The Best Science Fiction of the Year Read online

  THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION

  OF THE YEAR

  Also Edited by Neil Clarke

  Magazines

  Clarkesworld Magazine—clarkesworldmagazine.com

  Forever Magazine—forever-magazine.com

  Anthologies

  Upgraded

  The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 1

  The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 2

  The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 3

  Touchable Unreality

  Galactic Empires

  More Human Than Human

  The Final Frontier

  Not One of Us

  The Eagle Has Landed

  (with Sean Wallace)

  Clarkesworld: Year Three

  Clarkesworld: Year Four

  Clarkesworld: Year Five

  Clarkesworld: Year Six

  Clarkesworld: Year Seven

  Clarkesworld: Year Eight

  Clarkesworld: Year Nine, Volume 1

  Clarkesworld: Year Nine, Volume 2

  Clarkesworld: Year Ten, Volume 1

  Clarkesworld: Year Ten, Volume 2

  Clarkesworld Magazine A 10th Anniversary Anthology (forthcoming 2019)

  THE BEST

  SCIENCE FICTION

  OF THE YEAR

  VOLUME 4

  Edited by Neil Clarke

  Night Shade Books

  NEW YORK | NEW JERSEY

  Copyright © 2019 by Neil Clarke

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Start Publishing LLC, 101 Hudson Street, 37th Floor, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

  Night Shade Books® is an imprint of Start Publishing LLC.

  Visit our website at www.nightshadebooks.com.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-949102-08-6

  Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-59780-988-7

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-59780-620-6

  Cover illustration by Mack Sztaba

  Cover design by Jason Snair

  Please see page 591 for an extension of this copyright page.

  Printed in the United States of America

  For Gardner Dozois.

  Table of Contents

  Introduction: A State of the Short SF Field in 2018

  When We Were Starless—Simone Heller

  Intervention—Kelly Robson

  All the Time We’ve Left to Spend—Alyssa Wong

  Domestic Violence—Madeline Ashby

  Ten Landscapes of Nili Fossae—Ian McDonald

  Prophet of the Roads—Naomi Kritzer

  Traces of Us—Vanessa Fogg

  Theories of Flight—Linda Nagata

  Lab B#x2013;15—Nick Wolven

  Requiem—Vandana Singh

  Sour Milk Girls—Erin Roberts

  Mother Tongues—S. Qiouyi Lu

  Singles’ Day—Samantha Murray

  Nine Last Days on Planet Earth—Daryl Gregory

  The Buried Giant—Lavie Tidhar

  The Anchorite Wakes—R.S.A. Garcia

  Entropy War—Yoon Ha Lee

  An Equation of State—Robert Reed

  Quantifying Trust—John Chu

  Hard Mary—Sofia Samatar

  Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling—L.X. Beckett

  Okay, Glory—Elizabeth Bear

  Heavy Lifting—A.T. Greenblatt

  Lions and Gazelles—Hannu Rajaniemi

  Different Seas—Alastair Reynolds

  Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger’s Steps—Aliette de Bodard

  Byzantine Empathy—Ken Liu

  Meat and Salt and Sparks—Rich Larson

  Umbernight—Carolyn Ives Gilman

  2018 Recommended Reading List

  INTRODUCTION:

  A State of the Short SF Field in 2018

  Neil Clarke

  I opened this year’s review of short fiction with an important dedication. Few people can be said to have shaped modern science fiction to the degree that Gardner Dozois did over the course of his career. He will most notably be remembered for his time as editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction and The Year’s Best Science Fiction series, but he was also a Nebula Award-winning author. Gardner also won the Hugo Award for Best Editor a record-setting fifteen times and edited dozens of Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning stories. He was also a friend and colleague, working for me as reprint editor at Clarkesworld for the last five years.

  On my shelves lies a complete run of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, all thirty-five volumes plus his three Best of the Best volumes, and dozens of other anthologies he edited. While volumes one through three of my series were technically competing with his, he never once made me feel like that was the case. One of the best and more beautiful things most of you don’t know about this field is how collegial it is. Even when the stories were no longer new to me, I always preordered his next volume, simply for his annual summation of the field. For many of us, it was an important history of the field, one that spanned over thirty years and was yet another important part of his legacy.

  No one can fill his shoes, but in his honor, I’m going to merge some of the short fiction-oriented features of Gardner’s introductions into my own. It’s my way of noting that aspect of his work. It’s of personal value to me, and a desire to see that particular torch carried forward.

  The Business Side of Things

  For a long time, the genre magazine field was dominated by “the big three” print magazines: Analog Science Fiction and Fact (analogsf.com), Asimov’s Science Fiction (asimovs.com), and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (sfsite.com/fsf). It wasn’t until more recently that online magazines began to present them with any serious competition for authors, readers, and awards. Much has changed in the last decade.

