are interested in SF from all over the world, especially if you like more literary approaches, this is a must read. And as with volume 1 I repeat my hope that a Dutch author will be present in one of these anthologies one day!

[Sam Veltre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC!
Tidhar did an excellent job picking a wide array of stories, as with writing a beautiful introduction chapter. Good mix of voices representing characters all across the sexual and pronoun spectrum.
My per story ratings are below, from skip to 5. The skipped stories I just didn’t vibe enough with to finish but are still good selections.
Nadia Afifi The Bahrain Underground Bazaar - 4
Lavanya Lakshminarayan The Ten-Percent Thief -skip
Frances Ogamba At Desk 9501… - 4
Isabel Yap Milagroso -5
Saad Z. Hossain Bring Your Own Spoon - Skip
Yukimi Ogawa Blue Grey Blue - 2.5
Xing He Your Multicolored Life translated by Andy Dudak - 3
Nalo Hopkinson The Easthound - 3
Pan Haitian Dead Man, Awake, Sing to the Sun! translated by Joel Martinsen - 4.5
Jacques Barcia Salvaging Gods - 3
Edmundo Paz Soldán The Next Move translated by Jessica Sequeira - 3.5
Dilman Dila The Child of Clay - Skip
Natalia Theodoridou To Set at Twilight in a Land of Reeds - 3
Bef The Beast Has Died translated by Brian Price Alberto - 5
Chimal Twenty About Robots translated by Fionn Petch - 3.25
Wole Talabi The Regression Test - 5
William Tham Wai Liang Kakak - skip
Usman T. Malik Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love -5
Julie Nováková A Flaw in the Works- 5
Cassandra Khaw When We Die on Mars - 3
Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord The Mighty Slinger -3.5
T.L. Huchu Corialis - 4
Clelia Farris The Substance of Ideas translated by Rachel Cordasco - 4
Agnieszka Hałas Sleeping Beauties -4.5
Samit Basu Waking Nydra - 4.5
Neon Yang Between the Firmaments - skip
Bo-Young Kim Whale Snows Down translated by Sophie Bowman - skip
Hassan Blasim The Gardens of Babylon translated by Jonathan Wright - skip
K.A. Teryna The Farctory translated by Alex Shvartsman - skip

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice anthology of SF (science fiction) from around the world, showing that SF can encompass viewpoints from around the world and is not solely a western phenomenon or told from the viewpoint of a western person. Stories that I especially enjoyed were by Nadia Afifi, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Isabel Yap, Saad Z. Hossain, Xing He, Nalo Hopkinson, Pan Haitian, Jacques Barcia, Dilman Dila, Bef, Wole Talabi, William Tham Wai Liang, Usman T. Malik, Julie Novakova, T.L. Huchu, Samit Basu and Neon Yang

- "The Bahrain Underground Bazaar" by Nadia Afifi (Bahrain): an interesting story of an old woman waiting to die from cancer. To pass the time, she visits the Underground Bazaar, to be immersed in the memories of people who have died. But one memory she experiences haunts her, and she must find out more about the person involved. The journey of discovery would change her attitude towards her coming death and her relationship towards her son and daughter-in-law.

- "The Ten-Percent Thief" by Lavanya Lakshminarayan (India): like Robin Hood, the thief wants to rob from the rich, who live in a climate controlled environment, to give to the poor, who survive in what remains of Bangalore. The latest thief would involve not money, but a way to give the poor a glimpse of a better world.

- "At Desk 9501" by Frances Ogamba (Nigeria): one man works in a company that 'saves' people on the verge of death by 'donating' life from the workers. But the man begins to have doubts about his life-saving work when he starts to have dreams about the people he has saved, and those that he couldn't, and the dreams start to bleed over into his reality.

- "Milagroso" by Isabel Yap (The Philippines): in a world where lab-grown food has been apparently perfected and replaced our usual food, one man (who helps produce the lab food) brings his family to a festival in his hometown where a food miracle, caused by a patron saint of food, happens. His reaction to the miracle would cause a conflict in his view that manufactured food is good, and our usual food is bad.

