Кейт Эллиот - The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021

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.

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.