Benjamin Rosenbaum. The Frog Comrade. (F&SF Mar/Apr 2010)
An updating of the classic fairytale, with a princess held incommunicado under a repressive political regime.
Ramsey Shehadeh. Epidapheles and the Insufficiently Affectionate Ocelot. (F&SF Mar/Apr 2010)
Gentle Pratchettian fantasy funny featuring an elderly wizard with powers somewhat on the wane, and his familiar, an invisible chair.
Richard Bowes. Waiting for the Phone to Ring. (F&SF Mar/Apr 2010)
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.
Michael Reaves. Make Believe. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Mar/Apr 2010)
A group of young kids in the 1950s head out into the desert. It’s a convincingly, and lovingly told horror story, with details that ring true.
Ken Scholes. The Doom of Love in Small Places. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Three)
Neat little love story set in a broken, bureaucratic post-something society just a little skew-whiff.
in progress
[April 16th 2010] Rejigged the box above the Quicklinks to highlight the reviews currently in
Tim Sullivan. Star-Crossed. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, March/April 2010).
Either an excellent pastiche of Analog-style SF, or an Analog-style story that doesn’t sit well in F&SF.
Albert E. Cowdrey. Fort Clay, Louisiana: a Tragical History. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 2010).
Watery southern horrors in Cowdrey’s inimitable style.
Analog. March 2010.
Stories by Shane Tourtellotte, Christopher L. Bennett, Carl Frederick, Bud Sparhawk, Brad Aiken, David A. Simons
Mike Resnick and Lezli Robyn. Shame. (Analog January/February 2010).
In a dusty old frontier town a dessicated corpse swings in the breeze, the word ‘shame’ scrawled against the gallows, testament to the folly of the rough justice dispensed by the townsfolks.
Holly Phillips. The Small Door. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year 3)
A teenage girl with a terminally ill twin finds something magical. But not magical enough. Classy writing.
Asimovs. March 2010.
I started this issue expecting Rusch and Jablokov to supply the stronger stories, but in fact it is Zumsteg and Ludwigsten who tickled my fancy the most. Who’da thunk it?
Alexandra Duncan. Amor Fugit. (F&SF March/April 2010).
A beautifully told story of a young girl living in remote, bucolic splendour, who finally gets a glimpse of the larger world out there.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The Tower. (Asimovs March 2010).
A story that could equally, or perhaps, better have been placed in a historical or a crime fiction magazine.
Will Ludwigsen. The Speed of Dreams. (Asimovs March 2010).
Written in the form of a 8th Grade Science paper, we follow one teenage girl’s thought processes following on from the idea that events in dreams happen at an accelerated rate
Garth Nix. Beyond the Sea Gates of the Scholar Pirates of Sarskoe. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 3)
There’s a cannibalistic half-leopardess pirate, lots of swashbuckling, cthulhian monsters in the deep, and a sense of it being but one adventure in the life of its protagonists, and clearly a closer link to space opera than you might think, me hearties.
Paul McAuley. The Thought War. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3).
Post-zombie-apocalypse, with one of the survivors relating the slow encroachment of the zombie invasion, and postulating a more scientific and much bigger picture rationale.
Margo Lanagan. The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross. (The Years Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2009).
A dark, disturbing glimpse of a near future, which starts with an almost Eraserhead-ish grotesquery.
Bill Willingham. Fearless Space Pirates of the Outer Rings. (The New Space Opera 2.)
An entertaining gonzo-ish yarn, with some clever touches for someone new to writing SF.
Jeffrey Ford. The Coral Heart. (Eclipse 3).
A warts and all take on the traditional sword and sorcery fantasy milieu, but with the heroicism removed.
Derek Zumsteg. Ticket Inspector Gliden Becomes the First Martyr of the Glorious Human Uprising. (Asimovs March 2010).
Short wry piece in which aliens now controlling Earth have the misfortune to come up against the ticketing regime for public transport – in Germany of all places.
Alexander Jablokov. Blind Cat Dance. (Asimovs March 2010).
An unsettling view of how it is possible to be blind to what is happening around us.
Maureen McHugh. Useless Things. (Eclipse 3)
A detailed look at the impact of near-future climate and economic downturn on the individual. There’s a subtle interplay of relationships, a contrast between the haves and havenots, and the choices people have to make in this new world order.
Elizabeth Bear. Swell. (Eclipse 3).
A siren gifts a musician with a voice of her own.
Bruce Sterling. Join the Navy and See the Worlds. (The New Space Opera 2.)
Sterling ponders whether space opera is at all feasible – do we have the wherewithal and the desire to reach out to the distant stars? The answer is yes, but the starting point is an interesting one.
Nnedia Okorafor. On the Road. (Eclipse 3, ed Jonathan Strahan).
this story of a woman visiting relatives in Nigeria and coming across some powerful local magic/evil similarly doesn’t really go far enough in exploring new places or situations or characters to be a standout.
Interzone #225, November/December 2009.
A strong issue, with stories by Jason Sanford, Rebecca J. Payne, Colin Harvey, Lavie Tidhar, Shannon Page and Jay Lake.
Shannon Page and Jay Lake. Bone Island. (Interzone #225, Nov/Dec 2009)
High quality writing, subtly poetic, and giving the impression that you’re watching one part of a long, long story with real characters.
Naomi Novik. Araminta, or, The Wreck of the Amphidrake. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2009).
For my money, several nautical miles behind Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette’s ‘Boojum’ from the same collection, chosen by both Dozois and Hartwell/Cramer for their Year’s Best volumes.
Pat Cadigan. Don’t Mention Madagascar. (Eclipse Three, ed. Jonathan Strahan.)
Suffers a tiny bit through being the third story in a row that opens the volume with a relatively contemporary setting and light touch in terms of the SF/F elements, leaving this reader still waiting to properly take off.
Ellen Klages. A Practical Girl. (Eclipse Three, ed Jonathan Strahan.)
A young girl in the 1950s with a knack for maths is pleased to find out from a visiting professor that numbers can have practical uses, and that they can even be magical.
Benjamin Crowell. Centaurs. (Asimovs March 2010).
It’s set in space, and there’s a bit of drama, and, erm, that’s really about it, in a fairly routine story.