R. Garcia y Robertson. Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star. Garcia y Robertson has provided primarily F for F&SF of late through his Markovy series, and, huzzah huzzah, here he provides some SF – and how! Co-incidentally I’ve not long finished reading Geoff Ryman’s early 90s novel ‘Was’ , which features a [...]
Matthew Hughes. A Herd of Opportunity. Another tale of Guth Bandar, this one evidently from his early days, which will doubtless please those who like these whimsical tales. For me regular stories in the same setting go against my reason for reading short SF (ie different stories and characters) and as it’s not Science Fiction [...]
Robert Reed. Less Than Nothing. Reed further develops the story of the boy Raven, one of the dwindling numbers of The People, who live mostly alongside but hidden from everyone else. Here the ghost of a neighbour who he killed in a previous story comes back to haunt him, and he has to seek help [...]
Paolo Bacigalupi. The Calorie Man. Bacigalupi, like Ted Chiang, doesn’t write very often, but when he does, like Ted Chiang, they’ve been stories to make you sit up and notice (‘The Fluted Girl’ (F&SF Jan 2003), ‘The People of Sand and Slag’ (F&SF Feb 2004), ‘The Pasho’ (Asimovs Sept 2004)). They’re not quite up to [...]
Matthew Hughes. Thwarting Jabbi Gloond. A prequel to the adventures of Hengis Hapthorn to which readers have been regaled/subjected (delete as appropriate). Claudia O’Keefe. Maze of Trees. O’Keefe follows her ‘Black Deer’ (F&SF April 2005) with another story in which the wilds of America create a very strong backdrop. West Virginia is a lonely place [...]
Paul Di Filippo. The Secret Sutras of Sally Strumpet. Similar in style to PDF’s humourous “The Short Ashy Afterlife of Hiram P. Dottle” from F&SF May 2002, so if you read that and enjoyed it, you’ll like this. A struggling author has hit upon a rich seam – however, he has mined that seam in [...]
Matthew Hughes. Inner Huff. Further comic adventures of Guth Bandar (last seen in ‘A Little Learning’ F&SF June 2004), who has a pig of a day in the noosphere. Robert Reed. From Above. A hackberry tree in the woods is a very gentle rural setting for a story in which a higher intelligence responds to [...]
Mark W. Tiedemann. Rain from Another Country. Even after her death, Ann Myref is trying to seek closure on her broken relationship with Will. Travelling off-Earth, something she was simply too afraid to do whilst alive, is perversely less of a problem as she has arranged for a temporary upload of herself to travel to [...]
Robert Reed. The Condor’s Green-Eyed Child. Reed returns to the strange milieu of ‘Raven’(F&SF Dec 2001) and ‘Buffalo Wolf’(F&SF March 2003), in which we are treated to Gene Wolfe-esque glimpses of strange events in a setting just slightly off-key from that which we know. Here young Raven is making his way in the forest when [...]
Matthew Hughes. A Little Learning. Hughes posits a novel method for transiting multiverses – the use of chanting. Bandar is a novice of the Institute of Historical Inquiry, wending his way, unseen, through historical incidents, in an attempt to win a bursary at the Institute. However, his best-laid plains are thrown into dangerous confusion as [...]
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