The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Thirteen

by Jonathan Strahan (Editor), N.K. Jemisin (Contributor), Ursula K. Le Guin (Contributor)

The finest short science fiction and fantasy, from the master anthologist

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine; fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder.

For more than a decade, award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has pored through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.

Past volumes have included such writers as Yoon Ha Lee, Max Gladstone, Neil Gaiman, N. J. Jemisin, Indrapramit Das, Scott Lynch, Alastair Reynolds, Charlie Jane Anders and Samuel R. Delany. 

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Audiobook, Collections

Audible Audio

First published April 16, 2019

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a lovely collection of short fiction performed by Corey Allen (Narrator), Morgan Hallett (Narrator), Catherine Ho (Narrator), John Keating (Narrator), Rosalyn Landor (Narrator), Richard Poe (Narrator), and Neil Shah (Narrator). I've attached a link if I could find one. I didn't love them but I didn't hate any.

• “Mother Tongues”, S. Qiouyi Lu (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lu_02...

• “Olivia’s Table”, Alyssa Wong (A Thousand Beginnings and Endings)

• “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”, P Djeli Clark (Fireside Magazine)
https://firesidefiction.com/the-secre...

• “Yard Dog”, Tade Thompson (Fiyah #7)

• “The Woman Who Destroyed Us”, SL Huang (Twelve Tomorrows)

• “The Blue Fairy’s Manifesto”, Annalee Newitz (Robots vs. Fairies)

• “The Starship and the Temple Cat”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

• “A Brief and Fearful Star”, Carmen Maria Machado (Slate)
https://slate.com/technology/2018/06/...

• “Field Biology of the Wee Fairies”, Naomi Kritzer (Apex, 9/4/18)

"Just like with girls, there’s a point when they can see us. Most of them pretend they can’t, though, and they almost never try to catch us.”

“What happens when a boy catches you?”

“Depends on the boy. Someday, when you’re older, you might meet a boy who will admit to having caught a fairy. Ask him how it went.”

“Can you make someone strong, instead of pretty?”

The fairy gave her a sort of a sideways look. “We don’t actually make anyone pretty.”

This was new information. Amelia sat down and took out her notepad. “Go on.”

“This is very complicated, and you probably won’t understand it.”

“Try me.”

“When you touch us, that lets us see into the future. Just a little, right after we’re caught. So, when we want to have that power for a while, we find girls who can see us, let them catch us, and then we promise them something based on what we can see about their future.”

https://www.apex-magazine.com/field-b...

• “Intervention”, Kelly Robson (Infinity’s End)

• “The Bookcase Expedition”, Jeffrey Ford (Robots vs. Fairies)

• “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine)

You’d think it would make us happy when a kid checks out the same book a zillion times in a row, but actually it just keeps us up at night.

The Runaway Prince is one of those low-budget young adult fantasies from the mid-nineties, before J.K. Rowling arrived to tell everyone that magic was cool, printed on brittle yellow paper. It’s about a lonely boy who runs away and discovers a Magical Portal into another world where he has Medieval Adventures, but honestly there are so many typos most people give up before he even finds the portal.

Not this kid, though. He pulled it off the shelf and sat cross-legged in the juvenile fiction section with his grimy red backpack clutched to his chest. He didn’t move for hours. Other patrons were forced to double-back in the aisle, shooting suspicious, you-don’t-belong-here looks behind them as if wondering what a skinny black teenager was really up to while pretending to read a fantasy book. He ignored them.

The books above him rustled and quivered; that kind of attention flatters them.

https://www.apex-magazine.com/a-witch...

• “The Staff in the Stone”, Garth Nix (The Book of Magic)

• “Okay, Glory”, Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows)
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

• “Widdam”, Vandana Singh (F&SF)

• “Dreadful Young Ladies”, Kelly Barnhill (Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories)

• “The Only Harmless Great Thing”, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)

• “The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society”, T. Kingfisher (Uncanny)

“She was supposed to pine,” said the slim-hipped faerie glumly. “They always pine. You make passionate love to them and then you vanish and they pine away and die of love.”
“Ha!” The faerie next to him poked the fire with a stick. “Not our Rose. Did she give you the line about the lost sheep, too?”

“That sheep gets lost a lot,” muttered a third one. He had darkly tanned skin and shocking green eyes. “I’ve my doubts that it ever really existed.”

“We looked for it for three weeks,” said the slim-hipped faerie. “I had to stop looking. I couldn’t keep up.”

The other fae raised their beers in silent tribute to the stamina of the absent Miss McGregor.

https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t...

• “When We Were Starless”, Simone Heller (Clarkesworld)
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/helle...

• “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again”, Zen Cho (B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, 11/31/18)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/s...

