The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 (2 page)

Thus far I've talked about the similarities of science fiction and fantasy, but what of the
differences
between them? This question, too, is often difficult to answer and frequently fraught with debate.

Fantasy is generally the easier of the two to define clearly: fantasy stories are stories in which the impossible happens. The easiest (and perhaps most common) example to illustrate this is that magic is real and select humans can wield or manipulate it. Sometimes such stories take place in secondary worlds (as in
Lord of the Rings
), but other times they take place in a world very much like our own but with one or two key changes to the way the world works. To use one example from this anthology to illustrate the latter: you might have a world where everything is normal until suddenly, out of nowhere, people start having babies shaped like cubes and other geometrical objects.

Science fiction has the same starting point as fantasy—stories in which the impossible happens—but adds a crucial twist: science fiction is stories in which the
currently
impossible
but
theoretically plausible
happens (or, in some cases, things that are
currently possible
but
haven't happened
yet
). The foremost pop culture example that probably leaps to the minds of most people is
Star Trek
—and indeed its idea of traveling among the stars on spaceships, seeking “strange new worlds,” is a common one in science fiction—but there's much more variety to it than that. Science fiction runs the gamut from near-future scenarios like “What if you could record every moment of your life and replay memories any time you want?” to genetically engineering soldiers to operate better in alien environments to examining what life would be like after the artifice of human civilization crumbles.

But to talk about the definition of SF/F without discussing where it came from would be to do the genre a disservice. (And I hope hard-core genre fans and historians will forgive me as I gloss over large swaths of its history as I attempt to do the impossible and synopsize the development of two genres in a few hundred words.)

Several examples of proto–science fiction precede it, but our contemporary understanding of science fiction more or less begins in the nineteenth century, with notable early practitioners such as H. G. Wells (
The Time Machine
) and Jules Verne (
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
). Many, such as SF author and historian Brian Aldiss, consider Mary Shelley's
Frankenstein
to be the first science fiction novel (though Shelley was not and is not generally thought of as a science fiction writer). The fantasy tradition has roots in myth and legends and thus can trace its origins as far back as classics like the
Odyssey
, but our understanding of modern fantasy is mostly shaped by the works of authors such as George MacDonald (
The Princess and the Goblin
), Lord Dunsany (
The King of Elfland's Daughter
), L. Frank Baum (
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
), and Lewis Carroll (
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
).

But it was in the early twentieth century that the genres truly began to flourish as an art form, especially in the realm of short fiction, thanks in large part to the founding of the magazines
Weird Tales
(in 1923), which frequently published works by the likes of H. P. Lovecraft (“The Call of Cthluhu”) and Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), and
Amazing Stories
(in 1926), by Hugo Gernsback (namesake of the genre's Hugo Award). Editors such as John W. Campbell at
Astounding
(which continues to this day under the title
Analog
) went on to push and shape the genre, and a strong focus on literary storytelling emerged in 1949 with
The Magazine of Fantasy
(later
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
), under Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas. The field continued to develop and evolve over the years, with notable movements such as the New Wave, which sought to explore experimental narrative devices and placed a strong emphasis on literary quality. And any partial history of the development of SF/F would be incomplete without acknowledging the critical impact of the landmark anthology
Dangerous Visions
, edited by Harlan Ellison, on the field.

This new Best American series is a major milestone for a genre that has at times struggled for literary respectability—despite the fact that it is the genre of the aforementioned “Flowers for Algernon,” that it is the genre of the innumerable classics of Ray Bradbury (“All Summer in a Day”), Ursula K. Le Guin (“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”), Shirley Jackson (“The Lottery”), Harlan Ellison (“‘Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman”), Octavia E. Butler (“Bloodchild”), and Kurt Vonnegut (“Harrison Bergeron”).

But science fiction and fantasy literature is currently experiencing a golden age; there's more high-quality genre literature being written now than ever before. And science fiction and fantasy themes have broken through the boundaries of other genres as well, figuring prominently in numerous mainstream bestsellers both in the literary fiction category and in film and television. That makes now the perfect time for SF/F to join the Best American family.

Many popular mainstream books in recent years have been infused with science fiction and fantasy elements—Alice Sebold's
The Lovely Bones
, Kazuo Ishiguro's
The Buried Giant
, Audrey Niffenegger's
The Time Traveler's Wife
, Emily St. John Mandel's
Station Eleven.
Some, such as Cormac McCarthy's
The Road
, have not only been popular but have won the Pulitzer Prize as well. Many readers would not classify some of these novels as genre books, yet it is undeniable that they
are
genre; if you removed the SF/F element from any of them, the stories would fall apart. Furthermore, within the SF/F community, these novels have already been accepted as part of the field.

Part of the scope of this anthology series will be to help define—and
re
define—just what science fiction and fantasy is capable of. It is my opinion that the finest science fiction and fantasy is on a par with the finest works of literature in any genre, and the goal of this series is to prove it.

The stories chosen for this anthology were originally published between January 2014 and December 2014. The technical criteria for consideration are (1) original publication in a nationally distributed American or Canadian publication (that is, periodicals, collections, or anthologies, in print, online, or as an ebook); (2) publication in English by writers who are American or Canadian or who have made the United States their home; (3) publication as text (audiobooks, podcasts, dramatizations, interactive works, and other forms of fiction are not considered); (4) original publication as short fiction (excerpts of novels are not knowingly considered); (5) length of 17,499 words or less; (6) at least loosely categorized as science fiction or fantasy; (7) publication by someone other than the author (self-published works are not eligible); and (8) publication as an original work of the author (not part of a media tie-in/licensed fiction program).

