The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025
A collection of the year's best science fiction and fantasy short fiction selected by award-winning author of Death of the Author and the Binti Trilogy, Nnedi Okorafor, and series editor John Joseph Adams.The Best American series, launched in 1915, is the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction, and it is the most respected--and most popular--of its kind.Nnedi Okrafor selects twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explores the ever-expanding and changing world of science fiction and fantasy today.
The Black Orb
The object was a black orb, roughly two meters in diameter. Despite its large size, it made no sound as it moved. Although it wasn't chasing Jeong-su fast enough to catch him, it was unrelenting and persistent in its pursuit... One evening in downtown Seoul, Jeong-su is smoking a cigarette outside when he sees something impossible: a huge black orb appears out of nowhere and sucks his neighbor inside. Jeong-su manages to get away, but the terrifying sphere can move through walls, so he's sure he won't be able to hide for long. The orb soon begins consuming every person caught in its path, and no one knows how to stop it. Impervious to bullets and tanks, the orb splits and multiplies, chasing the hapless residents of Seoul out into the country and sparking a global crisis with widespread violence and looting. Jeong-su must rely on his wits as he makes the arduous journey in search of his elderly parents. But the strangest phases of this ever-expanding disaster are yet to come and Jeong-su will be forced to question everything he has taken for granted. Dryly funny, propulsive and absurd, The Black Orb is terrifyingly prescient about the fragility of human civilization.
Scorpion Dawn
When the prey becomes the hunterMiranda Fletcher lives in a glittering world of aeronauts and artists, dance cards and dandies, but terror lurks outside the city walls. The countryside is infested with hungry abominations called the Unseen, and a single crack in the capital's magical defenses invites disaster and death.When Miranda witnesses a murder, she learns the city walls aren't as secure as the Conclave-the city's magical protector-claims. But despite a string of bloody deaths, no one is foolhardy enough to question the Conclave, much less battle the Unseen. Except Miranda. When tragedy shatters her home, she refuses to turn the other cheek.Sometimes the smallest creature carries the deadliest sting.For those who like steampunk with magic, mystery, and a dash of dangerous romance.
Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest
In this science-fiction revision of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Kalivas lives in solitude on the Farallon Islands, off the San Francisco Bay, until the Master and his daughter M colonize his lonely realm. Kalivas, the last free-range human, is pressed into completing dangerous and menial tasks on the Master's behalf. The new regime is disrupted when a great storm brings more cyborg mainlanders to the island shores. Can Kalivas finally break free and reclaim his islands, or will his affection for M keep him tied to the Master forever? Kalivas! Or, Another Tempest reframes the drama as an anticolonial fantasia through futuristic gizmos, a broken continent, and a one-act play invoking the theater of the absurd. Told by the Bard's least civilized and most human creation, Nick Mamatas crafts a micro-epic for the modern era.
Hiero's Journey
The world ended. People survived. Per Hiero Desteen was a priest, a telepath-and a highly trained killer. Five thousand years after the apocalyptic event known only as The Death, Hiero is tasked with finding the secrets of the old world, which could protect his civilisation from massing enemies. The planet is not the same as it used to be. Mutations have changed the way humans and animals live together, the holocaust known as The Death. The Brotherhood of the Unclean wants to wipe out all traces of surviving human society, allowing anarchy to rule the wasteland that once was North America. Hiero's journey takes him into the heart of the Brotherhood's territory. The danger is great if he is caught . . . but even the smallest chance that humanity could be saved is worth the risk.
