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A review by ryan_noonan
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 by N.K. Jemisin, John Joseph Adams
5.0
Rivers Run Free - 4* - A short, sad story about oppression and hope.
Destroy the City with Me Tonight - 5* - Incredible bizarre tale of super heroism as a disease. Turns all the concepts from the comics on their heads.
You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych - 4* - Great structure and a cool idea. Some genuine horror in the first section. Redemptive ending kind of undercuts it.
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities - 5* - I love these Invisibles Cities kinds of stories. Alternate universe justice systems are a really fun approach.
Loneliness is in Your Blood - 4* - Very beautifully written story about loneliness and motherhood and love.
The Hermit of Houston - 3* - I’m not sure if I like this story much, but I appreciate it. It’s about gender and aging and memory and probably a thousand other things. It’s also kind of impenetrable.
The Last Cheng Beng Gift - 3* - A fun little vignette about parenthood, especially the fraught relationships of Asian mothers and their daughters. I liked it but it’s fairly forgettable.
Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn - 2* - It’s fine, but the relationships that the final part hangs on are not nearly developed enough to support it.
The Resident - 5* - Absolutely masterful. Shirley Jackson meets Kelly Link. Unsettling macabre body horror and haunted house and time travel and everything else. The standout story of the collection.
The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant - 5* - Delightfully gruesome, funny, acerbic. Bonkers take on the quest for a 5* rating (ironic!) and the foodie scene.
Tasting Notes on the Varietals of the Southern Coast - 3* - Cute idea to tell the story of a war through the eyes of the army’s wine snob, but overall too slight for me.
Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue - 5* - Extremely upsetting gut punch of a story. Masterful but very hard to read.
Church of Birds - 2* - Written well enough but the ending is both obvious and unearned.
ZeroS - 5* - Very good military SF about selfhood and bodily control and war. I don’t really feel like it ended anywhere but I liked it a lot and it made me want to read more of Watts’s stuff.
Carnival Nine - 3* - Already read for my Hugo review. A nice story about disability with affecting characters. Hasn’t really stuck with me.
The Wretched and the Beautiful - 4* - A short little fable trembling with rage and despair. Not a subtle allegory but a strong one nonetheless.
The Orange Tree - 5* - A lot of the same themes as The Mere Wife about the anger and secret knowledge of women. Also the same gorgeous prose and a really nice twist on very obscure historical events.
Cannibal Acts - 3* - So dark it’s black. Not much of a story, more of a tone piece.
Black Powder - 3* - Not sure I understand this story at all. It’s beautifully written as always, and the characters are fascinating, but I’m not sure it hangs together.
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance - 3* - Fun enough story. I like the cleverness of the ending and how the "robot" carefully obeys the letter of Asimov's laws but not at all the spirit.
Destroy the City with Me Tonight - 5* - Incredible bizarre tale of super heroism as a disease. Turns all the concepts from the comics on their heads.
You Will Always Have Family: A Triptych - 4* - Great structure and a cool idea. Some genuine horror in the first section. Redemptive ending kind of undercuts it.
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities - 5* - I love these Invisibles Cities kinds of stories. Alternate universe justice systems are a really fun approach.
Loneliness is in Your Blood - 4* - Very beautifully written story about loneliness and motherhood and love.
The Hermit of Houston - 3* - I’m not sure if I like this story much, but I appreciate it. It’s about gender and aging and memory and probably a thousand other things. It’s also kind of impenetrable.
The Last Cheng Beng Gift - 3* - A fun little vignette about parenthood, especially the fraught relationships of Asian mothers and their daughters. I liked it but it’s fairly forgettable.
Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn - 2* - It’s fine, but the relationships that the final part hangs on are not nearly developed enough to support it.
The Resident - 5* - Absolutely masterful. Shirley Jackson meets Kelly Link. Unsettling macabre body horror and haunted house and time travel and everything else. The standout story of the collection.
The Greatest One-Star Restaurant in the Whole Quadrant - 5* - Delightfully gruesome, funny, acerbic. Bonkers take on the quest for a 5* rating (ironic!) and the foodie scene.
Tasting Notes on the Varietals of the Southern Coast - 3* - Cute idea to tell the story of a war through the eyes of the army’s wine snob, but overall too slight for me.
Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue - 5* - Extremely upsetting gut punch of a story. Masterful but very hard to read.
Church of Birds - 2* - Written well enough but the ending is both obvious and unearned.
ZeroS - 5* - Very good military SF about selfhood and bodily control and war. I don’t really feel like it ended anywhere but I liked it a lot and it made me want to read more of Watts’s stuff.
Carnival Nine - 3* - Already read for my Hugo review. A nice story about disability with affecting characters. Hasn’t really stuck with me.
The Wretched and the Beautiful - 4* - A short little fable trembling with rage and despair. Not a subtle allegory but a strong one nonetheless.
The Orange Tree - 5* - A lot of the same themes as The Mere Wife about the anger and secret knowledge of women. Also the same gorgeous prose and a really nice twist on very obscure historical events.
Cannibal Acts - 3* - So dark it’s black. Not much of a story, more of a tone piece.
Black Powder - 3* - Not sure I understand this story at all. It’s beautifully written as always, and the characters are fascinating, but I’m not sure it hangs together.
Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance - 3* - Fun enough story. I like the cleverness of the ending and how the "robot" carefully obeys the letter of Asimov's laws but not at all the spirit.