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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
There are some good stories here and a few that I just felt did not belong in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy anthology. I was left wondering if these 20 stories are the best of 2017 then it must have been an overall tough year for short stories.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Another jaw-dropping collection of short stories. Similar to the 2018 collection, a lot of these stories focus on the sheer horror of living in even pre-Trump 2016 America as a minority.
"Vulcanization" by Nisi Shawl and "The Venus Effect" by Joseph Allen Hill are among the most brutally honest in the stories they tell of never-ending abuse.
"Smear" and "I've come to Marry the Princess" were really interesting psychological stories that I still don't quite have the answers to, and "Successor, Usurper, Replacement" tries to fit into that category as well but I have an even harder time grasping its meaning.
I simply have to mention N.K. Jemisin's "The City Born Great", even though I had already read it as the prologue to her amazing novel, "The City We Became". Her worldbuilding grips me to my core, and this story is one of my all time favorites.
A lot of these stories can be found for free online, check them out!
"Vulcanization" by Nisi Shawl and "The Venus Effect" by Joseph Allen Hill are among the most brutally honest in the stories they tell of never-ending abuse.
"Smear" and "I've come to Marry the Princess" were really interesting psychological stories that I still don't quite have the answers to, and "Successor, Usurper, Replacement" tries to fit into that category as well but I have an even harder time grasping its meaning.
I simply have to mention N.K. Jemisin's "The City Born Great", even though I had already read it as the prologue to her amazing novel, "The City We Became". Her worldbuilding grips me to my core, and this story is one of my all time favorites.
A lot of these stories can be found for free online, check them out!
I have a bit of a snobbery problem when it comes to books, and I've tended to turn my nose up at genre fiction. This year in particular, I've been trying to have more of an open mind about it and have read a fair bit of science fiction on my own alongside fantasy for the family read-aloud. I'm a sucker for "Best American" anthologies (I picked up two others when I bought this one recently) and this seemed like a good one to expose myself to a broader range of the genre without a huge investment in a long book or series. It also seemed like a good opportunity to see what current fiction in these genres was like (most of what I've read is 20 years old or older).
Turns out, fiction in these genres is very mixed. I dog-eared the following stories as really enjoyable or worthwhile:
- Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home
- When They Came to Us
- Openness
- The Future is Blue
I also thought "The Venus Effect" was fairly important but annoyingly written (it's metafiction, which I like in general, but I didn't like the way the author wrote it). I enjoyed a little bit "The Story of Kao Yu" but didn't think it really belonged in this anthology.
Most of the rest of the stories were meh at best for me. A couple of them were downright bad. I screened entries for a local genre fiction contest a few years ago, and there were a few pretty solid entries and a lot of really terrible ones. Some of the stories in this collection I would not have passed along to the round of final judging even in a local contest, much less considered fit for a collection of 20 of the best stories in the two genres. This makes me feel like maybe the current state of science fiction and fantasy is pretty grim, though it's possible that the series editor and judge just have tastes or literary sensibilities very very different from mine (though I think that my snobbery lets me value quality writing even if I don't love the category of the writing).
The thing about it is that good writing transcends genre. The stories I dog-eared are all reasonably good stories that I'd be pleased to have read in any context (one appeared in The Sun, which is a literary magazine and not a science fiction magazine). The ones I didn't mention by title above seem to have been chosen specifically because of their genre and not because they represent good writing or storytelling, and this sort of pigeonholing and acceptance regardless of quality is, I suppose, what makes me feel iffy about genre fiction in general to begin with.
Turns out, fiction in these genres is very mixed. I dog-eared the following stories as really enjoyable or worthwhile:
- Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home
- When They Came to Us
- Openness
- The Future is Blue
I also thought "The Venus Effect" was fairly important but annoyingly written (it's metafiction, which I like in general, but I didn't like the way the author wrote it). I enjoyed a little bit "The Story of Kao Yu" but didn't think it really belonged in this anthology.
Most of the rest of the stories were meh at best for me. A couple of them were downright bad. I screened entries for a local genre fiction contest a few years ago, and there were a few pretty solid entries and a lot of really terrible ones. Some of the stories in this collection I would not have passed along to the round of final judging even in a local contest, much less considered fit for a collection of 20 of the best stories in the two genres. This makes me feel like maybe the current state of science fiction and fantasy is pretty grim, though it's possible that the series editor and judge just have tastes or literary sensibilities very very different from mine (though I think that my snobbery lets me value quality writing even if I don't love the category of the writing).
The thing about it is that good writing transcends genre. The stories I dog-eared are all reasonably good stories that I'd be pleased to have read in any context (one appeared in The Sun, which is a literary magazine and not a science fiction magazine). The ones I didn't mention by title above seem to have been chosen specifically because of their genre and not because they represent good writing or storytelling, and this sort of pigeonholing and acceptance regardless of quality is, I suppose, what makes me feel iffy about genre fiction in general to begin with.
I liked the 2017 collection much better than the 2016. All stories were good, Welcome to the Medical Clinic caught me a little off guard in a collection like this - in a good way, it was great fun. I want to list a few other stories that I really enjoyed but I'm worried it will grow into a copy of the table of contents.
Faves:
Genevieve Valentine: "Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home"
Alexander Weinstein: "Openness"
Jeremiah Tolbert: "Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass"
Brian Evenson: "Smear"
Caroline M. Yoachim: "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0"
Alice Sola Kim: "Successor, Usurper, Replacement"
Nick Wolven: "Caspar D. Luckinbill, What are You Going to Do?"
Dale Bailey: "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"
Genevieve Valentine: "Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home"
Alexander Weinstein: "Openness"
Jeremiah Tolbert: "Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass"
Brian Evenson: "Smear"
Caroline M. Yoachim: "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0"
Alice Sola Kim: "Successor, Usurper, Replacement"
Nick Wolven: "Caspar D. Luckinbill, What are You Going to Do?"
Dale Bailey: "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"
Reading these anthologies have really shown me where I can and should up my fiction game.
I drag my feet on writing the GoodReads reviews for anthologies though because I'm always embarrassed I can't remember the titles and author's names. Like "There was a really cool story about sea monsters and nostalgia" might not be as satisfying to you, dear reader, than "My favorite was Story X by Author Y."
I was delighted there were only two stories I'd already read in the collection, and I enjoyed reading them again.
There was only one story I flatly didn't like, which was easily skipped and who knows, it could be your favorite when you read it.
I drag my feet on writing the GoodReads reviews for anthologies though because I'm always embarrassed I can't remember the titles and author's names. Like "There was a really cool story about sea monsters and nostalgia" might not be as satisfying to you, dear reader, than "My favorite was Story X by Author Y."
I was delighted there were only two stories I'd already read in the collection, and I enjoyed reading them again.
There was only one story I flatly didn't like, which was easily skipped and who knows, it could be your favorite when you read it.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced