Karl Bunker. Overtaken. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept/Oct 2011).
A short morality tale, in classic Golden Age style.
Jon Armstrong. Aisle 1047. (Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept/Oct 2011)
A dark take on what shopping and the marketing thereof may become very soon.
Asimovs. October/November 2011.
An excellent issue, Chapman, Mirabelli and Johnson the pick of a fine crop.
Nancy Kress. A Hundred Hundred Daisies. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
A short but effective story on the desertification of the USA.
Derek Kunsken. To Live and Die in Gibbontown. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
Monkey business on a gonzo Planet of the Apes, with a hired assassin failing spectacularly to complete his contract.
Lavie Tidhar. The Last Osama. (Interzone #237, Nov-Dec 2011)
An altogether multi-facted and clever piece of fiction(s).
M. Rickert. The Corpse Painter’s Masterpiece. (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept/Oct 2011)
A strange and unsettling tale, a sort of bastard offspring of David Lynch and Tim Burton (I know they are both male, which makes that conceit even worse…)
Eleanor Arnason. My Husband Steinn. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
An ardent admirer pays his respects to a women living in a remote house in Iceland.
Jack Skillingstead. Free Dog. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
A dog is a man’s best friend, but in this short story a virtual poodle becomes the focus of divorce-settlement unpleasantness, as the dog goes viral.
Eugene Mirabelli. The Pastry Chef, the Nanotechnologist, the Aerobics Instructor, and the Plumber. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
One of the nicer stories I’ve read for quite some time.
Kit Reed. The Outside Event. (Asimovs, Oct/Nov 2011)
Part meta-fiction, part epistolary, part reality-show confessional. A must-read if you’re a wannabe author off to your first writer’s retreat.
Jason K. Chapman. This Petty Place. (Asimovs Oct/Nov 2011)
A second excellent story from Chapman in a couple of months.
Dominica Phetteplace. The Cult of Whale Worship. (Asimovs Oct/Nov 2011)
A first published story for Phetteplace, a 2007 Clarion West alum.
Albert E. Cowdrey. Where Have All the Young Men Gone? (F&SF Sept/Oct 2011)
A dose of classic Cowdrey horror, albeit transplanted from the deep south to Europe.
Chris DeVito. Anise. (F&SF Sept/Oct 2011).
Adult themes and very high quality writing.
Daniel Marcus. Bright Moment. (F&SF Sept/Oct 2011)
A young man, part of a scientific mission that is going to change an alien habitat to suit human habitation, finds out something whilst surfing, and has a moral dilemma to face.
Deborah J. Ross. A Borrowed Heart. (F&SF Sept/Oct 2011)
A tender tale of love and the ties that bind, against a backdrop of vampires, whoring, succubi and sapphic action.
Elizabeth Hand. The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon. (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year #5).
Wonderful story from Hand, full of humanity and tenderness.
Solaris Rising. (ed Ian Whates. Solaris, 2011.)
With an editor, publisher, and collection of authors whose pedigree is beyond reproach, a book to be bought straight away : amazon.com | amazon.co.uk
trsf : The Best New Science Fiction. (Technology Review 2011).
An attractive magazine with a new Chris Foss cover, and some really good stories – Doctorow, Cadigan, Macleod and Di Filippo of particular note.
Esther M. Friesner. Rutger and Baby Do Jotenheim. (F&SF Sept/Oct 2011).
A most bodaciously excellent yarn from Friesner, with a very unlikely couple – one an academic, the latter a pole dancer – at the table of the Norse gods.
Elizabeth Bear. Gods of The Forge. (trsf : the Best New Science Fiction)
Looks at bio-medicine, and posits whether medicating against certain human frailties may not be a good thing.
Geoffrey A. Landis. Private Space. (trsf: the Best New Science Fiction)
Landis looks as little into the future as is probably possible, with a take on privately-funded spaceflight.
Peter F. Hamilton. The Return of the Mutant Worms. (Solaris Rising)
Hamilton closes out an excellent volume on a lighter tone.
Gwyneth Jones. The Flame is Roses, The Smoke Is Briars. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)
A story that really needs more space to do it justice.
