The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven

First Law World #- Two's Company

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor), Alyssa Wong (Contributor), Catherynne M. Valente (Contributor)

Jonathan Strahan, the award-winning and much lauded editor of many of genre’s best known anthologies is back with his 11th volume in this fascinating series, featuring the best science fiction and fantasy. With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.

Contents
Introduction by Jonathan Strahan
The Future Is Blue / Catherynne M. Valente
Mika Model / Paolo Bacigalupi
Spinning Silver / Naomi Novik
Two's Company (The First Law Universe) / Joe Abercrombie
You Make Pattaya / Rich Larson
You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay / Alyssa Wong
A Salvaging of Ghosts (Universe of Xuya) / Aliette de Bodard
Even the Crumbs Were Delicious / Daryl Gregory
Number Nine Moon / Alex Irvine
Things with Beards / Sam J. Miller
Successor, Usurper, Replacement / Alice Sola Kim
Laws of Night and Silk / Seth Dickinson
Touring with the Alien / Carolyn Ives Gilman
The Great Detective (Cwmlech Manor #2) / Delia Sherman
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home / Genevieve Valentine
Those Shadows Laugh / Geoff Ryman
Seasons of Glass and Iron / Amal El-Mohtar
The Art of Space Travel / Nina Allan
Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) / Caitlín R. Kiernan
Red Dirt Witch / N. K. Jemisin
Red as Blood and White as Bone / Theodora Goss
Terminal / Lavie Tidhar
Foxfire, Foxfire / Yoon Ha Lee
Elves of Antarctica / Paul J. McAuley
The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight / E. Lily Yu
Seven Birthdays / Ken Liu
The Visitor from Taured / Ian R. MacLeod
Fable / Charles Yu
Honorable Mentions: 2016 -- essay

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

546 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2017

Reviews

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Note: I received a copy curtesy of Netgalley and Solaris / Rebellion Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

The tales feature a large and varied range of sub-genres and styles: standard and hard SF, space opera, dystopia, alternate history, steampunk, magic, retellings of fairy tales, etc. Some of the stories can be read for free online, I linked them in my review for a taste of the collection. Below, each of the stories rated with its own stars and a few words of each, trying to avoid spoilers.

The Future is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente - 4+/5★
A dystopian short story in the form of an allegory, about global warming destroying the world and what remains of life after that.
L.E. Included by the author in the collection with the same name: The Future Is Blue.

Mika Model by Paolo Bacigalupi - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
Even if the subject of the robots' humanity has been plenty developed in Asimov’s Robots, Bacigalupi did a great job reiterating it.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 4.5/5★
Intended seemingly as a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, it gets far from the original, but the writing is magical, the female lead is strong and clever and cunning, and it has good teachings.
L.E. Transformed into a full length novel: Spinning Silver.

Two’s Company by Joe Abercrombie - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
Nice little piece, with sarcasm, gore and plenty of laughs.

You Make Pattaya by Rich Larson - 3.5/5★
A con man being conned by a better con :D clever twist. I would have probably rated it higher but for the language/jargon that kind of killed my reading pleasure: I had to look so many terms that it really fractured my reading..

You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay by Alyssa Wong - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
A boy of the desert, necromancers, a sweet love story in the wild west - the 2nd person narration is magically enthralling.

A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard - 5/5★ (Read it HERE).
Superbe writing, interesting subject: a touching space opera, where the spaceships are sentient entities, and the people onboard scavenge in space for gems that are much more than just jewels.

Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory - 3.5/5★
Whoa, this was kind of crazy, in a high way :)) Hänsel and Gretel mixed with a hint of SF and lots of drugs.

“Maybe, just maybe, it had been a mistake to paper the walls with edible drugs.”

Number Nine Moon by Alex Irvine - 3.5/5★
During an evacuation from Mars, things don't go as planned - well written, real-seemingly characters, but I couldn't stop comparing it to The Martian..

Things with Beards by Sam J. Miller - 2.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
An alien story (?) with a man who misses time and finds himself in some pretty weird situations.

Successor, Usurper, Replacement by Alice Sola Kim - 2/5★ (Read it HERE).
It did not manage to really grip me because of the jerky rhythm; on the other hand, the characters are well written and there were some good philosophical reflections.

Laws of Night and Silk by Seth Dickinson - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
A fantasy story about two rival nations fighting over water rights with magic and abnarchs feral children with huge magic powers

"[…] seal a few of their infants into stone cells. They grow there, fed and watered by silent magic, for fifteen years. Alone. Untaught. Touched by no one. And on nights like these their parents decant them for the war."

My big problem: this should be a full length novel; as it is, everything is new (world, people, magic, names, conflicts) and 70% in, you still struggle to understand it all and when you finally reach the end.. you want more!

Touring with the Alien by Carolyn Ives Gilman - 4/5★ (Read it HERE).
A story about aliens that landed their ships on Earth and use human translators (abducted some 20 years or so ago, for exactly this purpose) to secretly communicate with the government. It kind of reminded me of Story of Your Life (the story on which the movie Arrival was based on), especially the ships, that seem to be taken from the movie. Even if it lacks action, I found it interesting and it poses some interesting question about conciousness and life experiences.

The Great Detective by Delia Sherman - 3+/5★ (Read it HERE).
A steampunk story with Welsh flavours, set in 1880s' London, includes both a detective story and a ghost living in an automaton fighting for mechanicals to have rights, although there are no discussion about laws or ethics. This is kind of a sequel to The Ghost of Cwmlech Manor (it can be read on its own without any problem), but the timing unfortunately doesn’t add up, as 19 years passed since (1861->1880), but they aged only 2-3 years (Tacy was 16-17 and now is 18-20)..
I really liked the Sherlock implications :)

Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
It starts as a colonization story of Themis, a planet of Proxima Centauri (very funny this first part, I snorted a few times), but develops in something completely different – all is in fact a beta testing of a VR game, with unknowing convicts as the subjects – I simply loved the twist!

"The sun’s different than back home—they told us about particles and turbulence on the way over and I was too stupid to understand it and too afraid to tell them, so just pretend I explained and you were really impressed."

The whole story is written in epistolary form (letters or reports of the colonization crew, which I very much liked), and it poses some good questions about VR/gaming and especially ethics.

Those Shadows Laugh by Geoff Ryman - 2.5/5★
An utopian society of women who reproduce by parthenogenesis – wow, the description sounds exactly as if we were talking about Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. Unfortunately, besides the ‘borrowing’ of the theme, it seemed to me that the author used the whole story for long descriptions, causing me to lose interest several times. What I did like was the tackling of issues like desire, gelosy, ownership of things and persons.

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar - 3.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
An interesting mix of fairy tales and feminism, packed in a beautiful narration.

The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan - 3.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
Apart from the astronauts, not really SF-ish and clearly not about space travel, being more of a psychological/sociological work, about relationships and family and dreams, with a predictable but ok ending.

Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) by Caitlín R. Kiernan - 1.5/5★
Two girls running after one of them commited something awful. I don’t really understand why this was added to the collection - ok, they are followed by something strange, but really? just that? no explanations, no nothing, why bother?

Red Dirt Witch by N.K. Jemisin - 5/5★
Excellent story about segregation, obtaining of civil rights and liberation of black people, all under the umbrella of a fantasy with herbalist witches and dreamers/voodoo people.

Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss - 3/5★ (Read it HERE).
An interesting mix between a kind of Cinderella fairytale and fiction during WWII, set somewhere in CE Europe; although I found it rather naive in some places, it has some interesting turnabouts.

Terminal by Lavie Tidhar - 4+/5★ (Read it HERE).
A psychological work, powerful and emotional, about loneliness, grief, hope, love wrapped in a story where cheap single-person shuttles are heading for Mars for a kind of colonization.

Foxfire, Foxfire by Yoon Ha Lee - 4+/5★ (Read it HERE).
This was one of those stories that are both strange and very good, with a shapeshifting fox in a fantasy/SF setting.

"The ability to instantly absorb someone’s skills by ingesting their liver had made me lazy."

I definitely need to read more stories from Yoon Ha Lee, especially as this story seems to be part of a universe / series.

Elves of Antarctica by Paul McAuley - 3/5★
Global warming combined with elf-runes mystery in a static setting, not very impressive and the mystery is never revealed.

The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight by E. Lily Yu - 3/5★ (Read it HERE).
A fairy tale that isn't really a fairy tale, although it involves dragons, knights, witches and spells.

Seven Birthdays by Ken Liu - 4.5/5★ (Read it HERE).
I truly enjoy Ken Liu’s writing. The first part is oriented mostly on family and psychology, the second is much more hard sci-fi, focused on technology and space.

The Visitor from Taured by Ian R. MacLeod - 4/5★
Set sometime in the future, when classic paper-printed and non-interactive books are viewed as an eccentricity, this story is a mix between a romance and a mystery based on the Visitor from Taured subject.

Fable by Charles Yu - 5/5★ (Read it HERE).
A powerful and moving story about a father describing his life to a psychologist as a fairy tale allegory.


Overall, a total rating of 3.71, rounded up to 4 stars. I enjoyed this collection very much and I heartly recommend it to fantasy and SF lovers.

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My, my ... what an ANTHOLOGY!!!

On the whole, there seemed to be many more SF stories than fantasy, but that is pretty representative of the field, maybe? In any case, it's not really a complaint; I loved the stories that were selected for inclusion.

