Outstanding SF/F by People of Color 2020

In the spirit of Lightspeed Magazine's famous People of Color Destroy Science Fiction series, here are 56 stories by 43 people of color that had scores of 3 or higher from RSR's 2020 Best SF/F list. That list contains the 256 most-recommended stories out of 600+ covered, so the 56 stories by people of color make up around 22% of the best of 2020.

Some stories not reviewed by RSR are in the Best SF/F list because they were award finalists 🏆, included in year's best anthologies 📙, or recommended by other prolific reviewers 👍 (see Q&A for SF/F awards, year's best anthologies, and prolific reviewers followed).

Readers asked us to make it easy for them to find good stories written by authors with diverse racial backgrounds, and that’s what this list is meant to accomplish (author identity plays no role in our ratings). This is the fifth year we've done this list (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015-2016).

Outstanding High Fantasy of 2020

Here are 19 outstanding high fantasy stories from 2020 that were finalists for major SF/F 🏆awards, included in "year's best" SF/F 📙anthologies, or recommended by prolific 👍reviewers in short fiction (see Q&A). That's 19 out of 250+ best SF/F stories from 2020. A story's score is the sum of the +n points in it's "Recommended By" list (click the Details link to see the awards, year's best, and reviewers and the points).

For our purposes, we define "high fantasy" as a fantasy story that takes place in a secondary world. That is, something like Lord of the Rings, where Middle Earth is clearly not in the past or future of our world.

We've included portal fantasies, provided the destination is a secondary world.

Outstanding SF/F Horror of 2020

Although horror isn't our focus, we do review horror stories that turn up in our regular magazines, so in honor of Halloween, here are 31 outstanding SF/F horror stories from 2020 that were finalists for major SF/F 🏆awards, included in "year's best" SF/F 📙anthologies, or recommended by prolific 👍reviewers in short fiction (see Q&A). That's 28 out of 250+ best SF/F stories from 2020. A story's score is the sum of the +n points in it's "Recommended By" list (click the Details link to see the awards, year's best, and reviewers and the points).

Outstanding Hard Science Fiction of 2020

Here are 26 outstanding hard science fiction stories from 2020 that were finalists for major SF/F 🏆awards, included in "year's best" SF/F 📙anthologies, or recommended by prolific 👍reviewers in short fiction (see Q&A). That's 26 out of 240+ best SF/F stories from 2020. A story's score is the sum of the +n points in it's "Recommended By" list (click the Details link to see the awards, year's best, and reviewers and the points).

Outstanding LGBT Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2020

June is Pride Month, and here are 27 outstanding stories with LGBT characters from 2020 reviewed by RSR that were either finalists for major SF/F awards 🏆, included in "year's best" SF/F anthologies 📙, or recommended by prolific reviewers 👍 in short fiction (see Q&A). For earlier outstanding stories, click this link.

This list of stories and the recommendations for each story will be updated as award finalists/winners and the table of contents for year's best anthologies are announced. As long as an LGBT story scores 2 or more (even if it was not recommended by RSR), it will be included here.

As always, our focus is on the stories, not the authors. These are stories with memorable LGBT characters—not necessarily stories by noted LGBT authors. These include stories in which a key character merely happens to be an LGBT person as well as stories where the LGBT angle is crucial to the plot.

Annotated 2020 Locus Reading List for Short Fiction

Update 11/9/23: Tagged 30 honorable mentions from 📙Neil Clarke's year's best science fiction anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 4/19/22: Tagged 34 stories from 📙Rich Horton's year's best science fiction and fantasy anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 12/19/21: Tagged 3 🏆Hugo Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 11/7/21: Tagged 2 🏆World Fantasy Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 10/18/21: Tagged 3 🏆Sturgeon Award winners (click link to highlight).
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Update 10/4/21: Tagged 32 stories from 📙Neil Clarke's year's best science fiction anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 9/29/21: Tagged 1 🏆British Fantasy Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 9/7/21: Tagged 3 🏆Otherwise Award finalists and winner (click link to highlight).
Update 9/6/21: Tagged 1 🏆Eugie Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 8/23/21: Tagged 3 🏆Readers Award winners each for Analog and Asimov's magazines, respectively (click link to highlight).
Update 8/19/21: Tagged 1 🏆Shirley Jackson Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 7/27/21: Tagged 2 🏆British Fantasy Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/25/21: Tagged 20 stories from 📙Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 7/21/21: Tagged 9 🏆World Fantasy Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/8/21: Tagged 5 🏆Eugie Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/5/21: Tagged 11 🏆Sturgeon Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 7/3/21: Tagged 2 🏆Shirley Jackson Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 6/26/21: Tagged 3 🏆Locus Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 6/7/21: Tagged 3 🏆Nebula Award winners (click link to highlight).
Update 6/2/21: Tagged 12 stories from 📙Paula Guran's year's best dark fantasy and horror anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 5/24/21: Tagged 1 🏆Stoker Award winner (click link to highlight).
Update 5/2/21: Tagged 30 🏆Locus Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 4/13/21: Tagged 18 🏆Hugo Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 4/3/21: Tagged 10 stories from 📙Allan Kaster's year's best hard SF anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 4/3/21: Tagged 2 stories from 📙Ellen Datlow's year's best horror anthology (click link to highlight).
Update 3/16/21: Tagged 14 and 16 🏆Readers Award finalists for Analog and Asimov's magazines, respectively, with new free links (click link to highlight).
Update 3/16/21: Tagged 18 🏆Nebula Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 3/15/21: Tagged 2 🏆Lambda Award finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 3/1/21: Tagged 1 🏆Clarkesworld Reader's Poll winner (click link to highlight). Update 2/22/21: Tagged 2 of 10 🏆Stoker Award finalists for long/short fiction (click link to highlight).
Update 2/21/21: Tagged 1 of 6 🏆BSFA Award finalists for short fiction (click link to highlight).
Update 2/16/21: Tagged 7 🏆Uncanny Reader's Poll finalists (click link to highlight).
Update 2/8/21: Tagged 27 stories from 📙Jonathan Strahan's year's best SF/F anthology (click link to highlight).

