The best science fiction and fantasy stories of 2021, selected by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Veronica Roth. This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 captures the all-too-real cataclysm of human nature, claiming its place in the series with compelling prose, lyrical composition, and curiosity’s never-ending pursuit of discovering the unknown

[STARRED REVIEW] “A must-read for anyone interested in the latest and most exciting sf writing out there.” What would you do if your tame worker-bots mutinied? Is your 11 second attention span enough to placate a cranky time-tourist? Would you sell your native language to send your daughter to college? The avant-garde of science fiction have landed in this space-age sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winner, The New Voices of Fantasy. Here are the rising stars of the last five years of science fiction, including newcomers as well as already lauded authors: Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Alice Sola Kim, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Darcie Little Badger, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, and more. Their extraordinary stories have been hand-selected by cutting-edge author Hannu Rajaniemi (The Quantum Thief) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Invaders). So go ahead, join the interstellar revolution. The new kids have already hacked the AI