Alastair Reynolds. For the Ages. (Solaris Rising)
Reynolds at his best in identifying a bogglingly long-term problem, and putting in a very human angle on its solution.
Keith Brooke and Eric Brown. Eternity’s Children. (Solaris Rising)
Brooke and Brown were regulars in the David Pringle-era of Interzone, and this is a story that could be straight from one of those issues.
Jaine Fenn. Dreaming Towers, Silent Mansions. (Solaris Rising)
A touch of the Lovecraftian Mountains of Madness in the eerie, almost-deserted city through which they roam, as the team gradually dwindles in size.
David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell. A Militant Peace. (Clarkesworld Magazine #62, November 2011).
An excellent collaboration by Klecka and Buckell which looks at the near-future options for a technologically advanced, non-violent incursion force to achieve regime change
Triangulation : End of the Rainbow. (PARSEC Ink, 2010).
The 2010 edition of a high quality small press annual anthology.
Tobias Buckell. Lonely Island. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)
Short-short with Buckell crafting the limited words he has used with loving care.
Richard Salter. Yestermorrow. (Solaris Rising)
A neat murder mystery against a temporal confusion backdrop, that would work well as a one-off TV drama.
Paul Di Filippo. Specter-Bombing the Beer Goggles. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)
Reassuring to find that my sense of humour and outlook on life is remaining closely in tune with Di Filippo as the years progress.
Pat Cadigan. You Never Know. (Solaris Rising)
As we begin to realise what is about to happen/has happened, the tension mounts to give a very focussed human perspective on a global event
Ian Watson. How We Came Back From Mars (A Story That Cannot Be Told). (Solaris Rising)
Excellent, entertaining story about a crew who are stranded on Mars with only hours of oxygen left, and no hope of rescue.
Nick Wood. Bridges. (Albedo One #40)
A good piece of writing, and good to see a longer, intelligent story in a small press mag.
Steve Rasnic Tem. At Play in the Fields. (Solaris Rising)
An interesting story, which follows a young man who wakes up far, far into the Earth’s future.
Mike Resnick and Laurie Tom. Mooncakes. (Solaris Rising)
Shorter story in which a young woman leaving Earth on the first colony ship has to work out how to take part of her culture and history with her, and come to terms with the separation from her sister. It’s a shorter story, and skims through the issues quickly.
Apex Magazine #30, November 2011.
This issue is whispernetting its way over to my ipad. The cover image says November 2012, but they do mean November 2011!
Adam-Troy Castro. Her Husband’s Hands. (Lightspeed Magazine #17, October 2011)
Too much disbelief for this reader to suspend to begin to engage with the characters.
Ken MacLeod. The Surface of Last Scattering. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)
An intelligent story from MacLeod, the first in this volume I’d tip for Year’s Best honours.
Jack Skillingstead. Steel Lake. (Solaris Rising).
A father with his own substance abuse history finds his son’s experimentation with drugs has put him at grave risk.
Lavie Tidhar. The Lives and Deaths of Che Guevara. (Solaris Rising)
In Tidhar’s imagination (something he gives free rein to in his fiction) not only does the revolutionary spirit of Guevara live on after his death.
Adam Roberts. Shall I Tell You the Problem with Time Travel. (Solaris Rising)
Clever and amusing time travel story, if you accept that the scientists involved don’t quite have the same grasp on the relationship between cause and effect that you would expect.
Stephen Palmer. Eluna. (Solaris Rising).
Quite a bit of stuff happens, and then in the final couple of pages a lot is revealed, leaving me not much the wise.
Interzone #236, Sep-Oct 2011.
An OK issue with stories by Stephen Kotowych, Jason Sanford, Fiona Moore, Jon Ingold, Mercurio D. Rivera.
Mercurio D. Rivera. Tethered. (Interzone #236, Sep-Oct 2011)
Another in Rivera’s ‘Wergen’ story sequence.
Stephen Baxter. Rock Day. (Solaris Rising).
Humanity finding out some answers to some pretty big questions, but the act of asking…