Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

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The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, vol 9 (2014) edited by Jonathan Strahan

Please comment of each individual story in it's own topic in the Best SF&F of Year 2014 discussion. (Links to each story's DISCUSSION topic in the Table of Content below.) You can use this topic for general discussions of the anthology as a whole or its editor.

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, vol 9 (2014) edited by Jonathan Strahan

Table of Content

"Slipping" by Lauren Beukes (-->DISCUSSION)
"Moriabe’s Children" by Paolo Bacigalupi (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family" by Usman T. Malik (@Medium.com) (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Lady and the Fox" by Kelly Link (-->DISCUSSION)
"Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)" by Holly Black (@LightSpeed) (-->DISCUSSION)
"THE LONG HAUL from the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009" by Ken Liu (@Clarkesworld) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Tough Times All Over" by Joe Abercrombie (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Insects of Love" by Genevieve Valentine (@Tor.com) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Cold Wind" by Nicola Griffith (@Tor.com) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)" by Caitlín R. Kiernan (-->DISCUSSION)
"Shadow Flock" by Greg Egan (-->DISCUSSION)
"I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There" by K. J. Parker (@Subterranean) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky (@Subterranean) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying" by Alice Sola Kim (-->DISCUSSION)
"Shay Corsham Worsted" by Garth Nix (-->DISCUSSION)
"Kheldyu" by Karl Schroeder (-->DISCUSSION)
"Caligo Lane" by Ellen Klages (@Subterranean) (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Devil in America" by Kai Ashante Wilson (@Tor.com) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Tawny Petticoats" by Michael Swanwick (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Fifth Dragon" by Ian McDonald (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Truth About Owls" by Amal El-Mohtar (@StrangeHorizons) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Four Days of Christmas" by Tim Maughan (-->DISCUSSION)
"Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear (-->DISCUSSION)
"Cimmeria: From The Journal of Imaginary Anthropology" by Theodora Goss (@Lightspeed) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Collateral" by Peter Watts (-->DISCUSSION)
"The Scrivener" by Eleanor Arnason (@Subterranean) (-->DISCUSSION)
"Someday" by James Patrick Kelly (-->DISCUSSION)
"Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages (@Tor.com) (-->DISCUSSION)


When I found the story free on-line (at a legitimate source), I included a @link.

* This one story was previously discussed as part of our 2014 Nebula Award Nominees Short Story discussion a few months previous.

A number of these stories are available free on-line, but I didn't get to tracking them all down last night when I started the topics. I'll add links as I find them...

I've read this in June (my review).

Strahan sets out for diversity, mixing different sub-genres. But he doesn't exactly reach this target: Many of the SF stories are near future, many of the authors seem to have a kind of subscription for appearance in his annual anthology. He could have chosen different authors from all over the world stretching the known comfort zone a bit.

On a personal note, I didn't like the inclusion of horror stories at all - I don't like them or even hate them. It would be fair at least to mark the story's genre such that I could simply skip them.

Having said that, there is something in it for everyone, and there are a couple of very good stories. Considering the overall quality of the selected stories, 2014 doesn't seem to have been one of the best years for SF&F.

My favourite ★★★★★ stories were

Moriabe's Children by Paolo Bacigalupi
Collateral by Peter Watts

☆ or ★ (mostly because they are horror stories) for me were

Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They are Terrifying by Alice Sola Kim
Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix

One of the things I noticed collecting the online sources (an original publication source) for these stories is how much were going to miss Subterranean Magazine. Even though it only "published" three issues last year, it has four entries in this Best Of collection, all of them excellent novella.

G33z3r wrote: "☆ or ★ (mostly because they are horror stories) for me..."

Thanks for the warning. I'll put them on a short leash.

I am a few stories in on this collection & enjoying it. I like the mix so far (I feel like Strahan does a good job of mixing stories with satisfying, complete plots and pieces that are a little exotic/unusual but are sometimes fuller ). I haven't run into any pieces that struck me as straight-up horror yet -- though there was definitely a big jolt when Pearl takes her stomach out in "Slipping." (I don't typically read horror, but I have a pretty high "litcrap" tolerance, so I can sometimes appreciate a piece that really develops an atmosphere or mood.)

I appreciate the variety of stories, but the sheer bulk of the paperback volume almost makes an ereader seem appealing.

"many of the authors seem to have a kind of subscription for appearance in his annual anthology"

Andreas, what do you mean by this?

Hillary wrote: "I haven't run into any pieces that struck me as straight-up horror yet "
I think the first horror story is "Interstate Love Song..."

Bobby wrote: ""many of the authors seem to have a kind of subscription for appearance in his annual anthology"

Andreas, what do you mean by this?"
There are so many good stories from lots of authors around. But Strahan pulls very often from the same authors instead of striving for more diversity.

There's a lot to like here (and a few I didn't care that much about, but a strong anthology overall). There are probably more pleasantly thought-provoking stories than it makes sense to call out individually, but I'll say some of my favorites turned out to be works that told a complete story (had a plot; used it) like Parker's "I Met a Man Who Wasn't There" and Black's "Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)".

Not sure I have a value judgment to make one way or the other, but by my observation, only 6 of the 28 stories have a male protagonist.

Hillary wrote: "Not sure I have a value judgment to make one way or the other, but by my observation, only 6 of the 28 stories have a male protagonist. ..."

I noticed that a lot of the female protagonists are children / tweens as well. That was true the first 5 stories in the anthology, also "Grand Jeté", "Truth About Owls", & "Covenant". Apparently Strahan likes little girls.

Strahan mentioned in the introduction that, when in doubt, he went with stories that seemed novel or like they hadn't been done (much) before; I tried to think whether any of these stories seemed more novel b/c of the protagonist's gender. Many of the stories are impacted by their protagonist's gender (a good story probably takes this into account) and in some it's central -- "Vaporization Enthalpy" or especially "Covenant" -- while in a few it barely matters. The only story where I really thought having a female rather than male protagonist might add a bit of novelty was Egan's -- despite Susan Calvin, it seems to me somewhat more novel to focus on a female rather than a male professor of robotics. (It may be even more novel, though certainly not uncommon, to feature a male instead of a female kidnapping victim.) I also wonder how much the fact that a considerable number of the authors are women -- it's looking to me like 14 stories by women & 14 by men -- though gender of protagonist does not necessarily match up w/the gender of the author.

To sum up, my favorites:


★★★★★ (Awesome!)
"Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)" by Rachel Swirsky
"Collateral" by Peter Watts

★★★★ (Loved it)
"Slipping" by Lauren Beukes
"Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind)" by Holly Black
"I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There" by K. J. Parker
"Four Days of Christmas" by Tim Maughan
"Tough Times All Over" by Joe Abercrombie

★★★ (Liked it)
"Moriabe’s Children" by Paolo Bacigalupi
"Kheldyu" by Karl Schroeder
"Shadow Flock" by Greg Egan
"The Fifth Dragon" by Ian McDonald
"Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages
"Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear