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The Year's Best Science Fiction on Earth 3
This is a collection of the best science fiction stories set on planet Earth published in 2024 by leading authors of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster.“Spill” by Cory Doctorow—Hackers, indigenous people, and environmentalists battle an oil pipeline company.“Vouch for Me” by Greg Egan—A latent virus causes extensive retrograde amnesia in people who survive a flare-up.“Phosphorescence” by Ben Barman Ghan—A botanist and a machinist plot to spoil the plans of the elites for the future of life.“Wápato” by Molly Gloss—A widow manages time’s malleability one step at a time.“The Alice Run” by Nancy Kress—An experimental procedure is used to force a comatose patient back to consciousness.“Breathing Constellations” by Rich Larson—Humans in Argentinian Patagonia seek the permission of orcas to harvest plankton in their waters.“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy—A woman treks across a climate-changed US visiting sites with ghosts created by game engineers.“Eternity is Moments” by R. P. Sand—A woman competes with her cousin for her grandfather’s affection as the Earth dies.“I Am Not the One Who Gets Left Behind” by Eric Smith—A father and son are the last to flee an alien-infiltrated Philadelphia.“This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt—A high school English teacher competes with her students’ tech for their attention while studying Hamlet.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 16, 2025
RATED 85% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE: 3.9 OUT OF 5
10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Allan Kaster is putting out anthologies faster than I can read them. It seems like I just reviewed the first anthology in this series (The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth - 96%). https://www.shortsf.com/reviews/scifi...
This anthology covers stories written in 2024 and shares the same conceit. This is science fiction that takes place on planet earth - for the most part. (Ben Barman Ghan cheats a little bit.). This means will tend to get a bit too much climate change fiction for my taste. I’m sure if I was writing this blog in the 1940s and 50s I’d be whining about too much nuclear apocalypse fiction. I hope that today’s scientific end-of-the-world with be as much science fiction as that one 75 years ago.
I’ll now be hypocritical because me favorite story her is a climate change story. Pat Murphy’s “A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” is a masterpiece and worth the price of the book alone.
Two Stories Join by All Time Great List: https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy copyright © 2024 by Pat Murphy. Great. A beautiful, wistful tale with a great central premise. A scientist who tried - and failed - to prevent climate change rides a bicycle from New York to San Francisco. Along the way, she seemed out ‘ghosts.’ A form of mind altering graffiti that let’s you experience a moment of that place through the senses of a person that was once there.
“Vouch for Me” by Greg Egan copyright © 2024 by Greg Egan. Great. A disease in rampant. Those it doesn’t kill, lose their memories. When a cybersecurity expert’s family is infected, she believes that it won’t be enough to leave yourself a letter, book, or video. She tries to invent a foolproof method of guaranteeing that your information for yourself isn’t coerced or faked.
https://www.shortsf.com
93 Anthologies + 27 Author Collections + 18 Slates of Award Finalists + 3 Magazine Issues + 2 Novel(la)s. Since: January 2020
***
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION ON EARTH 3
10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy copyright © 2024 by Pat Murphy.
Great. A beautiful, wistful tale with a great central premise. A scientist who tried - and failed - to prevent climate change rides a bicycle from New York to San Francisco. Along the way, she seemed out ‘ghosts.’ A form of mind altering graffiti that let’s you experience a moment of that place through the senses of a person that was once there.
“I Am Not the One Who Gets Left Behind” by Eric Smith copyright © 2024
Average. The aliens/monsters/etc are too weak to break into your house, but use the aromas of things you long for to tempt you outside.
“Vouch for Me” by Greg Egan copyright © 2024 by Greg Egan.
Great. A disease in rampant. Those it doesn’t kill, lose their memories. When a cybersecurity expert’s family is infected, she believes that it won’t be enough to leave yourself a letter, book, or video. She tries to invent a foolproof method of guaranteeing that your information for yourself isn’t coerced or faked.
“Eternity Is Moments” by R. P. Sands copyright © 2024 by R. P. Sands.
Average. Vignettes of a girls memory of her grandfather. This same grandfather who is been manipulated for his inheritance.
“Phosphorescence” by Ben Barman Ghan copyright © 2024 by Ben Barman Ghan.
Good. As the global elite debates how to survive ecological planetary collapse, the machinist and the botanist create their own plan that will lead humanity down their prescribed path.
“This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt copyright © 2024 by James Van Pelt.
Good. A teacher in her final year tries to teach Hamlet while dealing with technological changes. Her teaching assistant is using modern data information tools to analyze and critique her methods. Religious exemption laws allow a student to wear contact lenses that shape the world according to his parents religion.
“Wápato” by Molly Gloss copyright © 2024 by Molly Gloss
Average. An elderly widow tends to her aging horse and cranky donkey as ‘familiars’ are noticed around her barn.
“The Alice Run” by Nancy Kress copyright © 2024 by Nancy Kress.
Good. A neurosurgeon runs a sophisticated ai program (with a penchant for Alice in Wonderland) on a comatose woman while shady government figures observe anxiously. Feels like something I could have read in a 1970s anthology
“Breathing Constellations” by Rich Larson copyright © 2024 by Rich Larson.
Good. A beautiful tone piece about communication with orcas through a new communications technology. The orcas aren’t communicating back and no one knows why.
