Элинор Арнасон: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection

There are so many genre shows of one sort or another on television these days (after decades when there were few or none of them) that it’s becoming difficult to find a show that isn’t a genre show. As there are almost a hundred of them now available in one form or another, I’m obviously going to be able to list only some of the more prominent ones; my apologies if I miss your favorites.

HBO’s A Game of Thrones , based on the best-selling fantasy series by George R. R. Martin, is still the most prestigious and successful fantasy show on television, but its last season has been postponed until 2019, so you’ll have to wait until then to see who ultimately gets to sit on the Iron Throne. The Handmaid’s Tale was a huge critical success, as was American Gods , based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, although the abrupt departure of the series’ showrunners has left the second season of American Gods in doubt. There will be another season of the also critically acclaimed series Westworld , a complex and tricky series version of the old SF movie of the same name, as well as new seasons of The Man in the High Castle , based on the Hugo-winning alternate history novel by Philip K. Dick, The Magicians, based on the best-selling novel by Lev Grossman, and Outlander , based on a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon.

The Expanse , based on a series of space opera novels by James S. A. Corey, is about the closest thing to “hard science fiction” available on television, and one of the few series that can be counted as SF rather than superhero shows or fantasy, along with Westworld . Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D . mixes SF concepts with the superhero stuff, especially in the last couple of seasons, featuring androids, cyborgs, rogue A.I.s, virtual reality worlds, alternate history scenarios, alien invasions, visits to other planets, and other SF tropes; the entire current season so far, for instance, has taken place on a space station far in the future, after Earth has been destroyed. A new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Discovery , and a semisatiric Star Trek clone, The Orville , have been established, and both have their enthusiastic supporters, although I didn’t warm to either of them very much. Anthology show Black Mirror sometimes features SF storylines, and there’s a new series called Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams that I haven’t caught up with. Other SF shows, coming up later in the year, include Altered Carbon and Stargate Origins , and a miniseries version of George R. R. Martin’s novella Nightflyers .

An area that didn’t even exist a few years ago, more and more shows are becoming available only as streaming video from servers such as Amazon, Netflix, Roku, and Hulu, and it’s clear that the floodgates are only just starting to swing open for this form of entertainment delivery, with Disney and others promising to stream shows of their own. An early pioneer in this area, Marvel Studios has already established four solid hits with Daredevil , Jessica Jones , Luke Cage , and The Punisher ( Iron Fist was widely critically savaged and less successful, as was a superhero team-up show, The Defenders, largely because of the presence in it of the charisma-less Iron Fist). Meanwhile, in case anybody had any doubt that this is the golden age of television superhero shows, a solid block of superhero shows has been established on regular television by DC, including Arrow , The Flash , Supergirl , Legends of Tomorrow , Gotham , and Black Lightning ,with Krypton , a show set on Superman’s home planet before it was destroyed, coming up later this year. Other superhero shows, largely featuring characters from Marvel Comics, include Legion , The Runaways , Inhumans , and The Gifted .

Of the flood of other genre shows that hit the air in the last few years, still surviving (I think, it’s sometimes hard to tell) are: Once Upon a Time , Grimm , Sleepy Hollow , Stranger Things , The Librarians , The 100 , Ash vs Evil Dead , Dark Matter , Lucifer , The Good Place , Killjoys , and Star Wars Rebels . The reaction to the reboot of The X-Files , now in its second season, has been largely unenthusiastic, and its future may be in doubt.

Perennial favorites such as Doctor Who , The Walking Dead , Supernatural , The Vampire Diaries , and The Simpsons continue to roll on as usual, with Doctor Who generating controversy over the selection of a woman to play the next doctor.

Of the upcoming shows, the most buzz seems to be being generated by the return of Star Trek to television, with a new series, Star Trek: Discovery . Some excitement is also being generated by the revival of Twin Peaks and Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Also ahead are miniseries versions of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Anansi Boys , and miniseries versions of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars , Len Deighton’s SS-GB , John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War , Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld , Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Cycle , and Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War continue to be rumored—although how many of these promised shows actually show up is anyone’s guess.

Upcoming are TV versions of Galaxy Quest and a reboot of Lost in Space , both of which I’m pretty sure are going to prove to be bad ideas, paticularly the Galaxy Quest remake.

The 75th World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon 75, was held in Helsinki, Finland, from August 9th to August 13th, 2017. The 2017 Hugo Awards, presented at Worldcon 75, were: Best Novel, The Obelisk Gate , by N. K. Jemisin; Best Novella, “Every Heart a Doorway,” by Seanan McGuire; Best Novelette, “The Tomato Thief,” by Ursula Vernon; Best Short Story, “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” by Amal El-Mohtar; Best Graphic Story, Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening , by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda; Best Related Work, Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016 , by Ursula K. Le Guin; Best Professional Editor, Long Form, Liz Gorinsky; Best Professional Editor, Short Form, Ellen Datlow; Best Professional Artist, Julie Dillon; Best Dramatic Presentation (short form), The Expanse : “Leviathan Wakes”; Best Dramatic Presentation (long form), Arrival ; Best Semiprozine, Uncanny ; Best Fanzine, Lady Business ; Best Fancast, Tea and Jeopardy ; Best Fan Writer, Abigail Nussbaum; Best Fan Artist, Elizabeth Leggett; Best Series, The Vorkosigan Saga , by Lois McMaster Bujold; plus the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer to Ada Palmer.

The 2016 Nebula Awards, presented at a banquet at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 20, 2017, were: Best Novel, All the Birds in the Sky , by Charlie Jane Anders; Best Novella, “Every Heart a Doorway,” by Seanan McGuire; Best Novelette, “The Long Fall Up,” by William Ledbetter; Best Short Story, “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” by Amal El-Mohtar; Ray Bradbury Award, Arrival ; the Andre Norton Award to Arabella of Mars , by David D. Levine; the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award to Toni Weisskopf and Peggy Rae Sapienza; the Kevin O’ Donnell Jr. Service to SFWA Award to Jim Fiscus; and the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award to Jane Yolen.