What do you think?
Rate this book
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022
Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse and series editor John Joseph Adams select twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.
Today’s readers of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to read about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. Contemporary science fiction and fantasy looks to accomplish the same goal as ever—to illuminate what it means to be human.
With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of contemporary science fiction and fantasy.
432 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2022
249 people are currently reading
754 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Roanhorse
63 books10.4k followersRebecca Roanhorse is a New York Times bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer. She has published multiple award-winning short stories and novels, including two novels in The Sixth World Series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and the epic fantasy trilogy Between Earth and Sky. She has also written for Marvel Comics and games and for television, including FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, and the Marvel series Echo for Disney+. She has had her own work optioned by Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
September 12, 2022
I received this book as a digital ARC from Netgalley. Story by story review, go!
10 Steps to a Whole New You by Tonya Liburd: This is a second person story in dialect about a woman who lives in the Caribbean who befriends a "soucouyant" (a sort of Caribbean vampire body snatcher) who changes her. It's not bad, but the story doesn't feel substantial enough for the weight of its structure. 2 stars
The Pizza Boy by Meg Elison: The unnamed narrator is a pizza delivery boy in outer space, working on sourcing ingredients when he's far away from Earth and has to scrounge in strange places. He has to make the pizza, because the pizza is a message. 4 stars
If the Martians Have Magic by P. Djeli Clark: There's a lot going on here. We're in an alternate history with magic and aliens and a kinda steampunk vibe. Minette is a voodoo practitioner in a world where the loa are real and powerful. She's shared her magic/religion with a group of Martians that are hated and feared. I liked this one a lot, as I have the other work by Clark that I've read. 5 stars
Delete Your First Memory for Free by Kel Coleman: Our main character is a painfully anxious young man struggling to enjoy some human interaction without freaking out. He and a group of new friends go to a business that lets them erase memories. He erases a few memories, and feels better. Interesting premise, but very little happens. 2 stars
The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear: An old viking goes looking for his brother to tell him that he's been cleared of a murder charge and can come home. He tracks his brother by magic, finds an old friend who tells him his brother is dead, and has to battle a dragon for its venom, which can be used as a resurrection potion. Lots of very nice detail in this one that really makes the setting come alive, but I don't know, it left me a little cold. 3 stars
The Cold Calculations by Aimee Ogden: This story is a comment on Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations, a pretty famous story from the 1950's. In that story, a girl stows away aboard a relief ship, but her extra weight means the ship can no longer make its target, and she steps out the airlock to save the ship. Lots of people have made lots of good points about the original story; definitely worth the Google. But this is a really hopeful story about the power of anger to make positive change in the world. 5 stars
The Captain and the Quartermaster by C.L Clark: A Captain and a Quartermaster in a rebel army meet, fall in love, and get married during a years long war. The war brings them together, but they come to realize their marriage can't last after the war is over. The fantasy elements of this story are very slight, and mostly come down to a generic war and both Captain and Quartermaster being women. It's fine and sweet, but doesn't really do much for me. 3 stars
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story by Nalo Hopkinson: This seems at first to be a pretty bleak story set after an environmental catastrophe leaves lots of formerly habitable land flooded. Our protagonist Jacquee is flying back to her floating community after having some cybernetic implants put in. But she doesn't wait to fully acclimate, and crashes her plane. The deserted island she finds has unusual biodiversity rarely found in the flooded world, and Jacquee sees the possibility for life to go on and adapt, even in extreme circumstances. Plus, there's a talking augmented pig named Lickchop. 5 stars
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones: I keep reading Stephen Graham Jones, hoping that eventually his work will click for me. He can write some very effective horror, but I always feel like I'm being held at a distance. This is another one with a pretty slight touch of fantasy. Two bullied Native teen boys go to an arcade on Halloween to beat the high score that one of their brothers left on a machine before he went missing. 3 stars
Let All the Children Boogie by Sam J. Miller: Here's another story with just a pinch of sci-fi. Laurie is a teenager in New York state who meets and bonds with a non-binary teen named Fell. Fell doesn't have a great home life, but they and Laurie connect over music from a local radio show called Graveyard Shift. But the show starts to be interrupted by a strange voice that Fell is convinced is a time traveler. A very sweet and heartfelt story that really captures teenage angst. 4 stars
Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link: Andy can't finish his dissertation because his roommate is constantly having sex. When a friend asks him to sub in for her house sitting gig, he jumps at the chance. Of course, the job comes with some strange requirements. This is a strange mix of fairy tale, horror, dream logic, and maybe time travel. If you're familiar with Kelly Link, this is very much a Kelly Link story. 4 stars
The Algorithm Will See You Now by Justin C. Key: A future psychiatrist takes on a patient who triggers some of her own psychological problems. Kinda torn on this one. This future has very advanced brain mapping technology that can be used to basically edit the brain, regulate emotions, and even remove memories. It's very unsettling, which I'm sure is the point. The psychiatrist and her patient are both Black women, which also brings up the whole history of medical exploitation and abuse of poc. 3 stars
The Cloud Lake Unicorn by Karen Russell: A 40 year old woman unexpectedly becomes pregnant and decides to keep her baby. Around the same time she begins to see and commune with a unicorn that appears in her Oregon neighborhood. The voice in this story is very vivid and the descriptions are quite lovely. I am confused about how you would go about cooking on a giant salt block that you keep in your yard, however. Do you just build a fire under it? Wouldn't it melt in the rain? Also, our protagonist is named Mauve which is either interestingly unique, or disgustingly twee, I haven't decided. 4 stars
Proof by Induction by Jose Pablo Iriarte: Paulie is a mathematician whose father has just died. Luckily, Paulie lives in a future that has the technology to record the last moments of a living brain, allowing people to talk to their loved ones after death. Mostly this is used to find out where the will is, but Paulie uses it to get his dad's help with a famous unsolved theorem. He also works out the issues he and his father had, and grows as a person. I knew how this was going to go when I figured out the premise, but it's really well done and feels very emotionally true. 5 stars
Colors of the Immortal Palette by Caroline M. Yoachim: Mariko is a half Japanese, half French artist's model in Impressionist Paris. Mariko really wants to be an artist herself, but her hardscrabble life leaves her little time to work on her art. She finds a vampire living as an artist, and persuades him to grant her immortal life. I like this, mostly, but it felt pretty similar to a bunch of vampire stories I've read before. Longing for immortality, losing connection to humanity, finding it again. 3 stars
The Future Library by Peng Shepherd: Ingrid is an arborist in a world that's rapidly losing its trees. She meets and falls in love with Claire, a writer in charge of the Future Library Project. (The Future Library Project is a real thing, where authors write a story that won't be published for 100 years, and a tree is planted to become the book after it's harvested.) The world is teetering on the edge of ecological collapse, but Ingrid and Claire carve out a space for themselves taking care of what becomes the last forest in the world. This is a really sad story, with the hint of bittersweet in the end. 5 stars
L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente: This is a modern retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, where Orpheus managed to not look back. Unfortunately, coming back from the dead doesn't fix your relationship problems, especially when your wife is basically a zombie. I love this author. 5 stars
Tripping Through Time by Rich Lason: The unnamed narrator works as a server for the fancy parties that rich people have in time bubbles in the ancient past. The parties take place against the background of battles and natural disasters, but the future itself is wracked by poverty and pandemics. The narrator lives with her immunocompromised mother, and when she gets sick they can't afford for her to go to a hospital. So many of these stories take place in a future where we've really managed to fuck up Earth. There's a lot of justifiable anger in them, but I really like all the different approaches. 5 stars
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han by Maria Dong: A scientist invents a replicator machine, but it begins replicating his grief for his dead wife. As the world is being taken over by his grief, or han, a Korean "urban shaman" has to commune with ghosts to save the world. This is a weird mix of magic and sci-fi, and while I liked some of the details, it didn't really do it for me. 3 stars
Root Rot by Fargo Tbakhi: Our unnamed narrator is dying of alcoholism on Mars. He's so deep in his own self loathing and pain that I had a kind of hard time parsing the world the story takes place in. As best I can tell, he's Palestinian and came to Mars to terraform it, but now I think the terraforming project has halted and at least part of Mars is controlled by Israelis, who have seemingly replicated on Mars the segregation and suppression of Palestinians in Israel. The narrator mentions a procedure that wipes the Arabic language from people's brains, so we're in an obvious dystopia. This one was exceptionally bleak for my taste, but YMMV. 2 stars
Overall this is a very good collection that's given me some new writers to check out. There's a lot of anger, justifiably so in my opinion, in these stories, which seems a bit new to me, but I like it.