- "Bring Your Own Spoon" by Saad Z. Hossain (Bangladesh): in a future where much of the world's environment is hostile to life, a homeless man and a djinn, woken after a long slumber, dream of opening a 'restaurant' for the less fortunate. At first, their dream comes true as people donate food and other items to be cooked by the man. But then, the dream has to end when the corporations who run what is left of the world take notice.

- "Blue Grey Blue" by Yukimi Ogawa (Japan): in a region selling spectacles for people whose eyes and bodies are coloured, one man, whose eyes can become blue from strong emotions, meets a woman who is interested in his eyes. Only later does he learn the reason for her interest in his eye colour when a drastic colour change happens to his colleague.

- "Your Multicolored Life" by Xing He (China), trans. Andy Dudak: a slave and a revolutionary each escape imprisonment by different sets of machines. They meet and find that a land without run by machines is not to their liking. In the end, they exchange lives to try to live in each other's lands.

- "The Easthound" by Nalo Hopkinson (Jamaica): in a world where becoming an adult turns you into a beast, a group of children survive the best they can. But they are always on the watch for one of their own suddenly changing and, as the story shows, it can happen to anybody at anytime.

- "Dead Man, Awake, Sing to the Sun!" by Pan Haitian (China), trans. Joel Martinsen: in a world where the walking dead are a reality, some of the dead want to take over the world, but others just want to 'live' quiet lives, waiting for a chance to make that final wish that would finally release them into actual death.

- "Salvaging Gods" by Jacques Barcia (Brazil): in a future when everything is disposed of, a little girl finds the remains of a computing god and brings it back to life. The god begins to grant wishes, but as in all such stories, it does not end well.

- "The Next Move" by Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia), trans. Jessica Sequeira: on an alien world, a soldier fighting an insurgency snaps and begins shooting at anybody he sees. The next move to stop him would be up to a senior officer and an armed observer in charge of a high altitude weapon.

- "The Clay Child" by Dilman Dila (Uganda): an unusual story about a living robot that wants to create a child. Its attempts to gather enough material to do so always fails. Eventually, it goes to a tree that legend has it gave rise to the robots and asks it for help. The tree would indeed help to give it a child, but perhaps one that the robot didn't ask for.

- "To Set at Twilight In a Land of Reeds" by Natalia Theodoridou (Greece): in a future where sentient machines do the harvest on a farm, one person visits to perform some repairs. As the story shows, sentience has enabled machines to bond with people and to also experience loss.

- "The Beast Has Died" by Bef (Mexico), trans. Brian L. Price: in an alternate steampunk history, Mexico is under the control of European powers and Pablo Benito Juárez García is in exile and dying. But an audacious plan by rebels may save him and allow him to return to liberate Mexico.

- "Twenty About Robots" by Alberto Chimal (Mexico), trans. Fionn Petch: a series of vignettes about robots that may or may not have existed and how they interacted with each other and with humanity.

- "The Regression Test" by Wole Talabi (Nigeria): an interesting story about a woman bought in to test an AI that is supposed to be a replica of her famous dead mother. Her test method would reveal that something is not right; but can she hold on to that fact when she discovers that she is in a trap set up to make her pass the AI as her mother.

- "Kakak" by William Tham Wai Liang (Malaysia): a story of an android maid who runs away from the employer. As we learn the story of why she ran away, as well as the story of another android servant abused by people, you may start to wonder if perhaps the androids are more human than the abusers.

- "Beyond These Stars Other Tribulations of Love" by Usman T. Malik (Pakistan): a man wants to continue taking care of his elderly mother, even as he goes on an interstellar trip. The solution would be mind-bending and soul stretching.

- "A Flaw In The Works" by Julie Novakova (Czech Republic), trans. by author: a ship at the edge of the solar system is contacted by aliens. How to respond would be one problem the two aboard the ship have to consider: the other is how to hide who they really are and the tragic events that occurred on Earth in the recent past.

- "When We Die On Mars" by Cassandra Khaw (Malaysia): a group prepares to go to Mars to prepare it for colonization. Team members gradually drop out until those that are left are ready for what is to come.

