The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One
Neil Clarke
Night Shade Books
Trade Paper $17.99
Ebook $12.99
So, you may ask, what am I doing reviewing a science fiction anthology on a fantasy blog, especially when I have an entire blog devoted to science fiction?
I said, “You may ask”.
Thank you. I thought you’d never ask.
Well, a couple of months ago, a review copy arrived in the mail. (Thank you, Briana Scharfenberg of Night Shade.) This is Clarke’s first time to edit a year’s best anthology. He’s been the editor for years of Clarkesworld magazine, so he’s got the experience to tackle this type of a project.
Now, I’ve bought most of the annual retrospectives that claim to contain the best stories of the year for a long while. I’ve started many of them, but I usually don’t finish them. Too many other things vying for my attention, and I rarely read anthologies or collections straight through. There’s usually some novelus interruptus going on at some point. Or would that be anthologous interruptus? Anyway, I decided to give this year’s batch (or many of them, at least) a try.
Because this is the first volume of Clarke’s series, and because this blog gets a lot more traffic than any of my others, I decided to review it here, where more people will see it. See. That’s reasonable explanation, isn’t it?
Anyway, on to the review. The questions you’re most wanting to ask is are the stories any good? Does this volume actually contain the best stories published in the past year?