Charlie Jane Anders. Palm Strike’s Last Case. (Fantasy and Science Ficition, July/Aug 2014)
Some nice touches in the story, with a strong focus on the superhero and his internal as well as external challenges.
Kate Bachus. Pinono Deep. (Asimovs October/November 2014)
There’s not a massive sfnal element to the story, but the writing has a bit of personality to it, and the dialogue is more realistic than you get in most SF, which is nice.
Sarah Langan. Black Monday. (The End is Now)
A dark, bleak look human frailty and bravery and stupidity, as the planet-killer impact arrives.
Nina Allan. Marielena. (Interzone #254, Sep-Oct 2014)
Now writing a column for Interzone, Allan’s latest story for them stops just as it’s getting interesting, so I’m hoping there’s at least one more followup story
Ken Liu. Homo Floresiensis. (Solaris Rising 3)
Lacking an sfnal element, a story that doesn’t really fit the anthology.
Interzone #253 (Jul-Aug 2014)
Cover by Wayne Haag. Stories by James van Pelt, E. Catherine Tobler, Andrew Hook, Neil Williamson, Caren Gussoff, several excellent.
Caren Gusoff. The Bars of Orion. (Interzone #253 Jul-Aug 2014)
A story that starts by getting the reader hooked – the protagonist is getting PTSD therapy due to losing his universe.
Seanan McGuire. Fruiting Bodies. (The End is Now)
Grey mould is taking over the world, and this story moves to a chilling climax, with the reader keen to find out what happens next.
E. Catherine Tobler. Chasmata. (Interzone #253, Jul-Aug 2014)
A word about page layout which has a red illustration of chasm walls hemming in the text. That word is excellent.
Asimovs September 2014
Onyebuchi and Palwick the pick of the issue for me.
Tom Purdom. Bogdavi’s Dream. (Asimovs September 2014)
Of the previous installment in this story series I wrote: “A ‘fast paced adventure’ of the kind that Purdom often produces that don’t really do it for me. But if you are wanting to read more about Harold the Human, here’s your chance…”
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014
Boyer’s Bartleby the Scavenger a strong story that kept me engrossed, but the rest of the issue much less so.
Naomi Kritzer. Containment Zone : a Seastead Story. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Further adventures of teen Beck Garrison on the independent seastead communities, facing up to the latest challenges, with her dad, as ever, on her case.
Jonathan Andrew Sheen. The Shadow in the Corner. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Lovecraftian horror as the shadow in the corner is enough to…
Annie Bellet. Goodnight Stars. (The End is Now)
The daughter of a lunar scientist has to cope with the loss of the moon, and her mother, and the consequent challenges.
Tim Sullivan. The Memory Cage. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Deep in space some scientific mumbo-jumbo involving ‘uber-symmetry’, ‘complementary particles’, and ‘superpositioning’ allows a man to confront his dead father.
Marc Laidlaw. Rooksnight. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
Further adventures of the bard Gorlen and his gargoyle Spar.
Chris Beckett. The Goblin Hunter. (Solaris Rising 3)
A story, from a well-established writer whose short stories have been received with critical acclaim, does read like the work of a novice writer.
D.J. Cockburn. Beside the Dammed River. (Interzone #253 Jul-Aug 2014)
The winner of the James White Award for unpublished writers, although the story gives no hint as to any reason as to why Cockburn has not (until now) been published.
Tananarive Due. Herd Immunity. (The End is Now)
Due gets the second volume of ‘The Apocalypse Triptych’ underway, with me more than keen to find out what has happened to almost all of the characters in the first volume.
Sam J. Miller. We Are the Cloud. (Lightspeed Magazine #53, September 2014)
A well-told story, think a bit of Midnight Cowboy crossed with William Gibson’s ‘Burning Chrome’. and good to see a same-sex relationship and some darker recesses explored.
Holly Black. Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind). (Lightspeed Magazine #52 September 2014)
A nicely written story, written in the second person where the ‘you’ to whom the story is being related is a young girl who runs away to space and finds adventure…
Saundra Mitchell. Starfall. (Lightspeed Magazine #53 September 2014)
Great story which asks big questions about our very smallest elements, and what it means to be a transient being in a near-infinite universe.
Katie Boyer. Bartleby the Scavenger. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2014)
A bleak, near-future, post-apocalyptic scenario, and keeps the reader’s attention throughout.
Neil Williamson. The Golden Nose. (Interzone #253)
Felix Kapel is an olfactory specialist, his nose for fragrances having built him a reputation and career, but for whom technology is a threat.
Susan Palwick. Windows. (Asimovs September 2014)
An impactful four pages from Palwick, set in a near-future USA in which a mother takes a trip on a Greyhound bus, to visit her incarcerated son.
Amanda Forrest. A Lullaby in Glass. (Asimovs September 2014)
A fairly bleak take on the pressures of technology, globalisation and repressive regimes, with a glimmer of light in the humanity at the end.
Scott Sigler. The Sixth Day of Deer Camp. (The End is Now)
The taut drama and the excellent characterisation continues, with a humdinger of a moral conundrum at the end of the story….