The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2021 Edition. edited by Rich Horton
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: 2021 EDITION
RATED 88% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE 3.94 OF 5
34 STORIES : 6 GREAT / 21 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 0 DNF
Rich Horton has eclectic tastes in Science Fiction and Fantasy. He pulls stories from far beyond the traditional genre outlets without sacrificing the core of genre storytelling. That is what makes his anthologies so popular. My tastes run much more exclusively towards the Science Fiction genre, so SFF joints tend to score lower on my scoring system. So it is a strong complement to Horton that this anthology recieves 88pts overall and a 3.94/5 average story score. This is an excellent book, especially if you like fantasy as well. It is also a long book, packed with stories.
Six Stories made The All Time Great List:
The Bahrain Underground Bazaar • (2020) • novelette by Nadia Afifi. Quite the impressive story dealing with terminal illness through a science fictional lens. An elderly woman escapes into the illegal parts of the Bahrain Bazaar to experience the recorded full-sensory deaths of other people. After reliving many kinds of death she stumbles one apparent suicide that inspires an obsession to know more about that woman. A great main character, really interesting use of full sensory life recordings, and a rich middle eastern world of description.
Minerva Girls • (2020) • novelette by James Van Pelt. A gender-bent tale of backyard rocketships amongst friends. A group of teen girls balance school, friendship, work, and building a rocket ship to travel to the moon.
Egoli • (2020) • short fiction by T. L. Huchu. A wonderful character study of an elderly African woman who reminiscences about her life on the morning she wakes up early to watch her grandson’s voyage to asteroids for mining. A very literary story with a sense of wonder emanating from the span of a human life and what does or does not change.
You Have the Prettiest Mask • (2020) • short fiction by Sarah Langan. Great YA coming-of-age story set in a world where a global pandemic has made mask-wearing mandatory and controversial, just not the pandemic you like. This pandemic kills men horribly, but women of child bearing age are silent carriers. So society has decided to mask women in public: leading to Bloody Thirteen parties where teenaged girls are masked publicly. This novella stars one preteen girl whose family is hiding her from this reality in elite private schools. The story spends a lot of time in the friendship drama, but does it well, showing how build world events affect children’s daily lives.
An Important Failure • (2020) • novelette by Rebecca Campbell. A bittersweet tale of the arts in a collapsing world. A man is dedicated to create a world class violin for a child prodigy. However the world continues to burn due to climate change and the very materials needed to build the instrument are illegal, horribly expensive, and frequently corrupted in their nature. Campbell has written a richly detailed vision of pain and preservation.
Silver Door Diner • (2020) • short story by Bishop Garrison. A young boy sits at a diner, out of place and a little abnormal. The waitress gives him a piece of pie and starts talking in the hope that he will reveal something about why he isn’t in school or with his parents. What the boy reveals is detailed and apocalyptic and this is a conversation that they’ve had many many times.
THE YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY: 2021 EDITION
34 STORIES : 6 GREAT / 21 GOOD / 6 AVERAGE / 1 POOR / 0 DNF
Stepsister • (2020) • novelette by Leah Cypess
Good. A very good fantasy tale that is a modern cynical exploration of what really happened to Cinderellas “evil'“ stepsisters. Not my favorite style of story, but really elevated by great characters and sharp prose.
Laws of Impermanence • (2020) • short story by Kenneth Schneyer
Good. A clever intellectual thought experiment about the ideal that written texts mutate and completely change over time, even though some people struggle to keep them standardized.
Songs of Activation • (2020) • short fiction by Andy Dudak
Average. I was a little confused by what was happening there, but it seemed like knowledge was downloaded into students minds and then activated as they sang certain songs. There is some class issued highlighted here as well with our protagonist being a poor kid at a rich school. I feel like I need to reread this, but don't really want to .
The Past, Like a River In Flood • (2020) • short fiction by Marissa Lingen
Good. A geomancer returns to the scene of an accident and discovers the secret role one of her mentors had in the tragedy. Found this a pleasant story despite my intolerance for the fantasy tropes that it mines.
The Bahrain Underground Bazaar • (2020) • novelette by Nadia Afifi
Great. Quite the impressive story dealing with terminal illness through a science fictional lens. An elderly woman escapes into the illegal parts of the Bahrain Bazaar to experience the recorded full-sensory deaths of other people. After reliving many kinds of death she stumbles one apparent suicide that inspires an obsession to know more about that woman. A great main character, really interesting use of full sensory life recordings, and a rich middle eastern world of description.
Open House on Haunted Hill • (2020) • short story by John Wiswell
Good. Haunted Houses, real estate agents, a precocious young girl and her father. Just the right amount of creepiness and wistfulness combined. Will never visit an Open House with quite the same attitude again.
Beyond the Dragon's Gate • (2020) • short story by Yoon Ha Lee
Good. An A.I. specialist is kidnapped by the military to investigate why A.I. powered spaceships are changing their name and being destroyed shortly after being upgraded.
Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells As a Super • (2020) • novelette by A. T. Greenblatt
Average. A very trite superhero story that has been told many times. A underpowered superhero finds his place within a superhero team. The writing is good and the characters are better than average, but not much originality here.
Minerva Girls • (2020) • novelette by James Van Pelt
Great. A gender-bent tale of backyard rocketships amongst friends. A group of teen girls balance school, friendship, work, and building a rocket ship to travel to the moon.
A Feast of Butterflies • (2020) • short story by Amanda Hollander
Good. In a fantasy world, a constable is send to investigate the disappearance of five boys, including one that is the grandson of the powerful Judge. He is directed to focus on a mad woman who eats butterflies. Her tragic backstory helps us understand what happened to the boys.
