A review by pearseanderson
The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies Online Magazine, Year Six by Gemma Files, Helen Marshall, Scott H. Andrews, Aliette de Bodard, Yoon Ha Lee, Richard Parks, Seth Dickinson
2.0
I really wanted this to be another Clarkesworld. It was not. For a "best of" anthology, I was thoroughly disappointed. If this is the best that came through this magazine's doors in a year, it makes me not want to read an issue.
Every seventh story here was good. But in between? Overly complex plotlines. Plots that went nowhere. Worldbuilding jammed down my throat. Two too many experimental decisions. I appreciate so much of what went into these tales: the settings, the aesthetics, the vocabularies, the ideas, but the majority of these stories did not deliver a cohesive, quality experience. "The Lighthouse Keepers," "Rappaccini's Crow," "No Sweet Art," "The Unborn God," and "On the Origin of Song" were the only stories worth reading in this collection, in my opinion. 4/10.
Every seventh story here was good. But in between? Overly complex plotlines. Plots that went nowhere. Worldbuilding jammed down my throat. Two too many experimental decisions. I appreciate so much of what went into these tales: the settings, the aesthetics, the vocabularies, the ideas, but the majority of these stories did not deliver a cohesive, quality experience. "The Lighthouse Keepers," "Rappaccini's Crow," "No Sweet Art," "The Unborn God," and "On the Origin of Song" were the only stories worth reading in this collection, in my opinion. 4/10.