The year is racing towards its usual conclusion. Here at the ends of the world, as temperatures rise, deadlines loom and projects need to be finished so the New Year can begin.  The first thing to be done is finishing the latest volume in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year series. Volume 11 has be to be delivered by the end of the month, which means moving from reading to writing. Introductions, notes etc.  And of course, the table of contents.

Here is the table of contents for this year:

• “Two’s Company”, Joe Abercrombie (Sharp Ends)
• “The Art of Space Travel”, Nina Allan (Tor.com)
• “Seasons of Glass and Iron”, Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit wood)
• “Mika Model”, Paolo Bacigalupi (Slate)
• “A Salvaging of Ghosts”, Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 01/03/16)
• “Laws of Night and Silk”, Seth Dickinson (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 26 May 2016)
• “Touring with the Alien”, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld 115, 4/16)
• “Red as Blood and White as Bone”, Theodora Goss (Tor.com)
• “Even the Crumbs Were Delicious”, Daryl Gregory (The Starlit Wood)
• “Number Nine Moon”, Alex Irvine (F&SF, 1/16)
• “Red Dirt Witch”, N.K. Jemisin (Fantasy/PoC Destroy Fantasy)
• “Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9)”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest 125, 7/16)
• “Successor, Usurper, Replacement”, Alice Sola Kim (Buzzfeed, 10/26/16)
• “You Make Pattaya”, Rich Larson (Interzone 247)
• “Foxfire Foxfire”, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2016)
• “Seven Birthdays”, Ken Liu (Bridging Infinity)
• “The Visitor from Taured”, Ian R. MacLeod (Asimov’s, 9/16)
• “Elves of Antarctica”, Paul McAuley (Drowned Worlds)
• “Things with Beards”, Sam J Miller (Clarkesworld 117, 6/16)
• “Spinning Silver”, Naomi Novik (The Starlit Wood)
• “Those Shadows Laugh”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF, 9-10/16)
• “The Great Detective”, Delia Sherman (Tor.com)
• “Terminal”, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, 04/16)
• “The Future is Blue”, Catherynne M Valente (Drowned Worlds)
• “Everyone from Themis Sends Letters Home”, Genevieve Valentine (Clarkesworld)
• “You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay “, Alyssa Wong (Uncanny 10, 5-6/16)
• “Fable”, Charles Yu (The New Yorker, 5/30/16)
• “The Witch of Orion Waste and the Boy Knight”, E Lily Yu (Uncanny 12)

Many thanks to all of the writers who are involved, and to their agents etc.  Dominic Harman, who did the covers for the first three books from Solaris, is back with another terrific cover. That will be revealed soon.  And, just as I’m finishing up this year’s book and I’m already reading for next year’s. Happily I’m contracted for a couple more years, so the series will continue hopefully for many years to come!

I may post about my picks for Best Novella of 2016 as we work our way through the ‘year in review’ period, but for the moment I was pondering what I’d put into my old Best Short Novels series, if I was still editing it for someone today.

After a bit of reflection I came up with the following list. I wasn’t restricted to Hugo length requirements, so one story is actually a long novelette, but this list would still come close to 200,000 words which is about right for the old series.

So, herewith, the fantasy contents for Best Short Novels: 2016.

• The Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe, Kij Johnson (Tor)
• The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle (Tor)
• Every Heart A Doorway, Seanan McGuire (Tor)
• This Census-taker, China Mieville (Del Rey)
• The Charge and the Storm, An Owomoyela (Asimov’s)
• The Devil You Know, K.J. Parker (Tor)
• The Iron Tactician, Alastair Reynolds (Newcon)
• The Best Story I Can Manage, Robert Shearman (Five Storeys High)
• The Vanishing Kind, Lavie Tidhar (F&SF)
• A Taste of Honey, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor)

It surprises me a little, in this era of digital publishing, that none of these are available to read online.