The Best Science Fiction of the Year

by Neil Clarke

  The other shore of the Mazy Lakes, when we reached it, was not lined with the towers and spires we had left on the other side; but when we pointed our lights ahead, we could see things scattering for cover. I was about to suggest that we camp and wait for day when I felt a low pulse of vibration underfoot. It came again, rhythmic like the footsteps of a faraway giant. The lake organisms suddenly lost their luminescence. When I shone my light on the water, the dark surface shivered with each vibration. Behind us, out over the lake, the horizon glowed.

  “I think we ought to run for it,” I said.

  The others took off for shore with Sally on their heels. “Bucky, follow!” I ordered, and sprinted after them. The organisms on shore had closed up tight in their shells. When I reached the sloping bank, I turned back to look. Out over the lake, visible against the glowing sky, was a churning, coal-black cloud spreading toward us. I turned to flee.

  “Head uphill!” I shouted at Davern when I caught up with him. Seabird was ahead of us; I could see her headlamp bobbing as she ran. I called her name so we wouldn’t get separated, then shoved Davern ahead of me up the steep slope.

  We had reached a high bank when the cloud came ashore, a toxic tsunami engulfing the low spots. Bucky had fallen behind, and I watched as he disappeared under the wave of blackness. Then the chemical smell hit, and for a while I couldn’t breathe or see. By the time I could draw a lungful of air down my burning throat, the sludgy wave was already receding below us. Blinking away tears, I saw Bucky emerge again from underneath, all of his metalwork polished bright and clean. The tent that had been stretched over the crates was in shreds, but the crates themselves looked intact.

  Beside me, Davern was on his knees, coughing. “Are you okay?” I asked. He shook his head, croaking, “I’m going to be sick.”

  I looked around for Seabird. Her light wasn’t visible anymore. “Seabird!” I yelled, desperate at the thought that we had lost her. To my immense relief, I heard her voice calling. “We’re here!” I replied, and flashed my light.

  Sounds of someone approaching came through the darkness, but it was only Sally. “Where is she, Sally? Go find her,” I said, but the dog didn’t understand. I swept my light over the landscape, and finally spotted Seabird stumbling toward us without any light. She must have broken hers in the flight. I set out toward her, trying to light her way.

  The Umberlife around us was waking again. Half-seen things moved just outside the radius of my light. Ahead, one of the creature-balls Amal and I had seen on the other side was rolling across the ground, growing as it moved. It was heading toward Seabird.

  “Seabird, watch out!” I yelled. She saw the danger and started running, slowed by the dark. I shone my light on the ball, but I was too far away to have an effect. The ball speeded up, huge now. It overtook her and dissolved into a wriggling, scrabbling, ravenous mass. She screamed as it covered her, a sound of sheer terror that rose into a higher pitch of pain, then cut off. The mound churned, quivered repulsively, grew smaller, lost its shape. By the time I reached the spot, all that was left was her coldsuit and some bits of bone.

  I rolled some rocks on top of it by way of burial.

  Davern was staring and trembling when I got back to him. He had seen the whole thing, but didn’t say a word. He stuck close to me as I led the way back to Bucky.

  “We’re going to light every lamp we’ve got and wait here for day,” I said.

  He helped me set up the lights in a ring, squandering our last batteries. We sat in the buggy’s Umbershadow and waited for dawn with Sally at our feet. We didn’t say much. I knew he couldn’t stand me, and I had only contempt for him; but we still huddled close together.

  To my surprise, Bucky was still operable when the dawn light revived his batteries. He followed as we set off up the Let’s Go Valley, once such a pleasant land, now disfigured with warts of Umberlife on its lovely face. We wasted no time on anything but putting the miles behind us.

  The sun had just set when we saw the wholesome glow of Feynman Habitat’s yard light ahead. We pounded on the door, then waited. When the door cracked open, Davern pushed past me to get inside first. They welcomed him with incredulous joy, until they saw that he and I were alone. Then the joy turned to shock and grief.

  There. That is what happened. But of course, that’s not what everyone wants to know. They want to know why it happened. They want an explanation—what we did wrong, how we could have succeeded.

  That was what the governing committee was after when they called me in later. As I answered their questions, I began to see the narrative taking shape in their minds. At last Anselm said, “Clearly, there was no one fatal mistake. There was just a pattern of behavior: naïve, optimistic, impractical. They were simply too young and too confident.”

  I realized that I myself had helped create this easy explanation, and my remorse nearly choked me. I stood up and they all looked at me, expecting me to speak, but at first I couldn’t say a word. Then, slowly, I started out, “Yes. They were all those things. Naïve. Impractical. Young.” My voice failed, and I had to concentrate on controlling it. “That’s why we needed them. Without their crazy commitment, we would have conceded defeat. We would have given up, and spent the winter hunkered down in our cave, gnawing our old grudges, never venturing or striving for anything beyond our reach. Nothing would move forward. We needed them, and now they are gone.”

