The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 4

by Neil Clarke (Editor)

From Hugo Award-winning editor Neil Clarke, the best science fiction stories of the year are collected in a single hardcover volume.

From Hugo Award-winning editor Neil Clarke, the best science fiction stories of the year are collected in a single hardcover volume.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more—a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy Award–winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year’s writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome “sensawunda” that the genre has to offer.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Audiobook, Collections

624 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2019

About the author

Neil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning Clarkesworld Magazine. Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.

Additionally, Neil edits  Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us,  The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.

He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good anthology. I’d read many of these stories before, and have edited my earlier comments for this review. As you will see, many are online. Here are the standout stories, for me:
● “Traces of Us” by Vanessa Fogg. SF romance between two biochemists. Well-researched hard-SF. An easy 5 stars, and the best story in the anthology, I thought. Don’t miss! https://giganotosaurus.org/2018/03/01...
● “Different Seas” by Alastair Reynolds (Twelve Tomorrows), . An astronaut helps out in a clipper-ship emergency, by proxy, after a big solar storm. Well-crafted story, up to Reynold’s high standards. 4.4 stars.
● “Okay, Glory” by Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows). A billionaire’s smart house gets taken over by a ransomware hack. Recommended, 4.2 stars. https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
● “Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling” by L.X. Beckett. In a near-future Toronto, a musician/writer has suffered a devastating loss of social-credit points. A wealthy old woman offers “help”. Good stuff. 4 stars.
● “Quantifying Trust” by John Chu. An AI researcher is struggling with her thesis project. Her new office-mate isn’t helping. Or is he? 4 stars.
All the stories:
● “When We Were Starless” by Simone Heller, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/helle... 2019 Hugo nominee for best novelette. To my surprise, I bounced hard off this one, twice.
● “Intervention” by Kelly Robson (Infinity’s End, Strahan). Prev. read there. A creche-manager on an asteroid habitat. Good story, 3 stars
● “All the Time We’ve Left to Spend” by Alyssa Wong (Robots vs. Fairies). Prev. bounce: distasteful story of a robotic recreation of a dead pop star in a Tokyo love hotel. DNF, not for me.
● “Domestic Violence” by Madeline Ashby, https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/... In a near-future Toronto, smart-home tech is being weaponized by abusers. Chilling, sexy story. 3.9 stars
● “Ten Landscapes of Nili Fossae” by Ian McDonald (2001: An Odyssey in Words). An artist accompanies the first human mission to Mars. Downer ending. Weak 3 stars
● “Prophet of the Roads” by Naomi Kritzer (Infinity’s End, Strahan. Prev. read there). The Engineer AI visits a habitat orbiting Neptune. Cool story, 3+ stars
● “Traces of Us” by Vanessa Fogg. https://giganotosaurus.org/2018/03/01... SF romance between two biochemists. Well-researched hard-SF. This one really worked, for me. An easy 5 stars. Best in the collection so far. Don’t miss!
● “Theories of Flight” by Linda Nagata (Asimov’s). Kid makes a fire-ballon, SIlver story, eh. DNF.
● “Lab B-15” by Nick Wolven, https://www.analogsf.com/assets/6/6/L... Uploading a person’s brain to a computer turns out to be really, really hard. 3 stars.
● “Requiem” by Vandana Singh, novella. A software engineer visits a future Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, where her favorite aunt was lost in a winter storm. The story has a nice, lived-in feel. Prev. read, 3.3 stars
● “Sour Milk Girls” by Erin Roberts. http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/rober... Well-written but unpleasant story of inmates in a future foster-care agency. 2.5 stars.
● “Mother Tongues” by S. Qiouyi Lu, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lu_02... A Chinese mother sells her Mandarin to a language broker, to pay for her daughter’s tuition to Stanford. Poignant story, 3.5 stars.
● “Singles’ Day” by Samantha Murray (Interzone, September/October 2018). 9100 words. The fourth Greatship is preparing to leave an overcrowded future Earth. The story is about 4 young women picked to be passengers — but too many characters, and too many short episodes, to hold my interest. DNF.
● “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” by Daryl Gregory , https://www.tor.com/2018/09/19/nine-l... Hugo & Nebula nominee, best novelette. Previously read, 3.9 stars
● “The Buried Giant” by Lavie Tidhar (Robots vs. Fairies) Tried to read there & bounced. DNF.
● “The Anchorite Wakes” by R.S.A. Garcia, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/garci... Religious science-fantasy. Not read yet
● “Entropy War” by Yoon Ha Lee (2001: An Odyssey in Words). Sketch of a dice war game based on a space opera. Huh, 2.7 stars.
● “An Equation of State” by Robert Reed (F&SF magazine). A confusing story about warfare. An alien diplomat unites humanity against an invasion by the aliens? Why? 2.5 stars
● “Quantifying Trust” by John Chu (Mother of Invention). An AI researcher is struggling with her thesis project. Her new office-mate isn’t helping Or is he? 4 stars.
● “Hard Mary” by Sofia Samatar (Lightspeed, not online). Teenage girls in a Mennonite community find a broken android and charge her battery. Read previously, 3 stars.
● “Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling” by L.X. Beckett (novella, F&SF). In a near-future Toronto, a musician/writer has suffered a devastating loss of social-credit points. A wealthy old woman offers “help”. Fast-moving story, strong characters, good stuff. 4 stars.
● “Okay, Glory” by Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows). A billionaire’s smart house gets taken over by a ransomware hack. Recommended, 4+ stars.
● “Heavy Lifting” by A.T. Greenblatt , https://uncannymagazine.com/article/h... Gina’s getting tired of her robot-recovery gig. Good thing she’s the “girl behind the code”! Clever & fun, 3.6 stars.
● “Lions and Gazelles” by Hannu Rajaniemi. https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/... A biotech-enhanced ultramarathon, a cursorial hunt to exhaustion. Recommended: 3.8 stars
● “Different Seas” by Alastair Reynolds (Twelve Tomorrows). An astronaut helps out in a clipper-ship emergency, by proxy, after a big solar storm. Well-crafted story, up to Reynold’s high standards. 4.4 stars/
● “Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger’s Steps” by Aliette de Bodard (Mechanical Animals). I have a blind spot for many of de Bodard’s stories, and this was another one I just didn’t get. DNF.
● “Byzantine Empathy” by Ken Liu. A young Chinese programmer designs a block-chain cryptocurrency to help refugees. Powerful and thoughtful near-future novelette. Previously read, 3.9 stars
● “Meat and Salt and Sparks” by Rich Larson. https://www.tor.com/2018/06/06/meat-a... (Previously read) Good but very dark SF murder-mystery.A story I admired more than liked. 3.4 stars
● “Umbernight” by Carolyn Ives Gilman, http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/gilma.... The hardscrabble Dust colony sends out an expedition during Umbernight to bring in a shipment from Earth. It doesn’t go well. 3.7 stars

