Oliver Buckram. Presidential Cryptotrivia. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
The true stories behind US Presidents, from Washington to Obama, testing your knowledge and appreciation of a wide range of ‘stuff’.
Pavel Amnuel. White Curtain. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Bereavement and branching multiverse realities.
Jack McDevitt. Enjoy the Moment. (The End is Nigh)
A scientist getting their name attached to something they have discovered has to be a good thing, right?
Scott Sigler. The Fifth Day of Deer Camp. (The End is Nigh)
Camp being deer camp, out in rural USA in deep midwinter, and five days in a group of friends from a tight-knit community have settled in nicely
Peter Watts. The Colonel. (Tor.com)
This reviewer is a little cross with Tor.com
Hannu Rajaniemi. Invisible Planets. (Reach for Infinity).
A good read that reflects, deep deep in space, about humanity, and with, perhaps, more hidden within?
Alyssa Wong. The Fisher Queen. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
A first professional sale from Wong and she tells her selkie tale well.
David D. Levine. The End of the Silk Road. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
ERBpunk in the same setting as Levine’s ‘The Wreck of the Mars Adventure’ in the Gardner Dozois/GRR Martin anthology ‘Old Mars’.
Jeremiah Tolbert. Wet Fur. (Asimovs August 2014)
The first story I can recall where our feline and canine housemates live on post-life..
Nick Wolven. Placebo. (Asimovs August 2014)
A meditation on technology as a moral tool, not an amoral juggernaut, and a bit of a ponderous meditation at that.
James van Pelt. My Father and the Martian Moon Maids. (Interzone #253 Jul-Aug 2014)
Heartwarming story from van Pelt, in which a son looks back on his relationship with his now dementia-suffering father through the lens of SF and a fascination with UFOs.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2014.
Clearly something is wrong with the time-space continuum as there’s way too much content to fit into even 250-odd pages, and it must be something to do with superdense dark matter that has meant I’ve been reading the issue since April. And there’s some excellent stories in the issue.
Michael Libling. Draft 31. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2014)
Deceptively clever story from Libling – you have to pay attention from the offset to pick up clues as to what is actually happening.
Interzone #252 (May-Jun 2014)
Katherine E.K. Duckett’s plastinated mortuaries the pick of the issue for me.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam. Sleepers. (Interzone #252 May-Jun 2014)
A third story in about three weeks about visitations from a nebulous undead being potential harbringers of messages, or other means by which protagonists are able to address their relationships.
Jo Walton. Sleeper. (Tor.com)
Clever story from Walton with a lot in it to like – if you like things like ‘unions, and free education, and paid holidays, and a health service’
Claire Humphrey. A Brief Light. (Interzone #252, May-Jun 2014)
The second story I’ve read in a couple of months featuring a couple having trouble with the undead, with a very much alive mother in law factored in to the equation
Oliver Buckram. Two Truths and a Lie. (Interzone #252 May-Jun 2014)
Short love story told through the two truths/one lie mechanism..
The Year’s Best Science Fiction. 31st Annual Collection. (ed Gardner Dozois, St. Martin’s Press, 2014).
The juggernaut that is Dozois’ Years Best hits the #31 mark, with another chunky volume.
Rob Chilson. Our Vegetable Love. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2014)
Nice fantasy story from Chilson, although to be clear, the story features trees, not vegetables!
Linda Nagata. Attitude. (Reach for Infinity)
A sporting tournament in zero-G on an orbiting habitat gives an opportunity to look at tenured sportspeople, politics and performance enhancing drugs.
Adam Roberts. Trademark Bugs : a legal history. (Reach for Infinity)
A wry take on the pharma companies and just how low they would stoop in the search for profits, and just how limited the response by governments and the public at large might be.
Caroline M. Yoachim. Five Stages of Grief After the Alien Invasion. (Clarkesworld Magazine #95, August 2014)
A clever way to construct a story, and the characters are well-drawn.