As series editor, I attempted to read everything I could find that meets these selection criteria. After doing all my reading, I created a list of what I felt were the top eighty stories published in the genre (forty science fiction and forty fantasy). Those eighty stories were sent to guest editor Joe Hill, who read them and then chose the best twenty (ten science fiction, ten fantasy) for inclusion in the volume. Joe read all the stories blind, with no bylines attached to them nor any information about where they originally appeared. The sixty stories that did not make it into the anthology are listed in the back of this book as “Other Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2014.”

I could not have done all the work of assembling this volume alone (or even with only the help of our esteemed guest editor). Accordingly, many thanks go out to my team of first readers, who helped me evaluate various publications that I might not have had time to consider otherwise, led by DeAnna Knippling, Robyn Lupo, and Rob McMonigal, with smaller but still significant contributions by Christie Yant, Karen Bovenmyer, Michael Curry, Sylvia Hiven, Amber Barkley, Aaron Bailey, Hannah Huber, Hannah Mades-Alabiso, and Sarah Slatton.

I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the work of editors who have come before me. Though this is the first volume of
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy
, it couldn't have happened without the brilliant work done by the various editors involved with
The Best American Short Stories
,
The Best American Mystery Stories
, and the rest of the Best American family. Our in-house editor at Mariner Books, Tim Mudie, was by my side throughout the entire process and was a diligent companion in helping a first-time series editor get up to speed.

Likewise, I want to acknowledge the contributions of the many editors in the science fiction/fantasy field who have edited best-of-the-year volumes over the years, including Gardner Dozois, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, David G. Hartwell, Jonathan Strahan, and Rich Horton (to name but a few of the prominent ones of my era as a reader). I consider their work the textbooks of my education as an editor. But if their works were my textbooks, then Gordon Van Gelder, former editor and current publisher of
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, was my professor.

And last but not least, thanks so much to Joe Hill for taking the helm for the good ship
BASFF
's inaugural voyage. His comments about and criticisms of all the stories I presented him with were always astute and incisive, and he was both an amiable and a stalwart collaborator. Also, as you will no doubt agree once you read Joe's introduction, he wrote as wonderful a love letter to science fiction/fantasy as I've ever seen. If you read it and are not moved by it, and are not made super-excited to read this anthology afterward, I daresay this might not be the book for you.

I consider the mantle of series editor to be a tremendous responsibility, and the SF/F genre is vitally important to me, so this is a job I take very, very seriously.

Being series editor of the first Best American title to focus on science fiction and fantasy puts me into several different roles. I'll be an ambassador of the genre to the outside world, the genre's proselytizer in chief, who will be called upon to spread the gospel of SF/F far and wide.

But first and foremost I am a curator, with the mission to survey the field and ask, “What is the best American science fiction and fantasy?”

In my effort to find the top eighty stories of the year, I read more than a hundred periodicals, from longtime genre mainstays such as
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
and
Asimov's Science Fiction
, to leading digital magazines such as
Clarkesworld
and my own
Lightspeed
, to top literary publications such as
The New Yorker
and
Granta
, as well as sixty or more anthologies and single-author collections. I scoured the field for publications both big and small and paid equal consideration to stories in venerable major magazines such as
Analog
and stories in new niche zines like
Scigentasy
(the latter of which I'm pleased to say ended up with a story in this volume).

By my calculations, my long list of eighty was drawn from forty different publications—twenty-four periodicals, fifteen anthologies, and one stand-alone ebook—from thirty-six different editors (counting editorial teams as a unit, but also distinct from any solo work done by one of the editors). The final table of contents draws from fourteen different sources: nine periodicals and five anthologies (from fourteen different editors/editorial teams).

About halfway through the year I stopped logging every single story I read, as it got to be too onerous to do so; instead I started logging only things that I
liked.
I myself edited or coedited five anthologies and twenty-two magazine issues in 2014, which included approximately 185 original, eligible stories altogether. Including those, I have spreadsheets showing that I and/or my first-reader team evaluated approximately 2,600 stories, but how many stories in total I actually ended up considering is something of a mystery; if I were to venture a guess, I'd say it might be as many as twice that. Those numbers, I think—combined with how difficult it was to narrow down my selections to the top eighty stories—speak to both the extreme vitality of the field and the need for volumes like this one.

Science fiction and fantasy has been an indispensable addition to our cultural heritage, one that has given us great masters such as Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, and Shirley Jackson, as well as the tools to inspire, enlighten, and ultimately, like Gully Foyle, transform ourselves.

It is my immense privilege to be your guide and curator. I hope you enjoy the exhibit.

Editors, writers, and publishers who would like their work considered for next year's edition, please visit
johnjosephadams.com/best-american
for instructions on how to submit material for consideration.

—J
OHN
J
OSEPH
A
DAMS

W
ONDER IS A
blasting cap. It is an emotion that goes off with a bang, shattering settled beliefs, rattling the architecture of the mind, and clearing space for new ideas, new possibilities. Wonder is often thought of as a peaceful emotion, a sense of resounding inner quiet. Of course we would associate it with silence. The world always assumes an eerie hush after an explosion.

Awe is TNT for the soul.