October 26, 2020
Gabaldon (the Outlander series) brings together 20 stories that memorably and creatively explore genre themes. “Up From Slavery” by Victor LaValle pulls off the impressive feat of weaving Lovecraftian elements into the story of a copy editor working on a new edition of Booker T. Washington’s memoir of the same name. Charlie Jane Anders’s masterful, dystopian “The Bookstore at the End of America” looks at the U.S. political divide through the prism of a bookstore located on the border between blue and red America. The standout is Deji Bryce Olukotun’s “Between the Dark and the Dark,” a sci-fi story in which crystalline blooms appear on Earth’s mountains, triggering disastrous seismic events and forcing a desperate effort to find a new home for humanity. That venture is threatened when the crew of one vessel is discovered to have engaged in cannibalism, leading to calls for the ship’s destruction. And, though Matthew Baker’s “Life Sentence” remains vague about the details of its science-fictional conceit, it still maintains emotional engagement in its suspenseful account of a man whose memory was wiped after he committed a serious crime. The variety of styles and themes on offer here demonstrate the sustained vitality of genre fiction.
Starred review from November 1, 2020
This long-running anthology series continues its tradition of excellence with guest editor Gabaldon's selections, though it is less cohesive than the Carmen Maria Machado-edited volume from 2019. The science fiction highlights include Deji Bryce Olukotun's ""Between the Dark and the Dark,"" where the distinct life and culture of a generation ship deep in space provokes struggles among its distant, Earth-bound ""stewards,"" and Caroline M. Yoachim's ""The Archronology of Love,"" in which a new scientific field that allows for the excavation of time is the only key to unraveling the destruction of a colony. There are also strong fantasy stories such as Victor Lavalle's revision of the Lovecraft mythos through the lens of the contemporary Black experience in ""Up from Slavery,"" or Jaymee Goh's story of multi-generational lesbian romance with a half-woman half-centipede in ""The Freedom of the Shifting Sea."" Others worthy of mention in this extremely worthy collection are the entries from Nibedita Sen, Adam Troy-Castro, and E. Lily Yu. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 is highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary speculative fiction, or just some of the best current American fiction, period.
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