Return to 2016
Best SF/F Short Fiction
Score: 16 →
8-9 Recommendations
Score: 15
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(Near-Future Hard SF) Lita learned
Rob's obsession with alternate universes in college, but waning interest in
science made it hard for him to explore it.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [5] Recommended By: RSR+2 SFRevu+1 GDozois+2 RHorton+2 NClarke+2 JStrahan+2 Locus+2 Sturgeon+2
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Score: 14 → 7-8 Recommendations
Score: 13
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(SF) Months after mysterious aliens
scattered their spacecraft across North America, no one has a clue what they
want. Avery knows what one of them wants, though: it wants a tour.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [4] Recommended By: RSR+1 GDozois+2 RHorton+1 NClarke+2 JStrahan+2 Hugo+2 Sturgeon+2
BASFF+1
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Score: 12 → 6-7 Recommendations
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(Historical Fantasy) In a magical Old
West, young Ellis has a love for the desert and an affinity for dead things.
Both of these attract unwelcome attention from strangers visiting from back
East.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [4] Recommended By: RSR+1 JStrahan+2 Nebula+2 Readers+0 Hugo+2 Eugie+2 Locus+2 BASFF+1
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Score: 11
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(SF/Mainstream) The crew of the new
Mars mission are coming to the hotel where Emily works, and her mom is
starting to say strange things about her involvement with the last Mars
mission.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [3] Recommended By: GDozois+2 RHorton+1 JStrahan+2 Hugo+2 Locus+2 Sturgeon+2
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Score: 10 → 5-6 Recommendations
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(Post Apocalypse) Teenage Tetley lives
in a human settlement (one of the last) built on a miles-wide floating
garbage dump. She explains why everyone hates her now.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [4] Recommended By: RSR+1 RHorton+1 JStrahan+2 Locus+2 Sturgeon+2
BASFF+2
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Score: 9
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(High Fantasy) Two teenage girls, Lin,
the last Jewel, and Sima, the last Lapidary, struggle to fight the invaders
who've taken the kingdom by treachery.
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Score: 8 → 4-5
Recommendations
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(Near-Future SF) Benji was an ordinary
terrier until his master decided to have him sentientized.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [5] Recommended By: RSR+2 SFRevu+1 GDozois+2 RHorton+1 NClarke+2 Readers+0
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(Fairy Tale) Young Miryem supports her
family lending money at interest, but things get difficult when someone from
Faerie makes her an offer she can’t refuse.
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Ten Poems
for the Mossums, One for the Man by Suzanne
Palmer Time: 24m (Novelette) Issue: Asimov's 07|16
(Hard SF) Davin is spending a year
alone on Ekye to observe the local wildlife and, he hopes, to recover his
lost creativity.
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(Post Singularity) James seeks
fulfillment through his sculpture, even though it all seems pointless in a
perfect world run by Ais.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [5] Recommended By: RSR+2 SFRevu+1 GDozois+2 RHorton+1 NClarke+2 Readers+0
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Score: 7
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Everyone
from Themis Sends Letters Home by Genevieve Valentine
Time: 30m (Novelette) Issue: Clarkesworld 121
(SF) The crew of the Themis colony
write home about their struggles with a mission and a world that seems to be
more than a little off.
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(Military Fantasy) Baekdo, a fox who
wants to become human, needs one more kill to achieve his goal. A collapsing
city in the middle of a civil war seems like a good place to do it but there
are complications.
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(Competence SF) In the 2080s, Humanity
is abandoning Mars, and Steuby and his companions think they can make money
by looting the abandoned settlements at the last minute.
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(Near-Future SF) The secretive
parthenogenetic women of Colinas Bravas usually don't allow outsiders into
their country, but they invite Ms. Vargas to fix a genetic problem with their
children.
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Score: 6 → 3-4
Recommendations
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(SF) Frere-Jones controls the nanobot
"grains" that help protect the ecology in the bit of land she
"anchors." She's come to view the grains as a tyranny, but there
doesn't seem to be much she can do about it.
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(SF) The end of the world starts when
an ambitious marketing guy gets a cryptic assignment to create an ad campaign
to "make ugly sexy."
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Sooner or
Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah
Pinsker Time: 25m (Novelette) Issue: Lightspeed 69
(Near-future SF) Bay lives alone and
subsists off things that wash ashore from cruise ships and such. Then Gabby
washes up, alive, and complicates her life.
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(SF) In a colony on an almost
uninhabitable planet, the technologically-superior Su share power with the
humans, but some humans want independence.
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(Fantasy) Someone (or something) is
taking Grandma Harken's tomatoes, but finding the thief leads to a real
mystery--and danger.
