The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 5

By: Neil Clarke

Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Jennifer O'Donnell, Lisa Renee Pitts, Michael Braun, Sneha Mathan, Christopher Salazar, Tony Tambi

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Five, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and twenty-eight of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2019.

©2020 Neil Clarke (P)2022 Recorded Books

Mostly Disapp

Well, there are several very good stories in this collection, the majority are boring and or seem politically motivated. Every other narration is horrible. The mark of a good narration is that you can’t tell that it’s being read. Unfortunately, in this collection, and to be fair, I’ll say every three stories, are terribly narrated. As I said, several of these stories are exceptional, but overall this is not worth the purchase price.

I give top marks for the 'Emergency Skin' story

I enjoyed very much 'Emergency Skin' by N K Jemisin, what a gift! (it can be found in Audible as a standalone novelette). Some other stories resonated with me, 'The Work of Wolves' by Tegan Moore, 'The Painter of Trees' by Suzanne Palmer, 'In the Stillness Between the Stars' by Mercurio D. Rivera, 'Knit Three Save Four' by Marie Vibbert, 'Moonlight' by Cixin Liu, 'One Thousand Beetles in a Jumpsuit' by Dominica Pheterplace, 'Sympathizer' by Karin Lowachee and 'Permafrost' by Alastair Reynolds but not so much.

Audio narrators are mixed

I have to say that I really don't enjoy the reading style of Lisa Marie Pitts and almost want to skip any story featuring her narration, which sounds a bit like "teacher reading a story to young kids in class."

decent stories some horrible narration.

A few of the stories are enjoyable and thought provoking . Some of the narrations are terrible though. Clearly just reading aloud. mispronouncing common words, and one sounds like he has a mouthfull of gum. worse is that one of the bad ones reads a number of the stories...im at the point I just skip those.