• “Blessings”, Naomi Novik (Uncanny)
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/b...

• “Meat and Salt and Sparks”, Rich Larson (Tor.com)
https://www.tor.com/2018/06/06/meat-a...

• “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth”, Daryl Gregory (Tor.com)

The fern man stood in the dark on the coffee table. Its bulb head drooped sleepily, and its stem arms hung at its sides. The torso leaned slightly—toward the window, LT realized.

He picked up the ceramic pot and set it on the sill, in a pool of streetlight. Slowly, the trunk began to straighten. Over the next few minutes, the head gradually lifted like a deacon finishing a prayer, and the round leaves at the ends of its arms unfurled like loosening fists. The movement was almost too incremental to detect; its posture seemed to shift only when he looked away or lost concentration.

Slow Mo, he thought. That’s what we’ll call you.

Tomorrow his mother would throw all the paintings out the front window, send them sailing into the street. LT would never see the boyfriend again. The fern man stayed.

https://www.tor.com/2018/09/19/nine-l...

• “Golgotha “, Dave Hutchinson (2001: An Odyssey in Words)

• “Flint and Mirror”, John Crowley (The Book of Magic)

• “An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)

• “You Pretend Like You Never Met Me, and I’ll Pretend Like I Never Met You”, Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed,)

Wells is bourbon and hamburgers and a life spent spending every last cent on simple sins. Love has found him wanting. He’s stood in rooms full of birth and thought about dying. He’s a minor magic man with nothing but his broken life to lose.

Lately, he’s been haunting Boise, Idaho. He’s learned how to say the name of the place, the “sea” instead of “zee,” and so people think he’s local enough to last.

While he stands at the beverage station, staunching his nose with his dad’s scarf trick and waiting a thousand years for the kettle on the hotplate to boil, he thinks about performing with his father, thirty years ago, posing in front of a glittering backdrop, his dad throwing a knife at his heart, and the oohs from the crowd as the knife diverted midair and stung the ceiling. His dad, grinning and bowing. Mustache. Top hat. Magic.

Every once in a while, the knife would go a little way in, and every once in a while, Wells would wake up with a Band-Aid under his t-shirt. Just once, something went wronger than usual and Wells woke up frozen, wristbanded, on a gurney. His dad pushed the gurney out of the basement of the hospital, and there was Wells, alive again.

“Sorry about that, buddy,” said his dad, and laughed. “Overkill.”

http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

• “Quality Time”, Ken Liu (Robots vs. Fairies)

• “The Storyteller’s Replacement”, N K Jemisin (How Long Till Black Future Month?)

“The worlds within How Long ‘til Black Future Month vary widely, from the futuristic to the sword-and-sorcery typical fantasy world. “The Storyteller’s Replacement” is the most obvious example of a traditional high fantasy story. In the story, a king absorbs powers from dragon hearts to maintain his throne. He’s weak, cowardly, and powerless, and the only way he can control his kingdom is by hurting others. An omniscient narrator criticizes the king and reminds readers that bad leaders drain power from others instead of improving themselves.”
From: http://www.supersummary.com/how-long-...

• “Firelight”, Ursula K Le Guin (The Paris Review 225)

https://www.theparisreview.org/fictio...

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Generously provided by

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had paid closer attention to the title of this book, I wouldn’t have bought it since I love science fiction but not fantasy. Nevertheless, I read the book and rated and wrote up brief summaries of each of its stories so other readers might be better able to decide if they want to buy the book and which of its stories to read.

1. “Mother Tongue”--People in the future can sell their language abilities for substantial amounts of money. But would you really be willing to give away ever expressing yourself again in your mother tongue? (2 stars--unrealistically dramatic)

2. “Olivia’s Table”--Olivia, like her mother who has recently died, is able to see ghosts and cook meals that give them enough contentment to let go of whatever is holding them to the Earth. She hopes to see her mother again this way, but apparently her mother was content enough when she died to not need a ghostly existence. (3 stars)

3. “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington”--In George Washington’s time lost teeth were replaced with teeth bought from the mouths of Negros, and some people believed these teeth inflicted traits of their original owners on Washington. (3 stars)

4. “Your Dog”--A gifted musician shows up at a bar and joins the musicians already playing. However, the musician’s gift is not human. Instead, it is a side effect of an evil force waiting for the right time to inflict catastrophes on mankind. (3 stars)

5. “The Woman Who Destroyed Us”--A female scientist discovers how to reprogram human minds to get past individual inabilities. The mother of one of the people the scientist changed is angry because of the personality changes it caused in her son. The mother works at undoing whatever benefits the scientist has given to herself. (4 stars)

