The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020

The Best American Series

By: Diana Gabaldon - editor

Narrated by: Diana Gabaldon, Christopher Ryan Grant, Jay Snyder, Scott Keiji Takeda, Sean Crisden, Polly Lee, Rebecca Lowman, Nicola Barber, Emily Woo Zeller, Bahni Turpin, Andre Blake, Andi Arndt, Priya Ayyar, Kim Mai Guest, Therese Plummer

Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

The best science fiction and fantasy stories from 2019, guest-edited by author of the mega-best-selling Outlander series, Diana Gabaldon.

Today’s fans of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to hear about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. Contemporary science fiction and fantasy looks to accomplish the same goal as ever—to illuminate what it means to be human. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and Diana Gabaldon, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.

©2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

I loved it so much I returned it

Considering this is the second book I’ve returned ever in the five years I’ve had audibles. The performances we’re good. I felt that all the stories pandered to the current cancel culture and political issues. Written for like minded, little to no imagination with sci-fi aspects thrown in. I did enjoy one story. Even though I felt it followed the formula I described above.

Excellent

What a long strange trip its been. I am not usually a short story fan, however this collection captured me. Thoroughly enjoyed this volume

Disappointing

I love the writing of Diana Gabaldon, especially the Outlander series but apparently we do not share similar taste in Sci Fi stories. Perhaps I prefer more traditional Sci Fi and this is the leading edge of the genre. In any event, I was glad when it finally ended!

Wished it could of been better

I’ve listened to about half the audio book and am now going to stop. I wanted to like each story but they left me not inspired or wanting more.

Wtf?…

Um hmm, this collection of curious texts, I don’t exactly know how to say this nicely…these stories are hardly science fiction/fantasy. Most of them are forgettable, botched attempts at being clever tales about truly not much. What uninformed fool chose these as science fiction? What possessed Gabaldon to do this? Pandemic meltdown? Weird tales that are ‘woke’ insofar as they are written from the preserving of various minorities. Ok great, but also please have an actual story that doesn’t ramble off into Nannie’s tangents, virtually all of them. A couple well written stories, the one about the teen being trapped in a woods AI prison, sort of like Black Mirror. But I was expecting sone sweet sci-fi, not preposterous and deranged Kite Runner, or murder mysteries from the hood. Next time please, have someone who knows these genres picks the stories. This sh!t won’t wash!

Great Dissapointment

A series of short stories of which I do not appreciate. Out of the full collection only two stories held concepts of which I found interesting. Interesting because the subject was mentioned but not expanded. Other stories were just not my type. A whaling ship story centered around homosexual behavior. A story about loss of child. It was like some "Woke" editor said "well we must include these because that is what the public needs." I do not need the "Woke" perspective. Three of the stories were so bad in content that I stopped listening after the first half or after finishing two-thirds of the story. Overall a great disappointment and a waste of my one book credit. I will not read again.