Some of my very favorites?

Bacigalupi's Mika Model gave an awesome execution to an idea we have seen before. I loved how he made it so new again! The man is a master at short works.

Novik's Spinning Silver was ephemeral. It actually felt like 2 stories, rather than 1. I love her lyrical style!

Larson's You Make Pattaya was so much fun! It's about a grifter working in Thailand, and an opportunity of a lifetime that presents itself. One of the best of the best, this one.

Alyssa Wong had a wonderful western short story, about witches of all things! A snapshot of the human condition, I suppose, in a most brilliant sense. Only, with a very unusual backdrop.

I'll pick one more to highlight: Seth Dickinson's Laws of Night and Silk. If I could give this one story ten stars, I would. The book more than pays for itself, with the inclusion of this precious, MOST precious blue diamond, atop an already gorgeous corona.

As an anthology, it's the best one I have read since Dozois's 2016 Best Of annual collection (and I admit, I'm completely biased when it comes to Mr Gardner Dozois).

Wonderful. A great balance, even though I'd have been a tad bit happier with a couple more fantasy stories. Still, a PERFECT anthology. Not one complaint. That fantasy comment? A mere QUIBBLE. IF that!

Thank you to the publisher for the review eARC!

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly high amount of 5 star stories in this one - I found some new favorites! If it hadn't included so many horror stories without telling me which ones would be which in advance, it would have been 5 stars. Please give people who don't like horror some way to avoid those in the future!

The Future is Blue, Catherynne M. Valente ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Brilliant dystopian story set on a artificial island made of garbage swimming on a future Earth covered in water. Gorgeous writing! 😍)
Mika Model, Paolo Bacigalupi ⭐⭐⭐
(Android story that retreads the familiar theme of "what makes someone a person?" but I felt iffy about the constant horny sexualization of the android by the POV character.)
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Did you like the novel Spinning Silver but didn't like the ending/the romance? Do you wish Miryem had chosen a healthy future instead? This novelette on which the novel was based has a different ending I liked much better!)
Two’s Company, Joe Abercrombie ⭐⭐⭐
(Amusing, somewhat crass fantasy story about how two fighters meet, have sex and team up, but probably works better if you know these characters already.)
You Make Pattaya, Rich Larson ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(SF thriller story on the theme of sex tourism that grew on me after I thought about it for a while.)
You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay, Alyssa Wong ⭐⭐⭐
(Very well written horror/dark fantasy story, but horror is just not my thing.)
A Salvaging of Ghosts, Aliette de Bodard ⭐⭐⭐
(Prequel to "The Tea Master and the Detective" that tells the story of how the sentient ship was discovered, melancholy, focusing on grief and letting go.)
Even the Crumbs Were Delicious, Daryl Gregory ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Funny SF story about a gay drug dealer couple who adopt two runaway kids.)
Number Nine Moon, Alex Irvine ⭐⭐
(SF story about an illegal salvage operation on Mars that goes wrong: not sure why but I didn't really feel anything for these characters, they didn't convince me.)
Things with Beards, Sam J. Miller ⭐
(Horror story that wasn't badly written, but I hated the message and unrealistic world-building. Who believes that all police stations in the whole country could evacuate completely, including all bathrooms and holding cells, within 5 minutes? If you've ever been a large company's fire drill supervisor, you know how laughable that is. And no, it's not healthy to simply "accept that we are all monsters" and to embrace your own darkest homicidal impulses. 🙈)
Successor, Usurper, Replacement, Alice Sola Kim ⭐⭐⭐
(Fun dark fantasy story with a college dorm feel. Probably great for younger readers, but I couldn't relate very much and the characterization seemed uneven/contradictory in some places.)
Laws of Night and Silk, Seth Dickinson ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Wow, this was special! High fantasy story set in a very unique world that I don't want to spoil. Great writing, made better by great audio narration.)
Touring with the Alien, Carolyn Ives Gilman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Fun peaceful alien invasion of Earth story with a surprise ending (that didn't quite work for me). Still pretty good!)
The Great Detective, Delia Sherman ⭐⭐⭐
(Steampunk story about automatons, treads old ground I've read before, Mycroft Holmes plays a part, continuation of a previous novelette I hadn't read. Some historical inaccuracy not explained by the steampunk elements, but it still had some charm.)
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home, Genevieve Valentine ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Unique idea, great execution: SF story with plot twist that tackles some big themes I don't want to spoil here.)
Those Shadows Laugh, Geoff Ryman ⭐⭐
(Interesting, but the female main character never felt convincingly female to me, some squicky sexual parts that were probably (hopefully) intended to be squicky... I didn't quite get the overall "why" of this story or what the point was. And why was sexuality equated with "original sin"??)
Seasons of Glass and Iron, Amal El-Mohtar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Beautiful, enchanting fairytale that I enjoyed a lot, almost 5 stars.)
The Art of Space Travel, Nina Allan ⭐⭐⭐
(A story about a girl looking for her unknown father, there was no need to include any SF elements, though.)
Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9), Caitlín R. Kiernan ⭐⭐
(Another horror story, well-written but not my thing.)
Red Dirt Witch, N.K. Jemisin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Goosebumps! Jemisin in high form, don't miss this one!)
Red as Blood and White as Bone, Theodora Goss ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(A fairytale set in WW2 and (later) under communism? One that is moving, evocative, and gorgeous? It works perfectly and I loved it.)
Terminal, Lavie Tidhar ⭐⭐⭐
(A melancholy SF tale that worked very well in terms of writing and dialogue, but didn't convince me in terms of realistic world-building. Maybe it was wrong of me to expect that: it's clearly meant to be whimsical and poetic (and is, very poetic!) and my mind is too logical and pedantic to fully appreciate it.)
Foxfire, Foxfire, Yoon Ha Lee ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(This one is a Japanese-inspired fantasy tale set in the future, about a monster who falls in love with their victim. I didn't really understand the world-building but it was very enjoyable anyway.)
Elves of Antarctica, Paul McAuley ⭐⭐
(SF story mostly about climate change, lots of info-dumping but cool science. Didn't grab me.)
The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight, E. Lily Yu ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Now I want to be a witch, too! Great fantasy story about dragon-slaying witch in a bad relationship. Loved that the story's (and main character's) compassion also fully encompassed the villains.)
Seven Birthdays, Ken Liu ⭐⭐⭐
(Good old-fashioned hard SF, but too much telling for my taste, along with an occasionally unrealistic voice for the 1st person narrator: "I run. [...] Like Aeneas pursued by Juno’s stormy rage." is a 7 year old child speaking - right!!)
The Visitor from Taured, Ian R. MacLeod ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Hard SF story on the parallel worlds theory, with a melancholy love story. I really liked it.)
Fable, Charles Yu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(So funny, moving and unique! I adored this one. It's modern life seen through a fantasy lens. Will you be a hero?)

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls · Rating 3 out of 5]

The annual anthology, this year including the following stories:

The Future is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente - 3/5 - Valente is such a good writer she can make Cli-Fi enjoyable
Mika Model by Paolo Bacigalupi - 4/5 - Bacigalupi is much better when he focuses on a good idea, such as this one, instead of eco-shaming his readers, as in The Water Knife
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - 4/5 - Rapunzel as a money-lender
Two's Company by Joe Abercrombie - 4/5 - a female twist on Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser
You Make Pattaya by Rich Larson - 3/5 - con men of the future
You'll Surely Drown Here if You Stay by Alyssa Wong - 2/5 - like if Stephen King write Blood Meridian
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard - 2/5 - reality diving?
Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory - 5/5 - like if PKD had written the Big Lebowski
Number Nine Moon by Alex Irvine - 2/5 - like The Martian, but boring and with less profanity
Things With Beards by Sam J. Miller - 3/5 - John Carpenter's The Thing in the age of AIDS
Succession, Ursurper, Replacement by Alice Sola Kim - 1/5 - strangers in the night, exchanging glances
Laws of Night and Silk by Seth Dickinson - 3/5 - when the children cry, let them know we tried
Touring With the Alien by Carolyn Ives Gilman - 3/5 - on the road again
The Great Detective by Delia Sherman - 2/5 - steampunk Sherlock
Everyone From Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine - 2/5 - Games people play
Those Shadows Laugh by Geoff Ryman - 2/5 - feminist utopian throwback
Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar - 2/5 - it's gotta be the shoes
The Art of Space Travel by Nina Allan - 3/5 - Back at Ground Control, there is a problem
Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) by Caitlín R. Kiernan - 2/5 - one-paragraph story, but it's one LONG paragraph
Red Dirt Witch by N.K. Jemisin - 4/5 - southern civil rights story told with fantasy elements
Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss - 4/5 - Fairy-tale style fantasy set in an imaginary pre-WWII European country
Terminal by Lavie Tidhar - 2/5 - long, ponderous, boring
Foxfire, Foxfire by Yoon Ha Lee - 2/5 - fox on the run
Elves of Antarctica by Paul McAuley - 3/5 - Elfstones of Shantarctica?
The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight by E. Lily Yu - 2/5 - no good deed goes unpunished
Seven Birthdays by Ken Liu - 3/5 - that's a lot of candles
The Visitor from Taured by Ian R. MacLeod - 4/5 - when worlds collide
Fable by Charles Yu -3/5 - is ordinary life really so ordinary?

