A review by kieralesley
The New Voices of Science Fiction by Jacob Weisman, Hannu Rajaniemi
5.0
It’s a tough thing to edit an anthology – finding stories that match the anthology theme, making sure the stories are varied enough that readers will enjoy most of the offerings and hopefully find new writers to follow, and somehow keeping it all sequenced to showcase the individual offerings.
Hannu Rajaniemi, too, as an author is, for me, right out on the edge of the current generation of hard scifi writers – technical, fiercely explorative and vibrant – so I was excited to see what he selected. The result is a good range of contemporary and diverse scifi voices and stories: robots, climate change, time travel, progressive gender and familial dynamics, new diasporas and cultural shifts.
I was familiar with some of the stories here already (not uncommon, very good pieces often get reprinted in multiple anthologies and I read a fair number of them each year) but I was pleased that some of my recent favourites were included: Sarah Pinsker’s Our Lady of the Open Road, Mother Tongues by S. Qiouyi Lu, and Openness by Alexander Weinstein.
Of those new to me my favourites were: The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer, Tender Loving Plastics by Amman Sabet, and Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse.
My only gripe was with the ‘new’ part. This is likely subjective, but a lot of these authors have won Hugos for their work, have been writing for almost a decade, have been collected in ‘years best anthologies’ or are otherwise established short fiction writers. It’s a minor thing and doesn’t take away from the strength of the stories collected here, but the title does imply the collection will be casting further afield or finding cutting edge, emerging writers.
If you want a great roundup of what this generation’s scifi looks like – the topics and dilemmas it’s grappling with and the breadth of voices and experiences being included and portrayed, this is well worth your time.
An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you liked this collection, you may also be interested in the companion volume published in 2017: The Best New Voices of Fantasy.
Hannu Rajaniemi, too, as an author is, for me, right out on the edge of the current generation of hard scifi writers – technical, fiercely explorative and vibrant – so I was excited to see what he selected. The result is a good range of contemporary and diverse scifi voices and stories: robots, climate change, time travel, progressive gender and familial dynamics, new diasporas and cultural shifts.
I was familiar with some of the stories here already (not uncommon, very good pieces often get reprinted in multiple anthologies and I read a fair number of them each year) but I was pleased that some of my recent favourites were included: Sarah Pinsker’s Our Lady of the Open Road, Mother Tongues by S. Qiouyi Lu, and Openness by Alexander Weinstein.
Of those new to me my favourites were: The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer, Tender Loving Plastics by Amman Sabet, and Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse.
My only gripe was with the ‘new’ part. This is likely subjective, but a lot of these authors have won Hugos for their work, have been writing for almost a decade, have been collected in ‘years best anthologies’ or are otherwise established short fiction writers. It’s a minor thing and doesn’t take away from the strength of the stories collected here, but the title does imply the collection will be casting further afield or finding cutting edge, emerging writers.
If you want a great roundup of what this generation’s scifi looks like – the topics and dilemmas it’s grappling with and the breadth of voices and experiences being included and portrayed, this is well worth your time.
An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
If you liked this collection, you may also be interested in the companion volume published in 2017: The Best New Voices of Fantasy.