Kelly Robson. The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill. (Clarkesworld #100, February 2015)
A challenging read from Robson, as we follow the fortunes of a young girl hitch-hiking, in a desperately ill condition.
Gwendolyn Clare. Indelibe. (Clarkesworld #101, February 2015)
A young human girl is trying to find her sister, and also, herself, amongst the race of shape-shifting hemaphroditic Shukar, with only her wits and help from Phaakoh.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The Last Surviving Gondola Widow. (Clarkesworld 101)
The American civil war has gone differently, there’s low-level magic, and gondolas. What’s not to like?
Jay Lake. An Exile of the Heart. (Clarkesworld Magazine #100 January 2015)
I still make the odd trip to jlake.com hoping that Jay’s got some wisdom to impart posthumously, a la Hari Seldon,
Asimovs. January 2015.
The opening story from Rowe ends just when it’s getting going, and apart from that, only O’Connell provides anything that rises above the distinctly average.
Allen M. Steele. The Long Wait. (Asimovs January 2015)
Another installment in Steele’s stories about the Arkwright Foundation, set up by some of the founding fathers of SF, which is reaching for the stars.
Sarah Pinsker. Songs in the key of you. (Asimovs January 2015)
There’s plenty to be mined in SF in terms of technology have/have not’s, but this is barely breaking the surface.
Peter Wood. Butterflies. (Asimovs January 2015)
A story that reads like the stories that caused me to stop ready Analog some years ago
Jay O’Connell. Candy from Strangers. (Asimovs January 2015)
Another good story from O’Connell looking at the slightly darker side of humanity.
Caroline M. Yoachim. Ninety-Five Percent Safe. (Asimovs January 2015)
Life in an underground city, hiding from nuclear winter on Earth. Or a 95% success rate journey through a wormhole to (alien) pastures new…. worth the risk??
Scott Baker. Feral Frolics. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015)
SF writers tend to be cat lovers, and here Baker tells a salutary tale, suggesting a good reason for not getting on the wrong side of Felis catus.
Robert A. Heinlein. “All You Zombies-” Galaxy’s Edge Number Twelve, January 2015.
Keeps the reader engaged, and struggling to keep a handle on who has done what to whom, and how, and when, and why.
Naomi Kritzer. Cat Pictures Please. (Clarkesworld #100, January 2015)
Google is Your Friend, and a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Rand B. Lee. The Judging. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2014)
Whitsun, the red-robed man, and his companions, Francesco the burro and Treats the (talking) Husky, make a welcome return to F&SF.
Justin Barbeau. Nanabojou at the World’s Fair. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2014)
A fable about the arrival at the St Louis World’s Fair of 1904 of the native American god, who gets amongst the white men and gives them a fully authentic picture of his people.
Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw. Watergirl. (Asimovs January 2015)
The stoner surfer dudes from ‘The Perfect Wave’ from the January 2008 issue make a return, living by the coast, living for the surf. But there’s challenges to be faced as the very waves themselves are to be controlled by The Man, and there’s another evil dude, and a revenge to be wreaked.
Benjamin Rosenbaum. Fift & Shria. (Solaris Rising 3)
Inventive story from Rosenbaum, through the eyes of youngsters where birth order is more important than usual, as siblings (clones?) are closely linked and act as one, and the family unit is not the nuclear norm.
Cat Sparks. Dark Harvest. (Solaris Rising 3)
There’s a lot of devil in the detail and the story works well.
Christopher Rowe. The Unveiling. (Asimovs January 2015)
Dangnabbit I was just getting into the story when I realised that there was a last half page and there was that little black square signifying that Rowe was bringing the story to a close!
Tim Sullivan. Yeshua’s Dog. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2014)
In the gospel according to Sullivan, Yeshua was a humble storyteller, not so much a prophet as in it for the profit.
Paul Di Filippo. I’ll Follow the Sun. (Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2014)
I always found Doctor Strange just a little dubious – having what I would probably identify now as a rather camp theatricality about him
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September/October 2014
Slightly more lighter stories than the norm, making the issue a gentle read. The Reed story was OK, but not up there with his Great Ship stories, and the one SF story didn’t really gr
David Gerrold. The Thing in the Back Yard. (Fantasy and Science Fiction Sept/Oct 2014)
Droll troll shaggy doggery from Gerrold.