When anyone asks me for a recommendation of an author or genre, I offer them books from my large library of anthologies. These treasure chests contain stories by authors who are not afraid to flex their writing skills and show us how a great write can build an experience in fewer words than many chapters. As an introduction to a "different" genre, readers are treated to gems to intice them to check the back library of writers to add to their personal TBR lists. Read the book, love the story, start your pwn library of greats.

I very much appreciate being gifted this copy of The Year's Best Science Fiction Vol. Two by Jonathan Strahan, and the opportunity to read & review it. Thanks to the publisher.

As I have said before on more than one occasion, I am wary of anthologies - I worry about changes in quality and tonal whiplash between stories in themed multi-author collections. But I really enjoyed Jonathan Strahan’s first volume of this year’s best series last year, and I was right that I would like this year’s too! Thanks, NetGalley, for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Probably my favorite story was The Pill by Meg Ellison, an amazing story that had a real core of truth to it.

This was a nice sampling of different science fiction authors, many of whom I wasn’t previously familiar, but will look into further. You really get a lot good content in this one book!
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me access to this eARC for my honest opinion!

I discovered Strahan a few years ago and I've grown to trust books with his name on them. This is a good collection with nice variety, and strong selections. Recommended.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

Definitely a strong sampling of the science fiction that came out of the year 2020, but I confess that the bulk of these stories just didn't do it for me. That said, my favorites were:

- The Pill, by Meg Elison
- Schrodinger's Catastrophe, by Gene Doucette
- It Came from Cruden Farm, by Max Barry
- Yellow and the Perception of Reality, by Maureen McHugh
- Father, by Ray Nayler
- A Mastery of German, by Marian Denise Moore
- How to Pay Reparations, by Tochi Onyebuchi
- Sparklybits, by Nick Wolven

Also, although this doesn't factor into my feelings on the quality of the book, I was surprised at the number of stories told in the first-person present!

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A good selection of scifi short stories, including excellent ones by Yoon Ha Lee and Sarah Gailey. The introduction goes over 2020 in the book industry in a level of detail that can be dull to casual fans, and the selection is heavily weighted towards white male authors, a choice that leaves out much of 2020's best fiction. Not a bad collection, but those looking for new writers they may not already know would do better to read tor.com or Uncanny Magazine.

"The Year's Best Science Fiction Vol. 2." edited by Jonathan Strahan is with out a doubt correctly named. This collection of 27 science fiction stories published in 2020 by some of the best authors was very enjoyable to read. The preface "Year in Review: 2020" written by Strahan was rather amazingly detailed and informative, but the rest was pure science fiction goodness . It feels unfair to point out individual stories without mentioning all of them. But here we go. The creative ability of sentient AI as the protagonist made for really interesting reading in "A Guide to for Working Breeds", "Drones for Plowshares", "Polished Performance", "Go. Now. Fix", "The Final Performance of the Amazing Ralphie", "The Suicide of our Troubles" , and "Sparklybits". The biopunk meets cyberpunk stories were had the perfect level of gritty realism in "How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobucar" and "The Transition of Osoosi". The role of the alien was amusingly entertaining in "It Came From Cruden Farm". Other stories include thoughtful and sometimes terrifying new technologies, more than human than human metallic robots, deep thoughts on the nature of reality, and of course a few tales of good old fashion space opera.

This collection introduced me to a number of authors whose books I look forward to actively obtaining and reading.

Many thanks to the editor, authors, and publisher for providing an advanced electronic review copy!

A thoughtful, riveting, and eclectic collection of writing is in display in this anthology. All the stories here managed to move me in some way, or at least keep me invested, but the standouts for me were "How to Pay Reparations: a Documentary" by Tochi Onyebuchi, and "The Mermaid Astronaut" by Yoon Ha Lee. Some really good stuff here. This is maybe the third or fourth collection I've read that was edited by Jonathan Strahan and I have to say he is a great editor who is really good at assembling thoughtful, engaging stories. I highly recommend this book to readers who like intellectually stimulating short sci-fi. Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the opportunity to review an advanced reader copy of this outstanding collection.

Max Barry, Pat Cadigan, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Tochi Onyebuchi, and others, with a lot of climate change and posthumanism. A good overview of what’s going on.

Strahan is a reliable editor, and brings home another win with this collection. I love the mix of perspectives this volume brings, and I am always partial to Meg Eilison and Yoon Ha Lee. I'm ready for my panda-shaped support bot and am delighted by so many stories that could be labeled "hopepunk"--a term that's gotten a drubbing recently for being Pollyannish, but is a new genre that so many readers have found solace and comfort in recently. I can't wait to discuss these stories with friends; this will be a great book club book.

I adore short story collections, and I was particularly impressed by last year’s anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. It follows the same format as last year, with the editor’s introduction including other recommended reading as well as general comments on the state of the publishing industry in 2020. And then we get into the real meat of it: 27 short stories that are, arguably, the best of the year. While some stories missed the mark a bit for me, they were all well-written and interesting.

“well they’re all good dogs
even the naughty ones”


The collection starts out with the absolutely amazing “A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Can you die of cute? This is a story told mainly through chat transcripts between a robot mentor and its new mentee, and features so many dogs. Adorable, original and uplifting, this is one of my favorites in the collection. Also hitting high on the adorable scale is Timons Esaias’s “GO. NOW. FIX.” which stars a robotic pillow in the shape of a panda and a plane crash (just trust me on this one). And if you’re looking more for satire, “It Came From Cruden Farm” by Max Barry, about a newly inaugurated president who discovers that aliens exist, had me in stitches.

“I feel like I’m watching the Ten Commandments being written here, and unless I say something, a burning bush is going to be gendered for the next two thousand years.”


For more classic scifi, Yoon Ha Lee’s “The Mermaid Astronaut” is a gorgeously evocative retelling of The Little Mermaid. I’m still not sure how he fit so much emotion in to so few pages. I also adored the scifi romp of Gene Doucette’s “Schrödinger’s Catastrophe.” It had all the feels of some of my favorite TNG episodes, plus some hilarious absurdity mixed in with a tightly-paced action story. “Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” by A.T. Greenblatt is about Sam, who’s recently discovered he has the completely useless superpower of setting his head on fire. In a society where most Supers go live out their days in seclusion, Sam instead decides to join the local Super team and help people… only it’s not exactly what he thought it would be like. This is a lovely story about accepting yourself.

“She frowned at the ham on the counter. “Are you behind this?”
“Why are you talking to a ham?” asked Donna. “That’s just weird.”


Of course, where would we be without a lot of whizzbang scifi goodness, from the titular weight loss treatment in Meg Elison’s horrifying “The Pill,” to the devices in “Don’t Mind Me” by Suzanne Palmer which make kids incapable of remembering certain things they hear, like swear words and that pesky climate change, to how cryptocurrency and AR can fix pollution in “The Suicide of Our Troubles” by Karl Schroeder, to AirBnb for bodies in Sameem Siddiqui’s “Airbody.”

“I’ve never done so much math in my whole entire life.”


And then there’s the ones that truly made me think. I’d previously read Marian Denise Moore’s “A Mastery of German” and found its exploration of ethics and racial memory just as fascinating as the first time. But the winner of the most thought-provoking goes to “How to Pay Reparations: a Documentary” by Tochi Onyebuchi. I’m still chewing over that one.

Overall, another excellent collection, and after two stellar anthologies, I’ll definitely be putting future editions on my autobuy list.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.