Reviews

Given the worldwide events in 2020/2021, it's not unexpected that this might be an uneven anthology but this volume goes well beyond that with some head-scratchingly bad choices.

The outstanding work here is Kate Elliott's "The Long Walk" which packs not just a whole life but an entire beautifully imagined world into some forty pages. Nearly as good is Meg Elison's dark, visceral "The Pill". Elison's recent collection of short stories, 'Big Girl', in which 'The Pill' is included, now goes to the top of my TBR list.

I read these anthologies regularly in the hopes of finding interesting new voices in each one and here that voice was Yohanca Delgado's with two strong stories: "Our Language" and "The Rat". Mel Kassel is also new to me and her "Crawfather" added a welcome note of levity to a mostly serious group of tales. Shingai Njeri Kagunda's "And This is How to Stay Alive" is touching and and very well written but quite similar to other stories from African writers that I've read recently (I would still like to read more from Kagunda, though). Senaa Ahmad's experimental "Let's Play Dead" was amusing but more interesting in concept than successful in execution. KT Bryski's "Tiger's Feast", A. T. Greenblatt's "One Time, a Reluctant Traveler", and Amman Sabet's "Skipping Stones in the Dark" all have interesting moments and are worth reading although not fully satisfying. Of the rest, most are merely competent and a few shockingly bad.

Rebecca Roanhorse is the editor for the upcoming 2022 volume (to be released in November) and the projected table of contents looks much more promising than this group. *fingers crossed*

michael_gallipo's review

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2.5

I wanted to like this more than I did. There were several I enjoyed but many felt like a slog. Maybe it was trying too hard to be trendy and diverse. There were few stories that felt like “true” science fiction or fantasy (Shrodinger’s Catastrophy being one), most were just strange.

lysippos's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

nikogatts's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

3.75

sgg257's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Really strong collection of SF/F stories. Veronica Roth definitely has very strong tastes when it comes to short stories.

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