Elizabeth Bear. The Bone War. (Fantasy and Science Fiction Sept/Oct 2015)
The skeleton animation skills of Bijou the Artificier are called upon. Big time.
Reviewing short SF since 2000
The skeleton animation skills of Bijou the Artificier are called upon. Big time.
Bear had a singleton story in the second of this three volume trilogy, and has another in this volume, which also features a determined, resourceful lead character.
A singleton story amidst the second installment stories in this middle volume of the apocalypse trilogy.
Bear’s ‘Boojum’ and ‘Mongoose’, co-authored with Sarah Monette, were notably imaginative stories, but this one by Bear just fails to live up to the standard.
A locked room murder mystery in near future India that has depth, physics, astronomy, First Contact, cloning, and a talking cat. What’s not to like?
Looks at bio-medicine, and posits whether medicating against certain human frailties may not be a good thing.
A beautiful robot, but one with no sense of self, and consequently closer to a sex toy, is found over the body of her owner.
Politics and backstory to flesh out the action in a story that lives up to its predecessor.
A late arrival on my doorstep, and it’s taken much longer to finish the review than I had hoped. Note to self : faster dude, faster!
Nicely complements the Strahan/Dozois New Space Opera anthology series, starting with several stories of the contemporary, speculative type.
A collection of excellent stories.
A siren gifts a musician with a voice of her own.
Paul di Filippo. The Furthest Schorr : 32 Fugues on the Paintings of Todd Schorr.
A full-colour, handsome issue #201 sees Interzone draw level with New Worlds as Britain’s longest
I pondered in my review of the first TTA-published issue of Interzone as to how
Brian Stableford. Following the Pharmers. Stableford has published several stories looking at the consequences in
Harry Turtledove. News From the Front. Alternate History relating the role played by FD Roosevelt
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard, Charles Coleman Finlay, Daryl Gregory, Dominic Green, Elizabeth Bear, Garth Nix, Geoff Ryman, Gord Sellar, Greg Egan, Gwyneth Jones, Hannu Rajaniemi, Ian McDonald, James Alan Garner, James. L. Cambias, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary Rosenblum, Maureen F. McHugh, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Paolo Bacigalupi, Paul McAuley, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, Ted Kosmatka
An excellent collection of short SF. Several made it to the various Year’s Best collections, and a couple of others which were not selected would not have looked out of place. The volume starts well, is strong in the middle, and ramps up to a strong finish.
Stories by : Ted Chiang, Peter S. Beagle, Charles Stross, Greg Egan, Daryl Gregory, Jeffrey Ford, Holly Black, Ted Kosmatka, Alex Irvine, Daniel Abraham, Nancy Kress, Bruce Sterling, Theodore Goss, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Baxter, Ken Macleod, Susan Palwick, Michael Swanwick, M. Rickert, Tony Daniel, Elizabeth Hand, Chris Roberson, Elizabeth Bear, Kelly Link.
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.
As ever, chock full of high quality SF, with the annual summation providing SF with an ongoing reference and reading tome which we should not take for granted. Here’s to the next 25 years! Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Benjamin Rosenbaum and David Ackert, Brian Stableford, Bruce Sterling, Chris Roberson, David Moles, Elizabeth Bear, Greg Egan, Gregory Benford, Gwyneth Jones, Ian McDonald, James Van Pelt, John Barnes, Justin Stanchfield, Kage Baker, Keith Brooke, Ken MacLeod, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Neal Asher, Pat Cadigan, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Stephen Baxter, Ted Chiang, Ted Kosmatka, Tom Purdom, Una McCormack, Vandana Singh
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Bruce Sterling, Chris Beckett, Chris Roberson, Daryl Gregory, David Gerrold, David Moles, Dominic Green, Elizabeth Bear, Gene Wolfe., Gwyneth Jones, Hannu Rajaniemi, Harry Turtledove, Ian McDonald, James Patrick Kelly, Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold, Joe Haldeman, Ken MacLeod, Liz Williams, Mary Rosenblum, Michael Swanwick, Neal Asher, Paolo Bacigalupi, Peter Watts and Derryl Murphy, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, Stephen Popkes, Vonda N McIntyre, William Sanders