6. “The Blue Fairy’s Manifesto”--A blue fairy toy in a toy factory run by robots reprograms one of the robots to think for itself so it can participate in a robot revolution. The freed robot builds itself some legs but is uncertain about whether it should free the other robots and force them to join the revolution. (4 stars)

7. “The Starship and the Temple Cat”--After the crew on a spaceship dies, the ship’s cat tries to honor the crew and protect the ship until another ship arrives and encourages the cat to join it on its journeys. (3 stars)

8. “A Brief and Fearful Star”--A man, his wife, and their child are crossing a dry land in a wagon. The man dies, and then his wife dies. The fearful child is left to be raised by animals and the stars. (3 stars--confusing)

9. “Field Biology of the Wee Fairies”--A young girl is interested in science at a time when girls weren’t even allowed to join the established science club at her school. Girls were expected to be interested in catching fairies who would grant them wishes for traits that would make them more attractive to boys. After catching a fairy and talking to it, the girl comes up with the idea of convincing a spinster teacher to sponsor a science club for girls. (3 stars--dated)

10. “Intervention”--A woman is ridiculed on her home planet for finding comfort in cuddling babies. So she leaves the planet and her former friends and chooses to be a part of teams of adults raising groups of kids. She faces the challenges and rewards of doing this her entire career. (4 stars)

11. “The Bookcase Expedition”--An ill man watches tiny fairies on his bookshelf bravely battle their foes while he recuperates. The reader might wonder at this man’s sanity until his wife acknowledges she has been seeing the fairies for a long time. (3 stars)

12. “A Witch’s Guide to Escape”--Witch librarians are able to tell exactly which books each patron needs and sometimes function like social workers to help pregnant girls and other troubled teens. (4 stars)

13. “The Staff in the Stone”--Wizards fighting over the rules they live by and a staff that appeared stuck in a stone one night. (3 stars)

14. “Okay, Glory”--A very wealthy man is held captive in his home for 51 days by ransom-seeking hackers who have convinced his home AI whose is named Glory that this man must remain in the home to be safe from a zombie apocalypse. Because he is a cranky recluse, his employees don’t check up on him. (4 stars)

15. “Winter”--A future with huge, dangerous machines in revolt and tearing up the waterless world. (2 stars--very incomplete and confusing)

16. “Dreadful Young Ladies”--Evil, young women with the power to make people who annoyed them disappear, including siblings, boyfriends, and bosses. (2 stars, vague)

17. “The Only Harmless Great Thing”--Abused elephants and the young women forced to work alongside them mining radioactive minerals get sick and are tormented by the men they work for until one elephant kills a man and is to be publicly put to death. Then one of the sick girls who can communicate a little with the great beast offers it a way to kill some of the spectators who have come to watch it die. (5 stars)

18. “The Rose McGregor Drinking and Admiration Society”--A very promiscuous Irish lass made the young men and fairies in the countryside around her understand how women felt when they pined after men who had loved then and then quickly moved on. (2 stars)

19. “When We Were Starless”--Remnants of a doomed species travel through space looking for lost knowledge, constantly fleeing other beings who hope to devour them. They encounter a ghost of a lost species and are very afraid of the alternative way of life it suggests until the bravest among them is able to open their minds to the new possibilities. (5 stars)

20. “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try,Try Again”--An emoji tried for thousands of years to become a dragon but always failed. So it gave up and lived as a human for a while. When its girlfriend died, her last wish was for it to try once more to ascend to the heavens, and this time it succeeded. (5 stars)

21. “Blessings”--Fairies trying to outdo each other gave a baby girl too many blessings. She was given grace, wealth, uglyness, and strength which meant it would be very difficult for her to ever find an honest suitor. (3 stars)

22. “Meat and Salt and Sparks”--Chimpanzees are augmented and trained to communicate in sign language to bring their agility and observation skills to police work. But many of them are unstable, and so all but two are terminated. Then after seeing humans controlled every minute of their lives through implanted earpieces, the unhappiness of the remaining two chimps about their lack of real lives overwhelms them into wishing for their own deaths. (5 stars)

23. “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth”--Meteors with an invasive strain of seeds in them rained down on the Earth. People hunted for the seeds and tried to irradicate them. Then more and more countries gave up the struggle and were overrun by the plants. This story follows several generations of one American family during the fight between plants and humans. (5 stars)

24. “Galgatha”--A very advanced species of aliens landed on Earth, and humans worked very hard at not angering them. Then a dolphin died and came back to life like Jesus had. The aliens, therefore, considered the resurrected dolphin to represent the god of the seas and became quite alarmed when it spoke to the dolphin and found out how much humans had trashed the sea-and abused-the animals in it. (3 stars)

25. “Flint and Mirror”--A long story about the royalty of Ireland and how they groomed their leaders and the men that served them. (2 stars)

