Joel Richards. Deep Diving. (Asimovs Oct/Nov 2013)
Political intrigue in space, but slightly heavy-handed, and three references to people esconcing themselves in seats that you would have thought the author/editor would have spotted!
Gregory Frost. No Others Are Genuine. (Asimovs Oct/Nov 2013)
A chilling horror set in the days of knickerbockers and wax cylinder phonographs, in which Frost builds a palpable sense of dread.
Eleanor Arnason. Kormak the Lucky. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug 2013)
A few words from my review : bland, Readers Digest, utilitarian.
Chen Qiufan. The Year of the Rat. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2013)
A Chinese perspective on dealing with rats who, thanks to human intervention, are posing quite a problem, in a story which didn’t unsettle as I had hoped!
Oliver Buckram. Half a Conversation, Overheard While Inside an Enormous Sentient Slug. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2013)
The title explains all. Certainly by far the best xeno-gastropodic monologue that I’ve ever read.
Adam Rakunas. Oh Give Me A Home. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug 2013)
When someone comes a-callin’ with a fistful of court papers and takes away your genmod mini-bison, well a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
Brit Mandelo. The Finite Canvas. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction 30th Annual Collection)
An author new to me, and it’s a powerful story featuring two powerful female characters. The story is intense – simply a conversation between the two, as stories are related, until the final denouement – not unexpected, but still powerful.
Interzone #247, Jul-Aug 2013.
Most of the stories provide something just a little different, to engage the reader, with Johnson and Suggars the pick of the bunch for me.
Russ Colson. The Frog King’s Daughter. (Interzone #247 Jul-Aug 2013)
A modern fairytale, in which greed and jealously lead to the frogination of a CEO, who must, ribbit, overcome his somewhat reduced circumstances, ribbit, to look after his interests.
Kay Kenyon. The Spires of Greme. (Solaris Rising 2)
A strong story from Kenyon, with a vivid setting (think Howl’s Moving Castle), action, heroism and sacrifice.
Rebecca Schwarz. Futile the Winds. (Interzone #247 Jul-Aug 2013)
The final struggles of a couple trying to settle on an inhospitable alien planet are seen, as one finally achieves success in botanic research, but at the ultimate cost to herself
Igor Teper. Quantum Orpheus, At The Light Cone’s Apex. (Asimovs, October/November 2013)
Excellent hard SF from an author new to me. What could have been average scientist fiction is much more.
Jack Dann. Waiting for Medusa. (Asimovs October/November 2013)
An interesting protagonist – a regenerating cyborgised K9 combat troop, who drily relates some of this previous lives.
Kim Lakin-Smith. Before Hope. (Solaris Rising 2)
With a solid background of economic and political systems across a distant planetary system, a fuel trucker visits a client with his new apprentice.
KJ Kabza. The Color of Sand. (Fantasy & Science Fiction July-Aug 2013)
Ekeing out a living on a remote beach, a woman and her son find the shards they have been collecting to sell to tourists have more to offer.