Disappointing, I only liked about 5 stories out of this 600 page collection. ( )

A good - and very extensive - overview of the short SFF published during the year. Recommended for anyone who enjoys quality SFF and is interested in keeping up with the current writers...

**** “Soulcatcher” by James Patrick Kelly (Clarkesworld)
A woman is on a mission to rescue her sister, who's been made the pet of a charismatic alien. But what is the sister doesn't want to be rescued? Thought-provoking story, which does an excellent job of evoking large and strange worlds, with an economy of language.

*** “Trafalgar and Josefina” by Angelica Gorodischer (Trafalgar)
Already read, in 'Trafalgar.' If you like this short piece, it's definitely worth picking up the book. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72482896

*** “A Stranger from a Foreign Ship” by Tom Purdom (Asimov’s)
A hired investigator with the ability to switch bodies develops some sympathy for the woman who's his target. Sc-fi noir.

**** “Blanchefleur” by Theodora Goss (Once Upon a Time)
Theodora Goss rocks at creating fairytales. Her stories have everything one expects from the classics, mixed with original twists and a modern sensibility. Here, a traumatized young man has to leave his childhood home and work his way through three odd apprenticeships, with the reluctant aid of a magical cat. Along the way, he heals and learns a lot about what really matters in life.

*****“Effigy Nights” by Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld)
Already read, in Johnathan Strahan's annual 'Best Of' anthology. "This one is just lovely. A dreamlike city of magical words is under attack by a vicious general. To defend the city, the Warden uses stories of past heroes, brought to (temporary) life through magic to protect their home. On surface level, this is a beautifully realized SF story of conflict - but it's also an ode to the abiding value of the written word; and how there are some things which should never be sacrificed."

** “Such & Such Said to So & So” by Maria Dahvana Headley (Glitter & Mayhem)
An allegory about alcoholism, with cocktails personified as alluring dance partners/lovers, in an absurdist-surreal-noir setting. Not really my thing.

** “Grizzled Veterans of Many and Much” by Robert Reed (F&SF)
In the near future, a procedure is developed where a person can be put into a kind of hyper-state where the brain works overtime. The drawback is, it kills you after a few days or weeks. However, in subjective time, hundreds of years could pass. Those in the 'transcendent' state push out new scientific discoveries and works of art to the world, changing civilization. It becomes more and more popular, but one young man hates everything about the trend. Interesting ideas, but I felt there were a lot of logical holes in the scenario, and the 'thought-provoking' ending didn't really work for me.

** “Rosary and Goldenstar” by Geoff Ryman (F&SF)
Already read, in Johnathan Strahan's annual 'Best Of' anthology. "Hmm. I loved Ryman's 'Air,' and very much expected to love this. But - I didn't. This is precisely the sort of use of historical and fictional characters that just rubs me the wrong way. Shakespeare, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Tycho Brahe, etc, get together to discuss the stars. There's something about how poetry can be more accurate than math. It just didn't do it for me."

*** “The Bees Her Heart, the Hive Her Belly” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Clockwork Phoenix 4)
In a far-future, a woman traumatized by the loss of the memories of her dearest sister makes some radical decisions and joins a cult based around bizarre and dangerous bio-modification. Gradually, unexpected layers of motivation and intention are revealed. Hmm. That description makes the story sound significantly less weird than it is. It's a very odd and original story. Very good writing, but I found it a little inaccessible, emotionally, where it felt it ought to be strong.

*****“The Dragons of Merebarton” by K.J. Parker (Fearsome Journeys)
At this point in history, it seems that all possible permutations on the story of the dragonslayer might've been covered. But Parker finds a fresh-feeling angle and fully brings her character to vivid life: an aging, retired knight who's suddenly called upon to gear up and try to rescue his locale from an unexpected scourge. Realistic and touching.

** “The Oracle” by Lavie Tidhar (Analog)
A exploration of the idea of emergent AI, and the possibility (and ramifications) of meshing AI with human intelligence. Interesting ideas, but I didn't get into it as a narrative.

**** “Loss, With Chalk Diagrams” by E. Lily Yu (Eclipse Online)
In a near future, a medical procedure has made it possible to erase feelings of grief and trauma. Most people do this as a matter of course, as needed. However, the two women of this story, Rebekah and Linda, best friends since childhood, have never opted for the procedure. Linda takes a very 'gothic' attitude of embracing her pain as giving meaning to the positive things in her life. Rebekah is more 'mainstream' in attitude. Their two lives take different paths, and when Linda kills herself, Rebekah reassesses her decisions. There is a lot of subtle complexity of emotion here, and the story is a good jumping-off point to evaluate one's own attitude toward life...