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Score: 5
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(Historical Fantasy) In Eastern Europe
between the wars, Klara works as a kitchen maid. One night she admits a woman
she thinks is a lost fairy-tale princesses into the castle.
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(Historical SF) In 1955, Nancy's best
friend Ellen dates a bad boy who introduces her to Bug Town, where aliens
live. Nothing is the same after that.
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(Hacker SF) Fresh out of prison for
hacking, Aedo gets a request to do an even bigger hack. But why does Energy
Davison want to hack its own systems?
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Score: 4 → 2-3
Recommendations
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(SF) In a future Australia, Irving
sells his memories for ready cash, hoping to put his life back together. To
the extent he still remembers it.
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(Zombie) In modern India, Krishna
encounters (and ignores) a dead woman's body by the river just before the
dead start to walk. He feels guilty and determines to do something about it.
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(SF Humor) Ruth, a 22-year-old Walmart
cashier, meets a very weird-and-scary-looking alien, who seems down on his
luck, and brings him home with her.
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(Mind Uploading) Jix tells how her
twin sister left their planet and their god, starting with how they met a
handsome offworlder.
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(Space Opera; Xuya) Da Trang earned
favor with the Empress because his remora, Pearl, feed him information. He
has lost Pearl, but cannot stop searching for it.
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(Near-future SF; Project Empathy)
Teenage Bel worked as a host at a Blue Cup restaurant in Concord, CA before Blue
Cup moved her to San Francisco for special training. Very special.
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(Hard SF) Mitchell was a navigator on
the Francis Drake, but something terrible happened. The doctors tell him he's
losing his mind, but he doesn't believe them. If only he could remember what
happened.
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(Greek Mythos) The trees in the grove
used to be women, and the Guardian protects them zealously from the men who
still pursue them.
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(Fantasy) From prehistoric times, the
stone man crouched on a hill. Every now and then a person would find it and
try to get it to do something. But to succeed was to die.
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(Mind Uploading) The prospect of
living forever through "iterations" is still new, and not everyone
likes it. Sonata wants to make a statement by declaring she will only upload
twice.
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(Metafiction) A black author
accepts the challenge of writing a
black SF hero, but the police just keep shooting him.
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Score: 3
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(SF; Lydia Duluth) The AIs contract
Lydia to check out an unusual planet and the secretive corporation that's
supposed to be developing it.
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(Military SF Horror) Elliot's squad of
convict-soldiers crash-lands in the middle of a swamp far away from help.
Extracting them doesn't seem to be a priority, but something seems to be
wrong with the swamp.
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(Fantasy Science) About a thousand
years from now, two powerful AIs struggle to prevent the destruction of the
multiverse.
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Gorse
Daughter, Sparrow Son by Alena
Indigo Anne Sullivan1 Time: 25m (Novelette) Issue: Strange Horizons 08/08/16
(Fairy Tale) Jocelyn is a princess a
lot like Sleeping Beauty, but with a much better relationship with the
fairies. Not that that helps her.
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(SF) Disguised in the body of a dead
little boy, Fox needs to escape from the colony before the revolutionary
leaders find him. But the boy's brother may be a problem.
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(Superheroes) A kid who was burned to
death returns to life as a human torch, eager for revenge. Old Man Gasper has
a similar story, a different power, and advises caution.
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(SF) Before Mimi dies from
Alzheimer's, Walter gets her an illegal consciousness transfer done in India.
Then all he has to do is sneak the copy back into the US.
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(SF) Nawiz has pursued the boy who
ruined her life across the galaxy. Before she can get her vengeance, they're
both swallowed by a gigantic sea creature, and it will be a struggle merely
to survive.
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(Near-Future SF) Lucas does jobs for
backups that their human originals won't agree to. But some backups are more
trouble than others.
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(Dystopia) Casey, a disabled vet in a
cheap, rebuilt body, tries walking to another city to find work, but trouble
is waiting out in the country.
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(Time Travel) Dora will do anything to
prove that a woman's 1928 execution for murder was a mistake.
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(Hard SF) After centuries of solitude
at his post on Pluto, Heimdallr has come to fear that humanity is extinct.
Then he receives a summons from the inner solar system.
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(SF AI) Unbeknownst to most people,
almost everyone in the world is really a robot. Aixia helps keep the system
running, but allows himself to become attached to a human boy he saved.
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(Steampunk) In 1880s London, Sir
Arthur's "Illogic Engine" has gone missing, so he seeks help from
Mycroft Holmes.
