As readers should have noted, the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2011 has just been released, which in my mind is the kickoff for the annual awards season. As one of the contributors to the short fiction section, I must say that I am rather pleased with it this year. Which is to say, a [...]

Lackluster issues from both Dell digests this time. The Good Story award to McCarron’s “Swift, Brutal Retaliation” from Tor.com. Publications Reviewed Asimov’s, March 2012 Analog, April 2012 Tor.com, January 2012 Intergalactic Medicine Show, January 2012 Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2012 Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, January 2012 Asimov’s, March 2012 Not a very inspiring issue this month. [...]

New year’s stuff, with a little leftover old year’s stuff. I dust off the Good Story award for the de Bodard piece from Clarkesworld. Publications Reviewed Clarkesworld, January 2012 Tor.com, December 2011 Apex Magazine, January 2012 GigaNotoSaurus, January 2012 Redstone Science Fiction, January 2012 Kaleidotrope, Winter 2012 Fantastique Unfettered, Winter 2011/2012 Ishtar, edited by Amanda [...]

Wrapping up the year, although we’re already into the next one. Here’s the January/February issue of F&SF for 2012, and the Dell digests are even further along in the calendar date. Publications Reviewed F&SF, Jan/Feb 2012 Asimov’s, February 2012 Analog, March 2012 Beneath Ceaseless Skies, December 2011 Strange Horizons, December 2011 Fantasy Magazine, December 2011 [...]

When I look back at the year in short fiction, what stands out is the fact that there is nothing really standing out. The field seems to have been trapped in a stasis bubble. No major new publications started up. No major publications went under – at least for this year. Although there have been [...]

Here’s a miscellaneous batch of zines. Publications Reviewed Interzone, Nov-Dec 2011 Clarkesworld, December 2011 Alt Hist #3 Redstone Science Fiction, December 2011 GigaNotoSaurus, December 2011 Jabberwocky #8, July 2011 Jabberwocky #9, October 2011 Apex Magazine, December 2011 Interzone #237, Nov-Dec 2011 Only four pieces of fiction in this issue, probably owing to the length of [...]

The reviews this time will focus on the current issues of the Dell digests, beginning with the Analog double. Time to get my fingers used to typing “1212″. I also review the ezine stories that didn’t make it into the last column. Publications Reviewed Analog, January/February 2012 Asimov’s, January 2012 Tor.com, November 2011 Fantasy Magazine, [...]

Here are the monthly ezines, some various stuff in print from various sources, and a preview that bodes not well. Publications Reviewed Beneath Ceaseless Skies, November 2011 Lightspeed, November 2011 Fantasy Magazine, November 2011 Strange Horizons, November 2011 Weird Tales, Preview, October 2011 On Spec, Summer 2011 The New Yorker, November 14, 2011 The Journal [...]

A sizable batch of first-of-the-month ezines and one small press printzine. After a bit of a drought, I bring out the Good Story award again, this time for Catherynne M Valente’s piece in Apex, a good issue of this zine. Publications Reviewed Apex Magazine, November 2011 Clarkesworld, November 2011 Intergalactic Medicine Show, November 2011 Abyss [...]

A science-fictiony column this time. In a recent review, Tom Shippey says of the latest Nebula Awards anthology: “you might think that sci-fi was on its last legs: It is almost all fantasy, and such sci-fi as it contains is, again, dystopian.” Certainly no one could entertain such a thought after reading the works reviewed [...]