THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, 2016 by Karen Jay Fowler (editor) John Joseph Adams (series editor) ⭐⭐⭐⭐

MEET ME IN IRAM

Good lord, what a starter piece. This is poetry. It’s a bit above my pay grade, but every line is like waves crashing over you. Some have emotion, some are just pretty. The time and place of the piece is vague, alluding to a setting occupying the past and present, or neither. I had trouble discerning exactly who what where to plant the narrative, but it was still a gorgeous tangle to read.

THE GAME OF SMASH AND RECOVERY

Well, I can tell these are all about to be more than just a nice little genre fiction story. They are gonna hit deep, and they are gonna make me feel.

This one is another beautiful one. I’m hoping they all won’t be a tad confusing, learning about a new world and a new kind of existence every time. But regardless, the prose is a joy to read. I’m expecting that to be consistent with every one ahead.

INTERESTING FACTS

Boom, we have a winner. I could read only average pieces the rest of the book and still be satiated just from this one.

What a perfect perspective to tell this story about losing everything and the transition of a mother to the other side. God it hit me right in the gut. Some things made me look at my habits as a husband in a new way, feeling like damn, am I as seemingly ungrateful or distracted as we all tend to be? And some things made me want to reach across the aisle of this plane I’m on, stuck in a separate seat from my wife and daughter, and hug them and tell them how important they are to me. That’s what this will make you feel. And a lot more.

This is one of the best shorts I’ve ever read. It leans in my direction: the fantastical side easy to navigate, the focus more on family emotions and the way we interact with the world and our little bubbles based on what’s bubbling inside. It was also the perfect length — any longer would’ve been too hard to deal with a, any shorter would’ve been unfair to the story. It will be hard to top this.

PLANET LION

Reminds me of Annihilation, the blending of another form of life with humanity. Our bad habits and past relationships work their way into animal life. It highlights the classic problem with humans — always looking for a place to conquer and mold to our own needs. Always looking for a war.

I struggled in the beginning to follow along, but the message became clear and so did the prose. A great social commentary with an imaginative framework.

THE APARTMENT DWELLER’S BESTIARY

I really go for these heavily-relatable stories with their toes dipped in make believe. If the stories are alternating between sci-fi and fantasy, I’m enjoying the latter a lot more.

A lot of humor and real-life apartment living antics. It had me almost rolling my eyes at the lunacy of dealing with landlords and funny clutter habits. Do we all have the same issues, being shoved in these shoeboxes? Apparently.

I love the way the creatures pop up, almost like little pets and pests that you have to just accept will be part of living in the city. Seems like heartache and longing do too.

BY DEGREES AND DILATORY TIME

Another cancer one, but still good. Not as soul-crushing, almost more itch-scratching. Are we the same if a part of us is altered irreversibly? And what is the process of adapting like? This is a perfectly approachable sci-fi take on that premise. It makes you wonder which parts of your identity would change and bother you, and which parts wouldn’t. And then in the end, reminds you that we are adaptable and have a surprising capacity for overcoming. Nice to end on a positive note.

THE MUSHROOM QUEEN

The fungi shall inherit the earth. A dirt-under-your-fingernails story of an unhappy marriage and the mycelium threading the earth beneath it. This is another one about potential infidelity and a husband/boyfriend/spouse that doesn’t pay attention to his wife. So far, I’ve been thoroughly warned: be a good man or you’re no better than the shitty ones in this book.

A little silly, a little informative, a little sad, but a little hopeful. I’m enjoying the fact the stories are more subtle on the genre inclusion and are grounded in emotional relationships.

THE DAYDREAMER BY PROXY

Anything just over the line of feasible in our batshit world, especially tech-related, always brings Black Mirror to mind. I felt that again here. That eerie, icky feeling that we’ve gone too far. Deciding that we could without asking if we should. That our bodies and our minds are just a commodity for the rich corporations to suck up all our time and money, and in this case, autonomous thought.

I audibly laughed at how real the marketing and read-the-fine-print jargon sounded. This is a darkly hilarious invention that is both silly and terrifying. If there was a way for our bosses to ensure we devoted every second of our work life to production, I think we’d all be stuck with it by now. At least it’s kind of fun to play pretend knowing that doesn’t exist (yet) and this is the perfectly pitched way to do it. But damn is it unsettling at the same time.

TEA TIME

I’m always impressed when someone can put a spin on a classic, or extend it in some way that both builds and solidifies the original. This is a romantic, spirally examination of the March Hare and the Mad Hatter and their relationship outside of Time. I didn’t expect it when I started, but it led to a place of appreciation for this wild pairing and the weird and wonderful love they may share.

I wouldn’t have the balls to mess with something so well-known, but I’m glad this writer did.

HEADSHOT

I could tell I’d like this one just from the title. What a snappy word. A great satire of the social media lens and how it is turning everything into content. Even the slow demise of democracy is great for views. Barf. This is a shortie but a goodie.

THE DUNIAZÁT

A religious fable-type of story, hard to know what may have been taken from real history and what (besides the mention of jinn) was fabrication. It reads like a historian recollecting and speaking of an age long ago, the main character sharing a notable surname resemblance to the author. I’d never read any of Rushdie’s work, but I can tell this is his forte. While it didn’t pack a punch, I enjoyed the different style and language and the way it seamlessly told its tale.

NO PLACEHOLDER FOR YOU, MY LOVE

Sorry, I gotta reference Black Mirror again. This is basically the show in book form (or vice versa), and this story had me wondering if this or the San Junipero episode came first. Very similar tone and subject matter in a way.

But in general, oof. I liked this one. Eternity is a long time to be lonely. That may be all I need to say.

