The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 Read online

  Contents

  * * *

  Title Page

  Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Introduction

  SOFIA SAMATAR. Meet Me in Iram

  KELLY LINK. The Game of Smash and Recovery

  ADAM JOHNSON. Interesting Facts

  CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE. Planet Lion

  KIJ JOHNSON. The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary

  S. L. HUANG. By Degrees and Dilatory Time

  LIZ ZIEMSKA. The Mushroom Queen

  DEXTER PALMER. The Daydreamer by Proxy

  RACHEL SWIRSKY. Tea Time

  JULIAN MORTIMER SMITH. Headshot

  SALMAN RUSHDIE. The Duniazát

  NICK WOLVEN. No Placeholder for You, My Love

  MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY. The Thirteen Mercies

  DALE BAILEY. Lightning Jack’s Last Ride

  WILL KAUFMAN. Things You Can Buy for a Penny

  CHARLIE JANE ANDERS. Rat Catcher’s Yellows

  SAM J. MILLER. The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History

  SETH DICKINSON. Three Bodies at Mitanni

  VANDANA SINGH. Ambiguity Machines: An Examination

  TED CHIANG. The Great Silence

  Contributors’ Notes

  Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2015

  Read More from The Best American Series®

  About the Editors

  Footnotes

  Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

  Introduction copyright © 2016 by Karen Joy Fowler

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The Best American Series® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy™ is a trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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  ISBN 978-0-544-55520-4

  Cover design by Mark R. Robinson © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  eISBN 978-0-544-55521-1

  v1.0916

  “Rat Catcher’s Yellows” by Charlie Jane Anders. First published in Press Start to Play, Vintage Books, August 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Charlie Jane Anders. Reprinted by permission of Charlie Jane Anders.

  “Lightning Jack’s Last Ride” by Dale Bailey. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Dale Bailey. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Great Silence” by Ted Chiang. First published in e-flux journal. Copyright © 2015 by Ted Chiang. Reprinted by permission of Ted Chiang.

  “Three Bodies at Mitanni” by Seth Dickinson. First published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, June 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Seth Dickinson. Reprinted by permission of Seth Dickinson.

  “The Thirteen Mercies” by Maria Dahvana Headley. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Maria Dahvana Headley. Reprinted by permission of Maria Dahvana Headley.

  “By Degrees and Dilatory Time” by S. L. Huang. First published in Strange Horizons, May 18, 2015. Copyright © 2015 by S. L. Huang. Reprinted by permission of S. L. Huang.

  “Interesting Facts” by Adam Johnson. First published in Harper’s Magazine, June 2015. From Fortune Smiles: Stories by Adam Johnson. Copyright © 2015 by Adam Johnson. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC for permission.

  “The Apartment Dweller’s Beastiary” by Kij Johnson. First published in Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Kij Johnson. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Things You Can Buy for a Penny” by Will Kaufman. First published in Lightspeed Magazine, February 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Will Kaufman. Reprinted by permission of Lightspeed Magazine.

  “The Game of Smash and Recovery” by Kelly Link. First published in Strange Horizons, October 17, 2015, and reprinted in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Ten (Solaris Books) and The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 33rd Annual Collection (St. Martin’s Press). Copyright © 2015 by Kelly Link. Reprinted by permission of Kelly Link.

  “The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History” by Sam J. Miller. First published in Uncanny Magazine, Jan/Feb 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Sam J. Miller. Reprinted by permission of Sam J. Miller.

  “The Daydreamer by Proxy” by Dexter Palmer. First published in The Bestiary, Centipede Press, Cheeky Frawg Books, December 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Dexter Palmer. Reprinted by permission of Dexter Palmer.

  “The Duniazát,” adapted from the book Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights for The New Yorker, June 1, 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Salman Rushdie. From Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights: A Novel by Salman Rushdie. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC for permission.

  “Meet Me in Iram” by Sofia Samatar. First published in Meet Me In Iram/Those Are Pearls. Copyright © 2015 by Sofia Samatar. Reprinted by permission of Sofia Samatar.

  “Ambiguity Machines: An Examination” by Vandana Singh. First published on Tor.com, April 29, 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Vandana Singh. Reprinted by permission of Vandana Singh.

  “Headshot” by Julian Mortimer Smith. First published in Terraform, March 2, 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Julian Mortimer Smith. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Tea Time” by Rachel Swirsky. First published in Lightspeed Magazine, December 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Rachel Swirsky. Reprinted by permission of Lightspeed Magazine.

