Carter Scholz. Gypsy. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015)
An echo of Arthur C. Clarke in the way Scholz blends technology, societal issues, and challenges on an individual level.
Tim Sullivan. Hob’s Choice. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015)
A story that exists in two quantum states : easy to read and not easy to read.
Asimovs October/November 2015
Strong stories by Small, McDonald and Wilber..
Ian Creasey. My Time on Earth. (Asimovs October/November 2015)
A young girl returns from her visit to Earth, and has a ghost story to tell friends from her last night on the planet in the old city of York.
Daryl Gregory. Begone. (Asimovs October/November 2015)
An ad-man is bewitched by a woman, and he marries her. Oh, that cute nose twitch!
Timons Esaias. Hollywood after 10. (Asimovs October/November 2015)
The time travel trope is mined once again, but that mine is pretty well used up by now.
Priya Sharma. Blonde. (Interzone #260 Sept/Oct 2015)
Rapunzel, shorn of her auburn tresses, leaves her life of captivity.
Yoon Ha Lee. The Cold Inequalities. (Meeting Infinity, 2015)
An elegant updating of a classic SF short story.
Jeff Wayne’s ‘The War of the Worlds’ at The Dominion Theatre
Jeff Wayne’s musical version H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’ brought to the stage.
John Shirley. Weedkiller. (Interzone #260, September/October 2015)
Good to see Shirley still producing cyberpunky stories.
Interzone #260 (September/October 2015)
I’m a bit behind with my Interzone reading… Stories this issue by John Shirley, Jeff Noon, Priya Sharma, C.A. Hawksmoor, Christien Gholson
Interzone #259 July/August 2015
A reasonable collection of stories, but nothing to really write home about.
Sarah Pinsker. Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea. (Lighstpeed Magazine #69, February 2016)
Post-collapse, two women have to come to terms with the new realities…
Nick Wolven. In the Midst of Life. (Clarkesworld Magazine #113, February 2016)
The sfnal elements ramp up in the closing paragraphs of a 15000 word story, but it feels a bit X-Filesy to me (and not being a fan of that show, that’s not a good thing!)
Rick Wilber. Walking to Boston. (Asimovs October/November 2015)
A great bit of writing.
Paul McAuley. The Fixer. (Clarkesworld Magazine #113 February 2016)
A neat story from McAuley .
Gwyneth Jones. Emergence. (Meeting Infinity, 2015)
A *lot* of ideas, but covered sketchily, and not particularly satisfactorily.
Jeffrey Ford. The Winter Wraith. (Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2015)
It’s a cold, bleak winter, and the task of taking out the dead christmas tree appears to be not quite as straightforward as it might…
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct 2015
Some excellent stories within – a strong issue.
Brooks Peck. With Folded RAM. (Asimovs September/October 2015)
A four-pager that covers a lot of territory in a not particularly convincing manner.
Ian McDowell. The Hard Woman. (Asimovs October/November 2015)
A Cow-Boy story in which a travelling French music hall artiste with an extraordinary ability (the only fantastical element to the story) visits a town and ends up chasing a no-gooder into injun territory
Rachel K. Jones. Charlotte Incorporated. (Lightspeed Magazine #69, Feb 2016)
A disturbing look at a near-future world of haves and have-nots – where the ‘haves’ have a body to put a brain into.
Benjanun Sriduangkaew. The Beast at the End of Time. (Apex Magazine #81, February 2016)
Sriduangkaew is one of the few authors whose authorship of a story you can guess just from reading it.
Elizabeth Bear. The Bone War. (Fantasy and Science Fiction Sept/Oct 2015)
The skeleton animation skills of Bijou the Artificier are called upon. Big time.
David Gerrold. Monsieur. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept/Oct 2015)
A clever look at the nature of the vampire myth, and how fiction addresses that myth, through a neat plot device.
Dennis Etchison. Don’t Move. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2015)
Exactly what and why is going on isn’t clear. This works sometimes, sometimes not.
Robert Reed. The Algorithms of Value. (Clarkesworld Magazine #112, January 2016)
Reed’s stories of late have been quite contemplative in nature as I recall, and this is no exception.