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The
Limitless Perspective Of Master Peek, Or, The Luminescence Of Debauchery
by Catherynne M. Valente
Time: 32m (Novelette) Issue: BCS 200
(Historical Fantasy) Perpetua must
pretend to be a man in order to carry on her father's glass business. She
makes a great success from glass eyes, even before she realizes how special
they are.
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(SF) A century from now, Tipper works
at an automated carnival, in a world with few jobs for humans. She falls in
with Luke, a boy trying to make an illegal manual car work.
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The Mighty Slinger
by Karen
Lord and Tobias S.
Buckell Time: 32m (Novelette) Issue: Bridging Infinity 2016
(Far-Future SF) Developers are
planning to resurface the entire Earth to create properties for people from
Mars and Venus. But can an old singer and his band rally the solar system
against it?
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(SF) In 2040, Colin gets more than he
bargained for when he asks the AIs at tech giant PinPoint to track down information
about a mysterious great aunt who vanished in 1965.
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(Fantasy Math) A strange student give
Professor Dunn a math problem whose solution will change the world.
Literally.
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Score: 2 → 1-2 Recommendations
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Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex by Stix Hiscock Time: 00m (Novelette) Issue: Alien Stripper Boned From Behind By The T-Rex 2016
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(SF Apocalypse) The kilometer-wide
asteroid didn't quite destroy civilization, but the things it brought with it
just might finish it off.
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(Fantasy Science) Tuela's people fly
among the remains of their shattered world, stealing water from a neighbor
planet. Tuela presents an argument that things should change.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(Climate Change) Maggie has a plan to
reverse climate change by capturing methane up in the arctic and selling the
carbon.
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Detroit
Hammersmith Zero-Gravity Toilet Repairman (Retired) by Suzanne
Palmer Time: 24m (Novelette) Issue: Analog 09|16
(Hard SF) At the height of diplomatic
meetings, the toilets in the Station start to malfunction, even though
diagnostics say nothing is wrong. So they call for an expert.
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(Superhero SF; Wild Cards) Tiago, a
fifteen-year-old orphan boy scraping by on his own in Rio de Janeiro,
contracts the "Wild Card" virus and ends up horribly disfigured.
But the virus has given him a gift too.
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(SF) Old Mr. Coanda fans Jimmy's love
for outer space by showing him how to build and launch real rockets.
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(SF) In a future where most of the
galaxy is run by "the Machine" for the benefit of those lucky
enough to own shares, a young shareholder goes to school to learn how he can
make a difference.
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(SF AI) Shelby's friend Vivian faces a
long recovery from a head injury, and she can't bear the loss of her company,
so she starts using an AI surrogate.
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(Hard SF) Anna’s grandmother died on
Europa, and her mother was traumatized for life, but she’s determined to go
there and finish the work they started.
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Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail
by Leigh Bardugo
Time: 00m (Novelette) Issue: Summer Days and Summer Nights
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(SF Thriller) Every since she leaked
the secret of mind-expanding nanotech, Dyer has been on the run. And they're
getting close.
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(Magical Realism) Teenage Leep works
making circuit boards somewhere in the third world. He's so awkward and quiet
that people think he's crazy, but he sees a very different world.
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(Hard SF) Fifty million years after
the extinction of humanity, a new intelligent race tries to understand
records left on the moon.
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(Fantasy Steampunk) Ensign Dorial
hoped for a chance to prove himself, but an assignment to track down the
Emperor's wayward niece wasn't what he had in mind.
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(Science Fantasy) A Nigerian program
to develop people who can fly encounters opposition.
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(near-future SF) At 14, Jeff can get
his first "passion" treatment, which artificially makes you
passionate about something or someone.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(Alternate Reality) Old man Rendezvous
tells outrageous stories about Jack Kennedy, and he's hunting an artifact in
the drowned ruins of Cape Canaveral.
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(Near-Future SF; Project Empathy)
Angelina struggles with life now that she's lost her chip, and she's not sure
how to get back on track
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(Near-Future SF; Project Empathy)
Akiko wakes up on a ship bound for San Francisco with no memory of who she
is, but with the voice of "God" telling her what to do.
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Seven Ways of Looking at the Sun-Worshippers of Yul-Katan by Maggie Clark
Time: 43m (Novelette) Issue: Analog 04|16
(SF) The narrator fled her world's
brutal religion for a role with an interstellar science team. But a distress
call puts her back on a collision course with it.
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Taste The
Singularity At The Food Truck Circus by Jeremiah Tolbert
Time: 28m (Novelette) Issue: Lightspeed 75
(Near-Future SF) Nico's boring life as
an accountant changes when he meets an old friend who's involved with the
illegal food scene in Kansas City.
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(Hard SF) Caitlin does data mining for
a presidential campaign, but her analysis is resulting in unusually precise
and downright strange predictions.
