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. 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 […]
James Stoddard. The Battle of York. Some 3000 years after the passing of America, the history of the early days of the country lives on, through a not altogether reliable mythology. Stoddard has a huge amount of fun bringing together a wide range of American icons and historical figures – General Custard, Waynejon (The Pilgrim), […]
For me the issue gets progressively stronger, with the earlier stories not quite doing it for me to any great extent.
Laird Barron. Old Virginia. Deep in the American countryside an ageing intelligence officer, Garland, is leading a small team which is looking after some scientific experimentation in a ramshackle cabin. Things begin to go wrong. The other side appear to have found them, and the question is whether they should abort the mission. Things get […]
Albert E. Cowdrey. The Posthumous Man. Cowdrey takes us once again to New Orleans. Wentworth is an antiques dealer, specialising in Funerary Arts. An old tombstone behind which is a murderous tale comes his way, bringing bad fortune to him. Benjamin Rosenbaum. Droplet. A far-future postmodern couple in deep space come across an ancient planet […]
Almost two year’s after its publication, a mini-review in order to fill in the only post-1999 F&SF issue not previously reviewed. Harlan Ellison. Never Send to Know for Whom the Lettuce Wilts. An expanded, reworked 1956 story. Henry Leclair finds a very obtuse statement in a fortune cookie, and is the kind of chap who […]
Doing the Unstuck. Paul Di Filippo. The angst of teen Goth Erin is painfully observed, and set to the music of The Cure (I was more of a Siouxsie and the Banshees person myself). Erin has the attitude and the fashion sense, but lacks the crowning glory – the tousled hair a la Robert Smith. […]
