Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/1/18, 2/15/18
The Father of Lies, K.J. Parker (Subterra­nean) January 2018.

Science-fantasy” is a slippery term, one that’s changed over time, as demonstrat­ed in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issues #244 and #245, the annual science-fantasy double issue. Using the strictest definition, any story that features “impossible” technol­ogy, technology far in advance of what can be achieved by today’s technical capabilities, is “science-fantasy.” I give a break to stories ...Read More

Asimov’s 1-2/18
Analog 1-2/18
F&SF 1-2/18
Clarkesworld 1/18
Lightspeed 1/18

2018 is off to a good start – perhaps nothing exceptional enough to make the Hugo bal­lots was published in January, but there was lots of good, entertaining reading.

The January/February Asimov’s featured solid storytelling that took us to a number of exotic lo­cales. “Barren Isle” by Allen M. Steele takes us back to the still partially unexplored colony world ...Read More

Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collec­tion of Space Futures, Ed Finn & Joey Eschrich, eds. (Arizona State University) December 2017.
Lightspeed 12/17
Asimov’s 11-12/17
Analog 11-12/17
F&SF 11-12/17

With 2018 looming on the horizon, only a few days away as I write these words, let’s do some mop-up of things I haven’t covered yet.

Last month we discussed futurology/Think Tank anthologies. The strongest of this grouping snuck in under the ...Read More

Clarkesworld 6/17, 7/17, 8/17, 9/17, 10/17, 11/17, 12/17

The last half of the year was uneven for Clarkes­world; while a few of the issues were unexciting, they also published some of the year’s best stories along the way.

The June Clarkesworld was another good issue, with three strong stories, “My Dear, Like the Sky and Stars and Sun” by Julia K. Patt, which follows the owner of a shop that ...Read More

Global Dystopias, Junot Díaz, ed. (Boston Re­view) November 2017.

Children of a Different Sky, Alma Alexander, ed. (Kos Books) November 2017.

Mad Hatters and March Hares, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tor) December 2017.

There’s no pretense of optimism about the future in Global Dystopias, a special issue of the Boston Review edited by Junot Díaz. The title tells you just what you’re going to get, and most of the stories here ...Read More

Shadows & Reflections: Stories from the Worlds of Roger Zelazny, Trent Zelazny & Warren Lapine, eds. (Positronic Publishing) 9/17.

Omni Winter ’17

The Hainish Novels and Stories, Ursula K. Le Guin (Library of America) August 2017.

In the last few years, we’ve had trib­ute anthologies dedicated to Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, and Samuel R. Delany, and now we have one dedicated to Roger Zelazny: Shadows & ...Read More

Infinity Wars, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris) September 2017.
Infinite Stars, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, ed. (Titan) October 2017.

There were a number of original SF anthologies this year that presented themselves as offering a mix of space opera and military SF, among them the two anthologies under consideration here, Infinity Wars, edited by Jonathan Strahan, and Infinite Stars: The Definitive Anthology of Space Op­era and Military SF, edited by Bryan Thomas ...Read More

Tor.com 8/9/17, 7/19/17, 8/2/17, 5/17/17
F&SF 9-10/17
Overview: Stories of the Stratosphere, Mi­chael G. Bennett, Joey Eschrich & Ed Finn, eds. (ASU Center for Science and the Imagination) August 2017.

Tor.com has had a run of strong stories in the past couple of months. Best of them is Greg Egan‘s “Uncanny Valley“, posted on August 9, which deals shrewdly and poignantly with the question of whether the “copy” of a ...Read More