- "The Mighty Slinger" by Karen Lord and Tobias S. Buckell (Barbados/Grenada): in a future where humanity has spread throughout the solar system, a plan is being developed that may involve 'wiping' the surface of the Earth clean for 'redevelopment'. But not if the miners and poorer people of the asteroids and Earth can stop it, with the help of a Caribbean singer known for his lyrics that can move the masses.

- "Corialis" by T.L. Huchu (Zimbabwe): on an alien world, humans survive by integrating the bacteria from the world in their microbiomes. But it is not enough to ensure their survival, unless they also give and not just take from the environment.

- "The Substance of Ideas" by Clelia Farris (Italy), trans. Rachel S. Cordasco: two people in a kibbutz on an alien plant explore a derelict spaceship and discover a form of life that appears to give ideas when consumed. It is only later that result of consuming such ideas may not be for the better.

- "Sleeping Beauties" by Agnieszka Hałas (Poland), trans. by author: a pilot on a spaceship transporting sleeping bodies for a dictatorship looks back on his life. But a tragedy happens on the ship and, in a final twist, it leads to a realization that his choices have been made in vain.

- "Waking Nydra" by Samit Basu (India): a story where the legend of Sleeping Beauty, as retold over the ages, appears to come true in a rescue mission to a space station that was attacked by alien beings.

- "Between The Firmaments" by Neon Yang (Singapore): on a world where gods have been enslaved, and their powers abused by the conquerors, one of the few remaining free gods hides as a labourer. One day, he meets another god and their relationship blossoms in secret. But it would all end when the conquerors need a new god to finish their work. Now the god must decide whether to fight to save his world.

- "Whale Snows Down" by Bo-Young Kim (South Korea), trans. Sophie Bowman: deep sea denizens wonder at what is happening to the world above them when large quantities of food looking like snow start to rain down. Perhaps it is the end of a world?

- "The Gardens of Babylon" by Hassan Blasim (Iraq), trans. Jonathan Wright: a strange, wandering story of a man assigned to translate an old story into an interactive game.

- "The Farctory" by K.A. Teryna (Russia), trans. Alex Shvartsman: in a world slowly being leached of reality, a man searches for answers in the Farctory. But what he finds instead is a race through a made up world to get to the truth of what is happening to the world and what he has to do to be reunited with the one he loves.

[Kab · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Bahrain Underground Bazaar" by Nadia Afifi ★★★★★
"The Ten-Percent Thief" by Lavanya Lakshminarayan ★★★
"At Desk 9501" by Frances Ogamba ★★★
"Bring Your Own Spoon" (reread) by Saad Z. Hossain ★★★★★
"Blue Grey Blue" by Yukimi Ogawa ★★★½
"Your Multicolored Life" by Xing He ★★
"The Substance of Ideas" by Clelia Farris ★★½
"Between the Firmaments" by Neon Yang ★★
"The Farctory" by K.A. Teryna ★★½

[Antti Värtö · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was perhaps a bit better than the first volume, but there were still unacceptably many stories that felt like they were the first or the second draft instead of a final, polished story.

But let's not dwell on the negative; there were still many good stories here. My favourites were:

Nadia Afifi: The Bahrain Underground Bazaar. Old lady dying of cancer experiences other peoples' deaths in an immersion booth. One of those experiences is extraordinary and it becomes an obsession with her. Short, but with well-rounded characters and interesting-enough worldbuilding. It hit the emotional notes right - a strong start.

Saad Z. Hossain: Bring Your Own Spoon. In a poisonous future a boy and a djinn open up a restaurant. This is set in the same universe as many Hossain's novels. I haven't read them yet, although they have been on my TBR for a while now. This short story made me bump the novels up in the TBR list: I liked this quite a lot, even if the ending of this one was also rather sudden.

Dilman Dila: The Child of Clay. The story combined folklore and SF in a pretty novel way, and the ending came as quite a surprise.

Natalia Theodoridou: To Set at Twilight in a Land of Reeds. The story was melancholic, but perhaps a tad too sentimental to my tastes. Not bad, though; there were lots of details that appealed to me, like how the harvester robots were intentionally made to look cute so that wouldn't appear threatening, or how the sky above the city was turned into a giant videoscreen.