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(High Fantasy; Birdverse) In a world
that values magic above all else, two creative women with no magic struggle
to get recognition for their inventions.
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(Portal Fantasy; Dungeonspace) Teenage
Ivan lost his brother in d-Space, but his new friend Domino is eager to
explore a dungeon that's supposed to be safe.
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(Post-Apocalypse) 22-year-old Eris
flies a cab in the City. A stranger pays her to elude a follower, and she
gets caught up in intrigue.
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The Life
and Times of Angel Evans by Meredith Debonnaire1 Time: 32m (Novelette) Issue: Booksmugglers 09/13/16
(Portal Fantasy) Consumed with guilt
for being the sole survivor from her home dimension collapsed, Angel scrapes
by in our world, living with a ghost, working as a janitor and doing limited
magic on the sly.
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(Hard SF) A woman in a space ship
illegally tries to bring a baby to term in zero-g to prove it can be done,
and the space station management sends an enforcer to stop her.
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(Fantasy) Thirty years ago, Bet beat
the best sorcerer in the world, but at such cost she's been in hiding ever
since. Now the plague hunters need her help again, but something seems very
wrong.
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(High Fantasy; Raffalon) As a thief,
Raffalon has made a few enemies, but he didn't think anyone was mad enough to
hire an assassin.
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(Hard SF) Fresh from Earth, Peter
finds himself assigned to an unpromising part of the colony planet, and he
finds the natives even harder to talk with than he'd expected.
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(Historical Fantasy) In Elizabethan
London, an entrepreneur skilled in identifying legitimate antiquities ends up
with a bottle that happens to have a demon in it.
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(Post Apocalypse) Hanger lives in a
canvas bag on the outside of the Empire State Building, but the secrets to
survival are hidden in the deadly mist far below.
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We Will Wake Among the Gods, Among the Stars by Caroline M. Yoachim and Tina
Connolly Time: 43m (Novelette) Issue: Analog 01.02|16
(SF) Nanne accompanies a jungle
expedition that seeks gold, but she secretly looks for a lost city with high
technology.
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(Time Travel; Martin & Artie) A
group of lost time travelers tries to make the fall of Nineveh happen in a
way consistent with the future they're trying to get back to.
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Score: 1
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(Historical Fantasy) In 1912 Cairo,
the police investigate the apparent murder of an immortal Djinn.
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(Fantasy) The colony can't tolerate assault,
and it depends on Juvianna's gift of making people forget crime and
motivation alike. But what if she used it preventively?
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(Space Opera) Weihan survives the
meteor strike that destroys his home, but it changes his life forever.
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(Slipstream) As a boy, Peng receives a
paoxiao, a mythical humanoid creature with a great ability for mimicry. As a
man, Peng tries to do research on the creature.
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(Hard SF) Cynthia had the evidence to
send the crooked Initiative officers to prison, but how to get it from
Jupiter back to Earth?
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(SF Mystery) A professor and her
student investigating carnivorous plants on a colony world find the bones of
a teenager inside one of the plants.
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(Historical Fantasy) Vasily is a
tightrope walker for the circus. When he thinks no one is around, he walks in
thin air on lines of light only he can see.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(Fantasy/Horror) Three years ago,
nine-year-old Madrigal Baker disappeared. Recently, she returned, and she's
still nine. But her mom is sure something else is wrong.
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George
& Frank Tarr, Boy Avencherers, in 'Beeyon the Shours We Knowe!!!!'
by Thomas M.
Waldroon2 Time: 56m (Novelette) Issue: BCS 207
(Historical Fantasy) In 1879, little
George and his big brother run away from their farm and sail down the river
toward a new life in Pittsburgh
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(Hard SF) Left behind on an alien
planet while his shipmates return to Earth to secure their claim, Ross
struggles to fill the time. Then strange things start to happen.
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(SF) In a rude, career-ending memo to
his boss, Doug recounts a disaster that occurred on a company property in
Indonesia when they tried to evict a group of squatters and their charismatic
leader.
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(Military SF) The enemy are up to
something in "blank" areas of space that sensors can't penetrate.
Devi takes a "single ship" into one to find out what's there, but
her ship has a mind of its own, and it's terrified.
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(Historical Fantasy) Louis fights for
the Republic of Québec against the British but the French Revolution is
causing troubles on both sides of the Atlantic.
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(Generation Ship SF) Garen and his
little brother live in the outer shell of the ship, but they have an
unhealthy curiosity about the people who live inside.
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(Scientific Fantasy) The villages
falls slowly down the face of the mountain, trading with the people on the ledges
as they go, but is there a bottom, or does it just go down forever?
