Gareth L. Powell. Railroad Angel. (Interzone #241, Jul-Aug 2012)
With Kerouac and Kesey mentioned, and it being 1968, Powell gives more than enough for many readers over 50 to be going on with..
Cory Doctorow. Chicken Little. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction, 28th Annual Collection)
A lengthy and rewarding read.
David Moles. Seven Cities of Gold. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction 28th Annual Collection)
A complicated story, dense, and one that would benefit from re-reading, and from the reading of the introductory notes that evidently came in the original publication chapbook.
Carrie Vaughn. Amaryllis. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction 28th Annual Collection)
I recommend you follow the link supplied and read the story if you haven’t already – it’s effective and affecting.
Lavie Tidhar. The Night Train. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 5)
An outstanding story, which gets a big thumbs up from me.
Year’s Best SF 17. (ed David G. Hartwell, Kathryn Cramer. Harper Voyager, 2012.)
A good range of sources covered, with three of the four major magazines getting a look in (no Analog), a couple of anthologies, and a range of online sources. Buy a copy for your bookshelf.
Naomi Novik. Seven Years from Home. (Year’s Best Science Fiction 28th Annual Collection)
Cleverly handled in terms of structure and the gradual reveal, with a strong female character, without a heaving bosom in sight.
Aliette de Bodard. Ship’s Brother. (Interzone, #241, Jul-Aug 2012)
Third in the future Xuya sequence, an effective story, as the others, gradually building up layers to create a more complicated setting.
Karen Heuler. Thick Water. (Year’s Best SF #17)
Sort of a mash-up of Prometheus and The Thing. All but one of a scientific party of humans find the alien environment in which they live becomes very much part of them.
Robert Reed. Our Candidate. (Year’s Best SF 17)
Short, dark look at politics, in a near-future in which a ‘voice of reason’ might appear to be able to head off the catastrophe into which the world appears to be heading.
Madeline Ashby. The Education of Junior Number 12. (Year’s Best SF 17)
Ashby makes self-replicating Von Neumann machines pretty much as exciting as they are going to get.
Nebula Awards Showcase 2012. (ed James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. Pyr, 2012.)
A handsome book with some excellent, average and so-so SF that is going to sit nicely against the 44 previous volumes on my groaning bookshelves.
Harlan Ellison. How Interesting : A Tiny Man. (Nebula Awards Showcase 2012)
It will have people asking ‘what is it about?’ in the same way that his Repent! Harlequin does. Which, to my mind, is A Good Thing.
Rachel Swirsky. The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers…. (Nebula Awards Showcase)
hmmm, very similar to hard SF in some ways.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2012.
Some good stories in the issue, with a bit more SF than is often the case.
Michael Alexander. The Children’s Crusade. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2012)
An excellent story which gradually unveils why a community which has some remnants of long-lost technology is as it is.
Asimovs. March 2012.
Stories by Derek Kunsken, Benjamin Crowell, Tom Purdom, Leah Cypress, James Van Pelt, Joel Richards, with Richards and Kunsken the pick of the ish.
Benjamin Crowell. The Pass. (Asimovs March 2012)
With most of humanity having opted for a digital upload to an alien-provided nirvana/rapture, only a few small communities remain.
Derek Kunsken. The Way of the Needle. (Asimovs, March 2012)
An excellent piece of world-building from Kunsken, set on a planet whose inhabitants are metallic crablike creatures, who draw power from the ancient pulsar around which they orbit, post-supernova.
James Tiptree, Jr. And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side. (Nebula Awards Showcase 2012)
A treat to read a quality story from one of the standout SF writers of the 20th century.