Reviewing short SF since 2000
A near-future in which the USA has gone to hell, with the states anything but united, as civil insurgency, triggered by an NRA terrorist attach, and climate change has put the lid on Lightning Jack’s career as a top NASCAR driver.
Dark story with some great touches (“The culvert beckoned like a dark eye, cloacal and alluring”)
Chilling horror from Bailey, as a girl guide troop go feral, heading off into the local woods..
An evocative piece of horror, taking the reader to the early 1980s, and a hot summer, with two teenagers with time to spend in getting into trouble – albeit with a soundtrack just a bit different to the American norm (The Undertones, The Jam, and, praise be The Slits).
Bailey picks up where Bradbury left off with ‘A Sound of Thunder’, in a time travel story with bite.
Deceptively disturbing story which starts with a bit of domestic disharmony, a touch of mild depression, and gradually slides into darker, albeit more transparent, territory.
Deftly handled amusing conceit in which a member of a gentleman’s club is found to be a rotten cove indeed.
A dark, powerful story to open the issue.
A victim of bullying finds something in the woods – something weak and needy, and very much out of place.
Chock full of protein for the brain, with only a bit of excess fat and carbohydrate. To burn off those calories I’m off for a bit of ‘fast-paced’ Asimov’s action…..
Lisa Goldstein. Finding Beauty. Fairy Tale which looks at the Sleeping Beauty story from Prince
Judith Moffett. The Bear’s Baby. Moffett has written a couple of novels featuring the Hefn,
Robert Reed. Buffalo Wolf. When ‘Raven Dream’ appeared in the Dec 2001 issue of F&SF
The Man on the Persian Carpet. Kate Wilhem. A potent blend of mystery/suspense, time travel
This is a very strong collection. Adams has trawled 25 years worth of high quality SF to put together the volume, and there’s an awful lot of good reading to be had.
A must for anyone seriously into short SF, but if only the SFFWA could tighten up the rules to choose material from a given calendar year, and pick some more Science Fiction!
Stories by : Dale Bailey, Elizabeth Hand, Esther M. Friesner, James Patrick Kelly, Kelley Eskridge, Lisa Goldstein, Maureen F. McHugh, Robert A Sawyer, Ursula K. Le Guin.
F&SF have been producing anthologies since 1952 – annual anthologies for the first quarter century,