Last weekend at Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, a would-be short story writer cornered me with a question. His critique group keeps telling him that his short stories read more like chapters from a novel, he said; does this mean he is just not cut out to write short stories? I gave him a quick set of diagnostics for things that might actually be wrong (too much exposition, not a complete ...Read More
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Results of the 2023 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards have been announced, with many finalists available to read online.
BEST NOVELLA
BEST NOVELETTE
Cerilli, Matteo: Lockjaw (Penguin Random House Canada/Tundra 9781774882306, $17.99, 328pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)
Young-adult horror novel of two queer teens in a community that doesn’t accept them. When one is killed by a monster the other has to prove it’s real to clear herself and save the town.
Cobell, K.A.: Looking for Smoke (HarperCollins/Heartdrum 9780063318670, $19.99, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audio, 06/04/2024)
Young-adult thriller novel set on ...Read More
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Analog Science Fiction and Fact
The Sunday Morning Transport 12/17/23, 12/3/23, 11/19/23, 11/12/23, 11/5/23 Uncanny 11-12/23 The Dark 11/23
By the time you read this, the new year of 2024 will no longer be so new, but there’s still some short fiction from the end of 2023 to catch up on.
A laundry that washes stars? Nikki Brazie takes the unique premise of cleaning luminous celestial bodies and weaves it into a touching tale about ...Read More
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Finalists for the 2023 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Awards, and the 38th Asimov’s Readers’ Awards, have been announced, with many finalists available to read online.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analytical Laboratory Award Finalists
BEST NOVELLAS
“To Fight the Colossus“, Adam-Troy Castro (July/August 2023)
“The Tinker and the Timestream“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (March/April 2023)
“The Elephant-Maker”, Alec Nevala-Lee (January/February 2023)
“Flying Carpet“, Rajnar Vajra (November/December 2023)
“Poison“, Frank Wu & ...Read More
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The Sunday Morning Transport 1/8/23, 1/18/23, 1/22/23, 2/5/23, 2/12/23, 2/19/23 Apex 1/23
The Sunday Morning Transport started 2023 on January 8 with the first of a two-part novella, “Tears Waiting to Be Diamonds” by Sarah Rees Brennan. The second part was published January 28. Brennan revisits the Borderlands from her acclaimed novel In Other Lands. Set about ten years after the novel begins, the hero, Elliot ...Read More
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Asimov’s 1-2/23 Clarkesworld 2/23 The Sunday Morning Transport 1/22/23, 2/5/23, 2/12/23
Asimov’s presents us with an interesting range of stories to start the year, with two that are optimistic about the future but in very different ways. The cover novella is “Up and Out” by Norman Spinrad, a key voice of New Wave science fiction. In this (possibly overlong) story we follow “Elon Tesla,” a man who ...Read More
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First, I want to rave. It took me most of 2022 to finally catch up to online periodical The Sunday Morning Transport. Julian Yap, editor-in-chief, and Fran Wilde, managing editor, publish a single science fiction or fantasy (sometimes dark) short story (almost) every Sunday. Free subscribers receive one story a month. Paid subscribers receive one story each week, 50 weeks a year. Last year’s contributors included Max Gladstone, Karen Lord, ...Read More
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Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki announced the finalists for the 2021 Emeka Walter Dinjos Awards for Disability in Speculative Fiction.
Disabled Writers Category
Analog 9-10/22 Mithila Review 8/22
Analog for September/October has a novella, “Kingsbury 1944” by Michael Cassutt. It’s an alternate history based on the true fact that E.E. “Doc” Smith of Lensman fame, and Charles O. Finley, later owner of the Oakland Athletics baseball team, worked at the same ordnance plant during WWII. Into this mix add Alfred “Lefty” Kramer, the narrator and injured pitcher recruited by Finley ...Read More
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The winners for the 36th annual Asimov’s Readers’ Awards have been announced.