*****“Martyr’s Gem” by C. S. E. Cooney (Giganotosaurus)
Cooney is a new author for me - but I'll be keeping an eye out for her work! This beautiful story has the flow of a fairy tale, but with the feel of a vividly-realized fantasy world. When a bachelor is unexpectedly summoned for marriage by a wealthy woman who's far out of his league, he half-expects that there must be some catch. And indeed, she tells him that this marriage is merely part of her plan for revenge. The way events transpire is emotionally complex - but ultimately satisfying.

**** “They Shall Salt the Earth With Seeds of Glass” by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s)
Very, very nice. A post-apocalyptic Earth has been invaded and occupied by enigmatic aliens who have taken over for unknown reasons of their own. However, one of their agenda items is 'social rehabilitation,' which in practice seems to manifest as casual brutality and incomprehensible laws. One of the 'rules' is that all fetuses must be carried to-term (after which, it is suspected that the aliens may experiment on them.) In this scenario, a woman must help her sister try to obtain a forbidden abortion. The perspectives here are definitely underrepresented in fiction, and although this is a rough read, emotionally, it's also refreshing to see.

*** “A Window or a Small Box” by Jedediah Berry (Tor.com)
An engaged couple find themselves in a strange and alien world, where nothing is quite as expected. They just want to find their way back home before the impending date of their wedding. After all, the tents are already rented, and the place settings planned... The story works as a metaphor for developing maturity and finding one's place in the world/settling for reality. The surreal style didn't quite win me over, though.

*** “Game of Chance” by Carrie Vaughn (Unfettered)
This reminded me a bit of Brust & White's 'The Incrementalists' - however, I felt this was better-executed. A secret group of people out-of-time try to use small, indirect magics to shape the flow of history and create a better world. However, their grand plans for revolution do not meet with enormous success. One of their number does not share their grand vision - instead, she concentrates on small improvements judged less than worthwhile by her colleagues...

*** “Live Arcade” by Erik Amundsen (Strange Horizons)
Playing an enigmatic videogame leads a reluctant youth to grow as a person; to broaden his cultural understanding and social circle. Very contemporary. Recommended for fans of 'Ready Player One.'

**** “Social Services” by Madeline Ashby (An Aura of Familiarity)
Previously read in Strahan's 'Best of' anthology. "Absolutely a horror story. A future social worker, among her many house calls to check up on abused and at-risk children, is sent out to a creepy house in an abandoned luxury development. What she encounters there may be far beyond what her training has prepared her for. Don't read this if you're planning on going into social work!"

**** “Found” by Alex Dally MacFarlane (Clarkesworld)
A small community of asteroid-dwellers struggles to survive - and the struggle isn't going well. However, when the community is found and promised 'rescue' by a larger settlement, a lone spice-trader is filled with apprehension rather than joy. Everything known will soon change... A nicely presented depiction of ambiguity on several levels, and difficult decisions.

*****“A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel” by Ken Liu (F&SF)
This beautiful story starts out as a gentle romance between two middle-aged individuals. It continues as an alternate-history exploration of what might've happened in world politics if, after WWI, Japan and the United States has collaborated on a pneumatic train running under the Pacific. And it further develops into a searing commentary on human rights abuses and the power of individuals' speaking out against injustice. Impressive.

**** “Ilse, Who Saw Clearly” by E. Lily Yu (Apex)
A creepy fairy tale of a mysterious magician who comes to town one winter, offering replacement eyes at very reasonable prices. It's the story of the young woman who opts not to purchase new eyes, and who then goes on a quest to try to remedy the fallout of her neighbors' decisions. At the end, the reader just has to say, "That figures."

* “It's The End of the World as We Know It, and We Feel Fine” by Harry Turtledove (Analog)
I have yet to read anything by Turtledove that I've liked. You might as well read this article: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/ratliff-text. This story is a re-statement of the article, written in an annoying, chatty tone of voice. It contains nothing not implied by the original.

*** “Killing Curses, a Caught-Heart Quest” by Krista Hoeppner Leahy (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet)
There are some very nice elements here in the fairy tale of a man born to be a curse-killer, and the curse that tears apart his own family... but I felt that in some respects, it tried just a little too hard to be 'weird,' to a point where keeping track of who was what distracted from the story.

*** “Firebrand” by Peter Watts (Twelve Tomorrows)
In the future, a wonderful innovation has allowed for a solution to the fossil fuel crisis. There's just one drawback: the technology seems to contribute to spontaneous human combustion. Of course, the company tries to cover this up... and the PR reps hired to do so have minor ethical misgivings. Fun, with a clever ending I didn't see coming.

