Reviewing short SF since 2000
The Queen in question being Queen Victoria, and the cambion (in medieval legend, a cambion is a half-human offspring of a succubus and an incubus, as any fule kno) in question being Merlin the Magician.
A touch of ancient magic and noblery from Bowes.
Bowes’ series of autobiographical (up to a point!) stories in F&SF have been a treat for some time now.
Intensely personal, and with a fantastical element that’s gentler than most that appear in the magazine, part of a substantial series.
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!
Something for everyone … pervs included. Duncan, Reaves and Bowes my favourites, giving the first half of the chunky, value for money, volume more grist to my reviewing mill.
A collection of excellent stories.
Another excellent semi-autobiographical tale from Bowes. Put a Velvet Underground LP on (CDs and mp3s won’t cut it) and step back in time 40 years.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction finishes 2009 with an issue of their now
James L. Cambias. Balancing Accounts. A strong SF story to open the issue, and one
Paul Di Filippo. The Short Ashy Afterlife of Hiram P. Dottle. The bookish Dottle finds
Doing the Unstuck. Paul Di Filippo. The angst of teen Goth Erin is painfully observed,
Jack Dann picks up the editorial reins from Vonda N. McIntyre in the Nebula Awards Showcase series. There’s a lot of high quality fiction in this volume, and the only real beef is that the stories are from 2002, which means that in a number of cases you are reading stories which appeared in the Year’s Best anthologies two years ago.