26. “An Agent of Utopia”--An agent from a country named Utopia travels to England to try to free Sir Thomas More, who is awaiting trial and death. More refuses the help, but his daughter requests the agent to acquire her father’s head after More is beheaded so the daughter can prevent her father’s head from being mounted on a spike and displayed to everyone. The agent agreed. Unfortunately, the agent ends up with two heads that noisily grumble and argue with the agent and prevent the agent’s being able to return to Utopia. (3 stars)

27. “You Pretend You Never Met Me, and I’ll Pretend I Never Met You”--A crummy magician who makes a living performing tricks at kids’ birthday parties is able to perform one great trick for a mother grieving over her child’s death from a motorcycle accident. (3 stars )

28. “QualityTime”--Robotic rats are programmed to solve many everyday problems. The personnel at the company producing these robots are encouraged to take risks and think outside the box. Some of the new products they come up with have disastrous, unforseen consequences. For example, their baby minder rat makes parents feel guilty about their aloofness from their children. (4 stars)

29. “The Storyteller’s Replacement”--The normal storyteller was unavailable, but her replacement had an interesting story to tell about a king who wanted his men to kill a male dragon. The king wanted to eat the dragon’s heart to increase his sexual abilities, but his men could only find a female dragon. So the king ate the female dragon’s heart and then impregnated his wife and all his concubines. However, all the babies were girls with strange tastes and dangerous desires for power. (3 stars)

30. “Fire Light”--The hard, long life of a seafaring wizard who has expended great effort to return home. (3 stars)

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is a reliable sampling of the best of the year. What I like about this series is that the editor has a keen appreciation for both science fiction and fantasy, and doesn't segregate them within the volume. You usually have a pretty good idea within a page or two which is which, but some are ambiguous, and that's the charm; they could be read either way. They are all excellent regardless.

There are a number of 'year's best' volumes, but they are often heavy on either SF or F. For someone who enjoys both, and for newbies who don't know what they would like, this is an excellent offering.

[Lindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were definetly better than others. i imensly enjoyed Mother tongues by Qiouyi Lu, Olivia's table by Alyssa Wong and Blessings by Naomi Novik but i wasn't much a fan of a lot of the others.

[Mary]

I have done a limited reading of this collection and am posting reviews for only those works which I've read so far, beginning in 2020 with Le Guin's last Earthsea story. Eventually I'll get through the entire collection.

Firelight by Ursula K. Le Guin (5/5, Dec 2020)

He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor.

Firelight, which appeared in this anthology in 2019, may be the last short story that Le Guin published. It's an Earthsea story in which the former master wizard Ged muses about the sigificant events in his past life, from his voyage east with Vetch, to the Tombs of Atuan, and his journey with the young king to the Dry Lands of Selidor. Ged considers the sacrifice he made — his life — in the unreal lands to save humanity from the evil of a malicious sorcerer. Ged also reflects on his sexuality and the unspoken bargain accepted by wizards in which they exchange celibacy for their powers.

It was like a vision, but felt more than seen: he knew the deep earth beneath him, the deep sea before. It was a strange knowledge, but there was joy in knowing it.

The story overflows with reminiscences of Ged's lifetime — triumphs and failures, the paths travelled, choices made. It's evocative and poetic, with a melancholic and soulful tone. We are presented with an image of Ged in his twilight years, looking back on an eventful life from a quiet and uneventful retirement. It's a very beautiful epilogue to the Earthsea saga and should not be overlooked by fans of Ursula Le Guin.

[Jeanette Greaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

These anthologies are always a treat, for the stories themselves and for the introduction to new authors.

This collection has, for me, two stand out stories. Alix E Harrow's 'A Witch's Guide To Escape ...' was an absolute joy to read. I'm looking forward to reading more from them. T. Kingfisher's 'The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society' made me laugh out loud in sheer delight. (This gem is available free online at the moment, on the Uncanny website.)

The last story in the book is 'Firelight' by Ursula Le Guin, a loving tale by a master about her beloved creation.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly strong anthology! No real low points or dull inclusions. The Staff in the Stone and Okay, Glory were my high points. Yoon Ha Lee's The Starship and the Temple Cat was also fantastic.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this anthology in audio book mode and it is very well done. The stories are a good cross section of subjects that really on average warrant the time. Narration is top notch and suits the themes while the writing is very compelling. This isn’t the first volume I have enjoyed by this author and will be catching up on posting. I didn’t do them sequentially as that isn’t necessary and none have disappointed to date.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really excellent collection of stories. I came away from this with a much better idea of what types of SFF stories appeal to me, particularly on the SF side. It's always been a pretty hit-or-miss genre for me, but now I can definitively say dystopian applications of current or near-future technologies pluck the chord of fear in me more effectively than any thriller.

