The Year's Best Science Fiction--Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois

  Although long-running sites sff.net and SF Signal died in 2017, there are plenty of other sites of general interest include: Ansible (news.ansible.co.uk/Ansible), the online version of multiple Hugo-winner David Langford’s long-running fanzine Ansible; Book View Café (www.bookviewcafe.com) is a “consortium of over twenty professional authors,” including Vonda N. McIntyre, Laura Ann Gilman, Sarah Zittel, Brenda Clough, and others, who have created a Web site where work by them—mostly reprints, and some novel excerpts—is made available for free.

  Sites where podcasts and SF-oriented radio plays can be accessed have also proliferated in recent years: at Audible (www.audible.com), Escape Pod (escapepod.org, podcasting mostly SF), SF Squeecast (sfsqueecast.com/), The Coode Street Podcast (jonathanstrahan.podbean.com/), The Drabblecast (www.drabblecast.org), StarShipSofa (www.starshipsofa.com), Far Fetched Fables (www.farfetchedfables.com), new companion to StarShipSofa, concentrating on fantasy, SF Signal Podcast (www.sfsignal.com), Pseudopod (pseudopod.org, podcasting mostly fantasy), Podcastle (http://podcastle.org), podcasting mostly fantasy, and Galactic Suburbia (http://galacticsuburbia.pod.bean.com). Clarkesworld routinely offers podcasts of stories from the e-zine, and The Agony Column (agonycolumn.com) also hosts a weekly podcast. There’s also a site that podcasts nonfiction interviews and reviews, Dragon Page Cover to Cover (www.dragonpage.com).

  * * *

  In some ways, 2016 was an odd year for short fiction. There was still plenty of good short fiction to be found, in the print magazines, electronic magazines, in audio formats, in stand-alone chapbooks, but the majority of it was published at short fiction lengths, or at most at short novelette length, with good long novelettes and novellas harder to find. (There were some good fantasy novellas, almost all printed as stand-alone chapbooks, but science fiction novellas were thinner on the ground, with no more than four or five of them produced this year.) The majority of really superior SF was published at lengths between 6,000 and 12,000, with the bulk of it falling toward the shorter end of the scale.

  Why is this? My own personal theory is that the electronic magazines such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Tor.com have become prestigious enough, and also pay more than many print magazines, that writers are now writing their stories with them in mind as the primary place to submit them to first—and as most of those markets only occasionally publish anything longer than short novelette length, with the bulk of their stories being of short-story length instead, that authors are writing stories that confirm to those word-lengths, figuring that that’s their best chance of making a sale. Even if some of those stories fall though the electronic magazine market and end up appearing in one of the traditional print magazines instead, they’re still going to be short.

  Or perhaps the generation of younger writers who have grown up mostly reading fiction on the Internet, where short stories and flash fiction are common and novelettes and novellas are rare, have just been conditioned to think of those lengths as the lengths that a story ought to be.

  Which is too bad, as I personally still think that novella-length is the perfect natural length for a science fiction story, and if novellas disappear from the genre, the genre will be the weaker for it.

  Compared to 2015, 2016 was a bit weaker overall for original anthologies. Although neither was as strong as Jonathan Strahan’s 2015 SF anthology Meeting Infinity, Strahan still produced the two strongest original SF anthologies of the year, Bridging Infinity (Solaris), the most recent volume in his long-running Infinity anthology series, which have consistently been among the strongest original SF anthologies of their respective years, and a catastrophic climate change anthology Drowned Worlds: Tales From the Anthropocene and Beyond (Solaris). Bridging Infinity features some excellent stories, including some of the year’s best stories, by Alastair Reynolds, Ken Liu, Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty, Thoraiya Dyer, and Charlie Jane Anders; Bridging Infinity also features good stories by Pat Cadigan, Allen M. Steele, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, and others. There have been so many stories about catastrophic climate change in the last few years in practically every market (particularly ones about rising sea levels swallowing cities and coastlines), with at least three dedicated catastrophic climate change/apocalypse anthologies appearing in 2015 alone—and another one, the mostly reprint, This Way to the End Times: Classic Tales of the Apocalypse (Three Rooms Press), edited by Robert Silverberg, sneaking in toward the end of the year—that Strahan’s Drowned Worlds, although clearly the best of the bunch, may lose some impact with some readers by feeling overly familiar. Nevertheless, Drowned Worlds is a strong anthology, and I’m particularly impressed here with the stories that look beyond the familiar doom and gloom of the initial catastrophes and try to imagine how humans (who, after all, are extremely adaptable animals) and human society might be able to evolve strategies and ways of life that would enable them to survive and even eventually prosper under the new conditions pertaining to a post-climate catastrophe world. Some of the best stories here by Paul McAuley, Ken Liu, Charlie Jane Anders, and Catherynne M. Valente do just that (as do the Murphy and Dohertry and the Dyer stories from Bridging Infinity, which might have fit better into Drowned Worlds instead); Drowned Worlds also features good stories by Lavie Tidhar, Sam J. Miller, Nina Allan, Sean Williams (whose story might have fit better into Bridging Infinity), Nalo Hopkinson, and others. The anthology also reprints one of the earliest catastrophic climate change stories, and still one of the best, “Venice Drowned,” by Kim Stanley Robinson.

  Another good original SF anthology is To Shape the Dark (Candlemark), edited by Athena Andreadis, an anthology of SF stories about women scientists struggling to do “science not-as-usual,” to push the boundaries of the possible, often against considerable resistance and even attempted oppression by the societies in which they function … as well as attempts to deny that they ever did the work at all or to claim credit for it (not too different, in other words, from what happens all too often in our own present-day society). There’s a wide range of styles and moods here, with settings ranging from the near-present to the far-future, including stories about women exploring and doing vital scientific work on distant alien worlds. Strongest stories here are probably by Shariann Lewit, Aliette de Bodard, Melissa Scott, Vandana Singh, and Constance Cooper, but there’s also good work by Gwyneth Jones, Terry Boren, Kristin Landon, and others, all of it science fiction, some of it hard science fiction, and just about all of it worth reading.

  Now We Are Ten—Celebrating the First Ten Years of NewCon Press (NewCon Press), edited by Ian Whates, is exactly what it says that it is: a compilation of stories by authors who have been published by NewCon Press, in celebration of NewCon Press’s tenth anniversary. This is a mixed (but all original) anthology of SF and fantasy—nothing here is as strong as the best of the stories from the anthologies mentioned above, but most of the stories are enjoyable and worth reading. The best of them is probably by the ever-reliable Ian McDonald, but there’s also good stuff by Nina Allan, Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead, Eric Brown, E. J. Swift, and others.

  Not quite in the same league as the anthologies above, but still with a number of entertaining stories, are Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts (Laska Media Groups), edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law, which features good work by Rich Larson, James Alan Gardner, A. M. Dellamonica, Kelley Armstrong, Ursula Pflug, Hayden Trenholm, and others, and Clockwork Phoenix 5 (Mythic Delirium), edited by Mike Allen, which features strong work by Rich Larson, C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, Jason Kimble, Barbara Krasnoff, and others.

  There weren’t too many fantasy anthologies this year, and all of them were anthologies of retold fairy tales, two original and one reprint. The one that seemed to attract the most attention was The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales (Saga), edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, which featured good work by Garth Nix, Amal El-Mohtar, Aliette de Bodard, Naomi Novik, Seanan McGuire, Daryl Gregory, Marjorie Liu, and others. Also good was The Grimm Future (NESFA), edite
d by Erin Underwood, which featured strong work by Maura McHugh, Garth Nix, Seanan McGuire, and others.

  Postscripts 36/37: The Dragons of the Night (PS Publishing), edited by Nick Gevers, and Dreaming in the Dark (PS Publishing), an anthology of stories by Australian authors edited by Jack Dann, featured mostly slipstream, fantasy, and soft horror stories, almost all of high literary quality and craftsmanship, but, disappointingly, to me, anyway, not much core SF, if any. There were also a number of anthologies from Fiction River (www.fictionriver.com), which in 2013 launched a continuing series of original SF, fantasy, and mystery anthologies, with Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith as overall series editors, and individual editions edited by various hands. This year, they published Sparks (WMG), edited by Rebecca Moesta; Visions of the Apocalypse (WMG), edited by John Helfers; Haunted (WMG), edited by Kerrie L. Hughes; and Last Stand (WMG), edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Felicia Fredlund. These can be purchased in Kindle versions from Amazon and other online vendors, or from the publisher at www.wmgpublishinginc.com.

  Pleasant but minor original anthologies included What the #@&% Is That? (Saga/Simon & Schuster), edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, and Street Magicks (Prime), edited by Paula Guran.

  Noted without comment is a mixed SF anthology/fantasy anthology of stories inspired by famous first lines from literature, Mash Up (Titan), edited by Gardner Dozois.

  There was an anthology of SF stories translated from Chinese, Invisible Planets (Tor), edited by Ken Liu, and three shared-world anthologies, High Stakes (Tor), a new Wild Cards volume edited by George R. R. Martin with Melinda M. Snodgrass, Grantville Gazette VIII (Baen), edited by Eric Flint, and Onward, Drake! (Baen), an anthology of stories in tribute to David Drake, edited by Mark L. Van Name.

