Best of British Science Fiction 2018

What was most striking about reading these stories together is how many of them were at least straddling the fantasy margin (any significantly advanced technology and all that). Some edged more horror-ish, specifically Aliya Whiteley’s explorer-deteriorates-fast narrative that begins “Watkin has also been eaten.” Sunyi Dean’s “—Good.” is a revenge fantasy by way of cloning/advanced reproductive technology that stood out to me. “Not with a bang but a whimper” is the general theme, and it’s hard to blame anyone for that.

I recently reviewed the equivalent anthology of British fantasy writing (in its inaugural year), so I had that volume in mind as I read through this collection. Both are large compendiums; this one, which has a long-standing pedigree, contains 26 stories drawn together by the experienced editor Donna Scott. Just as the fantasy tome contained stories with swords and sorcery (although not often together), the sci-fi one will give you a dose of spaceships and aliens along with robots, artificial intelligence and other familiar tropes.

As is normally the case with this type of work, I found some of the stories obscure, apparently incomplete or otherwise unsatisfying. Of course, if I only found things I loved, I’d have to wonder whether show more Scott had done her work in illustrating the breadth of published science fiction, so I don’t enter that as a complaint and there were also plenty of pieces that I did find very engaging, including:

Golgotha (Dave Hutchinson): As hinted by the title, a spot of theology and also an alien visitor who might be interested in more than humanity.

Waterbirds (G V Anderson): A spot of ornithology (hence the title) and an android (for the sci-fi link) but at least as much a detective story and a love story.

“- Good.” (Sunyi Dean): Cloning and ethics. Looking back, I also realise that the curious title is (I think) the last word of the story.

I was stuck by how little hard science fiction there was in the collection. Few of the author biographies mention that they are scientists; perhaps all the scientists are now busy working out how to do the things other people have written about? I also noted that a significant number of the tales (including “- Good.”, mentioned above) have a strong element of ethics. I hope scientists continue to read science fiction and this slant, towards considering what is is right to do with what we can do, is not a bad thing at all.

Overall, an excellent addition to this long-running series and one that even those haven’t been keen on science fiction in the past might want to dip into. show less

A good mix of short stories picked from a variety of up and coming authors I'd mostly not heard of before. A few sufficiently good to keep an eye out should they manage to publish a novel. The opening short story from the famous Alistair Reynolds is perhaps not his best, but it's also not his best format either. The rest range in tone and theme from deep space through to more prosaic near future with excursions into alternative realities and time travel along the way. There's romance and death, technology and mundane maintenance and everything in-between. I was quite impressed.

Sadly two or three of the stories are mis-formatted in this ebook version with the final page being blank. It's possible the they did just stop there but it makes show more little sense if so, show less

This is a quite solid and varied anthology, and an excellent way to discover the kind of science fiction that it’s being written in Great Britain right now, which, after finishing this book, I’d say it’s more to my taste than most of today’s American short science fiction. Although most of the pieces were just good, not outstanding, nearly all of them were worth the time I spent reading them. I read quite a lot of science fiction short stories so it’s was a surprise to find that around half of the authors were new to me —don’t expect just the “usual suspects” here— and that I had only read a couple of the stories before. My highlights were Lavie Tidhar’s “Talking to Ghosts at the Edge of the World” and Malcolm show more Devlin “The Purpose of the Dodo is to be Extinct”. On the whole, an interesting read. show less

The problem with reading a collection of short stories is that I’m left with an emptiness at the end of each story. I find myself wanting more of the story when it ends.

Best of British Science Fiction 2018 was written exclusively by British science fiction authors. One thing I notice about these writers is that they are masters of subtlety. Revelations in the stories are understated, unlike American writings, and each writer attempts to end his or her story with psychological perplexity. A few succeeded at this but most didn’t.

This is a book best suited to those who have limited time to read and don’t like having to refamiliarize themselves with a story after they’ve been away from a book for an extended period of time. Each show more story in the book is complete and does not tie into any other story. Most of the short stories I read in Best of British Science Fiction left me pondering the stories’ implications.

While not directly aimed at the young adult market, Best of British Science Fiction book would appeal to this group as well as to the more sophisticated reader. I enjoyed reading the book and will look forward to reading the 2019 edition. show less

Another strong collection of science fiction stories, showing quite a wide range of themes are styles. As with any collection, I liked some stories better than others, but I don’t think there was anything I didn’t like at all. Some of the more memorable stories included the mystery themed Waterbirds by G V Anderson, the very brief –Good by Sunyi Dean and the musical dystopia of F Sharp 4 by Tim Pieraccini. Another great entry in this anthology series, which seems to always be worth reading.

Another collection of science fiction short stories written by British authors. Donna Scott has selected another batch of solid work, mostly by names I didn't know. The stories cover a wide varieties of styles and subgenres, as well as tones and outlooks. I really loved a few of them, and I rather disliked a few of them as well - but they're all well written, solid SF stories. Another worthy collection from Donna Scott (who still doesn't include any commentary on the stories, unfortunately).