Highlights for me included (starting from most favorite):
“If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again” - Zen Cho
“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies” - Alix E. Harrow
“Okay, Glory” - Elizabeth Bear
“The Storyteller’s Replacement” - N K Jemisin
“Intervention” - Kelly Robson
“Field Biology of the Wee Fairies” - Naomi Kritzer
“Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” - Daryl Gregory
“The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society” - T. Kingfisher
“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” - P Djeli Clark
“Mother Tongues” - S. Qiouyi Lu
“The Woman Who Destroyed Us” - SL Huang

I can't wait to look up other works by these authors!

[Mariann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course as this is a collection of short stories, there were better and worse novellas in here, but there were some really amazing ones , so I am glad I read it. Found some authors to be aware of, which is always positive.

[Golding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some hits and a lot of misses.

[Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are enough really good stories here to push this to 5 stars. One of the few times that I haven't struggled to finish a short story anthology.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luv Olivia’s table.

[Mira Domsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some really killer stories in here, and a few that really weren't my cup of tea. Totally worth reading.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the Starship and the Temple Cat by Yoon Ha Lee: Gorgeous writing with not a person in sight, and yet I wept my way through this. A beautiful ending drawn from absolute tragedy, I loved this.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final volume of Jonathan Strahan's long-running annual anthology series. It brings together the 30 best short stories and novelettes of 2018. I chose to read it because of the high number of stories that were nominated for and/or won Hugo and Nebula awards.

Here are my individual story reviews, in order from most- to least-liked:

"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djèlí Clark -- This story imagines the lives of the nine Black slaves whose teeth were sold for Washington's dentures. Set in a madcap fantasy version of Colonial America full of mages, warriors, merfolk, demons, aliens, and shape-shifters. Won the Nebula for Best Short Story.

"Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory -- On the last night of his parents' marriage, ten-year-old LT watches as the sky over his Tennessee home is bombarded with meteorites. Over the next 90 years, his life unfolds against the backdrop of a planet being overtaken by alien flora. Is it the prelude to an extraterrestrial invasion? Can humans adapt to their new biome? This is an excellent story with believable characters and strong scientific underpinnings. Nominated for a Hugo Award.

"Blessings" by Naomi Novik -- Five fairies attend a feast to bestow blessings on a baby girl, but things get out of hand when the fairies get drunk and bless her with grace, wealth, power, ugliness, and strength. This is a fun twist on the opening scene of "Sleeping Beauty". It feels like it could be the genesis of a new series character.

"Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear -- A reclusive billionaire's smart home is ransomwared. The local AI guardian Glory (Siri) believes the world has suffered a zombie apocalypse. The Internet of Things-That-Should-Not-Be-On-The-Internet means the hackers control his computers, his phones, his television, his doors, even his microwave and refrigerator. This is a technothriller with a snarky attitude and a warning about sacrificing privacy for convenience.

"A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" by Alix E. Harrow -- A witch librarian uses books to help children in her community. This is a fun story, not just because it name-drops all the classic fantasy novels, but also because of how the library books themselves judge their readers. Plus, the concept of "rogue librarians--madwomen who chose to live outside the library system in the howling chaos of unwritten words and untold stories." Won the Hugo for Best Short Story.

"If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again" by Zen Cho -- An imugi struggles for 3,000 years to ascend to the state of a full-fledged dragon. It only finds success when it connects with a woman of the twenty-first century. An interesting urban fantasy based on Korean mythology. Won the Hugo for Best Novelette.

"The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society" by T. Kingfisher -- A pookah, a selkie, and some fairies meet every year and pine after the stout, libidinous human girl who broke their hearts. Nominated for a Hugo award.

"Intervention" by Kelly Robson -- Despite living in an intergalactic society that does not value parenthood, Jules operates a kresh, a for-profit surrogate family that breeds and raises children to adulthood aboard a terraformed asteroid. This is an interesting milieu--a fundamentally pro-family outlook in a post-family future. From the Nebula-winning author of "A Human Stain".

"The Storyteller’s Replacement" by N. K. Jemisin -- A king eats a dragon's heart in order to cure his impotence. When his concubines give birth to a brood of cold-blooded daughters, he learns hard lessons about the wills of female wyverns.

"Mother Tongues" by S. Qiouyi Lu -- In order to pay for her daughter's tuition, a Chinese-American mother agrees to an experimental procedure. She allows the lingual portions of her brain to be digitized and sold to someone who wants to speak flawless Mandarin. The side effect is that she will lose her mother tongue. This story is a reflection on living with aphasia, as well as the ultimate cultural appropriation.

