Archive for April, 2010
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.
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