Simone Heller. When We Were Starless. (Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2018)
Heller is an author new to me, but a name I would be looking out for now if I was still in the habit of reading a lot of short SF in it’s original appearance.
Reviewing short SF since 2000
Heller is an author new to me, but a name I would be looking out for now if I was still in the habit of reading a lot of short SF in it’s original appearance.
Another masterful piece of writing from Tidhar.
Sitting down at the computer in a brief interlude from a day gardening in the sunshine I did have the option to re-read the story. but..
Written some 18 or more years after John W. Campbell’s ‘The Thing’, but with a similar underpinning idea.
I started this story with high hopes – one from no less an author than Tom ‘The Cold Equations’ Godwin, but found that this story doesn’t quite live up to his most famous work.
I may be late to the party, but a Best SF Huzzah! for the late Robinson.
A story that doesn’t go much beyond the principal conceit : a man has the uncanny knack of knowing just where and when someone is going to have a brainwave or invent something – and therefore be on hand to licence and exploit it.
The story has many excellent turns of phrase, and leads the reader through the story introducing background concepts and technology, with the odd clever ‘reveal’.
A minimal SFnal element to a story that peers into the dark recesses of one human mind.
A strong start to Dikty’s anthology, with a story that stands the test of time well.
A story that would sit nicely in today’s F&SF with only a few changes – blackly comic and satirical, it features two men setting out into zombie-infested territory.
Mr. Kemper has been on Earth for millenia and finds little to differentiate the creatures in cages at the zoo from those staring in at them.
A fairly weak story for a Hugo Winner.
‘Mr. & Mrs. Henry Kuttner’ ponder whether flesh & blood, despite their inherent weaknesses, are superior to computers.
Imagine, a sports stadium full of hateful people, encouraged to be hateful, by the government. Sheer fantasy of course.
A rather dark, disturbing story from Knight, somewhat at odds with the rest of the volume (and possibly the majority of SF in the mid-50s).
Asimov posits a new technology, ‘dreamies’, a form of immersive VR, but instead of being digitally coded, the dreamies are created by capturing and editing the dreams of the small percentage of the population who dream vivid dreams.
A travel agent can get you a one-way ticket to somewhere very different and very special. It’s one-way and a one-off chance.
A touch of sauciness for the 1950s!
Humorous story in which missionaries from the Antarean region arrive on Earth and are horrified by what they see – flesh-eating monsters and barbaric humans.
Nice little story featuring the awfully nice Mr. Johnson, who spends his day in New York being rather helpful to people who cross his path.
After three rejuves, old age comes apace, and John Melhuey wishes to avoid decrepitude.
One of a trio of stories about Gussie Kusevic, one of a breed of humans that have developed beyond homo sapien.
One of a series of stories in Henderson’s ‘The People’ series, featuring an alien race, indistinguishable from humans and living amongst us, typically in small remote communities, hiding their special abilities and remaining incognito.
A mildly amusing tale of psi, swamis, scientific framework and anti-gravity. Rather longer than it really needed to be….
A solo ‘Long Haul’ trip to pass muster for the role of starship captain. Except, there is someone else to keep you company.
A great read with some wonderful writing.
Gunn’s tale foreshadows the drama of Apollo 13 and the ‘fake Moon landing’ conspiracy theorists.
A troublesome teen decides that he wants more from life than putting roots down with a nice girl. (Oh, and he’s an alien).
A sweet little story in which an elderly, retired Jewish couple sitting on their porch are paid a visit by a Golem hell-bent on world domination.
A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining story.
Sensitive story from McHugh.
Two people on the spectrum, and a British AI, and treachery…
A short, fun story from Larson.
Very much in the ‘Analog’ vein, of scientists coming across a scientific challenge/conundrum and having to resolve it
I went into this story with low expectations. Sadly the story didn’t even reach those low expectations.
A touching story, with a very strong sense of place, and of the people populating it.
A shorter story from Tidhar, and classy as usual.
Read in The Year’s Best Science Fiction Thirty Fifth Annual Collection (Dozois, 2018). Published by
An intriguing vignette from Corey.
Whilst not SF, altogether a good story about grownups and grownup issues.
clever stuff, although admittedly the characters are rather one-dimensional, with one of them handily having prior knowledge that helps explain the background.
Three dimensional and believable.
As with the opening story in the volume, the fourth one is also a reflective one, which will similarly disappoint seekers of action-driven adventure.
A thoughtful and powerful reflection.
A clever story to end Clarke’s volume.
There’s a great balance of characterisation, tech, socio-political background and story here.
A near-future cyberpunky cyber-thriller, with a couple of twists, double crosses, and neat touches.
Short, tight, claustrophobic and up close and personal.
Reed’s ‘Great Ship’ is the setting for a sprawling series of stories, an he has been writing them for about 20 years now, and there’s no reason as far as the setting goes, for stopping any time now.
Very well told, and altogether a pleasure to read.
An interesting conceit, but the story whizzes through quickly.
There was stuff I *really* did like – gender fluidity, non-CIS sexuality and flirting, but the undercover spy thing and the generally light tone of the story didn’t work for me.
The story moves through the gears smoothly, starting as a traditional ship politics story and ramping us the tension and the scale and scope of the story nicely.
A good read, although if you’d asked me after reading it what the theme of the anthology was from which it was taken, ‘Asian SF and Fantasy’ would have been a long, long way down the list of suggestions.
Only the third story by Wise that I’ve read, and like the previous two it’s a good one.
An interesting WhoDunnit – not sure if there has been a DidIDoIt before?
Only the second story I’ve read by Clark, and they have both impressed.
A reasonable story although not a standout for me.
An excellent story from Das – go follow the link and read it.
There are some great descriptions of alien worlds, and an interesting conclusion, but the story didn’t quite rise to the level of some of Benford’s work.
One element of the story just a little too close to Andy Weir’s ‘The Martian’ for my liking, but otherwise well done.
I know I have a long-standing issue with many Analog stories, but I wasn’t particularly taken with this story, before finding out where it was published.
A generation starship story, which are few and far between these days.
A good balance of space exploration science, AI musings, global climate change/disaster and societal impacts, and with a non-western setting.
There’s depth and warmth in the story, which makes it well worth the read and inclusion in this volume.
It’s a neat story, Kress as ever, handling the characters well.
A shorter, tighter story than is oft the case with Reynolds, albeit with his usual boggling galactic backdrop.
A little polished nugget of a story.
Not too much by way of story, but the strength is in the detailed setting and the characterisation of the main character, who comes to term with his, and the Earth’s past, present and future.
A story that grabs you straight away, and keeps you (or at least it did me) reading to the end.
A neat complement, 60 years in the past, to Karin Lowachee’s ‘A Good Home’.
I have to admit to be being rather underwhelmed by the story.
As a contemporary horror/vampire story it’s plenty fine enough, but it’s not SFF.
A touching story, looking at ageing and Alzheimers, through the lens (or should I say the robotic eye) of Medical Care Android BRKCX/01932-217H-98662
Themes of love and loss and memory and is altogether a satisfying story about those issues.
Another strong story from Miller.
Not a story that grabbed me.