The Best of World SF: Volume 1

The Best of World SF #1

by Lavie Tidhar (Editor)

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction—now in paperbackThe future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travelers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Stories:

"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard; "Debtless" by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks); "Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad; "Virtual Snapshots" by Tlotlo Tsamaase; "What The Dead Man Said" by Chinelo Onwualu; "Delhi" by Vandana Singh; "The Wheel of Samsara" by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author); "Xingzhou" by Yi-Sheng Ng; "Prayer" by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski); "The Green Ship" by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert); "Eyes of the Crocodile" by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei); "Bootblack" by Tade Thompson; "The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things" by Fabio Fernandes; "The Sun From Both Sides" by R.S.A. Garcia; "Dump" by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood); "Rue Chair" by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author); "His Master's Voice" by Hannu Rajaniemi; "Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys" by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar); "The Cryptid" by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author); "The Bank of Burkina Faso" by Ekaterina Sedia; "An Incomplete Guide..." by Kuzhali Manickavel; "The Old Man with The Third Hand" by Kofi Nyameye; "The Green" by Lauren Beukes; "The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" by Karin Tidbeck; "Prime Meridian" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; "If At First You Don't Succeed" by Zen Cho

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy

608 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2021

About the author

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

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

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

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

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

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

His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century.

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

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

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

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

Tidhar lives with his wife in London.

Reviews

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entitling a book ‘The Best of World SF’ is bound to raise a few eyebrows about the inclusivity of such a title, let alone its exclusivity. One just has to recall Nnedi Okorafor’s disdain of the term ‘afrofuturism’, for example, who states she writes “africanfuturism, a subcategory of science fiction”. It might sound like a semantic difference, but SF is a surprisingly politicised literary genre, both from a conservative and a reactionary point of view, and one rife with a large degree of factionalism.

Many SF readers who consider themselves relatively well-versed in the genre, however, have rarely read a book or story by someone outside of their home country. This has largely been due to the insularity of both the genre and the publishing industry itself, with foreign writers not only lacking viable platforms to make their voices heard, but there also being a distinct lack of opportunities to have foreign-language content translated and published in English.

A recent development in SF is how ‘internationalised’ it has become. Yes, prominent author incubators like Asimov’s remain largely focused on North American writers, but that magazine’s dominance has been successfully challenged by the likes of Clarkesworld and tor.com.

Lavie Tidhar was born in Israel and has lived in the United Kingdom and South Africa, as well as Laos, Vanuatu and London. Hence he knows intuitively about the displacement and estrangement that immigrants are often confronted with, a fairly common theme in SF itself. His own metafictional historical novel ‘Osama’ won the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, though it verges more on SF, hence attesting to Tidhar’s own take on Derrida’s eponymous ‘The Law of Genre’.

Apart from being a notable SF writer himself, Tidhar is an influential editor, with ‘The Apex Book of World SF’ being a major achievement in giving a voice to many previously unknown SF writers. This means he is perhaps one of the most experienced genre practitioners out there to attempt to tackle a book that dares to call itself ‘The Best of World SF’. Obviously such a book cannot please everyone, let alone live up to its credo of international inclusivity. But the 26 stories curated here make a powerful and resounding argument about the true diversity of SF as a literary genre.

Sam Tyler puts it best in SFBook Reviews:

It is testament to Tidhar’s selection process that none of the tales [feel] impenetrable. Indeed, there is no alienation for the reader at all. One argument could be that a reader avoids foreign fiction as it will be complex and hard to understand. These tales are all accessible and are in many ways the type of work that any hardened SF reader will be used to, just with a few nuances of change that make them special.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with pretty much every anthology, there were a couple of clunkers contained in these pages, but there were also some excellent, innovative, and transcendent stories, and overall, I was very happy to encounter the works of so many new and interesting writers from around the world.

[Nicholas Perez]

This has a Cuban speculative fiction writer. I am so fucking excited!

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavie Tidhar put together 26 speculative short fictions, mostly from SF subgenre. None of the stories is from a U.S. or UK author, so you'll get some non-traditional story telling with exotic settings and cultural influences. 
Tidhar is well established in the international league of authors. He's been editor of similar anthologies before, mostly as Apex Book of World SF between 2009 and 2015. 

This new anthology is really excellent, featuring two five star stories "Immersion" be Aliette de Bodard, and "His Master's Voice" by Hanny Rajaniemi. There's only one bummer story written by Manickavel, contrasted by a whole series of excellent four star stories. I've been looking forward reading many of the featured authors - de Bodard and Rajaniemi, but also Han Song, Tade Thompson, Vandana Singh, Lauren Beukes, Karin Tidbeck, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and lastly Zen Cho (who will be published in just a couple of days with her novel Black Water Sister).

You'll find diversity not only in the author's genders (14 women, 12 men) and origins (21 countries, France, China, Singapore, Botswana, Nigeria, India, Japan, Italy, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Spain, Mexico, Finland, Israel, Iceland, Russia, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden and Malaysia), but also in subgenres. There are robots, spaceships, time-travel, post-singularity, Space Opera, and Cyberpunk. But also a few Fantasy, Magical Realism, or weird stories. 

As a German, I'm missing an author from my home country, or from one of the other German speaking countries (that's a huge market, btw). Maybe next time?