  Out of all the 2016 and 2017 Hugo Award finalists in the short fiction categories, only one came from a print magazine. For some readers, this has created an illusion that the health or quality of those markets is in decline. Another possible explanation is that online fiction is easier for readers to share and it has a much longer shelf life than the digests—which is often two months. This is not to say that the finalists are unworthy, it simply posits that some equally worthy stories are being overlooked due to reduced availability, much in the same way a UK-only novel would face significant disadvantage against a US-only novel. Popular vote awards are heavily influenced by availability and visibility.

  In 2017, one third of the combined selections in the year’s best anthologies by Dozois, Horton, Strahan, and myself were from print magazines. I’d argue that would indicate that quality is not suffering at those publications, but instead that due to the sheer volume of markets publishing short fiction, it’s simply impossible for your average reader to keep up. Any restrictions to availability, particularly in the form of having had to purchase it in a relatively short window of time, will reduce the likelihood of it being seen by a potential voter. This would also explain the decline in stories from anthologies.

  Adding to the illusion of troubled times for the print digests comes from the paid circulation that both Gardner and Locus Magazine (locusmag.com) have tracked and published over the years. Much of this data was made available via the Statement of Ownership print periodicals are required to publish each year. Additional circulation details have been provided by editors.

  These subscription and newsstand numbers are often quoted with little insight into what it actually means to the field. Many have chosen to
see this as an opportunity to declare the death of print or even short fiction. On the other hand, we have some people who, on looking at the wide array of markets, proclaim that we’re in a new golden age for short fiction. Both are guilty of looking at only part of the picture. Combined, you have a better view of the overall health—both their strengths and weaknesses.

  Over the last five years, Analog has dropped from 15,282 print subscriptions to 11,401, a loss of 3,881; Asimov’s has dropped from 9,347 to 7,109, a loss of 2,238; and F&SF has dropped from 8,994 to 6,688, a loss of 2,306. That may seem disastrous, but it appears it’s actually symptomatic of a change in reading habits. Over the last five years, Analog has risen from 6,174 digital subscriptions to 8,788, a gain of 2,614 and Asimov’s has risen from 8,640 to 10,578, a gain of 1,938. Unfortunately, F&SF does not report its digital subscription figures. These magazines also receive additional income from single issue newsstand sales and on average, this adds between two and three thousand print copies per month.

  The total paid subscription numbers may be down in this window (all were up for the year), but the income generated by the different formats is not equal. Annual US subscriptions to Analog and Asimov’s are $34.97 print and $35.88 digital. F&SF subscriptions are $39.97 print and $36.97 digital. While the prices for digital and print subscriptions are relatively similar, print subscriptions cost the publisher more due to printing and shipping, ultimately making the digital edition more profitable. The upwards trend in digital subscriptions should offset the declining print subscriptions and with increasing printing and postal costs eating into profits, this development is better for the long-term health of these publications.

  It’s no secret that online and digital publishing has contributed significantly to the wealth of short fiction magazines we have at the moment. The overall financial health of those markets, however, is considerably lower than that of “the big three.” The current dominant model for the digital-born magazines is to release all content for free—either immediately or parceled out over a period of time. The majority sell digital subscriptions or offer other methods of support (donations, Patreon, Kickstarter, etc.), but while their total readership is considerably higher, paid readership is far lower. The average supporting rate (the percentage of readers who pay for or contribute towards the publication’s costs) is often well below 10%. This means that those three print magazines have a considerably larger paid readership than any of these newer markets. That creates a much more stable financial foundation, one that allows them to pay their staff professional wages that the free markets simply cannot manage. As a result, many of these editors work for free or very little income. That is a much more troubling point of data than the print magazines losing awards visibility and one that goes largely ignored when people talk about the state of short fiction.

  Another takeaway from the low supporting rates is how little short fiction is valued when it comes to dollars on the table. The drive to publish fiction online for free—something of which I freely acknowledge my own role in—has negatively changed perceptions of what readers expect to pay for in the short fiction market. It’s not a unique situation, as many newspapers find themselves in the same boat, but this isn’t good for any industry impacted by it, particularly one like science fiction magazines where advertising revenue is thin at best.

  Let’s take that Golden Age argument for a second, though. That would imply a thriving healthy state of being for the field, that I’ve just explained isn’t there for the majority of the publishers. Even the digests, while healthier, aren’t exactly rolling in the money. At present SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, state that their qualifying rate is $0.06 per word. SFWA will be increasing that rate to $0.08 in 2019, but most of the larger markets are already paying that or better. Even the most prolific short fiction authors are unable to earn a living at either rate. If we’re using inflation values calculated to the present from the previous Golden Age, it would be at least four times that value, but paid readership, and therefore financial resources, has not scaled accordingly.

  Digital subscriptions to most magazines—whether they originated online or in print—are typically between $1.99 and $2.99 a month. Compared to other forms of entertainment, or even a gallon of gas, these rates are too low. If the future of short fiction is to be strong or even hoping to have even a shadow of a Golden Age, we have to stop treating the majority of professionals like volunteers and acknowledge that short fiction is worth paying for. This not only means that the paid subscriber levels need to increase, but that subscription rates should be a bit higher. Even an increase of $1 a month on subscription prices would provide a considerable boost to the health of these markets, allowing them to pay their staff and authors a more respectable rate for the work they do. In the end, it would be a modest increase with a significant impact on the field.