Wole Talabi: The Regression Test. This was perhaps my favourite. A woman needs to check if the upload of her mother has drifted too far from the original to be called the same person. Even the ending managed to keep the story together.

Cassandra Khaw: When We Die on Mars. Slice-of-life story about the first Mars colonists, as they are preparing for their departure. It was nice, but ultimately rather forgettable.

Clelia Farris: The Substance of Ideas. Couple of kids in a space kibbutz discover an addictive substance and sell it to townspeople. The trouble is, the substance gives people new ideas, and some of them are violent. A growing-up story, and a rather good one at that. My Glorious Friend in Space.

Kim Bo-Young: Whale Snows Down. This was a fun little story about the death of humanity, as seen from the vantage point of deep sea. I might grumble about some things: the deep-sea creatures had a bit too good understanding of the surface, the giant typhoon was unplausible and felt like it was inspured by the junk science behind The Day After Tomorrow - but I liked the story enough not to mind too much about these details.

K. A. Teryna: The Farctory. Wonderful ending for this collection; this was Weird fiction at it's finest. The "real world" started to almost make sense by the end of the story, while the cardboard world was described in eerie detail. I got strong Grant Morrison -era Doom Patrol flashbacks: I felt like I was reading "The Empire of Chairs" again for the first time.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you netgalley for the early e-copy.

The trouble with reviewing mixed-author short story anthologies is that you're not always going to like every story, especially in one as eyes-on-the-prize as Lavie Tidhar put together here. This is a very, very personal collection, much more-so than I believe his introduction gives himself credit for. Each story is prefaced with a short description of his reasoning behind a story's introduction, and many of these are collected from author's published works that Tidhar chose rather than commissioned.

All of this is good, wonderful even, but Tidhar's interest in science-fiction is not mine. His is a world of aesthetic beauty, where I want depth; he wants to find meaning in tangible objects like food or colour or grand world-building while I want meaning in ideas and conflict and history. I respect that, of course, but it made working through this collection much harder realizing that I wasn't just going to occasionally be out of my comfort zone but almost every story would be at odds with me.

My favourite stories in this collection are almost exclusively the ones translated from other languages and written specifically for this anthology. Your Multicoloured Life, The Beast Has Died, A Flaw In The Works, Sleeping Beauties, The Gardens of Babylon: they all felt fresh and purposeful and full of ideas in a way that American science fiction glosses over. The Bahrain Underground Bazaar, the opening story, might be the best of the entire collection, as it not only has a sense of space and scale, but it is *about* something, about death and suicide and guilt. This is kind of science fiction white English/American science fiction drowns the voices out. It's honest.

Moreover, I will admit that I did fall for some of Tidhar's aesthetic interest in Yikimi Ogawa's Blue Grey Blue, which in my opinion fails to garner the sympathy and message out of its story, but succeeds at being just very, very good with such brevity and purpose.

All that being said, I disliked a lot more than I liked, and the absolute nadir of this Between the Firmaments by Neon Yang. Poorly written, no focus, and wordy; lost in a thesaurus and full of ill-placed "I did not want to know his truth" (pg. 363) neologisms that do not mean anything. The setting was fine, but for all its Elevated Science Fiction tone, it was utterly meaningless. Not even fun action meaningless: no ideas, just vibes.

Others were less egregious, but bored me. I'm not surprised. Tidhar admits in his introduction that this will not be a traditional best-of anthology, "[a] more usual one simply reprints those stories, printed throughout the previous year, which the editor deems the best for their own personal reasons" (pg 8). So I respect what he has put together, but in the end, as a reader, I wish that it *had* been more traditional. I wish we could have seen World Science Fiction beyond what becomes clear in his story introductions are stories by his friends in various countries -- "If I am to offer a (however skewed) vision of what international SF looks like today" (pg 8) -- It all felt a little slapdash, much like this review.

However, I will say that I will now seek out volume 1. I love science fiction in translation; Tidhar notes that "for nearly any other language, translations from English account for fifty percent or more of all titles, and the figure is considerably higher for science fiction. The average non-Anglophone reader will be well-versed in American literature. The opposite, sadly, cannot be said to be true." (pg. 8). That is why work like this is important, and why even a negative review wants me to give this a much higher rating than I normally would. There's a lot of good here. Just skip the bad.

