The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023

By: R. F. Kuang, John Joseph Adams

Narrated by: Will Tulin, Chanté McCormick, Em Grosland, Isabella Star LaBlanc, Yelena Shmulenson, Jeena Yi, André Santana, Jacob Patalive, Mirai, Katharine Chin

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises. Women can’t lie or fall in love. Fathers feed their children ghost preserves. Souls chase one another through animal incarnations. Yet these stories are grounded deeply in our reality. Out of these stories’ weirdness emerges the cruelty of border enforcement, the horror of legislation restricting reproductive freedom, the frightening pace of AI. The result is a stunning, immersive, intensely felt experience, showing us less of what the world is, and more of what it could be.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 includes Nathan Ballingrud • KT Bryski • Isabel Cañas • Maria Dong • Kim Fu • Theodora Goss • Alix E. Harrow • S. L. Huang • Stephen Graham Jones • Shingai Njeri Kagunda • Isabel J. Kim • Samantha Mills • MKRNYILGLD • Malka Older • Susan Palwick • Linda Raquel Nieves Pérez • Sofia Samatar • Kristina Ten • Catherynne M. Valente • Chris Willrich

©2023 John Joseph Adams and R. F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

It’s a trick. Get an axe.

Yet further evidence of the fall of what a Hugo or a nebula means. Haven’t finished yet but it’s bad enough to review it early. If I come across a good story I will update. Not hopeful. Update: The Odyssey Problem and The Difference Between Love and Time are worth the credit spent. I just expected stories…this feels like vanity press…Update: Folk Hero Motifs in Tales Told by the Dead was a decent story. Going to finish and give the whole book another go….if you have read everything else all ready and need a fix…go for this book…adding a few stars for the updates…I feel better about my purchase after hearing some of the later stories in the anthology. Update: Many of these stories lack hook for me and for a variety of reasons. Go ahead and push through. You’ll get a bit of story-juice.

By Far Not The Best

An intentional railroading of political views. Worst collection I have every come across. A couple of good stories strangled by their neighboring dribble, If I had paid for it. I would have demanded a refund. Burned a credit.

Strange mixed bag

I enjoy sci-fi, and to a lesser extent, horror and fantasy, and while the annual anthology has impressed me in years past, this year was such an odd mix of stories which hardly had any narrative. The audio sample was not useful to assess whether I’d like it before purchase, only featuring the intro from the editor.

Another Great Year of SF & F Shorts

I love short stories and the “Best American” selections seem to be the best curated collections.

This year I really liked Pre-Simulation Consultation, Six Deaths of the Saint, Three Mothers Mountain, The Odyssey Problem, and The Difference Between Love and Time. There were twelve other very good stories and a few more that varied between good and OK.

I REALLY like a new feature of the Best American series for 2023 – at the end they have a brief narrative from each author about their story. This is a GREAT addition which I hope is continued!

The narration varies but overall good to excellent.