10 Steps to a Whole New You by Tonya Liburd: This is a second person story in dialect about a woman who lives in the Caribbean who befriends a "soucouyant" (a sort of Caribbean vampire body snatcher) who changes her. It's not bad, but the story doesn't feel substantial enough for the weight of its structure. 2 stars
The Pizza Boy by Meg Elison: The unnamed narrator is a pizza delivery boy in outer space, working on sourcing ingredients when he's far away from Earth and has to scrounge in strange places. He has to make the pizza, because the pizza is a message. 4 stars
If the Martians Have Magic by P. Djeli Clark: There's a lot going on here. We're in an alternate history with magic and aliens and a kinda steampunk vibe. Minette is a voodoo practitioner in a world where the loa are real and powerful. She's shared her magic/religion with a group of Martians that are hated and feared. I liked this one a lot, as I have the other work by Clark that I've read. 5 stars
Delete Your First Memory for Free by Kel Coleman: Our main character is a painfully anxious young man struggling to enjoy some human interaction without freaking out. He and a group of new friends go to a business that lets them erase memories. He erases a few memories, and feels better. Interesting premise, but very little happens. 2 stars
The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear: An old viking goes looking for his brother to tell him that he's been cleared of a murder charge and can come home. He tracks his brother by magic, finds an old friend who tells him his brother is dead, and has to battle a dragon for its venom, which can be used as a resurrection potion. Lots of very nice detail in this one that really makes the setting come alive, but I don't know, it left me a little cold. 3 stars
The Cold Calculations by Aimee Ogden: This story is a comment on Tom Godwin's The Cold Equations, a pretty famous story from the 1950's. In that story, a girl stows away aboard a relief ship, but her extra weight means the ship can no longer make its target, and she steps out the airlock to save the ship. Lots of people have made lots of good points about the original story; definitely worth the Google. But this is a really hopeful story about the power of anger to make positive change in the world. 5 stars
The Captain and the Quartermaster by C.L Clark: A Captain and a Quartermaster in a rebel army meet, fall in love, and get married during a years long war. The war brings them together, but they come to realize their marriage can't last after the war is over. The fantasy elements of this story are very slight, and mostly come down to a generic war and both Captain and Quartermaster being women. It's fine and sweet, but doesn't really do much for me. 3 stars
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story by Nalo Hopkinson: This seems at first to be a pretty bleak story set after an environmental catastrophe leaves lots of formerly habitable land flooded. Our protagonist Jacquee is flying back to her floating community after having some cybernetic implants put in. But she doesn't wait to fully acclimate, and crashes her plane. The deserted island she finds has unusual biodiversity rarely found in the flooded world, and Jacquee sees the possibility for life to go on and adapt, even in extreme circumstances. Plus, there's a talking augmented pig named Lickchop. 5 stars
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones: I keep reading Stephen Graham Jones, hoping that eventually his work will click for me. He can write some very effective horror, but I always feel like I'm being held at a distance. This is another one with a pretty slight touch of fantasy. Two bullied Native teen boys go to an arcade on Halloween to beat the high score that one of their brothers left on a machine before he went missing. 3 stars
Let All the Children Boogie by Sam J. Miller: Here's another story with just a pinch of sci-fi. Laurie is a teenager in New York state who meets and bonds with a non-binary teen named Fell. Fell doesn't have a great home life, but they and Laurie connect over music from a local radio show called Graveyard Shift. But the show starts to be interrupted by a strange voice that Fell is convinced is a time traveler. A very sweet and heartfelt story that really captures teenage angst. 4 stars
Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link: Andy can't finish his dissertation because his roommate is constantly having sex. When a friend asks him to sub in for her house sitting gig, he jumps at the chance. Of course, the job comes with some strange requirements. This is a strange mix of fairy tale, horror, dream logic, and maybe time travel. If you're familiar with Kelly Link, this is very much a Kelly Link story. 4 stars
The Algorithm Will See You Now by Justin C. Key: A future psychiatrist takes on a patient who triggers some of her own psychological problems. Kinda torn on this one. This future has very advanced brain mapping technology that can be used to basically edit the brain, regulate emotions, and even remove memories. It's very unsettling, which I'm sure is the point. The psychiatrist and her patient are both Black women, which also brings up the whole history of medical exploitation and abuse of poc. 3 stars
The Cloud Lake Unicorn by Karen Russell: A 40 year old woman unexpectedly becomes pregnant and decides to keep her baby. Around the same time she begins to see and commune with a unicorn that appears in her Oregon neighborhood. The voice in this story is very vivid and the descriptions are quite lovely. I am confused about how you would go about cooking on a giant salt block that you keep in your yard, however. Do you just build a fire under it? Wouldn't it melt in the rain? Also, our protagonist is named Mauve which is either interestingly unique, or disgustingly twee, I haven't decided. 4 stars
Proof by Induction by Jose Pablo Iriarte: Paulie is a mathematician whose father has just died. Luckily, Paulie lives in a future that has the technology to record the last moments of a living brain, allowing people to talk to their loved ones after death. Mostly this is used to find out where the will is, but Paulie uses it to get his dad's help with a famous unsolved theorem. He also works out the issues he and his father had, and grows as a person. I knew how this was going to go when I figured out the premise, but it's really well done and feels very emotionally true. 5 stars
Colors of the Immortal Palette by Caroline M. Yoachim: Mariko is a half Japanese, half French artist's model in Impressionist Paris. Mariko really wants to be an artist herself, but her hardscrabble life leaves her little time to work on her art. She finds a vampire living as an artist, and persuades him to grant her immortal life. I like this, mostly, but it felt pretty similar to a bunch of vampire stories I've read before. Longing for immortality, losing connection to humanity, finding it again. 3 stars
The Future Library by Peng Shepherd: Ingrid is an arborist in a world that's rapidly losing its trees. She meets and falls in love with Claire, a writer in charge of the Future Library Project. (The Future Library Project is a real thing, where authors write a story that won't be published for 100 years, and a tree is planted to become the book after it's harvested.) The world is teetering on the edge of ecological collapse, but Ingrid and Claire carve out a space for themselves taking care of what becomes the last forest in the world. This is a really sad story, with the hint of bittersweet in the end. 5 stars
L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente: This is a modern retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, where Orpheus managed to not look back. Unfortunately, coming back from the dead doesn't fix your relationship problems, especially when your wife is basically a zombie. I love this author. 5 stars
Tripping Through Time by Rich Lason: The unnamed narrator works as a server for the fancy parties that rich people have in time bubbles in the ancient past. The parties take place against the background of battles and natural disasters, but the future itself is wracked by poverty and pandemics. The narrator lives with her immunocompromised mother, and when she gets sick they can't afford for her to go to a hospital. So many of these stories take place in a future where we've really managed to fuck up Earth. There's a lot of justifiable anger in them, but I really like all the different approaches. 5 stars
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han by Maria Dong: A scientist invents a replicator machine, but it begins replicating his grief for his dead wife. As the world is being taken over by his grief, or han, a Korean "urban shaman" has to commune with ghosts to save the world. This is a weird mix of magic and sci-fi, and while I liked some of the details, it didn't really do it for me. 3 stars
Root Rot by Fargo Tbakhi: Our unnamed narrator is dying of alcoholism on Mars. He's so deep in his own self loathing and pain that I had a kind of hard time parsing the world the story takes place in. As best I can tell, he's Palestinian and came to Mars to terraform it, but now I think the terraforming project has halted and at least part of Mars is controlled by Israelis, who have seemingly replicated on Mars the segregation and suppression of Palestinians in Israel. The narrator mentions a procedure that wipes the Arabic language from people's brains, so we're in an obvious dystopia. This one was exceptionally bleak for my taste, but YMMV. 2 stars
Overall this is a very good collection that's given me some new writers to check out. There's a lot of anger, justifiably so in my opinion, in these stories, which seems a bit new to me, but I like it.
October 12, 2023
I'm never disappointed in such collections, because they're always great ways to discover new favorite authors!
*1- 10 Steps to a Whole New You by Tonya Liburd: derived from carribean folklore, about a vampire-like creature. liked it, and it was the perfect length as well
*2- The Pizza Boy by Meg Elison: pizza delivery boy in space, and the way his pizzas have a secret message of their own. I liked the universe it was set in
*3- If the Martians have Magic by P. Djeli Clark: I knew I would like this author's style and writing, and though this story just plunges you into this new world withtout much introduction, there's a lot of familiarity. it mixes sci-fi & fantasy, martian invasion and magic, gods and demigods and aliens, taking place in Marrakesh, and a lot of interesting things to say about immigrants, individuality, citizenship, slavery and a lot of other heavy topics
* 4- Delete your First Memory for Free by Kel Coleman: I mean, do they actually remove memories or is it just placebo effect? convincing you and giving you comfort that certain awkward memories are removed from your memory (I think in our minds, it's worse if we remember all our awkward exchanges, more than other people remembering them, because we really tend to grill ourselves over every little tiny thing). I really like anything about memories and selective memories and such.
5- The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear: a typical tale of dragons and puzzles and wagers set in a viking setting. I liked the dragon encounter the most
6- The Cold Calculations by Aimee Ogden: I enjoyed it even though I don't think I really understood it completely. It was a mix of interweived flashes of different people's lives and the unfairness of life, I just don't see how they're all connected. unless they're not meant to be connected? not sure, but I liked it.
* 7- The Captain and the Quartermaster by C. L. Clark: a love story amidst the war. sweet and sad and heartbreaking, withe delicate details of love against the backdrop of war greatly illustrated.
* 8- Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story by Nalo Hopkinson: an interesting climate change crisis post-apocalypse world, where most of the world is flooded. a bit of an open ending that promises hope but also has an eerie undertone. I'm a sucker for an animal companion. I liked the character the usage of dialects adds to the story.
9- I was a Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones: gives off the feeling of stranger things gang in the arcade, or ready player one (the book). I was thrown off, because I knew this was a horror author, but the story was just about two twelve year old native american boys being bullied and finding solace in arcade games. even the sci-fi/fantastical element was very brief. wasn't my favorite.
