The Best of Uncanny

Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas have co-edited and co-published Uncanny Magazine since its launch in 2014. They brought readers stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background, including some of science fiction and fantasy’s most fabulous award-winning and bestselling authors. In its first four years, Uncanny Magazine won the Best Semiprozine Hugo Award three times (2016, 2017, 2018), Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas won the 2018 Best Editor—Short Form Hugo Award for their work on the magazine, and numerous stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards-- including the novelette “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) which won the 2016 Best Novelette Hugo Award and the novelette “You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay” by Alyssa Wong which won the 2017 Best Novelette Locus Award.

This Best of Uncanny anthology collects those two novelettes and many of the other best stories and poems from the first 22 issues of Uncanny Magazine. Naomi Novik plunges you into a delicious fractured fairy tale retelling in “Blessings.” Delilah S. Dawson explores superpowers, harassment, and revenge in"Catcall." Neil Gaimantakes you along to keep pace with his gorgeous and powerful poem “The Long Run.” Charlie Jane Anders shakes up a haunting cocktail of comedy clubs and love with "Ghost Champagne." Mary Robinette Kowal weaves a heartbreaking tale of marriage, duty, and magical curses in "Midnight Hour." N.K. Jemisin ruminates on dangerous fans, awards, and legacy in “Henosis.” Maria Dahvana Headleyslinks into a Classic Hollywood of animal actors and sleazy secrets with “If You Were a Tiger, I’d Have to Wear White.” Catherynne M. Valente travels to a colony world infested with strange psychic cats in “Planet Lion.” Carmen Maria Machado wrestles with predators, identity, and death in“My Body, Herself.” And Seanan McGuire sings a tragic song of misunderstandings and unfortunate consequences with “Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands.”

Those pieces are only the beginning. The Best of Uncanny features some of the uncanniest stories and poetry in SF/F today, by its current leading voices. Sit down and immerse yourself in 44 original science fiction and fantasy stories and poems that can make you feel.

The Uncanny Valley—An Introduction — LYNNE M. THOMAS AND MICHAEL DAMIAN THOMAS

Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies — BROOKE BOLANDER

Blessings — NAOMI NOVIK

Folding Beijing — HAO JINGFANG, TRANSLATED BY KEN LIU

The New Ways — AMAL EL-MOHTAR (POEM )

Fandom for Robots — VINA JIE-MIN PRASAD

Catcall — DELILAH S. DAWSON

Wooden Feathers — URSULA VERNON

The Long Run — NEIL GAIMAN (POEM )

Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History — SAM J. MILLER

Ghost Champagne — CHARLIE JANE ANDERS

Translatio Corporis — K AT HOWARD

Rose Child — BY THEODORA GOSS (POEM )

The Witch of the Orion Waste and the Boy Knight — E. LILY YU

Monster Girls Don’t Cry — A. MERC RUSTAD

Midnight Hour — MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL

Henosis — N.K . JEMISIN

The Persecution of Witches — ALI TROT TA (POEM )

Restore the Heart into Love — JOHN CHU

I Frequently Hear Music in the Very Heart of Noise — SARAH PINSKER

You’ll Surely Drown Here If You Stay — ALYSSA WONG

肉骨茶 (Meat Bone Tea) — S. QIOUYI LU (POEM )

She Still Loves the Dragon — ELIZABETH BEAR

If You Were a Tiger, I’d Have to Wear White — MARIA DAHVANA HEADLE Y

archival testimony fragments / minersong — ROSE LEMBERG (POEM )

Sun, Moon, Dust — URSULA VERNON

Planet Lion — CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

The Hydraulic Emperor — ARKADY MARTINE

Starskin, Sealskin — SHVETA THAKRAR & SARA CLETO (POEM )

Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time — K .M. SZPARA

god-date — BRANDON O’BRIEN (POEM )

7 Auspicium Melioris Aevi — JY YANG

Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand — FRAN WILDE

An Ocean the Color of Bruises — ISABEL YAP

Dancing Princesses — ROSHANI CHOKSHI (POEM )

Those — SOFIA SAMATAR

Though She Be But Little — C. S. E. COONE Y

Children of Thorns, Children of Water — ALIET TE DE BODARD

Protestations Against the Idea of Anglicization — CASSANDRA KHAW (POEM )

My Body, Herself — CARMEN MARIA MACHADO

Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands — SEANAN MCGUIRE

The Words on My Skin — CAROLINE M. YOACHIM

And Then There Were (N-One) — SARAH PINSKER

The Sea Never Says It Loves You — FRAN WILDE (POEM )

Pockets — AMAL EL-MOHTAR