Richard Bowes. Waiting for the Phone to Ring. (F&SF Mar/Apr 2010)
Another excellent semi-autobiographical tale from Bowes. Put a Velvet Underground LP on (CDs and mp3s won’t cut it) and step back in time 40 years.
Michael Reaves. Make Believe. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2010)
A group of young kids in the 1950s head out into the desert. It’s a convincingly, and lovingly told horror story, with details that ring true.
Ken Scholes. The Doom of Love in Small Places. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Three)
Neat little love story set in a broken, bureaucratic post-something society just a little skew-whiff.
Tim Sullivan. Star-Crossed. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2010).
Either an excellent pastiche of Analog-style SF, or an Analog-style story that doesn’t sit well in F&SF.
Albert E. Cowdrey. Fort Clay, Louisiana: a Tragical History. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2010).
Watery southern horrors in Cowdrey’s inimitable style.
Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn. Shame. (Analog January/February 2010).
In a dusty old frontier town a dessicated corpse swings in the breeze, the word ‘shame’ scrawled against the gallows, testament to the folly of the rough justice dispensed by the townsfolks.
Holly Phillips. The Small Door. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year 3)
A teenage girl with a terminally ill twin finds something magical. But not magical enough. Classy writing.
Alexandra Duncan. Amor Fugit. (F&SF March/April 2010).
A beautifully told story of a young girl living in remote, bucolic splendour, who finally gets a glimpse of the larger world out there.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The Tower. (Asimovs March 2010).
A story that could equally, or perhaps, better have been placed in a historical or a crime fiction magazine.
Will Ludwigsen. The Speed of Dreams. (Asimovs March 2010).
Written in the form of a 8th Grade Science paper, we follow one teenage girl’s thought processes following on from the idea that events in dreams happen at an accelerated rate
Garth Nix. Beyond the Sea Gates of the Scholar Pirates of Sarskoe. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 3)
There’s a cannibalistic half-leopardess pirate, lots of swashbuckling, cthulhian monsters in the deep, and a sense of it being but one adventure in the life of its protagonists, and clearly a closer link to space opera than you might think, me hearties.
Paul McAuley. The Thought War. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3).
Post-zombie-apocalypse, with one of the survivors relating the slow encroachment of the zombie invasion, and postulating a more scientific and much bigger picture rationale.
Margo Lanagan. The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross. (The Years Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009).
A dark, disturbing glimpse of a near future, which starts with an almost Eraserhead-ish grotesquery.
Bill Willingham. Fearless Space Pirates of the Outer Rings. (The New Space Opera 2.)
An entertaining gonzo-ish yarn, with some clever touches for someone new to writing SF.
Jeffrey Ford. The Coral Heart. (Eclipse 3).
A warts and all take on the traditional sword and sorcery fantasy milieu, but with the heroicism removed.
Derek Zumsteg. Ticket Inspector Gliden Becomes the First Martyr of the Glorious Human Uprising. (Asimovs March 2010).
Short wry piece in which aliens now controlling Earth have the misfortune to come up against the ticketing regime for public transport – in Germany of all places.
Alexander Jablokov. Blind Cat Dance. (Asimovs March 2010).
An unsettling view of how it is possible to be blind to what is happening around us.
Maureen McHugh. Useless Things. (Eclipse 3)
A detailed look at the impact of near-future climate and economic downturn on the individual. There’s a subtle interplay of relationships, a contrast between the haves and havenots, and the choices people have to make in this new world order.
Elizabeth Bear. Swell. (Eclipse 3).
A siren gifts a musician with a voice of her own.
Bruce Sterling. Join the Navy and See the Worlds. (The New Space Opera 2.)
Sterling ponders whether space opera is at all feasible – do we have the wherewithal and the desire to reach out to the distant stars? The answer is yes, but the starting point is an interesting one.
Nnedia Okorafor. On the Road. (Eclipse 3, ed Jonathan Strahan).
this story of a woman visiting relatives in Nigeria and coming across some powerful local magic/evil similarly doesn’t really go far enough in exploring new places or situations or characters to be a standout.
Shannon Page and Jay Lake. Bone Island. (Interzone #225, Nov/Dec 2009)
High quality writing, subtly poetic, and giving the impression that you’re watching one part of a long, long story with real characters.
Naomi Novik. Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009).
For my money, several nautical miles behind Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s ‘Boojum’ from the same collection, chosen by both Dozois and Hartwell/Cramer for their Year’s Best volumes.
Pat Cadigan. Don’t Mention Madagascar. (Eclipse Three, ed. Jonathan Strahan.)
Suffers a tiny bit through being the third story in a row that opens the volume with a relatively contemporary setting and light touch in terms of the SF/F elements, leaving this reader still waiting to properly take off.