* 10- Let all the Children Boogie by Sam K. Miller: give me any story with a hint of time travel and I'm in. two damaged kids connecting over their favorite radio station and the weird voice they hear cutting through their favorite songs. it felt sad, melancholic, and hopeful
* 11- Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link: I think this is the only story in the anthology that I've read before, and I just read it last month in Kelly Link's collection, and it was my favorite story in the collection and I think the longest too. it deals with th personification of death and hallucinations and not really knowing what's real and what's not.
* 12- The Algorithm will See you Now by Justin C. Key: This isn't the first story I've read by this author, and the first story merges race and social issue with black mirror-dystopia-ish science fiction. this takes on psychiatry and adds sci-fi algorithm-related elemnts to it, focusing again on young black women. it's an interesting look at how some patients can trigger their doctors and make them confront/remember what they don't want to face anymore.
* 13- The Cloud Lake Unicorn by Karen Russell: I read a short story collection from this author previously, and while I didn't fall in love completely with each story, the concept for each one was intriguing enough and felt unique to me. and this story between a pregnant mom and a unicorn seemed so otherwordly and yet realistic somehow? It's filled with metaphors about motherhood, life, hope, grief and having a support system.
14- Proof by Induction by Jose Pable Iriarte: a man gets to spend some time with his fathers ghost? soul? echo? after his death, and all they do is work on math equations trying to prove something. the concept is great, but math is my nemsis, so I was mostly bored through this story. nut it says something about grief and the ability to move on after losing someone.
* 15- Colors of them Immortal Palette by Caroline M. Yoachim: felt like a novella, with each chapter titled by a certain color, and that color paints (no pin intended) the story. i fell in love from the first chapter. we follow an immortal artist and his model, or at least that's how it starts. The model, Mariko, has grander plans for herself than to just model for hours for other artists than will discard her when they're done with her. It's about women's agency, beauty standards, the differences between male and female artists, the recodgnition of art, and of course, immortality. It dabbles in the art world, so there's a lot of famous classical names here and discussions about the artistic process. gives off the vibe of "The Invisible Life of Addie Larue".
* 16- The Future Library by Peng Shephard: Humans suck but few of them prove to be the best, but are they enough? It's an ecological dystopia, and the last forest standing is facing extinction. We have trees telling their tale, a love story, and the overwhelming love for nature and trees thta might salvage it. I liked the style (written like a letter for the reader)
* 17- L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente: a modern greek myth retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, in the typical lush writing from Valente. It's dark and sad and lonely. This is closer to "comfort me with apples" than to "space opera", which are the only two things I've read by her.
* 18- Tripping Through Time by Rich Larson: trigger warning for death of a family member. discusses classes and how the rich and the poor deal with new technologies differently. felt very realistic even if it dealt with time travel.
* 19- The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han by Maria Dong: this was bizarre and melancholic and I just loved it. a scientist makes a machine that copies anything and the butterfly effects that follow his actions. one of the best short stories I've read.
20- Root Rot by Fargo Tbakhi: I feel for this story and its author, as I always feel for Palestine, but the writing style wasn't to my taste.
*1- 10 Steps to a Whole New You by Tonya Liburd: derived from carribean folklore, about a vampire-like creature. liked it, and it was the perfect length as well
*2- The Pizza Boy by Meg Elison: pizza delivery boy in space, and the way his pizzas have a secret message of their own. I liked the universe it was set in
*3- If the Martians have Magic by P. Djeli Clark: I knew I would like this author's style and writing, and though this story just plunges you into this new world withtout much introduction, there's a lot of familiarity. it mixes sci-fi & fantasy, martian invasion and magic, gods and demigods and aliens, taking place in Marrakesh, and a lot of interesting things to say about immigrants, individuality, citizenship, slavery and a lot of other heavy topics
* 4- Delete your First Memory for Free by Kel Coleman: I mean, do they actually remove memories or is it just placebo effect? convincing you and giving you comfort that certain awkward memories are removed from your memory (I think in our minds, it's worse if we remember all our awkward exchanges, more than other people remembering them, because we really tend to grill ourselves over every little tiny thing). I really like anything about memories and selective memories and such.
5- The Red Mother by Elizabeth Bear: a typical tale of dragons and puzzles and wagers set in a viking setting. I liked the dragon encounter the most
6- The Cold Calculations by Aimee Ogden: I enjoyed it even though I don't think I really understood it completely. It was a mix of interweived flashes of different people's lives and the unfairness of life, I just don't see how they're all connected. unless they're not meant to be connected? not sure, but I liked it.
* 7- The Captain and the Quartermaster by C. L. Clark: a love story amidst the war. sweet and sad and heartbreaking, withe delicate details of love against the backdrop of war greatly illustrated.
* 8- Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story by Nalo Hopkinson: an interesting climate change crisis post-apocalypse world, where most of the world is flooded. a bit of an open ending that promises hope but also has an eerie undertone. I'm a sucker for an animal companion. I liked the character the usage of dialects adds to the story.
9- I was a Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones: gives off the feeling of stranger things gang in the arcade, or ready player one (the book). I was thrown off, because I knew this was a horror author, but the story was just about two twelve year old native american boys being bullied and finding solace in arcade games. even the sci-fi/fantastical element was very brief. wasn't my favorite.
* 10- Let all the Children Boogie by Sam K. Miller: give me any story with a hint of time travel and I'm in. two damaged kids connecting over their favorite radio station and the weird voice they hear cutting through their favorite songs. it felt sad, melancholic, and hopeful
* 11- Skinder's Veil by Kelly Link: I think this is the only story in the anthology that I've read before, and I just read it last month in Kelly Link's collection, and it was my favorite story in the collection and I think the longest too. it deals with th personification of death and hallucinations and not really knowing what's real and what's not.
* 12- The Algorithm will See you Now by Justin C. Key: This isn't the first story I've read by this author, and the first story merges race and social issue with black mirror-dystopia-ish science fiction. this takes on psychiatry and adds sci-fi algorithm-related elemnts to it, focusing again on young black women. it's an interesting look at how some patients can trigger their doctors and make them confront/remember what they don't want to face anymore.
* 13- The Cloud Lake Unicorn by Karen Russell: I read a short story collection from this author previously, and while I didn't fall in love completely with each story, the concept for each one was intriguing enough and felt unique to me. and this story between a pregnant mom and a unicorn seemed so otherwordly and yet realistic somehow? It's filled with metaphors about motherhood, life, hope, grief and having a support system.
14- Proof by Induction by Jose Pable Iriarte: a man gets to spend some time with his fathers ghost? soul? echo? after his death, and all they do is work on math equations trying to prove something. the concept is great, but math is my nemsis, so I was mostly bored through this story. nut it says something about grief and the ability to move on after losing someone.
* 15- Colors of them Immortal Palette by Caroline M. Yoachim: felt like a novella, with each chapter titled by a certain color, and that color paints (no pin intended) the story. i fell in love from the first chapter. we follow an immortal artist and his model, or at least that's how it starts. The model, Mariko, has grander plans for herself than to just model for hours for other artists than will discard her when they're done with her. It's about women's agency, beauty standards, the differences between male and female artists, the recodgnition of art, and of course, immortality. It dabbles in the art world, so there's a lot of famous classical names here and discussions about the artistic process. gives off the vibe of "The Invisible Life of Addie Larue".
* 16- The Future Library by Peng Shephard: Humans suck but few of them prove to be the best, but are they enough? It's an ecological dystopia, and the last forest standing is facing extinction. We have trees telling their tale, a love story, and the overwhelming love for nature and trees thta might salvage it. I liked the style (written like a letter for the reader)
* 17- L'Esprit de L'Escalier by Catherynne M. Valente: a modern greek myth retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, in the typical lush writing from Valente. It's dark and sad and lonely. This is closer to "comfort me with apples" than to "space opera", which are the only two things I've read by her.
* 18- Tripping Through Time by Rich Larson: trigger warning for death of a family member. discusses classes and how the rich and the poor deal with new technologies differently. felt very realistic even if it dealt with time travel.
* 19- The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han by Maria Dong: this was bizarre and melancholic and I just loved it. a scientist makes a machine that copies anything and the butterfly effects that follow his actions. one of the best short stories I've read.
20- Root Rot by Fargo Tbakhi: I feel for this story and its author, as I always feel for Palestine, but the writing style wasn't to my taste.
January 3, 2023
Pretty good collection, only two stories that didn't resonate with me in some way. Also included several new-to-me authors. I'd only read one of the included stories in a prior collection .
June 14, 2023
This is only the second volume of this series that I've read, and I was puzzled by my reaction to the Gabaldon edition that I'd read before. This edition was puzzling in a different way. I was struck by the number of downbeat endings or status quo endings in the first few stories, and I wondered whether this could be attributed to the pandemic. (I have no idea, really, but it's a question.) So, I kept track of the ending trajectories.
If you've read my anthology reviews, you may know that from time to time I keep count of the endings, because when you teach writing it's good to have facts to base your opinions on. And, fairly reliably, Literary stories have 80-90% downbeat or status quo endings, and the small remainder are upbeat endings. Science Fiction and Fantasy collections reveal almost exactly the opposite: 80-85% upbeat endings, and 15% for everything else.
As I say, when I realized I'd already seen more downbeat endings than normal, and was only partway into the collection, I decided to keep track. Note that the statistics can be influenced by what John Joseph Adams is giving to the guest editor to choose from, or by Rebecca Roanhorse's personal preferences, or by what the writers were doing that year. It's some of each, I'm sure, but the results were not aligned with what I've seen in the past, in other anthologies.
-- 45%, less than half, had upbeat endings. And I'd really subdivide that between 30% upbeat and 15% upward-trending.
