Reviewing short SF since 2000
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.
Rich Horton’s take on the best in SF&F.
Strahan’s take on the best in SF&F from 2017.
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
All the short story nominees, just the winners in the novella and novelette categories, so not a heap of short SF by any means.
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.
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.
As usual, a wide range of sources are drawn upon by Horton.
Strahan casts his net far and wide.
A clever story from Palmer, featuring an AI protagonist.
An excellent, stylishly written contemporary fantasy.
A story that didn’t quite grab me.
The second volume in the new SF-only anthology.
An excellent story from an author new to me.
Stories this issue from Steve Rasnic Tem, Sean McMullen, Tim Akers, Christien Gholson, and Richard E. Gropp.
Stories this issue from Julie C. Day, Christien Gholson, Michael Reid, Mel Kassel, Val Nolan, and T.R. Napper.
Stories this issue from Harmony Neal, Ryan Row, Sarah Brooks, Rich Larson, Samantha Henderson, and David Cleden.
Stories this issue from Tade Thompson, Georgina Bruce, Ray Cluley, Aliya Whiteley, and Malcolm Devlin.
Stories this issue by John Schoffstall, Dan Reade, Suzanne Palmer, Ken Hinckley, Andrew Kozma, and Robert Reed.
Stories this issue by Tyler Keevil, Malcolm Devlin, James Van Pelt, Rich Larson, and Gwendolyn Kiste.
Online here. Stories this issue : Rich Larson. The Ghost Ship Anastasia. In my review
Stories this issue from : Richard Chwedyk, Robert Grossbach, Matthew Hughes, Albert E. Cowdrey, Arundhati Hazra, Cat Hellisen, James Sallis, Eleanor Arnason.
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.
Stories this issue from : Rachel Pollack, Nina Kirika Hoffman, Rick Norwood, Robert Reed, Rich Larson, Wole Talabi, Gregor Hartmann, Debbie Urbanski, Monica Byrne, Marc Laidlaw.
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.
Stories from Esther M. Friesner, Albert E. Cowdrey, Lilliam Rivera, Matthew Hughes, Gardner Dozois, Minsoo Kang, Kurt Fawver, Charlotte Ashley, Robert Reed, James Beamon, Sandra McDonald.
Military SF although with a more human bent.
Another take on the best SF of the year.
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.
Special David Gerrold issue, with a couple of stories from him, and stories from others including Sarah Pinsker, Peter S. Beagle, Leah Cypess, Ian Creasey, Geoff Ryman.
An intriguing vignette, feeling like a fantasy story to start, until the sfnal elements come in.
Another year, another instalment in Dozois’ take on the best SF of the year.
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.
Stories from Lavie Tidhar, David Prill, David Gerrold, Gregor Hartmann, Dominica Phetteplace, Oliver Buckram, K.B. Rylander, Bruce McAllister, Betsy Phillips. Reviews underway.
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…
Stories by Alexander Marsh Freed, Christopher Fowler, Michelle Ann King, Jeffrey Thomas, Rich Larson, E. Catherine Tobler.
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.