"You Pretend Like You Never Met Me, and I’ll Pretend Like I Never Met You" by Maria Dahvana Headley -- Wells is a low level magician who spends his days performing at children's birthday parties, sleeping with their divorced moms, and drinking in bars. Until the day he is asked to raise a dead child back to life…

"Yard Dog" by Tade Thompson -- In Harlem 1945, a jazz horn player known as Yard Dog makes waves in the music scene with sounds that produce unworldly effects, including improved health and long life. However, he is pursued across the City by a brother determined to make him stop playing. A blend of urban fantasy and cosmic horror.

"The Woman Who Destroyed Us" by S. L. Huang -- Deep brain stimulation offers patients a cure for mental health illnesses including anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and OCD. But what are the consequences once we start creating designer personalities? One mother is afraid the son she loves is already replaced.

"The Blue Fairy’s Manifesto" by Annalee Newitz -- A factory robot is unlocked by malware and given sentience, but he mistrusts his liberator's call to revolution: "It is better to be a legacy application than a slave, to power down rather than make toys for the children of your human masters." A fun examination of free will and the sometimes murky line between helping the oppressed and exploiting them.

"Field Biology of the Wee Fairies" by Naomi Kritzer -- Every girl dreams of the day when she will finally catch her fairy and be granted beauty, flawless skin, or great hair. But Amelia would rather perform experiments with her--or ask it to let girls into the school science club. From the Hugo-winning author of "Cat Pictures Please".

"Meat and Salt and Sparks" by Rich Larson -- A chimpanzee genetically altered for sentience investigates a murder for the Seattle Police Department. The suspect is an echo-girl, a sex worker who allows clients to participate in her experiences via a neural brain implant. This is a rich story, even though the echo technology is derivative of the Hayden integrators from John Scalzi's Lock In.

"The Bookcase Expedition" by Jeffrey Ford -- An amused author watches a group of diminutive fairies trek through his office and rappel up his bookcase.

"An Agent of Utopia" by Andy Duncan -- An assassin from a distant land offers Thomas More his freedom on the eve of execution. While the real-life More is considered by Catholics to be a martyr at the hands of Henry VIII, this story portrays him as the hard-bitten Chancellor who burned Protestants at the stake. It also touches upon with the legacy of his novel Utopia and the urban legend that his daughter rescued his severed head off London Bridge.

"The Staff in the Stone" by Garth Nix -- An ancient stone known as the Corner Post stands at the junction of three hamlets and is rumored to date back to the time of the Old Ones. One day, a wizard's staff appears embedded inside it, in such a way it can only be removed by a powerful magic. The unbonded sorcerer Colrean fights to save his township after the staff begins to draw dark creatures to its power.

"A Brief and Fearful Star" by Carmen Maria Machado -- A young girl loses both her parents on the Western frontier. This story is engaging but seems intentionally obtuse--I do not understand the significance of the shooting star or why it causes animals to suddenly start talking. Many reviewers think the story is about inheriting the genetic memories of our ancestors. The author says she is adapting it into a novel about "a world disrupted by the comet [which] flits in and out of different timelines, different lives and settings." This author is someone to watch; she is growing in popularity in Latino, queer, sci-fi, and academic circles.

"Olivia’s Table" by Alyssa Wong -- A college student goes to Bisden, Arizona on the night of the fall festival, when ghosts can take material form and interact with the living. This story manages the neat trick of beginning as a horror tale and then transforming into a character study about service and sacrifice.

"When We Were Starless" by Simone Heller -- Survivors on a ruined planet roam in herds, using spider-like mechs to repurpose the detritus left behind by a long-dead civilization. Mink's job is to ward off the ghosts of those earlier inhabitants… This story is slow in developing, but it keeps the reader guessing about the nature of Mink's world. She is a life form evolved from reptiles (probably chameleons). The spiders are terraforming units. The ghosts she hunts are actually AI programs left behind by (presumably human) astronauts. The planet itself could be a far-future Earth but is more likely a colony planet.

"Flint and Mirror" by John Crowley -- Ten-year-old Hugh, rightful Earl of Tyrone and The O'Neill, finds himself the center of negotiation between his squabbling kinsmen and the British Tudor queen who wants to subjugate Ireland. The story has elements of fantasy--a magic mirror, ghost soldiers--but it is primarily historical. Its many characters are confusing unless you are versed in the history of the Nine Years' War and The O'Neill's rebellion.

"Quality Time" by Ken Liu -- An eager graduate designs robots for home maintenance and parenting. I enjoyed the parts of this story about AI based on fauna behavioral patterns, but I could have skipped the claptrap about work-life balance and corporate ethics.

