📖 The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020

It's a little inaccurate to say that John Joseph Adams is the one who wrote The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020. If you couldn't figure out why immediately, well, first, I think you might need a doctor. Second, don't worry, I'll explain. This should be predominantly clear from the title, but The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 is part of a larger series, called, you guessed it, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy (alright, I've had enough. I'm calling it TBASFAF from now on.) serves as an annual collection of short stories from various talented authors who have written sci-fi or fantasy works. John Joseph Adams serves as the editor of the series. As a fan of the series, I was going through the 2020 version, as you do, when I thought that I might as well write a review on it. Each year, a new, prominent author selects and writes an introduction for the book. Admittedly, I hadn't heard of Diana Gabaldon before this book (the only authors who I know that've been on the series as editors are R.F. Kuang and Nnedi Okorafor), but she seemed to have picked some excellent stories this time round. I won't go into the stories themselves too much (mostly due to faulty memory), but it was quite the anthology. Some stories were excellent, some stories were good, some were…uh…well. It's an anthology, this is to be expected. I hope. Let's just hit some of the highlights. TBASFAF 2020 spans 20 stories and a billion themes. My personal favorite is a story called The Bookstore At the End of America, although Sacrid's Pod and The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex are both up there. Oh. Those are all sci-fi, aren't they? I am biased. Fine, I'll do a fantasy one. Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan is pretty good. These books are a bizarre spread of topics, themes, writing style, tone, mood, etc. The Bookstore At the End of America, for instance, is about a bookstore standing at the border of California and the rest of America, separated by ideological differences. It's basically just commentary on partisanism and all that left-wing right-wing stuff, but to the extremes. Compare that to Sacrid's Pod, a story set in a world where children can be sent to be trapped in a floating ship their entire lives, or Canst Thou Draw Out, a story about a hapless carpenter on a ship attacked by the wrath of the ocean. My favorites are stories that tell simpler, more linear stories that are clear to understand, but are also funny in their own way. They're stories that tell charming, if also very significant, stories, but TBASFAF 2020 also offers more abstract and strange texts. The Time Invariance of the Snow, for instance. A story where the Devil's mirror is shattered by a rogue physicist. I was bamboozled. Similarly, Thoughts and Prayers was more understandable, but it's a commentary piece tainted by madness. Good madness or bad madness? I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet. The most uncanny of all had to be The Freedom of the Shifting Sea. I don't even want to think about that one. The story felt like it had to be written by either a lunatic or someone who'd spent too much time on the bad side of Instagram Reels (which are basically the same thing) but the writing quality was too high for that. Seriously, though…a bobbit worm? TBASFAF 2020 felt like I was watching a movie that was a three way collaboration between Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, and David Lynch: Part masterpiece, part Burtonesque, and part madness. It was a kooky ride but definitely a fun one.

你指出约翰·约瑟夫·亚当斯(John Joseph Adams)并不是《2020年度美国最佳科幻与奇幻小说选》(The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020)的真正作者,这完全没错。如果你一时间没反应过来为什么,呃,首先,我觉得你可能需要去看医生;其次,别担心,听我细细道来。 从书名应该就能看出一大半,《2020年度美国最佳科幻与奇幻小说选》是一个更庞大的系列的一部分,这个系列的名字你肯定猜到了,就叫《美国最佳科幻与奇幻小说选》。《美国最佳科幻与奇幻小说选》(行了,我受够了,后面我都简称它为 TBASFAF 吧)是一个年度短篇小说集,收录了各位才华横溢的作家所创作的科幻或奇幻作品。而约翰·约瑟夫·亚当斯其实担任的是该系列的系列编辑(Series Editor)。 作为这个系列的粉丝,我最近正在重温2020年的版本——顺理成章地,我觉得不如顺便写篇书评。 每年,该系列都会邀请一位全新且声名显赫的作家来担任客座编辑,负责最终的选篇并撰写前言。坦白讲,在看这本书之前我从未听说过戴安娜·加瓦尔东(Diana Gabaldon)的大名(在这个系列担任过编辑的作家里,我只认识匡灵秀 [R.F. Kuang] 和恩内迪·奥科拉福 [Nnedi Okorafor]),但不得不说,她这次挑出来的故事确实非常惊艳。 关于具体的故事我不会聊得太深(主要是因为记性不太好),但这确实是一部相当精彩的文集。有些故事妙不可言,有些故事水准在线,还有些故事……呃……好吧,毕竟是文集,这也完全在预料之中。希望如此吧。我们直接来聊聊其中的几部亮点。 TBASFAF 2020 跨越了20个故事,涵盖了数不清的主题。我个人最喜欢的是一篇名为《美国尽头的书店》(The Bookstore At the End of America)的故事,不过《萨克里德 severe 的舱体》(Sacrid's Pod)和《银河旅游工业复合体》(The Galactic Tourist Industrial Complex)也同样名列前茅。噢,这些好像全是科幻小说对吧?好吧,我承认我有偏好。那行,我聊一个奇幻的——《你能用鱼钩钓上鳄鱼吗》(Canst Thou Draw Out the Leviathan)就挺不错的。 这些书展现了各种风马牛不相及的话题、主题、写作风格、语调和氛围。例如,《美国尽头的书店》讲述了一家坐落在加利福尼亚与美国其他地区边界上的书店,两边因意识形态的分歧而割裂。这基本上就是对党派偏见以及那些极端的左翼右翼言论的讽刺和隐喻。然而对比之下,《萨克里德的舱体》则把背景设定在一个孩子们会被送去并终身囚禁在悬浮飞船里的世界;而《你能用鱼钩钓上鳄鱼吗》则讲述了一个倒霉的木匠在一艘遭遇大海之怒袭击的船上的遭遇。 我最青睐的是那些叙事更简单、更线性、清晰易懂却又不失幽默感的故事。它们讲述着迷人且寓意深刻的故事。但 TBASFAF 2020 同时也提供了一些更抽象、更古怪的文本。比如《雪的时间不变性》(The Time Invariance of the Snow),在这个故事里,恶魔的镜子被一个特立独行的物理学家打破了。这着实把我给看懵了。同样地,《想法与祈祷》(Thoughts and Prayers)虽然更好理解一些,但它是一篇充斥着疯狂色彩的评论性作品。至于这种疯狂是好是坏?我不知道,我至今还没琢磨透。 而所有故事中最让人心里发毛的,当属《变幻之海的自由》(The Freedom of the Shifting Sea)。我甚至都不愿去回想它。这个故事给人的感觉要么是由一个疯子写的,要么是某个在 Instagram Reels 糟糕的那一面刷了太久视频的人写的(这两者基本上是一回事),但它的写作质量又高到不可能是出自这类人之手。说真的……居然写一只博比特虫(bobbit worm)? 阅读 TBASFAF 2020 的体验,就像在看一部由史蒂文·斯皮尔伯格、蒂姆·伯顿和大卫·林奇三人联手打造的电影:一部分是杰作,一部分带有伯顿式的怪诞,还有一部分则是纯粹的疯狂。这是一趟古怪的旅程,但绝对趣味无穷。