Top reviews from the United States

• 

  Deborah Lucus

  5 out of 5 stars

  SF short stories

  Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2026

  Format: Paperback

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  I just love all these SF short stories.

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• 

  Pascal Fiorentino

  4 out of 5 stars

  great variety, very enjoyable

  Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2026

  Format: Kindle

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  I enjoyed this book a lot, and it contained many different ideas for what science fiction and fantasy are. So glad I read it, even if a few stories were deeply sad, they were all great.

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• 

  Ralph R Palm

  3 out of 5 stars

  Some other mediocre stuff

  Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2023

  Format: Kindle

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  'The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022, mixed with some other mediocre stuff'would maybe make a more accurate title.

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  2 people found this helpful

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• 

  Allonah

  5 out of 5 stars

  Loved these Stories

  Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2024

  Format: Kindle

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  Wow. I loved these stories so much that I scrolled through my past social media to remember the name Lickchop, the talking pig, and also the story title, The Cloud Lake Unicorn. The modern retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice is wonderful. Also, the one set on Mars is very insightful and moving. I truly loved all of the stories included in the anthology, and I encourage others to read them.

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• 

  Elisabeth Carey

  5 out of 5 stars

  An excellent collection of short science fiction and fantasy

  Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2022

  Format: Paperback

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  This is a collection of twenty stories of science fiction, fantasy, and bit of horror, a Year's Best collection with John Joseph Adams as the series editor, and Rebecca Roanhorse as this year's guest editor.

  It's a lively and interesting collection of stories, including the ones that are not to my taste. It includes writers of a wide variety of backgrounds, with the diverse characters you, or at least I, like to see.

  Some of my favorites here:

  If the Martians Have Magic, by P. Djèli Clarke--In a rather different history than ours, H.G. Wells's Martians invaded--several times. The last time, the magic practitioners of Earth united to kick them out permanently. But three Martians were left behind, and taken prisoner. A generation later, the Council that mediates all things magical and is also responsible for the Martians is caught in a conflict over what to do with. Some feel they need to be killed. Not everyone agrees, but the only real advocate they have realizes she can only win by proving the Martians have magic, too, and are protected by the same law that protects all other magic practitioners. Unfortunately, it looks like she won't have time. Several magical traditions are represented, and the Martians' advocate is from the Caribbean tradition.

  Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story, by Nalo Hopkinson--Global climate change wasn't halted or even slowed down, and the waters rose much faster than expected. Many people are living on artificial, floating habitats, including our protagonist, who has just had new cyber devices inserted into her head. Being a little headstrong, she doesn't stick around on land to properly acclimate to her new enhancements before heading home. This leads to ditching in the water, and we get a closeup look at why she's been commenting on how bad things are, and the irreversibility of it. But when she washes up on a bit of land that hasn't gone under yet, she encounters something that might mean there's hope after all.

  The Red Mother, by Elizabeth Bear--This is a lovely story of an aging Viking going looking for his exiled brother, to tell him he's been cleared of the murder charge that got him exiled. When he reaches the village where his tracking magic took him, he meets an old friend, who tells him his brother and others are dead, and the only way to save them is to go fight the dragon that's harassing the village. It has an unexpected ending.

  The Pizza Boy, by Meg Ellison--The pizza boy is delivering pizza to ships on both sides of an interstellar way. It's very important that he have mushrooms available for certain orders, and the reason takes a while to become apparent. Intrigue and ingenuity. And mushrooms.

  Those are my favorites, and there are other stories that I love in this anthology. There are also others I'm not so fond of, but they're well-written, and will be someone else's favorites. No bad picks in here.

  Recommended.

  I receive a free electronic galley from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

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  8 people found this helpful

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• 

  Tracey T

  4 out of 5 stars

  A strong, enjoyable collection

  Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2022

  Format: Paperback

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  I love the year-end “best of” short story collections, because although I read a ton of short stories, there are inevitably things I’ve missed. Our guest editor for 2022 is Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Black Sun, and along with John Joseph Adams, they have chosen a great variety of stories, showcasing the strongest genre voices.

  My favorites in this collection were unexpectedly sweet. Two stories especially warmed my heart, as they were focused on teenage misfits finding friendship; Stephen Graham Jones’ I Was a Teenage Space Jockey is a gorgeous story of loss and arcade high scores, and Sam J. Miller’s Let All the Children Boogie tells of how music can establish strong bonds between people, as two awkward teens investigate strange voices from the radio. Both these stories were so beautiful. Another sweet story I recommend from this collection is Delete Your First Memory For Free, by Kel Coleman.