  So, if you aren’t currently supporting your favorite short fiction venues with a subscription, please consider doing so today.

  Magazine Comings and Goings

  While I normally don’t get excited about resurrecting old magazines, last year, I was thrilled to hear that Omni—the first magazine I subscribed to—would be returning with Ellen Datlow and Pamela Weintraub back at the helm. Unfortunately, that came to a halt when their parent company, Penthouse Global Media, declared bankruptcy in January. In June, the company’s assets were sold to WGCZ Ltd., a Czech porn site operator, and that placed the future of Omni on uncertain ground.

  The oft-resurrected magazine Amazing Stories (amazingstories.com) has once again returned after a successful Kickstarter campaign—dramatically highlighted by a surprising last-minute pledge of $10,000 to squeak past the finish line. Experimenter Publishing Company published the first of two new 2018 issues and distributed copies for free at San Jose Worldcon. The magazine is currently available in print and e-book editions.

  An interesting development in 2018 was the number of magazines that attempted to launch with print editions or add them later on. February saw the publication of Spectacle Magazine’s first quarterly issue, complete with full-color interiors, high production values, and a $20 cover price. Sadly, it appeared as though the publishers had not quite done their homework, causing them to run into a controversy over clauses in their contracts. This was eventually resolved amicably, but they failed to produce any other issues. Their website is still taking orders for subscriptions, but their website and social media presences haven’t been updated in months, leaving their current status in question.

  Another print magazine, Visions (readvisions.com), launched in the UK in December. They describe themselves as “a science fiction magazine where writers, designers, and researchers of the past and present come together to explore the future.” While they are purchasing print and digital rights to stories, it appears as though they’ve only produced a print edition of issue #1. Their second issue is scheduled for Summer 2019.

  UFO Publishing and The Future Affairs Association (China) published issue #1 of their quarterly English-language magazine, Future Science Fiction Digest (future-sf.com), in December. The magazine is edited by Alex Shvartsman and will place a heavy emphasis on translated works. Interestingly, the magazine is acquiring rights for English and Chinese language, which they have licensed for print, audio, and electronic editions.

  Apex Magazine (apex-magazine.com), launched a new print edition in early 2018, but terminated the program in December, citing a lack of interest. This was not their first foray into print, having originally launched as a print magazine back in 2005.

  Fireside Magazine (firesidefiction.com) rounds out the print launches with a rather attractive color quarterly edition, Fireside Quarterly, with a subscription price that works out to $30 per issue paid in monthly installments. Stories published in the print edition were later published online.

  On the sadder side of the spectrum, Shimmer Magazine closed its doors after thirteen years. Also shuttered was LONTAR, a biannual literary journ
al focusing on Southeast Asian speculative fiction, which closed in May after producing ten issues. That region is now represented by Ombak (ombak.org), Southeast Asia’s weird fiction journal, which published its first issue on Halloween. After twenty years, Mythic Delirium (mythicdelirium.com) has gone on “indefinite hiatus.” Space and Time (www.spaceandtimemagazine.com) announced that it would be closing after over fifty years, but was rescued at the last minute by Angela Yuriko Smith, who will take over as publisher. Their first new issue is expected in late spring/early summer of 2019.

  Although they have yet to produce an issue, Hard Universe had perhaps the most unusual new market announcement of the year. Sponsored by a company invested in their own cryptocurrency, Hard Universe intended to be the first genre magazine to pay authors in that medium. As of the end of 2018, they had not accepted any stories despite opening for submissions in July.

  Asimov’s Science Fiction continues to demonstrate its position as one of the leading science fiction magazines this year with stories likely to appeal to a wide range of science fiction fans. Among these, the best were by Sue Burke, Rich Larson, S. Qiouyi Lu, Linda Nagata, Suzanne Palmer, Robert Reed, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Allen M. Steele.

  Industry stalwart Analog Science Fiction and Fact remains one of the most purely SF markets available with excellent stories by Marissa Lingen, Suzanne Palmer, and Nick Wolven.

  The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction had a stronger year in 2018 and will be celebrating their 70th anniversary this year. Some of my favorite stories were by L.X. Beckett, William Ledbetter, Robert Reed, and Vandana Singh.

  Clarkesworld Magazine (clarkesworldmagazine.com) happens to be the magazine I edit, so I’ll refrain from significant comment and say that some of my favorites this year—which seem to match our reader’s poll results—include works by Simone Heller, Erin Roberts, R.S.A. Garcia, and Carolyn Ives Gilman.

  Tor.com celebrated a milestone tenth anniversary year with an impressive retrospective anthology, Worlds Seen in Passing, edited by Irene Gallo. The volume of fiction was down considerably from last year but remained a strong source for quality work. Favorites included work by Simon Bestwick, S.B. Divya, Greg Egan, Daryl Gregory, James Patrick Kelly, and Rich Larson.