Here is the annotated 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List for short fiction, merged with RSR's 2020 Best SF/F list (aka our aggregated list of "outstanding" stories from 2020 that score 2 or more based on 👍reviewers, 🏆awards, and year's best 📙anthologies). All the stories are grouped by length and score, with stories from the Locus list highlighted in red.

The merge lets us analyze the Locus list to see which stories that were broadly recognized as outstanding were left out, which publications stood out, which authors did particularly well (or not), how many were eligible for the Astounding Award, and how RSR's own recommendations stack up with Locus reviewers in general.

As with every RSR annotated list, there are links galore to the stories, their authors, the magazines, any award nominations/wins or "year's best" anthology inclusions, and search-links to find other reviews.

Anyone can vote for the Locus Awards at this link. Due date is Thursday April 15, 2021.

If you want to skip the analysis and just start reading, click here (free stories highlighted).

December 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 16; Time & Words: [4h:51m] 💬87K
Total Stories: 43; Time & Words: [12h] 💬216K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

November 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 26; Time & Words: [12h] 💬226K
Total Stories: 62; Time & Words: [23h] 💬418K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

October 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 14; Time & Words: [3h:56m] 💬71K
Total Stories: 42; Time & Words: [13h] 💬239K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

September 2020 Ratings

5★ & 4★ Stories: 0; Time & Words: 💬0
Recommended By Stories: 30; Time & Words: [13h] 💬237K
Total Stories: 65; Time & Words: [22h] 💬411K
Read How to Use RSR on the sidebar or this link to use this post.

The Transubstantiation, by Evan Dicken

[BCS]

★★★★★ When Heroes fall, there are still heroes.

(Fantasy Adventure) Deff and his team hunt the countryside for illegal Heroes, whom they kill and then sell the body parts. Something truly terrible happened with these “Heroes” in the recent past, and it’s not entirely done. (11,386 words; Time: 37m)

Fire and Falling, by Andrew Dykstal

[BCS]

★★★★☆ Plenty of Excitement in an Interesting Setting

(Steampunk Thriller) Mir’s mission to deliver codebooks gets complicated when she realizes she’s being followed—and followed by more than one person at that. (15,229 words; Time: 50m)

The Bone-Stag Walks, by K.T. Bryski

[Lightspeed]

★★★☆☆

(Horror) In mid-winter, a skeletal stag comes to the village begging for food, but it eats anyone foolish enough to talk to it. (3,379 words; Time: 11m)

All These Guardians of Order and Clarity, None of Them Can Abide a Free Witch, by Benjamin Rosenbaum

[Lightspeed]

★★★☆☆

(Fantasy Adventure) Maghd of Ilmak Dale, the “White Witch,” feels that Marish’s account of their encounter and the destruction of Ilmak Dale is very slanted, so she tells her side of the story. (7,796 words; Time: 25m)

It’s possible this is a better story if you have already read "A Siege of Cranes.” (2006), which was reprinted in Lightspeed last month.

Sing in Me, Muse, by Katherine Crighton

[Lightspeed]

★★★☆☆

(Generation Ship) A young woman on a generation ship sings reports back to an Earth that may not even exist anymore. (1,941 words; Time: 06m)

Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air, by Matthew Kressel

[Lightspeed]

★★★☆☆

(Far-Future SF) Gil teaches students how to communicate with the Numens, vast, star-spanning alien intelligences indistinguishable from gods. (5,664 words; Time: 18m)

Nameless He, by Robert Reed

[Clarkesworld]

★★★☆☆

(Space Opera; Great Ship) A captain on the Great Ship gives a nameless robot the task of studying the enigmatic wreck of an ancient starship. (8,983 words; Time: 29m)

The Immolation of Kev Magee, by L.X. Beckett

[Clarkesworld]

★★★☆☆

(SF Thriller) A young refugee on a floating arctic city struggles to find a role making videos and meets an unexpected mentor. (11,116 words; Time: 37m)

Note: Although the title relates to the short poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” by Robert Service, there’s no serious connection between the story and the poem. But by all means read the poem anyway; it’s short and it’s fun.

An Important Failure, by Rebecca Campbell

[Clarkesworld]

★★★★★ A story of an obsession to make something beautiful in a world that’s falling apart.

(Climate SF) In a world desperate for wood for fires and paper, a man and his brother look for a tree good enough to make a world-class violin. (9,702 words; Time: 32m)

The Plague, by Yan Leisheng

[Clarkesworld]

★☆☆☆☆

(Epidemic SF) A plague that turns people to stone is depopulating the planet, and the narrator has the job of incinerating the bodies. Weirdly, some of them scream. (5,692 words; Time: 18m)