Most of the stories are reprints and available elsewhere. As usual, I've added links to those resources within the respective story's reviews. 
Be aware, that I've read through the whole anthology, but sadly didn't provide a review for every story. Yes, I've been in a reviewing slump. 
Nonetheless, I can fully recommend this wonderful anthology for SF readers who'd like to discover authors outside of well-trodden paths. Don't shy away from the non-SF stories, some of them are really good!

Contents (as of isfdb):

1 •   ★★★★★ • France • Immersion • 2012 • SF Xuya short story by Aliette de Bodard • review
21 • ★★★☆☆ • China • Debtless • 2020 • Space Opera novelette by Chen Qiufan • review
81 • ★★★☆☆ • Singapore • Fandom for Robots • 2017 • SF short story by Vina Jie-Min Prasad • review
97 • ★★+☆☆☆ • Botswana • Virtual Snapshots • 2016 • short story by Tlotlo Tsamaase • review
107 • Nigeria • What the Dead Man Said • 2019 • short story by Chinelo Onwualu
125 • ★★★★☆ • India • Delhi • 2004 • Time travel short story by Vandana Singh • review
149 • ★★★☆☆ • China • The Wheel of Samsara • 2009 • SF short story by Han Song • review
159 • ★★★★☆ • Singapore • Xingzhou • 2019 • short story by Ng Yi-Sheng
179 • Japan • Prayer • short story by Taiyo Fujii
187 • Italy • The Green Ship • 2018 • short story by Francesco Verso
201 • ★★★★☆ • Cuba • Eyes of the Crocodile • 2020 • Post-singularity short story by Malena Salazar Maciá • review
211 • ★★+☆☆☆ • United Kingdom • Bootblack • 2017 • Time travel short story by Tade Thompson • review
223 • ★★★☆☆ • Brazil • The Emptiness in the Heart of All Things • 2018 • Magical reality novelette by Fábio Fernandes • review
251 • ★★★+☆☆ • Trinidad and Tobago • The Sun from Both Sides • 2019 • Space Opera novelette by R. S. A. Garcia • review
309 • ★★★+☆☆ • Spain • DUMP • 2018 • Cyberpunk short story by Cristina Jurado • review
331 • ★★☆☆☆ • Mexico • Rue Chair • 2002 • Cyberpunk short story by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo
339 • ★★★★★ • Finland • His Master’s Voice • 2008 • Posthuman SF short story by Hannu Rajaniemi • review
357 • ★★☆☆☆ • Israel • Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys • 2009 • Weird short story by Nir Yaniv • Benjamin comes every week to the hospital with strange little alien body estrangements
365 • ★★★★☆ • Iceland • The Cryptid • 2021 • Fantasy novelette by Emil Hjörvar Petersen • review
389 • ★★★☆☆ • Russia • The Bank of Burkina Faso • 2012 • Weird short story by Ekaterina Sedia • review
403 • ★+☆☆☆☆ • India • An Incomplete Guide to Understanding the Rose Petal Infestation Associated with EverTyphoid Patients in the Tropicool IcyLand Urban Indian Slum • 2016 • short story by Kuzhali Manickavel • rather pointless - no story, no character
413 • ★★★+☆☆ • Ghana • The Old Man with the Third Hand • 2017 • Weird fiction short story by Kofi Nyameye • review
427 • ★★★★☆ • South Africa • The Green • 2012 • Planetary Romance short story by Lauren Beukes • review
445 • ★★★★☆ • Sweden • The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir • 2019 • Space Opera short story by Karin Tidbeck
467 • ★★★+☆☆ • Mexico • Prime Meridian • 2017 • novella by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
553 • ★★★★☆ • Malaysia • If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again • 2018 • Magical realism novelette by Zen Cho • review

[Antti Värtö · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a big book, with over 600 pages and 26 stories. Most stories are 15-25 pages long, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Prime Meridian is almost 100 pages long. This is not very principled way to make a collection: although Prime Meridian was one of the better stories in the book, I would have preferred that all the short stories were of similar length.

Also, I have to say that if this is the best of World SF, then World SF isn't doing terribly well. There were lots of mediocre stories and only a handful really great ones.

Most of the good stories were from authors that are already familiar to SFF: Aliette de Bodard, Chen Quifan, Tade Thompson, Hannu Rajaniemi, Karin Tidbeck. And conversely, most of the unknown-to-me authors wrote stories that were not so interesting or had serious flaws in execution. This can be seen as a good thing: good authors will gain popularity, regardless of their country of origin. Or it can be seen as a bad thing: there are only a handful of non-Anglophone authors that really shine in international SFF scene.

But I did discover two new (well, new to me) authors, whose stories were interesting.They were Vandana Singh and Ekaterina Sedia.

Singh's "Delhi" is about a man who sees people from different times and helps some of them, by directions from a mysterious never-seen employer. Sedia's "The Bank of Burkina Faso" is pretty solid New Weird, explaining the truth behind all those e-mails from Nigerian princes. I got Karin Tidbeck vibes from the story, which is great.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best of World SF is a rich and varied anthology that brings together stories from across the spectrum of science fiction – expect robots, spaceships and time travel, as well as some really weird stuff – representing twenty-one countries and five continents. These include; France, China, Singapore, Botswana, Nigeria, India, Japan, Italy, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Spain, Mexico, Finland, Israel, Iceland, Russia, Ghana, South Africa, Sweden and Malaysia. Lavie Tidhar has selected stories that range from never-before-seen originals to award winners; there are fourteen women and twelve men and present are authors at every stage of their writing career. There are also a number of translations, including a story translated from Hebrew by Tidhar himself, although many of the tales were written in English as the writers second language.

