I won't comment on my own story in this volume of course, but I read all the others and found a stunning, diverse array of excellently executed stories. Just a few of my favorites:* Rivers Run Free, by Charles Payseur. I loved those water beings and the issues brought forward in this fantasy.* You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych, by Kathleen Kayembe. The Congolese culture in this dark tale made for fascinating reading, imbuing it with the required discomfort, while also providing the logic f...

this would be a four-star collection (great stories nearly top to bottom, rare in any anthology), but for the fact that Maria Dahvana Headley's first story (of two) in this aggravated me so deeply. it's the story "The Orange Tree," which takes as its premise "what if 11th century CE Jewish poet/philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol used kabbalah to make a sex robot."It uses that to explore the ways in which women are silenced and their personhood overwritten by men, which, whatever, fine, that's #femi...

There are no "bad" stories here.There are stories here that didn't appeal to me as much as the other stories did; there are stories here that left me scratching my head and wondering if I just didn't get it - which is always a possibility, even with stories I love. But there were no stories in this collection that made me think, "If I found this in the slush pile, I would decline it." I fully expected to enjoy the majority of these, just based on the authors in the table of contents. Rachael K.

It is really remarkable how superb the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series is, with this volume particularly remarkable. Every story strong and effective elements, and a few are among the most exciting work I've encountered in years. This is a bit peculiar, as I have not been impressed with the copious editing and occasional introductions of John Joseph Adams, the series editor. But here he seems to be doing an excellent job hiring stellar writers to select the final stories. In thi...

I took my time and read this anthology slowly which worked out really well for me. The stories stayed separate in my mind and didn't all run together. I was able to enjoy them more individually than if I had pushed through the whole thing straight through. Like all collections I enjoyed some more than others but they all had interesting approaches and stories. All in all an enjoyable collection of stories. I now have some new to me authors to track down other writings from. You can find me at:•(...

I've read all three years of this series, and try to read as many of the magazines where many of the stories originally came from (Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, etc.); nevertheless, I'm always amazed by what the editors discover, since I've missed about 75% of these stories the first go-round, and many are amazing works of art. I've never been disappointed by any of the three extant anthologies, as the stories are chosen very carefully to capture numerous styles, authors, and points of

River Run Free by Charles Payseur ★★★★☆ “Beyond the mountains and beyond the forests and farther still, there’s the sea. So vast and so powerful that the waters of it know no fear. And we’ll tell the sea of what’s happening here, and it will feel the pain of its children and it will rise and flow across the land. Over the forests and the mountains and the Dust and it will tear down the dams and the dikes and the locks and the citadel. And the Dust will be green again, and the Luteans will drown....

You say you want a revolutionWell, you know...—"Revolution," by The Beatles (1968)After assessing the impact of our current Predicament-in-Chief and his ilk on fiction (and literacy in general), N.K. Jemisin goes on to call the contents of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 "the twenty most revolutionary short stories from the year 2017" (Introduction, p.xviii).Now, that sounds like hyperbole to me. However powerfully written they are—and they are, mostly—these stories seem unlik...

As always with the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series, I really appreciate the socially progressive themes throughout this collection (which are themed around revolution!), but I had a tough time engaging with many of these stories. There are definitely some gems throughout-- particularly "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Shoot" by Charlie Jane Anders, "Church of Birds" by Micah Dean Hicks, "The Resident" by Carmen Maria Machado, and "You Will Always Have Family: A Trptych" by Kathl...

So I've finally finished my project book, reading one story a book for the first 20 books (more or less--I finished it several books ago but wasn't able to get a review out until now) of 2019! Like the 2017 installment of this series, it's a nice snapshot of the field. I like the overall organization--pairs of science-fiction and fantasy stories so that you get a solid impression of the overall effect. I didn't like this quite as much as the 2017 installment of the series (I was less impressed w...

Pretty lame compilation. Some of it is mildly interesting, but sci-fi today - if this represents it - seems to have lost its creativity and edginess, and sadly, what made it interesting - the "science" part. The biggest disappointment is that they don't make or try to make any sense. "Rivers Run Free," the first story, is very pretty, but like the stories that follow "Destroy the City with Me," "You Will Always Have a Family," while creative and "neat", are far less interesting than science fict...

excellent writing, but depressing I used to enjoy these annual anthologies, but hadn’t read one in quite some time. this one has probably cured me of ever doing so again. the stories are all clever & well written, but all carry such a darkness that I’m not sure I want to bother. when part of a collection is dark, you start to look for even a single story of redemption & hope. it’s not here.

This book seriously needs to be retitled "Tales of Virtue for Our Times (With a Smidge of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Thrown In to Make it Genre)"This is not a book of fantasy and sci-fi short stories, as it is represented. This is actually a collection of sermons about inclusion.That being said, there is a time when the choir bores of being preached to and this book marks the watershed event.From here on out I will read only literary works that were created for literary purposes. Books that were written...

A lot of these stories didn't do it for me at all, which was a disappointment after the lackluster 2020 collection--BUT that's on yours truly, this humble, confused reader, who cannot somehow unlock the barrier that prevents me from understanding military / hard / very scientific-reading science fiction. Rereading Carmen Maria Machado's "The Resident" was a wild ride and spurred me to revisit her collection to see if it hits like Kelly Link (amazing, baffling). E. Lily Yu's "The Wretched and the...

I had this strange idea that I’d start to read some recently written science fiction to make sure that I don’t dislike all of it because I keep harping on how much I haven’t read anything written in the last ten years (okay, more than that, but let’s be generous) that I really like. Turns out this collection includes fantasy too, which doesn’t really bother me, since I’ve read some and not despised it. Turns out there’s only one real fantasy story in this collection, and it’s actually great.I ha...

While reading the short stories N.K. Jemisin curated for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, I was taken aback by how substantial an undertaking it must be to create an anthology. Reading through a pile of short stories and coming up with a handful that will represent not only what you think is best, but what will appeal to the diverse eyes of an audience has got to be a real challenge.With that said, I think Jemisin and series editor, John Joseph Adams, have done a pretty good j...

I received a free review copy from the editor. Every year, John Joseph Adams compiles a list of eighty short stories that he considers to be the best American science-fiction & fantasy offerings in the previous calendar year. He then passes them--stripped of author information--to a guest editor, who weeds the list down to twenty: ten SF, ten fantasy. As this year’s guest editor (the wonderful N.K. Jemisin) mentions in her introduction: ...as Le Guin noted, most readers presume that one of

An enjoyable collection! These books are really nice to see what’s happening in a genre, especially when you like the editor. A lot of the pieces in here relied heavily on world/adventure, which isn’t a surprise considering Jemisin put it together, but in reading it I realized these typically aren’t my favorite sci fi fantasy short stories. My favorite story was Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities. Maria Dahvana Headley’s stories we’re also great, Black Powder in particular feeling...

An innovative and thought provoking collection of speculative fiction stories with a literary bent. Particular favourites were: "Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn" by A. Merc Rustad, "Carnival Nine" by Caroline M. Yoachim, "The Orange Tree" by Maria Dahvana Headley, and "Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance" by Tobias S. Buckell.

If reading a good novel is like savoring a big, delicious slice of cake, then reading a well-curated anthology of short fiction from different authors is like working your way through a box of chocolates. They're all good and delicious in their own unique ways. Each one is created to savor in just one bite. The settings, subjects, and writing styles vary widely, from space opera to medieval, from horror to comedy. As a bonus, almost all of these stories center on protagonists who are women, peop...