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enbyglitch's review against another edition
5.0
From the deeply disturbing - "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue", "The Wretched and the Beautiful" - to those with hard-won hope - "Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn", "Rivers Run Free" - this collection was endlessly fascinating.
Editor N.K. Jemisin sums it up well when she explains the deep emotional and cultural feelings behind these 2017 short stories, which run toward horror more than I might have otherwise expected.
Few if any of these stories are perfect, but they are deeply engaging as a reminder of the fear we lived in only four years ago, and which still pervades our world.
Editor N.K. Jemisin sums it up well when she explains the deep emotional and cultural feelings behind these 2017 short stories, which run toward horror more than I might have otherwise expected.
Few if any of these stories are perfect, but they are deeply engaging as a reminder of the fear we lived in only four years ago, and which still pervades our world.
jessicamathieu's review against another edition
3.0
Too political. There was one really interesting story about the possibilities of what justice could look like, which I really liked. Jemisin is explicit about writing being revolution for her, and her specific viewpoint is represented exclusively. I used to be interested in politics, but I don’t think the answers are that easy anymore. Not what I was looking for in my fiction. I actually love N.K. Jemisin and even wrote her a heartfelt fan-letter after reading 100,000 kingdoms (which I never sent), and I loved the next in the trilogy (still need to get the third). It’s incredibly beautiful. I was disappointed that the authors she chose for this book couldn’t manage allegory as well as she does.
I don’t begrudge the representation of her viewpoint in mainstream SFF. It’s just not what I’m looking for in my fiction. I’m more interested in the exploration of spiritual realities, not socio-political realities, which is why I was amazed by and loved 100,000 Kingdoms. Ten years ago I would have loved this book, and maybe next year or in ten years I’ll love it.
I don’t begrudge the representation of her viewpoint in mainstream SFF. It’s just not what I’m looking for in my fiction. I’m more interested in the exploration of spiritual realities, not socio-political realities, which is why I was amazed by and loved 100,000 Kingdoms. Ten years ago I would have loved this book, and maybe next year or in ten years I’ll love it.
lyriclorelei's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
I was surprised at how many of these I had already managed to read in their various collections and now I have more to look up, particularly <i>The Djinn Falls in Love</i>.
ericrobien's review against another edition
4.5
My favorite stories were You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych by Kathleen Kayembe, The Last Cheng Beng Gift by Jaymee Goh, The Resident by Carmen Maria Machado, and Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim.
itsmebee's review against another edition
3.0
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 like an Appalachian fairy tale. A good read overall!
roquinn's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
thefriendlyabyss's review against another edition
3.0
Some of these stories are a bit too abstract for my liking. I need my stories grounded, even the extravagant SciFi ones. That being said, there are still a handful of gems that make it just about worth the read.
My favorites:
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities
The Greatest One-Star Restaurant
Don’t Press Charges And I Won’t Sue
ZeroS
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
My favorites:
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities
The Greatest One-Star Restaurant
Don’t Press Charges And I Won’t Sue
ZeroS
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
vdarcangelo's review against another edition
3.0
Faves:
Kate Alice Marshall, "Destroy the City with Me Tonight"
Lettie Prell, "Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel"
Carmen Maria Machado, "The Resident"
E. Lily Yu, "The Wretched and the Beautiful"
Maureen McHugh, "Cannibal Acts"
Kate Alice Marshall, "Destroy the City with Me Tonight"
Lettie Prell, "Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel"
Carmen Maria Machado, "The Resident"
E. Lily Yu, "The Wretched and the Beautiful"
Maureen McHugh, "Cannibal Acts"
darylnash's review
4.0
These are usually a mixed bag, but there were a couple stories that I loved and several very good ones.
5 stars: Kate Alice Marshall, Destroy the City with Me Tonight; Peter Watts, ZeroS
4 stars: Cadwell Turnbull, Loneliness is in Your Blood; Samuel R Delany, The Hermit of Houston; Rachael K Jones, The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant; Charlie Jane Anders, Don’t Press Charges and I won’t Sue; Maureen McHugh, Cannibal Acts
5 stars: Kate Alice Marshall, Destroy the City with Me Tonight; Peter Watts, ZeroS
4 stars: Cadwell Turnbull, Loneliness is in Your Blood; Samuel R Delany, The Hermit of Houston; Rachael K Jones, The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant; Charlie Jane Anders, Don’t Press Charges and I won’t Sue; Maureen McHugh, Cannibal Acts
essinink's review
4.0
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:
The twenty stories in this volume cross the entire range of speculative fiction, from the folkloric horror of Kathleen Kayembe’s ”You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych”, to the military SF of Peter Watts’ experimental super soldiers in ”ZeroS”. Samuel R. Delany’s ”The Hermit of Houston” is the most challenging contribution to this volume: a future(ish) exploration of what stories we tell ourselves, and what is acceptable, and who controls that acceptability, all as experienced through the mundane, everyday life of an aging gay couple. The setting is alternately utopian and horrifying, and the love story surprisingly tender, but (in true Delany fashion) it’s rather opaque on the first read.