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(Solar System SF) Captain Jerwin has a
space station to finish, but she finds time to worry about a crewman past
retirement age who can't handle Earth gravity.
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Only Ten More Shopping Days Left Till Ragnarök by James Morrow Time: 27m (Novelette) Issue: Drowned Worlds 2016
(Near-Future Fantasy) The narrator and
his wife take a vacation to the North Pole, but after a tragic accident,
they're enlisted in an effort to save the world.
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(Present-day SF; Stan) Stan's dad told
the most outrageous stories, and claimed their family were weird because they
were really aliens. In retirement, Stan believes it might even be true.
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(Near-future SF; Project Empathy)
Teenage Bel enjoys her prestigious career at Blue Cup, but she's alarmed to
discover her employer has installed an AI in her head to keep tabs on her.
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(Near-future SF; Project Empathy) The Observator
chip helps Angelina navigate her role as "social curator" (aka
hostess) at the Reserve. She doesn't know that the chip wants to end their
partnership.
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(SF Mystery) Angelo investigates the
mystery of an invisible man who manages to attack victims despite his being
confined to a cell.
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(SF/Horror) Tom and Sam were
supersonic test pilots in the 1950s before Sam died flying a plane that could
go “sideways.”
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(Hard SF) The Phoenix project aims to
send a group of enhanced children to another star before Earth becomes
uninhabitable. Their mothers have a hard time letting them go.
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(High Fantasy; Raffalon) Raffalon the
thief's latest contract goes wrong when he's transported to a gray world that
he must figure out how to escape. Entertaining.
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(High Fantasy) The Duelist serves the
cold, beautiful Carmela but loves Rose. Separating Rose from Caramela is
going to be the challenge of her life.
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(Modern Fairy Tale) On a rich estate
in 1890s upstate New York, the cook loves serving her famous boss, but hates
feeding his cats.
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(Fantasy/SF) Alaric the minstrel
accompanies a caravan through the desert. When water runs short, they hazard
a visit to a dangerous "city" from a forgotten past.
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(Slipstream) When a house becomes
unlivable, everyone inside dies, and no one can ever go in it again. On Hope
Street, one by one, the houses are becoming unlivable.
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(SF) The crew exploring planet
Omega-Alpha are dismayed to see their spaceship take off, leaving them
marooned.
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(Historical Fantasy) The Victorian
England postal service sends Mr. Hewell to investigate some problems with the
mail in Binderwood, where something very strange seems to be happening.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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The Language of the Silent
by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch Time: 32m (Novelette)
Issue: F&SF 03.04|16
(Hard SF) En route to planet Enikiu,
an accident ruptures Ifigenia's eardrums--a disaster for a translator. She
can get them fixed on Earth, but first she explores Enikiu a little, with
unexpected consequences.
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(Dark Fantasy) Verena wants to stop
the killer who takes one local girl every year. And she's just barely old
enough to be a target herself.
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(Modern Fantasy) Thea graduated from
witches school six months ago and should be at Harvard now, but the lack of
her shadow, which she lost as a child, is depressing her, and if she can’t
find it soon, she’ll fade away entirely.
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(Horror) Twenty-five years ago, at the
end of the summer after high-school, something terrible happened to Cliff and
his friends in the water ride at the local amusement park. Today they're
going back there.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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The Thing
About Growing up in Jokertown by Carrie
Vaughn Time: 28m (Novelette) Issue: Tor.com 12/21/16
(Superhero SF; Wild Cards) In New York
City, ugly mutants stay in Jokertown, but teenage Rikki and her friends want
to do some exploring. It’s not exactly illegal, but it’s not exactly safe
either.
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(SF) The "Heroes" are
gradually destroying Yousra's world, but she finds a way to use a castrated
prisoner to fight back.
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(Surreal) Audrey, a one-armed country
girl, is fascinated by the murder trial of a talented three-armed man from
the next county.
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Continuing the short story notes, I'd add that, from my Tangent readings, I liked:
ReplyDelete8 "They Have All One Breath" by Karl Bunker
2 "Cold Comfort" by Pat Murphy & Paul Doherty
1 "Her Scales Shine Like Music" by Rajnar Vajra
And from later partial Year's Bests readings:
11 "The Art Of Space Travel" by Nina Allan
6 "Fifty Shades Of Grays" by Steven Barnes
3 "Extraction Request" by Rich Larson
3 "Jonas And The Fox" by Rich Larson
Again, while I liked "Art" it didn't hit me as an "11" sort of story whereas I thought "Her Scales" and others could be a bit higher and, especially, thought "Cold Comfort" was much more than a "2."