At long last a vibrant generation of author’s is changing the sci-fi genre in its current form one story at a time to move away from primarily western, white, cis-hetero writers to a more inclusive and diverse genre. This is deeply exciting for any sci-fi fan as it's opening the genre up to new ideas and the incorporation of different experiences, backgrounds and cultures that were not represented previously. The Green by South Africa’s Lauren Beukes invites us to suit up and step into the xenoflora all the way up to our armour-plated oxsters. It's suit-punk cross-fertilised with slime moulds and zombies. And Italian author Francesco Verso’s The Green Ship features a decommissioned aircraft carrier as a seed as it 3D prints a brave new micronation in the Indian ocean.

Prayer by prominent Japanese writer Taiyo Fujii features a reconnaissance operative answering a killer robot’s prayers. The Sun From Both Sides by Trinidad and Tobago’s R.S.A. Garcia has a quiet opening that belies the complexity of its end game. It takes us from a cottage in the woods into an interstellar diaspora of luscious xenobiology, sisterly starships and chess as life and death. This is an unmissable collection for any sci-fi fan with many of the stories being thoroughly absorbing, refreshingly original and a pleasure to dive into. I was riveted and the best news is that, unbelievably, there isn't a single dud amongst the 26 stories. This is international sci-fi at its finest; Tidhar really has sourced meticulously, and I cannot recommend this highly enough.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good anthology of stories from around the world that is not from North America or Britain. Stories are selected based on the editor's taste, so it would not be possible for a reader to like all the stories. But the anthology still shows the wide breath of writing that is World SF. Of the stories here, the ones I liked are by Aliette de Bodard, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Vandana Singh, Han Song, Yi-Sheng Ng, R.S.A. Garcia, Hannu Rajaniemi, Emil H. Petersen, Ekaterina Sedia, Kofi Nyameye, Lauren Beukes, Karin Tidbeck and Zen Cho.

- “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard: in a future where immersive devices can be worn to hide who you are and 'guide' you on how to behave, a woman who has hidden herself behind one for ages now struggles to emerge, with the help of others who are not keen on the immersive devices.

- “Debtless” by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks): a space miner suffers from strange dreams about paying off of 'debts' and seeing people he should be familiar with. But it is only after a series of accidents that kill fellow space miners that he begins to suspect something is not right with his memory, leading to a crisis where his dreams are shown to be a reality hidden from him.

- “Fandom for Robots” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad: the world's only self-aware robot is an exhibit in a robot museum. One day, it is asked about watching a Japanese anime because one of the characters in it resembles the robot. This sets of series of events leading to it writing and collaborating on fan fiction.

- “Virtual Snapshots” by Tlotlo Tsamaase: a strange tale of a person born 'unnaturally' in Africa, bring asked to return to the family that cast him out, in a future between the digital haves and the digital have-nots.

- “What The Dead Man Said” by Chinelo Onwualu: a person returns to his homeland after his father's death in Africa in a future where climate change has ravaged the world and people are sought to repopulate countries. But the pain he feels that caused him to leave Africa cannot be removed by taking to his dead father.

- “Delhi” by Vandana Singh: in the city of Delhi, a man catches glimpses of the past and future. After his suicide attempt, because of the visions, is stopped, he finds himself travelling around Delhi, stopping others with similar visions from ending their lives, while searching for a vision given to him on a computer printout that may be his purpose in life.

- “The Wheel of Samsara” by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author): a daughter visits a lamasery only to discover a strange prayer wheel that emits strange noises. Her father and research student investigates it, and they dispute over a hypothesis that the sounds are from our own universe contained within the wheel. Only an unexpected revelation would show if it is right or wrong.

- “Xingzhou” by Yi-Sheng Ng: a fantastical tale about various humans and alien creatures who travel to Xingzhou (a glowing city or country in space) to live their own lives through an era containing hard work, invasions, insurrections, peace and nation building.

- “Prayer” by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski): a team attempts to infiltrate a ship at sea, only to fall victim to prayer rituals.

- “The Green Ship” by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert): refugees in a ship from Africa heading through the Mediterranean are intercepted by an unusual ship that would bring them to an unusual promised land.

- “Eyes of the Crocodile” by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei): on a world where nanobots have gone wild and is killing life, a woman infected with them makes a desperate journey to save her own life by reprogramming the nanobots to save lives instead of destroying it.

- “Bootblack” by Tade Thompson: an eyewitness account of a boy who shines shoes meeting with a stranger who wears strange clothes. His account of the meetings would reveal the stranger's purpose on visiting the town at that time.

- “The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things” by Fabio Fernandes: a series of murders leads an investigator to interview a reclusive writer that may be at the centre of it. But what she finds instead is an urban legend come to life and a desire to be near another.

- “The Sun From Both Sides” by R.S.A. Garcia: a fascinating story about the love between a wife and a husband that is tested when the husband is kidnapped and then rescued, followed by a demand for the husband to return home. It starts off like a light fantasy story, but quickly turns into a science fiction tale that spans worlds and involves advanced technology and strange planetary ecosystems.

- “Dump” by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood): the story of a girl who lived by searching for items in a huge pile of plastic rubbish. But one day, she finds a rare item, and it may lead her to a better existence.

- “Rue Chair” by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author): a search within a fabled pleasure palace filled with exotic and illegal pleasures leads one man to accept a simple pleasure. But he never asks what pleasures his partner is interested in.