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: 28 stories spread over some 600 pages, no novellas this time. There is something in it for everyone and I recommend buying it. This year, Strahan seems to love fairy tales - with five of them included, it was a bit too much for my taste. Overall quality was better than last year's, though. As with nearly every anthology, you probably won't like each and every story, but there are gems in it, some of them outstanding. Many of the stories are available online, but if you're like me, I'm not willing to hunt down the best of them and just let Strahan lead my way.

On a personal note, I didn't like the inclusion of horror stories at all - I don't like them or even hate them. It would be fair at least to mark the story's genre such that I could simply skip them. At least, this time only two such stories where included.

Outstanding stories were

Foxfire, Foxfire • SF&F crossover novelette by Yoon Ha Lee
Laws of Night and Silk • High Fantasy short story by Seth Dickinson
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home • SF short story by Genevieve Valentine

Contents:

17 • ★★★★ • The Future is Blue • dystopic SF novelette by Catherynne M. Valente • review
39 • ★★ • Mika Model • SF short story by Paolo Bacigalupi • review
53 • ★★★ •  Spinning Silver • Fairy tale Rumpelstilchen retold by Naomi Novik • review
81 • ★★★ •  Two’s Company • First Law fantasy short story by Joe Abercrombie •  review
101 • ★★★★ • You Make Pattaya • Near Future con-man short story by Rich Larson •  review
117 • ★★★★ • You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay • Weird novelette by Alyssa Wong • review
143 • ★★★+ • A Salvaging of Ghosts • SF short story in Xuyan universe by Aliette de Bodard • review
155 • ★★★ • Even the Crumbs Were Delicious • Hänsel und Gretel turned to SF short story by Daryl Gregory • review
173 • ★★★ • Number Nine Moon • Hard SF short story by Alex Irvine • review
195 • ★ • Things with Beards • Weird short story by Sam J. Miller • I didn't get at all what this story was about, couldn't get into it
209 • ☆ • Successor, Usurper, Replacement, Alice Sola Kim • Horror - didn't read
227 • ★★★★+ • Laws of Night and Silk • High Fantasy short story by Seth Dickinson • review
247 • ★★★ • Touring with the Alien • First contact SF novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman • review
281 • ★★+ • The Great Detective • Steampunk novelette by Delia Sherman • review
317 • ★★★★+ • Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home • SF short story by Genevieve Valentine • review
343 • ★★+ • Those Shadows Laugh • Geoff Ryman • review
369 • ★★★ • Seasons of Glass and Iron • fairy tale short story by Amal El-Mohtar • review
385 • ★★★ •  The Art of Space Travel • SF novelette by Nina Allan • review
417 • ☆ • Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) • Caitlín R. Kiernan • I despise horror. For those that like that genre, this story might also be pointless. Especially within an anthology called "Best SF and Fantasy of the Year" - this story doesn't contain SF, nor fantasy at all. Just (one? or) two girls on a road trip after having shot an elderly couple.
429 • ★★★★+ • Red Dirt Witch • Urban Fantasy short story by N.K. Jemisin • review
449 • ★★ • Red as Blood and White as Bone • Fairy tale novelette by Theodora Goss • review
471 • ★★★ •  Terminal • SF short story by Lavie Tidhar • review
487 • ★★★★★ •  Foxfire, Foxfire • SF&F crossover novelette by Yoon Ha Lee • review
509 • ★★+ • Elves of Antarctica • CliFi short story by Paul McAuley • review
527 • ★★★ • The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight • fairy tale shor story by E. Lily Yu • review
543 • ★★★★ • Seven Birthdays • SF short story by Ken Liu • review
561 • ★★★★ • The Visitor from Taured • SF novelette by Ian R. MacLeod • review
585 • ★★★ • Fable • Fairy taleish metafiction short story by Charles Yu • review

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

~4.5

2016 may not have been a barrel of laughs, but it did produce some quality scifi and fantasy. As always, I found Strahan's collection to be vivid, varied, and thought-provoking. In his introduction, Strahan comments on the absence of general themes, other than a preponderance of climate-change-related dystopias. I was initially struck by how free these stories are of themes of authoritarianism, populism, isolationism, and bubbles, but of course, most of them were written before Brexit, the US election, or the rising tide of populist movements around the world. Even so, I saw a few common themes: stretching the definition of humanity, irrevocability of change, viewing ourselves as monsters, and feminism, as well as a series of folklore retellings whose themes are less easy to categorize.

I adore everything that Yoon Ha Lee writes, and "Foxfire, Foxfire" is no exception. Easily one of my favourite stories in the collection, the story is narrated by a gumiho who seeks to be human and is one death away from the one hundred murders he must commit to achieve his goal. It takes place in a rich world of endless mechanized warfare between a monarchy and rebel parliamentarians, complete with the giant war machines called Cataphracts, tiger sages, and the small gods whose energies power the world. The story explores the definition of humanity and uses the metaphor of the gumiho to express the sense of not quite fitting in either world and of seeking a form to fit one's soul.

Several other stories also stretched the definition of humanity. Paolo Bacigalupi's "Mika Model" is a short vignette in which a sexbot turns herself in for the murder of her owne. If she is a murderer rather than a defective machine, then she is also a person, and who is to be held responsible for her enslavement and torture? While I'm not normally a fan of Sherlock Holmes retellings, Delia Sherman's "The Great Detective" was an exception: I thoroughly enjoyed the steampunk worldbuilding, the Illogic Engines and Reasoning Machines, and even the sly mentions of beekeeping. "Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home" by Genevieve Valentine is a trippy story about the lasting effects of virtual reality, experimentation without consent, and a world that is literally what you make of it. "Terminal" by Lavie Tidhar deals with the titular word in two senses. It is about terminally-ill colonists making a one-way space voyage to a new world. Dreamy and philosophical, it explores what it means to be human through short vignettes of those who choose to make the voyage. The last of the stories exploring this theme, and by far the creepiest, is Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Touring with the Alien", where the protagonist finds herself acting as the bus driver to an alien and its once-human translator. I saw it as a horror story made all the creepier by the protagonist's inability to see it as such, and it definitely opens up questions about helper species and the definition of humanity and consciousness.

Another popular theme was the story that reveals the apparent protagonists as villain or monster. My favourite from this horror-tinged genre was, as usual, Alice Sola Kim. Her "Successor, Usurper, Replacement" is about a group of want-to-be writers writers who meet on a night where "the beast" has been sighted in their area. In the midst of a thunderstorm, a mysterious girl turns up at the door. It is deliciously creepy and comedic, made all the more vivid by her ironic, informal writing style. In Sam J. Miller's "Things with Beards," the monsters are both literal and figurative, from alien beasts trapped in ice to family members who casually spew hatred:

"The horror of human hatred-- how such marvelous people, whom he loves so dearly, contain such monstrosity inside of them."

I loved how he used the horror elements as a metaphor for social commentary:

"Maturity means making peace with how we are monsters."

Seth Dickinson's "Laws of Night and Silk" is radically different, a high-fantasy story about an endless war between rival countries, where each side sacrifices its children to stamp out the evil of the other. It is poignant and thought-provoking and begs the question of what war makes of us. "Spinning SIlver" by Naomi Novik tells the tale of a Jewish moneylender who gets caught up in fairy tale when her boast about turning silver into gold is taken literally. The most interesting aspect to me was the way that the protagonist floats between the protagonist and villain of the story. The narrator of Caitlin R. Kiernan's "Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)" is an unabashed villain, and the story is both colorful and gruesome. Similarly, Rich Larson's "You Make Pattaya" is an entertainingly twisty heist story that is told from the perspective of the thief and takes place in a near-future Thailand.

Strahan notes that many of the stories deal with the impact of global warming, but I saw a broader theme: the irrevocable consequences of our actions and the irreversibility of change. For me, the most memorable such story was "The Future is Blue" by Catherynne M. Valente. The story takes place on a world irrevocably changed by global warming, where survivors live on islands of garbage in a rising sea and want to bring back a past that lives on only in myth and folklore. It is gritty and vivid and twisted and entertaining, with Valente's trademark disturbing notes. Aliette de Botard's "A Salvaging of Ghosts" is a gorgeous, haunting story about a space crew who salvage the remnants of other voyagers, transmuted into precious strings of "gems" of memory and experience, in the weird expanses of deep space. The protagonist is on a quest to very literally recapture her lost daughter's memory through the gems that are all that remains of her. Paul McAuley's "Elves of Antarctica" is a far more straightforward take on the theme. It takes place on a nearly ice-free future antarctic where refugees from the drowned world come to eke out a living. The protagonist becomes fascinated with rune-inscribed "elf stones" and the idea of primacy, that the land will eventually return to its pre-human state when global warming is reversed. A story about change and permanence from a different angle is Alex Irvine's adventure story, "Number Nine Moon"where a group of scavengers are left stranded after the Earth turns from exploration to isolation and cuts support for the Mars base. Nina Allan's "The Art of Space Travel" also takes place in the near future, but the issues the protagonist faces feel very familiar. The protagonist works at a hotel where a group of astronauts are due to stay before heading off to Mars. It is about change, but also about parents, about irresponsible actions and responsibility for the consequences. "The Visitor from Taured" by Ian R. MacLeod is told by a rare student of Analogue Literature--ie, physical books-- in a future where everything has been transmuted into the virtual. Testing the line between virtual and physical, it also explores the idea of alternate timelines, yet another way of changing the unchangeable past. Last, Ken Liu's "Seven Birthdays" is perhaps the most explicit story on this theme. Imaginative yet ponderous, it follows a girl's birthday in powers of seven, testing the boundaries of human and machine and exploring the long-term impact of easy solutions and the human desire to restore what is lost.

