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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015

Joe Hill, Theodora Goss, Neil Gaiman, Susan Palwick, Adam-Troy Castro, Sam J. Miller, Daniel H. Wilson, Nathan Ballingrud, Kelly Link, Jess Row, Kelly Sandoval, T. Coraghessan Boyle, A. Merc Rustad, Sofia Samatar, Carmen Maria Machado, Cat Rambo, Karen Russell, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Seanan McGuire, Jo Walton

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These books are ranked using the themes labels extracted for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015.

Themes labels used: depression, death, destruction, grief, loss, identity, humanity, technology, body autonomy, gender, feminism, colonialism, cultural appropriation, worldbuilding, memory, resurrection, transformation, isolation, hope, emotional resonance, creative imagination

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their themes embeddings are close.

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You Will Never Be Forgotten: Stories

Mary South · 2020

Ten dark, formally inventive stories use tech, grief, and bizarre premises to expose how fragile people really are.

Why this is here

Themes labels: grief · loss · loneliness · alienation · technology · humanity · connection · disconnection · trauma · memory · love · acceptance · control · identity · sexism · patriarchy · modernity · social media · internet culture · work · mortality · embodiment · motherhood · reproduction · empathy · shame · shaming culture

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0929

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The Seep

Chana Porter · 2020

A trans woman in an alien-made utopia spirals after her wife remakes herself, then sets out on a strange quest.

Why this is here

Themes labels: grief · identity · transformation · free will · autonomy · community · memory · mortality · love · loss · acceptance · pain · happiness · toxic positivity · utopia vs dystopia · ethics · consent · self-determination · change · humanity · post-scarcity

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0933

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Slow Gods

Claire North · 2025

An immortal pilot from a brutal star society becomes central to a galaxy-wide response to an impending supernova.

Why this is here

Themes labels: identity · humanity · mortality · immortality · memory · belonging · love · grief · loss · meaning of life · ethics · morality · agency · free will · power · control · oppression · capitalism critique · climate denial · war · sacrifice · community · cultural survival · history · preservation · perception · belief · othering · gender · language · home · diaspora

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0941

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Toward Eternity

Anton Hur · 2024

A near-future nanotech cure for cancer opens into centuries of AI, poetry, and posthuman questions about being human.

Why this is here

Themes labels: humanity · identity · consciousness · mortality · immortality · memory · language · translation · poetry · music · art · technology and humanity · personhood · love · survival · evolution · death · grief · loss · community · imperialism · racism · propaganda · transmission · selfhood · artistic creation · authorship · meaning of life · future of humanity · authentic self

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0943

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If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light

Kim Cho-yeop · 2026

Seven Korean speculative stories explore space, aliens, and future tech through intimate questions of identity, grief, and connection.

Why this is here

Themes labels: humanity · identity · belonging · connection · loneliness · grief · loss · memory · motherhood · parenthood · classism · misogyny · discrimination · bioethics · eugenics · transhumanism · empathy · legacy · imperfection · hope · melancholy · technological progress · limits of science · moral choice · utopia · alienness · translation of emotions

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0946

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The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

Ken Liu · 2020

A linked speculative-fiction collection on memory, identity, technology, and family, spanning history, futures, and the Singularity.

Why this is here

Themes labels: identity · memory · heritage · culture clash · colonialism · empathy · humanity · embodiment · mortality · digital immortality · grief · truth and reality · technology ethics · freedom · resistance · art · social media · gun violence · climate change · refugees · war · moral ambiguity · transhumanism

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.0978

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Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 3: Killing Angel

Yukito Kishiro · 2004 · 銃夢 [Gunnm]

After a devastating loss, a cyborg heroine throws herself into a brutal futuristic sport while her guardian searches for her.

Why this is here

Themes labels: grief · identity · memory · humanity · body autonomy · selfhood · loss · independence · violence · freedom · class divide · social inequality · technology and personhood · fate · escape

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1046

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Belly Up: Stories

Rita Bullwinkel · 2018

A surreal story collection where bodies, grief, love, and hunger twist ordinary life into strange, unsettling forms.

Why this is here

Themes labels: identity · loneliness · death · grief · loss · body · embodiment · physicality · alienation · love · feminism · patriarchy · consumption · mortality · human condition · incommunicability · motherhood · selfhood · desire · sabotage

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1051

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Every Version of You

Grace Chan · 2022

In a climate-damaged near-future Australia, a woman must choose between a virtual future and the physical ties that anchor her.

Why this is here

Themes labels: identity · humanity · consciousness · mortality · grief · loss · climate change · technology · capitalism · class inequality · embodiment · authenticity · migration · diaspora · belonging · memory · ethics · disability · aging · mental health · consumerism · privacy · consent · social responsibility · surveillance · progress · transhumanism

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1051

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Remember You Will Die

Eden Robins · 2024

An AI mother searches for the truth behind her human daughter’s death through a web of obituaries across time.

Why this is here

Themes labels: grief · mortality · humanity · identity · memory · legacy · art · climate change · activism · ethics · consciousness · responsibility · history · connection · loss · hope · capitalism · respectability · queerness · Jewishness · belonging

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1079

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In the Watchful City

S. Qiouyi Lu · 2021

A city watcher’s orderly life unravels when a curious traveler arrives with objects that each hide a story.

Why this is here

Themes labels: surveillance · power · diaspora · transformation · identity · grief · mental health · belonging · assimililation · agency · oppression · colonialism · decolonization · cultural erasure · heritage · gender · queerness · life and death · choice · community safety · humanity · trauma · memory · body autonomy · government control

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1087

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The Man with the Compound Eyes

Wu Ming-Yi · 2013

A grieving Taiwanese professor and an island boy from a sacrifice tradition are thrown together by an ocean of trash.

Why this is here

Themes labels: environmental destruction · climate change · ecological balance · loss · memory · identity · loneliness · indigenous culture · tradition vs modernity · colonialism · modernization · grief · survival · human responsibility · interdependency · nature and humanity · cultural preservation · sacrifice · communication · perspective · collective guilt · hope · language

Semantic match: ranked by themes

Distance: 0.1091

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