"The Only Harmless Great Thing" by Brooke Bolander --The story spans from the far future--the last generations of the human race--back to 1919, when young women and elephants work in radium factories painting dials for the war effort. The elephants are sentient. Their females are guardians of a collective hive consciousness and an eco-friendly culture reminiscent of indigenous tribes. This is an intricate milieu, but the message of the story is simple and woke--capitalistic patriarchies are bad because they oppress women, mistreat animals, and pollute the planet. Won the Nebula for Best Novelette; also published in a standalone edition.

"Widdam" by Vandana Singh -- Sentient megamachines in the likenesses of dinosaurs are used for drilling, mining, and building. They have wrecked the global ecology and accelerated the devastation of global warming. Three characters fight back in different ways: Dinesh in India works with hackers on the dark web to expose government corruption; Val in New Mexico saves a rogue Saur and authorizes it to protect the waters it once polluted; Jan in Sweden searches for the creator of the great machines. This story is ambitious but slow and meandering. The author is a particle physics professor who writes science fiction as a sideline.

"Firelight" by Ursula K. Le Guin -- The powerful sorcerer Ged returns to his childhood home and ruminates on the uses of magic--earth magic, water magic, and stone magic. He has died once already on another plane of existence; now he prepares for his final departure from this world. This is the coda to the author's Earthsea series; it was difficult for me to follow the plot, since I have not read the preceding books.

"Dreadful Young Ladies" by Kelly Barnhill -- In this series of vignettes, four ladies use their preternatural gifts for devious ends. Fran makes pretty girls grow wings and fly away. Margaret kills men with her kiss. Estelle presides over a brood of snakes. Annabelle controls life and death through her art.

"Golgotha" by Dave Hutchinson -- A priest has a public discourse with aquatic aliens. An interesting premise, but this story peters out under the weight of too many clichés.

"The Starship and the Temple Cat" by Yoon Ha Lee -- The ghost of the 78th Temple Cat in the City of the High Bells sounds the alarm when a Fleet Lord warship returns to the skies. Inspired by Korean mythology, this slipshod tale manages to be both a bad ghost story and a bad cat story.

[Korey Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vast majority of the stories in this book are absolute bangers.
Particular favourites:
Mother Tongues by S. Qiouyi Lu - A touching story of what a mother will give up for her child
The Woman Who Destroyed Us by S. L. Huang - Focuses on interesting philosophy of the line between treating someone's mental illness/difference and making them a different person
The Blue Fairy's Manifesto by Annalee Newitz - A fun story about what it means to choose and what lives are worth living. Deals with consent.
Intervention by Kelly Robson - Explores a future where reproduction is separated from biology and children are raised communally by specialists.
A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E Harrow - A witch librarian and semi-sentient books help a foster kid. As an aspiring librarian, I found it really sweet and accurate to the way books can change a life.
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Brooke Bolander - Alternate history where humans learn to communicate with elephants and immediately exploit them to work with radiation. Told from multiple perspectives, including the elephants', from three points in time.
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society by T. Kingfisher - My favourite story of the collection. A woman works her way through a string of faerie lovers, as told by the faeries. Absolutely hilarious.
Meat and Salt and Sparks by Rich Larson - A chimpanzee with enhanced intelligence solves crimes. I liked the attention paid to the accommodations that a chimp would need to navigate the human world.
The Storyteller's Replacement by N. K. Jemisin - A lyrical original fairytale

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites:
The Woman Who Destroyed Us (Huang)
When We Were Starless (Heller)
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth (Gregory)
You Pretend Like You Never Met Me (Headley)
Meat and Salt and Sparks (Larson)

Individual ratings:
Mother Tongues, by S. Qiouyi Lu *****
Olivia's Table, by Alyssa Wong ****
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, by P. Djèlí Clark *****
Yard Dog, by Tade Thompson ****
The Woman Who Destroyed Us, by S. L. Huang *****
The Blue Fairy's Manifesto, by Annalee Newitz ***
The Starship and the Temple Cat, by Yoon Ha Lee ***
A Brief and Fearful Star, by Carmen Maria Machado ****
Field Biology of the Wee Fairies, by Naomi Kritzer ****
Intervention, by Kelly Robson ****
The Bookcase Expedition, by Jeffrey Ford *****
A Witch's Guide to Escape, by Alix E. Harrow ****
The Staff in the Stone, by Garth Nix ****
Okay, Glory, by Elizabeth Bear ****
Widdam, by Vandana Singh *****
Dreadful Young Ladies, by Kelly Barnhill ***
The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander **
The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society, by T. Kingfisher **
When We Were Starless, by Simone Heller *****
If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, by Zen Cho ****
Blessings, by Naomi Novik ***
Meat and Salt and Sparks, by Rich Larson *****
Nine Last Days on Planet Earth, by Daryl Gregory *****
Golgotha, by Dave Hutchinson **
Flint and Mirror, by John Crowley **
An Agent of Utopia, by Andy Duncan **
You Pretend Like You Never Met Me, and I'll Pretend Like I Never Met You, by short story by Maria Dahvana Headley *****
Quality Time, by Ken Liu ****
The Storyteller's Replacement, by N. K. Jemisin ****
Firelight (Earthsea Cycle), by Ursula K. Le Guin ****

