Charles Yu, the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine, also knows his way around a short story, with two collections to his credit, Third Class Superhero (2006) and Sorry Please Thank You (2012). He’s a fine choice to edit this year’s edition of Mariner Books’ The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, which was edited by Joe Hill in 2015, and Karen Joy Fowler in 2016. The Series Editor is John Joseph Adams, editor of Lightspeed, Nightmare, and about a zillion SF and fantasy anthologies.

This year’s volume officially goes on sale on Tuesday, but I saw a copy on the shelf yesterday at Barnes & Noble, so it’s out in the wild. It’s the last of the Year’s Best volumes we track here at Black Gate, but it’s also one of the most interesting. It contains fiction by Leigh Bardugo, E. Lily Yu,y Nisi Shawl, Jeremiah Tolbert, Peter S. Beagle, N.K. Jemisin, Genevieve Valentine, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg van Eekhout, Caroline M. Yoachim, and many others — including two stories by Dale Bailey. Here’s the complete TOC.

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

Editorial

Foreword by John Joseph Adams
Introduction by Charles Yu

Fantasy

“Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail” by Leigh Bardugo (Summer Days and Summer Nights)
“I’ve Come to Marry the Princess” by Helena Bell (Lightspeed)
“The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight” by E. Lily Yu (Uncanny)
“Vulcanization” by Nisi Shawl (Nightmare)
“Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass” by Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed)
“This is Not a Wardrobe Door” by A. Merc Rustad (Fireside)
“The Story of Kao Yu” by Peter S. Beagle (Tor.com)
“The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin (Tor.com)
“Successor, Usurper, Replacement” by Alice Sola Kim (BuzzFeed READER)
“I Was a Teenage Werewolf” by Dale Bailey (Nightmare)

Science Fiction

“Teenagers from Outer Space” by Dale Bailey (Clarkesworld)
“Everyone From Themis Sends Letters Home” by Genevieve Valentine (Clarkesworld)
“When They Came to Us” by Debbie Urbanski (The Sun)
“Openness” by Alexander Weinstein (Beloit Fiction Journal)
“The Future is Blue” by Catherynne M. Valente (Drowned Worlds)
“On the Fringes of the Fractal” by Greg van Eekhout (2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush)
“Smear” by Brian Evenson (Conjunctions: Other Aliens)
“Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed)
“Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?” by Nick Wolven (F&SF)
“The Venus Effect” by Joseph Allen Hill (Lightspeed)

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 will be published by Mariner Books on October 3, 2017. It is 384 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 for the digital version. The cover was designed by Mark R. Robinson. See more details here.

The Year’s Best volumes we’ve covered so far in 2017 include:

The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 3 edited by David Afsharirad
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
Nebula Awards Showcase 2017, edited by Julie E. Czerneda
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven edited by Jonathan Strahan
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two, edited by Neil Clarke
The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017, edited by Rich Horton

See all of our recent New Treasures here.