THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2019 BY John Joseph Adams and Carmen Maria Machado, editors (Mariner Books, October 2019) Paperback, 432 pages. ISBN # 1328604373 / 9781328604378
Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .
This omnivorous selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and World Fantasy Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado is a display of the most boundary-pushing, genre-blurring, stylistically singular science fiction and fantasy stories published in the last year.
By sending us to alternate universes and chronicling ordinary magic, introducing us to mythical beasts and talking animals, and engaging with a wide spectrum of emotion from tenderness to fear, each of these stories challenge the way we see our place in the cosmos. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 represents a wide range of the most accomplished voices working in science fiction and fantasy, in fiction, today—each story dazzles with ambition, striking prose, and the promise of the other and the unencountered.
My three-star review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
Overall, I'm disappointed with this collection. However, it remains a good cross-section of some of the themes concurrent to contemporary science-fiction and fantasy short fiction.
There are two stories in here that deserve a bigger audience: my absolute favorite "Nine Last Days On Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory and “Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing The Stumps Down Good by Lashawn M Wanak..
I just expected to find more "above average" and "beyond expectations" stories than I did here. Of course, that is my personal opinion. Keep in mind this collection is also subjective, the personal opinion of the editor. I can't fault the selection process with a preliminary series editor (John Joseph Adams) selecting 80 stories, removing the author's name and the sources and then having the yearly editor (for 2019 it's Carmen Maria Mahado) pick the final 20 to publish in the collection.
Of 20 stories, only 11 hit the mark with me. While 55% is not a bad average and I don't regret reading this - - my expectations are much higher for a collection labeled "Best". Here's the breakdown:
Five Star Rating = 2 stories (what I consider exceptional)
Four Star Rating = 6 stories (what I consider above average)
Three And One-Half Star Rating = 3 stories
Three Stars = 5 stories (what I consider good, meets my expectations)
Two And One-Half Stars = 2 stories (what I consider below average)
One Star = 2 stories (what I consider mediocre, don't bother)
If you want to know more and don't mind reading a lengthy review (my apologies) then keep going . . . . . . .
The collection opens up with "Pitcher Plant", a short but engrossing tale of a thief/killer/escape artist breaking into an ever-changing fortress of traps in order to dispatch an ancient foe. There are some fascinating descriptions and images and writer Adam-Troy Castro is incredibly skillful. This story straddles the genres of fantasy and science-fiction and raises more questions than it tries to answer. Very mysterious, and I would love to know more. In the afterword, Castro mentions returning to both the setting and characters for a future story/novel, and I would certainly welcome that. Four Stars.
Seanan McGuire is one of my favorite authors, and "What Everyone Knows" is a good story. But I question its placement in a Best Of anthology. Really? One of the year's best? A godzilla-like monster is nuked to death and a young girl watching on television sees something to make her curious. That prompts her to become a scientist and explore the same site fifteen years later. Three Stars.
I feel the exact same way about "The Storyteller's Replacement" by N.K. Jemisin. Another good story, but surely not one to designate as one of the best. If this is what's in store in the remainder of this anthology, then I conclude it must have been a really lean year (2018) for short fiction. Jemisin puts her spin on an Arabian Knights type of fable. Three Stars.
"Poor Unfortunate Fools" by Silvia Park is different and creative in both subject and the manner in which the story is told from scientific reports. A clinical approach, yet the emotions behind the objects of study (marrows, a.k.a. male and female mermaids) manages to leak through. The objects of study have more personality than the reporters. Mating habits, sex life and reproductive cycles are the subject. Good, not great. Three Stars.
An unexplained event in 1899 Boston makes women invulnerable and impossible to die. This causes problems for the criminal justice system and the wife of the constable comes up with a role-reversal (for the times) solution. Interesting, especially the side notes on six male criminals hanged for vicious crimes against women (who did not die) but I can't determine the authors intent or point of the story. I give "Six Hangings In The Land Of Unkillable Women" by Theodore McCombs Three Stars.
Finally, an above average story emerges in "Hard Mary" by Sofia Samatar. A group of young Amish women discover an abandoned a.i-enhanced robot behind a barn, keep it hidden amongst themselves, converse and teach it Amish ways, and proceed to make opportunistic Amish modifications to its structure and put it to work in menial servitude. There's more to the story under the surface, including a devastated future earth that's hinted at more than it is explored, and the differing principles and values among the group. The name of the manufacturing corporation that developed the robot is quite ironic. Four Stars.
I like the concept behind "Variations On A Theme From Turnandot" by Ada Hoffman but feel the story-telling style made it seem tedious and mundane. A soprano in a popular stage opera changes her lines in the final scene, driving the director crazy and building a repeat audience who want to see the latest variation. She feels a connection between herself and the character she portrays and works towards changing the ending to a more satisfactory conclusion. Apparently, the actors become the actual characters they are portraying. Too repetitive and choppy. Two And One-Half Stars.
"Through The Flash" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah reminded me of the movie GROUNDHOG DAY as if it took place following a nuclear fallout. Everyone in the story is confined to the "grid" in which they resided, cannot venture outside of those boundaries, and is doomed to wake up everyday in the same place just like the time loop in the movie. People get frustrated and start killing each other in vicious ways, only to repeat the murder-ressurection cycle again and again. Main character Ama is interesting but her values and actions seem to be contradictory. I like this concept but not the way it's executed. Nothing is really resolved and the ending just reflects the beginning, like a loop. Maybe that was the author's point. Yet the comments in the afterword reveal much higher ambitions. Those did not come across to me in the story. Two And One-Half Stars.
