Neil Clarke - editor. Alice Sola Kim's "Now Wait for This Week" and Hugh Howey's "No Algorithms in the World" are two of a few such stories that, given their individual premises, could have been edgier while staying true to their near-future projections. N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. Breaking an anthology like A People’s Future down into its component parts not only diminishes it, but misses out on the very purpose of its existence. Introduction by Victor LaValle, read by the author The Bookstore at the End of America, by Charlie Jane Anders, read by Kyla Garcia Our Aim Is Not to Die, by A. Merc Rustad, read by Dani Martineck The Wall, by Lizz Huerta, read by Roxana Ortega Read After Burning, by Maria Dahvana Headley, read by William DeMeritt Chapter 5: Disruption and Continuity [excerpted], by Malka Older, read by Prentice Onayemi It Was Saturday Night, I Guess That Makes It All Right, by Sam J. Miller, read by Paul Boehmer Attachment Disorder, by Tananarive Due, read by Kyla Garcia By His Bootstraps, by Ashok K. Banker, read by William DeMeritt Riverbed, by Omar El Akkad, read by Soneela Nankani What Maya Found There, by Daniel José Older, read by Roxana Ortega The Referendum, by Lesley Nneka Arimah, read by Adenrele Ojo Calendar Girls, by Justina Ireland, read by N'Jameh Camara The Synapse Will Free Us from Ourselves, by Violet Allen, read by Vikas Adam O.1, by Gabby Rivera, read by a full cast (Public Broadcast, Falak Alfayed: Vikas Adam; Mala: Soneela Nankani; Deviana Ortiz: Roxana Ortega; Key: William DeMeritt; Orion: Adenrele Ojo; Luz: Kyla Garcia) The Blindfold, by Tobias S. Buckell, read by Prentice Onayemi No Algorithms in the World, by Hugh Howey, read by Darrell Dennis Esperanto, by Jamie Ford, read by N'Jameh Camara ROME, by G. Willow Wilson, read by Soneela Nankani Give Me Cornbread or Give Me Death, by N. K. Jemisin, read by Adenrele Ojo Good News Bad News, by Charles Yu, read by a full cast (Narrators: Prentice Onayemi & Dani Martineck; Elizabeth Chang: Nancy Wu; Darren Chang: Darrell Dennis; Cynthia Rodriguez: N’Jameh Camara; Bert Newsom: Paul Boehmer; Emma Chang: Kyla Garcia; Nicholas Chang: Nancy Wu) What You Sow, by Kai Cheng Thom, read by Nancy Wu A History of Barbed Wire, by Daniel H. Wilson, read by Darrell Dennis The Sun in Exile, by Catherynne M. Valente, read by Nancy Wu Harmony, by Seanan McGuire, read by Dani Martineck Now Wait for This Week, by Alice Sola Kim, read by Soneela Nankani.

These are not hopeful stories. For decades, The Year's Best Science Fiction has been the most widely read short science fiction anthology of its kind. Death. By: In N.K. Jemisin, Daniel José Older, Charlie Jane Anders, Tobias S. Buckell, Catherynne M. Valente, and Seanan McGuire.

Jemisin’s glorious “Give Me Cornbread, or Give Me Death”, Malka Older’s inventive “Disruption and Continuity” and Omar El Akkad’s heart-breaking “Riverbed” are all utterly exceptional works. In some stories, it is undeniably preachy; in others, it indulges the insular superiority of science fiction readers. Charlie Jane Anders.