THE THIRTEEN MERCIES

One jacked up take on faith, the Bible, endless warfare, and the justice system all in one. At least, those are the things it had me thinking about while I tried to understand what was going on. This one really put me to work. I liked the foreboding nature of the environment and the constant foreshadowing that these soldiers performed terrible crimes, and so, deserve the terrible punishment coming to them. And it comes with a biblical vengeance.

LIGHTNING JACK’S LAST RIDE

This is the first story so far that was accessible from the start. Written in plain English, so they say. Like the style and language weren’t so deep and poetic that only a certain mind could’ve put it on paper. I’ve been feeling a little bit like a dummy so far with how complex and jargon-y and sometimes lyrical the prose has been. It’s nice to have these easy ones as a refuge for my pride.

The authenticity of the narrator’s voice is what makes this one. Told like you’re sitting across from him listening to a yarn, I can practically smell him he sounds so real and true. There’s a couple nice little twisties in here, but the premise of gas gangs stealing from the government in an almost-apocalyptic climate changed world is brilliant. Mixing that in with a charismatic messiah-like figure that becomes the legend our narrator must tell us about, and we have something that really works. This one rides on a razor edge though — change one or two things and it loses its shine.

THINGS YOU CAN BUY FOR A PENNY

Folk tales seem to have some type of dread engrained within them. Something about the old world and how things were left unanswered, unexplained. And everything just feels darker.

This gave me the hibbie-jibbies a bit. Spot-on atmosphere and rhythm. Just a little taste of Stephen King in there, just enough creep factor. I feel a little short-changed by the ending, but the getting there was fun.

RAT CATCHER’S YELLOWS

A melancholy piece about what’s left of a relationship and a society when an outbreak ruins people’s lives. Less of a traditional pandemic fallout, more about the social issues that arise when many are left dealing with a disabled loved one. It made me worried about how we’d handle such a situation in the real-world, and how I’d personally handle the one in this story.

We would do so much to make the people we love comfortable. Or give them some form of enrichment to distract from any suffering. Mostly because we love them and it hurts to see them not themselves, but also because wouldn’t we hope someone would do the same for us? This piece dabbles in those feelings, while also exploring how society may not always offer up a vetted solution. The beauty of speculative fiction is we get to imagine a world just one notch or two removed from our own, throw a curveball at it and see how it performs. The story excels by dosing that down to a single relationship and the fallout of a marriage from infection and disease and palliative care. One of the greatest forms of heartache is losing the potential of a life together before it even gets started. Another is seeing that partner become a different, lesser person, leaving you with enough baggage for two.

THE HEAT OF US: NOTES TOWARD AN ORAL HISTORY

A fantastic retelling of the Stonewall Uprising with fire-bending and seemingly authentic firsthand accounts. The supernatural elements are slipped in so casually it’s almost like they could’ve been part of the real history. This one has the most heart of any story so far. Shows how the power of community and a shared experience can be the greatest force for change. The spark that lights the blaze. I’ll always think of this story now when I think of Stonewall.

THREE BODIES AT MITANNI

I love when sci-fi takes you to the brink. Places and concepts there’s just no gaming for with Earthly chess pieces. I find my brain (and imagination) work their hardest while reading stories like these. It explodes the perspective out from what’s in my room to the macro-galactic scale, theories about civilizations and their spread amongst the stars balanced with hypotheticals on existence. I feel like I’m floating out in space, watching these advanced societies computing the problems of the universe, wondering if these decisions could truly happen on such a grand scale in the real world one day. I feel so small and fractioned in time, yet I can see it all so clearly in my head.

This reminded me of Three Body Problem. That way of dropping such complex ideas into a classically human framework. We just can’t help but do what we do, argue and second guess and ultimately maybe break some rules, even when the fate of a planet is at stake. Heady stuff that tripped me out in the most amazing way.

AMBIGUITY MACHINES: AN EXAMINATION

Well, that was one of the most complex and creative short stories I’ve ever read. Leagues above me, I caught on to the under current and let it pull me around the emotion residing within. People trying to connect with and understand other people and the world, in this case using “machines” that blur the boundaries of reality. I like the framework of the exam as it almost invites you to analyze the work like an academic, finding the themes and threads and answering the Great Question waiting at the end yourself. I was fully aware I was reading something by someone very talented as I went, and I feel like it’s a new depth of short story I don’t know that I’ve reached before.

THE GREAT SILENCE

A cool climate change warning from the voice of an intellectual parrot. So much to love here, I was smiling at the cleverness and the messaging by the end, even if the message is an alarming one.

Getting people to believe the world is changing is hard. Using the animals at threat of disappearing as a catalyst triggers our need to protect the innocent that seeing ice caps melt and destructive weather just doesn’t for some reason. Think of the image of a starving polar bear, tell me that doesn’t stir you. Maybe a parrot dropping truth bombs will too.

I liked this one because I think anyone would.

Overall:

I might’ve bitten off more than I could chew with a few of these, but there’s no denying why they deserve to be included in this collection. There’s truly something for everyone. We cover the spread of speculative fiction here. There’s something about reading “the best” of something that just feels exciting and as I dabble in my own writing, influential. This group was a slice from the tippy top of the heap from 2016, and while the quality is honestly intimidating at times and had me wondering if I didn’t vibe with them or if I just didn’t understand them, it only made me want to read more.

My favorites in order are:

1. Interesting Facts (F)

2. By Degrees and Dilatory Time (S)

3. No Placeholder for You, My Love (S)

4. The Daydreamer by Proxy (S)

5. The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary (F)

6. Headshot (S)

7. Planet Lion (F)

8. Ray Catcher’s Yellows (S)

Short stories are cool. They do more with less. They build you a universe before you even have time to realize it’s been built around you. I love this craft and this medium, and will be spending more time immersed in it on both sides of the page going forward.