3.5 stars
A solid and varied anthology. Although there were a few stories I didn't enjoy, I'm aware that some of them were among the most popular stories in 2016, so I suppose most of the readers will like them even if I didn't. There were also a few 4-5 stars stories for me here, and although I had already read some of my favorites (McDonalds and Kritzer), I've also discovered a few that made the book worth reading (Shoemaker, Zinos-Amaro, Ludwigsen and Brenchley among them). But, in spite of that, I found most of the stories were just OK.
In any case, this book will be perfect for any SF/fantasy fan wanting to read a few of the best and also quite a few of the most popular/most awarded science fiction/fantasy short stories of 2016.

Rich Horton packs this anthology to the brim with bite size stories with unexpected plot twists and surprise endings. Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a lead role in many of the stories. There are AIs that love humanity, such as the android in "I am Paul, Martin," by L. Shoemaker, where a future android provides medical and sweet empathetic care to Mildred, an elderly woman with Alzheimers disease. And in "Cat Pictures Please," by Naomi Kritzer, there is a caring AI who wants only to help you since it knows everything about you, and wants cat pictures in return.

In some stories, time travel happens in unique, surprising ways. For example, in "Time Bomb Time," by C.C. Finlay, the author cleverly poses the implied question, what if you read a story about time travel and find yourself reading the same conversation twice? Is it a typo? An heuristic device? Or have you traveled back a few minutes in time?

A science fiction and fantasy anthology would be incomplete without a few dystopian futures, and Mr. Horton does not disappoint. In Ray Nayler's, "In Mutability," two strangers, Sophia and Sebastian, reside in a future world where death apparently is no longer inevitable, but neither stranger has many memories. One day, at the cafe in which Sebastian spends his days, an unknown woman, Sophia, befriends him and shows him a photo of the two of them, centuries old. Neither remembers each other or the photo, but why not?

In "Folding Beijing," by Hao Jingfang, (translated by Ken Liu), a future Beijing has become so crowded the population is divided into three spaces where First Space contains the rich and well educated, and Third Space contains the poor and lower classes. As each class awakens, another space rotates and folds up. Lao Dao, a Third Space waste processor, wants to enroll his daughter in a music and dance kindergarten. To do so, he must get more money by illegally carrying messages and goods to and from First Space. Author Hao Jingfang's story, however, is more than a glimpse at a possible dystopian future based on class and privilege. Rather, it is an Aesopian tale about love and friendship, and where true contentment lies.

Most of the writers in this anthology are exceptionally talented, and a few will take your breath away. In "The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club," by Nike Sulway, an older female, who loves her solitude and her library room, walks alone in a Serengeti-type outdoors and fears that her type will be extinct because the daughters do not see the need for procreation. In this beautifully told tale, are the women human?

Another author who captivates is Will Ludwigsen, whose channeling of a 1940s pulp science fiction writer and his writing for a 1960s, "Twight Zone"-type of television show, "Acres of Perhaps," is sheer genius. As the writer grieves for his lost love who has died of cancer after 50 years together, he remembers the 60s and the two other writers for the show, one of whom believed he was living in an alternate universe. The story is a loving homage to rural America, 1960's science fiction and two great romances. Ludwigsen is an award wining author and this story demonstrates why.

(In return for an honest review, I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.)

"The Year's Best" anthologies are usually pretty good and this one was also great. I loved the variety of stories offered. Highly recommended!

S/F Sunday: Science Fiction anthology round-up

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Rebellion/Solaris, $19.99/$7.99 ebook).

Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathan Strahan (Rebellion/Solaris, $14.99/$6.99 ebook).

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016, edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books, $19.95/$6.99 ebook).

The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, edited by Rich Horton (Prime Books, $19.95/$6.99 ebook).

As I’ve noted before, the best way to catch up on who’s doing the most interesting things in s/f, fantasy and horror is to read the anthologies. Both annual and themed compilations pull together the best short stories from all the magazines, journals and zines (these genres are probably the last to succeed in periodicals, both print and online).

I’ll start with the themed anthology. Drowned Worlds, edited by Jonathan Strahan, brings together stories set in the sort of future imagined by J.G. Ballard in his novel, The Drowned World. Imagine Waterworld, if they’d actually paid for a writer.

For my money, the best stories are Ken Liu’s imagined future with the Eastern seaboard underwater (“Dispatches from the Cradle: Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts”), in which divers and seafarers try to salvage bits of usable tech for survivors of the inundation; Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Venice Drowned,” which has a stronger science element (as he always does); and Christopher Rowe’s “Brownsville Station,” a tale of future inequality in the submerged Gulf States where a fantastic train moves people from one city to another. The other stories, including from Charlie Jane Anders and Lavie Tidhar, are also worthy; because the ebook price is so low, that’s the way to go to add this to your library.

In terms of “best of” anthologies, though, it might be said that great minds think alike. While the two from Prime Books (the Year’s Best series) have only one overlapping story (the magnificent reimagination of Cthulu mythology, “The Deepwater Bride,” from Tamsin Muir is not to be missed), there’s a great deal of overlap between those two anthologies and Strahan’s tenth volume from Solaris/Rebellion.

I’d recommend skipping his The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Ten. That’s because stories like Neil Gaiman’s wonderful “Black Dog” (revenge, Celtic and Egyptian mythology, and a hero we must hope to see again); Vonda N. McIntyre’s “Little Sisters” (intriguing inter-galactic politics mixed with sexual/reproductive politics); and Kai Ashante Wilson’s reimagining of a future with Kaiju (“Kaiju maximus®: ‘So Various, So Beautiful, So New’”) are all included in the anthologies edited by Paula Guran and Rich Horton.

And Guran’s dark fantasy and horror anthology also gives us Angela Slatter’s new take on Jack the Ripper (“Ripper”), as well as stories from Seanan McGuire and Kelly Link.

What’s more, the best from the s/f side (“The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club,” truly ingenious from Nike Sulway; Simon Ings’ “Drone”; and Geoff Ryman’s fascinating political story, “Capitalism in the 22nd Century, or AIr”) are all in Horton’s anthology.

And Horton adds one of the sweetest, scariest AI stories I’ve ever read, “Cat Pictures Please,” by Naomi Kritzer, which finally explains what happens on the Internet. Oh, and Horton’s selection of “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu, is an intriguing look at inequality and overpopulation in s/f from China.

Overall, these are a wealth of good reading, which is what we’ve come to expect from expert anthology editors like Guran, Horton and Strahan. Read on.