A surprising fraction of the stories took the theme of feminism head-on, executed with varying levels of skill. My favourite of the stories with this theme was "Seasons of Glass and Iron" by Amal El Mohtar", a lovely blending of several fairy tales, primarily "The Enchanted Pig," where a woman who betrays her shape-changing husband must wear out seven pairs of iron shoes to get him back, and "The Glass Hill," where a beautiful princess is placed upon the top of a glass mountain and the prince who scales the summit wins her hand in marriage. With lyrical writing and a rather beautiful little love story, El Mohtar explores the double standards and abuse that make the backbone of fairy tales:

"She recalls shoes her brothers have worn: a pair of seven-league boots, tooled leather; winged sandals; satin slippers that turned one invisible. How strange, she thinks, that her brothers had shoes that lightened the world, made it small and easy to explore, discover. [...] Perhaps, she thinks, what's strange is the shoes women are made to wear: shoes of glass; shoes of paper; shoes of iron heated red-hot; shoes to dance to death in.
How strange, she thinks, and walks."

The rest of these feminist stories struck me as rather less well-executed, and most also failed the Bechdel test. "The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight" by E. Lily Yu starts as a rather generic fairy tale about a witch and a knight who brings her on his dragon-slaying quest. The themes were interesting, but I think the message was rather muddled by attempts to explain abusive sexism and by the femme-fatale characterization of the only other female character. I'm not a huge fan of Joe Abercrombie, and sadly, "Two's Company" was no exception. What with the Amazonian warrior traveling with another female until they meet up with a Conan-the-barbarian sort, it's a bawdy, comical tale of warrior-man-versus-warrior-woman, and I feel like that theme got beat to death in the 1960s. Easily my least favourite story in the collection was Geoff Ryman's superficially feminist story, "Those Shadows Laugh." In the story, the Taino women, aka Colinas, are asexual and reproduce through parthenogenesis. Of course, they are universally obsessed with babies--women, naturally!-- and are technologically backward and require the aid--and tourist dollars-- of the "normals." The story is supposedly narrated by a woman, but the possessive male gaze is so strong that I had to keep checking the narrator's supposed gender. I found his alternate history despicable: it is the lessening of a society where women had significant agency into a people he so clearly sees as inhuman, as though lack of sexual desire makes them something "other." But naturally, how would you get a matriarchal society unless you eliminate the men? (Eyeroll.) I admit this struck a nerve, and maybe it will work better for other readers.

Twisted fairy tales seemed to be a favourite this year. Like many of the stories already mentioned, Alyssa Wong's "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay" is a wild fairytale retelling, in this case a bizarre spin on "Cinderella" that takes place in a dusty American Western town that becomes a battleground between the clash of cultures and demigods, life and death. As always, Wong's writing is gorgeously, vividly lyrical. "Red Dirt WItch" by N.K. Jemisin takes place in Alabama during the Civil Rights era, when a fairy queen comes after a local healer and her children. Jemisin turns the fairy kidnapping into a vivid portrait of everyday savage racism and a clear-eyed yet hopeful exploration of civil rights. Daryl Gregory's psychadelic "Even the Crumbs were Delicious" takes place in the world of Afterparty and as with the latter, there are a lot of drugs involved; in fact, the walls are papered with them. It is an odd, comedic, hallucinogenically twisted take on "Hansel and Gretel." "Red as Blood and White as Bone" by Theodora Gos is a story about stories, told by a maid who longs to be in a fairy tale. When a mysterious stranger falls through the door during a snowstorm, the narrator assumes a prince-meets-princess-at-the-ball ending, while the reader is conscious of a wholly different story at work. Possibly my favourite of the fairytale retellings was Charles Yu's "Fable", the last story in the collection. It is a sharp-edged, self-aware tale of a man asked by his therapist to tell his life story in the form of a fable. So he starts again and again, and his own story is slowly revealed in all its pathos and humanity:

"Once upon a time, there was an angry guy, who hated the story he was in."

Yet again, Strahan put together a wonderfully diverse collection. No matter your taste in stories, you're bound to find something of interest in his "Year's Best" collection, and as for the rest, speculative fiction is all about expanding your horizons. If you're looking for a new author or just a new viewpoint, his "Year's Best" collections are well worth a look.

~~I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Rebellion/Solaris, in exchange for my honest review. Thanks!~~

Cross-posted on BookLikes.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan Long & worrisome. I'm always on the fence with Strahan. Our tastes certainly don't always mesh, so he worried me when he went on about celebrating the diversity of the authors, how so many were women, etc. I don't want stories picked because they're by a woman or someone halfway around the world in a 'Best of' collection. I just want well written stories that make good points because that's what I got the book for - The Stories - not the authors. Too often this 'celebration of diversity' is as bad as the lack of it in earlier eras.

I'm not sure if that was the case here. There were a lot of pretty bad stories, but more good ones. Most were worth listening to, but a couple were duplicates from another collection of his. Too many of the stories were remakes of old fairy tales.

“The Future is Blue”, Catherynne M Valente (Drowned Worlds) 2 stars. Kind of an interesting world, but it didn't make much sense. The end was underwhelming. Obviously Valente has never had her nose broken. Seriously, write what you know or at least research it.

“Mika Model”, Paolo Bacigalupi (Slate) 5 stars. The uncanny line has been crossed, sort of. Amazingly well done.

“Spinning Silver”, Naomi Novik (The Starlit Wood) 4 stars. A fairy tale from the moneylender's point of view. Very good.

“Two’s Company”, Joe Abercrombie (Sharp Ends) 3 stars. Fun & funny. Not very fulfilling after the previous two, though.

“You Make Pattaya”, Rich Larson (Interzone 247) 3.5 stars. Con artist in a grimy future. Interesting tech with a good, if typical story.

“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay “, Alyssa Wong (Uncanny 10, 5-6/16) 1.5 stars. If there was a myth that this updates, I don't know it. I could almost of empathized with the characters if I'd understood it better. As it stands, it seemed like a pointless horror show.

“A Salvaging of Ghosts”, Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 01/03/16) 1.5 stars - see above. Mining unreality seemed kind of cool, but I just didn't get the drug effect or why I'd want to take it. That cut the legs out of the story.

“Even the Crumbs Were Delicious”, Daryl Gregory (The Starlit Wood) 3 stars - Interesting & somewhat comical in a dark way.

“Number Nine Moon”, Alex Irvine (F&SF, 1/16) 4 stars - An escape from Mars which shows a much larger world with a sad, if fairly typical, engagement with space colonization.

“Things with Beards”, Sam J Miller (Clarkesworld 117, 6/16) 1 star. Just seemed like a way to make biracial homosexuality, AIDs, & terrorism acceptable using "Who Goes There?" as a platform. I couldn't care less about the first & the last 2 are just tragic & stupidly tragic. I'm tempted to bump it up a bit since it would obviously send John W. Campbell Jr. spinning in his grave, but it was so poorly done. I read it before & didn't care much for it the first time. After second read, I think it's a waste of time.

“Successor, Usurper, Replacement”, Alice Sola Kim (Buzzfeed, 10/26/16) 1 star. It made no sense, just sort of a weird horror thing.

“Laws of Night and Silk”, Seth Dickinson (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 26 May 2016) 3 stars, barely. Reminded me of LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". Sort of the same premise done with war & sorcery.

“Touring with the Alien”, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld 115, 4/16) 2 stars. Interesting for the ideas about consciousness, but I really didn't get the gal's thinking at the end. From the way the character was built, the final decision didn't make any sense.

“The Great Detective”, Delia Sherman (Tor.com) 2.5 stars. Kind of a weird, steampunk first case for Sherlock Holmes.

“Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home”, Genevieve Valentine (Clarkesworld) 3.5 stars. I don't want to say what it is about, but it's pertinent & I probably would have rated it higher if one of the narrators wasn't so annoying. I'm pretty sure it's Lisa Renee Pitts which is weird because her voice usually isn't grating, but sometimes she uses a voice that's just awful.

“Those Shadows Laugh”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF, 9-10/16) 2 stars. Heavy-handed foreshadowing & just sort of dumb after that. Interesting idea on society & species that a lot more could have been done with.

“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit wood) 3 stars. Fairy tales collide & create something better.

“The Art of Space Travel”, Nina Allan (Tor.com) 2 stars. The reveal at the end was obvious very early on & the rest of it was just kind of interesting

“Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest 125, 7/16) 2 stars. Kind of eerie, but it was too much like another old SF classic.

“Red Dirt Witch”, N.K. Jemisin (Fantasy/PoC Destroy Fantasy) 2 stars. A black (skin color) white (moral bend) Christian witch in the 1950s making a deal with an evil fairy that furthers the cause of combating racism. There was a good point stuffed in there, but I didn't like the narrator (same as before). Given the weird witch & the heavy handed racial thing, the best part was kind of smothered.

“Red as Blood and White as Bone”, Theodora Goss (Tor.com) 3 stars. Another remake of a fairy tale, but a bit more fun. I thought the ending synopsis was a bit much.

“Terminal”, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, 04/16) 1 star. A colonization of Mars that didn't make any sense.