- “His Master’s Voice” by Hannu Rajaniemi: a fantastical tale of a dog and cat who miss their master and wants him back, in a future where uploads are possible but only one embodied person is allowed to exist at a time. But not if the dog and cat get their way.

- “Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys” by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar): a doctor is visited every week for years by a boy with various ailments. But one day, he visits with an unusual disease that the doctor doesn't understand, yet he feels an attraction towards it.

- “The Cryptid” by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author): an explorer and her assistant prepare to seek a serpent (a cryptid) in a lake to prove its existence. What they give may be more than they bargain for.

- “The Bank of Burkina Faso” by Ekaterina Sedia: a story that starts off sounding like the standard scan email to withdraw money from a foreign bank turns into something else altogether when the bank might exist in dreams, like the dream of dogs.

- “An Incomplete Guide to Understanding the Rose Infestation Associated With EverTyphoid Patients in the Tropical IcyLand Urban Indian Slum” by Kuzhali Manickavel: a story that describes the strange symptoms and manifestations of an unusual disease.

- “The Old Man with The Third Hand” by Kofi Nyameye: a child meets an unusual old man on a beach and become friends. But things suddenly changed when the parents confront the child about the friendship, leading the reader to wonder if the friendship was imaginary or not.

- “The Green” by Lauren Beukes: on an alien world, grunt workers are tasked with gathering dangerous samples is alien fauna. But after one collection job goes badly wrong, one worker wants out but is 'offered' another chance on the job, but with changes that might be considered disagreeable.

- “The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir” by Karin Tidbeck: a person good at fixing things joins a ship travelling between the worlds. But things are not right as 'living' parts is the ship begin to intrude into other parts. The engineer says it is time the ship gets a new shell, but the captain disagrees. Thus starts a new journey by the person with a ship on the run, a new body.

- “Prime Meridian” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: set in a near future in Mexico, it tells the story of a girl barely making a living by taking on gig work involving socializing with people. But she still dreams of going to Mars one day. And after meeting her former boyfriend again and after other events, she may make it come true.

- “If At First You Don’t Succeed” by Zen Cho: a fun and emotional story about an imugi, a water being who strives to become a celestial dragon. But it's attempts to do so are thwarted by humans who insist it is an imugi. But one day, it meets an academic who changes its life by accepting it for what it is, and what it can become.

[Celia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an insanely diverse and unbelievably put-together anthology from some of the best names in the genre and told across the spectrum from robots to time traveling. This has everything, including some really weird stuff I had to reread because my mind EXPLODED.  Some of these stories will make you think outside the box and some will remind you of the world we're living in today and how much worse it CAN get. I had to take a break between stories because some of them left me breathless and unable to rationalize what was happening. I can't pick a favorite story because every one of them left me feeling amazed. If you're into SF or if you're not and just need something off the beaten track, this is the book for you.

[Miloš Petrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these feel dated, but overall I enjoyed the book (as well as most of the selection).

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was sent to me by the publisher at no cost.

Lavie Tidhar has constructed a really great anthology here. As a good unthemed SF anthology, it's runs the gamut: outrageous far-future stories and terrifying near-future ones, stories that could almost be happening today and ones that require a complete wrench in how you think about the world. When I can't read an anthology straight through - when I have to pause between stories because they're so powerful, or strange, or just different - that's a pretty good sign.

Going over every story in the anthology would be boring, and not really useful. So let me just point to a few of my favourites:
Chen Qiufan's "Debtless" was DEEPLY weird and distressing and starts out as one thing then turns into something completely different. I thought I knew what was happening but I really didn't, even at the end. Remarkable worldbuilding (hats off to the translator, as always).
"Fandom for Robots", Vina Joe-Min Prasad: has always been a favourite and fits in well with Breq and Murderbot, and the Yoon Ha Lee's servitors. An AI writing fanfiction; why not.
Vandana Singh's "Delhi": one of those stories that could be happening right now, and you'd never know. Beautifully written.
Ekaterina Sedia, "The Bank of Burkina Faso": according to Tidhar's intro, other editors didn't know what to do with this story. I don't know how to react to that, because this story is fantastic and plays with email scams ("Hello dearest, help me get money from the bank...") in a weird and wonderful and heartfelt way.
"Prime Meridian", Silvia Moreno-Garcia: it's always hit and miss for me with Moreno-Garcia's work; some I adore, some not so much. This is definitely in the "I love it" category; near future, life and death and family and love, struggle and ambition, and so damned realistic.

In some ways it saddens me that this is a "best of world SF" because it's... just SF. Maybe it's because I'm Australian and, despite being Anglo and a native English speaker, I am still outside of the American (at best American / English) bubble. There are things that mark Australians that make us less viable to those markets, apparently - words and ideas that don't translate. As each of the writers in this anthology has experienced, undoubtedly to a greater extent than white Australians experience. Anyway - as an anthology this was great, as an example of what not-American / English writers can do it's a rather pointed reminder that good writing is not culturally, ethnically, racially, or anything else bound.

[Gerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed pack of stories, some of which I really enjoyed and part of which I couldn't connect with much. A few of the stories appeared rather aimless to me, not so much interested in actually telling a story as in just setting a mood; more like atmospheric vignettes.

Some well known names are found in the collection:
Aliette de Bodard, who sets off this collection on a high note with a short tale about culture and identity, Lauren Beukes, with a creepy tale about corporate greed, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, whose story isn't among my faves of this collection but I did enjoy in all the parts that talk about the weirdness of Mexican movies.

