BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2025

The stellar vocal talents of Eunice Wong, Rebecca Stern, Cary Hite, Liz Femi, and Zach Villa create an absorbing overall listening experience for this rich assortment of science-fiction and fantasy stories, curated by editors Okorafor and Adams. Notable performances abound in stories of creeping horror, fraught relationships, sentience, and moral quagmires. In "We Will Teach You How to Read," Stern expresses an organism's emotional depth through repetition of its life story. Wong's matter-of-fact narration suits residents pondering the fate of a prosperous town's "load-bearing" child in "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole?" And Villa's earnest, self-actualizing robot Douglas experiences a life-changing week in "Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!" Individual narration shines across memorable worlds in this compelling production. [Published: JANUARY 2026]