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A review by rebeccacider
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 by John Joseph Adams, N.K. Jemisin
4.0
Didn't read every story, but enjoyed what I read. This collection skews toward horror, not always my cup of tea, but my two favorite stories were about cannibalism so I'm not sure I have grounds to complain.
Favorites were: "The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant," a story of cyborg chefs run amok. This story is absolutely gross, yet bleakly hilarious. Then there's "Cannibal Acts," which was oddly not gross at all, but the kind of understated human drama that only Maureen McHugh can deliver. It's a short one, but the characters and dystopian setting are completely realized, and the story ends with a private, heartbreaking moment that stayed with me for some time.
Another wonderful story was "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" by Charlie Jane Anders, whose podcast I follow but whose writing I had not read before. This story reminded me of Margaret Atwood, not only in subject matter but in voice; it had the same lively, satirical quality.
I also surprised myself by enjoying Samuel R. Delany's "The Hermit of Houston," which was a bit surrealistic for me, but possibly objectively the best story in the collection, an unflinching exploration of finding love and security and identity as an outsider (and probably some other things, I am not convinced I am bright enough to understand Delany).
The audacious storytelling award probably goes to Maria Dahvana Headley for "Black Powder," which is your typical queer Weird West school shooting fairy tale. That's a genre, right? The mood was pleasingly reminiscent of classic Neil Gaiman, if more lyrical and literary.
Oh oh oh, and I can't leave out "Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities," which was science fiction doing what science fiction does best, and on point since I've been listening to the latest season of Serial. In her biographical statement, the author talks about leaving a prestigious career in the criminal justice system, a decision informed in part (as I recall) by the self-reflective practice of writing fiction.
Finally, N.K. Jemisin gets a thumbs-up for, in her introduction, delivering a one-sentence close reading of the Harry Potter series that kind of blew my mind.
This best of anthology is a decent thumbnail portrait of 2017. The stories are upsetting but not nihilistic. Most aren't exactly hopeful—except in the sense that looking, recording, naming is an intrinsically hopeful act. Well done to both editors.
Favorites were: "The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant," a story of cyborg chefs run amok. This story is absolutely gross, yet bleakly hilarious. Then there's "Cannibal Acts," which was oddly not gross at all, but the kind of understated human drama that only Maureen McHugh can deliver. It's a short one, but the characters and dystopian setting are completely realized, and the story ends with a private, heartbreaking moment that stayed with me for some time.
Another wonderful story was "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" by Charlie Jane Anders, whose podcast I follow but whose writing I had not read before. This story reminded me of Margaret Atwood, not only in subject matter but in voice; it had the same lively, satirical quality.
I also surprised myself by enjoying Samuel R. Delany's "The Hermit of Houston," which was a bit surrealistic for me, but possibly objectively the best story in the collection, an unflinching exploration of finding love and security and identity as an outsider (and probably some other things, I am not convinced I am bright enough to understand Delany).
The audacious storytelling award probably goes to Maria Dahvana Headley for "Black Powder," which is your typical queer Weird West school shooting fairy tale. That's a genre, right? The mood was pleasingly reminiscent of classic Neil Gaiman, if more lyrical and literary.
Oh oh oh, and I can't leave out "Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities," which was science fiction doing what science fiction does best, and on point since I've been listening to the latest season of Serial. In her biographical statement, the author talks about leaving a prestigious career in the criminal justice system, a decision informed in part (as I recall) by the self-reflective practice of writing fiction.
Finally, N.K. Jemisin gets a thumbs-up for, in her introduction, delivering a one-sentence close reading of the Harry Potter series that kind of blew my mind.
This best of anthology is a decent thumbnail portrait of 2017. The stories are upsetting but not nihilistic. Most aren't exactly hopeful—except in the sense that looking, recording, naming is an intrinsically hopeful act. Well done to both editors.