Author: John Joseph Adams
Pub. Date: 3-Oct-2017
Rating: 4 Stars
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 edited by John Joseph Adams and Charles Yu is an anthology of short stories that embraces all varieties of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It is an interesting and diverse compilation.
It opens with Head, Scales, Tongue and Tail by Leigh Bardugo a story about a young girl who falls in love with a boy that is not really human. It was probably my favorite and set my expectations high for this anthology. Another favorite of mine was Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine a story about the repercussions of a world in which everyone is plugged in and what are the rights of people in that type of world.
There were a few stories I was not crazy about. For example, Welcome to the Medical Center at the Interplanetary Relay Station by Caroline M. Yoachim which is a nod to the problems of the VA and other institutions which fail miserably in carrying out their mission. It just goes to show that you can’t like everything someone else does.
I had forgotten how much I enjoy short stories and it never fails to surprise me how some authors can develop a character in thirty pages and others cannot in three hundred. This collection is well thought out and thoroughly entertaining. Some of the stories were uplifting, some thought provoking and some dark. It made for a very good mix and was a joy to read with just a few exceptions.
As a lover of both sci-fi and fantasy it was easy to like this anthology. Since the stories were so diverse I believe they will appeal to readers in both genres. Because of the diversity, I would not be at all surprised that readers of general fiction and other genres will enjoy this book as well.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.