Mataglap SF

Boneshaker is my first encounter with Cherie Priest, and comes with a lot of advance notice and even the Locus award.  It would seem to promise a specific experience, with its steampunk setting (and cover, and title for that matter), but what it delivers is something else entirely and, for me anyway, a big disappointment.…

I wasn’t sure what to make of this novella at first, it’s sort of science fiction, but within the trappings of a hyper-religious society who must both display consistent and underwavering faith in their god while at the same time enslaving other, presumably lesser gods that somehow power the starships they command.  But I wouldn’t…

Here in one place are the announced contents of this year’s crop of “year’s best” anthologies.  Haven’t seen anything from Hartwell/Cramer yet, but the other three have been announced.  I don’t see the Horton book on Amazon yet, but there are links to the other two, although they don’t come out for a while.  This…

  Over 15 years ago Asimov’s published what has arguably become Jim Kelly’s most famous story, “Think Like a Dinosaur”, which went on to win the Hugo in 1996.  That story was widely recognized as a response or a commentary or a riff on “The Cold Equations”, one-hit wonder Tom Godwin’s even more famous story…

http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/11/ponies This very short story involves a group of girls who own girl-sized, pastel-colored, winged unicorn ponies, primarily as a token to a rite of passage into the “in” crowd.  Johnson tells the story in parable form, none of the girls are named except for the protagonist, and there’s a certain dreamy/nightmare approach to the prose. …

There’s the usual amount of excitement and head-scratching around this year’s Hugo nominees, announced yesterday.  I think I set a new record this year for trying to read as many different potential nominees as possible before the voting deadline (and even continuing somewhat afterward), and it helped a little, but in the short story category,…

(published by Tachyon) Locus 2009 recommended list Published as a short novel, Morrow’s latest work follows on from his more accessible style in which he engages the reader with some wry, quirky characterizations plunked down into a unique situation that is very real to them but somewhat allegorical or satirical to the rest of us. …

(Wireless, Ace) Locus 2009 recommended list The word “palimpsest” is one of those that sticks in your brain for its odd sound, even though you don’t remember what it means.  While it sounds like something you’d go see a dermatologist about, it in fact has its origins in the ancient Greek and Roman practice of…

(Asimovs, March 2009) Locus 2009 recommended list   Dozois Year’s Best Nearly 20 years ago, Nancy Kress wrote a story called “Beggars in Spain”, which is probably still her best known work.  It was expanded into a novel, which was even more popular than the story, and that was expanded into a trilogy, which pretty much…

Cyberabad Days, (Pyr) Locus 2009 recommended list   Dozois Year’s Best So, Mr. McDonald, we meet again.  I’ll say right up front this may be the most coherent McDonald story I’ve ever read.  It is completely intelligible, has a beginning middle and end, and even a plot, all of these qualities that much of his work,…