-- 25% were "status quo" endings, where things were pretty much as bad as they started. But three of those stories had slight minor local "pluses" for the characters.
-- 30% were downbeat endings, though here, too, it wasn't an unmixed bag. One is downbeat for the original protagonist, but upbeat for the demon who takes them over, as it were. Two had very minor local victories in the midst of some disaster.
This is unlike any Year's Best anthology analysis I've ever done. It suggests a Literary aesthetic in an SF/F selection. Very interesting. I will have to do another count next year.
Whatever the aesthetic, it's a strong collection. There's a typically well-done Elizabeth Bear story, and there's a very amusing addition to the ongoing thread of "The Cold Equations" responses, this one called "The Cold Calculations" and written by Aimee Ogden.
If you're unfamiliar with this bit of history, the year I was allegedly born, 1954, saw the publication of the short story "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. It was a controversial story even before it was published (it has its own wikipedia page, you can check there), basically because it has a tragic downbeat ending in a genre that was all about engineers and astronauts conquering everything. The theme of the story was that space travel was risky, and if you exceeded the built-in safety factors, toast would ensue. People have been arguing about this story ever since. It has also generated some very fine response stories. The most memorable for me is "The Cool Equations" by Deborah Wessell, in 1992's Universe 2, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber. That one is a sly riff, and I can recommend it. This one -- and I don't want to spoil it -- is nestled in the "anti" school, without undermining the original story. Very, very clever and unexpected.
I was a little disappointed by Karen Russell's "The Cloud Lake Unicorn" (being a fan of Russell). The story is quite interesting, but it is riddled with sloppy errors. I guess the Conjunctions editors aren't much for detail.
The reliable Kelly Link contributed "Skinder's Veil" that got a "Frustrating, but well-written" marginal note from me. Hmmm.
"Let All the Children Boogie" is my favorite of the collection, Sam J. Miller being the perpetrator of that one. I also gave extra approval to Justin Key's story, José Pablo Iriarte's story, Peng Shepherd's story, Catherynne Valente's story, and Maria Dong's "The Frighteningly Impossible Weight of Han." Rich Larson's "Tripping Through Time" is excellent, but I noted that if I were writing it, (spoiler alert) I might not have gone for the mass murder ending.
Fargo Tbakhi's "Root Rot" is also strong, though it ends the collection on a downer.
Strong writing, interesting selection. Worth checking out. There are voices in here that are new to me, which is also a plus.
If you've read my anthology reviews, you may know that from time to time I keep count of the endings, because when you teach writing it's good to have facts to base your opinions on. And, fairly reliably, Literary stories have 80-90% downbeat or status quo endings, and the small remainder are upbeat endings. Science Fiction and Fantasy collections reveal almost exactly the opposite: 80-85% upbeat endings, and 15% for everything else.
As I say, when I realized I'd already seen more downbeat endings than normal, and was only partway into the collection, I decided to keep track. Note that the statistics can be influenced by what John Joseph Adams is giving to the guest editor to choose from, or by Rebecca Roanhorse's personal preferences, or by what the writers were doing that year. It's some of each, I'm sure, but the results were not aligned with what I've seen in the past, in other anthologies.
-- 45%, less than half, had upbeat endings. And I'd really subdivide that between 30% upbeat and 15% upward-trending.
-- 25% were "status quo" endings, where things were pretty much as bad as they started. But three of those stories had slight minor local "pluses" for the characters.
-- 30% were downbeat endings, though here, too, it wasn't an unmixed bag. One is downbeat for the original protagonist, but upbeat for the demon who takes them over, as it were. Two had very minor local victories in the midst of some disaster.
This is unlike any Year's Best anthology analysis I've ever done. It suggests a Literary aesthetic in an SF/F selection. Very interesting. I will have to do another count next year.
Whatever the aesthetic, it's a strong collection. There's a typically well-done Elizabeth Bear story, and there's a very amusing addition to the ongoing thread of "The Cold Equations" responses, this one called "The Cold Calculations" and written by Aimee Ogden.
If you're unfamiliar with this bit of history, the year I was allegedly born, 1954, saw the publication of the short story "The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. It was a controversial story even before it was published (it has its own wikipedia page, you can check there), basically because it has a tragic downbeat ending in a genre that was all about engineers and astronauts conquering everything. The theme of the story was that space travel was risky, and if you exceeded the built-in safety factors, toast would ensue. People have been arguing about this story ever since. It has also generated some very fine response stories. The most memorable for me is "The Cool Equations" by Deborah Wessell, in 1992's Universe 2, edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber. That one is a sly riff, and I can recommend it. This one -- and I don't want to spoil it -- is nestled in the "anti" school, without undermining the original story. Very, very clever and unexpected.
I was a little disappointed by Karen Russell's "The Cloud Lake Unicorn" (being a fan of Russell). The story is quite interesting, but it is riddled with sloppy errors. I guess the Conjunctions editors aren't much for detail.
The reliable Kelly Link contributed "Skinder's Veil" that got a "Frustrating, but well-written" marginal note from me. Hmmm.
"Let All the Children Boogie" is my favorite of the collection, Sam J. Miller being the perpetrator of that one. I also gave extra approval to Justin Key's story, José Pablo Iriarte's story, Peng Shepherd's story, Catherynne Valente's story, and Maria Dong's "The Frighteningly Impossible Weight of Han." Rich Larson's "Tripping Through Time" is excellent, but I noted that if I were writing it, (spoiler alert) I might not have gone for the mass murder ending.
Fargo Tbakhi's "Root Rot" is also strong, though it ends the collection on a downer.
Strong writing, interesting selection. Worth checking out. There are voices in here that are new to me, which is also a plus.
January 28, 2023
some hits, some misses. majority hits i would say. didn’t care for the unicorn pregnancy story though
December 19, 2023
A recent purchase from Sherman's. Gotta love those sci-fi short stories. Been reading them since the fifties. The only names I recognize are Karen Russell and Catherynne M. Valente. I like both of them. The editor's name rings a vague bell too. Usually when I read an SS collection I account for every story, but I likely won't be doing that with this one. Just a few comments here and there.
"The Captain and the Quartermaster" is notable for featuring a theme of gay love in warfare. There's a story that Mary Renault references about a brigade(?) of gay Greek soldiers who sacrifice themselves in battle. Anyway, I can't think of any other reason for it being in this collection. Where's the sci-fi??????
"I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" - Sounded like "Ender's Game" to me. Same with "Ready Player One"...
"Let All the Children Boogie" - Written by a Bowie lover. Another LBGTQ-themed story. Kinda sweet, actually.
- What's a "rear headlight"? Does a car battery eventually die when an engine idles for hours?
"The Algorithm Will See You Now" = Another tale with gay relationship content. Reminds of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
"The Cloud Lake Unicorn" by Karen Russell - The Russell prose is by turns a treat and a trial.
""'Esprit de L'Escalier(The spirit of the staircase - what that means is up for grabs according to WIKI. By Catherynne M. Valente = a fellow Mainer and a writing favorite of mine. As "predicted", the writing is a treat, with only one unfortunate "whip around" to spoil the mood a little. Can't say with any conviction just what the story's all about. Fun to read, though.
- Mariko is a Japanese anime' character.
- Archibald Motley = Late Af-Am visual artist. Georgia Douglas Johnson = Late mixed race
American poet.
- "Ship of Theseus" has come up twice recently in separate books = a recent Indian film.
And done now with a book that I assume reflects recent trends in Sci Fi writing. As for me, I still prefer to ride the good ship "Space Opera", with Jack Vance at the helm.
- 3.5* rounds down to 3* for the new breed.
"The Captain and the Quartermaster" is notable for featuring a theme of gay love in warfare. There's a story that Mary Renault references about a brigade(?) of gay Greek soldiers who sacrifice themselves in battle. Anyway, I can't think of any other reason for it being in this collection. Where's the sci-fi??????
"I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" - Sounded like "Ender's Game" to me. Same with "Ready Player One"...
"Let All the Children Boogie" - Written by a Bowie lover. Another LBGTQ-themed story. Kinda sweet, actually.
- What's a "rear headlight"? Does a car battery eventually die when an engine idles for hours?
"The Algorithm Will See You Now" = Another tale with gay relationship content. Reminds of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
"The Cloud Lake Unicorn" by Karen Russell - The Russell prose is by turns a treat and a trial.
""'Esprit de L'Escalier(The spirit of the staircase - what that means is up for grabs according to WIKI. By Catherynne M. Valente = a fellow Mainer and a writing favorite of mine. As "predicted", the writing is a treat, with only one unfortunate "whip around" to spoil the mood a little. Can't say with any conviction just what the story's all about. Fun to read, though.
- Mariko is a Japanese anime' character.
- Archibald Motley = Late Af-Am visual artist. Georgia Douglas Johnson = Late mixed race
American poet.
- "Ship of Theseus" has come up twice recently in separate books = a recent Indian film.
And done now with a book that I assume reflects recent trends in Sci Fi writing. As for me, I still prefer to ride the good ship "Space Opera", with Jack Vance at the helm.
- 3.5* rounds down to 3* for the new breed.
December 4, 2022
What a disappointing collection. There was exactly one story I liked (and I really liked it)—"The Pizza Boy" by Meg Elison. What an outstanding little sci-fi short that demonstrates just what a short story can do.
