“The Heart”, Neal Barrett Jr. (Cross Plains Universe) This anthology of stories based in Robert E. Howard’s writings on the occasion of his hundredth birthday did not have enough standouts to get its own mention on the Locus list, but this particularly story made it, a different sort of take on the Texas tall tale […]

“Kin”, Bruce McAllister (Asimov’s 2/06) This odd and slightly creepy story concerns a young boy named Kim (not to be confused with the title, although the similarity is duly noted) and his mission to find an alien hitman to prevent the government from terminating the birth of his sister in an age of strict population […]

“World of No Return”, Carol Emshwiller (Asimov’s 1/06) Around 60 years into her writing career, this is Emshwiller’s first story for Asimov’s. Some of her recent entries in F&SF have been notable more for their obtuseness than anything else, but this story is a relatively straightforward tale that could easily have been modified to remove […]

The Hugo nominees are due in a few weeks, and I’m going to try to vote for the short story nominees this year, as this category is often decided by a few votes and is too often populated with sub-standard stories. The Locus list of the best short stories for 2006 includes 45 entries, which […]

Last real day of vacation, tomorrow will be mostly on a plane and be three hours shorter than normal. I left the room at 9:30 this morning and grabbed another fruit frappacino and muffin at Starbucks on my way to the convention center, not something you’d want to make a habit of. I think I […]

Today was a big day for panels, although doing six in a row is something I can’t seem to handle any more, plus you have to eat and I hadn’t really spent that much time in the dealers room. The first panel dealt with Heinlein, since next year will be his 100th birthday and the […]

Today was the day to go to Disneyland, so we got up and got going earlier than we otherwise would have, considering how late things went last night. Spent the morning there and by 12:30 or so it was time for me to take off back to the convention for the afternoon, so I left […]

First full day of the convention for me, everybody slept in and didn’t really eat breakfast. Meanwhile, I was at the convention, where I saw some worthwhile panels. G. David Nordley gave a talk about the requirements of interstellar travel, what technologies would work and which wouldn’t, and how long approximately it would take to […]

“Magic for Beginners” by Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners, Small Beer Press; Fantasy & Science Fiction September 2005) There is no magic in this story, or if there is, it’s more of the Clarkeian variety that is indistinguishable from technology. And who are the beginners in question? Link doesn’t answer that either, so while the […]

“TelePresence” by Michael A. Burstein (Analog July/August 2005) Ten years ago Burstein’s first published story, TeleAbsence, was inexplicably nominated for a Hugo. It told the story of a school age boy, Tony, who was able to hack into the virtual reality private school that he otherwise couldn’t afford because of his desire for learning. A […]