The idea of SF is approached very widely here and at least two times veers straight into Horror territory (the well written 'The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things' by Fabio Fernandes', and the strange cyberpunk tale 'Rue Chair' by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo) and sometimes closer to Fantasy than SF, though the overlap between SF and F has always been a large one.

Best liked stories for me:
'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard, 'Fandom for Robots' by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, 'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia, 'The Green' by Lauren Beukes, and the bitter sweet closing tale 'If At First You Don't Succeed' by Zen Cho.
'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck is a tale I really wish the author would spin into a novel. With its sort of old-school Space Opera style it's the story that spoke the most to me.

It's a worthwhile read all in all, showcasing where SF is headed these days.

[Jordi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A big fat SF anthology compiling up to 26 writers from all over the world. As many anthologies, it has its inevitable ups and downs (the second half can get a bit dull to be honest, until things get better again toward the end, to finish with a bang).

Everyone will have their own favorites, but I enjoyed specially the opener “Immersion” from Aliette de Bodard - a rich story dealing with identity, and how we can bury ourselves to meet other people’s expectations.

“Delhi” by Vandana Singh was another great one - set in a futuristic magical Delhi where ghosts of different ages pass each other. A great story on taking a bad stumble and getting up again.

“The Green” by Lauren Beukes was another stand out - a really peculiar voice that takes you to an otherworldly slow-burn war with nature. Elusive and engaging at the same time.

The two closing stories stroke me as particularly good - a 2017 SF novella from Silvia Moreno-Garcia, “Prime Meridian” (a near-future take on the classic SF trope of Mars colonization, more character than plot focused), and the 2019 Hugo winner “If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try, Again”, by Zen Cho (a touching fantasy on how to keep going even when you don’t really know what’s the point anymore).

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

9- One of the trends in Science Fiction at the moment is its development into a truly international genre. One would think that for me, as an avid reader and author of Science Fiction, it would always have been that way, but that's not the case. Even though Frenchman Jules Verne was one of the important early writers of SF, British authors like Mary Shelley, Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells really placed it on the map and the later pulp authors and golden age authors were predominantly American like Asimov or Heinlein (or British, let's not forget Arthur C. Clarke).
And this American or British SF dominated also in other markets all over the world. Most SF published in Dutch, even at the hight of SF-publishing in the '70's and early '80s, was translated from English. Only some titles by Dutch authors were published and then by small publishers. Most SF-fans in our country started to read SF in English, and they still do, even declaring they find it easier to read in English than in their own language.
But thinking about scientific developments and the shape of the future is not a purely British or American thing and it's not as if the English language is somehow better suited for 'what if'-speculations. All over the world authors use literature to take up concepts for science and observation and look at them through the lens of the imagination, showing how life could develop for people in Africa, Asia or other places, out of the cultural hegemony of the USA. And more and more these diverse voices find their way in the SF-publications. Which is great, as one of the goals of SF is to broaden the mind of the reader, to suggest new possibilities, new consequences of new concepts, and how better to do that than to find a new perspective. With the caveat that when a reader has to comprehend a strange cultural setting (to him) and a strange speculation both, it can sometimes be a bit too bewildering, this can only serve to improve the longevity of the SF-genre in a rapidly changing world.
So the work of Lavie Tidhar is to be applauded, in my view, bringing together 26 stories from authors all over the world, that show the vitality of the SF-genre outside of the USA and England. Not every story was to my taste, but I tend to like hard sciencefiction with a bit of adventure more than intrspective characterpieces or literary experiments. But that's a personal preference and Lavie Tidhar shows he is a great editor in selecting all kinds of SF-stories. From the sciency stories from the far future that I like, to deep explorations of character. Sometimes reading stories from another cultural perspective can be bewildering - and in some cases it wasn't clear to me that the choppy style was intended by the author or was an artefact of translation.
Everyone with an interest in international SF should read this. I hope in a future volume of this series we will also see a Dutch author or two. Maybe Bo Balder or Joachim Heijdermans?
I will not review every story in here but call out some of my favorites:
Aliette de Bodard is always great. She is always included in collections with the best SF and this gentle story about a technology used to take on another culture is no exception.
'Debtless' by Chen Quifan imagines workers in the asteroid belt trying to pay off their debts but never succeeding. A grim future. Interesting use of modern concepts, e.b. blockchain. This is one of the stories I found a bit 'choppy' but I don't know it's intentional or an artefact of translation.
I had read 'What the Dead Man Said' by Chinelo Onwualu in another collection, but it's a great story about families breakin up and getting together again.
'The Green Ship' was a look at the experiences of fugitives on the Mediterranean from an Italian author, with a hopeful ending.
'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia is a longer tale with a lot of adventure and strange civilisations. Two people living in the forest both turn out to be more than they appeared to be at the surface. It grows to a huge adventure. I loved it.
'Dump' by Cristina Jurado brought a chilling world to life: a planet filled with refuse and the human factions trying to survive. Great dystopian vibe.
I am a fan of the hard SF of Hannu Rajaniemi and 'His Master's Voice' did not disappoint ... An uplifted dog and cat try to save their master ...
'The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekateirna Sedia had a bit of a magical realist vibe, and is (weirdly) about all those princes in spam emails trying to convince you they need your help to reclaim their money ...
'The Old Man with the Third Hand' by Kofi Nyameye had an imaginary friend that could be real and has some great Lovecraftian influences. I liked it.
'The Green' by Lauren Beukes was great hard SF, set on a world with deadly vegetation and a slime mold that turns bodies into moving zombies ... And corporations set to exploit the plants ...
'Prime Meridian' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is one of those character oriented stories that I said I didn't like that much. But this is just so good! In the near future a mexican woman dreams of going to Mars, but something keeps her back on earth. I liked how this novella peered into the characters inner worlds, and the sense of hope it tried to find in there. Great story.
All in all, some great stories in here and the rest I didn't mention I also appreciated.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 5 out of 5]

trigger warning
n-word,racism, slavery, kidnapping, rape, domestic violence, child neglect

