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tricapra's review against another edition
5.0
Sometimes, you read a short story and you come away feeling that you've just been part of something important. It's a powerful feeling. Like an author has shared a secret with you, whispered into your ear something profound. A truth you didn't know that you were holding in your heart, an idea you hadn't yet polished into belief. Well, this collection managed to give me that sensation multiple times. Rajaniemi and Weisman have curated something beautiful here.
The title is a bold claim, "The New Voices of Science Fiction." You could not be blamed for being skeptical. But as an avid fan of the genre, I feel it has lived up to its promises, and more. After almost every story in this collection I scrambled to GoodReads to follow an author or mark a first novel as 'to read'. I feel like this anthology has turned me on to authors that I'll be following for many years to come, a series of stars on the rise.
The collection opens with a story that could best be described as a Black Mirror cautionary, if Black Mirror were even half as clever as it thinks it is. It ends with a meditation on remorse and the power of art, in a world where bots and nanotech can handle everything. The two stories couldn't be more different, but they felt perfectly connected by the thread uniting the collection.
Personal standouts:
The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri
Mother Tongue by S. Qiuoyi Lu
Madeleine by Amal El-Mohtar
Ice by Rich Larson
The Doing and Undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi by E. Lily Yu
The title is a bold claim, "The New Voices of Science Fiction." You could not be blamed for being skeptical. But as an avid fan of the genre, I feel it has lived up to its promises, and more. After almost every story in this collection I scrambled to GoodReads to follow an author or mark a first novel as 'to read'. I feel like this anthology has turned me on to authors that I'll be following for many years to come, a series of stars on the rise.
The collection opens with a story that could best be described as a Black Mirror cautionary, if Black Mirror were even half as clever as it thinks it is. It ends with a meditation on remorse and the power of art, in a world where bots and nanotech can handle everything. The two stories couldn't be more different, but they felt perfectly connected by the thread uniting the collection.
Personal standouts:
The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri
Mother Tongue by S. Qiuoyi Lu
Madeleine by Amal El-Mohtar
Ice by Rich Larson
The Doing and Undoing of Jacob E. Mwangi by E. Lily Yu
kleonard's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great collection of SFF by relatively new writers. While many of them have become well-established by now, getting major awards and big publishing deals, this is still a good introduction to the work of Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Alice Sola Kim, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Darcie Little Badger, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, and others. I love the diverse viewpoints and characters created by this group of writers and recommend this highly for anyone interested in the current state and trends of SFF and its future.
upsidedown10's review against another edition
3.25
I had a pretty good time with this one. I'm always wary of story collections, and I'm not the biggest fan of sci-fi in general, but there were enough authors in here that piqued my interest to get me to read it. I liked the first couple a lot, and the Sam J. Miller broke my heart. My favorites were Openness by Alexander Weinstein, Toppers by Jason Sanford, and Tender Loving Plastics by Amman Sabet.
leesmyth's review against another edition
4.0
One of the stronger short story collections I've read in a while. I particularly liked "The Secret Life of Bots" (Suzanne Palmer) and "Strange Waters" (Samantha Mills).
Among the others, I'd perhaps single out "Toppers" (James Sanford) for an unexpected turn and "Mother Tongues" (S. Qiouyi Lu) for a simply observed, mournful meditation.
Among the others, I'd perhaps single out "Toppers" (James Sanford) for an unexpected turn and "Mother Tongues" (S. Qiouyi Lu) for a simply observed, mournful meditation.
bucketoffish's review against another edition
5.0
This sci-fi collection is filled with some very good stories. I think every single one brought something unique and new to the table, but the standout story to me was Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience”. If you’re into sci-fi definitely check this collection out.
radinkaj's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
chirson's review against another edition
4.0
I read this anthology courtesy of NetGalley. My reflections are my own.
I was hoping to find new-to-me gems from authors I do not know, and unfortunately, that wasn't the case - but maybe that's just because the stories I liked best were either ones I already knew, or stories from authors whose other work I'm familiar with. All the same, there are some pretty awesome stories here - my favourites included:
Nino Cipri "The Shape of My Name" - one of several stories in the collection that focused on time travel and family; brave and thoughtful. The only one that was new to me at the time of reading - I have since read Cipri's short novel Finna.
Vina Jie-Min Prasad, "A Series of Steaks" - a fun, clever caper in the near future. Just exhilarating to read from page one.
Amal El-Mohtar, "Madeleine"- I found the ending to be a little rushed, and this is heavy, with queerness and institutionalisation, as well as grief taking center stage (this is another time travel + family story) but the mood was powerful.