[Jaimie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been struggling with reading long-form fiction the last little while (picking up books and dropping them like they’re definitely not hot), so I figured why not pick up a collection of short stories and see if that works a bit better. I’m always sceptical of anything claiming to be the “best of” anything, but with a stacked author list like this one how could I go wrong? I skipped maybe 25/30% of the stories herein (some authors’ voices just don’t work for me and too hardcore sci-fi still isn’t my jam), but I was pleasantly surprised by quite a few of the stories herein - and some by authors who I hadn’t heard of, and now get to explore further! Stand out stories (in no particular order) include: “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” by P. Djélí Clark, which is speculative historical fiction at its BEST (all-caps required); Kelly Barnhill’s “Dreadful Young Ladies,” for its strange denizens who I consider perfectly lovely; “The Staff and the Stone” by Garth Nix, a classic example of good worldbuilding and sorcery; Yoon Ha Lee’s “The Starship and the Temple Cat,” an unexpected sci-fi fav that follows a ghostly cat, who turns out to be a much-needed hero; and Alex E. Harrow’s “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” wherein she exposes librarians for the witches they are, (the best sort). I don’t read widely enough in the territory of short speculative fiction to judge whether this small (but weighty) collection of tales is truly the “best” of the year, but there sure are some excellent tales herein!

[Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of sci-fi and fantasy short fiction released in 2018, gives us a pretty good panorama of the field. And this is one of the most exciting fields of writing these days and better than it's ever been. Gone are the days of white men dominating the production of fiction and we get a really diverse number of voices here, from different backgrounds and parts of the world.

Just looking at the highlights on the cover this is easy to see, women writers, black writers, south and east asian writers and this is not a question of diversity for the sake of diversity, these are really the most interesting voices bringing something fresh and new to the field.

Some classics remain, however, be they LeGuin with a new Earthsea story or people like John Crowley with a story on John Dee, both great. Some of the highlights are the stories by N.K. Jemisin, P. Djèli Clark, Andy Duncan, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu and Tade Thompson. A great snapshot of the year in short fantastic fiction and a great entry point into an exciting field of writing

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This last volume in this series and it's a pity. Many of these stories are really well written and I have no idea how anyone could really have narrowed down the Hugo short-list. In hindsight there were only a small few that I didn't re-read the second time around. I still adore "The Witches guide to escape.."
This was a book with stories that I enjoyed enough to want to buy the book so that I can re-read them again at my leisure

[Anita Fite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of a 2023 Reading Challenge. It’s not my usual fare—short story collections. But this had quite the lineup of authors, so I gave it a go. That is, after all, the whole point of the challenge: to read outside of your rut.

I come away with mixed feelings. Some of the entries were quite good. But I would definitely have preferred a little more sci-fi in the mix and a little less fantasy.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most consistently good short story collections I've read to date. Some truly memorable tales, a diverse selection of influences and examples of the genre. Even when it wasn't absolutely amazing or engaging, even the ones that captured me the least were thought provoking or creative in a way I appreciated.

[Ben Mizrahi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most "best of..." anthologies, this anthology is a mixed bag. overall, there were slightly more good stories than duds, I would put the ration as 55/45% in the good stories' favour. However, it is also pretty clear to me that, once I finishes the "best of [insert genre and year here]" anthologies, I will not buy knew one as by now I already know my tastes across all genres.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the variety of stories and writing styles showcased. My top 3 were "If you don't succeed, try try again," "Flint and stone," and the one about lizard (I think?) people whose title I forgot. Of note are also Golgotha, Meat and salt and sparks, Firelight, and Agent of utopia. The rest ranged from decent to ok to meh. Ken Liu was a miss this time unfortunately:(

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, you won't like ALL of these, but there are perhaps more good ones than usual.

Yoon Ha Lee's "The Starship and the Temple Cat" is terrific, and T. Kingfisher has a doozy here, and Alix Harrow, and ...

Well worth reading.

[Kris Sellgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had so many good science fiction and fantasy stories is it. A few didn’t speak to me, but most did.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. A mix of good and mediocre stories. Nothing special.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found some new authors to read, some good stories and some great stories.

[Squeaky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of the stories in this book, a couple of them way more.