Best Novel/Novella
Best Novelette
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Clarkesworld 2/22 Analog 3-4/2022 The Sunday Morning Transport 1/23/2022
The first three stories in February’s Clarkesworld all feature an aspect of human life that I’ve long felt gets short shrift in science fiction in particular, but also in fantasy – parenting. I was complaining once (after I became a parent myself, naturally) that I just did not see many folks with kids in these stories, and someone (childless, I believe) ...Read More
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Fantasy 12/21, 1/22 The Deadlands 12/21 Nightmare 12/21, 1/22
Fantasy #75 starts 2022 off with two of the better stories they’ve published in their latest incarnation. There are also two flash fiction stories, but they don’t measure up to the shorts. There are many legends and myths of the banyan tree, but as far as I know, Shalini Srinivasan creates a brand new one with “Markets: A Beginners Guide ...Read More
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Cossmass Infinities
Finalists for the 2021 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) and Asimov’s Readers’ Awards have been announced, with many finalists available to read online.
Analog Science Fiction and Fact Analytical Laboratory Award Finalists
Best Novella
Best Novelette
Conjunctions: 77 States of Play
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Fix, Grist‘s “solutions lab,” has announced three winners for their Imagine 2200 Short Story Contest. The contest aimed “to envision a clean, just future… [and] create stories of life in that future.” The theme was “Climate fiction for future ancestors.” Winners are:
Other finalists were:
Uncanny 1-2/21 Apex #122 The Dark 1/21, 2/21 Nightmare 1/21, 2/21 Fantasy 2/21, 3/21 Baffling 1/21
Uncanny #38 is a strong issue. Sam J. Miller‘s “Tyrannosaurus Hex” posits a future in which alternative realities can be all too real. The story is particularly chilling (and resonates as true) with children as the “early adaptors.” “A House Full of Voices Is Never Empty” by Miyuki Jane ...Read More
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F&SF 1-2/21 Uncanny 1-2/21 The Book of Dragons, Jonathan Strahan ed. (Harper Voyager) July 2020.
F&SF opens the year with a remarkable novella from John Kessel. “The Dark Side” concerns Leon Czolgosz, the murderer of President McKinley. The story runs on two tracks, one detailing Czolgosz’s actions leading up to his crime, plus some backstory, and also the aftermath as he is tried and executed. The ...Read More
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Black Static 11-12/20 The Dark 11/20, 12/20 Nightmare 12/20, 1/21 Fantasy 12/20, 1/21
I can’t really point out the best in Black Static #77. All six stories are the sort that stay with you and deserve at least brief mention (although Steve Rasnic Tem’s may be my favorite.) A vacation in a tropical paradise turns horrific in novelette “The Guardian” by Philip Fracassi. As tired as I ...Read More
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Asimov’s 11-12/20 Analog 11-12/20 Interzone 11-12/20
I’ll start with a story from the November-December Asimov’s that doesn’t really qualify as SF or fantasy, but that will appeal to many of our readers. This is Connie Willis‘s latest Christmas story, “Take a Look at the Five and Ten“. Ori is telling about her Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with her ex-stepfather, who has a habit of inviting almost everyone ...Read More
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The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume One, Paula Guran, ed. (Pyr 978-1645060253, $19.95, 440pp, tp) October 2020.
Paula Guran started her The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror series in 2010 with Prime Books. After working as a senior editor for Prime for seven years, Guran parted ways with the company and published the final installment in that series in 2019. Guran returns in 2020 with no ...Read More
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Strange Horizons 8/20 Beneath Ceaseless Skies 8/27/20 Clarkesworld 9/20 Lightspeed 10/20
At the end of August Strange Horizons celebrated its 20th anniversary. It continues to be a stand-out in the online fiction world, having survived many evolutions over time. Be sure to check out the editor’s choice stories featured on August 31, showcasing 20 years of history with just a few selections. Elsewhere in August it features “My Love, ...Read More
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