I was also impressed with Sam J. Miller's "Calved" (despite the fairly obvious plot twist of a variety that I simply dislike, there was some raw emotion here), Kelly Robson's "A Study in Oils" (very well written, enjoyed it despite the Black Mirror-esque concept - I am that rare person who's not into Black Mirror). I also enjoyed reading Palmer's "Secret Life of Bots" more than I'd expected. Alice Sola Kim's story (another memory-time travel-family themed one) had good moments. Pinsker is always good, but this is one of my least favourite stories of hers. I enjoyed Darcie Little Badger's story but wish it wasn't so short - it felt more like a teaser than anything else, and it ended before the premise felt fully used.
Unfortunately, despite the good and great stories, there are also a few stories that were only so-so or even legitimately bored me enough that I ended up skimming them (see also "Ice") and one whose misuse of the term "passive voice" interrupted my reading for half a year. But a mixed bag is always to be expected in collections like this, and finding out what one doesn't like can be useful, too.
I was hoping to find new-to-me gems from authors I do not know, and unfortunately, that wasn't the case - but maybe that's just because the stories I liked best were either ones I already knew, or stories from authors whose other work I'm familiar with. All the same, there are some pretty awesome stories here - my favourites included:
Nino Cipri "The Shape of My Name" - one of several stories in the collection that focused on time travel and family; brave and thoughtful. The only one that was new to me at the time of reading - I have since read Cipri's short novel Finna.
Vina Jie-Min Prasad, "A Series of Steaks" - a fun, clever caper in the near future. Just exhilarating to read from page one.
Amal El-Mohtar, "Madeleine"- I found the ending to be a little rushed, and this is heavy, with queerness and institutionalisation, as well as grief taking center stage (this is another time travel + family story) but the mood was powerful.
I was also impressed with Sam J. Miller's "Calved" (despite the fairly obvious plot twist of a variety that I simply dislike, there was some raw emotion here), Kelly Robson's "A Study in Oils" (very well written, enjoyed it despite the Black Mirror-esque concept - I am that rare person who's not into Black Mirror). I also enjoyed reading Palmer's "Secret Life of Bots" more than I'd expected. Alice Sola Kim's story (another memory-time travel-family themed one) had good moments. Pinsker is always good, but this is one of my least favourite stories of hers. I enjoyed Darcie Little Badger's story but wish it wasn't so short - it felt more like a teaser than anything else, and it ended before the premise felt fully used.
Unfortunately, despite the good and great stories, there are also a few stories that were only so-so or even legitimately bored me enough that I ended up skimming them (see also "Ice") and one whose misuse of the term "passive voice" interrupted my reading for half a year. But a mixed bag is always to be expected in collections like this, and finding out what one doesn't like can be useful, too.
annieb123's review against another edition
5.0
Originally published on my blog Nonstop Reader.
The New Voices of Science Fiction is an anthology of new SF short fiction expertly curated and introduced by Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman. Released 13th Nov 2019 by Tachyon, it's 432 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. These stories (20 by my count), were originally published between 2015 and 2019 and are gathered here for the first time.
This is top shelf fiction. One of the reasons I like anthologies and collections is that they're often full of new-to-me authors for further reading. I've always had a particular fondness for collections/anthologies because short fiction is spare and technically challenging, so you get a better feel for an author's expertise with the form. Short fiction is less of a time commitment as well, so if one story is not working for you, there's another piece readily available in a few pages.This is a showcase of up and coming authors; it's a sister volume to The New Voices of Fantasy from 2017. The short introductions for each story are interesting and well written and add a lot of interest.
The quality of the stories is very high. They are well written, varied, well curated stories. Of the 20 included stories, only a few were from authors familiar to me.
It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.
I think this might be the first time I've given an anthology 5 stars. These stories are varied in tone, execution, length, subject matter, but they're all really good.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
The New Voices of Science Fiction is an anthology of new SF short fiction expertly curated and introduced by Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman. Released 13th Nov 2019 by Tachyon, it's 432 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. These stories (20 by my count), were originally published between 2015 and 2019 and are gathered here for the first time.
This is top shelf fiction. One of the reasons I like anthologies and collections is that they're often full of new-to-me authors for further reading. I've always had a particular fondness for collections/anthologies because short fiction is spare and technically challenging, so you get a better feel for an author's expertise with the form. Short fiction is less of a time commitment as well, so if one story is not working for you, there's another piece readily available in a few pages.This is a showcase of up and coming authors; it's a sister volume to The New Voices of Fantasy from 2017. The short introductions for each story are interesting and well written and add a lot of interest.
The quality of the stories is very high. They are well written, varied, well curated stories. Of the 20 included stories, only a few were from authors familiar to me.
It's unclear from the publishing info available online, but the eARC I received has a handy interactive table of contents. I hope the ebook release version does also. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Presumably that feature will carry through to the final release version.
I think this might be the first time I've given an anthology 5 stars. These stories are varied in tone, execution, length, subject matter, but they're all really good.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
kdaven8's review against another edition
3.0
I love some of the stories, normal for me and a short story collection.