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

With 29 stories, 624 pages, and a recommended reading list, the Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 4 is definitely worth its $13.99 cost.

This collection includes the gamut of subgenres within the field. Hard science, soft space opera, spacemen, aliens, and robots populate these pages. I’m positive that each reader will love, like, and hate each of the stories but no two readers’ rating will be identical. They will also find some new authors to read along the journey. Most of tales can be read during a single fifteen minute break time. 4 stars!

Thanks to Night Shade and Edelweiss+ for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Nicholas Kotar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short fiction world is alive and well. Some amazing stories here.

[Acqua]

I'm not going to rate this - I wouldn't really know how to rate the many stories that didn't work for me because they're not my kind of sci-fi - but I can say that overall this is an interesting and diverse collection of stories.

The ones that stood out to me are Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger’s Steps by Aliette de Bodard, which was a gorgeous f/f story about about fairytales in a sci-fi apocalypse and the weight the past can have, All the Time We've Left To Spend by Alyssa Wong, also f/f and about a grieving ex-pop star and the memories of her dead girlfriend, Entropy War by Yoon Ha Lee, which is, as you can imagine, about entropy, but also about games and the inevitability of change, and Domestic Violence by Madeline Ashby, a story that was in equal part chilling and very satisfying, and which was about the ways the "smart home" technologies can be exploited by abusers.

[StarMan · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERDICT: 3.42 stars average rating, if I exclude one story I couldn't get into at all.

I'm rounding UP to 4 because the overall quality is higher than average for such collections. And you get your $ worth at 600+ pages.

Breakdown (29 total stories)
4.6 to 5 stars = none
4 to 4.5 stars = 6
3 to 3.9 stars = 18
2 to 2.9 stars = 4
Below 2 stars = 1

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a refreshing change from my recent reading. I enjoy science fiction, but don't read nearly as much as I did in high school and college. And short stories were just the sort of distraction I needed. I'm finding I'm having a hard time focusing on anything during this stay-at-home life we're living during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enter short stories.

