What a wonderful science-ficiton/fantasy short story collection. I discovered a few new authors in addition to great stories. A few favorites:*"Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead" by Carmen Maria Machado*"A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i" by Alaya Dawn Johnson*"Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology" by Theodora Goss*"Windows" by Susan Palwick*"The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever" by Daniel H. Wilson*"Skullpocket" by Nathan Ballingrud*"The Relive Box" by T.C. Boy...

This book was a bit of a disappointment to me, as a "best" collection. Everything was well-written, but many of the stories were too, shall I say literary?, for my taste. Meaning, a bit vague, disconnected emotionally, cerebral in a self-referential way, and without a clear resolution. Some rose above the others. I especially liked the stories by Cat Rambo, Jo Walton, Neil Gaiman (of course), Sam Miller, and A. Merc Rustad. Three and a half stars overall.

Not as good as I expected there were a few stories I enjoyed and some are very very strange, the stories that stand out are: Ogres of East Africa, Cimmeria: From the journal of Imaginary Anthropology, How the Marquis got his coat back, Skull Pocket, The Thing about Shapes to Come and the Empties.

Because reading Best Of compilations two years later is how I roll.

A really great selection of stories, a lot of them really make you think. And so many fantastic authors!

A lot of grim dystopia here, some wonderful apocalyptastic stuff, especially "The Empties" by Jess Row, which was brilliant. Probably the best of the bunch are "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i," which I read twice, and "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever." I'm sad to say how very disappointed I was in "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back," some shockingly bad stuff from Neil Gaiman, so I won't dwell on it for too long. And I'm so happy that I read the Contributor's Notes, wherein I learned th...

A very solid collection of stories, many of them female writers. I hope there are more ofbyhese collections going forward.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015I was very excited to read this anthology as I am a huge fan of John Joseph Adams’ theme anthologies such as The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Federations, and Help Fund My Robot Army!!! Unfortunately, I did not find this collection as enjoyable as his other work. While I found several of the selections to be outstanding I was disappointed in many others. Overall the twenty stories in the anthology averaged a bit over 3.5 on my perso...

This was without a doubt one of the best short story collections I've read, and easily deserves its 5 star rating from me. But because memory is a fickle mistress and i have stopped trusting it I'm going to review each story separately as a note to my future self who cant remember exactly what they were about. How to Get Back to the Forest - Sofia Samatar : 4 stars. "You have to puke it up." A raw, haunting story about girls and their bodies, controlled and uncontrollable and as Sofia Samatar s...

I forget about short stories at times and thus reminded why I need to revisit them more and more.For those who aren’t into fantasy or science fiction, I get it. But I challenge you, a short story of either of those genres are a perfect way to get into them if you’re not familiar with fantasy or science fiction.At about 350 pages, and 19 stories…that’s about 18 pages per story. That is so palatable to give these a try. And they do really run the gamut. In Carmen Maria Macahdo’s “Help Me Follow My...

Stalled. Many of his picks aren't really to my taste. A good detailed review here, by Kathy Davie:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... She confesses that "I stopped after 13 stories. It was too depressing." I didn't get that far.Here is a story from this anthology I strongly recommend, available online:Jo Walton's "Sleeper", which I rated 5 stars: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...And another, "The Relive Box" by T. Coraghessan Boyle: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...I recall li...

a lot of good stories in this! my favorites were "We Are the Cloud" by Sam Miller, "The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever" by Daniel Wilson, and (especially!) this amazing story called "The Thing About Shapes to Come," by Adam-Troy Castro... which you can read over at Lightspeed Magazine, where it first appeared, if you like:http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...such a great story! wish i wrote it.

Every single story in this collection is fantastic. It is so rare for a collection that claims to be the "best of" anything to consistently deliver on that promise, and this one has wrecked the curve.Whether you're already a fan of the genre, or you're looking to explore SF/F for the first time, you will love the stories that Joe Hill and John Joseph Adams have collected in this volume.

A book with several exceptional stories, such as "Windows"(my favorite), "The Thing About Shapes to Come", "The Blue Afternoon that Lasted Forever"(my other favorite), "Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead" and "The Relive Box" (which seems almost suspiciously similar to one of my favorite Black Mirror episodes from 2011: "The Entire History of You.")The collection is somewhat marred however by some fairly poor or just outright bad/ boring selections like Neil Gaiman's rather stran...

"I did not think Americans were capable of poetry."—"Cimmeria," by Theodora Goss, p.109Oh, but they are—we are—and this volume, despite its minor flaws, helps prove that assertion.The name of the book at hand is The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015. It's a bold claim, but I won't quibble about most of it. The word "Best" is okay, for example—every story in this volume is both emotionally resonant and technically adept, a plausible choice in that regard. Nor do I object to the crite...

I really like the way Adams compiled this: making a long list and then submitting those stories blind to Joe Hill to choose from. Lots of good stuff, and several new-to-me authors.Library copy

I've actually been working on reading this one since January, and you know, I loved about 90% of the stories in this. That's really saying something -- I tend to not be much of a fan of short stories -- but the story curation on this one was superb.

An anthology of twenty short stories in the science fiction-fantasy genre. I gotta confess that I stopped after 13 stories. It was too depressing.The foreword is interesting as Adams breaks down the history of science fiction/fantasy.The Series"How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" (London Below, The World of Neverwhere, 1.5)The StoriesSofia Samatar’s " How to Get Back to the Forest " was disgusting. A nutjob girl believes there’s some kind of bug that’s put in you and that it has to be puked up.Ca...

Highlights:"How to Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps," A. Merc Rustad"Help Me Follow My Sister into the Land of the Dead," Carmen María Machado"We Are the Cloud," Sam J. Miller"The Bad Graft," Karen Russell

Pure Brilliance from John Joseph Adams and Joe HillI love anthologies - I love discovering new authors and tales that I never would have found otherwise.This one, like the title suggests, is the best of the best - of the best. Adams acts as a friend who reads every New Yorker issue, and every prominent and semi-prominent SF/F magazine out there, and delivers the cream of the crop to you - the reader.And this one has some cream.I got this originally because I was looking for more Nathan Ballingr