The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2021 Edition (ed Rich Horton, Prime Books 2022)

At the time of writing (April 2022) I haven’t seen a print version for Horton’s 2020 Edition which is long overdue, and Amazon is currently only showing an August 2022 publication date for Kindle version of the 2021 Edition with no mention of a publication date for the paperback version. [UPDATE: scroll down to comments section]

Horton has helpfully posted a near-complete ToC for the 2021 edition (he notes ones final deal to be finalised) on his Blogspot and I’ve taken the liberty of copying and pasting it here on the basis I may well fill in my reviews of any stories I read (as I’m just buying the SF only volumes currently and not SF&F).

Here goes (Horton has provided the details in alphabetical order by author surname, which, as librarian, I approve of wholeheartedly.

Nadia Afifi, “The Bahrain Underground Bazaar”, (F&SF, 11-12/20)

Also included by Strahan in his take on the best of the year where I read and enjoyed it. click here for that review

Rebecca Campbell, “An Important Failure”, (Clarkesworld, 8/20)

Included by both Strahan and Clarke in their take on the year’s best, and I thought it ‘a corker and no mistake’ in my review.

Leah Cypess, “Stepsister”, (F&SF, 5-6/20)

Andy Dudak, “Songs of Activation”, (Clarkesworld, 12/20)

Dudak appeared in both Clarke and Strahan’s take on the year’s best, so appeared in all three volumes this year, but with different stories!

Bishop Garrison, “Silver Door Diner”, (FIYAH, Autumn/20)

A. T. Greenblatt, “Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”, (Uncanny, 5-6/20)

Also included by Strahan in his take on the best of the year where I read and enjoyed it. click here for that review

Amanda Hollander, “A Feast of Butterflies”, (F&SF, 3-3/20)

T. L. Huchu, “Egoli”, (Africanfuturism)

John Kessel, “Spirit Level”, (F&SF, 7-8/20)

Naomi Kritzer, “Little Free Library”, (Tor.com, 4/8/20)

Sarah Langan, “You Have the Prettiest Mask”, (LCRW, 8/20)

P. H. Lee, “The Garden Where No One Ever Goes”, (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 12/3/20)

Yoon Ha Lee, “Beyond the Dragon’s Gate” (Tor.com, 5/20/20)

Marissa Lingen, “The Past, Like a River in Flood”, (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 8/27/20)

Ken Liu, “50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know”, (Uncanny, 11-12/20)

Also included by Strahan in his take on the best of the year where I felt it was a way off what I was hoping to get from Liu. click here for that review

Rati Mehrotra, “Magnificent Maurice or the Flowers of Immortality”, (Lightspeed, 11/20)

Mehotra had another story in Clarke’s take on the year’s best.

Annalee Newitz, “The Monogamy Hormone”, (Entanglements)

Alec Nevala-Lee, “Retention”, (Analog, 7-8/20)

Sarah Pinsker, “Two Truths and a Lie”, (Tor.com, 6-17/20)

Vina Jie-Min Prasad, “A Guide for Working Breeds”, (Made to Order)

Also included by Strahan in his take on the best of the year where I read and enjoyed it. click here for that review (and a link to the online version of the story)

Mercurio D. Rivera, “Beyond the Tattered Veil of Stars”, (Asimov’s, 7-8/20)

Also choen by Neil Clarke in his take on the year’s best SF, and I thought it ‘a very strong, clever story’ – review here.

Benjamin Rosenbaum, “Bereft, I Come to a Nameless World”, (Asimov’s, 3-4/20)

Sofia Samatar, “The Moon Fairy”, (Conjunctions #74)

Ken Schneyer, “Laws of Impermanence”, (Uncanny, 9-10/20)

Alexandra Seidel, “Lovers on a Bridge, (Past Tense)

Michael Swanwick, “The Dragon Slayer”, (The Book of Dragons)

Tade Thompson, “Thirty-Three”, (Avatars, Inc.)

Ian Tregillis, “When God Sits in Your Lap”. (Asimov’s, 9-10/20)

Eugenia Triantafyllou, “Those We Serve”, (Interzone, 5-6/20)

Tlotlo Tsamaase, “Behind Our Irises”, (Africanfuturism)

James Van Pelt, “Minerva Girls”, (Analog, 9-10/20)

Aliya Whiteley, “Fog and Pearls at the King’s Cross Junction”, (London Centric)

Jessica P. Wick, “An Unkindness”, (The Sinister Quartet)

John Wiswell, “Open House on Haunted Hill”, (Diabolical Plots, 6/20)

FWIW there are five stories which Horton chose which also appeared in Jonathan Strahan’s take on the year’s best SF, although FWIW none of those four stories were in the half dozen I picked as my favourites from Strahan’s anthology. And thres tories which Clarke chose in his take on the year’s best SF. Props to And Dudak for have each of the three Year’s Best editors choose one of his stories, but each chose a different one!