I'm writing this review four days after I finished the book, and I have to say that many of the stories aren't sticking with me. I did enjoy them, though. Except for one, which I got three pages into, had not idea what was going on, and skipped it.

The first story, by Simone Heller, involves a surviving human AI being found by the creatures that eventually arise to intelligence after our time. It's quite beautiful. And the final story, Umbernight by Carolyn Ives Gilman is also quite good. It covers a group of settlers on a planet that has to deal with a radioactive star every few decades. The characters think the planet they've lived on is quite sterile, but boy are they wrong.

I'm sad that I don't remember more of the stories off the top of my head. Clearly, I'm still working through this focus issue. But I need to remember to read more science fiction short stories.

[LaShawn]

“Differnt Seas” by Alastair Reynolds - 5 stars
“Byzantine Empathy” by Ken Liu - 3 stars

[Dalen · Rating 2 out of 5]

More misses than hits for me in this anthology. Generally underwhelmed.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories all published in a particular year.

I almost have a default review written for short story collections like this. I point out how they're always mixed bags... some good, some were a slog, a number I've read before. Then I pick through a few standouts, and assign a score, usually 3 or 3.5, and in the latter case have to decide which way to round the final score. I was prepared to do the same here, and my instinct was that I was going to give it the standard 3 star score almost automatically... but a curious thing happened with this one. As I looked through other reviews that listed the stories in this collection (with brief descriptions, to jog my memory), so I could narrow down a shortlist of the ones I 'liked' I... kept thinking, "Oh, yeah, I remember that one. I kinda liked that one!" Not all are winners, but there does seem to be a heftier proportion of ones I had a positive reaction to, rather than meh or outright dislike. The ones that particularly stood out to me were "Different Seas" by Alastair Reynolds, "Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling" by L.X. Beckett (set in the universe of their novel Gamechanger, although before the majority of the first book), "All the Time We've Left To Spend" by Alyssa Wong, and "Nine Last Days of Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory, but again, there are plenty of others that I also liked.

Unfortunately, in terms of actual scores, I still have to give it a whole number score, and it's not quite enough for a 5 star (that perhaps would have to have me, unprompted, be able to remember how many stories I liked), so I have to give it a 4, which I also give to many collections that are only 3.5ish, rounded up. But let it be known in the review that this is on the high side of a 4 rating, perhaps around 4.3, which is pretty good for a short story collection of a particular year.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good collection! I didn't read the whole introduction, as it's several years old, but I did see where Clarke took over some of the introduction functions from Gardner Dozois, who died that year and whose "Best of" collections I miss. Glad he did that.

A lot -most?- of the stories have mechanical or digital entities as important elements, if nor protagonists. Many are set on Earth, some in space or on other planets. I really liked that. Not much of even semi-fantasy stuff, for which I was grateful. This is definitely science fiction. I skimmed over a few stories I'd read before, but even so, the time it took me to read this thick book was less that I would have expected, and that's dure to the high quality.

[Annaelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the stories were mid (like there was some weird excerpt that wasn't even a story but directions for some board game :I), some were really good.
The really good ones consist of: Lab B-15 (one of the best by far), Okay Glory (the other best by far) The Buried Giant, Singles Day (a bit harder to follow, interesting concept though), Different Seas, Sour Milk Girls, Theories of Flight, and Lions and Gazelles.

The funniest story was The Buried Giant (give it a read I swear its good)

@NeilClarke
Neil Clarke you did good my man, very good.

[Rob]

I'm not going to rate this book because I suspect maybe I read it with completely the wrong attitude. There was only one story I enjoyed, by Alistair Reynolds, which was near the end of the compilation and I just found the rest really boring. The reason I suspect my attitude may have been wrong is I also borrowed another best of anthology by a different editor at the same time and I've loved the first two stories in that. So, maybe I got offside with this book early on and so didn't give the other stories a chance.

[Dea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent collection overall. My favorites are listed below. The starred ones are the ones I especially enjoyed.

When We Were Starless—Simone Heller
Prophet of the Roads—Naomi Kritzer
Traces of Us—Vanessa Fogg
Lab B#x2013;15—Nick Wolven
Mother Tongues—S. Qiouyi Lu*
Singles’ Day—Samantha Murray*
The Anchorite Wakes—R.S.A. Garcia
Okay, Glory—Elizabeth Bear*
Byzantine Empathy—Ken Liu*
Meat and Salt and Sparks—Rich Larson

[Charlotte Cumming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Short fiction is my weakness and Mr Clarke has provided a well curated selection of truly astounding works while at the same time paying homage to Gardner Elwood. I believe Me Clarke's is truly a worthy successor for the title of best pathologist in the land. RIP Gardner Dozois.

[Sarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best stories: Intervention, All the Time We've Left to Spend, Lab B-15, An Equation of State, Mother Tongues, Different Seas, Byzantine Empathy, Meat and Salt and Sparks

Standouts: Traces of Us, Singles Day, The Buried Giant, Nine Last Days on Planet Earth

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

3. Sadly, I didn’t enjoy any of the submissions in this volume. They all seemed to predict a very unhappy future and made me realise that Is probably why I tend to steer away from true science fiction.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weak.

A surprisingly weak collection this year. Over-weighted with fantasy and inexperienced authors. Disappointing would be one word for it. Too bad.

[Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

A handful of garbage stories, imo, but mostly solid and a few GREAT ones.

[Aurora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were very good. Others, didn't interest me. A large book of short stories worth a variety of themes.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional collection.

[Loren C · Rating 5 out of 5]

most of these were winners, in my opinion.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This annual “best of” collection reviews short fiction published during 2018. The editor runs Clarkesworld Magazine, and may be forgiven for including a few stories from that magazine in this compendium.

This volume's stories trend toward the 'day-after-tomorrow' form of science fiction, set in today's society but with somewhat changed technology. This is shown by many of the stories having come from Slate or the anthology “Twelve Tomorrows”, both targeted toward a more general audience who might find near-contemporary SF more palatable. That does not mean the stories are any less engrossing or well-written. The Elizabeth Bear story “OK Glory” about a man held for ransom in his own smarthouse rings a little closer to home in our world of smart devices and ransomware. A similar plot device is used in “Domestic Violence” by Madeline Ashby. Ken Liu's stoty “Byzantine Empathy” actually has a scholarly journal reference to the main topic.

More far out SF are stories are the lead one, Simone Heller's “When We Were Starless” and the closing story, “Umberlight” by Carolyn Ives Gilman, both set on exotic worlds where the protagonist's society faces an existential threat. These two absorbing stories would not feel out of place in a 1950's science fiction magazine.

[Shyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A consistently good collection of literary short sci-fi stories. Ten stories that I particularly liked:

1. "When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller ~ A nice, clean characterization of an interesting world.

2. "Prophet of the Roads" by Naomi Kritzer ~ A cool idea, presented well.

3. "Traces of Us" by Vanessa Fogg ~ Nice narration and story structure. It's impressive how concisely the author is able to communicate certain emotions.

4. "Lab B-15" by Nick Wolven ~ A story with a rational protagonist.

5. "Entropy War" by Yoon Ha Lee ~ A strange meditation.

6. "Sour Milk Girls" by Erin Roberts ~ Vaguely similar to Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day."

7. "Mother Tongues" by S. Qiouyi Lu ~ A simple, effective story about family.

8. "Singles' Day" by Samantha Murray ~ A beautifully structured, multi-perspective tale.

9. "The Buried Giant" by Lavie Tidhar ~ Gorgeous, fairy tale writing.

10. "Byzantine Empathy" by Ken Liu ~ Intellectually engaging.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy these anthologies as the diversity of writing and stories makes for wonderful food for thought. The stories are uniquely dark on average from my perspective and the tendency to end abruptly with indeterminate outcomes seems a theme. I am not a fan of this style hence I am ranking lower than my typical score. There were some points I nearly gave up on the book, but I am glad I finished it in it’s entirety.

I ultimately recommend the anthology as there are some very compelling creative stories that make it worthwhile. I also appreciate a stylistic change from my comfort zone as an opportunity to expand my own perspective. Everyone will find those stories most relatable to their taste, so this is the opportunity for a potentially unique reading experience. The editor offers a number of stories with Asian protagonists and settings which I found fascinating.

[J2Diewald · Rating 3 out of 5]

In anthologies like this, there's usually a story or two that really grabs me and makes me think. These stories were good but not great. None of them grabbed me.

[Sara Crocoll Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Standout story for me: Traces of Us by Vanessa Fogg

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the short stories are not my idea of science fiction. I decided to give up on them and read only full novels. It's not just this book but most of these collections that disappoint.

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tracked down the book for the L.X. Beckett story, but of course had to read them all. So many of them were great that, when I finished, I had trouble remembering which story I got it for.