  “Planet Lion” by Catherynne M. Valente. First published in Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Catherynne M. Valente. Reprinted by permission of Catherynne M. Valente.

  “No Placeholder for You, My Love” by Nick Wolven. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, August 2015. Copyright © 2015 by Nick Wolven. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Mushroom Queen” by Liz Ziemska. First published in Tin House, No. 63. Copyright © 2015 by Liz Ziemska. Reprinted by permission of Liz Ziemska.

  Foreword

  WELCOME TO YEAR TWO of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy! This volume presents the best science fiction and fantasy (SF/F) short stories published during the 2015 calendar year as selected by myself and guest editor Karen Joy Fowler.

  To say 2015 was a busy year for me is perhaps the understatement of all understatements. In addition to serving as the series editor for this volume, for which I read thousands of stories annually, I also read hundreds of books in my capacity as a judge for the National
Book Award in the Young People’s Literature category (much of which was SF/F). Late in the year, I also agreed to launch John Joseph Adams Books, a new SF/F imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (the publishers of this fine anthology). In addition to all of that, I edited and published two monthly genre magazines (Lightspeed and Nightmare), had six anthologies published (including the 2015 BASFF), and produced The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast for Wired.com.

  The fact that I still find myself continuing to say yes to taking on new projects—to essentially filling all my waking hours with nonstop science fiction and fantasy—is a testament to the vitality of the field, and to the wonder and passion it inspires.

  And all of that wonder and passion is on full display in this year’s BASFF selections.

  There is always some element of the unknown going into any editorial collaboration; even though on the surface two people might seem to have editorial tastes that line up well, in practice it’s not always the case. Fortunately that was of no consequence during the assembling of BASFF 2016, as our guest editor, Karen Joy Fowler, and I turned out to have exceedingly similar tastes in SF/F. In the end, our collaboration was, for me, not only a painless experience but a richly rewarding one.

  That may come as something of a surprise to those of you who perhaps know Karen only as the author of mainstream bestsellers and the winner of major literary prizes like the PEN/Faulkner Award. But though Karen now runs among the rarified halls of the literary elite, her forays into publishing started with genre fiction, with her first short stories appearing in core SF/F markets like Asimov’s Science Fiction (then called Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine), The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Interzone, among others, before she eventually transitioned to writing mainstream literary novels like The Jane Austen Book Club and before that Sister Noon. Truth be told, however, even her first novel, Sarah Canary, clearly prophesied the direction her career would take and would return to post–Book Club. And her subsequent novels Wit’s End and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, though generally considered mainstream novels, both bear the hallmarks of being written by someone intimately acquainted with genre fiction.

  In addition to that extensive background in genre fiction, for the last several years Karen has been the president of the Clarion Foundation, the organization that runs the Clarion Writers’ Workshop—an annual six-week intensive writing boot camp renowned among the field’s creatives. So not only was Karen well prepared to dive into this role as guest editor due to her ample experience in the field as a writer; she was also perhaps as uniquely qualified for the job as any writer could be who doesn’t also work as an editor.

  Naturally our wonderful collaboration came as no surprise to me—I invited her to be guest editor, after all—and her choices for BASFF 2016 certainly did not disappoint. From the quiet, elegiac, contemporary tale “Interesting Facts” to the far-future, deep-space saga of “Three Bodies at Mitanni,” from the brutal emotion and pain of “The Heat of Us” to the blistering depiction of modern warfare in “Headshot,” these stories demonstrate the vast spectrum of what SF/F aims to accomplish, displaying the full gamut of the human experience, interrogating our hopes and our fears—not just of what we can accomplish or destroy as a person, but of what we can accomplish or destroy as a people—and throwing us into strange new worlds that can only be explored when we shed the shackles of reality.

  The stories chosen for this anthology were originally published between January 2015 and December 2015. The technical criteria for consideration are (1) original publication in a nationally distributed American or Canadian publication (i.e., periodicals, collections, or anthologies, in print, online, or ebook); (2) publication in English by writers who are American or Canadian, or who have made the United States their home; (3) publication as text (audiobook, podcast, dramatized, interactive, and other forms of fiction are not considered); (4) original publication as short fiction (excerpts of novels are not knowingly considered); (5) story length of 17,499 words or less; (6) at least loosely categorized as science fiction or fantasy; (7) publication by someone other than the author (i.e., self-published works are not eligible); and (8) publication as an original work of the author (i.e., not part of a media tie-in/licensed fiction program).

