Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy

Rating: 3.5 stars

I had this strange idea that I’d start to read some recently written science fiction to make sure that I don’t dislike all of it because I keep harping on how much I haven’t read anything written in the last ten years (okay, more than that, but let’s be generous) that I really like. Turns out this collection includes fantasy too, which doesn’t really bother me, since I’ve read some and not despised it. Turns out there’s only one real fantasy story in this collection, and it’s actually great.

I had this idea that I’d talk about every story in the collection. I could do that, but I’ll just point out the low point (there’s only one), the few high points, and I’d not talk about the mediocre stories (of which there are many).

That’s really where the rating for this book came from. There are some outstanding or great stories, but they’re few and far between, and most of them aren’t really sci-fi or fantasy. Stories that don’t have a real point make up the majority of the book. There is really only three sci-fi stories I liked, which I’ll talk about later.

First, the lowest point! It’s the very first story. It’s horrible to begin like this, but Rivers Run Free by Charles Payseur doesn’t really have a point and is stupid, to boot. The story is about rivers becoming corporeal entities, and they’re running from an empire that hunts and exploits them. In the opening scene, the river-people exploit their watery nature to defeat their enemies, then a pair of river-people have sex, and it’s just like humans. Okay, I don’t need a description, but the author gave it to us anyway. Why have it be that way if the rivers aren’t actually people? I get it, the rivers are about passion and wild emotion, and the author mentions something about water resources being exploited.

Look, I don’t disagree with the author, but I contend the story isn’t great. My problem is Rivers Run Free is far more about the author than anything else. Another minor complaint is that, again, the story isn’t really sci-fi or fantasy. It could vaguely be either so I don’t really count it as either.

I will briefly give a shout-out to ZeroS by Peter Watts whose unintended message is ‘killing children is actually fine’ with the condition that they’re child soldiers.

Now, I want to talk about some of the stories I liked that weren’t sci-fi. The highlight was the third story, You Will Always Have Family: a Triptych by Kathleen Kayembe (which I think would’ve been a far better first story, even the second, a somewhat milquetoast Urban Fantasy story). It’s a heart-warming story about patricide. It’s basically a ghost story using Conglese and American folklore.

Another quite good one is Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim. It’s about small toys creating a civilization. It isn’t about much but the trials and tribulations of life. For me that’s too much of a vague message for me to care much, but it’s well written and emotional

The last good one I want to mention is The Orange Tree by Maria Dahvana Headley is a story based off the Andalusian philosopher and Jewish Philosopher Solomon Ibn Gabirol as he animates a golem. It doesn’t have too much of a message, but it’s nice, and it feels like The Alchemist, a book I enjoyed.

The good fantasy story is Tasting Notes on the Varietals of the Southern Coast by Gwendolyn Clare, about a vintner on the campaign trail of the emperor’s army rating wine while horrible atrocities are going on all around. The two good sci-fi stories are The Greatest One-Star Restaurant by Rachael K. Jones and Zen and the Art of Starship by Tobias S. Buckell. The former is about an automaton literally cannibalizing her fellow outlaw robots to make a restaurant, and the last one is about passive resistance. I read Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in high school, and I remember not liking it, so I expected worse. But it was powerful and a good read. It was also the last story in the book, which is a good thing. As I’ve said before, the first and last chapter of any book are its most important.

Speaking of beginnings, a lot of these stories have pretty rough ones, and that’s why I didn’t go story by story. It’s a bit more forgiving in books when you have the whole space to grow into the characters, but in a short story you have a relatively little time to get people interested. This book actually reminded me of why I don’t usually read short stories. I think the time is when they’re all by the same author. Stephen King is really dynamite at this though his literary quality isn’t what I desire anymore.