Alexander Jablokov. The Days the Wires Came Down. (Asimovs April/May 2011)
A second consecutive story in Asimovs from Jablokov which didn’t do much for me. Actually, to be truthful, it did do something for me – it disappointed me.
Albert E. Cowdrey. Scatter My Ashes. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2011)
Cowdrey eschews his usual deep south setting, reaching into Russian and Jewish folklore, to delve into the dark secrets of an unfrocked Russian holy man..
Asimovs. March 2011.
Stories by John Kessel, Ian Creasey, Steve Bein, Robert Reed, Neal Barrett Jr., An Owomoyela, Nancy Fulda, Nick Wolven. A strong issue, with a good range of inventive stories.
Robert Reed. Purple. (Asimovs March 2011)
A strange story – a blinded, maimed young man is one of a select few humans who are rescued from death by a greater force.
Nick Wolven. Lost in the Memory Palace, I Found You. (Asimovs, March 2011)
A disorientating world, where a fleeting memory can be a potentially valuable thing, something worth chasing down. Or not.
Sandra McDonald. Seven Sexy Cowboy Robots. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five.)
An elderly woman reflects on her robotic companions.
Neil Gaiman. The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 5.)
The dwarf, the narrator of the story, is a complex character in a story which poses more questions than it answers.
Steve Bein. The Most Important Thing in the World. (Asimovs, March 2011)
A New York cabbie finds something left behind in his cab by a fare, something that gives him all the time in the world.
Nancy Fulda. Movement. (Asimovs, March 2011).
An interesting perspective, that of a young child, happy in her own mind, her own world view, her own timeframes. But she doesn’t fit into the norm, and so her parents are seeking medical advice for ‘treatment’.
An Owomoyela. God in the Sky. (Asimovs, March 2011).
A short but effective/affecting story.
Ian Creasey. “I Was Nearly Your Mother”. (Asimovs, March 2011).
After Neal Barrett Jr’s ‘Where’, with a very strange setting, Creasey provides a rather more prosaic setting of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire.
Interzone #232, Jan-Feb 2011.
Stories by Douglas Lain, Michael R. Fletcher, Sarah L. Edwards, Sue Burke, James Bloomer, with Lain and Fletcher the pick of the bunch.
James Bloomer. Flock, Shoal, Herd. (Interzone #232, Jan-Feb 2011).
Winner of The James White Award short story competition for non professional writers.
Sue Burke. Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. (Interzone #232, Jan-Feb 2011).
A story which I found a bit of a struggle.
Sarah L. Edwards. By Plucking Her Petals. (Interzone #232, Jan-Feb 2011).
A society where beauty can be bought and sold, skimmed and applied.
Michael R. Fletcher. Intellectual Property. (Interzone #232, Jan/Feb 2011)
Fletcher provides a clever multi-perspective story of espionage, and double-crossing.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011
Stories by Pat MacEwen, Kate Wilhelm, Albert E. Cowdrey, Matthew Corradi, Rick Norwood, Chris Lawson, James Stoddard, Jim Young, Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg, Richard A. Lupoff, Alan Dean Foster.
Matthew Corradi. The Ghilling Blade. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011).
Fantasy novellete following Selestriian Dah’nok’s loss of the titular blade, and his involvement with wraiths, the water-witch of Sultantis, and the Obixx, which he reaches via Boroxis on the path to Erastiss, before he finds the Dinisistrii solution.
Neal Barrett Jr. Where. (Asimovs, March 2011).
A neat, original little story from Barrett, very much the type of story he writes, and which, sadly, so few others appear to attempt.
Alan Dean Foster. Ghost Wind : a Mad Amos Malone Story. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2011).
A story featuring Mad Amos Malone and, I would guess, a wind of ghostly origin.
Richard A. Lupoff. 12:02 PM. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011)
Back in Dec 1973, we are informed, Lupoff’s ’12:01 PM’ appeared in F&SF, subsequently turned into a tv movie.
Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg. Paradise Last. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011).
Zombie lurve – proving that sex in the after life is not dead boring.
Albert E. Cowdrey. The Bogle. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011).
Chilling domestic horror.
Jim Young. The Whirlwind. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011)
Stuck in a simulation, with limited memory, Ben has to make sense of just what is happening – a whirlwind dispensing advice, and two companions – one very antagonistic male, and a woman.
John Kessel. Clean. (Asimovs, March 2011).
A sequel to Kessel’s first Asimov story – ‘Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine’, all the way back from October 1983.
James Stoddard. Christmas at Hostage Canyon. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011)
A young boy finds out that there is a much, much darker side to Christmas Eve.
Chris Lawson. Canterbury Hollow. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2011)
A beautiful little SF love story.