Best SF | 2011 October

Tricia Sullivan. The One That Got Away. (Solaris Rising)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 31, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

A very strange, surreal, dream-like story – you finish reading it, and think to yourself, as you do after some dreams, just where on Earth did that come from?

Pat Cadigan. Cody. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 30, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Sort of cyberpunk as it might happen now, as opposed to the cyberpunk as we imagined it in the 80s.

Ken MacLeod. The Best Science Fiction of the Year Three. (Solaris Rising)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 30, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

You always get some thought-provoking politics with MacLeod, and here he pops in some near-future background to give depth to a story involving an SF writer and an anthologist.

Erik Amundsen. Pony. (Clarkesworld Magazine #61, October 2011)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

A neat little story which takes a standard SF setting – a spacesuited protagonist outside of his spaceship and facing a risk – but looks at it several generations beyond the usual handling of such stories.

Paul di Filippo. Sweets Spots. (Solaris Rising)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

I’m not finding as many di Filippo stories to read as I would like, which is a shame, but it’s nice to be welcomed by an opening paragraph that tells you that your going to get his slightly-gonzo world view

Ma Boyong. The Mark Twain Robots. (trsf: The Best New Science Fiction)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

It’s Asimovian in that it could have been one of his stories from the 50s, making it feel a bit out of place in a forward-looking volume published 50 years later.

Jon Ingold. The Fall of the City of Silver. (Interzone #236, Sep-Oct 2011)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 29, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Ingold takes us back to the ancient city of Tartassos, and explores what their fabled wealth in silver might have been built on, and led to.

K.J. Parker. Amor Vincit Omnia. (The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 22, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Some wizardly goings-on for those of you missing Harry Potter. Admittedly somewhat darker, with adult scenes!

Fiona Moore. The Metaphor. (Interzone 236, Sep-Oct 2011)

By Mark Watson ⋅ October 22, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

The unnamed protagonist exists in a strange world, the only human, who from time to time is suddenly required to set up a number of empty bars ready to entertain unseen guests.