“Foxfire Foxfire”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2016) 3 stars. Another bit of mythology with an old point. Sometimes it's best not to get what you want.

“Elves of Antarctica”, Paul McAuley (Drowned Worlds) 1 star. I remember this from a previous anthology & I didn't care for it much then. Skipped through it this time. No good even in abbreviated form.

“The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight”, E Lily Yu (Uncanny 12) 4 stars. Another retold fairy tale, but better than most. Excellent point with a neat twist at the end. Made me want to read a sequel.

“Seven Birthdays”, Ken Liu (Bridging Infinity) 3.5 stars. A driven woman who managed to work things out the way she wanted eventually, but in such a cool way. Great scenery & thoughts along the way.

“The Visitor from Taured”, Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s, 9/16) 3.5 stars. An interesting love story with a great ending. Great world building, too.

“Fable”, Charles Yu (The New Yorker, 5/30/16) 5 stars. As the father of 3 healthy kids, I've known others who didn't. Wow. Well done. Heart wrenching.

Wrong edition. Mine is an audio version from Recorded books.

I had to go to this site:
https://www.greatwriterssteal.com/201...
to find the table of contents in proper order. Stahan couldn't be bothered to do that even on his site. Jerk. I hate it when I can't find a decent Table of Contents.

[Cameron Sant · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOOK I FINISHED A BOOK

This is the first SFF short story anthology I've read as an adult and easily my favorite short story anthology. Either SFF is the place for me to be or Strahan knows how to pick 'em.

Even a lot of the ones that I did not love either had interesting endings or interesting ideas, and most of the stories I loved. Maybe I'll shout out a few favorites later.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year de Jonathan Straham se está convirtiendo por méritos propios en una de las antologías más esperadas de la literatura de género. Actualmente en su undécimo primera edición, esta obra se basa en una premisa simple: reunir en un volumen anual los mejores ejemplos de la narrativa breve de ciencia ficción, fantasía y terror.

Los numerosos reconocimientos y nominaciones a premios de Straham demuestran que tiene buen olfato para escoger relatos, buscando un equilibrio entre historias de fuerte contenido social, textos de cuidada factura y temáticas muy variadas. El volumen que me llegó vía NetGalley contiene 28 relatos con una misma cantidad de autores que de autoras y, aunque es cierto que Straham es un editor experto y con una trayectoria más que probada, la mayoría de las historias no me han emocionado, aunque tengo que reconocer que el nivel medio de la prosa es muy alto. No se puede decir por tanto que la antología no incluya “buenas” historias sino que a mí, al menos, no me han convencido como esperaba. Mi favorita, y la historia con la que se abre esta obra es “The future is blue” de Catherynne M. Valente que, si todo sale como espero, veamos traducida al español en el próximo número de SuperSonic. Se trata de una distopía fantástica en la que la sociedad vive del aprovechamiento de la basura, algo que además estructura las costumbres sociales, como la adquisición del nombre o la función de cada persona en su comunidad. Solo puedo calificar las ideas como retorcidas, en el sentido de que dan una vuelta de tuerca a conceptos como el bien común o la presión social. La prosa de Valente es poderosa, con hebras de melancolía, y permite conocer la vida de la protagonista sin caer en infodumps, con un ritmo pausado y firme.

Después de la historia de Valente, mis expectativas era muy altas. “Mika model” de Paolo Bacigalupi no me defraudó. Esta historia de ciencia ficción sobre las implicaciones legales del abuso de una sexbot, me hizo pensar en Nieves Delgado y su relato ganador del Ignotus “Casas Rojas”. Aunque el relato de la gallega aborda más las implicaciones éticas de este tipo de androides, también trata sobre sus derechos, que constituye en definitiva el trasfondo de la historia de Bacigalupi.

“Spinning silver” de Naomi Novik es un trasunto del cuento del enano Rumpelstiltskin que a mí no llegó a conmoverme en ningún momento, porque me pareció largo y aburrido.

“Two’s company” de Joe Abercrombie es una maravillosa fábula humorística de fantasía épica sobre mujeres guerreras. No solo me ha parecido hilarante sino muy bien escrita, con un ritmo muy bien conseguido y unos personajes femeninos alejados de los clichés de este tipo de género, más ricos y llenos de matices. Muy recomendable.

Rick Larson se lanza con “You make Patayya” a la exploración de cómo las nuevas tecnologías y las redes sociales pueden ser manipuladas para cometer diversos tipos de crímenes. Es un relato bien construido y con ideas interesantes e ingeniosas.

Alyssa Wong es una autora que se está convirtiendo por méritos propios en una habitual en las compilaciones de lo mejor del año. “You’ll surely drown if you stay” reinterpreta el mito de los seres que cambian de forma, en este caso, de los licántropos, y lo enriquece en un escenario alejado de los urbanos a los que nos suele tener acostumbrados. Me pareció un tanto largo para mi gusto, pero disfruté con esta historia.

“A salvaging of ghosts” de Aliette de Bodard es una estupenda historia sobre las relaciones familiares, concretamente la relación madre-hija, enmarcada en una misión espacial personal de la protagonista. Quizás no tenga el calado especulativo de otros trabajos de Bodard, pero a mí me ha resultado extraordinariamente emotiva.

“Even the crumbs were delicious” es una deliciosa historia de fantasía urbana del siempre eficaz Daryl Gregory que trata con humor el tema de los alucinógenos comestibles. Siempre es de agradecer el humor inteligente que este autor es capaz de presentar en un relato que critica sutilmente aspectos de nuestra sociedad.

Por su parte, Alex Irvine presenta en “Number Nine Moon” una aventura de supervivencia ante una serie de catástrofes que sufre una suerte de cuadrilla de cazadores de tesoros. Si bien es siempre de agradecer el tratamiento de la resistencia humana ante la adversidad, no considero que se trate de una historia con nada especial que destacar.

Sam J. Miller es un autor que con “Things with beards” ha sido incluido en varias de las listas de nominados a diversos premios. Ofrece una visión alejada de lo convencional del tema de los ladrones de cuerpos alienígenas, utilizando personajes homosexuales pero, aparte de este punto, su historia no me ha parecido aportar nada nuevo ni en cuanto a ideas ni a tratamiento de la temática.

Alice Sola Kim propone en “Successor, Usurper, Replacement” una situación a medio camino entre el terror clásico y la fantasía urbana con un relato bien hilado y repleto de buenas ideas que hará las delicias de los lectores.

“Laws of Night and Silk” de Seth Dickinson presenta una historia de fantasía épica que explora las relaciones entre padres e hijos y el sentido del deber. Me ha sorprendido gratamente el tratamiento del autor de un subgénero con el que no consigo conectar normalmente.

Tengo que reconocer que “Touring with the alien” de Carol Ives Gilman me ha gustado mucho porque, aunque narra un escenario bastante parecido en un primer momento a la película La llegada, tiene un desenlace que me ha asombrado e impresionado y, además, creo que está muy bien escrito.

“The Great Detective” de Delia Sherman es una propuesta steampunk enmarcada en el universo Holmesiano, con premisas interesantes pero que a mí francamente, no ha terminado de engancharme y, además me ha parecido excesivamente larga.

Aunque “Everyone from Themis sends letters home” de Genevieve Valentine parece tratar el tema de la colonización de planetas lejanos, en realidad se inscribe dentro del ciberpunk con una trama en la que se aborda la ética y la legalidad.

Geoff Rhyman firma “Those shadows laugh”, una historia que recuerda inevitablemente a Herland de Charlotte Perkins Gilman, pero que en esta ocasión no consigue ofrecer con éxito una historia feminista. Creo que esta era la intención del autor pero, en realidad, la trama no es más que una historia de amor lésbico sin calado especulativo.

“Seasons of glasss and iron” de Amal El-Mohtar aparece también en muchas de las listas de trabajos nominados a premios de este año. Puedo comprender que suscite interés porque se trata de una metáfora sobre el maltrato a las mujeres en el ámbito doméstico, pero no ha conseguido despertar mi interés en ningún momento.

Nina Allan es la autora de “The art od space travel”, un relato muy bien trabajado sobre las relaciones familiares, sobre la ausencia de un padre y la presencia de una figura paterna, y sobre los sueños cumplidos e incumplidos. Como suele ser habitual en esta autora, no todo es lo que parece pero hay espacio para la reflexión. Me ha gustado mucho.

Me ha desilusionado bastante “Whisper road (Murder Ballad No. 9)” de Caitlín R. Kiernan, una autora cuyo trabajo suele sorprenderme y gustarme pero que esta vez no ha conseguido seducirme lo más mínimo con esta historia weird de unos asesinos enfrentados a sus propios miedos.

“Red Dirt Witch” conjuga el buen hacer de N. K. Jemisin con una trama fantástica en la que la magia sirve como excusa para explorar las relaciones familiares y la lealtad.

“Red as Blood and White as Bone” es un relato de Theorora Goss a medio camino entre las fábulas y los cuentos de hadas que no ha conseguido emocionarme o engancharme y que no entiendo muy bien qué hace en esta antología.

Lavie Tidhar está presente en esta obra con “Terminal” con una historia desgarradora sobre el viaje de ida de un grupo de gente a una ciudad mítica en al superficie de Marte. Cada uno a bordo de una nave unipersonal y sumergidos en una situación personal límite, los personajes solo podrán comunicarse entre sí por radio. Tidhar ofrece una narración convincente y trágica en un marco hostil y, al mismo tiempo, majestuoso. Es uno de los relatos que más me ha impactado.

