Matthew Johnson. Rules of Engagement. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
Near-future military SF, with an interesting structure, but just a little too detached for me.
Michael Swanwick. Passage of Earth. (Clarkesworld #91 April 2014)
An excellent story from Swanwick, and I’m putting it into the Pot of Contention for the Best SF Short Story Award 2014.
M. Bennardo. Slowly Upward, the Coelacanth. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
Doesn’t really offer more to a story type that Stephen Baxter had fun with some years ago – humans in extremis looking to nature and the animal/marine kingdom the better to survive the new environment.
Desirina Boskovich. Heaven is a Place on Planet X. (The End is Nigh).
A slightly unusual apocalypse – aliens have arrived, and humanity is to be transported en
Michael Swanwick. Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
A smoothly told story from Unca Mike, gliding along nicely, describing an underworld not that far different from some of the seamier parts of some of the seamier cities of the world.
Caroline M. Yoachim. Beneath the Willow Branches. (Interzone #250)
Echoing an oriental fable, a scientist must head back in time, or, rather, experience time in reverse, until he is able to pluck his wife, stranded in a loop, into a time-stream that does not see here in a coma.
Robin Wasserman. The Balm and The Wound. (The End is Nigh)
An author new to me, and on this basis, I have questions to ask of SF editors as to why this is the case…
Twelve Tomorrows. (MIT Technology Review, 2013)
With a gorgeously retro cover, and a splendid full-colour insert for the artwork of Richard Powers, some great stories by some big name authors.
Peter Watts. Firebrand. (Twelve Tomorrows)
Some semi-scatalogic humour to leave the reader of the anthology with a warm glow (unless you have a relative who went up in a warm glow) with which to remember the collection.
Justina Robson. Pwnage. (Twelve Tomorrows)
Well-handled story set in the mind of young woman when such minds are more permanently connected to the interwebs.
Greg Egan. Zero for Conduct. (Twelve Tomorrows)
Being the inventor of room-temperature superconductivity would be a route to instant fame and riches. Unless…
Will McIntosh. Scout. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
From a forthcoming novel, ‘Defenders’, which is already optioned by Warner Brothers. It’s a small sequence with an interesting backdrop – people on Earth struggling against an alien invasion.
Fran Wilde. Like a Wasp to the Tongue. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
Corporate skullduggery in a remote vespidary.
William Preston. Each in His Prison, Thinking of the Key. (Asimovs April/May 2014)
Yet more about The Old Man, and we find out more about him, and a big finale is set up.
Leo Vladimirsky. Collar. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2014)
Two men grease themselves up, but then it’s left to us to imagine what happens next…
Greg Kurzawa. Predvestniki. (Interzone #250 Jan-Feb 2014)
Whilst in Moscow, a visitor finds the city, and some of its people, behaving strangely, and ditto his wife…
Oliver Buckram. The Museum of Error. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2014)
Buckram closes off the issue with some gentle humour with some neat touches, and avoids trying too hard to be too clever and funny.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2014
Cover by way of tribute to the late Ed Valigursky. Pick of the stories this month from Andy Stewart, C.C. Finlay, Seth Chambers, Alex Irvine.
Albert E. Cowdrey. Out of the Deep. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jan/Feb 2014)
Another classy tale of ne’er-do-wells in the deep south, and some powerful magic.