The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017

Starred review from September 11, 2017
Guest editor Yu’s introduction to the superb third volume of this fine series imagines an interdimensional cop seeing these stories as evidence of a “scrap of hope” for human civilization in the face of “the collapsing of objective truth that’s going on.” This mostly dystopic, sometimes darkly humorous collection of 20 hard-hitting stories feels timely, confronting contemporary cultural crises such as racism, xenophobia, police brutality, barriers to health care access, and the social misuses of technology. New York becomes sentient, monstrous, and heroic in N.K. Jemisin’s “The City Born Great.” Debbie Urbanski’s deep dive into the mindset of creepy suburban conservatism in “When They Came to Us” evokes profound discomfort. In imagined futures, humankind loses control of its surroundings in low-tech ways, such as the Garbagetown of Catherynne M. Valente’s grossly evocative “The Future Is Blue,” and high-tech ways, such as the personally targeted mediaterrorism of Nick Wolven’s disturbingly plausible “Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?” Contributors’ endnotes solidify the reading of these stories as both entertainment and social narrative.

October 15, 2017

In the third edition of this annually published volume, series editor Adams and 2017 guest editor Yu have selected 20 diverse sf and fantasy stories published in 2016. The authors are both established names and promising newcomers. Dale Bailey's "Teenagers from Outer Space" takes on angst-filled humans and aliens in 1950s Ohio. "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station ] Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0" by Caroline M. Yoachim is a convoluted medical "Choose Your Own Adventure," in which the ending is the same for all participants. The collection ends with story notes from contributors and a list of notable short stories not included in the volume. VERDICT The fresh and original perspectives and clever storytelling will draw both sf/fantasy fans and new readers interested in learning more about speculative fiction.--KC

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 24, 2018
An almost unheard-of diversity of tales absolutely sing in this superlative anthology of short speculative stories. Encompassing a wide range of styles and perspectives, the book swings gracefully from thoughtful superhero SF (“Destroy the City with Me Tonight” by Kate Alice Marshall) to nuanced horror based on Congolese mythology (“You will Always Have Family: A Triptych” by Kathleen Kayembe) to musings on the justice and the multiverse (“Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities” by Lettie Prell) without a single sour note. A. Merc Rustad contributes “Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn,” a heartfelt piece about sentient spacecraft and found family, and Caroline M. Yoachim delves further into ideas of family and obligation with the windup characters of “Carnival Nine.” From the Chinese afterlife (“The Last Cheng Beng Gift” by Jaymee Goh) to a future of cyborgs run amok (“The Greatest One-Star Restaurant” by Rachael K. Jones), this anthology delivers. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company.

Starred review from August 26, 2019
For this fifth anthology of outstanding American genre fiction, series editor Adams is joined by guest editor Machado, who winnowed down 80 contenders into 20 finalists, 10 each from the U.S. and Canada. Machado’s selections lean toward the experimental, the literary, and the boundary-pushing. Standouts include Annalee Newitz’s “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis,” in which a drone befriends both humans and crows to combat inner-city epidemics; LaShawn M. Wanak’s “Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good,” an alternate history piece in which singers are pressed into service against deadly spores; Sarah Gailey’s “STET,” which explores grief through the form of a scientific paper; Lesley Nneka Arimah’s “Skinned,” a provocative piece about the role of women in a patriarchal African society; Sofia Samatar’s “Hard Mary,” in which Amish-like girls adopt a broken android; and P. Djèlí Clark’s introspective history piece, “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington.” Despite the “American” label, there’s a decidedly global, multicultural feel to these pieces, which exemplify diversity and representation. As Machado says in her introduction, “Here you will find an undeniable bias towards the use of formal constraints, vibrant and muscular prose, ambitious weirdness.” In exploring the potential of the genre and challenging expectations, this anthology isn’t for everyone, but it’s a masterful showcase of what’s possible.

Starred review from August 23, 2021
Roth (Chosen Ones) balances Earth- and space-based futures in this superior anthology of 20 sci-fi shorts. Several of the most powerful tales use current societal preoccupations to sketch alarming possible consequences. In “The Pill,” Meg Elison imagines that Big Pharma has developed a medication that can eliminate obesity and thoughtfully examines the dystopian effects of a society where choosing to remain overweight becomes a liability—and what happens to those whose lives aren’t really changed by the drug. Karin Lowachee’s “Survival Guide” explores what happens to students taught by an A.I. neural network that seems to improve comprehension but may be turning them into docile sheep in the process. And a devastating disease tests medical ethics in Karen Lord’s timely “The Plague Doctors.” The high point of the extraterrestrial entries, meanwhile, is Gene Doucette’s “Schrödinger’s Catastrophe,” in which a spaceship wanders into a section of the universe governed by different laws of physics. With these phenomenal selections, Roth nimbly demonstrates the genre’s continued potential for rich ideas.