“Foxfire, foxfire” de Yoon Ha Lee recupera un tipo de fantasía de raíces orientales y la moderniza, brindando una historia repleta de aventuras y situada en el espacio. Me parece muy interesante la manera en la que esta autora combina fantasía y ciencia ficción e incorpora la mitología oriental ancestral.

Paul McAuley es otro de los grandes nombres de la ciencia ficción incluido en esta antología. Sin embargo, su historia “Elves of Antarctica” no ha logradpo engancharme y creo que su presencia en esta obra se debe a que es un ejemplo de Cli-Fi (Climate Change Fiction).

“The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight” de E. Lily Yu es una narración fantástica que, a pesar de estar muy bien escrita, tampoco entiendo que se haya incluido en esta antología. Aunque la premisa es atractiva (aborda la transmisión del conocimiento), creo que no llega a lograr su propósito de capturar la atención del lector.

Ken Liu aparece en la recopilación de Straham de la mano de “Seven Birthdays”, una estupenda historia sobre el efecto de la posteridad en las relaciones familiares. Es un relato emocional y emocionante, y muy recomendable.

“The visitor from Taured” de Ian R MacLeod contiene todos los ingredientes que un aficionado a la ciencia ficción puede desear ver en un relato: referencias metaliterarias constantes, teorías sobre el espacio-tiempo, etc. Este es uno de los cuentos con los que más he disfrutado.

“Fable” de Charles Yu es una de las historias que más me han impactado en los últimos tiempos. De nuevo, nos encontramos ante el tratamiento de las relaciones familiares pero, en este caso, concretamente las de un padre y su hijo con necesidades especiales. Sobrecogedor y muy recomendable.

No se puede reprochar que Straham no presente una panoplia amplia de historias en las antologías que selecciona. Tengo que reconocer que los relatos que me han gustado me han parecido excelentes pero el resto, son para mí francamente olvidables. Con esto quiero decir que las historias son, en mi opinión, o muy buenas o mediocres, sin término medio. En cualquier caso creo que The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year de Jonathan Straham es un buen escaparate de lo que se está cociendo a nivel internacional en narrativa breve. No será la última antología de este autor a la que le eche un vistazo.

[Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another anthology that felt super-duper ridiculously long. That being said, of 28 stories there were only 7 that I enjoyed, so I’m giving this collection 2.5 stars.

-You’ll Surely Drown Here if you Stay – Alyssa Wong – This was kind of magical realism story, which I don’t normally like, but I appreciated how dark the story was. Death is very much the key item in this story.
-Even the Crumbs were Delicious – Daryl Gregory – Freaking hilarious! It’s hard to describe this story, but essentially is about a guy whose roommate he believes to have died because he hasn’t been home in over 2 weeks. So, he decides to throw a big party in his remembrance where all who are invited get to partake in the dead roommate’s job. Which happens to be making drugs that can be licked off the wall like wallpaper. Yeah, trust me, there’s no way to explain this story without it being confusing.
-Touring with the Alien – Carolyn Ives Gilman – A man is adopted by aliens that are sentient but not self-aware. This was an interesting story that really makes you question what the term “alive” really means. An alien invasion may also be in the future.
-Seasons of Glass and Iron – Amal El-Mohtar – A folklore type of tale where a princess is trapped a top a glass hill, while another has to wear out 7 pairs of iron shoes before she can break the spell on her bear by day man by night husband. A story on choosing our own destinies, and finding friendship in the unlikeliest of places.
-Terminal – Lavie Tidhar – About a fleet of personal-sized ships for people to go to Mars, on a one-way trip.
-The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight – E. Lily Yu – Another folklore type of story where a woman becomes a witch, and in goes about trying to fix problems for people. Essentially a story about how you can’t carry someone through life or they will never be strong enough to carry themselves.
-Seven Birthdays – Ken Liu – 7 birthdays from the same girl from the age 7 to age 823,543, as the author shows how our struggles as humans never go away, because we are human. A constant redoing of putting minds in computers and imagining that we are really all just simulations and don’t know it. This might have been my favorite of the collection.

All-in-all, not a bad collection, but did feel to me to steer more towards fantasy than sci-fi, which really put me off. I was surprised that there were as many fantasy stories I liked as I did, but most likely I won’t read further collections within this series.

Received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was feeling a 3 star read until about half way in. The quality level per story picked up from there and pushed it firmly into 4 star for me. Several writers whose work I will be checking onto from now on. A Good Read.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time rating an anthology so good in parts, and so awful in parts. Ultimately, I highly recommend reading most of this book, and skipping a few stories. While there were a few awful stories, the vast majority were lovely, and the book is worth reading for the many many beautiful stories.

Must Read:
There were so many great stories in this book. The vast majority of the rest of the stories, I adored. That said, here's a few favorites. They are truly inventive, beautiful stories.
- The Future is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente
Everything I read by Valente is so inventive and creative. I love this exploration of coping in a world destroyed by climate change. It's a wildly interesting world she has created.
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
It's so rare to have a fantasy world or sci-fi world that envisions Jews as part of their fantastic or their future! A delight of a story
- Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine
This subject matter should be boring by now, done to death (not going to say what, so as not to spoil it the twist). Yet someone, Valentine presents a new, emotional twist.
- Red Dirt Witch by N.K. Jemisin
I don't have words. This was such a beautifully written story. What it means to come of age, dealing with racism and a crappy world, the meaning of hope, and family.

Skip:
- You Make Pattaya by Rich Larson
A mediocre story which is transphobic and extremely objectifying of women.
- Those Shadows Laugh by Geoff Ryman
This story is trash. Terrible writing, sexual assault that several characters immediately write off as "not actually assault", abuse of the racist trope of sexy, exotic "generic tropical indigenous women", a white author writing people of color as "not quiet human". No redeeming qualities.

Maybe Skip:
-Mika Model by Paolo Bacigalupi
I think explorations of "is the AI a person" are really interesting. However, I'm tired of "is the female sex-bot a person". It's fairly well written, it's just a trope I'm bored of.
The world often treats human women like sex-bots, and so it always feels to me a bit like a story using this trope is passing judgement on the humanity of women. Why is the story of "is the female sex-bot a person" separate from "is the AI a person" necessary? Why is it a story only men write? As a trope, it always feels objectifying, and this instance of the trope was no better (or worse) than any other of its type.

[Flavia · Rating 3 out of 5]

1 The Future is Blue: 3.75 stars
2 Mika Model: 3 stars
3 Spinning Silver: 4.5 stars
4 Two's Company: 2.5 stars
5 You Make Pattaya: 3.25 stars
6 You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay: 2 stars
7 A Salvaging of Ghosts: 3 stars
8 Even the Crumbs were delicious: 3.5 stars
9 Number Nine Moon: 3 stars
10 Things With Beards: 2.25 stars
11 Successor, Usurper, Replacement: 3.25 stars
12 Laws of Night and Silk: 4.25 stars
13 Touring with the Alien: 5 stars
14 The Great Detective: 2.5 stars
15 Everyone from Themis sends letters home: 3.5 stars
16 Those Shadows laugh: 2.25 stars
17 Seasons of Glass and Iron: 4.5 stars
18 The Art of Space Travel: 4.25 stars
19 Whisper Road(Murder Ballad No. 9): 2.5 stars
20 Red Dirt Witch: 4 stars
21 Red as Blood and White as Bone: 3.75 stars
22 Terminal: 2.75 stars
23 Foxfire, Foxfire: 3 stars
24 Elves of Antartica: 3.25 stars
25 The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight: 3 stars
26 Seven Birthdays: 3.75 stars
27 The Visitor from Taured: 4.25 stars
28 Fable: 4.25 stars
Average: 3.38 stars

[Oriente · Rating 5 out of 5]

Az öt csillag nem a könyv össztartalmának szól, inkább afeletti örömömet fejezi ki, hogy Magyarországon megjelenhet és meg is jelenik egy ilyen antológia. A novellák túl sokféle szerzőt és stílust mutatnak be ahhoz, hogy minden darab mindenkinek tetsszen, de ha a kiadók figyelik a visszajelzéseket, és remélem itt ez is a cél, akkor az ilyen válogatások révén hosszútávon mindenki jól jár ezen a csöppnyi piacon. Mert bizony tudnék bökni többre is e szerzők közül, akiknél habozás nélkül, sőt csillogó szemmel kattintanék az előrendelés gombra.

No de rátérve az én dolgomra: 28 írásról van szó, úgyhogy nem időznék a kellemesen felejthetők, illetve az egy-kukkot-sem-értek-az-egészből novellák felett. Összességében három volt, ami egyáltalán nem tetszett (szerintem remek arány!), ezeket pláne borítsa a feledés homálya. Inkább azokról szólok röviden és spoilermentesen, amelyeket valamiért, ilyen-olyan okból kiemelkedőnek találtam.

Catherynne M. Valente: A jövő színe kék
Tűpontos atmoszféra- és karakterteremtés mindössze néhány oldalon. Professzionális.
Valentével szívesen töltenék fel egy egész polcot itthon!

Joe Abercrombie: Két nő
Még semmit nem olvastam korábban Abercrombie tollából, de ez gyakorlatilag egy nagyon szórakoztató Gyalog Galopp jelenet volt. A regényei is ilyenek?