  Later, I heard that the young people of Feynman took inspiration from what I said, and started retelling the story as one of doomed heroism. Young people like their heroes doomed.

  Myself, I can’t call it anything but failure. It’s not because people blame me. I haven’t had to justify myself to anyone but this voice in my head—always questioning, always nagging me. I can’t convince it: everyone fails.

  If I blame anyone, it’s our ancestors, the original settlers. We thought their message to us was that we could always conquer irrationality, if we just stuck to science and reason.

  Oh, yes—the settlers. When we finally opened the crates to find out what they had sent us, it turned out that the payload was books. Not data—paper books. Antique ones. Art, philosophy, literature. The books had weathered the interstellar trip remarkably well. Some were lovingly inscribed by the settlers to their unknown descendants. Anatoly would have been pleased to know that the people who sent these books were not really rationalists—they worried about our aspirational well-being. But the message came too late. Anatoly is dead.

  I sit on my bed stroking Sally’s head. What do you think, girl? Should I open the book from my great-grandmother?

  PERMISSIONS

  “Domestic Violence” by Madeline Ashby. © 2018 by Madeline Ashby. Originally published in Slate, March 26, 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Okay, Glory” by Elizabeth Bear. © 2018 by Elizabeth Bear. Originally published in Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling” by L.X. Beckett. © 2018 by L.X. Beckett. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy &Science Fiction, July/August 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Quantifying Trust” by John Chu. © 2018 by John Chu. Originally published in Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger’s Steps” by Aliette de Bodard. © 2018 by Aliette de Bodard. Originally published in Mechanical Animals, edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Traces of Us” by Vanessa Fogg. © 2018 by Vanessa Fogg. Originally published in GigaNotoSaurus, March 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Anchorite Wakes” by R.S.A. Garcia. © 2018 by R.S.A. Garcia. Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine, August 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Umbernight” by Carolyn Ives Gilman. © 2018 by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine,
February 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Heavy Lifting” by A.T. Greenblatt. © 2018 by A.T. Greenblatt. Originally published in Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth” by Daryl Gregory. © 2018 by Daryl Gregory. Originally published in Tor.com, September 19, 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “When We Were Starless” by Simone Heller. © 2018 by Simone Heller. Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Prophet of the Roads” by Naomi Kritzer. © 2018 by Naomi Kritzer. Originally published in Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Meat and Salt and Sparks” by Rich Larson. © 2018 by Rich Larson. Originally published in Tor.com, June 6, 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Entropy War” by Yoon Ha Lee. © 2018 by Yoon Ha Lee. Originally published in 2001: An Odyssey in Words, edited by Ian Whates and Tom Hunter. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Byzantine Empathy” by Ken Liu. © 2018 by Ken Liu. Originally published in Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Mother Tongues” by S. Qiouyi Lu. © 2018 by S. Qiouyi Lu. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Ten Landscapes of Nili Fossae” by Ian McDonald. © 2018 by Ian McDonald. Originally published in 2001: An Odyssey in Words, edited by Ian Whates and Tom Hunter. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Singles’ Day” by Samantha Murray. © 2018 by Samantha Murray. First published in Chinese by Future Affairs Administration, 2018. Originally published in English in Interzone, September/October 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Theories of Flight” by Linda Nagata. © 2018 by Linda Nagata. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/December 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Lions and Gazelles” by Hannu Rajaniemi. © 2018 by Hannu Rajaniemi. Originally published in Slate, September 27, 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “An Equation of State” by Robert Reed. © 2018 by Robert Reed. Originally published in The Magazine ofFantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Different Seas” by Alastair Reynolds. © 2018 by Alastair Reynolds. Originally published in Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Sour Milk Girls” by Erin Roberts. © 2018 by Erin Roberts. Originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine, January 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Intervention” by Kelly Robson. © 2018 by Kelly Robson. Originally published in Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Hard Mary” by Sofia Samatar. © 2018 by Sofia Samatar. Originally published in Lightspeed Magazine, September 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Requiem” by Vandana Singh. © 2018 by Vandana Singh. Originally published in Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Buried Giant” by Lavie Tidhar. © 2018 by Lavie Tidhar. Originally published in Robots vs. Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Lab B–15” by Nick Wolven. © 2018 by Nick Wolven. Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April 2018. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “All the Time We’ve Left to Spend” by Alyssa Wong. © 2018 by Alyssa Wong. Originally published in Robots vs. Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The editor would like to thank the following people for their help and support: Lisa Clarke, Sean Wallace, Kate Baker, Gardner Dozois, Cory Allyn, Sheila Williams, Gordon Van Gelder, Steven Silver, Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow, and all the authors, editors, agents, and publishers whose work made this anthology possible.