Normally I'd say that in this anthology, some stories appealed more to me than others, and while that is still true, I am glad to say there was not one dud in here. Every single story is told by a master story teller, and we have so many different settings, plot ideas, concepts, characters, authors.

Especially notable were:
- Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad about a robot who exists in a museum, is not needed any longer and mostly ignored but has access to the internet and thus to fanfiction. This concept was utterly unexpected and yes, this solidified, once again, the decision to be more picky about the things I read, because I love sci fi but am tired of the same old stories about the same old white hetero-cis guys.
- The one with the weird world sorted by classes into a chess game, I am really sorry I can't remember the title, sleep deprived as I am. But I love how it started one way and suddenly you find yourself at the other edge of the universe.
- His Master's Voice by Hannu Rajaniemi about a dog who's a very good boy
- The Cryptid by Emil H. Petersen about the Struggles of Cryptozoology in a world post-multiverse
- The Bank of Burkina Faso by Ekaterina Sedia about how to get your money back when your bank is probably not real
- Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia about slice of life in a future world where still everything is a struggle

This anthology makes me question why I don't consider myself a huge fan of short story anthologies, despite liking the possibility of discovering new voices with less commitment than diving into a multiple-hundreds-pages novel. Probably I am just used to suffering on in the hope that it'll get better. I mean, give me a Pratchett or Gaiman collection and I don't mind at all.
So I am sure I'll read more by this anthologist and am glad that I have an arc of The Escapement by L. Tidhar. Will report back.

The arc was provided by the publisher.
- If At First You Don't Succeed by Zen Cho about personal growth

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of world science fiction, including a novella by the author of Mexican Gothic. I have a theoretical objection to reading translated fiction. The stories are never the same: the rhythm of the language, references to cultural background, etc. On the other hand, since I only am fluent in English, I would never experience some of my favorite authors. Since I am not content to limit my reading to British and North American authors, this is a great introduction to authors from around the globe. Many of the authors have translated their own work, or write in English .

[Kab · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What the Dead Man Said" by Chinelo Onwualu ★★★
"Delhi" by Vandana Singh ★★★★
"The Wheel of Samsara" by Han Song ★★
"Xingzhou" by Ng Yi-Sheng ★★★
"Prayer" by Taiyo Fujii ★★
"The Green Ship" by Francesco Verso ★★½
"Eyes of the Crocodile" by Malena Salazar Maciá ★★★
"Bootblack" by Tade Thompson ★★★½
"An Incomplete Guide to Understanding the Rose Petal Infestation Associated With EverTyphoid Patients in the Tropicool IcyLand Urban Indian Slum" by Kuzhali Manickavel ★★★½
"Prime Meridian" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ★½
"If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho ★★★★★

[Frida Åberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing collection of authors from all over the world with such different ways of telling fantastic science fiction. A big thank you to Lavie Tidhar for collecting these gems and showing them to the world. I’m now going to find and read all of your collections of stories.

[Lyri Ahnam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction and fantasy published in the US is dominated by North American writers. I got this anthology of science fiction short stories from writers around the world to expand my reading experience.

The collection begins with Immersion by French writer Aliette de Bodard. I struggled initially to follow the dual point of view, but once I understood the story world, I enjoyed the way the two narrative strands overlapped and collided. The poignant ending is a powerful indictment of the human desire to fit ourselves to outside norms.

Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad of Singapore follows a sentient robot in a museum display exploring fanfiction for a fictitious Japanese anime series. It’s a delightful commentary on online identity.

Chinelo Onwualu from Niger contributed What the Dead Man Said, a story about family secrets and forgiveness set in a far future where cities compete for the remaining humans.

Xingzhou by Ng Yi-Sheng of Singapore is a comical fairy tale of four grandparents: a rickshaw coolie from China (grandfather), a demon from India (grandmother), a hive intelligence (grandzyther), and a white fungus (grandniether), and how they transformed Xingzhou, the continent of stars.

Tade Thompson of the UK contributed Bootblack, the tale of an uneducated, epilectic Black shoeshine boy in the early 1900s who witnesses the arrival of a time-traveler from the future, as told through his statements to the police.

The Green by Lauren Beukes of South Africa tells the story of a “harvest operator” on an alien planet hostile to humans, serving a military-industrial complex intent on exploiting the planet. The alien biology is equal parts fascinating and horrifying.

I loved some of the twenty-six stories, found others mildly amusing, but unfortunately many were not my style. Overall: Very glad I got this collection out of my local library and I'll be looking for more work from the authors I enjoyed most.