[Simms · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthwhile read, but not an especially enjoyable one, if that makes any sense. A bit of an "eat your vegetables" kind of book, where I knew I was getting positive things out of it (different perspectives, different settings) but didn't really like many of the stories. I was really hoping to uncover new authors to dive into, but of the two best stories, one ("The Easthound") is by Nalo Hopkinson, who needs no discovery, and the other ("The Beast is Dead," a terrific little alt-history number) is by an author, Bef (a.k.a. Bernardo Fernández) who doesn't seem to have very much, if at all, available in translation. So that was a bust, although I guess it will spur me to actually get around to reading Hopkinson.

One big problem with the collection: it's just too long, over 600 pages, and by the end I was just a little fatigued with it. It didn't help that perhaps the two longest stories, Neon Yang's "Between the Firmaments" (a novella, really) and K.A. Teryna's "The Farctory," come 4th from last and last, respectively, and to be honest I didn't have the stamina for them and skipped the bulk of each. Neon Yang is highly regarded in SFF circles so I feel like I probably missed out on something there, but I just couldn't anymore by that point. This is already Volume 2 of this "Best of World SF" business -- cut it down a little, it doesn't hurt to save some material for a Volume 3.

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of short stories. Each story had a brief description on why the editor chose it and it's history. I am not a big sci-fi reader but I like to tip my ties into the world to sample some great stories. This one didn't disappoint me as it seem to have something for everyone's taste. It's a great book to find new authors or to help you would out what type of sci-fi books you like. I also like trying the different styles or writing. Obviously when testing the waters I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others but I read and experienced each and every one. I misunderstood the title I thought world would of ment our world meaning dystopia style stories. However this book focuses of writers from all over the world including some translated stories. There were plenty of stories to sample and silly me didn't write down the titles or the ones that were my favourites. I thought the book was heavy on the artifical intelligence stories though. I really liked my sci-fi stories set in space and those write about Mars. The book worked and flowed well. I like the way the author set them into loose sections based on type of story. This would recommend this book to those new to sci-fi and those looking to find new authors. What's good is you can always try a sample of the book from retail sites to see if this book is a perfect fit for you. I especially loved the first few stories.
So much praise goes out to the editor and publishers for putting together this collection of stories. I'm hoping there is another book but fingers crossed it is organised into sub genres so I can find my best type of SCI-FI stories as this would help others to find their niche market.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavie Tidhar does a service by providing science fiction from all over the world, not just a single country or region. As with the first volume, this second one has a number of stories appearing here for the first time in English.

Translation is always an issue for wide dissemination of literature, both in genre and non-genre fiction. There is much more material being translated into English now, and it's great to get these viewpoints from around the world.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Enjoyed the majority of these SF short stories - refreshing to read through the pens of authors from a non American or British perspective. Whilst I recognised a couple of notable authors I have now got a list of new SF authors to look out for.
(Have got Vol 1 on reserve at local library)

[jengagonewrong]

A collection of very interesting stories. My favourite was whale snows down, a post-apocalyptic story told from the perspective of deep-sea anglerfish. I also liked the Bahrain underground bazaar, at desk 9501, and dead man awake, sing to the sun!
-oh, and the Farctory!

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply magnificent. This is essential reading for all SF fans. I feel my mind has truly been broadened by travel amongst the minds of these brilliant and inventive writers from across the globe. Can't wait to read the other volumes (I'm getting them for Christmas!)

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a World's Best but a best of the World. In other words it is the opinion of the editor and many of those included are friends of her's or favorites. What it does include is authors who are not well known or read in English but are well known in their home countries.

My problem with this volume (and I only read half of it) was that so much was home based that the stories and references meant nothing to me. If you don't relate to the background of the stories you lose too much of the basis for the story.