  RECOMMENDED READING

  “You will see the moon rise” by Israel Alonso, translated by Steve Redwood, Apex Book of World SF 5, edited by Cristina Jurado.

  “Work Shadow/Shadow Work” by Madeline Ashby, Robots vs. Fairies, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe.

  “Dandelion” by Elly Bangs, Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2018.

  “Breakwater” by Simon Bestwick, Tor.com, February 28, 2018.

  “The Only Harmless Great Thing” by Brooke Bolander, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Life from the Sky” by Sue Burke, Asimov’s Science Fiction, May/June 2018.

  “The Independence Patch” by Bryan Camp, Lightspeed Magazine, March 2018.

  “The Counting of Vermillon Beads” by Aliette de Bodard, A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman.

  “The Tea Master and the Detective” by Aliette de Bodard, Published by Subterranean Press/JABberwocky Ebooks.

  “Loss of Signal” by S.B. Divya, Tor.com, August 1, 2018.

  “Phoresis” by Greg Egan, Published by Subterranean Press.

  “The Nearest” by Greg Egan, Tor.com, July 19, 2018.

  “Logistics” by A.J. Fitzwater, Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2018.

  “Icefall” by Stephanie Gunn, Published by Twelfth Planet Press.

  “Inscribed on Dark Water” by Gregor Hartmann, Interzone, September/October 2018.

  “Fluxless” by Mike Jansen, Samovar, December 3, 2018.

  “Cuisine des Mémoires” by N.K. Jemisin, How Long ’til Black Future Month.

  “Every Single Wonderful Detail” by Stephen Graham Jones, Mechanical Animals, edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller.

  “Grace’s Family” by James Patrick Kelly, Tor.com, May 16, 2018.

  “In Event of Moon Disaster” by Rich Larson, Asimov’s Science Fiction, March/April 2018.

  “Porque el Girasol Se Llama el Girasol” by Rich Larson, Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law.

  “Broken Wings” by William Ledbetter, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2018.

  “Vespers” by J. M. Ledgard, Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush.

  “Left to Take the Lead” by Marissa Lingen, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July/August 2018.

  “Cosmic Spring” by Ken Liu, Lightspeed Magazine, March 2018.

  “Chine Life” by Paul McAuley, Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush.

  “Time Was” by Ian McDonald, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Mother, Mother, Will You Play With Me?” by Seanan McGuire, Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts.

  “Longing For Earth” by Linda Nagata, Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

  “The Miracle Lambs of Minane” by Finbarr O’Reilly, Clarkesworld Magazine, November 2018.

  “The Heart of the Matter” by Nnedi Okorafor, Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush.

  “The Hard Spot in the Glacier” by An Owomoyela, Mechanical Animals, edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller.

  “The Streaming Man” by Suzanne Palmer, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April 2018.

  “Stones in the Water, Cottage on the Mountain” by Suzanne Palmer, Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2018.

  “Love Songs for the Very Awful” by Robert Reed, Asimov’s Science Fiction, March/April 2018.

  “Death’s Door” by Alastair Reynolds, Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

  “A Study in Oils” by Kelly Robson, Clarkesworld Magazine, September 2018.

  “Gods, Monsters and the Lucky Peach” by Kelly Robson, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Maximum Outflow” by Adam Rogers, Wired, December 17, 2018.

  “Joyride” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Asimov’s Science Fiction, November/ December 2018.

&nb
sp; “The Wait is Longer Than You Think” by Adrian Simmons, GigaNotoSaurus, May 2018.

  “Widdam” by Vandana Singh, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January/February 2018.

  “Overvalued” by Mark Stasenko, Slate, November 27, 2018.

  “Starship Mountain” by Allen M. Steele, Asimov’s Science Fiction, July/August 2018.

  “An Errant Holy Spark” by Bogi Takacs, Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts.

  “The Persistence of Blood” by Juliette Wade, Clarkesworld Magazine, March 2018.

  “Kindred” by Peter Watts, Infinity’s End, edited by Jonathan Strahan.

  “The Freeze-Frame Revolution” by Peter Watts, Published by Tachyon Publications.

  “Artificial Condition” by Martha Wells, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Rogue Protocol” by Martha Wells, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Exit Strategy” by Martha Wells, Published by Tor.com Books.

  “Compulsory” by Martha Wells, Wired, December 17, 2018.

  “In the God-Fields” by Liz Williams, Women Invent the Future, edited by Doteveryone.

  “The Clockwork Penguin Dreamed of Stars” by Caroline M. Yoachim, Mechanical Animals, edited by Selena Chambers and Jason Heller.

  ABOUT THE EDITOR

  Neil Clarke is the editor of Clarkesworld and Forever Magazine; owner of Wyrm Publishing; and a seven-time Hugo Award Finalist for Best Editor (short form). He currently lives in NJ with his wife and two sons. You can find him online at neil-clarke.com.