The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories x 4

[J-Sun]

I posted this on The Short Story Thread but then it occurred to me that, while not everyone's interested in short fiction, some people who are mildly interested might not regularly visit that thread but might still be interested in this. So:

Here are links to something like 46 stories freely available on the web (plus listings of the others) that have been selected by 1-4 of the editors of the big "Year's Bests" anthologies (Neil Clarke, Gardner Dozois, Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan). There's some good reading in here and maybe the hit singles will tell folks which anthologies are to their tastes and they can go get the album or albums at the bookstore or on their device of choice.

Collated Contents of the Big Year’s Bests (2017 Stories, with Links!)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Interesting. I have read almost none of these.

Looks like "The Martian Obelisk" (which I read and liked) is the one to beat this year.

 

[J-Sun]

Interesting. I have read almost none of these.

Looks like "The Martian Obelisk" (which I read and liked) is the one to beat this year.

Yep, like you, I liked it and I'm not surprised it's a big hit, though I am surprised it's the only unanimous choice. Of the web stories listed, I thought "A Series of Steaks," "Uncanny Valley," and "An Evening with Severyn Grimes" (which was just recently put on the web and I recently read) were also extraordinary. Prasad and Egan both had a second strong story this year, too, though, and Larson is generally prolific so they were also competing with themselves. (And, of course, I have my favorites that none of the "big 4" selected.)

 

[Bick]

Very interesting - I feel compelled to acquire one of the collections now. I've read almost none of them, but it will be good to set that straight over the coming year.

 

[J-Sun]

Very interesting - I feel compelled to acquire one of the collections now. I've read almost none of them, but it will be good to set that straight over the coming year.

Hope you enjoy whichever one you get! If you don't mind reading the online tales online, that should help you decide.

One reader wanted to have the Best American SF & F anthology included in the list and we compromised on doing a second, expanded version so that people can focus on "the big four" or see more. So far, only Datlow has come out with her Best Horror of the Year (three of them online - I'd read two of them and thought one was okay and the other was pretty good) but I'll add more (at least Afsharirad, Guran, and the BASFF) as they come out.

Expanded Collated Contents of the Year's Bests (2017 Stories, Links)