Maybe some notes at the end of the stories would make this volume better.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This type of collections is an excellent way to discover new sci-fi gems and new to me authors. There's a lot of fascinating and gripping story, Lavie Tidhar did an excellent job in selecting this hidden gems and this authors.
Some stories are more on the experimental side, some more classic. All of them are well done.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what? This book was such a joy to read, so many stories, and many of these it was a discovery to get to know a new author, yes I will take more notice of some of the names in this book and actively search for more books and more stories, and to make things better, you have stories from people from all world from all the backgrounds, from Brazil to Iraq, I think I never had read a story from a Korean sci-fi author.

Actually in this book I didn’t skip stories, so I can say that actually this one is one of the best short stories collection, of course I did like some better than others, but I think that has more to do with personal experience or if the story had more to do with fantasy than sci-fi, (i don't really care for fantasy stories, even thou Mr. Tidhar tried to chose only sci-fi, sci-fi is really vast, it can go really far).

We have stories that talk about death, life, colors, food, space, is as deep as the ocean... From the top of my head I really did love one about young kids trying to survive, and they know that when they grow they will become dangerous to the younger ones, there's also a story that people die but are still “alive” so about zombies, hahah there’s gods found in the middle of the garbage and if assembled right, can make your wishes true, an office that sells life in exchange of less years of life of his employees, yeah a bit for everyone. I could share a list of the story names and authors, and if requested I will share.

But I really recommend this book, this is one of the best anthologies of short stories I have read this year, I really congratulate Mr. Tidhar, the stories he chose make sense together.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.

[Chad Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

I have loved science fiction since I was a small child. It is the genre I return to most often. It's also a genre that I step back from when I feel it gets a little too same-stuff-different-book.

This book gave me a real appreciation for the ideas and nuances that people around the world bring to science fiction. The stories are interesting, and the book wends its way through ideas and tropes. I tend to dip in an out of short story collections, and this one was no exception. But I realized rather quickly that this collection is one I will enjoy completely.

Loved this book and the fresh perspective it brings.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of a "Best of" makes me think maybe the stories included are the "best of the rest" that didn't quite make it to the first volume... Not so with "The Best of World SF: 2". The opening story raised the hairs on my arms, and they didn't settle down for the entire book. This collection includes some truly remarkable imaginations, excellent writing, great characters, and a whole heap of brilliant stories.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

[John Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've said many times that I love SF, ever since my teens. Recently I've tried re-reading some old SF. I decided to try this new SF anthology. It's time to admit, I'm not a SF fan, however, I'm a fan of a very narrow type of SF. Exciting, full of grand ideas, stories that carry you along in a rush. In a word, most of A.E. Van Vogt's stories.
There are about 29 stories in this book,filling about 600 pages, so this is a heavy duty read. Many are translations from other languages.
It's a pity that the first few stories seemed to be set in dystopian situations, which meant that I put the book down for a while. I've picked it up from time to time in the month since I borrowed it, and certainly there were some stories I liked. Robotics was a favourite SF genre for me, and some of the stories about robots were interesting.
There was one sad example of a politically influenced story - authoritarian regime. The story had potential except for that.
There were stories that started well, but petered out. One in this category was about space travel, which is also one of my favourite SF topics, but again, the story did not fulfil its potential.
I haven't finished the last few stories, and I'll return this tomorrow on its due date.
I won't downgrade this book excessively. It's been 60 years since I started reading SF, and surely I have changed in that time. Of course, the world, and particularly technology, has also changed dramatically. It was disappointing that there were few stories predicting some kind of scientific advance. I liked some of the stories, and other people may like many more.

[books4chess · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's easy to tell when a world is roused. Cyclones, earthquakes, lightning, drought, anomalous happenings. The omens are obvious. Harder to spot is the subtle build-up, for worlds lie in deep time and are slow to anger. If the universe is a clock, they are the hour hand and our lives are measured by the tock of the second hand. Most of us have forgotten how to read the lay of the land. Our ears are deaf to the voices in the wind, the soles of our feet numb to the gentle nudge of the soil we trudge upon, our hearts closed to the soul-song upon whose notes life and death flit."

I. love. Sci-fi. I love how as a genre, it can explore the absolutely bizarre and far-fetched, but it can also challenge the status quo much closer to home by reframing the norm as the abnormal. This collection of 29 short stories, carefully collected from all over the world and translated into English - span an entire range of of topics - from space and robots to capitalism, humanity and death.

