Gemma Files, Neil Gaiman, Kiernan, Ken Liu, Valente and my beloved Angela Slatter. One of the best anthologies of 2016. Although it's been some years, I would recommend everyone to go out and grab a copy of this book. There is not a single bad story in here, a rare accomplishment in anthologies,

I really love anthologies, they let you shop around for a new author! This collection is creepy and horror at its best! I requested this book for Kelley Armstrong and she didn't disappoint!

I received a copy through Netgalley for a review. I love anthologies because not only to do get short stories by your favorite author, you also get to try out new ones without committing yourself to a full novel. Some of the strong standouts for me were: Kelley Armstrong (always a favourite) The door; Neil Gaiman’ s Black dog ; Angela Slatter’s Ripper ; Holly Black 1Up.

This is a great addition to the yearly collection of Dark Fantasy and Horror,some top authors at the height of their scary best !

It is always great to read an anthology of stories belonging to a specific genre. These stories were interesting, different and truly one of the best I've read so far.

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.