The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025

Of science fiction and fantasy, guest editor Nnedi Okorafor writes, "There are times when it feels like a box, but within it, technically, you can expect anything." The twenty stories in this collection simultaneously fulfill and defy expectations of genre, showcasing boundary-pushing authors at their best. In this year's Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, a robot will struggle to make friends, a team of auditors determines the financial value of a lifetime, an alien species will teach you how to read, and maybe, just maybe, someone will finally do something about the kid in Ursula K. Le Guin's Omelas hole. From the joyous to the terrifying, to the heart wrenching and the absurd, these stories encourage you to open your mind and, as Okorafor promises: "Watch your world expand."

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2025 INCLUDES: 'PEMI AGUDA - KIJ JOHNSON - TANANARIVE DUE - S.L. HUANG - JOE HILL - ISABEL J. KIM - T.J. KLUNE - OLIVIE BLAKE - CAROLINE M. YOACHIM - AND OTHERS

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and the editor of the Hugo Award-winning Lightspeed, and of more than forty anthologies, including Lost Worlds & Mythological Kingdoms, The Far Reaches, and Out There Screaming (coedited with Jordan Peele).

Nnedi Okorafor is the author of multiple award-winning and New York Times bestsellers, including Death of the Author, the Binti trilogy, Who Fears Death, and Lagoon, currently in development at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment. She has won every major prize in speculative fiction, including the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Eisner Awards; multiple Hugo Awards; and the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. Born in Cincinnati to Igbo Nigerian immigrant parents, she now resides in Phoenix, Arizona, with her daughter, Anyaugo.