Lois Tilton

Featuring an anthology in honor of Robert Silverberg, and a pair of magazines from TTA Press. Which brings me to the issue of genre boundaries.

It’s primarily a matter of time – mine, which isn’t infinite. Because I don’t have time to read everything, I decided some time ago to limit my reviews to SF and fantasy, omitting horror. But I also decided that I would try to take at

Here we have the Dell digests, about which I have only limited enthusiasm, also the first of the month ezines.

I was happy to see in the ToC that this double issue was featuring two novellas, but less happy after I had read them. The Reed was especially disappointing, because

The month’s stories from some of the regular ezines and a couple less regular small press publications. I found some enjoyable work, particularly from Tor.com and Unlikely Story, which is the journal of cryptology this time.

Featuring The Anderson Project, a group of three original stories written

Mostly a John Joseph Adams column, featuring his ezine Lightspeed and an anthology co-edited by him. Also the February stories from Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Gaming story. First time she played Coma, Jenny did so well at

February brings some better fiction. The Good Story award goes to F&SF‘s Sarah Pinsker story.

A very mixed issue with some good work, including a fine short story by Sarah Pinsker, for whose work I will now be watching. Also a lot of the

I continue unenthused by the stories I’m finding this month. Even the most promising seem flawed in some way that keeps me from recommending them.

Stories named “Enginesong” and “Evensong” this time. I don’t see the usual thematic connection between the stories in

If this year goes on as it has begun, my 2014 Year’s Best list is going to be awfully short. Fortunately, we have Interzone, with a good issue. Also a nice independent novella by Octavia Cade, from the Masque imprint.

Seven stories in this issue, which

First stories of the 2014 review year. Some inauspicious notes.

This issue guest-edited by Jonathan Strahan has a larger than usual number of stories, complete with forwards from both editor and author.

“There was a scrivener who had three daughters.” Which opening line suggests

And this winds up the year, except for whatever shows up late in January.I’m unhappy to bid goodbye to Electric Velocipede, of which we have the last issue here. A loss to the field. We also have a novella chapbook by Greer Gilman from Small Beer Press, which gets the Good Story award.

And here are the digests, all three of them at the same time.

Starting out the new year pretty well, good reading, although no individual stories are clearly outstanding.

Alex encounters a strange woman in the Field Museum* where he is a curator; she is unattractive except for her striking

A somewhat unusual column, as I try to get as much 2013 fiction as possible read while the clock ticks down on the year, including several longer works from sources I don’t normally review. The Good Story award to Yoon Ha Lee’s “Iseul’s Lexicon”.

A miscellaneous column. Besides the regular electronic zines, here are a number of publications that come out on different, less frequent schedules. One of these is a debut.

Fresh from winning the 2013 British Fantasy

Featuring an entertaining anthology in addition to the usual ezines.

Old Mars, edited by George R R Martin and Gardner Dozois

An anthology harking back to the Mars of skiffy yore – the one with

Some good reading to open November. Analog anchors the column with a double issue that opens the 2014 season. Also a good issue of Asimov’s. I review Interfictions for the first time and like it pretty well. The Good Story award goes to the DeNiro, and also to the Robert Reed in Clarkesworld.

I don’t normally review horror publications, but at this time of year the darkness comes seeping out all over. It seems fitting to have a Halloween anthology as well as the usual periodicals.

A theme of courtship in different

A couple of commendable publications this time, the last F&SF of the year and the anthology Rags and Bones.

A good issue. I discern a theme of transformation linking several of the stories.

A mad scientist story. Dr Jim was always

In addition to some of the usual monthly and quarterly online zines, here’s an anthology of fairy tales, from which I pick Nathan Ballingrud’s tale for the Good Story award. Overall, best publication of the lot this time has to be the fifth anniversary double issue of BCS, with the Richard Parks story another Good Story award winner.

December already!? The year already done? So it would seem from the cover dates on the current issues of the digests, still following the increasingly obsolete newsstand calendar. Used to be, the gravitational pull of these premier magazines pulled the genre along in their wake, but unfortunately this influence is still felt, even while online publication has been following the true calendar year. Pretty soon, with nearly a quarter of

Still digging through September. Particularly liking the current Interzone and Strange Horizons stories.

A superior issue, the best of this zine that I’ve seen in some time. Two of the pieces are science fiction,

Starting to attack the quarterly fiction deluge, looking over my back at the stuff I didn’t manage to cover last month, as it recedes into the calendar. I’m finding an adventitious theme of the survival of identity after death across several of these publications. It’s always interesting when that happens.

Here are the monthly digests, one of them a double issue, and the month’s worth from Tor.com.

A double issue, with no novellas! There’s a strong theme of time in several of these stories. Also an installment in Rusch’s ongoing Fleet serial.

Lydia thought the club

A lot of stories here, beginning with the long-awaited September F&SF, and including another of the “world SF” anthologies I’ve recently received.

I’d been looking forward to this issue, as

Here are two anthologies along with the regular first of the month ezines. Also a new start for an established poetry zine, now offering fiction as well as verse. Best stories are in Clarkesworld and Lightspeed this time.

Giving the Good Story award to Ford’s Emily Dickinson piece in the Tor.com fifth anniversary month.

The site is celebrating its fifth anniversary in July by posting five new stories on the 17th, as well as the usual others throughout the month, which adds up to quite a

I especially enjoyed the warped visions of reality in Kaleidotrope this time around.

A theme here of immortality and death. The MacLeod and Creasey stories have a particular congruence.

The allusion of the title is to Shakespeare, not Star Trek.

Everything electronic, leading off with an electronic anthology of novellas.

As the editorial introduction explains, this is an anthology of four novellas that the editor wanted to publish but which didn’t, for one reason or another but probably involving space, fit into an issue of F&SF.

A mixed bag this time, with a novella, a little printzine and some regular and irregular e-publications.

Here’s a thing I wish I saw

Wading through the summer quarterly deluge and finding some great reading, most notably in Subterranean Magazine’s summer issue, a K J Parker special. Also a good issue of F&SF. Good Story awards to both Parker stories and the Valente from Subterranean and to the Arnason story from F&SF.

Awesomeness! A

A rare occasion when the print fiction outnumbers the stories online. Promising issues from Analog and Apex.

An unusually large number of short stories here this time: eight, including the winner of IZ’s James White competition for newer writers. Of course, this means the stories

Mostly fantasy this time, as I lead out with a new original anthology. Real science fiction seems to be getting scarce, though not good fantasy. A Good Story award to K J Parker’s “The Dragonslayer of Merebarton” from Fearsome Journeys.

The debut of a new publication, some occasional ezines, and a couple of the regular monthlies. I particularly enjoyed Electric Velocipede this time around.

Of all the genre’s small press zines, EV is in the top rank