THE BEST
SCIENCE FICTION
and FANTASY
OF THE YEAR
volume ten
In memory of David G. Hartwell, one of the finest editors to have worked in the science fiction field, with affection and respect.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THIS IS THE tenth volume of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year anthology series, which started back in 2007 at Night Shade and moved to Solaris in 2013. I’d like to thank Jason Williams and Jeremy Lassen for getting behind the book at the beginning, and Ross Lockhart for all of his hard work on the series in the later days. I’d especially like to thank Jonathan Oliver and Ben Smith at Solaris for taking the risk on picking the series up, and for running with it in the way that they have. I will always be grateful to them for stepping in and for believing in the books and in me. Special thanks to my wonderful agent Howard Morhaim who for over a decade now has had my back and helped make good things happen. Finally, most special thanks of all to Marianne, Jessica, and Sophie. I always say that every moment spent working on these books is stolen from them, but it’s true, and I’m forever grateful to them for their love, support and generosity.
CONTENTS
Introduction , Jonathan Strahan
Black Dog,
City of Ash,
Jamaica Ginger, Nalo Hopkinson & Nisi Shawl
A Murmuration, Alastair Reynolds
Kaiju Maximus®: “So Various, So Beautiful, So New”, Kai Ashante Wilson
Water of Versailles,
Capitalism in the 22nd Century, or, A. I. R. ,
Emergence,
The Deepwater Bride,
Dancy vs. the Pterosaur, Caitlín R.
Kiernan
Calved, Sam J. Miller
The Heart’s Filthy Lesson, Elizabeth Bear
The Machine Starts,
Blood, Ash, Braids,
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,
The Lily and the Horn,
The Empress in her Glory,
The Winter Wraith,
Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan,
Little Sisters, Vonda N. McIntyre
Ghosts of Home, Sam J. Miller
Oral Argument,
Drones,
The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn, Usman T. Malik
The Game of Smash and Recovery,
Another Word for World, Ann Leckie
INTRODUCTION
Jonathan Strahan
WELCOME TO THE Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. This is the tenth volume in this series, which aims to collect the best science fiction and fantasy stories published during the preceding year. A decade is a long time, and a lot has changed since we started out, but what has remained constant throughout the decade is that there is a lot of great science fiction and fantasy being published every year.
So, how was the year? Well, 2015 must have seemed like a pretty crazy year if you were outside the fishbowl that is science fiction and fantasy and looking in. A whole lot of insider tennis spilled over into mainstream media, which made it looked like SF was at war with itself. And it pretty much was. One group said or did one thing, another group said or did another. A whole lot of invective was sprayed, and it seemed like you had to take sides. It made it that much harder to be part of the science fiction community, and if (sadly) some people decided it just wasn’t worth the grief who could blame them?
