Best-of-the-Year – Auxiliary Memory

by James Wallace Harris, Saturday, June 30, 2018

Tomorrow is July 1st and my online science fiction club begins discussing The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 12 edited by Jonathan Strahan. This is the first time we’ve selected an annual best-of-the-year anthology. We mostly stick to novels and favor the classics. This anthology collects the best short SF/F from 2017, so we’re getting very close to the event horizon of new science fiction. To be honest, our members are mostly older readers, so reading these new stories should make us feel younger.

2018 is the year of the science fiction short story for me. I’ve listened to three volumes of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, started reading The Great SF Stories 1939-1964 edited by Asimov and Greenberg and I’m up to 1943. I going through Science Fiction of the 50’s edited by Martin Greenberg and Joseph Olander, and I listened to all of The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume 11 and I’m getting close to finishing listening to volume 12.

Growing up in the 1960s I got hooked on current science fiction by subscribing to F&SF, Analog, Galaxy, Amazing, Fantastic, and If. To me, the heart and soul of science fiction have always been the SF magazines. For the most part, I stopped reading those in the late 1970s. During my work years, I’d find time to read 10-12 science novels a year. I’d sometimes subscribe to F&SF or Asimov’s. In 2002 I joined Audible.com and began rereading all my favorite science fiction novels by listening to them. But in the last few years since retiring, I’ve mostly caught up. Now I’m reading and listening to old science fiction short stories. And it’s tremendous fun. A reading renaissance.

I dabble in new science fiction, but it’s hard for me. I think that’s true for many of the book club members. Every year thousands of new SF/F novels come out, and mostly by unknown authors. Listening to these two best-of-the-year anthologies edited by Jonathan Strahan is reconnecting me with current science fiction and a new generation of writers. I like the feeling of being near the edge of contemporary science fiction. Last year I even resubscribed to F&SF, Asimov’s and Analog. That’s why I nominated volume 12 of Strahan’s anthology for the book club. I was surprised when the group voted it in.

Maybe I’m not the only old SF fan that wants to check out what’s new. I’ve decided I just can’t keep up with current novels. I might read one new novelist a year. But reading and listening to new short stories allows me to discover dozens of new writers and the whole spectrum of new science fictional ideas. Just reading this one annual best-of-the-year anthology exposes readers to the modern diversity of 29 writers. And many of them are new to me.

Now, here’s the thing about my group. Some members don’t like voting for books they have to buy. Most have giant collections of unread SF/F books, and they’ve stopped buying new books. For a book to win a monthly spot in our book club it has to be easily available, either from libraries, used bookstores, cheap ebook editions, or already owned.

To help out those members who don’t own or won’t buy volume 12, I created a list of the stories in the collection and linked any that were on the web. This had two surprising results. First, over half the stories were free to read online. Second, and more importantly, looking at these stories revealed the modern state of written science fiction. Just following these links will show you what the latest science fiction magazines are like. They’re digital. Many have beautiful layouts and great art. And it’s not uncommon to have audio versions to play. Sadly, print magazines are dying. But all magazines need supporters. Subscribe to their digital editions, and if you don’t want print magazines to go extinct, subscribe to them too.

I don’t want this list to discourage people from buying the Strahan anthology. It’s available in paper, ebook, and audiobook, and very reasonably priced. It’s a great introduction to new SF/F tales for readers stuck in the past of classic stories. My only personal complaint is it contains fantasy. It irks me no end to buy anthologies that have both science fiction and fantasy because I’m strictly a science fiction guy. However, my book club does have many fantasy fans. I bought the ebook version of volume 12 because it was cheap, and the audiobook version because I love hearing short stories on audio. (But it still annoys me to wade through the fantasy, although I do have to admit they were all well-told stories even if they were about magic and dragons.)

Here’s the list I created for my book club. To save your place here, right-click on each link and select “Open link in new window” to try out the story. Then poke around its online magazine. These digital venues for short science fiction are the cutting edge of the genre. Read the columns and comments. Many sites have ebook editions to buy to finance all the free reading.

Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance • (2017) • short story by Tobias S. Buckell
Probably Still the Chosen One • (2017) • short story by Kelly Barnhill
The Martian Obelisk • (2017) • short story by Linda Nagata
A Series of Steaks • (2017) • novelette by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Carnival Nine • (2017) • short story by Caroline M. Yoachim
Eminence • (2017) • short story by Karl Schroeder
The Chameleon’s Gloves • (2017) • novelette by Yoon Ha Lee
The Faerie Tree • (2017) • short story by Kathleen Kayembe
The Mocking Tower • (2017) • novelette by Daniel Abraham
Sidewalks • (2017) • short story by Maureen F. McHugh
My English Name • (2017) • novelette by R. S. Benedict
Crispin’s Model • (2017) • novelette by Max Gladstone
The Secret Life of Bots • (2017) • novelette by Suzanne Palmer
Concessions • (2017) • novelette by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali
Confessions of a Con Girl • (2017) • short story by Nick Wolven
The Smoke of Gold Is Glory • (2017) • novelette by Scott Lynch
The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine • (2017) • novelette by Greg Egan
The Lamentation of Their Women • (2017) • novelette by Kai Ashante Wilson
An Evening with Severyn Grimes • (2017) • short story by Rich Larson
Though She Be But Little • (2017) • short story by C. S. E. Cooney
The Moon Is Not a Battlefield • (2017) • novelette by Indrapramit Das
The Worshipful Society of Glovers • (2017) • novelette by Mary Robinette Kowal
Come See the Living Dryad • (2017) • novelette by Theodora Goss
Fairy Tale of Wood Street • (2017) • short story by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Babylon • (2017) • short story by Dave Hutchinson
Bring Your Own Spoon • (2017) • short story by Saad Z. Hossain
The Hermit of Houston • (2017) • novelette by Samuel R. Delany
Belladonna Nights • [House of Suns] • (2017) • short story by Alastair Reynolds
Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue • (2017) • novelette by Charlie Jane Anders

Some of these stories have already won awards. “The Hermit of Houston” and “The Martian Obelisk” won Locus awards. “The Secret Life of Bots” and “The Martian Obelisk” are up for the Hugo in August.

The Jonathan Strahan annual anthology is just one of eleven this year that focuses on the best science fiction stories of 2017. See my overview of them at Book Riot. Also, read my “Reading (and Writing for) Science Fiction Magazines” for links to many of the current science fiction magazines. To get an even a bigger picture, look at the lists of defunct and current SF magazines at Wikipedia.

I used to think the science fiction short story was dying off. Evidently, I’m completely wrong. Today short written science fiction is thriving. Most science fiction fans are movie and television fans, but real science fiction comes from magazines. It always has.

JWH