Egoli • (2020) • short fiction by T. L. Huchu
Great. A wonderful character study of an elderly African woman who reminiscences about her life on the morning she wakes up early to watch her grandson’s voyage to asteroids for mining. A very literary story with a sense of wonder emanating from the span of a human life and what does or does not change.
Spirit Level • (2020) • novelette by John Kessel
Average. A man spirals out of control as he has encounters with ghosts of people both living and dead. Perhaps he is haunted by a spirit level? Get it? SPIRIT level. Readable with good characters but feels completely unoriginal.
Bereft, I Come to a Nameless World • [The Unraveling] • (2020) • short story by Benjamin Rosenbaum
Average. A powerful space traveler, who has been influencing planets and empire, reconnects with a friend who is not in multiple bodies. Then he becomes a tree?
You Have the Prettiest Mask • (2020) • short fiction by Sarah Langan
Great. Great YA coming-of-age story set in a world where a global pandemic has made mask-wearing mandatory and controversial, just not the pandemic you like. This pandemic kills men horribly, but women of child bearing age are silent carriers. So society has decided to mask women in public: leading to Bloody Thirteen parties where teenaged girls are masked publicly. This novella stars one preteen girl whose family is hiding her from this reality in elite private schools. The story spends a lot of time in the friendship drama, but does it well, showing how build world events affect children’s daily lives.
The Garden Where No One Ever Goes • (2020) • short fiction by P. H. Lee
Good. In a fantasy town that is dry because of a damn, a girl sneaks off to a garden for forbidden love.
50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know • (2020) • short story by Ken Liu
Good. The ‘life’ and final thoughts of an Artificial Intelligence that was famous and influential in helping the development of empathy and other ethical characteristics in A.I. Told in the style of an article, not a story.
Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality • (2020) • short story by Rati Mehrotra
Good. Fun story of an arrogant cat and an elderly witch who protect the Great Tree that controls the universe. Maurice, the cat, doesn’t like it when the witch brings in a bunch of new kittens.
Fog and Pearls at the King's Cross Junction • (2020) • short fiction by Aliya Whiteley
Good. A young woman takes a job in a lighthouse with a man who collects and sells pearls, but the job changes dramatically when the fog rolls in.
The Monogamy Hormone • (2020) • short story by Annalee Newitz
Poor. Propaganda for Polyamory with very minimal Sci-Fi elements.
An Important Failure • (2020) • novelette by Rebecca Campbell
Great. A bittersweet tale of the arts in a collapsing world. A man is dedicated to create a world class violin for a child prodigy. However the world continues to burn due to climate change and the very materials needed to build the instrument are illegal, horribly expensive, and frequently corrupted in their nature. Campbell has written a richly detailed vision of pain and preservation.
When God Sits in Your Lap • (2020) • novelette by Ian Tregillis
Good. You’ll need a very high tolerance for cheesy ‘Film Noir Gumshoe Dialogue’ to enjoy this story of a fallen angel sent to investigate why a wealthy businesswoman isn’t talking to her son anymore. Set against a background of disruption in Heaven and ‘the heavens'.’
A Guide for Working Breeds • (2020) • short fiction by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Good. A cynical old robot that fights in death matches is forced to mentor a chipper young robot working at a diner. Kinda witty and reasonably charming, but it didn’t quite reach the greatness for my taste, although it certainly did for others..
Silver Door Diner • (2020) • short story by Bishop Garrison
Great. A young boy sits at a diner, out of place and a little abnormal. The waitress gives him a piece of pie and starts talking in the hope that he will reveal something about why he isn’t in school or with his parents. What the boy reveals is detailed and apocalyptic and this is a conversation that they’ve had many many times.
Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars • (2020) • novelette by Mercurio D. Rivera
Average. Pretty much a modern day retelling of the great “Microcosmic God”. Even covering many of the same story beats.
The Moon Fairy • (2020) • short fiction by Sofia Samatar
Average. A young girl adopts a Moon Fairy. At first it is a beautiful gentle experience, but it soon becomes darker and more manipulative.
Retention • (2020) • short story by Alec Nevala-Lee
Good. Dialogue between a person who wants to end their high tech security system and the ‘customer service’ that seems to want to avoid it at all costs.
Lovers on a Bridge • (2020) • short story by Alexandra Seidel
Good. Pleasant enough mood piece about a woman who seems to slip into a magical place in an art museum and starts a relationship with a curator.
Thirty-Three • (2020) • short story by Tade Thompson
Good. A scientist who posited that robotic avatars should be able to feel pain, so that the operator can know when they are damaged, takes one through a plasma shield to rescue a new energy source.
Those We Serve • (2020) • short story by Eugenia Triantafyllou
Good. In a tourist town, artificial representations of resident have their own poignant, fleeting grasp of life.
Behind Our Irises • (2020) • short fiction by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Good. Corporate dystopian story about surveillance of employees at a multinational business in Africa.
Little Free Library • (2020) • short story by Naomi Kritzer
Good. Absolutely charming piece of domestic fantasy. A woman starts a friendship - and maybe inspires a revolution - centered around her Little Free Library and the books she offers. Relaxing and very pleasant, but ends too soon. Give me a short novel around this idea, please!
An Unkindness • (2020) • novella by Jessica P. Wick
Good. A readable, if very traditional fantasy story. A girl who hates ravens discovers that her brother has been drawn repeatedly to a faerie world that has been feeding on her countrymen. Battle ensues.
Dragon Slayer • (2020) • short fiction by Michael Swanwick
Good. A pleasant fable with time travel, dragons, magical artifacts, and a coming-of-age moment.
Two Truths and a Lie • (2020) • novelette by Sarah Pinsker
Good. A creepy piece of subtly dark fantasy. The story centers around the cleaning of a hoarders old house and a sinister local children’s show that most people don’t remember. I still get back-of-the-neck shivers when I think of it.
