Ford Pintos would explode when rear-ended because safety wasn’t an objective during manufacturing. Google Glass launched and failed because of neglecting to validate user needs. Pfizer’s Bextra was an anti-inflammatory drug that gave heart problems and fatal skin conditions leading to the second largest pharmaceutical settlement in history. Cautionary tales serve as great rallying points for the future of making better things. It’s true for cars, computers, drugs, and perhaps also generation ships.
I find that the contest of wills between humans and AI spins out interesting failure modes when you add the pressures of time, space travel, and the mind’s instinct to reject unnatural boundaries. For every generation ship to reach its star we could suppose there might be hundreds that don’t, right? My thanks to C. C. Finlay and Gordon Van Gelder for taking a chance on this at F&SF.
Other Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2020
Selected by John Joseph Adams
Aguda, ’Pemi
Things Boys Do. Nightmare, February
Allen, Violet
Mister Dawn, How Can You Be So Cruel? Ignorance Is Strength, ed. Hugh Howey, Christie Yant, John Joseph Adams (Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Anders, Charlie Jane
The Turnaround. Alta, July
If You Take My Meaning. Tor.com, February
Bear, Elizabeth
Hacksilver. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April
Broaddus, Maurice
City of Refuge. Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology, ed. Mur Lafferty and S. B. Divya (Titan)
The Legacy of Alexandria. Apex, November
Bryski, KT
The Bone-Stag Walks. Lightspeed, August
Buckell, Tobias S.
Scar Tissue. Future Tense, May
Carson, Rae
Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse. Uncanny, January/February
Curtis, Tori
Strange Things Done. PodCastle, September
Cypess, Leah
Stepsister. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June
DeNiro, Anya Johanna
A Voyage to Queensthroat. Strange Horizons, August
Fawver, Kurt
Introduction to the Horror Story, Day 1. Nightmare, November
Finlay, C. C.
One Basket. Analog, February
Gay, Roxanne
Graceful Burdens. Out of Line (Amazon Original Stories)
Greenblatt, A. T.
Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super. Uncanny, May/June
Harrow, Alix E.
The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly. Fireside, July
The Sycamore and the Sybil. Uncanny, March/April
Headley, Maria Dahvana
The Girlfriend’s Guide to Gods. Tor.com, January
Huang, S. L.
The Million-Mile Sniper. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April
Jones, Stephen Graham
To Jump Is to Fall. Psi-Wars, ed. Joshua Viola (Hex Publishers)
Attack of the 50 Foot Indian (Saga)
Larson, Rich
How Quini the Squid Misplaced His Klobučar. Tor.com, January
LaValle, Victor
Recognition. The Decameron Project, ed. the Editors of the New York Times Magazine ( New York Times Magazine )
Lee, P H
Ann-of-Rags. Lightspeed, December
Lee, Yoon Ha
The Mermaid Astronaut. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February
Little Badger, Darcie
Unlike Most Tides. Drabblecast, May
Liu, Ken
A Whisper of Blue. The Book of Dragons, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Voyager)
Lynch, Scott
Maybe Just Go Up There and Talk to It. The Book of Dragons, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Voyager)
Machado, Carmen Maria
The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror. Granta, Winter
Malik, Usman T.
The Wandering City. Us in Flux, ed. Center for Science and the Imagination (Arizona State University)
McAulty, Todd
The Ambient Intelligence. Lightspeed, October
McGuire, Seanan
Juice Like Wounds. Tor.com, July
McHugh, Maureen
Yellow and the Perception of Reality. Tor.com, July
Miller, Sam J.
The Nation of the Sick. Entanglements, ed. Sheila Williams (MIT Press)
North, Em
Real Animals. Lightspeed, June
Nunnally, Errick
Uniform. FIYAH, Summer
Peynado, Brenda
How We Burn. Lightspeed, February
Picchi, Aimee
Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math. Daily Science Fiction, January
Polk, C. L.
St. Valentine, St. Abigail, St. Brigid. Tor.com, February
Pratt, Tim
Spheres and Harmonies. Or Else the Light, ed. Hugh Howey, Christie Yant, John Joseph Adams (Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Richardson, Endria Isa
The Black Menagerie. FIYAH, Summer
Rickert, M.
Another F*cken Fairy Tale. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June
Ring, Lauren
Sunrise, Sunrise, Sunrise. Apparition Lit, October
Sachdeva, Anjali
Not Creator, Nor Destroyer. Fairy Tale Review, The Coral Issue
Samatar, Sofia
Fairy Tales for Robots. Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)
The Moon Fairy. Conjunctions #74
Sanford, Jason
The Eight-Thousanders. Asimov’s, September/October
Sen, Nibedita
Mandragora. Fireside, March
Siddiqui, Sameem
AirBody. Clarkesworld, April
St. George, Carlie
Monsters Never Leave You. Strange Horizons, June
Swanwick, Michael
The Last Days of Old Night. Clarkesworld, December
Thomas, Sheree Renée
Ancestries. Nine Bar Blues (Third Man Books)
Turnbull, Cadwell
Shock of Birth. Asimov’s, September/October
Watts, Peter
Test 4 Echo. Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)
Wells, Martha
Obsolescence. Take Us to a Better Place: Stories, ed. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Melcher Media)
Wolfmoor, Merc Fenn
The Law Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death. Or Else the Light, ed. Hugh Howey, Christie Yant, John Joseph Adams (Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Wrenwood, Claire
Dead Girls Have No Names. Nightmare, August
Yoachim, Caroline M.
Shadow Prisons. The Dystopia Triptych , ed. Hugh Howey, Christie Yant, John Joseph Adams (Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Visit marinerbooks.com to find all of the books in the Best American series.
© Nelson Fitch
Veronica Roth, guest editor, is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of the Divergent series ( Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four: A Divergent Collection ), the Carve the Mark duology ( Carve the Mark, The Fates Divide ), and Chosen Ones . She is a board member of YALLFest, the biggest YA book festival in the country, and YALLWEST, its sister festival. She lives in Chicago.
John Joseph Adams, series editor, is editor of the Hugo Award–winning magazine Lightspeed and more than thirty anthologies, including Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms, A People’s Future of the United States, and The Dystopia Triptych.
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