The Best of World SF

Starred review from April 26, 2021
This excellent anthology proves editor Tidhar’s assertion that science fiction should no longer be thought of as “white, male, and American” with 26 exemplary stories from 21 countries. French author Aliette de Bodard draws on her Vietnamese heritage in the Nebula Award–winning “Immersion” to examine the strain of keeping one’s culture alive within a dominant interstellar civilization. Francesco Verso’s “The Green Ship,” translated from the Italian by Michael Colbert, sees a boatload of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from Benghazi in the near future. In the poignant “Delhi” from Indian author Vandana Singh, a young man copes with a barrage of glimpses into the past, present, and future of that ancient city. Cuban author Malena Salazar Macia shows how post-human technology can recreate the primitive past in “Eyes of the Crocodile,” translated by Toshiya Kamei. “Xingzhou” by Singaporean author Ng Yi-Sheng energetically whips mythic and literary tropes into a witty souffle. And the Hugo-winning “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again” by Malaysian author Zen Cho is an amusing and moving tale of a larval dragon’s millennium-long wait to ascend to its true form. Worthwhile both as a survey of international sci-fi and on a story-by-story level, this wonderful anthology should be a hit with any sci-fi fan.

Starred review from August 1, 2022
World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar brings together another outstanding assortment of international sci-fi shorts, showcasing 29 thought-provoking stories written during the past 10 years. His claim that these tales represent the “cutting edge of science fiction” rings true throughout, in selections that range from the near to the far future and cover a wide swath of subgenres. “The Ten-Percent Thief” by Indian author Lavanya Lakshminarayan, transports readers to a relatively gentle dystopia that’s technologically and politically divided between exploitative Virtuals and downtrodden Analogs. From China, “Your Multicolored Life” by Xing He, translated by Andy Dudak, sees disaster strike a society built on slave labor and machine-made materialism. “The Next Move” by Bolivian author Edmundo Paz Soldán, translated by Jessica Sequeira, stingingly denounces dehumanized modern warfare, while in “The Regression Test,” Nigerian author Wole Talabi smartly explores the moral and emotional implications of artificial intelligence. “The Mighty Slinger” by Tobias S. Buckell and Karen Lord, from Barbados and Granada, stands out as a rare optimistic vision, about a futuristic calypso band that “sings truth right to power’s face.” This sweeping survey rewards the time it demands of its readers with a bold and powerful argument for non-Anglophone SF’s potential to push the genre’s boundaries.