Editors: Ellen Datlow et. al (eight editors total)
Publisher: Tor.com
Not terribly timely here (2015 collection...at the end of 2017), but this was sitting on my Kindle for a while and I only just got round to reading it, so I figured I'd write a review.
This collection includes around 20 science fiction stories of varying length, sub-genres and quality. In reviewing anthologies it's easier to comment on each story, rather than the collection as a whole, but in general the overall quality here isn't that great. I picked up the digital version for less than $3, so no complaints there, but even then you'd probably do better seeking out individual good stories than buying the whole pack.
Another minor quibble with the Kindle edition: There's no index, so no way to jump straight to the story you want to read. Terrible oversight for an anthology. Also, there's an error where they second half of one story is printed again at the end of another story.
As for the stories themselves, there's a tendency for the shorter stories to be better, with the longer ones dragging on far too long and stretching whatever neato concept they had past the breaking point of my patience.
The So Good
"Please Undo this Hurt" by Seth Dickinson: Very subtle, slightly surreal story about two friends coping with depression, who are offered what appears to be a painless way out. I like that the SF element might or might not even exist--is the "out" real or not? Really made me think.
“Some Gods of El Paso” by Maria Dahvana Headley: Takes the idea of emotion as a drug and runs with it, featuring a Bonnie and Clyde duo trading in black-market feelings. The analogy gets stretched a little too much here, but the writing carries it along with a great sense of fun.
"The Shape of My Name" by Nino Cipri: The plot here is pretty basic, and those of you who don't like modern social commentary will likely hate this, but I thought it was elevated by the writing, the cadence and the use of verbal imagery. Beautiful words in service of a so-so plot.
The Not So Good
"Thyme Fiend" by Jeffrey Ford, “Islands off the Coast of Capitola, 1978” by David Herter and “Waters of Versailles” by Kelly Robson: Novella length, each starts of interesting but drags interminably.
“Variations on an Apple” by Yoon Ha Lee: Is there a term yet for writers who deliberately fill their prose with the most obscure terms possible? Anamorphically, integument, tessellations, reifying... I'm not against the writer stretching my vocabulary here and there, but doing it every other sentence is simply wearying and smacks of deliberate obfuscation (hah, two can play this game) and intellectual showing-off. To paraphrase Hemingway, big ideas don't have to come from big words.
The Forgettable
All the rest, really. None were terribly memorable, I'm afraid.
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