December 9, 2022
This is a collection of twenty stories of science fiction, fantasy, and bit of horror, a Year's Best collection with John Joseph Adams as the series editor, and Rebecca Roanhorse as this year's guest editor.
It's a lively and interesting collection of stories, including the ones that are not to my taste. It includes writers of a wide variety of backgrounds, with the diverse characters you, or at least I, like to see.
Some of my favorites here:
If the Martians Have Magic, by P. Djèli Clarke--In a rather different history than ours, H.G. Wells's Martians invaded--several times. The last time, the magic practitioners of Earth united to kick them out permanently. But three Martians were left behind, and taken prisoner. A generation later, the Council that mediates all things magical and is also responsible for the Martians is caught in a conflict over what to do with. Some feel they need to be killed. Not everyone agrees, but the only real advocate they have realizes she can only win by proving the Martians have magic, too, and are protected by the same law that protects all other magic practitioners. Unfortunately, it looks like she won't have time. Several magical traditions are represented, and the Martians' advocate is from the Caribbean tradition.
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story, by Nalo Hopkinson--Global climate change wasn't halted or even slowed down, and the waters rose much faster than expected. Many people are living on artificial, floating habitats, including our protagonist, who has just had new cyber devices inserted into her head. Being a little headstrong, she doesn't stick around on land to properly acclimate to her new enhancements before heading home. This leads to ditching in the water, and we get a closeup look at why she's been commenting on how bad things are, and the irreversibility of it. But when she washes up on a bit of land that hasn't gone under yet, she encounters something that might mean there's hope after all.
The Red Mother, by Elizabeth Bear--This is a lovely story of an aging Viking going looking for his exiled brother, to tell him he's been cleared of the murder charge that got him exiled. When he reaches the village where his tracking magic took him, he meets an old friend, who tells him his brother and others are dead, and the only way to save them is to go fight the dragon that's harassing the village. It has an unexpected ending.
The Pizza Boy, by Meg Ellison--The pizza boy is delivering pizza to ships on both sides of an interstellar way. It's very important that he have mushrooms available for certain orders, and the reason takes a while to become apparent. Intrigue and ingenuity. And mushrooms.
Those are my favorites, and there are other stories that I love in this anthology. There are also others I'm not so fond of, but they're well-written, and will be someone else's favorites. No bad picks in here.
Recommended.
I receive a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
It's a lively and interesting collection of stories, including the ones that are not to my taste. It includes writers of a wide variety of backgrounds, with the diverse characters you, or at least I, like to see.
Some of my favorites here:
If the Martians Have Magic, by P. Djèli Clarke--In a rather different history than ours, H.G. Wells's Martians invaded--several times. The last time, the magic practitioners of Earth united to kick them out permanently. But three Martians were left behind, and taken prisoner. A generation later, the Council that mediates all things magical and is also responsible for the Martians is caught in a conflict over what to do with. Some feel they need to be killed. Not everyone agrees, but the only real advocate they have realizes she can only win by proving the Martians have magic, too, and are protected by the same law that protects all other magic practitioners. Unfortunately, it looks like she won't have time. Several magical traditions are represented, and the Martians' advocate is from the Caribbean tradition.
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story, by Nalo Hopkinson--Global climate change wasn't halted or even slowed down, and the waters rose much faster than expected. Many people are living on artificial, floating habitats, including our protagonist, who has just had new cyber devices inserted into her head. Being a little headstrong, she doesn't stick around on land to properly acclimate to her new enhancements before heading home. This leads to ditching in the water, and we get a closeup look at why she's been commenting on how bad things are, and the irreversibility of it. But when she washes up on a bit of land that hasn't gone under yet, she encounters something that might mean there's hope after all.
The Red Mother, by Elizabeth Bear--This is a lovely story of an aging Viking going looking for his exiled brother, to tell him he's been cleared of the murder charge that got him exiled. When he reaches the village where his tracking magic took him, he meets an old friend, who tells him his brother and others are dead, and the only way to save them is to go fight the dragon that's harassing the village. It has an unexpected ending.
The Pizza Boy, by Meg Ellison--The pizza boy is delivering pizza to ships on both sides of an interstellar way. It's very important that he have mushrooms available for certain orders, and the reason takes a while to become apparent. Intrigue and ingenuity. And mushrooms.
Those are my favorites, and there are other stories that I love in this anthology. There are also others I'm not so fond of, but they're well-written, and will be someone else's favorites. No bad picks in here.
Recommended.
I receive a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
November 21, 2022
Have sci-fi and fantasy died?
This has to be some of the worst material I have read in a long time. I truly believe I have witnessed the death of good writing. I have read almost all the science fiction and fantasy out there, and this little collection, for the most part, reads like amateurish offerings. I can't believe I got rooked into paying twelve bucks for this. These new writers are terrible! Doesn't anyone know how to write anymore? Buyer beware.
This has to be some of the worst material I have read in a long time. I truly believe I have witnessed the death of good writing. I have read almost all the science fiction and fantasy out there, and this little collection, for the most part, reads like amateurish offerings. I can't believe I got rooked into paying twelve bucks for this. These new writers are terrible! Doesn't anyone know how to write anymore? Buyer beware.
May 24, 2023
Most of these stories were aggressively meh. "Colors of the Immortal Palette" was such a banger, Kelly Link never misses, and I enjoyed "The Red Mother," too. Given the number of big names in this anthology, kind of a disappointment overall.
December 2, 2022
Are these stories *really* the best in the last year? I think not.
February 8, 2023
A hit or miss selection. Some I quite enjoyed, others were very blah.
March 10, 2023
Overall a solid collection.
Like any anthology, some stories are stronger than others.
Will come back later with my notes on which were my favourites.
Like any anthology, some stories are stronger than others.
Will come back later with my notes on which were my favourites.
May 12, 2025
Good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2022
I went and saw the series editor (John Joseph Adams), this year’s editor (Rebecca Roanhorse) and last year’s editor (Veronica Roth) at the American Writers Museum a few weeks ago. It was really interesting to hear the process by which the stories are picked—JJA gets it down to a list of 80 and then sends them to the yearly editor with authors’ names removed! Also found out that JJA is also the editor of that great trilogy I read this summer “The Dystopia Triptych.”
I gave this five stars because even if I didn’t love EVERY story, they’re so worth reading and someone else probably loves all the stories I didn’t.
.
My very very favorite was “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherynne M Valente (it’s on Tor.com so you can read it for free).
I also loved:
The Captain and the Quartermaster by CL Clark
I Was a Ternage Space Jockey, by Stephen Graham Jones
Let All the Children Boogie, by Sam J Miller
The Future Library by Peng Sheperd
Tripping Through Time by Rich Larson
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han, by Maria Dong
I gave this five stars because even if I didn’t love EVERY story, they’re so worth reading and someone else probably loves all the stories I didn’t.
.
My very very favorite was “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” by Catherynne M Valente (it’s on Tor.com so you can read it for free).
I also loved:
The Captain and the Quartermaster by CL Clark
I Was a Ternage Space Jockey, by Stephen Graham Jones
Let All the Children Boogie, by Sam J Miller
The Future Library by Peng Sheperd
Tripping Through Time by Rich Larson
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han, by Maria Dong
January 17, 2025
Damn, this was a pretty great collection. Roanhorse gets me and it's a damn shame what happened to her. Stand outs: "Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story" by Nalo Hopkins; "Let All the Children Boogie" by Sam J. Miller; "Skinder's Veil" by Kelly Link; "The Algorithm Will See You Now" by Justin C. Key; "Proof by Induction" by Jose Pablo Iriarte; "Colors of the Immortal Palette" by Caroline M. Yoachim; "L'Esprit de L'Escalier" by Catherynne M. Valente; and "Tripping Through Time" by Rich Larson.
January 29, 2023
Been a few decades; sort of surprising to see that people are still writing about radio messages from the future, video games that become reality (or do they???), and The Corporations Did Something Bad in just the same way as they were in the 80s.
February 9, 2023
A very wide variety of stories. Enough of them caught my interest for a 4 star rating.
June 24, 2023
The standouts are very strong and there were only a couple of duds. My favorites included "Skinder's Vale," "The Cold Calculations," and "I Was A Teenage Space Jockey."
November 8, 2023
Rating just for I Was A Teenage Space Jockey by Stephen Graham Jones, heard on LeVar Burton Reads podcast --loved it & would like to read more from this collection.
August 5, 2024
Like any collection, some standouts and some just fine. Entertaining for sure—and one of the better collections since it was curated by Roanhorse.
June 18, 2023
Overall, a lot of forgettable short stories. For a science fiction and fantasy collection, a lot of these were simply a general short story with the thinnest veneer of something scifi or fantasy on top. I think a lot of this can be chalked up to the guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse having completely different taste than I do.
10 Steps to a Whole New You - 1/5 - Completely forgettable. A really weak start to the collection.
Pizza Boy - 3/5 - An interesting concept but there just is no meat on the bones here. I need there to be a little bit more of world building for it to come altogether.
If the Martians Have Magic - 2/5 - Again, an interesting concept but it hints towards this sprawling world that I never really understand. It also had way too much interpersonal drama for characters that you pickup and drop within a few pages.
Delete Your First Memory for Free - 4/5 - Unlike the two previous entries, I think this one does not hint at larger world building and that's for the better. While not a new concept, I think it's a nice introspective look on what deleting memories would look like in practice. It's kind of a modern 'Total Recall'.
The Red Mother - 3/5 - Kind of a baffling story that has fun moments. While not for me, I could see that it's well put together and has layers. And I love layers.
