Will Ludwigsen. The Ghost Factory. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
Well handled story, about a now-empty ex-mental institution – empty save for the ghosts, the echoes of who lived there.
Michael Reaves. Code 666. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2013)
The title of the story works better here in the UK, with 999 as the telephone number for the emergency services. Reaves inverts that number, and, as you might guess, this tale of paramedics and their conveyance takes a nasty turn…
Interzone #244 Jan-Feb 2013
Fiction this month from Lavie Tidhar, Helen Jackson, George Zebrowski, Guy Haley, Jim Hawkins, Tracie Welser. Cover art by Jim Burns.
Ekaterina Sedia. A Handsome Fellow. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
In Leningrad, under siege, there is something even more horrible than the starvation and the shelling…
Naomi Kritzer. Solidarity. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2013)
Further adventures of teen Beck Garrison on the independent seastead communities, facing up to the latest challenges, with her dad, as ever, on her case.
Sean F. Lynch. The Cave. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2013)
Chilling, nightmarish horror as a man and his son try to escape from some strange caverns – leaving them far different from when they entered.
John Alfred Taylor. Chromatophores. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
A few years hence, but teenage girls are still teenage girls. Young Janice and her friends lead a recognisable life to contemporary teens, with some high tech improvements, including a skin-colour changing capability, to combat the threat of melanoma.
Deborah J. Ross. Among Friends. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)
Quaker Thomas finds a runaway slave outside his cabin, followed in due course by one seeking the return of the slave to his owner.
Tracie Welser. A Flag Still Flies Over Sabor City. (Interzone #244, Jan/Feb 2013.)
Short vignette from a new author to me. In a repressive, totalitarian regime, a group of young people whose opportunity for revolt during the day is limited, gather during the night to party, and to plot.
Eugene Mirabelli. This Hologram World. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
A beautiful story from Mirabelli, that blends hard SF, theoretical (and historical) mathematics and physics, with a story of painfully heartbreaking humanity. Mind you, I am a bit of a sentimental old fool – but I defy you to read about Richard Feynman’s letter to his dead wife without tears forming.
Vylar Kaftan. Lion Dance. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
Nicely told story set against a backdrop of a US being hammered by a flu pandemic.
Matthew Johnson. The Last Islander. (Asimovs September 2013)
Effective story of a displaced person and a displaced people, in which Johnson uses a shared dreamspace VR to good effect.
Jim Hawkins. Sky Leap – Earth Flame. (Interzone #244 Jan/Feb 2013)
As with the last Hawkins story in Interzone, this one left me cold – it reads like a quickly written novelisation of an average TV drama.
Chris Willrich. Star Soup. (Asimovs September 2012)
Neat take on the post-fall of humanity trope. A visitor arrives in the remaining village on the planet Dimhope, and through his use of some advanced tech, he teases stories out of some of the villagers – full humans, and those that are less so.
Dale Bailey. Mating Habits of the Late Cretaceous. (Asimovs September 2012)
Bailey picks up where Bradbury left off with ‘A Sound of Thunder’, in a time travel story with bite.
Chet Arthur. The Trouble with Heaven. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2013)
Drier than a dry martini, Arthur provides a blackly humorous look at life on an orbiting habitat for the ultra-rich, and how the wealthy inhabitants behave, how their spoilt children mis(behave) and the lives and loves of a diplomat, a journalist, and a droid who is more than she seems.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2013.
Stories by Alex Irvine, Matthew Hughes, Desmond Warzel, Judith Moffett, David Gerrold, Ken Liu, Dale Bailey, Albert E. Cowdrey, Robert Reed. From bovine to canine, and issue that spans the genres.
Judith Moffett. The Lights and Darks. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2013)
You would think that with a 12-week old cocker spaniel puppy sitting on a rug quietly at my feet as I write this I’d be as receptive as I would ever be to a story about dogs. Nah. ‘Nuff said. Move along now. I’m gonna read me some SF.
Robert Reed. Among Us. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2013)
A clever, understated story from Reed, that looks at those in our society who aren’t quite what they seem. Just who is the alien amongst us? And who is to decide?
Gray Rinehart. The Second Engineer. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
A story that doesn’t quite make the step up from relatively routine adventure on a spaceship, with a female lead who gets knocked out as regularly as Frodo in LoTR.
Kit Reed. Results Guaranteed. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
The teen years at school can be bad enough, but when you’re enrolled in the kind of school Reed posits, with werewolves and vampires and bears oh my being the majority of the school population.
Paul McAuley. Antartica Starts Here. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
Near-future post-icecap-melt story, that looks at some of the risks to the previously inaccessible wilderness of the Antartic.
Alan Smale. The Mongolian Book of the Dead. (Asimovs October/November 2012)
A Chinese invasion of Mongolia leads to an epic journey for an itinerant American travel. The story has a great sense of place, although it did drag a bit for me,as repeated daytime journeys across the barren desert and night-time communion with Mongolian spirituality had a draining affect on me (although not as much as on the protagonist).
Asimovs. August 2012.
Stories by Indrapramit Das, Jason Sanford, Theodora Goss, Ian Creasey, Ted Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard, Bruce McAllister, Gord Sellar. Some strong, some good, some weak. Read the review to find out which is which!
Gord Sellar. The Bernoulli War. (Asimovs August 2012)
Far future warfare carried out by post-human entities, in a clever, complex short story like Charles Stross used to write.
Bruce McAllister. Stamps. (Asimovs August 2012)
An Arcturian living amongst us finds a passion for philately, as his kind help the human race from destroying itself, and in the simple act of writing letters to seek used postage stamps, a lot about humanity can be learnt.
Aliette de Bodard. Starsong. (Asimovs August 2012)
Part of AdB’s ongoing ‘Xuya’ sequence in which we take a peek into the mind of a ship, as echoes and dreams from the past show us steps made on its journey in a previous life.
Desmond Warzel. The Blue Celeb. (Fantasy & Science Fiction Jan/Feb 2013)
Two wisecracking Harlem barbers find a car left outside their barbershop is a most righteous automobile.
Albert E. Cowdrey. A Haunting in Love City. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2013)
In which F&SF regulars Morrie and Jimmy carry out some spooky sleuthing in Texas.
Asimovs. April/May 2013.
Stories by Neal Asher, Joel Richards, Colin P. Davis, Alan Wall, Tom Purdom, Linda Nagata, Karl Bunker, Naomi Krtizer, Leah Cypess, Ken Liu.
Asimovs. March 2013.
Stories this month by Alexander Jablokov, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Jason Sanford, Garrett Ashely, Lavie Tidhar, Michael Cassutt.
Asimovs. February 2013.
Stories this month by Vylar Kaftan, Matthew Hughes, David Erik Nelson, M. Bennardo, Robert Reed, John Chu.
Asimovs. January 2013.
Stories this month by Alaya Dawn Johnson, Will McIntosh, Kit Reed, Suzanne Palmer, James van Pelt, Nancy Kress.
Asimovs. December 2012.
Stories by Steven Popkes, Ken Liu, Chris Beckett, Mike Resnick, Sandra McDonald, Robert Reed.