Aliette de Bodard: Szellemhalászat
Éppen annyira sejtet, hogy még ne őrjítsen meg a világ kidolgozatlansága, de rendesen elkapott a drámaiságfaktor.

Seth Dickinson: Az éj és selyem törvénye
Nagyon egyenes mondanivalóval, nagyon erős képekkel operál. Elegáns, majdnem tökéletes.

Delia Sherman: A nagy detektív
Húztam ám a szám, amikor rájöttem, hogy ez valami újragondolt Sherlock Holmes-sztori, de azt kell mondanom hogy eredeti az új látószög, izgalmas a steampunk hangulat, és ízléses a humora.

Genevieve Valentine: Levelek a Themisről
Ezt nem emeltem volna ki, mert felidegesített a végén előre kellett lapoznom és újraolvasnom az első felét, mert összezavart hogy ez az amúgy is rendhagyó szerkezetű novella a szereplőket hol kereszt- hol pedig vezetéknevükön szerepelteti. És rendkívül ravasz módon a női szereplők vezetéknevei férfi keresztnevekre emlékeztetnek. Ez felesleges gubancolás, éppen elég gubancosan művészi darab ez ilyen megtévesztési trükkök nélkül is. De épp elalvás előtt olvastam, és utána éjjel hosszú és zavarbeejtő álmom volt arról, hogy egy robot vagyok a Kiberiádából, csak nem tudok róla, és senki nem mondja meg az igazat.

Amal El-Mohtar: Az üveg és a vas évszakai
Igen, ez aktuális és kemény téma, ez az "áldozat vagy és ez nyilván a te hibád..."
Kicsit talán túl direkt volt a szimbolika, finomabban is lehet ezt.

Theodora Goss: Piros, mint a vér, fehér, mint a csont
Egy mesemondó eredetmeséje. Megfogott a maga egyszerűségében.
(Kár volt a végét így túlcifrázni, szerintem megértettük volna egy-két bekezdésben is.)

Lavie Tidhar: Terminál
Egy igazán klasszikus SF téma, űrbebambulás közben befeléfordulós hangulat, erős képek, szép szöveg. Lehet hogy ez lesz a kedvencem...

Yoon Ha Lee: Rókacsapda
Kilencfarkú rókakomát nagggyon bírtam. Hát még az anyukáját!
Fantasy és SF elemek érdekes egybefonódása, nem mellesleg baromi jól megírva.

Ian R. MacLeod: Látogató Tauredből
Nehéz megfogalmaznom ebben mi fogott meg. Nem maga a történet. Valószínűleg a kapcsolat ábrázolása, ami a narrátort a másik szereplőhöz fűzte. Meg hogy nagyon sok szó esett szorosan egymás mellett irodalomról és asztrofizikáról.

Charles Yu: Mese
Micsoda klassz zárótétel!
Mondjuk ez nem sci-fi, és nem is fantasy. De biztos, hogy az év egyik legjobb novellája.

És egy ráadás:
Sokat hezitáltam hogy Ken Liu: Hét születésnap c. novelláját kiemeljem-e. Mert nagyon tetszett a stílusa, a gondolatisága, a bátorsága, és általában is csípem ezt a poszthumán/transzhumán témakört. De ennél a darabnál - és talán csak ennél az egész antológiában - úgy éreztem, a sztori szétfeszíti a kereteket, sokkal zsúfoltabb, telítettebb mint azt a forma megengedi. Boldogan olvasnám regénynek, de itt novellaként kell értékelni, és novellának, fentiek értelmében, nem a legjobb.

[Thomas Poldervaart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year (volume eleven) was my first foray into the world of anthologies, and I doubt I could have chosen much better. Many of the stories I loved, some were not for me, and all of them were well written. I appreciated the variety of stories told, both in genre, tone, perspective, and voice. And on a more meta-level I was happy with the equal spread of male and female authors.

To give a bit more insight in the types of stories in this novel, and in my opinion on them, I’ve compounded a list of my three favourite and least enjoyable stories, in no particular order. This list is highly personal, of course.

My favourite stories (those I loved)
Touring with an Alien – Carolyn Ives Gilman
A fresh take on an alien species, as well as a philosophical exploration on the benefits and detriments of being self-aware. Told through a calm, near melancholic point of view, this story gave me more food for thought than any other.

Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
I love retold fairy tales, and this story is one of the best I’ve come across in a while. Miryem is relatable and intelligent, and has a job (money lender) I’ve never seen combined with fantasy before, much less made likeable.

Red Dirt Witch – N.K. Jemisin
Emmaline has an amazingly strong voice — she truly comes to live in the few pages we spend with her. The the reimagining of the Fey and seemingly hedge mage practices are creative. These combined tell a story seeped in the issue of discrimination, which is insightful without ever feeling preachy, and includes a shimmer of hope.

My least favourite stories (those I didn’t like)
The Visitor from Taured – Ian R. MacLeod
My main problem was the premise, as I believe that it is in our nature as human beings to tell (linear) stories. Every time we tell others about our lives, this is what we do. So the idea that no “normal” stories exist anymore (not in books or films or games, three mediums filled with them) is difficult for me to believe. This, combined with the story then veering into the direction of astrophysics and the self-satisfied opinions on certain novels and sci-fi (it could be the character’s opinion, but it seemed like the author’s), made this story not work for me at all.

Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No.9) – Caitlín R. Kiernan
I never felt like I understood what was happening in the story, and not in a good way (annoying confusion instead of intrigued confusion). Nor was I a fan of the lack of line-breaks, which made this short story feel more difficult to read than it could have been.

Things with Beards – Sam J. Miller
More than any other story, with this one I didn’t have a clue as to what was happening. The entire story felt like a metaphor I could never quite place. Thus it never resonated with me.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

My typical approach to reading short story collections is to spread them out, read several at a time, take breaks. This results in a situation where I have been reading this book for fourteen months and now I expect myself to be able to review it.

Let's start with the most positive thing I have to say: I read Sam J. Miller's "Things With Beards" ten months ago and it's really stuck with me. Helped by the fact I'd quite recently seen The Thing for the first time, but also exemplifying the ways in which an homage can build on the original, maybe make its metaphor a bit more specific, and become an excellent story in its own right.

I have some recency bias in terms of the other stories I enjoyed. I'd previously read Nina Allan's "The Art of Space Travel", but it holds up on rereading and is great in the way her stories often are: exploring the lives of working people who aren't usually the focus of science fiction stories. Meanwhile, I don't remember what I thought of Lavie Tidhar's "Terminal" first time around, but this time I found it moving in a new way.

There are several authors here that I like, but I don't think the stories in this volume were their best works. The only one I'll name is Alyssa Wong, because I loved "You'll Surely Drown Here If You Stay", and I appreciated the selection of this story over "A Fistful of Permutations in Lightning and Wallflowers" because I'd read that story in another volume, but if I were choosing the best story, I'd have gone with the latter. This is one example of how my opinion of the best science fiction and fantasy of the year differs from Jonathan Strahan's. There are others. I was underwhelmed by stories by some of the bigger names, and of course my own preference for science fiction over fantasy shines through in my selections.

Overall, some excellent stories here but I've read better collections, including from the same year.

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well chosen collection of interesting stories. Maybe it was a bit too long and there could have been more fantasy stories but oh well, I liked most of them.

The stories that stood out to me the most are:
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard: haunting, impactful, dark, set in an intriguing world,
Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss: everything I want from a fantasy story, fairytale elements in a real world context, storytelling, interesting choice of narrator,
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genvieve Valentine: often used concept done well, in a interesting way, gives you a lot to think about.

I also loved: Red Dirt Witch, The Future is Blue, Spinning Silver, Seasons of Glass and Iron, The Great Detective.

Even with the stories I didn't enjoy, it was mostly because they didn't work for me not because I thought they weren't well written. Exceptions: Those Shadows Laugh, You Make Pattaya, I don't think these are very good and I also wasn't a fan of how Things with Beards was written to the point that I couldn't get into the story. I had another writing related issue with Laws of Night and Silk: great concept but the 21 page story throws an entire epic fantasy novel worth of wordbuilding on the reader and this makes appreciating it difficult. I don't have a problem with in medias res and things not being explained but I felt the characters/narrative were constantly giving exposition and describing things instead of dealing with was was happening.

Everything else is somewhere between good and meh.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can definitively give this book 2.82/5 stars. I know this because I actually rated every single story, then found the average.
Here's a list of authors that wrote one star stories (some were even DNF to me): Abercrombie, Irvine, McAuley, Sherman, Tidhar, Kiernan. I didn't like stories about aimless space travel, complex descriptions of aliens or robots, or stores that drag (you only have 15-20 pages? How can you still have filler?) Abercrombie's story was next level bad. Was his story accepted just to give the collection some variety?
My favourite stories (5 stars, def will check out their other work) are:
You Make Pattaya by Larson. Some white guy's adventure in Thailand (it gets better but I don't want to give anything away). Takes place some time in the future. I liked how futuristic technology was mentioned in passing but wasn't explained in too much detail.
Fable by C. Yu. A sort of allegory about a guy trying to deal with what's going on in his life. I think I was a little soft on this because it was the last one and I felt bad about only giving 4 5 stars for 28 stories.
Touring with the Alien by Gilman. Out of all the 5 stars this one in the best. An alien invasion story that in no way resembles The War of the Worlds. I liked the slow-ish burn. I loved every character. Seasons of Glass and Iron by El-Mohtar. I really appreciated that this was written as a more "classical" style fairy tale. Yeah there was a part in the middles that was a bit heavy handed, but as a whole I really liked it.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

*copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*

This is the eleventh annual collection of SF&F curated by Jonathan Strahan. Previous entries in the series have included some absolutely stellar work, and the opportunity to explore some great new authors, so I had high hopes for this one – and, generally speaking, they were met.