The Cold Calculations - 4/5 - One of my favorite of the book, if Balto could be crossed with Das Kapital, if that makes sense.
The Captain and the Quartermaster - 2/5 - I don't really understand how this is in a scifi/fantasy collection. It appears to be describing a relationship in a fictional war but I don't think that's enough to really classify as fantasy. It's a great example of the collection in general being full of stories with the thinnest scifi/fantasy elements on top.
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story - 2/5 - This definitely gives off 'Neuromancer' vibes (which I enjoyed) and also does a decent job at world building, so those are both definite positives. But the story itself just isn't that interesting after the plane crash.
I was a Teenage Space Jockey - n/a - Again, it doesn't really feel like a science fiction story as much as a kid dreaming about saving his brother.
Let All the Children Boogie - 3/5 - Not for me, but it told a compelling beginning to end narrative that makes the reader wonder.
Skinder's Veil - 5/5 - By far the best story in the collection. A weird, fun story in a writing style I really enjoyed.
The Algorithm Will See You Now - 3/5 - Kind of felt like a Black Mirror episode but I kind of had a really hard time following what was going on between the characters at any given time.
The Cloud Lake Unicorn - 1/5 - I really did not enjoy this; again, thin veneer of fantasy on a normal story.
Proof by Induction - 3/5 - Felt like a Ken Liu short story in content (which I really enjoy)but went flat in style. Seemed like a lot of listing off of mathematical proofs.
Colors of the Immortal Palette - 3/5 - An interesting read regarding personal growth but like many of the stories in the collection, kind of no ending.
The Future Library - 4/5 - My second favorite story. It had the strongest world building of the entire collection, and characters you cared about. It would have been a 5/5 for me except for the ending; it just felt out of the blue to me.
L'Espirit de L'Escalier - n/a - If you do not remember Greek mythology (and really the deep cuts) you have no chance of appreciating this story. I thought I knew enough to get by on mythology references but this story proved me wrong.
Tripping Through Time - 4/5 - My third favorite in the collection with great world building. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer and there had been a greater build up.
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han - 4/5 - I liked this one, even if I had a hard time deciphering what was happening at any given time. The writing style was enjoyable even if the story itself was hard for me to follow.
Root Rot -1/5 - A weak conclusion to mirror the weak starting point. This one was extremely hard to follow at any point and I'm not sure what the story was at all.
10 Steps to a Whole New You - 1/5 - Completely forgettable. A really weak start to the collection.
Pizza Boy - 3/5 - An interesting concept but there just is no meat on the bones here. I need there to be a little bit more of world building for it to come altogether.
If the Martians Have Magic - 2/5 - Again, an interesting concept but it hints towards this sprawling world that I never really understand. It also had way too much interpersonal drama for characters that you pickup and drop within a few pages.
Delete Your First Memory for Free - 4/5 - Unlike the two previous entries, I think this one does not hint at larger world building and that's for the better. While not a new concept, I think it's a nice introspective look on what deleting memories would look like in practice. It's kind of a modern 'Total Recall'.
The Red Mother - 3/5 - Kind of a baffling story that has fun moments. While not for me, I could see that it's well put together and has layers. And I love layers.
The Cold Calculations - 4/5 - One of my favorite of the book, if Balto could be crossed with Das Kapital, if that makes sense.
The Captain and the Quartermaster - 2/5 - I don't really understand how this is in a scifi/fantasy collection. It appears to be describing a relationship in a fictional war but I don't think that's enough to really classify as fantasy. It's a great example of the collection in general being full of stories with the thinnest scifi/fantasy elements on top.
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story - 2/5 - This definitely gives off 'Neuromancer' vibes (which I enjoyed) and also does a decent job at world building, so those are both definite positives. But the story itself just isn't that interesting after the plane crash.
I was a Teenage Space Jockey - n/a - Again, it doesn't really feel like a science fiction story as much as a kid dreaming about saving his brother.
Let All the Children Boogie - 3/5 - Not for me, but it told a compelling beginning to end narrative that makes the reader wonder.
Skinder's Veil - 5/5 - By far the best story in the collection. A weird, fun story in a writing style I really enjoyed.
The Algorithm Will See You Now - 3/5 - Kind of felt like a Black Mirror episode but I kind of had a really hard time following what was going on between the characters at any given time.
The Cloud Lake Unicorn - 1/5 - I really did not enjoy this; again, thin veneer of fantasy on a normal story.
Proof by Induction - 3/5 - Felt like a Ken Liu short story in content (which I really enjoy)but went flat in style. Seemed like a lot of listing off of mathematical proofs.
Colors of the Immortal Palette - 3/5 - An interesting read regarding personal growth but like many of the stories in the collection, kind of no ending.
The Future Library - 4/5 - My second favorite story. It had the strongest world building of the entire collection, and characters you cared about. It would have been a 5/5 for me except for the ending; it just felt out of the blue to me.
L'Espirit de L'Escalier - n/a - If you do not remember Greek mythology (and really the deep cuts) you have no chance of appreciating this story. I thought I knew enough to get by on mythology references but this story proved me wrong.
Tripping Through Time - 4/5 - My third favorite in the collection with great world building. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer and there had been a greater build up.
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han - 4/5 - I liked this one, even if I had a hard time deciphering what was happening at any given time. The writing style was enjoyable even if the story itself was hard for me to follow.
Root Rot -1/5 - A weak conclusion to mirror the weak starting point. This one was extremely hard to follow at any point and I'm not sure what the story was at all.
June 9, 2023
I loved it!
Favorites were:
10 Steps to a Whole New You
The Red Mother
The Cold Calculations
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey
Let All the Children Boogie
Skinder's Veil
The Algorithm Will See You Now
The Cloud Lake Unicorn
Colors of the Immortal Palette
Tripping Through Time
Favorites were:
10 Steps to a Whole New You
The Red Mother
The Cold Calculations
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey
Let All the Children Boogie
Skinder's Veil
The Algorithm Will See You Now
The Cloud Lake Unicorn
Colors of the Immortal Palette
Tripping Through Time
October 8, 2022
ARC provided by Mariner Books via NetGalley.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of 20 short stories. As in any collection, some were stronger than others (and some more to my own personal taste), but there were none I disliked, and several I loved. Rebecca Roanhorse (the guest editor this year) did well in choosing and arranging the stories such that they had surprising resonances with each other. This collection is brimming with fantastic work by POC and queer authors, and some authors I’d never encountered before. My reading has been overwhelmingly focused on novels the last few years, so I’ve been missing out on the wealth of short stories out there! In looking up the sources of some of my favorites in this collection, my love for Tor.com (which has a FANTASTIC e-newsletter/articles/free monthly ebook/original short stories) has only grown, and I was made aware of Clarkesworld (a monthly magazine with 6 to 8 original pieces of fiction available for free on their website) and Apex magazine (which also has some free stories).
My three favorites, in order of their appearance, are:
“The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com; I’ve never read anything by her before but I will definitely be remedying that immediately. Great atmosphere and a novel’s worth of character- and worldbuilding in a small package. Iceland-esque setting, contains dragons and riddles)
“Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller (Tor.com; I read a collection of his for the first time earlier this year and think this is some of his best work. Small town New York setting, friendships forged through music, mysterious stuff happening on the radio)
“Skinder’s Veil” by Kelly Link (When Things Get Dark; I am obsessed with this one and unfortunately can’t find an online version to send it to everyone I think might like it too. Link apparently has several story collections that I will be reading immediately, and also has a novel on the way—amazing. Struggling grad student, weird house-sitting gig, things that unexpectedly really creeped me out, but in a good way)
Some other notes:
“10 Steps to a Whole New You” (Fantasy) by Tonya Liburd and “The Cold Calculations” (Clarkesworld) by Aimee Ogden did the most with the short story form.
“If the Martians Have Magic” (Uncanny) by P. Djèlí Clark, “The Algorithm Will See You Now” (Vital: The Future of Healthcare) by Jusin C. Key, “The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han” (khōréō) by Maria Dong, and “Root Rot” (Apex) by Fargo Tbakhi each have a lot to praise but I especially appreciated their interrogation of loss and trauma.
“Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) by Nalo Hopkinson and “The Future Library” (Tor.com) by Peng Shepherd were the main stories dealing with climate change and the future of our planet, which seems like a small number in a collection of 20 published in the times we live in, but they really packed such a punch that it didn’t feel like the collection was lacking on the matter.
Other stories not noted were still great, but I have said enough, read the collection and find out what they’re about!
This book is due to be released in the US on November 1, 2022.
I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of 20 short stories. As in any collection, some were stronger than others (and some more to my own personal taste), but there were none I disliked, and several I loved. Rebecca Roanhorse (the guest editor this year) did well in choosing and arranging the stories such that they had surprising resonances with each other. This collection is brimming with fantastic work by POC and queer authors, and some authors I’d never encountered before. My reading has been overwhelmingly focused on novels the last few years, so I’ve been missing out on the wealth of short stories out there! In looking up the sources of some of my favorites in this collection, my love for Tor.com (which has a FANTASTIC e-newsletter/articles/free monthly ebook/original short stories) has only grown, and I was made aware of Clarkesworld (a monthly magazine with 6 to 8 original pieces of fiction available for free on their website) and Apex magazine (which also has some free stories).
