Sheila Finch. Reading the Bones.
Originally in : Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1998

Alcoholic Lingster Ries Danyo, attached to the High Commission flees a riot with the butchered DepCom’s children. They stumble across solutions to some of the puzzles of the planet.

Jane Yolen. Lost Girls.
Originally in : Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast

There’s no doubting the pedigree of this multi-award winning storyteller, but come on SFWA – Best Novelette? Not. A lightweight bit of whimsy about Peter Pan.

Bruce Holland Rogers. Thirteen Ways to Water.
Originally in : Black Cats and Broken Mirrors.

1998 Nebula Best Short Story. Hmmmm. There is one sentence in this short that makes it horror/SF/fantasy. You can even take that sentence out without affecting the story.

Geoffrey A. Landis. Winter Fire.
Originally in : Asimov’s Science Fiction,August 1997

In the city of Salzburg, a seige is underway. One of the victims of the seige tells her story.

Walter Jon Williams. Lethe.
Originally in : Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 1997

Davout has lost his partner, Katrin in deep space, but still has his sibs and their partners, clones of himself and his lost partner. Whilst clones, each has a definite personality and career, but the clones of his partner are unnervingly akin to the ‘original’ Katrin. In Greek mythology, the Lethe is one of the rivers that flow through the realm of Hades,. Called the River of Oblivion, the shades of the dead had to drink from this river to forget about their past lives on earth.

Mark J. McGarry. The Mercy Gate.
Originally in : Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction March 1998

Far future, with a group of explorers from various races on a planet which has recently been razed by the feared and totally unknown Hand of God. The portal through which they arrived takes one of the human couple.