The Best American series started publishing annual anthologies of short stories in 1915; since the mid-1980s, additional volumes have been added to collect essays, sports writing, nature writing, mystery stories and other subject- and genre-specific pieces. This marks the first volume dedicated to science fiction and fantasy writing, a long overdue nod to the genre that series editor John Joseph Adams (editor of Press Start to Play) calls a "major milestone for a genre that has at times struggled for literary respectability" despite a wealth of strong and much-respected work in the field.
If this first volume is anything to go by, fans of science fiction and fantasy--and those new to both genres--will find this series one to look for year after year. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 pulls together 20 incredible pieces from a diverse list of genre authors. Works from well-loved and long-established writers (Neil Gaiman's "How the Marquis Got his Coat Back" and Jo Walton's "Sleeper," for example), stand side by side with stories from newer voices (Alaya Dawn Johnson's "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i" and Karen Russell's "The Bad Graft"). Sofia Samatar (A Stranger in Olondria), notably, wrote two of the stories in the collection.
In the introduction to the collection, guest editor Joe Hill (Horns; Heart-Shaped Box) writes that science fiction and fantasy are "the greatest fireworks show in literature, and your own imagination is a sky waiting to catch fire." Truly, the talent and imagination on display here are dazzling. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm