The winner of the Best SF Short Story Award 2015 is Bao Shu’s ‘What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear’ (from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Mar/Apr 2015). It’s very clever, with a lot of devil in the detail, and I found it hugely entertaining when reading it – one of those stories that I was very aware of savouring as I read it, and not really wanting the end to to come. You can read the full Best SF Review here
Other candidates for the award for 2015 were :
David Levine. Damage. (Tor.com, January 2015). I’m not the biggest fan of military SF, but there’s a lot more to this story than the combat in space. Best SF Review here.
Matthew Kressel. The Garden Beyond Her Infinite Skies. Clarkesworld Magazine May 2015. An excellent story and piece of world-building. Best SF Review here.
Sam J. Miller. When Your Child Strays from God. Clarkesworld Magazine #106, July 2015. An unlikeable protagonist goes on a journey to seek her son who has strayed. Best SF Review here.
Indrapramit Das. The Muses of Shuyedan-18. Asimovs June 2015. A great story from Das that does what I like an SF story to do – look at the future of humanity, explore the alien, and learn something about humans on a micro level or humanity on a macro level. Best SF Review here
David Gerrold. Entanglements. Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2015. An intensely personal story from Gerrold with many link to the past(s). Best SF Review here.
Derek Kunsken. Pollen from a Future Harvest. (Asimovs July 2015) Kunsken fits in bereavement, betrayal, a vegetable-based life form, a mystery, a black female lead, poetry, politics, a non-standard non-binary marriage, auditors, and even the French. Best SF Review here.
Will McIntosh. A Thousand Nights Till Morning. (Asimovs August 2015) (Asimovs August 2015). McIntosh’s story of alien invasion avoids a lot of standard tropes and plot resolutions, and has an altogether non-heroic protagonist. Best SF review here.
Van Aaron Hughes. The Body Pirate. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2015) Hughes sets up an intriguing scenario – humans and some form of intelligent bird have a strange symbiotic relationship, with a bird coupling to the human between their shoulder blades, and forming a ‘soul’ for the body – and has a clever narrative structure to suit. Best SF review here.
Previous Winners
The Best SF Short Story Award 2014 was won by Michael Swanwick – details here.