Ellen Klages. A Practical Girl. (Eclipse Three, ed Jonathan Strahan.)
A young girl in the 1950s with a knack for maths is pleased to find out from a visiting professor that numbers can have practical uses, and that they can even be magical.
Benjamin Crowell. Centaurs. (Asimovs March 2010).
It’s set in space, and there’s a bit of drama, and, erm, that’s really about it, in a fairly routine story.
William Preston. Helping Them Take The Old Man Down. (Asimovs March 2010).
A subtle, clever story – does the new world require that even the most heroic of heroes are required to stand up and be counted, even deep into retirement?
Karen Joy Fowler. The Pelican Bar. (Eclipse Three, ed Jonathan Strahan.)
An unsettling story. One to sleep on perhaps. Perchance to dream…
Lavie Tidhar. Funny Pages. (Interzone #225, Nov/Dec 2009).
Tongue-in-cheek superhero fun in Tel Aviv.
Andrew N. Tisbert. Getting Yourself On. (Gud #5, Winter 2009).
A second story in in this issue of greater length than you often get in small press magazine, and also SF rather than contemporary speculative.
Holly Black. Virgin. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 3).
Short urban fantasy in which a young girl living rough on the streets is enraptured by a young man she meets.
Colin Harvey. The Killing Streets. (Interzone #225, Nov/Dec 2009).
A grim read, with some unsympathetic characters, and a mashup vision of a Broken Britain from right-wing tabloids, and of state-oppression from the libertarians.
Sean Williams. Inevitable. (The New Space Opera 2).
An intriguing setting and setup, from an author I’m not that familiar with.
Garth Nix. Punctuality. (The New Space Opera 2).
Six-pager in which the mystery of the Punctuality Drive is revealed to a potential Empress, who realises that she may however have a more hands-on role to play in the maintenance of the Drive.
Peter S. Beagle. Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel. (Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 3).
A beautifully written story – an angel is sent to take on the role of the artist’s muse.
T.F. Davenport. Nature’s Children. (GUD Issue 5, Winter 2009)
After a fantasy story and some verse, Gud #5 provides some solid SF, in the shape of a story that looks from the perspectives of the indigenous race and the visting humans who are intent on terraforming their world for human settlers already en route.
Neal Asher. Shell Game. (The New Space Opera 2).
Tale of interspecies conflict – the tone of the story doesn’t work for me, and the story as a whole doesn’t convince and doesn’t engage.
Jay Lake. To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves. (The New Space Opera 2).
Set in the same ‘post-Mistake’ setting of Lake’s ‘Torquing Vacuum’, which appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine a few weeks back, and which impressed me.
Jason Sanford. Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows. (Interzone #225 Nov/Dec 2009).
Another good story from Sandford, to add to his growing IZ ouvre.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Defect. (The New Space Opera 2).
Rus(c)hed through at breakneck speed, with little mystery, as things happen very quickly and progress the story with almost indecent haste.
Kate Wilhelm. The Late Night Train. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
Does the ghostly whistle of a late night train, with no railway nearby, offer an opportunity to escape?
John Langan. City of the Dog. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
A young man, struggling with his girlfriend’s infedility, finds things get much, much worse as the dark, undead canine horrors lurking underneath the streets of Albany close in.
Dean Whitlock. Nanosferatu. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
Short, not very subtle blackly humorous take on nano-meds.
John Barnes. The Lost Princess Man. (The New Space Opera 2).
A clever story with matrioshka-type realities in play.
Cory Doctorow. To Go Boldy. (The New Space Opera 2).
A lighter tone from Doctorow to the opening stories in this volume, in a homage to Star Trek (The Original Series), its tropes and characters..
Steven Popkes. The Secret Lives of Fairy Tales. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010)
Five traditional fairy tales through the wry lens of modern (in)sensibilities, as is F&SF’s regular wont.
Paul Park. Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance (The Parke Family Scrapbook Number IV). (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
A story that requires, and rewards. the reader’s close attention.
Marc Laidlaw. Songwood. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
Further adventures of Gorlen Vizenfirthe, for afficionadoes of fantasy featuring bards.
Charles Oberndorf. Writers of the Future. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
The story reads somewhat like one I’d expect to see from a new writer, produced for a workshop. There are several ideas in there, but it’s never clear what is the author’s focus or intention
Robin Aurelian. Bait. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
Short fantasy in a world where when the hunting season opens, the game that is being chased are goblins, faeries and all manner of fantastical creatures.
John Kessel. Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance. (New Space Opera 2).
Tight drama with an interesting background.
Robert Reed. The Long Retreat. (F&SF Jan/Feb 2010).
L’empereur est mort. Vive L’empereur!
