Kit Reed. Monkey Do. (Asimovs June 2010)
A struggling author finds his muse, after a fashion. The last sentence elevates the story to a higher level.
Reviewing short SF since 2000
A struggling author finds his muse, after a fashion. The last sentence elevates the story to a higher level.
Set in Brazil in a world in which carbon emissions are the currency.
A cuddly toy with an AI chip finds itself a long way from home.
How can the old ways be stopped from being a barrier to the opportunities the new ways offer?
Steele revisits a theme from a previous story of his, although with an sfnal rather than a fantasy element.
[May 29th 2010] Couple of new areas on the home page, the better to present
A big book, with a huge amount of top quality SF.
To be read slowly, and savoured.
Catastrophe Baker meets his match with Voluptia von Climax, in a tongue in cheek homage to bygone space opera.
Some very solid SF in here, without it being one of the classic double-issues that Asimovs comes up with every couple of years.
Strong imagery around humanity’s concrete and metal structures falling to the power of earthquake, flood and vegetation, and with the flora and fauna taking over, with the future for humanity looking bleak.
Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics get a dusting off deep in space.
Nebula Award Winner 2010 for Best Short Story. If you ain’t read it online yet, or listened to it, you’re missing out.
Looks at a globally catastrophic event through its impact on a family.
Not really alternate history, certainly not science fiction, and with ein passing nod to genre fiction.
Genge returns to the setting of her previous story ‘Shoes to Run’ from Asimovs last year – a near-future post-something domed-Paris – and I’ll be looking out for future stories.
A claimant to the throne has no belief in God. But what if God has belief in him?
Excellent exploration of confusion, alienation, and spiralling downwards into mental distress.
A hi-tech cargo transport system is the sfnal element of this so-so story.
Insurance claims, and human motivations and emotions are effectively and affectingly addressed.
A genetically-modified prepubescent 40-year old cabin boy on the Starskhp Lakshmi is an unwitting key to resolving a very alien threat.
A Retrieval Artist story.
Heart-rending and believable.
S’okay, but little beyond the ‘be careful what you wish for’ trope.
A thriller set on board a spaceport – one of the weaker stories in the volume. Fruit cobbler anyone?
A little by-the-numbers with Avataresque good scientist/bad industrialist roles, but the ending gives a flash of something a bit different.
Lust, love and lapdancing.
Something for everyone … pervs included. Duncan, Reaves and Bowes my favourites, giving the first half of the chunky, value for money, volume more grist to my reviewing mill.
Gordon van Gelder : ‘some of the most daring linguistic gymnastics ever attempted’ in the pages of F&SF. Best SF : ‘Yarblockos’
Quite categorically, the best short story about a vampiric attack on the Holy City that I have ever read.
A very modern Christmas Carol, in which a somewhat cynical divorcee finds a sort of Christmas yet to come.
Taut, far-future thriller which works well.
Buckell explores issues that are the top of the list for me with regard to SF – what sacrifices will we have to make as individuals, and as a species, to make it out beyond our solar system? How will we maintain our essential humanity?
A collection of excellent stories.
A classy story, handling two intertwined narratives beautifully as hidden secrets gradually become lycanthropically clear.