Much like the last couple of years, this is a very diverse collection of material. There’s sharp, punchy , grimy fantasy from Joe Abercrombie – bringing us a dynamic duo, a thief and a fighter, and unleashing them on the world with acerbic humour, and a low tolerance for mistakes. There’s the creeping body horror wrapped around modernity of Sam Miller’s “Things with Beards”. There’s sweeping epic fantasy, new worlds defined alongside personal triumphs, and more often personal tragedies – like Seth Dickinson’s “Laws of Night and Silk”, and there’s fantasy like folk tales, pulling on half remembered truths to shape something new.

There’s big questions on display throughout the collection, though their answers differ. “The Great Detective”, for example tackles the idea of what it means to be sentient, cloaking the query in a delightful blend of steampunk and Holmesian period drama. The mystery is intriguing, and the protagonist charming, and we rattle through the streets of a London laced with ghosts and clockwork mechanicals whilst pondering the meaning of their existence.

Then there’s Yoon Ha Lee’s “Foxfire Foxfire” – where worryingly intelligent animals cut deals with gods and men, examining who they are and who they wish to be, and occasionally cutting the odd throat. This feels like another strand – a narrative with the feel of a legend, mixed with something new. The chatacters claw their way off the page, compelling, often dark, sometimes deadly. There’s stories here which can be disquieting – watching three friends and a new arrival sit around a table and tell stories, reveal something of themselves, their vulnerabilities in Alice Sola Kim’s “Successor, Usurper, Replacement” feels like teetering on the edge of a cliff, unable to warn someone stepping off.

There’s also N.K. Jemisin’s “Red Dirt Witch”, a meditation on class, race and family, with a supernatural twist to it. The prose is evocative, bringing a small town of the American South to life, as we watch Emmaline, single mother, only occasionally supernatural, try and preserve her family from otherworldly influences. The supernatural here accentuates the questions of class, race and family that Jemisin explores, and makes for a very powerful story. On the other hand, it’s notll serious - there’s the wry comedy of “Even the Crumbs Were Delicious”, a story somewhat reminiscent of Phillip K. Dick – watching the well meaning, bumbling protagonist try and hunt down the parents of two lost teenagers is entertaining and rather sweet; that they’re high as kites on 3d-printed designer drugs is an added bonus, and often rather funny.

As with last year, there’s always going to be some stories you like better than others. That said, the range on display here means there’s something for everyone, and the aggregate level of quality continues to be very high. There’s a lot going on here – stories that challenge, that delight, tradgedies and comedies, broken worlds, aliens and fairy tales, all inside an extremely imaginative package. On that basis, I’ve no hesitation in recommending it to lovers of sci-fi and fantasy–and also to everyone else. It’s packed with imaginative, ingenious stories, and is very, very difficult to put down. Thoroughly recommended.

Contents list (If you're wondering if you've read one of them before):

“Two’s Company”, Joe Abercrombie
“The Art of Space Travel”, Nina Allan
“Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar
“Mika Model”, Paolo Bacigalupi
“A Salvaging of Ghosts”, Aliette de Bodard
“Laws of Night and Silk”, Seth Dickinson
“Touring with the Alien”, Carolyn Ives Gilman
“Red as Blood and White as Bone”, Theodora Goss
“Even the Crumbs Were Delicious”, Daryl Gregory
“Number Nine Moon”, Alex Irvine
“Red Dirt Witch”, N.K. Jemisin
“Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)”, Caitlín R. Kiernan
“Successor, Usurper, Replacement”, Alice Sola Kim
“You Make Pattaya”, Rich Larson
“Foxfire Foxfire”, Yoon Ha Lee
“Seven Birthdays”, Ken Liu
“The Visitor from Taured”, Ian R. MacLeod
“Elves of Antarctica”, Paul McAuley
“Things with Beards”, Sam J Miller
“Spinning Silver”, Naomi Novik
“Those Shadows Laugh”, Geoff Ryman
“The Great Detective”, Delia Sherman
“Terminal”, Lavie Tidhar
“The Future is Blue”, Catherynne M Valente
“Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home”, Genevieve Valentine
“You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay “, Alyssa Wong
“Fable”, Charles Yu
“The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight”, E Lily Yu

[Bill Dauster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is good collection of 2016 sci-fi short stories, with several surprises and charms. Catherynne Valente’s “The Future is Blue” spins a wonderful novella about post-global-warming life on a trash mound the size of Texas riding on the ocean; Paolo Bacigalupi’s “Mika Model” asks whether a sentient android can commit crime or be victimized; Joe Abercrombie’s wonderfully irreverent “Two’s Company” humorously retells the knight errant tale with a feminist twist; Alice Sola Kim’s nicely structured “Successor, Usurper, Replacement” does a fine twist on a drinking game at a writers’ group; Carolyn Ives Gilman’s splendid “Touring with the Alien” reports a road trip with an alien that raises questions about consciousness; Genevieve Valentine’s “Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home” does an interesting twist on beta-testing a virtual reality game; Geoff Ryman’s “Those Shadows Laugh” thinks outside the gender box; Lavie Tidhar’s “Terminal” imagines the thoughts and communications of solo passengers on a swarm of jalopy spacecrafts headed for Mars; Ken Liu’s “Seven Birthdays” lovingly unfolds aging mothers’ minds confronting change. Not every story is a hit, but the proportion of hits to misses in this collection is high.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not usually one for multi-author anthologies, but I received a copy of this book from a raffle on Yoon Ha Lee's Patreon and read it all over a number of months.

Unsurprisingly I loved 'Foxfire, Foxfire' by Yoon Ha Lee and 'The Future is Blue' by Cat Valente, though wishing that there'd be more about their universes (and apparently that wish came true with the Valente, with 'The Past Is Red' coming out soon). Most of the other authors were new or new-ish to me, and I quite liked 'Even the Crumbs Were Delicious', '', 'Red as Blood and White as Bone', and 'Red Dirt Witch'.
Unfortunately I was wholly unmoved by the last two stories of the volume, 'The Visitor From Taured' and 'Fable', which sort of soured the mood for me in the end.

3/5, with highs and lows and everything in between.

[Dtsuneo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb storytellers and skilled writers!

Inspiring, really. After spending recent weeks plodding through anthologies which were compiled by editors who didn’t edit, and perhaps didn’t proofread, I was elated with this collection. Stories were detailed, believable, logically plotted, and humane, but were also written by writers with a mastery of syntax, grammar, punctuation, and diction. And no story appeared to be a patent (blatant) promo for a novel sold by the author as a three-book series. Thank you, editors and authors, for reviving my enjoyment of a genre that has been my favorite for over half a century.

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories I liked and the stories I didn't balance this anthology out to 3 stars. Maybe 3.5, because the audio version from Recorded Books had such excellent readers.

Favorite stories:
'Laws of Night and Silk'-Seth Dickinson
'Spinning Silver'-Naomi Novik (how have I not read any of her books before?!)
'A Salvaging of Ghosts'-Aliette de Bodard
'The Great Detective'-Delia Sherman
'Fable'-Charles Yu (I'm not crying, you're crying)

Least favorite:
'The Art of Space Travel'-Nina Allan (boooringgg)
'Those Shadows Laugh'- Geoff Ryman (everything about this story was terrible)
'Things With Beards'-Sam J. Miller (didn't get it at all)

[Great Writers Steal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Strahan has assembled a diverse roster of stories and seems to have taken great pains to search beyond the Big Three magazines. I've always thought of the O. Henry collections of literary short stories as the literary, experimental cousins of the slightly more staid Best American series. Perhaps Mr. Strahan's collections are where you can turn when you are more in the mood for poeticism than plot or in a time when you have a hungrier heart than mind.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Collection is fortunately generally good. Like all such coalitions of assorted authors works there is a great variety in the value seen in eac story read. However, The Collection fails to contain bad stories, there are ok stories, and there are good stories and enough of the later to make it worth the read.
All in all the collection is worth a read whether it's for short stories or to find some author's worth reading.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adventure, romance, good guys, bad guys, and dragons

From the.story of people headed to Mars in rickety ships, to the vengeful shapeshifter, to the sad lawyer/blacksmith.and his wife. Characters you'll love, wild and strange stories. Each story was terrific. I could not put the book down. I hope you'll love it, too.

[Lbech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent as always

It is a distinct pleasure to read Strahan's choices in best stories. Some I recognized as award nominated, but all were good. They remind me why I read in this genre. Some are just fun, but others make you think. I did so love Paul McAuley's story on emerging Antarctica that I bought the book.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a lot of queer characters, and some writers of color, and some emerging writers. That was nice to see. I liked some of the stories in this, but it was so damn long (over 600 pages) that none of them ended up being particularly memorable.

[Burgoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection by some of the biggest names in the field. Highly recommended.

http://fedpeaches.blogspot.com/2017/1...

[Mateo Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read this for a Speculative Fiction class. None of the stories were phenomenal to me and I barely remember most of them. It may be something to pick up again later.