My three favorites, in order of their appearance, are:
“The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com; I’ve never read anything by her before but I will definitely be remedying that immediately. Great atmosphere and a novel’s worth of character- and worldbuilding in a small package. Iceland-esque setting, contains dragons and riddles)
“Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller (Tor.com; I read a collection of his for the first time earlier this year and think this is some of his best work. Small town New York setting, friendships forged through music, mysterious stuff happening on the radio)
“Skinder’s Veil” by Kelly Link (When Things Get Dark; I am obsessed with this one and unfortunately can’t find an online version to send it to everyone I think might like it too. Link apparently has several story collections that I will be reading immediately, and also has a novel on the way—amazing. Struggling grad student, weird house-sitting gig, things that unexpectedly really creeped me out, but in a good way)
Some other notes:
“10 Steps to a Whole New You” (Fantasy) by Tonya Liburd and “The Cold Calculations” (Clarkesworld) by Aimee Ogden did the most with the short story form.
“If the Martians Have Magic” (Uncanny) by P. Djèlí Clark, “The Algorithm Will See You Now” (Vital: The Future of Healthcare) by Jusin C. Key, “The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han” (khōréō) by Maria Dong, and “Root Rot” (Apex) by Fargo Tbakhi each have a lot to praise but I especially appreciated their interrogation of loss and trauma.
“Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) by Nalo Hopkinson and “The Future Library” (Tor.com) by Peng Shepherd were the main stories dealing with climate change and the future of our planet, which seems like a small number in a collection of 20 published in the times we live in, but they really packed such a punch that it didn’t feel like the collection was lacking on the matter.
Other stories not noted were still great, but I have said enough, read the collection and find out what they’re about!
This book is due to be released in the US on November 1, 2022.
January 6, 2023
A real disappointment. Most stories are fantasy. Few of the rest are really SF.
September 15, 2022
I wasn't that impressed with this collection. There are some gems, certainly, and "The Cold Calculations" would be outstanding in any collection, but a great many of them just didn't have much going on. I'm the kind of reader who is interested in who did what, why, and what happened. Give me interesting people doing interesting things and I'm happy. I don't need flowery prose. This is a collection where either the prose is outstanding, bordering on poetry, or the worldbuilding is exceptional, but it's either trite plots we've seen millions of times, or it's nearly devoid of plot. "10 Steps to a Whole New You" offers nothing by way of interesting characters, or anyone doing anything interesting really. But the writing style is pure art. If you want an outstanding turn of phrase, you'll love it.
I don't feel all of them entirely fit the genre, or at least that they are truly representational of the genre. To me, romance has as the driving element two charactes falling in love. If they do that on an alient planet, it's not science fiction, it's romance. A mystery has as the driving element someone gathering clues to solve a crime. If the crime is the murder of the dragon dung shoveler, it's not fantasy, it's a mystery. Science fiction has, as the driving element, something that is possible but not yet real. "Broad Duddy Water" is definitely science fiction. Fantasy has, as its driving element, something magical and impossible. "The Red Mother" is definitely fantasy. Some of these contain elements of science fiction or fantasy, but the driving element fits neither. "I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" has, as the driving element, a boy making peace with his elder brother escaping their abusive household. Which is that? Science fiction or fantasy? I'd argue neither. It is literary fiction with a trapping of fantasy. While some are excellent and would belong in The Best American Short Storis collection, and I'd argue that's a good place for IWaTSJ, I'm not sure they belong in this genre's collection. They are almost all heavy-handed political stories, which would not normally be an issue, but it seems here genre was sacrificed for message as was quality of story-telling.
I rated each story individually, and my rating of the book is the simple average.
10 Steps to a Whole New You -- At the core, this is the story of someone bit by a vampire, with about as much structure and substance as might be composed by an average fifth grader. The use of dialect that reads false and artistic flourishes attempts, and in my opinion fails, to save this peice from banality. It was the weakest of the collection. (1 star)
The Pizza Boy -- This is a side adventure in a sprawling interplanetary rebellion. I liked it, drilling into the detail of the small instances of a bit player in a larger story. (4 stars)
If Martians Have Magic -- A university professor needs to save a group of civilians from the cruelty, hate, and viciousness of a war-ravaged victor. Both sides make so much sense, this story packs a lot of power into a short piece. (5 stars)
Delete Your First Memory for Free -- A reversal of the Phillip K Dick Story, "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale". This explores how our memories, even the minor yet unpleasant ones, can shape us. (5 stars)
The Red Mother -- Just a Viking Mage delivering a message. I had an irrational love of this because Elizabeth Bear seems to honestly know how to spin yarn on a drop spindle. (5 stars)
The Cold Calculations -- The most powerful of the bunch. What if the situations beyond our control aren't? What is the price of a human life, and who gets to set it? (5 stars)
The Captain and the Quartermaster -- This was a basic tale of the workings of an army between the fights. It is told out of order, and the characters are charming, but there is little new to be found here. (2 stars)
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story -- Much like the first story, more style than substance. Jacquee botches going home from a doctor's visit in a post-apocalyptic world. At least there's a talking pig. (1 star)
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey -- Native American kids facing bullies and abusive households find solace in an old-style arcade. For fantasy, 1 star. For literary fiction 5 stars. I'm taking the average. (3 stars)
Let All the Children Boogie -- This one seemed like it had so much promise, and then it ended on a whimper that not only left more questions than answers, but left the wrong questions, such as "why?" and "who cares?" It's the story of two kids who hear a mysterious voice on the radio and follow it to -- I won't spoil it. It's so good until the end. (3 stars)
Skinder's Veil - This starts off as the story of a PhD student who clearly does not know what a library is and who lives with a horrible roommate. It takes a while to have a slight brush with fantasy, but it runs far more literary. By the time it gets near fantasy, things rapidly devolve to where the protagonist is doing things, not because they make sense, but because the plot calls for them. There is no recovering from that. (1 star)
The Algorithm Will See You Now -- A psychiatrist works through her own issues while treating a patient. And there are computers. (1 star)
The Cloud Lake Unicorn -- A woman has a baby. That's the only driving thing anyone acts on, so that's the entire plot. The rest is literary dressing. But it is such good literary dressing I have to elevate the rating from what the mere plot would deserve. (3 stars)
Proof by Induction -- This was a finalist for this year's Hugo award. Failing professor does math with his dead father. The characters are cool though. (3 stars)
Colors of the Immortal Palette -- An artist seeks immortality -- literally and figuratively -- and to find her place in a world where she is far from the default. This is a brilliant reimagining of the vampire lore and a powerful tour through the life of a fascinating character. (5 stars)
The Future Library -- A combination romance and save the trees story set in a dystopian future. This feels structurally awkward. The character is more an observer than an agent. It was compelling at times more for the knee jerk reaction to climate change than the particulars of this story. The logic of the protagonist's actions fails any attempt at analysis. She wants to prove something false, by providing absolute evidence it is true. (1 star)
L'Espirit de L'Escalier -- An adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice story in modern times. (4 stars)
Tripping Through Time -- In a world where virii like Covid are the norm, a young woman takes a job as a waitress in an establishment that uses glimpses into history as a form of entertainment. I'm not honestly sure what the characters wanted, since they did so little to get it. (1 star)
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han -- This is metafiction, more about the technology at its center than the characters involved. Normally not my cup of tea, but it's incredibly well done. (5 stars)
Root Rot -- This story starts not entirely horrible and it kind of devolves a bit. I think once they took a liter of blood from the protagonist, who hasn't eaten, and he just wanders along his way, it was nearly a book meets wall incident. I've given a pink on a half-empty stomach and nearly hit the floor. And then they put it back, so the why is bewildering, but the why of most of this story is bewildering. It is, at best, dystopia on Mars (1 star)
I don't feel all of them entirely fit the genre, or at least that they are truly representational of the genre. To me, romance has as the driving element two charactes falling in love. If they do that on an alient planet, it's not science fiction, it's romance. A mystery has as the driving element someone gathering clues to solve a crime. If the crime is the murder of the dragon dung shoveler, it's not fantasy, it's a mystery. Science fiction has, as the driving element, something that is possible but not yet real. "Broad Duddy Water" is definitely science fiction. Fantasy has, as its driving element, something magical and impossible. "The Red Mother" is definitely fantasy. Some of these contain elements of science fiction or fantasy, but the driving element fits neither. "I Was a Teenage Space Jockey" has, as the driving element, a boy making peace with his elder brother escaping their abusive household. Which is that? Science fiction or fantasy? I'd argue neither. It is literary fiction with a trapping of fantasy. While some are excellent and would belong in The Best American Short Storis collection, and I'd argue that's a good place for IWaTSJ, I'm not sure they belong in this genre's collection. They are almost all heavy-handed political stories, which would not normally be an issue, but it seems here genre was sacrificed for message as was quality of story-telling.
I rated each story individually, and my rating of the book is the simple average.
