The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 6

By: Neil Clarke

Narrated by: Neil Shah, Sneha Mathan, Ronald Peet, Jasmin Walker, Avi Roque, Nikki Massoud

Visit a future where you can rent out your body, just like an apartment....

Join a robot dog repurposed for mining as it fights to stay alive after being judged as defective....

Follow a woman who must race across the surface of an alien world alone and through deadly flora and fauna to save the life of her mentor....

Discover what happens when an autonomous undersea drone sent to find life on Enceladus begins demonstrating signs of an emerging consciousness....

Find out what happens when you have your boyfriend test out your newest playbot.

For decades, science fiction has compelled us to imagine futures both inspiring and cautionary. Whether it’s a warning message from a survey ship, a harrowing journey to a new world, or the adventures of well-meaning AI, science fiction inspires the imagination and delivers a lens through which we can view ourselves and the world around us. With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 33 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2020.

©2021 Neil Clarke (P)2021 Recorded Books

Unmemorable

Most stories not worthed listening to. There are three exceptions, ' "Knock, Knock" Said the Ship' by Rati Mehrotra, 'Textbooks in the Attic' by S. B. Divya and 'Exile's End' by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Narration is Hit or Miss, So Are the Stories

A few good stories and some that don't make much sense. I'll call out the particularly bad narration of "The Long Iapetan Night". This story has two intertwined storylines. I was deeply confused until I read the written version. In that one storyline is in standard font and the second is in italics. But the narrator of the audio version uses the same voice for both storylines, so it was impossible to even know there were two, let alone tell them apart. Someone should have coached the narrator to change voices.

Hit or Miss but some Real Gems!

Some of the stories were so-so but a solid 2/3 were fantastic, IMHO. The readers were great too.