At last! A story that I can recommend to others: "Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing The Stumps Down Good" by Lashawn M. Wanak. That is a very descriptive title and a pretty succinct elevator pitch for the story - - but there's so much more to it than that. This is suspenseful, mysterious, contains action and a plot that moves forward, and provides engaging reading. During World War II airborne spores migrate indoors, congeal into stumps that resemble human figures and are widespread enough that a government agency is created to contain them. It's a crazy and inventive premise, but Wanak molds that into something special with a reflection on the racism of the times and likable characters with heart. It's about the power of music: to heal, to inspire, to embolden, to ease the troubled times. Five Stars.
This is more like it. Two good entries in a row. "The Kite Maker" by Brenda Peynado is a solid story. A mass migration of aliens escaping a doomed planet land on Earth, allow themselves to be subjugated by humans, and live in segregated housing although they do mingle and interact despite some general prejudice along with frequent abuse by neo-Nazi like gangs. A single mother and toy shop owner feeling guilty for their treatment does her best to understand and accept the differences. Four Stars.
"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" starts out strong with an interesting concept. Writer P. Dejeli Clark throws a fantasy element into his historical fiction. An actual historical document notes the purchase by George Washington of nine teeth from Negro slaves. Clark adds a fantasy element about removed teeth retaining the spirit of their original owner, and their memories passing onto whoever wears the teeth. He then gives a backstory to each slave and what images and physical feelings their teeth brought to Washington. In the afterword, Clark mentions using fiction "to illuminate the larger truths of our fractured past." However, his storytelling method wrings too much emotion out of the story as he relates these events as if the reader were perusing a facts-only entry on Wikipedia. No dialogue. No internal thoughts expressed. Yes, Washington does experience the memories of the former owners but doesn't go any further. If Clark had only shown us what indirect impact this had on the beliefs and values of Washington and what lessons he learned of the fractured past -- this could have been an incredible story. Alas. Three Stars.
There is some fascinating interplay as a friendship develops between an intelligent robotic drone and a crow in "When Robot And Crow Saved East St. Louis" by Annalee Newitz. They even find a common language and can converse and understand each other. The story takes place during a future depression when funding has been cut for many federal programs, including the CDC infectious disease early detection of which Robot was a part. A nice commentary on reaching across the aisle and learning to understand different points of view. Three And One-Half Stars.
I was absolutely fascinated by Unman Malik's version of Pakistan in "Dead Lovers On Each Blade, Hung" in a blend of reality with fantasy which grows darker and darker as the story moves forward ending in some scenes of pure horror. Ritualistic medicine, junkies, and snake fantasists. What a mix.! Four Stars.
I'm sure there are better stories from Sarah Gailey than "Stet". Why that story was included in a "Best" collection baffles me. Thankfully, it's mercifully short - just six pages. It's one highly academic paragraph on artificial intelligence in motor vehicles of the future peppered with footnotes every sentence, and followed by five pages of those footnotes with written commentary from alleged editor and writer. More tedious to read than it is clever. You can easily skip this one. In the author afterword, Gailey states that she wrote this in anger following a heated discussion of genre fiction versus literary fiction. It's her attempt to blend the two, and it just doesn't work. One Star.
"What Gentle Women Dare" by Kelly Robson is an engaging read with an extreme solution proposed on the final pages. A bit of diatribe seasoned enough with engaging conversation to make the medicine go down. In 1763 Liverpool, a street whore meets the Devil in the guise of a gentlewoman and bartering ensues. Three And One-Half Stars.
"Nine Last Days On Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory tells a dysfunctional family saga over the course of 53 years from the point-of-view of a ten-year-old budding scientist with an admirable sense of wonder through his final days. What makes this such a wonderful story, and succinctly told, is the overlay of an alien invasion of Earth in 1975 by a meteoric shower of seed pods. Throughout the story the conspiracy theories speculate this is the advent of an alien invasion of earth, sending plants first in order to infiltrate the environment and provide an alien food source for the conquerors. Turns out the theories were wrong. It's something completely different and positive rather than negative, passive rather than aggressive. I'd recommend this story to everyone. It's heart warming and uplifting. Five Stars.
"Dead Air" is another story that I disagree with its inclusion in this anthology. You have probably read more than one spooky/paranormal/ghost story similar to this. The only difference is in the storytelling method employed by Nino Cipri. It's told in short entries, a series of transcriptions taken from phone and video recordings of two female lovers, one obsessed with a "social experiment" interview process who falls in love with the other, who harbors a dark secret. The characters are not endearing. The story is contrived in many places in order to make it work. One Star.
The societal norm in Lesley Nneka Arimah's "Skinned" is for women to go about completely nude from the age of puberty until married. That makes it easy to identify single women from married women (except for the servile class of women who must always be naked and display identifying body markings) and puts extreme pressure on those who remain unmarried as they grow older. Main character Ejem isn't interested in the married life and finds herself disrespected and ostracized by her childhood friends. She finds a solution to her problem, yet even this is not entirely satisfying. A powerful story. Four Stars.
Martin Cahill's "Godmeat" is an interesting fable-like story of a chef serving up the remains of old gods to the wanna-be new gods, with a twisty yet predictable ending. Three And One-Half Stars.
The final story, "On The Day You Spend Forever With Your Dog" by Adam R. Shannon will surely bring a tear to the eye of any pet owner who's had to put down an aging and terminal animal companion. Told in second person, it gets a bit repetitive (although that is one of its points) as a pet owner utilizes time travel to revisit the beginning and ending days of a beloved dog. Four Stars.
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