Reviewing short SF since 2000
It’s a subtle story, interestingly placed in the anthology just before a story with not dissimilar themes, and which doesn’t do the following stories any favours by setting a high standard.
A love story, only requited at the end, as her cosmologist lover looks for some Big Answers to some Big Questions.
Another quality story from Larson.
A clever story from Palmer, featuring an AI protagonist.
An excellent, stylishly written contemporary fantasy.
A story that didn’t quite grab me.
An excellent story from an author new to me.
A story from a (young?) Singaporean writer, new to me, which shows a lot of promise.
A big picture Space Opera, many many millenia hence, with the Jewish faith, and the Exilarch, commanding the new universe.
Another good story from Larson.
Urbanski provides a story in the form of an academic treatise that manages to be heart-achingly affecting.
An excellent start to the Jan 2017 issue, from a young author who is impressing me.
A couple of thousand words, and well worth the small investment of your time.
A dark, disturbing story and I hope that Lanagan feels better for getting it out of her system…
An AI embedded in a domestic ‘bot yearns for the stars, and finds a talent…
A journey to a valley that has no right to be where it is….
A rare thing from Cowdrey – an SF story, albeit it’s a story that could have been set in any time period, anywhere on Earth.
Military SF although with a more human bent.
A story from an author new to me, which bodes well for the future.
Sweet little story from Carroll, that could be straight from the 1950s, except for the closing references to dementia, the singularity and AIs.
An excellent story with some lovely touches.
An intriguing vignette, feeling like a fantasy story to start, until the sfnal elements come in.
Set in Eastern Europe, with a son breaking the soil with his bare fingers to bury his recently departed father, and Clarke very much keeps a similar grip throughout the story.
A clever use of a doctoral thesis defence enables the reader to find out more about the anomaly to which the putative Dr Chatterjee has given her name.
All in all, an excellent story.
Transcript of a statement from an employee of a tech company.
A nice enough short story from a young writer, but not a standout.
A neat little story focussing on a father-daughter relationship that is being tested…
Another strong, human story from Allen.
A story with a good blend of sfnal and character-driven elements.
A mind-wipe technology is used to explore issues that can be equally well explored without resort to SF
Chiang was never a prolific writer back in the day, but his stories (at least as far as I can see) are now as rare as hen’s teeth.
Another smoothly handled and clever story from Larson, and TBH I was surprised to read in the editorial intro that Larson is only 23 years old – he writes like someone twice his age.
A story from a new(ish) writer, new to F&SF, and a writer new to me.
Larson creates some believable language and jargon, and creates a nice little story.
Takes a look at a very near-future where everyone is using filters to modify their newsfeeds, and the problems caused by the near omnipotence of the newsfeed filtering software.
A clever structure, mix of human and societal analysis, and an altogether different type of First Contact.
Some science goes terribly, terribly wrong in a story that works well.
Short, tight and excellent sf chiller from Rivera.
Miller follows Watts in mining the cult 1980s Antarctic horror movie…
A clever story from Palmer, told in ten (actually 11) sections, each opening with a piece of poetry.
Tongue in cheek yarn about a world in which caped crusaders and Evil Scientists exist, and a detective has to find out who has killed a Giant Octopus and a Macro-Shark.
I struggled with the alien-point-of-view, as I did in Dorie’s previous story in this setting.
Story in the same setting as Kowal’s Hugo winning ‘Lady Astronaut of Mars’
The theme of the story is humanity pulling in on itself, a turtle withdrawing it’s head into it’s shell (Irvine’s imagery), and it’s a good read.
A human science team have landed on Crucis-d and admire the titular silver strands, which put on an amazing show every morning and evening.
A linguist loses her hearing in an accident, which of course makes the xenoliguistic process more problematic.
Dedicated to Jay Lake and Bronwyn Lake, E. Lily Yu looks at the painful issue of loss and bereavement through cancer, and how a unicorn in Central Park might offer a different resolution.
Jimmie and Morrie of Paranormal Services return to the pages of F&SF.
Raffalon the Thief returns to the pages of F&SF.
Hilil, named after her grandmother, is one of the finest twiners in her village…
Martin has to decide whether it is better to have no heart at all than having a broken heart, or, worse still, a dead heart.
The old trickster Nanbojou returns to the pages of F&SF, and finds that the titular Race Question isn’t (sadly) anything more than a question of black and white…
Curmudgeonly Greg has to use his way with words to bring annual accidents to an end…
A short look at scientific rigour – is having a rationalist approach to everything at risk of blocking out the possibility of something beyond what is scientifically observable and provable and replicable?
A spiritual successor to Terry Bisson’s ‘Bears Discover Fire’….
A ghost story set in England a century or so back, with the Royal Mail sending out an agent to discover just what exactly is happening to the deliveries in Binderwood…
Interesting world-building, which could stand more exploration.
Charming little story told by a boy in a near future, post-Greaning, who relates a visit from a Robot from the Future, in search of the fabled gas-o-line in order to return to it’s own time (in the far future).
Truth be told, it reads more like an Analog story than an Asimovs one to me.
A story that hinges on alien tech – a transportation slab that enables a copy of a person to be made on a matching slab at a remote location.
Another day(s) for Benjamin – what will tomorrow(s) hold for him??
Reed takes a different perspective on airplanes that go missing.
A first-published story, which bodes well for her writing future.
A political shit-storm back on Earth is echoed by what happens on the Red Planet, in a scientist fiction story featuring Julia and Viktor.
An elegiac tone throughout in a story crafted as carefully as a couture dress.
Three (ig)noble pioneers on a spaceship to Europa. Or not.
Young Bos has lost an arm, which is bummer for this dude, but he has bud Jimeo and Jimeo’s girlfriend Cleo to help out.
A short but clever piece from Kosmatka, with mammoths returned to Earth.
A patriarchal society, with aliens with two sets of arms, and some strange names, and some issues around gender around childbirth, and attitudes towards multiple births.
A love story on an epic scale.
A reflection on what will happen to the individual self when bodies can be swopped at a whim.
A fast-paced adventure, with an intriguing background.
Good to read something just that bit different, and intense.
Well-written, subtle bit of writing.
Short, but sweet, superhero yarn.
An excellent road trip story, with a difference.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to read Audrey Niffenegger’s ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’, then this five stanza short is the one for you.
Featuring a guest appearance from every scientist who has a science theory relevant to SF who ever drew breath – all making pertinent and apposite comments.
A subtle and effective/affecting story, featuring three sisters, who come to an understanding about the origins of their emigre parents.