The Dark Secret of Ian's Peak
The Dark Secret of Ian's Peak: Book OneTo investigate Cave Death was the aim of James (age ten) and Josh in The Experiment. A discovery was made; they found an old scientific experiment from 1892 belonging to Professor Lynx. Upon starting the experiment, James received an electric shock, which gave him the power of Dream Reality. His dreams have included precognitive and retroactive visions. The accidental find turned out to be an experiment that enabled James to control his dream reality. A high school fire, Paul's (Josh's younger brother) abduction, and his parents' past were all part of the dreams. Is there a connection? Only time will tell.The Basement's beginning involved a man disappearing mysteriously from a hospital elevator in James's recent dream. James and his friends are racing against time to save a victim who is about to vanish. Soon, in the little town of Ian's Peak, James, who has Dream Reality powers, will uncover the truth. Yvonne, a hospital nurse, is the key to solving this mystery. According to James's dream, Ian's Peak settlement started in 1860. James suffered a major setback when he learned his friends had been abducted and sent back in time to 1860. Professor Lynx's journal revealed to James that a basement wormhole could transport him to the 19th century. He also discovered a beast inhabiting the basement. James understands precisely what needs to be done. To save the future, he must go to the basement, locate the wormhole, travel to 1860, rescue his friends, and eliminate Nurse Yvonne, the beast, and the basement itself.
Outrageous Fortune
John Pitte and his crew barely survived the war, but the air freight business may kill them, yet.Six years ago, a single act of rebellion cost Captain John Pitte his command and his honor. Now captain of the light freighter Errant, all his hopes rest in keeping his ragtag crew together and their battered airship aloft. But times are hard in the post-war colonies, and and John knows that Errant Freight is perilously close to being grounded, permanently. So when a mysterious woman offers salvation by way of a lucrative retrieval job, John signs on, no questions asked. But it doesn't take long to discover that neither the job, nor the woman, are what they appear.Now John and his crew are on the run and embroiled in a hive of madness and deception, while everything he hoped to save teeters on the brink of disaster.Welcome to the planet Fortune, where jobs are scarce, tensions high, and crew equals family. If you like low-tech science fiction, tarnished heroes and snappy dialogue, you'll love Outrageous Fortune!
The Perfect Stranger
Meet your new coworker. She's brilliant. She's beautiful. She's unreal. Everyone loves Alison, the new remote employee at a major energy company. She's a rising star in the virtual workspace, displaying incredible intelligence and efficiency with digital technology. But Linda, her manager, has growing suspicions that Alison is not the person she claims to be. As Linda probes Alison's background, Alison fights back through cyber-attacks, ravaging Linda's work, her family and her safety. Linda must uncover the truth to save herself and discovers Alison's past history is a lie - in fact, she has none. Is it possible Alison isn't human at all? FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to excellent original writing in horror, science fiction and fantasy. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress. Awarded independent publisher of 2024 by the British Fantasy Society.
Brigands of the Moon
TWO PLANETS CLASH FOR LUNAR TREASURE! Gregg Haljan was aware that there was a certain danger in having the giant spaceship Planetara stop off at the moon to pick up Grantline's special cargo of moon ore. For that rare metal--invaluable in keeping Earth's technology running--was the target of many greedy eyes. But nevertheless he hadn't figured on the special twist the clever Martian brigands would use. So when he found both the ship and himself suddenly in their hands, he knew that there was only one way in which he could hope to save that cargo and his own secret--that would be by turning space-pirate himself and paying the BRIGANDS OF THE MOON back in their own interplanetary coin. Here is a science-fiction classic, as exciting and ingenious as only a master of super-science could write. Born in 1887, Cummings acquired insight into the vast possibilities of future science by a personal association with Thomas Alva Edison. During the 1920's and 1930's, he thrilled millions of readers with his vivid tales of space and time. The infinite and the infinitesimal were all parts of his canvas, and past, present, and future, the interplanetary and the extra-dimensional, all made their initial impact on the reading public through his many stories and novels.
Pilgrims of the Fall
Grieving the death of his young wife, Sam Pilgrim wakens to find a violent storm has destroyed his seaside town. Yet there are no bodies, no injured, no emergency services and no radio broadcasts. But he is not alone. Strange dark figures walk the streets at night and Sam flees in fear for his life. He begins a life-and-death journey through the Australian bush with an eclectic mix of survivors. - a pilgrimage, to find a place of safety and redemption. What they discover is something completely unexpected, wonderful and shocking. The true meaning of the Fall.When is the end, the END? In his epic first novel, Christopher Levy explores the human struggle with life and death. And manages to overturn our long-held understanding of living anddying. Nothing is as we believed. Everything is more wonderful and disturbing than we could ever imagine. Welcome to the Fall, and what comes after.