  As series editor, I attempt to read everything I can find that meets these selection criteria. After doing all my reading, I create a list of what I feel are the top eighty stories published in the genre (forty science fiction and forty fantasy). These eighty stories are sent to the guest editor, who reads them and then chooses the best twenty (ten science fiction, ten fantasy) for inclusion in the anthology. The guest editor reads all the stories blind—with no bylines attached to them, nor any information about where the stories originally appeared. Karen’s top twenty selections appear in this volume; the remaining sixty stories that did not make it into the anthology are listed in the back of this book as “Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2015.”

  As I did last year, in my effort to find the top eighty stories of the year, I read more than a hundred periodicals, from longtime genre mainstays such as Analog and Asimov’s, to leading digital magazines such as Tor.com and Strange Horizons, to top literary publications such as Tin House and Granta—as well as several dozen anthologies and single-author collections. I scoured the field for publications both big and small, and paid equal consideration to stories in venerable major magazines like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and to stories in new publications like Uncanny.

  My longlist of eighty was drawn from thirty-eight different publications: twenty-four periodicals, thirteen anthologies, and one two-story chapbook—from thirty-eight different editors (counting editorial teams as a singular unit, but also distinct from any solo work done by either editor). The final table of contents draws from sixteen different sources: thirteen periodicals, two anthologies, and one two-story chapbook (from sixteen different editors/editorial teams).

  I began my reading for the first volume of BASFF attempting to log every single story I read, wherever it fell on the quality spectrum, but that quickly became too onerous to do given the quantities involved, so I began instead logging only stories I thought were potentially among the best of the year. I followed that methodology again for this volume; consequently, I don’t have the precise total number of stories I considered, but based on the data I did gather, I estimate the total to be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 stories (including the approximately 180 stories I edited myself ).

  Naturally, aside from my top eighty selections, many of the stories I read were perfectly good and enjoyable but didn’t quite stand out enough for me to consider them among the best of the year. I did, however, end up with about seventy additional stories that were at one point or another under serious consideration, including stories from publications not otherwise represented in this anthology (either in the table of contents or on the Notable Stories list), such as Fireside Magazine, Galaxy’s Edge, Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy Magazine, and from anthologies such as Stories for Chip, Thirteen: Stories of Transformation, Unbound, Hanzai Japan, and others.

  This foreword mentions only a few of the great publications considered for this anthology; see the table of contents and the Notable Stories list to get a more complete overview of the top publications currently available in the field. And if you love a story you discovered because of this anthology, please consider checking out the original publication it came from; the original sources vary in size and popularity, but they all need reader support to stay in business, and without them books like this one would not be possible. So please support them if you can—even if “support” just means telling a friend about them.

  Now that I’ve laid out my workflow, you might be thinking that there’s no way one person could have read all that material—if so, you’re right! No editor could do all the work of assembling a volume like this one alone. Accordingly, many thanks go out to my team of first rea
ders, who helped me evaluate various publications that I might not have had time to consider otherwise, led by DeAnna Knippling, Robyn Lupo, and Christie Yant, with smaller but still noteworthy contributions by Rob McMonigal, Karen Bovenmyer, Michael Curry, Devin Marcus, Aaron Bailey, Hannah Huber, Zoe Kaplan, and Tyler Keeton. Thanks, too, to Tim Mudie at Mariner Books for all the strings he pulls behind the scenes to keep the show running.

  In last year’s volume, I spent a good portion of my foreword defining science fiction and fantasy and providing a historical overview of how the genre came to be and how it got to where it is now.

  I don’t want to repeat myself, but I do feel like perhaps I should at least reiterate the definitions, as more than one reader review seemed displeased with the proportions of science fiction and fantasy in the 2015 volume. But in truth the contents were divided equally between the two genres, and it is my intent that the contents will always be equally divided. (Though it was amusing to see that there were simultaneous opposing complaints—both that there was too much [or it was all] science fiction and that there was too much [or it was all] fantasy.)

  To be fair, I understand how people can have these misconceptions about where the borders between the genres lie. A lot of us grow up thinking that science fiction stories are always set in the future (no) or in far-flung galaxies (raaaaaaah*), or that fantasy always takes place in “fantasy worlds” à la Middle-earth (ú-thand†) or always feature wizards (this line of thinking shall not pass‡) or . . . well, you get the idea.

  But I can’t very well come up with new ways of saying those same things all over again every year, so instead let me briefly and selectively quote myself:

  SF/F—which sometimes is collectively referred to by the larger umbrella term “speculative fiction”—essentially comprises stories that start by asking the question What if . . . ?