"I don't toucher her. Not all places are intended for company. Some agonies you chart alone, walking the length of them until you've domesticated every contour and twinge".

Nearly every single tale, for me, masterfully captivated me. From exploring what it means to be free, observing humanity from the perspective of almost everyone except humans, I applaud Tidhar for proactively seeking non-English language tales in a field that is saturated by English-speaking authors and really appreciate the opportunity to discover so many new authors through a single anthology. I took notes and most certainly will seek out these authors for more.

"I allow it, thinking peace, for the first ancestors of any land are born out of self-sacrifice for the sake of the future. The living, and the dead are but part of a continuous present, separated only by an illusion."

I devoured the majority of these stories - granted, I skipped two - and find myself continuing to reflect on them months past finishing them. I took my time finishing this book as it felt like a rich resource I didn't want to deplete in a single week, and I stand by this decision. These stories are an ode to translated literature, to exploring not only new genres but new cultures and challenging our preferences. Prior to this collection, I wouldn't have said I liked robot stories, but after? Sign me up!

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc. I applaud this selection of short stories and eagerly await the (hopefully) third release.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh gosh, this took me a very, very long time to read. Two reasons for that. The first is simply lack of time, the past few weeks were kinda difficult. And the second reason is that I didn´t enjoy this as much as I hoped.
In collections of short stories, it´s normal to see a whole range of likeability. I mean, you will surely find some gems, some that you like a lot and some that you don´t like at all. Sadly here there are a lot of average stories, which didn´t really encourage me to frequently come back to this collection.

But instead of focusing on these not-the-best stories, I´d like to say a few words about the brilliant ones.
First, I would like to recommend a story from the Philippines about food. Sounds horrible, right? But what the story is pointing out is much, much worse. If you have a look at the present world you will see that we don´t have enough land on which we can safely grow real food for always growing population. Scientists have been working for decades on alternatives. We might quite soon be all fed on ready mix containing all the necessary ingredients. Real food might become too expensive and extremely rare. This story is about what might happen with society, and with people when this scenario becomes a reality. Bloody scary.
Two stories from China are worth your attention too. They explore the topic of freedom in a very concerning way. Before you read these stories please do a bit of research about totalitarian country and how Chine uses technology to control its citizens. Creepy and real !!!!
Brazil - why do people throw out gods and what happened then? Sounds weird? Maybe, but this one is worth your time as well.
And finally, even though robots aren´t my thing, this story from Czech Republic is really awesome. We slowly handle ourselves to AI and robots. What if... they decide to conduct a human genocide? This idea sounds ridiculous, right? It´s impossible and stupid. Well, read this story and then we can talk.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book - the concept of collecting stories from different parts of the world sounded great. And how the editor put them into themes and played with putting stories on similar topics next to each other was really cool.
The issue is that the stories were kind of ... meh... This is in no way "The Best of World SF" - this is more of a diversity showcase. And it's not because I am spoiled by USA sci-fi, I am Russian and I read a lot of non mainstream sci-fi from Russia and Eastern Europe. And even that one region has generally better authors and stories than what was in this anthology.
What it reminded me the most were amateur sci-fi competitions that used to be popular in the Russian part of the internet let's say 10 years ago. The organizers would declare a theme ("first contact", "what if dinosaurs were still alive", etc) and whoever wants to participate would write and send a story. And then authors would read and rate each other's stories. Sometimes accomplished authors visited the competitions and participated anonymously (and yeah, they often won). Majority of the stories would have _something_ good, but would be weak overall. Cool character, but no plot. Nice world, but the main hero is totally forgettable. Nice writing style, but no suspense.
The quality of the stories in this anthology is on average better than in those competitions, but still they suffer from the same issues. The story starts great and then gets nowhere. Cool ideas are introduced and then never explained and kind of get forgotten. Endings are often rushed.
It would be cool if instead of asking for new stories for this anthology, the editor collected winners of local sci-fi prizes, for example. I really believe that good sci-fi authors exist in every country, but this anthology either didn't find them or didn't collect the best of their works.

[WorldconReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Best of World SF: 2" contains 29 thought provoking speculative fiction stories from around the world. (Many of them translations.) It is a tribute to the editor that some of these stories will already be familiar to readers of the various science fiction/fantasy magazines. Although many of these authors in this collection may not be well known names in the West they are all serious and successful authors.

Personally, I have a preference for hard core science fiction that focuses on science and tech while including a healthy dose of adventure. However, the most satisfying stories have a some new concept (e.g., uniquely alien alien society, etc) that make one take a step or two back and ponder. Nearly each of these stories came from a sufficiently different cultural background that I was constantly on my toes adjusting to the new ideas, challenges, and even ways of thinking. This book was less casual entertainment and much more a truly philosophical mind journey.

I recommend this collection for people that enjoy speculative fiction and wish to broaden their perspective on the world.

I thank the editor and publisher for graciously providing a temporary electronic review copy of this collection.,

[pastiesandpages - Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

29 stories from around the world. It's a mixture of translated fiction and tales written in English and provides a contemporary snapshot of the themes that are currently dominating the science fiction literary landscape.

If you like science fiction and want to experience it from different viewpoints from cultures across the world then this is the anthology for you and with 656 pages there's plenty here to keep any reader entertained.

Not every story hit the mark. In fact, a couple of them I found quite confusing and was unsure what was going on but the vast majority were very enjoyable.

Particular shout out to Nadia Afifi who opens the collection with a wonderful novelette 'The Bahrain Underground Bazaar' which is a futuristic and emotional start with an old woman with cancer going to a black market to experience recordings of other people's deaths. It's not as bleak as it sounds and really delves into technology and memory in a meaningful way.
Another favourite was 'Bring Your Own Spoon' by Saad Z. Hossain, involving a post apocalyptic future with nanotech where a cook opens a restaurant for the poor with the help of a djinn. Very incentive.

All the SF tropes can be found in this collection and everyone will have different favourites. Good quality overall.

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another interesting collection of international science fiction edited by Lavie Tidhar. I love how many different countries and languages are represented in this collection, and how wide the range of types of stories are. Not every story worked for me, but I still really enjoyed the experience. If you're interested in reading what is being done across the globe in SF, definitely pick this up!

Content Warnings:
illness, injury, suicide, death, death of a family member, graphic violence, mass murder, genocide, gun violence, body horror, rape, police brutality, trauma, worker exploitation, poverty, prejudice, depression, enslavement, imprisonment, cannibalism, animal death, mental health issues, bombing, infertility, grief, loss of bodily autonomy, bullying, caregiver burnout, family separation, ecological disaster, war, addiction, toxic relationships, plague, torture, fanaticism, colonialism

[Shaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars

Over all, this anthology was continually refreshing in its variety and included many interesting stories from around the world. It was great to be reading stories that did not all have the same US and UK commonalities. There were a few stories that really didn't work for me, a few that I just didn't get, but most were memorable.


I particularly liked bring your Own Spoon by Saad Z Hossain, will have to read more works in this setting. Likewise The Ten-Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan intrigued me enough that I intend to read the collection of the same name which I hope is a mosaic novel. And although it was very short and I wished it had been better connected, Twenty About Robots by Alberto Chimal was a bunch of snapshots about robots that I found entertaining.

[R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A year ago, I wrote this about the first volume:
“The anthology contains a mix of material that ranges from average to very good. The SF in the title is a misnomer. Speculative fiction is much more accurate.”

Ditto for this volume, except that the number of stories that are average to meh is twice that of the very good ones.

[Indi Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the range of stories and mix of authors! My thanks to the editor.

Some of the stories stay with me, especially the last one. The protagonists are fish on the deep sea floor, in a snowstorm (it's all the same), lovingly communicating by light.

[Aaron Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't feel like I enjoyed this collection as much as Volume 1.

Standouts for me include the following:
The Bahrain Underground Bazaar - Nadia Afifi
The Regression Test - Woke Talabi
Your Multicolored Life - Xing He

There were others I enjoyed but I think these represent the best in my opinion.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather dark, with grim endings. Not my cup of tea.