Stephen Baxter. Formidable Caress. (Analog, Dec 2009).
Baxter concludes his XeeLee timeline. What strange forces have been at work so that during a couple of days taken as leave from work, I end up reading Baxter’s ‘Starfall’, which has been sitting on my laptop as a PDF for a year, and this story from Analog, which has been sitting on my ‘to be read’ shelf for about six months, in an afternoon sitting?
Stephen Baxter. Starfall. PS Publishing 2009.
Star-spanning combat, part of the XeeLee sequence.
Stephen Baxter. The Ice Line. (Asimovs February 2010).
I have to own up to much preferring Baxter’s SF to his alternate history – oh for the XeeLee days!
Jay Lake. Torquing Vacuum. (Clarkesworld 41, Feb 2010).
The backdrop, hinted at on a galactic level (they’re in a ‘post-Mistake’ universe), with genetic modification, and privilege and status to contend with, is a mature one. The same sex relationship is a refreshing change, and it’s an altogether satisfying read.
Peter Watts. The Things. (Clarkesworld Magazine #40, Jan 2010).
Watts gets into the mind of the creature that was John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ (via Richard Matheson’s original story).
Aliette de Bodard. The Wind-Blown Man. (Asimovs Feb 2010)
Good to see another author being given a chance in Asimovs, and certainly the best of the few of her stories that I’ve read. I look forward to seeing more – hopefully with her moving on to even more alien landscapes,
David Erik Nelson. The Bold Explorer in the Place Beyond. (Asimovs Feb 2010).
An engagingly told story, with an interesting background, partially glimpsed from a vantage point behind the bushes outside the dancehall.
Bruce McAllister. The Woman Who Waited Forever. (Asimovs Feb 2010).
A ghost story set in Italy after the Second World War.
Peter Watts. The Island. (New Space Opera 2)
Ultra-hard SF, ultra-far future.
Damien Broderick. Dead Air. (Asimovs February 2010).
Broderick suckers the reader into thinking his dyspeptic dystopian view is a wry comment on our current society, until…
Caroline M. Yoachim. Stone Wall Truth. (Asimovs February 2010).
Low on tech, high on humanity, an excellent Asimovs debut. (And ruminations on Avatar and The War Horse).
Robert Charles Wilson. Utriusque Cosmi. (New Space Opera 2)
A powerful and human story from someone at the top of their form.
Allen M. Steele. The Jekyll Island Horror. (Asimovs Jan 2010)
The storytelling is handled well in the mannered style of the 1930s.
Carol Emshwiller. Wilds. (Asimovs, January 2010).
Embracing the wilds, a man eschews that which he has left behind, to become one with the land on which he lives.
Robert Reed. The Good Hand. (Asimovs, January 2010)
Clever reflection on the current issues with the Iranian nuclear bomb-building programme. Reed postulates a world in which the USA keeps a very firm stranglehold on its nuclear bomb technology..
Chris Roberson. Wonder House. (Asimovs, Jan 2010)
The story introduction refers to an inspiration for this story being ‘Men of Tomorrow’, a
Steve Rasnic Tem. A Letter from the Emperor. (Asimovs Jan 2010)
A deceptively affecting short story from Tem.
Felicity Shoulders. Conditional Love. (Asimovs January 2010).
For a new writer, it’s a well-handled story. The main characters are portrayed well, and perhaps only a slight issue with the dramatic resolution – although in the limited space, perhaps little option for the author. I’ll look forward to more stories from Shoulders.
Geoffrey A. Landis. Marya and the Pirate. (Asimovs Jan 2010)
Landis gets the signal honour of being the first story to be reviewed on the new-improved Best SF. Who needs a Hugo or Nebula when you’ve got an honour like this!
Chiang : Hell is the Absence of God
Stationary on a motorway for 30 minutes. Doh! But wait, I have my new itouch, and I have some SF stories stored on it. What to read?
Jonathan Lethem. Lostronaut. The New Yorker, November 2008.
If you haven’t read it yet, click here to read it. I’d much rather you
Graham Joyce. TWOC. PS Publishing, 2005.
This story will stick in the mind, with Joyce creating some eminently solid three-dimensional characters.
Lisa Tuttle. My Death. PS Publishing 2004.
This is a fascinating novella, although difficult to classify as genre.
Peter F. Hamilton. Watching Trees Grow. PS Publishing, 2003.
Hamilton provides a breathtaking novella, which covers a couple of centuries, and a quantum leap for humanity.
Geoff Ryman. VAO. PS Publishing, 2003.
Ryman continues PS Publishing’s run of high quality novellas.
Richard Calder. The Twist. 4W8W, 2003.
Richard Calder’s purple (at times turgidly so) prose featured regularly in UK magazine Interzone with