[Shannon (That's So Poe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is a collection of some of the best of world SF short stories! Many of these are reprints, some of them have won awards, and so many of them are just great reads. There's a good mixture in here of various countries and approaches to SF, and lots of the stories are translated. A few of the stories verge a little towards the weird side, and there were a few that didn't work for me, but so many of these were just excellent reads. Some real stand-out favorites of mine include:

"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard, which is set in her Xuya universe and explores themes of cultural imperialism and assimilation, and the cost to people who forget their own roots.

"Fandon For Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, which is incredibly cute about a robot who starts writing fanfic.

"What the Dead Man Said" by Chinelo Onwualu, which explores both a person and a world after catastrophes and rejects the idea of trying to return to the previous life.

"Xingzhou" by Ng Yi-Sheng, which is surreal and absurd in the way it mashes together Singaporean history, different mythologies, and aliens beings.

"The Bank of Burkina Faso" by Ekaterina Sedia, which is somehow a sweet satire of Nigerian prince scam emails that imagines real princes dealing with some issues with a bank in a different dimension.

"The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir" by Karin Tidbeck, which is about an engineer who has to decide what to do about a living ship they are on that is nearing end of life.

...and many, many more! There were so many great stories in this collection, and I'd highly recommend picking it up so you can read them too.


Content Warnings:
addiction, worker exploitation, violence, isolation, illness, injury, death, murder, child sexual abuse, trauma, family estrangement, attempted suicide, racist mobs, rape, genocide, imprisonment, drugging, slavery, ableism, body horror, mental health issues, attempted forced institutionalization

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andreas's review, https://reiszwolf.wordpress.com/2021/... has some links, but is missing others.

Locus review: https://locusmag.com/2021/05/gary-k-w...

My conclusion was that Lavie Tidhar's taste in short SF differs considerably from mine. But there is some good stuff here. Worth a look if your library has a copy. And, of course, your mileage may vary!

[Beth]

I bought this book partly because it was a choice of one of my Goodreads groups, and seemed like a good selection of stories from outsdie the Anglosphere. I've also been following Tidhar off and on since discovering his "World SF Blog" website*, and seeing that this collection was edited by him, I picked up a copy right away. I've also recently become interested in SFF short stories, and this seemed to be a good way to explore some examples of it from around the world.

*(it stopped updating in 2013, though a quick check today shows that it's still out there for anyone who wants to check it out.)

"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard: I've enjoyed a couple of De Bodard's Xuya novellas, but somehow had never gotten around to reading this short. What has most appealed to me about Xuya so far is its emphasis on sometimes-strained family relations, delicious food, and how traditional Vietnamese culture has thrived on large scales of space and time. Those are definitely factors here, as well as anticolonialism and the dangers of addiction to existence as a digital avatar.

It takes a Galactic to believe that you can take a whole culture and reduce it to algorithms, that language and customs can be boiled to just a simple set of rules.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this one of the best anthologies I’ve read, as far as science fiction goes it’s comparable to all time classics such as Dangerous visions. There isn’t a bad story in the book. Reading this is like being in an ice cream shop with all the different flavors to choose from. You may like some more than others, but you won’t regret tasting any of them

[Allison Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phew, there are a TON of great stories in this anthology... and it's only Volume 1! Here were my favorites:

"Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard - wearable immersers cloak people in avatars to heighten their appearance, to sometimes costly effects. Smart, succinct character development.

"Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad - AI Computron stumbles into anime HyperWarp and becomes a huge fan. Giggles abound.

"Dehli" by Vandana Singh - a time traveler wonders about his purpose in life as he sees glimpses into the past and future. I feel you, guy!

"Xingzhou" by Ng Yi-Sheng - a family legend of how the city-state Xingzhou came to be. Aliens, war, romance, sentient goo, all in just 19 pages!

"The Sun From Both Sides" by R.S.A Garcia - an epic love story with some surprising world building along the way.

"His Master's Voice" by Hannu Rajaniem - pets who have gained self-awareness (and some impressive technology skills) set out to free their master from his imprisonment.

"The Green" by Lauren Beukes - desperate people agree to work for Inatec, a huge biotech company that's harvesting the dangerous flora and fauna of a newly discovered planet. The risk turns out to be much greater than their paycheck.

"Prime Meridian" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - in the near-future, a young woman longs to join the settlements now on Mars, but she struggles to find work or support to fulfill her dream.

"If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho - Byam is an imugi who really really wants to ascend to the heavens and transform into a dragon. But it's harder than it looks, people.

[Aaron Robb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plus:
An eclectic mixture of stories from different authors from across the globe excl. The US.

My highlights include:
Immersion - Aliette de Bodard,
Fandom for Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Prayer - Taiyo Fuiji,
The Green Ship - Francesco Verso,
The Sun from Both Sides - R.S.A Garcia,
His Master's Voice - Hannu Rajaniemi,
The Cryptid - Emil Hjörvar Petersen,
The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekaterina Sedia,
The Old Man with The Third Hand - Kofi Nyameye,
The Green - Lauren Beukes,
The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir - Karin Tidbeck,
Prime Meridian - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I would definitely check out more of the works of the above authors.

Minus:
Sometimes anthology collections can be a mixed bag. There were definitely some I enjoyed more than others.
There's only one story would I have any serious criticism about and that's 'Xingzhou' by Yi-Sheng Ng. The overabundance of SF/cultural references distracted from what was an otherwise enjoyable story.

There were some stories that I felt like I struggled to understand parts of or even what the author was trying to achieve. That might be a me thing though.

Interesting:
Worth checking out for different takes on SF, viewing the genre (or versions of it) through a different cultural lenses.
I'm excited for volume 2 set to be released in Jan, 2023.