  L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 32 (Galaxy), edited by David Farland, is the most recent in a long-running series featuring novice work by beginning writers, some of whom may later turn out to be important talents.

  I don’t pay close attention to the horror field, considering it out of my purview, but the horror anthology that got talked about the most seemed to be Nightmares: A New Decade of Modern Horror (Tachyon), and Children of Lovecraft (Dark Horse), both edited by the indefatigable Ellen Datlow.

  Without a doubt the most prolific author at short lengths this year was Rich Larson, who published something like sixteen stories, at least five or six of which were good enough to have been justifiably placed in a best of the year anthology.

  * * *

  These days to find up-to-date contact information for almost any publisher, however small, you can just Google it. Nevertheless, as a courtesy, I’m going to reproduce here the addresses I have for small presses that may have been mentioned in the various sections of the Summation. If any are out-of-date, Google the publisher.

  Addresses: PS Publishing, Grosvener House, 1 New Road, Hornsea, West Yorkshire, HU18 1PG, England, UK www.pspublishing.co.uk; Golden Gryphon Press, 3002 Perkins Road, Urbana, IL 61802, www.goldengryphon.com; NESFA Press, P.O. Box 809, Framinghan, MA 01701-0809, www.nesfa.org; Subterranean Press, P.O. Box 190106, Burton, MI 48519, www.subterraneanpress.com; Old Earth Books, P.O. Box 19951, Baltimore, MD 21211–0951, www.oldearthbooks.com; Tachyon Press, 1459 18th St. #139, San Francisco, CA 94107, www.tachyonpublications.com; Night Shade Books, 1470 NW Saltzman Road, Portland, OR 97229, www.nightshade-books.com; Five Star Books, 295 Kennedy Memorial Drive, Waterville, ME 04901, www.galegroup.com/fivestar; NewCon Press, via www.newconpress.com; Small Beer Press, 176 Prospect Ave., Northampton, MA 01060, www.smallbeerpress.com; Locus Press, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661; Crescent Books, Mercat Press Ltd., 10 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh, Scotland EH3 7AL, www.crescentfiction.com; Wildside Press/Borgo Press, P.O. Box 301, Holicong, PA 18928–0301, or go to www.wildsidepress.com for pricing and ordering; Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, Inc. and Tesseract Books, Ltd., P.O. Box 1714, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7, Canada, www.edgewebsite.com; Aqueduct Press, P.O. Box 95787, Seattle, WA 98145–2787, www.aqueductpress.com; Phobos Books, 200 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, www.phobosweb.com; Fairwood Press, 5203 Quincy Ave. SE, Auburn, WA 98092, www.fairwoodpress.com; BenBella Books, 6440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 508, Dallas, TX 75206, www.benbellabooks.com; Darkside Press, 13320 27th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98125, www.darksidepress.com; Haffner Press, 5005 Crooks Rd., Suite 35, Royal Oak, MI 48073–1239, www.haffnerpress.com; North Atlantic Press, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA, 94701; Prime Books, P.O. Box 36503, Canton, OH, 44735, www.primebooks.net; Fairwood Press, 5203 Quincy Ave SE, Auburn, WA 98092, www.fairwoodpress.com; MonkeyBrain Books, 11204 Crossland Drive, Austin, TX 78726, www.monkeybrainbooks.com; Wesleyan University Press, University Press of New England, Order Dept., 37 Lafayette St., Lebanon, NH 03766–1405, www.wesleyan.edu/wespress;; Agog! Press, P.O. Box U302, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia, www.uow.ed.au/~rhood/agogpress; Wheatland Press, via www.wheatlandpress.com; MirrorDanse Books, P.O. Box 3542, Parramatta NSW 2124, Australia, www.tabula-rasa.info/MirrorDanse; Arsenal Pulp Press, 103–1014 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 2W9, www.arsenalpress.com; DreamHaven Books, 912 W. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408; Elder Signs Press/Dimensions Books, order through www.dimensionsbooks.com; Chaosium, via www.chaosium.com; Spyre Books, P.O. Box 3005, Radford, VA 24143; SCIFI, Inc., P.O. Box 8442, Van Nuys, CA 91409–8442; Omnidawn Publishing, order through www.omnidawn.com; CSFG, Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, via www.csfg.org.au/publishing/anthologies/the_outcast; Hadley Rille Books, via www.hadleyrillebooks.com; Suddenly Press, via suddenlypress@yahoo.com; Sandstone Press, P.O. Box 5725, One High St., Dingwall, Ross-shire, IV15 9WJ; Tropism Press, via www.tropismpress.com; SF Poetry Association/Dark Regions Press, via www.sfpoetry.com, checks to Helena Bell, SFPA Treasurer, 1225 West Freeman St., Apt. 12, Carbondale, IL 62401; DH Press, via diamondbookdistributors.com; Kurodahan Press, via Web site www.kurodahan.com; Ramble House, 443 Gladstone Blvd., Shreveport LA 71104; Interstitial Arts Foundation, via www.interstitialarts.org; Raw Dog Screaming, via www.rawdogscreaming.com; Three Legged Fox Books, 98 Hythe Road, Brighton, BN1 6JS, UK; Norilana Books, via www.norilana.com; coeur de lion, via coeurdelion.com.au; PARSECink, via www.parsecink.org; Robert J. Sawyer Books, via wwww.sfwriter.com/rjsbooks.htm; Rackstraw Press, via rackstrawpress; Candlewick, via www.candlewick.com; Zubaan, via www.zubaanbooks.com; Utter Tower, via www.threeleggedfox.co.uk; Spilt Milk Press, via www.electricvelocipede.com; Paper Golem, via www.papergolem.com; Galaxy Press, via www.galaxypress.com.; Twelfth Planet Press, via www.twelfthplanetpress.com; Five Senses Press, via www.sensefive.com; Elastic Press, via www.elasticpress.com; Lethe Press, via www.lethepressbooks.com; Two Cranes Press, via www.twocranespress.com; Wordcraft of Oregon, via www.wordcraftoforegon.com; Down East, via www.downeast.com; ISFiC Press, 456 Douglas Ave., Elgin, IL 60120 or www.isficpress.com.