*** “The Memory Book” by Maureen McHugh (Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells)
A young Victorian witch does some really unethical and selfish magic and causes misery to everyone around her. Creepy; nicely written... but I have very, very high expectations of McHugh, who's one of my favorite authors. This didn't quite meet those expectations.

*** “The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls” by Howard Waldrop (Old Mars)
Several levels of nostalgia are wrapped into this piece, which posits a future Mars settler embarking on a Kon-Tiki style expedition to recreate a legendary journey undertaken by an extinct Martian, eons past. One for the fans of Golden Age sci-fi.

*** “A Fine Show on the Abyssal Plain” by Karin Tidbeck (Lightspeed)
This is another one that didn't quite live up to my very, very high expectations. I didn't love it as much as anything in Tidbeck's 'Jagannath' collection. It's a dark and surreal meta-meta-fiction piece about a strange theater group acting out supposedly-true stories for an unseen audience...

*** “Out in the Dark” by Linda Nagata (Analog)
In a universe where people travel by making copies of themselves, rules about one-active-body-per-individual are strictly enforced. When an allegedly new immigrant seeks citizenship, an investigation is opened. Is she really an immigrant - or an illegal copy? A nice exploration of theoretical ethics and compassion.

*** “On the Origin of Song” by Naim Kabir (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
Told in the format of a selection of documents from the archives, a story gradually emerges here, of an enigmatic researcher who has travelled to a country to investigate a culture where everything is accomplished through song... something unheard of in his own land. A strange piece, but compelling.

*** “Call Girl” by Tang Fei (Apex) (translated by Ken Liu)
A schoolgirl moonlights as... is it as a prostitute? Or as something much rarer and more strange? I hope to be able to read more by this author.

*** “Paranormal Romance” by Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed)
Previously read in Paula Guran's 'Magic City' anthology. "A modern-day witch who specializes in patching up others' romance was never had luck in love, herself. But when her mother insists on setting her up on a blind date, events unroll in a slightly unexpected and rather cute way."

*** “Town’s End” by Yukimi Ogawa (Strange Horizons)
A woman employed by a matchmaking agency finds herself serving a quite peculiar clientele. Paranormal romance meets Japanese folklore in this cute tale.

*** "The Discovered Country" by Ian R. MacLeod
In a posthumous virtual reality, a man (or, at least, a consciousness) seeks to rekindle a flame with an ex - a woman whose celebrity and charitable works have endured long past her physical death. An interesting setup, and a few twists I didn't see coming.

*** “The Wildfires of Antarctica” by Alan De Niro (Asimov’s)
In this future, artists have done Damien Hirst one better. "Artworks" are living, sentient beings: bioengineered and grotesque. But the real evil may lie in the hearts of their collectors...

*** “Kormak the Lucky” by Eleanor Arnason (F&SF)
Previously read in Strahan's 'Best of the Year.'
"A story that reads just like something out of the Mabinogion, or a Scandinavian edda... Indeed, it features Egil, of 'Egil's Saga,' although the main character is an Irish slave who, among many other adventures, has to fetch someone from Faerie, Under the Hill. Arnason does an impressive job of writing a story that does not adhere to the conventions of modern storytelling; but is still entertaining to a modern reader."

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This year's science fiction and fantasy anthology offers some big names—Geoff Ryman’s “Rosary and Goldenstar,” which gives us an alternative history of the Renaissance, and the source for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; Ken Liu (again), in “A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel,” with a techno-turn for 20th century history; Maureen McHugh’s weird and scary “The Memory Book” (which is actually moving into the realm of dark fantasy); and Harry Turtledove’s kinda funny dystopian future, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and We Feel Fine.”

High points for this reader came from some of the many—and this is very nice—international stories: Israeli writer Lavie Tidhar’s “The Oracle,” in which a woman ponders whether to “ascend” to join computer consciousness; “The Bees Her Heart, The Hive Her Belly,” Thai writer Benjamin Sriduangkaew’s take on the development of new forms of life in an off-world future; and Chinese writer Tang Fei’s “Call Girl,” in which an outcast schoolgirl finds a way to make money by making older, wealthy mens’ dreams come true.

The main lesson from these anthologies is that so-called “genre” fiction is really all over the map these days; even the bug-eyed monsters and technological futures are nuanced, complicated by character and literary style, and ripe for contemporary readers.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/review-of-years-best-science-fiction.... ( )