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A review by haunted_air
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eleven, Volume 11 by
4.0
A well chosen collection of interesting stories. Maybe it was a bit too long and there could have been more fantasy stories but oh well, I liked most of them.
The stories that stood out to me the most are:
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard: haunting, impactful, dark, set in an intriguing world,
Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss: everything I want from a fantasy story, fairytale elements in a real world context, storytelling, interesting choice of narrator,
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genvieve Valentine: often used concept done well, in a interesting way, gives you a lot to think about.
I also loved: Red Dirt Witch, The Future is Blue, Spinning Silver, Seasons of Glass and Iron, The Great Detective.
Even with the stories I didn't enjoy, it was mostly because they didn't work for me not because I thought they weren't well written. Exceptions: Those Shadows Laugh, You Make Pattaya, I don't think these are very good and I also wasn't a fan of how Things with Beards was written to the point that I couldn't get into the story. I had another writing related issue with Laws of Night and Silk: great concept but the 21 page story throws an entire epic fantasy novel worth of wordbuilding on the reader and this makes appreciating it difficult. I don't have a problem with in medias res and things not being explained but I felt the characters/narrative were constantly giving exposition and describing things instead of dealing with was was happening.
Everything else is somewhere between good and meh.
The stories that stood out to me the most are:
A Salvaging of Ghosts by Aliette de Bodard: haunting, impactful, dark, set in an intriguing world,
Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss: everything I want from a fantasy story, fairytale elements in a real world context, storytelling, interesting choice of narrator,
Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genvieve Valentine: often used concept done well, in a interesting way, gives you a lot to think about.
I also loved: Red Dirt Witch, The Future is Blue, Spinning Silver, Seasons of Glass and Iron, The Great Detective.
Even with the stories I didn't enjoy, it was mostly because they didn't work for me not because I thought they weren't well written. Exceptions: Those Shadows Laugh, You Make Pattaya, I don't think these are very good and I also wasn't a fan of how Things with Beards was written to the point that I couldn't get into the story. I had another writing related issue with Laws of Night and Silk: great concept but the 21 page story throws an entire epic fantasy novel worth of wordbuilding on the reader and this makes appreciating it difficult. I don't have a problem with in medias res and things not being explained but I felt the characters/narrative were constantly giving exposition and describing things instead of dealing with was was happening.
Everything else is somewhere between good and meh.