  * * *

  According to the newsmagazine Locus, there were 2,858 books “of interest to the SF field” published in 2016, up 9 percent from 2,625 titles in 2015, the second consecutive rise in overall books published. New titles were up 8 percent to 1,957 from 2015’s 1,820, while reprints also rose by 12 percent to 910 from 2015’s 805. Hardcovers rose by 6 percent to 856 from 2015’s 849. Trade paperbacks rose too, up 17 percent to 1,539 from 2015’s 1,343. Mass-market paperbacks, the format facing the most competition from e-books, continued to drop, down 11 percent, to 385 from 2015’s 433. The number of new SF novels was up 7 percent to 425 titles from 2015’s 396 titles, with 89 of those titles being YA SF novels. The number of new fantasy novels climbed up 8 percent to 737 titles from 2015’s 682 titles, with 247 of those titles being YA fantasy novels. Horror novels were down 7 percent to 171 titles from 2015’s 183 titles. Paranormal romances, once the hottest boom area, continued to slide for the fifth year in a row, down to 107 titles from 2015’s 111 titles. 2,858 books “of interest to the SF field” is an enormous number of books, probably more than some small-town libraries contain of books in general. Even if you con
sider only the 425 new SF titles, that’s still a lot of books, probably more than most people are going to have time to read (or the desire to read, either). And these totals don’t count many e-books, media tie-in novels, gaming novels, novelizations of genre movies, print-on-demand books, or self-published novels—all of which would swell the overall total by hundreds if counted.

  As usual, busy with all the reading I have to do at shorter lengths, I didn’t have time to read many novels myself this year, so I’ll limit myself to mentioning that novels that received a lot of attention and acclaim in 2016.

  Into Everywhere, by Paul McAuley (Gollancz); Arkwright, by Allen Steele (Tor); Visitor, by C. J. Cherryh (DAW); Last Year, by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor); Take Back the Sky, by Greg Bear (Orbit US); Poseidon’s Wake, by Alastair Reynolds (Ace); Medusa’s Web, by Tim Powers (HarperCollins); Company Town, by Madeline Ashby (Tor); Babylon’s Ashes, by James S. A. Corey (Orbit US); League of Dragons, by Naomi Novik (Ballantine Del Rey); Crosstalk, by Connie Willis (Orion/Gollancz); The Wall of Storms, by Ken Liu (Simon & Schuster); Death’s End, by Cixin Liu (Tor); The Devourers, by Indra Das (Del Rey); Impersonations, by Walter Jon Williams (Tor); Europe in Winter, by Dave Hutchinson (Rebellion/Solaris); Everfair, by Nisi Shawl (Tor); The Nightmare Stacks, by Charles Stross (Ace); Transgalactic, by James Gunn (Tor); The Gradual, by Christopher Priest (Titan); Summerlong, by Peter S. Beagle (Tachyon); The Spider’s War, by Daniel Abraham (Orbit US); The Long Cosmos, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Harper Voyager); Alien Morning, by Rick Wilber (Tor); The Corporation Wars: Dissidence, by Ken MacLeod (Little, Brown); Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell (Pan Macmillan); The Medusa Chronicles, by Alastair Reyonds and Stephen Baxter (Gollancz); and End of Watch, by Stephen King (Simon & Schuster).