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New on Best SF in June 2007, Best SF Presents will make available online short stories which showcase the best the genre has to offer. As with the rest of the Best SF there's no publication schedule, but I'd like to think I will be putting up a story up every month or so. The stories will be primarily science fiction as opposed to fantasy, speculative, horror or alternate history.
I'll be putting up stories which have appeared elsewhere, in one of the major magazines or anthologies. If you are an author who has had a story appear in a major magazine or anthology which I've read, and that review has been positive, then by all means do get in touch with me if you would like to offer said story for inclusion in Best SF Presents.
I'm aiming to get a mix of old and new stories, from established and up and coming authors.
September 1st 2007 Charles Stross has had his short SF published for the best part of 20 years now, appearing sporadically in mostly British magazines during the 1990s whilst working as an IT journalist. Some of his early work is collected in the anthology 'Toast' BestSF Review in 2002, including a number of stories c2000 in Interzone and Spectrum SF which led to his Manfred Mancx story sequence in Asimovs. This was subsequently published as a well received novel, Accelerando, and the rest is pretty much history.
He was an early blogger, and you can keep up to date with him at http://www.antipope.org, which includes links to his burgeoning output, now that he is a full-time writer.
Fortunately for us short SF readers, he has yet to leave behind this market, and I'm triffically pleased that he's happy to make available on Best SF Presents his story 'Rogue Farm', which appeared in the excellent anthology 'Live Without a Net' (Best SF review) in 2003. It's a cracking story, and rather than me waste my time waffling on, I'll shut up and let you read it.
August 2nd 2007 The latest addtion to Best SF Presents is Chris Roberson's 'Companion to Owls' which first appeared in Asimovs in March 2006. I particularly liked this story for, as I originally reviewed it, 'an impressive piece of world-building'.
Roberson is a new writer, whose 'Celestial Empire' series, set in an alternate background with China dominant, has garnered good reviews. He has own website, from where you can nab his story O One, and InfinityPlus has his Red Hands, Black Hands
July 1st 2007 The second addition to Best SF Presents is Jonathan Sherwood's 'Under the Graying Sea', which appeared in Asimovs in February 2006. I was impressed with this first published story, and TangentOnline reviewed it as "filled with suspense, passion, and cleverness .. 'Under the Graying Sea' stands above the other stories as the strongest contribution to the issue". Sherwood has a strong blog presence, from where you can find out about the writing of this story, and his current endeavours. Enjoy.
June 1st 2007 First up is 'The Last Reef' by Gareth L Powell, which appeared in Interzone #206 Jan/Feb 2006. Interzone has been in new hands for a couple of years now, with Andy Cox picking up the baton from an evidently knackered David Pringle, who had been at the helm of Interzone for 20 years. He's breathed new life into it, both in terms of presentation and also in terms of bringing in different and new authors - the old Interzone had become somewhat predictable both in terms of format and authors.
Gareth L Powell's 'The Last Reef' was long listed for a BSFA award, and came sixth in the Interzone Reader's Poll for best short story of 2006. He's got a collection and a novel appearing in 2008, and he's a regular blogger. Co-incidentally, another story of his, Six Lights Off Green Scar has just appeared on the InfinityPlus website
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