  Two of my favorites authors make well-deserved appearances; Kelly Link’s Skinder’s Veil, which was featured in the incredible Shirley Jackson tribute, When Things Get Dark, involves a house-sitting job that gets incredibly strange. And Karen Russell’s The Cloud Lake Unicorn is an incredibly moving tale of motherhood and maternity.

  I think the highlight of this collection is The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han, by Maria Dong. Not only is it a fascinating, entertaining story about a duplicating machine, grief, and ghosts, but the narrator’s voice is just so appealing. I am beyond excited for Dong’s debut novel next year.

  Other highlights include Nalo Hopkinson’s Broad Dutty Water, Rich Larson’s Tripping Through Time (I looooooved the ending of this one), Proof by Induction by José Pablo Iriarte, and The Future Library by Peng Shepherd.

  This is such a strong collection, and doesn’t even scratch the surface of how many awesome science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories have been published this year. Indeed, at the back of the book, there is a detailed list of “further reading”. Recommended for lifelong genre fans, as well as a gateway drug for curious readers.

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  18 people found this helpful

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• 

  Carly

  5 out of 5 stars

  Excellent collection that introduced me to new authors

  Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2022

  Format: Paperback

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  ARC provided by Mariner Books via NetGalley.

  I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of 20 short stories. As in any collection, some were stronger than others (and some more to my own personal taste), but there were none I disliked, and several I loved. Rebecca Roanhorse (the guest editor this year) did well in choosing and arranging the stories such that they had surprising resonances with each other. This collection is brimming with fantastic work by POC and queer authors, and some authors I’d never encountered before. My reading has been overwhelmingly focused on novels the last few years, so I’ve been missing out on the wealth of short stories out there! In looking up the sources of some of my favorites in this collection, my love for Tor.com (which has a FANTASTIC e-newsletter/articles/free monthly ebook/original short stories) has only grown, and I was made aware of Clarkesworld (a monthly magazine with 6 to 8 original pieces of fiction available for free on their website) and Apex magazine (which also has some free stories).

  My three favorites, in order of their appearance, are:

  “The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com; I’ve never read anything by her before but I will definitely be remedying that immediately. Great atmosphere and a novel’s worth of character- and worldbuilding in a small package. Iceland-esque setting, contains dragons and riddles)

  “Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller (Tor.com; I read a collection of his for the first time earlier this year and think this is some of his best work. Small town New York setting, friendships forged through music, mysterious stuff happening on the radio)

  “Skinder’s Veil” by Kelly Link (When Things Get Dark; I am obsessed with this one and unfortunately can’t find an online version to send it to everyone I think might like it too. Link apparently has several story collections that I will be reading immediately, and also has a novel on the way—amazing. Struggling grad student, weird house-sitting gig, things that unexpectedly really creeped me out, but in a good way)

  Some other notes:

  “10 Steps to a Whole New You” (Fantasy) by Tonya Liburd and “The Cold Calculations” (Clarkesworld) by Aimee Ogden did the most with the short story form.

  “If the Martians Have Magic” (Uncanny) by P. Djèlí Clark, “The Algorithm Will See You Now” (Vital: The Future of Healthcare) by Jusin C. Key, “The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han” (khōréō) by Maria Dong, and “Root Rot” (Apex) by Fargo Tbakhi each have a lot to praise but I especially appreciated their interrogation of loss and trauma.

  “Broad Dutty Water: A Sunken Story” (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) by Nalo Hopkinson and “The Future Library” (Tor.com) by Peng Shepherd were the main stories dealing with climate change and the future of our planet, which seems like a small number in a collection of 20 published in the times we live in, but they really packed such a punch that it didn’t feel like the collection was lacking on the matter.

  Other stories not noted were still great, but I have said enough, read the collection and find out what they’re about!

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  7 people found this helpful

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• 

  Melanie_RS

  4 out of 5 stars

  Hit or Miss but mostly Hits

  Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2023

  Format: Paperback

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  Is a work speculative if the speculative elements are ambiguous? There were a few stories here that I wouldn't classify as speculative, so they felt out of place in the collection. There is also a fine line between what I consider beautifully expressive prose and pretentiousness. The stories in this were definitely riding that line; some landed on one side and some on the other. As a whole, I had more positive experiences than not, so I'm giving this a positive review. I found I liked the stories that were a bit more nostalgic or subtle with their messaging whereas the stories that were too blunt with their agenda felt bad.

  Some of my favorite stories were: Proof by Induction - which is about a son and father relationship after death. and I Was a Teenage Space Jokey - which is a boy with a big imagination who is playing in a video game arcade (this is one that I would classify as Historical fiction rather than speculative, but it was still amazing)

  My least favorite story was Colors of an Immortal Palette - which is about a woman who goes from muse to artist with the aid of vampirism. I found this to be overwritten.

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  9 people found this helpful

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