[Davide Brogi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rete Ginestra

La fantascienza ha origini antiche, le sue radici affondano in coloro che nei testi sacri sono chiamati profeti (anche se la traduzione più corretta sarebbe araldi), l'autore di fantascienza svolge la stessa funzione del profeta: reca alla divina logica l'umana speranza, realizza l'unione della cibernetica con il pensiero altro.
Lo scrittore di fantascienza vive in mezzo alla gente, dal mito trae le storie (nel senso erodoteo della parola) per mezzo del logos (non trovo termine italiano che riunisca insieme parola, verbo, discorso e ragione), una “social catena” forma anche con autori di altri generi per preparare una festa allietata dalle uniche grazie del tempo moderno: Venere, Vesta e Pallade.
La Sci Fi non cerca di prevedere il futuro ma di cercare i semi del futuro nel presente, così da farli germinare virtualmente in realtà per mezzo dell'estetica.
Dopo aver gustato le narrazioni di questi autori e autrici ora ne vorrei una nella spirito di Leonardo Da Vinci per la memoria e le buone anime di Valerio Evangelisti, Giuseppe Lippi, Sergio Altieri e Vittorio Catani.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection aims to cover SF that's not from the usual suspects of the USA, UK, Canada; the first few are from France, China, Singapore, Botswana, Nigeria, India. As with many collections, I like some more than others. A number of stories had endings that didn't quite make sense to me (understandable, it can be hard to write a good ending).

I'll make small notes on each story below:
Immersion: Excellent lead-off story, on people completely submerging themselves into a dominant culture.
Debtless: ok
Fandom for Robots: this was fun, though didn't feel like a clear ending.
Virtual Snapshots: couldn't make sense of this one.
What the Dead Man Said: well-written, good story, with few SF elements.
Delhi: I really enjoyed this one, great story.
The Wheel of Samsara: very short, nice idea.
Xingzhou: riddled with throwaway references to other SF, from soylent green and bantha milk to sandworms, sonic screwdrivers and positronic brains. The story kind of hangs together.
Prayer: didn't click for me.
The Green Ship: very idealistic, didn't click for me.
Eyes of the Crocodile: ok
Bootblack: I liked this one
The Emptiness in the Heart of All Things: quite weird, ending didn't click for me.
The Sun from Both Sides: this was delightful. Does improve upon a re-read, as some aspects are unclear the first time.
[skipped some, here and later]
His Master's Voice: quite fun to read.
Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys: there's a weird twist that makes no sense to me.
The Cryptid: also quite fun.
The Bank of Burkina Faso: ok.
The Old Man with the Third Hand: interesting; one comes to distrust the narrator.
The Green: very good, very disconcerting but the ending makes sense.
The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir: very enjoyable.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Try Again: very nice, good end to the collection.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s always a leap of faith picking up an anthology, no less so when it is science fiction. I got an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I tested the waters so you don’t have to take a risk, if you like. The Best of World SF is not a risk. Some of the stories are utterly fantastic, some missed their mark for me personally but were still interesting conceptually whether in style or direction. This is what good sci-fi is. The Best of World SF is not a lie. This particular anthology was bookended by two authors familiar to me and the stretched around the world to scoop up perspectives on sci-fi I could never have imagined. That’s where this anthology sings: juxtaposing styles and ideas. No two stories are the same. Some are even hopeful about the future (SF does not equal dystopia)! If you even tentatively like science fiction, inside you will find new favourites I promise.

[Jonny R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of short stories! Some good, some not so good covering a lot of different styles and subgenres. I'd actually categorise quite a few of these as fantasy or similar and a few are probably almost magical realism. There are a few gems (I particularly enjoyed the robot fandom one - very unusual, bittersweet and funny) and a few I didn't really enjoy (the long one with all the chess names).

What I would say is a lot of the stories are original and interesting, however as with a lot of short story collections I've read the overall experience wasn't super enjoyable and it turned into a bit of a slog. Leaves you craving something longer and more fleshed out but there was enough variety to keep things fairly interesting and of course with short stories if you don't enjoy one it won't be long until you are done with it and can move on!

[Israel Laureano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al igual que todas las compilaciones de cuentos: está muy dispareja, hay cuentos de todo tipo y estilo. Ni siquiera puedo decir que algunos son buenos y otros malos. Supongo que eso depende del estilo que más les guste. Algunos me gustaron y otros n. Algunos se me hicieron insufriblemente largos y otros decepcionantemente cortos. Algunos muy bien escritos y algunos muy..., no sé si el autor quiso ser muy innovador en el formato; pero al final es muy recomendable porque es un verdadero escaparate a la literatura cienciaficcioñera en el mundo: desde China hasta Botswana, de México y España a Brasil y Cuba, Japón y la India, pasado por Italia e Israel..., una selección increíblemente dispareja pero muy variada.

[Rowena Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a bold claim, but this was a fantastic collection of stories that embraced the ‘world’ aspect in particular, and it was a delight to discover not only new authors, but also different approaches to sscience fiction and storytelling in general. As with any collection that were a few stories that I didn’t connect with as much as the others, but overall I really enjoyed this anthology and also the sheer variety both in terms of diversity and subject matter. Some of the stand out stories for me were ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard, one of the few authors I had read previously and I just love how she writes, I also really enjoyed ‘The Emptiness in the heart of All Things’, ‘The Cryptid’ and ‘Fandom for Robots’.