10 Steps to a Whole New You -- At the core, this is the story of someone bit by a vampire, with about as much structure and substance as might be composed by an average fifth grader. The use of dialect that reads false and artistic flourishes attempts, and in my opinion fails, to save this peice from banality. It was the weakest of the collection. (1 star)
The Pizza Boy -- This is a side adventure in a sprawling interplanetary rebellion. I liked it, drilling into the detail of the small instances of a bit player in a larger story. (4 stars)
If Martians Have Magic -- A university professor needs to save a group of civilians from the cruelty, hate, and viciousness of a war-ravaged victor. Both sides make so much sense, this story packs a lot of power into a short piece. (5 stars)
Delete Your First Memory for Free -- A reversal of the Phillip K Dick Story, "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale". This explores how our memories, even the minor yet unpleasant ones, can shape us. (5 stars)
The Red Mother -- Just a Viking Mage delivering a message. I had an irrational love of this because Elizabeth Bear seems to honestly know how to spin yarn on a drop spindle. (5 stars)
The Cold Calculations -- The most powerful of the bunch. What if the situations beyond our control aren't? What is the price of a human life, and who gets to set it? (5 stars)
The Captain and the Quartermaster -- This was a basic tale of the workings of an army between the fights. It is told out of order, and the characters are charming, but there is little new to be found here. (2 stars)
Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story -- Much like the first story, more style than substance. Jacquee botches going home from a doctor's visit in a post-apocalyptic world. At least there's a talking pig. (1 star)
I Was a Teenage Space Jockey -- Native American kids facing bullies and abusive households find solace in an old-style arcade. For fantasy, 1 star. For literary fiction 5 stars. I'm taking the average. (3 stars)
Let All the Children Boogie -- This one seemed like it had so much promise, and then it ended on a whimper that not only left more questions than answers, but left the wrong questions, such as "why?" and "who cares?" It's the story of two kids who hear a mysterious voice on the radio and follow it to -- I won't spoil it. It's so good until the end. (3 stars)
Skinder's Veil - This starts off as the story of a PhD student who clearly does not know what a library is and who lives with a horrible roommate. It takes a while to have a slight brush with fantasy, but it runs far more literary. By the time it gets near fantasy, things rapidly devolve to where the protagonist is doing things, not because they make sense, but because the plot calls for them. There is no recovering from that. (1 star)
The Algorithm Will See You Now -- A psychiatrist works through her own issues while treating a patient. And there are computers. (1 star)
The Cloud Lake Unicorn -- A woman has a baby. That's the only driving thing anyone acts on, so that's the entire plot. The rest is literary dressing. But it is such good literary dressing I have to elevate the rating from what the mere plot would deserve. (3 stars)
Proof by Induction -- This was a finalist for this year's Hugo award. Failing professor does math with his dead father. The characters are cool though. (3 stars)
Colors of the Immortal Palette -- An artist seeks immortality -- literally and figuratively -- and to find her place in a world where she is far from the default. This is a brilliant reimagining of the vampire lore and a powerful tour through the life of a fascinating character. (5 stars)
The Future Library -- A combination romance and save the trees story set in a dystopian future. This feels structurally awkward. The character is more an observer than an agent. It was compelling at times more for the knee jerk reaction to climate change than the particulars of this story. The logic of the protagonist's actions fails any attempt at analysis. She wants to prove something false, by providing absolute evidence it is true. (1 star)
L'Espirit de L'Escalier -- An adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice story in modern times. (4 stars)
Tripping Through Time -- In a world where virii like Covid are the norm, a young woman takes a job as a waitress in an establishment that uses glimpses into history as a form of entertainment. I'm not honestly sure what the characters wanted, since they did so little to get it. (1 star)
The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han -- This is metafiction, more about the technology at its center than the characters involved. Normally not my cup of tea, but it's incredibly well done. (5 stars)
Root Rot -- This story starts not entirely horrible and it kind of devolves a bit. I think once they took a liter of blood from the protagonist, who hasn't eaten, and he just wanders along his way, it was nearly a book meets wall incident. I've given a pink on a half-empty stomach and nearly hit the floor. And then they put it back, so the why is bewildering, but the why of most of this story is bewildering. It is, at best, dystopia on Mars (1 star)
September 30, 2022
I love the year-end “best of” short story collections, because although I read a ton of short stories, there are inevitably things I’ve missed. Our guest editor for 2022 is Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Black Sun, and along with John Joseph Adams, they have chosen a great variety of stories, showcasing the strongest genre voices.
My favorites in this collection were unexpectedly sweet. Two stories especially warmed my heart, as they were focused on teenage misfits finding friendship; Stephen Graham Jones’ I Was a Teenage Space Jockey is a gorgeous story of loss and arcade high scores, and Sam J. Miller’s Let All the Children Boogie tells of how music can establish strong bonds between people, as two awkward teens investigate strange voices from the radio. Both these stories were so beautiful. Another sweet story I recommend from this collection is Delete Your First Memory For Free, by Kel Coleman.
Two of my favorites authors make well-deserved appearances; Kelly Link’s Skinder’s Veil, which was featured in the incredible Shirley Jackson tribute, When Things Get Dark, involves a house-sitting job that gets incredibly strange. And Karen Russell’s The Cloud Lake Unicorn is an incredibly moving tale of motherhood and maternity.
I think the highlight of this collection is The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han, by Maria Dong. Not only is it a fascinating, entertaining story about a duplicating machine, grief, and ghosts, but the narrator’s voice is just so appealing. I am beyond excited for Dong’s debut novel next year.
Other highlights include Nalo Hopkinson’s Broad Dutty Water, Rich Larson’s Tripping Through Time (I looooooved the ending of this one), Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte, and The Future Library by Peng Shepherd.
This is such a strong collection, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of how many awesome science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories have been published this year. Indeed, at the back of the book, there is a detailed list of “further reading”. Recommended for lifelong genre fans, as well as a gateway drug for curious readers.
My favorites in this collection were unexpectedly sweet. Two stories especially warmed my heart, as they were focused on teenage misfits finding friendship; Stephen Graham Jones’ I Was a Teenage Space Jockey is a gorgeous story of loss and arcade high scores, and Sam J. Miller’s Let All the Children Boogie tells of how music can establish strong bonds between people, as two awkward teens investigate strange voices from the radio. Both these stories were so beautiful. Another sweet story I recommend from this collection is Delete Your First Memory For Free, by Kel Coleman.
Two of my favorites authors make well-deserved appearances; Kelly Link’s Skinder’s Veil, which was featured in the incredible Shirley Jackson tribute, When Things Get Dark, involves a house-sitting job that gets incredibly strange. And Karen Russell’s The Cloud Lake Unicorn is an incredibly moving tale of motherhood and maternity.
I think the highlight of this collection is The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han, by Maria Dong. Not only is it a fascinating, entertaining story about a duplicating machine, grief, and ghosts, but the narrator’s voice is just so appealing. I am beyond excited for Dong’s debut novel next year.
Other highlights include Nalo Hopkinson’s Broad Dutty Water, Rich Larson’s Tripping Through Time (I looooooved the ending of this one), Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte, and The Future Library by Peng Shepherd.
This is such a strong collection, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of how many awesome science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories have been published this year. Indeed, at the back of the book, there is a detailed list of “further reading”. Recommended for lifelong genre fans, as well as a gateway drug for curious readers.
July 3, 2023
Do you read short story anthologies?
I’ve read most of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies. Some volumes are amazing, some are disappointing, most are somewhere in between. The 2022 volume, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse, is one of the best. All of the stories make great reads, though some are maybe a bit too long. There’s a few in the middle of the book that get too “magical realism” for my taste—mostly literary with just a flavoring of SFF, when I prefer to go full tilt into the genre—but I have to say that even those are actually quite good.
Some of the standouts in this collection are from @pdjeliclark, Kelly Link, Caroline M Yoachim, and Cathrine M Valente.
If you appreciate SFF short fiction, this is worth your time.
I’ve read most of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies. Some volumes are amazing, some are disappointing, most are somewhere in between. The 2022 volume, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse, is one of the best. All of the stories make great reads, though some are maybe a bit too long. There’s a few in the middle of the book that get too “magical realism” for my taste—mostly literary with just a flavoring of SFF, when I prefer to go full tilt into the genre—but I have to say that even those are actually quite good.
Some of the standouts in this collection are from @pdjeliclark, Kelly Link, Caroline M Yoachim, and Cathrine M Valente.
If you appreciate SFF short fiction, this is worth your time.
December 30, 2022
"The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022" edited by John Joseph Adams and Rebecca Roanhorse is an exciting collection of stories.
Although this anthology of 20 stories is evenly split between 10 science fiction and 10 fantasy stories, many of them are surprisingly excellent examples of fiction that literally straddles the boundary between science fiction and fantasy. I write "surprisingly" since even though most of these stories are actually somewhat outside of my go-to sub-generes of hard SF and epic adventure fantasy they were much more readable and enjoyable than I would have predicted. I had read several of the stories and authors before, which I think indicates that it was a good selection of stories for me. Nearly every story made me sit back and think a bit. I found about a third of the stories to be awesome, a third to be good, and just under a third to be OK. If the choice were up to me, there are two stories I would not have chosen. Though they were all memorable and I can recommend this collection to thinkers and lovers of science fiction and fantasy.,
I thank the editors, authors, and publisher for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this work.
Although this anthology of 20 stories is evenly split between 10 science fiction and 10 fantasy stories, many of them are surprisingly excellent examples of fiction that literally straddles the boundary between science fiction and fantasy. I write "surprisingly" since even though most of these stories are actually somewhat outside of my go-to sub-generes of hard SF and epic adventure fantasy they were much more readable and enjoyable than I would have predicted. I had read several of the stories and authors before, which I think indicates that it was a good selection of stories for me. Nearly every story made me sit back and think a bit. I found about a third of the stories to be awesome, a third to be good, and just under a third to be OK. If the choice were up to me, there are two stories I would not have chosen. Though they were all memorable and I can recommend this collection to thinkers and lovers of science fiction and fantasy.,
I thank the editors, authors, and publisher for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this work.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews