Reviewing short SF since 2000
Cleverly wrought, claustrophobic, dark look at a world where the Great War was far greater, the the symbols of steampunk are reduced to the skeleton of a crashed airship.
A murder mystery, with some quite clever elements to the backstory and setting, all of which are put in place and brought to a conclusion in quick time – imagine a five minute version of Blade Runner!
Leslie creates a setting that is strongly visual – a dense layer of cloud-like material has settled over the Earth – and the inner landscape of the mind of the cartographer of the title is explored in the story.
Interesting conceit – aliens have landed on Earth and have introduced an arbitrary programme of exchange.
Clever story written through the eyes/lenses of an insantiated AI, undergoing, of all things, treatment for the AI equivalent of PTSD.
Excellent value for money!
Engrossing thriller – set in the Ukraine, with internal politics playing a major role against a strange setting in which Chernobyl led to several children having developed strange powers.
An inventive post-apocalyptic setting just a little different from the norm.
A child pontiff, with another child with his destiny, and one who can see some of the future, take the story in Blue Fire from 2010 forward.
A palpable sense of ennui in a story about a 200+ year old musician, but with some issues…
Stories by Steven J. Dines, Jess Hyslop, Nigel Brown, Aliette de Bodard, Priya Sharma, Lavie Tidhar, Georgina Bruce, Shannon Fay.
A look at the (short) life of Stuart Sutcliffe, the ‘fifth Beatle’, with one extra fictional character, following the story of his life and death at the age of 21.
Don’t be fooled by the title, the story doesn’t feature feline furriness, but stars dark, and gets darker still.
English Lit professors are able to enter immersive VR, the better to study famous authors. Here Haldeman (or the academic who is the author’s avatar) takes liberties with Emily Dickinson
Only a few pages long, but PDF crams in a lot, as is his wont, in a neat treat of a story.
In an near-future where climate change is causing serious difficulties, a teen girl rails against her mother and her confinement, with disastrous results.
Three-pager in which far future humans (I guess) are facing climactic challenges, and it’s a harder, somewhat different life, as we find from the pidgin-English what is spoked.
Routine Analog fayre, which I’m a bit surprised to see in this volume.
A clever, dark urban fantasy, more of a Black Static than an Interzone for my money, but heigho. Jess and Cam are a strange alien duo in human form, the other half being very much their modus operandi as they chop and change role and genders, in the pursuit of love, carnality, and wholeness.