“Spill” by Cory Doctorow copyright © 2024 by Cory Doctorow.
Good. I don’t think this is science fiction, unless some of the technical computer science subjects that I think are current are actually near future. The story is about online data privacy, water protectors who resist an oil pipeline project, and how to privately ‘whistle blow"‘ information. It is a long novella and should either be expanded to a dense novel or edited to a tight novelette. It is readable because Doctorow is a talented writer. At times, I wanted to beg the author to go outside and touch some grass because the tone reverts to teenage TikTok politicking quite frequently. I can’t imagine adults think or talk like these characters.
10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
Allan Kaster is putting out anthologies faster than I can read them. It seems like I just reviewed the first anthology in this series (The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth - 96%). https://www.shortsf.com/reviews/scifi...
This anthology covers stories written in 2024 and shares the same conceit. This is science fiction that takes place on planet earth - for the most part. (Ben Barman Ghan cheats a little bit.). This means will tend to get a bit too much climate change fiction for my taste. I’m sure if I was writing this blog in the 1940s and 50s I’d be whining about too much nuclear apocalypse fiction. I hope that today’s scientific end-of-the-world with be as much science fiction as that one 75 years ago.
I’ll now be hypocritical because me favorite story her is a climate change story. Pat Murphy’s “A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” is a masterpiece and worth the price of the book alone.
Two Stories Join by All Time Great List: https://www.shortsf.com/beststories
“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy copyright © 2024 by Pat Murphy. Great. A beautiful, wistful tale with a great central premise. A scientist who tried - and failed - to prevent climate change rides a bicycle from New York to San Francisco. Along the way, she seemed out ‘ghosts.’ A form of mind altering graffiti that let’s you experience a moment of that place through the senses of a person that was once there.
“Vouch for Me” by Greg Egan copyright © 2024 by Greg Egan. Great. A disease in rampant. Those it doesn’t kill, lose their memories. When a cybersecurity expert’s family is infected, she believes that it won’t be enough to leave yourself a letter, book, or video. She tries to invent a foolproof method of guaranteeing that your information for yourself isn’t coerced or faked.
https://www.shortsf.com
93 Anthologies + 27 Author Collections + 18 Slates of Award Finalists + 3 Magazine Issues + 2 Novel(la)s. Since: January 2020
***
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION ON EARTH 3
10 STORIES : 2 GREAT / 5 GOOD / 3 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF
“A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts” by Pat Murphy copyright © 2024 by Pat Murphy.
Great. A beautiful, wistful tale with a great central premise. A scientist who tried - and failed - to prevent climate change rides a bicycle from New York to San Francisco. Along the way, she seemed out ‘ghosts.’ A form of mind altering graffiti that let’s you experience a moment of that place through the senses of a person that was once there.
“I Am Not the One Who Gets Left Behind” by Eric Smith copyright © 2024
Average. The aliens/monsters/etc are too weak to break into your house, but use the aromas of things you long for to tempt you outside.
“Vouch for Me” by Greg Egan copyright © 2024 by Greg Egan.
Great. A disease in rampant. Those it doesn’t kill, lose their memories. When a cybersecurity expert’s family is infected, she believes that it won’t be enough to leave yourself a letter, book, or video. She tries to invent a foolproof method of guaranteeing that your information for yourself isn’t coerced or faked.
“Eternity Is Moments” by R. P. Sands copyright © 2024 by R. P. Sands.
Average. Vignettes of a girls memory of her grandfather. This same grandfather who is been manipulated for his inheritance.
“Phosphorescence” by Ben Barman Ghan copyright © 2024 by Ben Barman Ghan.
Good. As the global elite debates how to survive ecological planetary collapse, the machinist and the botanist create their own plan that will lead humanity down their prescribed path.
“This Good Lesson Keep” by James Van Pelt copyright © 2024 by James Van Pelt.
Good. A teacher in her final year tries to teach Hamlet while dealing with technological changes. Her teaching assistant is using modern data information tools to analyze and critique her methods. Religious exemption laws allow a student to wear contact lenses that shape the world according to his parents religion.
“Wápato” by Molly Gloss copyright © 2024 by Molly Gloss
Average. An elderly widow tends to her aging horse and cranky donkey as ‘familiars’ are noticed around her barn.
“The Alice Run” by Nancy Kress copyright © 2024 by Nancy Kress.
Good. A neurosurgeon runs a sophisticated ai program (with a penchant for Alice in Wonderland) on a comatose woman while shady government figures observe anxiously. Feels like something I could have read in a 1970s anthology
“Breathing Constellations” by Rich Larson copyright © 2024 by Rich Larson.
Good. A beautiful tone piece about communication with orcas through a new communications technology. The orcas aren’t communicating back and no one knows why.
“Spill” by Cory Doctorow copyright © 2024 by Cory Doctorow.
Good. I don’t think this is science fiction, unless some of the technical computer science subjects that I think are current are actually near future. The story is about online data privacy, water protectors who resist an oil pipeline project, and how to privately ‘whistle blow"‘ information. It is a long novella and should either be expanded to a dense novel or edited to a tight novelette. It is readable because Doctorow is a talented writer. At times, I wanted to beg the author to go outside and touch some grass because the tone reverts to teenage TikTok politicking quite frequently. I can’t imagine adults think or talk like these characters.
Displaying 1 of 1 review