Two of these I’d read (and enjoyed) in their original publications: Caroline Yoachim’s “Carnival Nine” is a tale of disability in a clockwork world. Tobias Buckell’s “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” is a clever bit of work that turns the usual robot tropes on their heads when a maintenance ‘bot finds itself beholden to a conniving human CEO.
To my joy, some of the offerings are delightfully unconventional. These are genres that exist to challenge assumptions, to ask “why?” and “what if?” To push. And so we see superheroes grappling with a disease that gives them power even as it destroys their personal identities in Kate Alice Marshall’s ”Destroy the City with Me Tonight.” , and ”Rivers Run Free” in Charles Payseur’s fantastical exploration of how marginalized communities are set against each other.
The creeping madness of Engineer in Rachel K. Jones’ ”The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant” shows the gory end of desperation to please the audience at any cost, a sentiment echoed (in an entirely different form) by the protagonist of Carmen Maria Machado’s ”The Resident” a kind of gothic fantasy figure who eventually embraces herself as the madwoman in her own attic, with the right to write whatever she wants.
I didn’t like them all. Lettie Prell’s “Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities,” in which a prisoner catches glimpses of different justice systems while awaiting his own sentence, was a series of insubstantial vignettes, however interesting; and I found E. Lily Yu’s depiction of an ambivalent society’s response to ugly alien refugees in “The Wretched and the Beautiful” both heavy-handed and instantly forgettable.
More touching for me were stories like Charlie Jane Anders’ ”Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue”, a gut-wrenching tale of a woman kidnapped by an organization who wants to ‘fix’ her, when she has no desire to be ‘fixed;’ and Maria Dahvana Headley’s ”The Orange Tree,” a story about an 11th century female golem made from wood, and how she comes into her own.
The thing about anthologies is that you don’t have to like every story, but even the ones in this volume that didn’t work for me gave me something to think about. The Best American Science-Fiction and Fantasy 2018 presents a wonderful cross-section of talent, well worth reading for anyone curious as to the state of the genre(s) today.
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 these genres (and only one) is future-oriented. They aggrandize the predictive nature of science fiction while dismissing fantasy as regressive, when in fact both genres are actually about the present: science fiction through allegory, and fantasy by concatenation.
The twenty stories in this volume cross the entire range of speculative fiction, from the folkloric horror of Kathleen Kayembe’s ”You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych”, to the military SF of Peter Watts’ experimental super soldiers in ”ZeroS”. Samuel R. Delany’s ”The Hermit of Houston” is the most challenging contribution to this volume: a future(ish) exploration of what stories we tell ourselves, and what is acceptable, and who controls that acceptability, all as experienced through the mundane, everyday life of an aging gay couple. The setting is alternately utopian and horrifying, and the love story surprisingly tender, but (in true Delany fashion) it’s rather opaque on the first read.
Two of these I’d read (and enjoyed) in their original publications: Caroline Yoachim’s “Carnival Nine” is a tale of disability in a clockwork world. Tobias Buckell’s “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” is a clever bit of work that turns the usual robot tropes on their heads when a maintenance ‘bot finds itself beholden to a conniving human CEO.
To my joy, some of the offerings are delightfully unconventional. These are genres that exist to challenge assumptions, to ask “why?” and “what if?” To push. And so we see superheroes grappling with a disease that gives them power even as it destroys their personal identities in Kate Alice Marshall’s ”Destroy the City with Me Tonight.” , and ”Rivers Run Free” in Charles Payseur’s fantastical exploration of how marginalized communities are set against each other.
The creeping madness of Engineer in Rachel K. Jones’ ”The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant” shows the gory end of desperation to please the audience at any cost, a sentiment echoed (in an entirely different form) by the protagonist of Carmen Maria Machado’s ”The Resident” a kind of gothic fantasy figure who eventually embraces herself as the madwoman in her own attic, with the right to write whatever she wants.
I didn’t like them all. Lettie Prell’s “Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities,” in which a prisoner catches glimpses of different justice systems while awaiting his own sentence, was a series of insubstantial vignettes, however interesting; and I found E. Lily Yu’s depiction of an ambivalent society’s response to ugly alien refugees in “The Wretched and the Beautiful” both heavy-handed and instantly forgettable.
More touching for me were stories like Charlie Jane Anders’ ”Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue”, a gut-wrenching tale of a woman kidnapped by an organization who wants to ‘fix’ her, when she has no desire to be ‘fixed;’ and Maria Dahvana Headley’s ”The Orange Tree,” a story about an 11th century female golem made from wood, and how she comes into her own.
The thing about anthologies is that you don’t have to like every story, but even the ones in this volume that didn’t work for me gave me something to think about. The Best American Science-Fiction and Fantasy 2018 presents a wonderful cross-section of talent, well worth reading for anyone curious as to the state of the genre(s) today.