Return to 2016
Best SF/F Short Fiction
Score: 16 →
8-9 Recommendations
Score: 15
Score: 14 → 7-8 Recommendations
Score: 13
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(Black Lovecraftian Horror) In 1924
Harlem, 20-year-old Tommy Tester plays bad jazz and runs minor scams. When an
old man offers him $500 to play at his house, he knows there's a catch. It's
just not what he expects.
Other
Reviews
RSR
Mini-Review [4] Recommended By: RSR+1 RHorton+2 JStrahan+2 Nebula+2 Hugo+2 Locus+2 Sturgeon+2
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Score: 12 → 6-7 Recommendations
Score: 11
Score: 10 → 5-6 Recommendations
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(Fantasy/SF) Young Aqib has a bright
future as a noble, but he meets an enchanting foreigner who makes him
consider risking everything.
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(Portal Fiction; Wayward Children)
Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children helps kids who passed through a
portal to another world and returned unable to cope with this one.
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(Fantasy) Vellitt Boe teaches math at
a university in the dreamworld. When her star student elopes with a dreamer
from the real world, she goes after them.
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(Military SF) Merlin's starship is one
of the best, but it needs repairs, and a derelict starship may have what he
needs. Or he can try a binary system where an interplanetary war has raged
for centuries.
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Score: 9
Score: 8 → 4-5
Recommendations
Score: 7
Score: 6 → 3-4
Recommendations
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(Alternate History) In 1950s London
after the Nazi's won WWII, a German man tries to find a girl he used to love
in response to her call for help.
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(Post-Apocalypse) At age seven, the
narrator thought he saw his father murder his mother. But did he?
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Score: 5
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Penric And The Shaman
by Lois McMaster Bujold Time: 2h:05m (Novella) Issue: Penric And The Shaman 2016
(High Fantasy; Five Gods) Young
Penric, a powerful but fledgling sorcerer, joins the hunt for a fugitive
sorcerer, suspected of killing his own best friend.
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Score: 4 → 2-3
Recommendations
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(SF) Khifi makes a good living as a
pilot, but she used to be a homeless kid on the Tanduou docks. So she cares
when she gets hints that something bad is happening--something involving
kids, aliens, and more.
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(Horror) Middle-aged bachelor, Greg
Kellog, has a secret knack for making small changes to reality by
"lying." To stop a series of deaths, "small changes" may
not be enough.
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(Horror; Lychford) Just before
Christmas, the ghost of a little boy appears in the vicarage and disturbs the
vicar and her two friends.
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(SF) In 2066 a woman struggles over
continuing life-support for her comatose mother and over what to do with the
things she's leaving behind.
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Where
There is Nothing, There is God by David
Erik Nelson Time: 1h:14m (Novella) Issue: Asimov's 12|16
(Time Travel) Paul finds a job selling
drugs for the mafia in 1770s America.
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Score: 3
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(SF) Charles Mann leads a wild,
exciting life, which he shares with millions who join his
"live-link."
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(Transhuman SF) Marmeg's augments are
illegal and hand-tweaked, but if she can win a race for augmented humans, she
can earn enough money to become licensed and have a real future.
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(SF; Andrea Cort) On Caithiriin,
murderers get a choice between execution or anti-violence treatment. No human
has had to make that choice before, but it's suspicious that the natives
almost always prefer death.
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(Planetary SF) Mr. Costello's crackpot
moneymaking scheme promises entertainment to the rural community he sets down
in, but the narrator senses a threat.
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The
Journeyman: In The Great North Wood by Michael F.
Flynn Time: 1h:16m (Novella) Issue: Analog 06|16
(SF; The Journeyman) Teodorq and his
friend Sammi agree to organize security for a nobleman's archaeological
expedition. They expect danger from the local tribes, but not from the
artifacts themselves.
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(Time Travel) In 979 AD, the city of
Jinyang stands on the brink of destruction, but someone seems to be trying to
help it with technologies from the future.
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(SF) A violent Martian mining town
reconstructs Wyatt Earp to try to restore order.
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Score: 2 → 1-2 Recommendations
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(Hard SF) Evan hasn't seen his wife in
six years--ever since she left him and their newborn child. But their son
needs special medical attention, and she's the world's expert.
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(Alternate History) A private
detective takes a job guarding Albert Einstein as he flees the Nazis on an
ocean-liner-sized airplane.
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(SF) Rist descends from the highlands
and is captured by the lowlanders, who've never seen a human being as small
as him. He struggles to learn their language and adapt to their ways
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(Horror; Persons Non Grata) An
11-year-old asks a private eye to murder his stepdad, because "he's a
monster--and you're a monster too."
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(Fantasy) The philosopher Saloninus
makes a deal with the Devil. Except he approaches the Devil, not the other
way around, and the Devil is worried it's a trick.
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Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(SF; Andrea Cort) Draiken used to be a
spy, but now he wants revenge on his former masters, and he has a complicated
plan to enlist a former associate.
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Score: 1
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(Horror) At a crime scene, Yutu and
her boss Nathan both suspect supernatural involvement. Even with her Native
American magic and his voodoo, it will be a challenge.
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(SF) On Skipbrudden, each child must
pass four tests to earn the right to become an adult. Arvie is a precocious
kitten, which means he'll face the tests sooner than most.
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The
Burning Light by Bradley P. Beaulieu and Rob Ziegler Time: 1h:55m (Novella)
Issue: Tor Novella 11/01/16
(Post Apocalypse) The Light is an
addiction that afflicts telepaths. Colonel Chu hunts Zola, an addict who may
hold the key to the problem.
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(Horror/Humor) From confinement in an
institution the narrator describes the events that put him there. There's
something weird about the Northwest.
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(High Fantasy) The dead girl
originally fled her homeland over something, and whatever it was, it's making
it hard for Tromvi to return her body.
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(Post Apocalypse; Dreaming Cities) A
treacherous "angel" diverts Quinn from his goal to search the ruins
of the Dreaming City of Columbus for the key to continuing his journey west.
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Not much to say here but, to complete the stories/novelettes comments, I was really impressed by "The Liar" by John P. Murphy (in the 4 group) but that's the only one of the very few I read that I recommended. In fact, I only read three others that I can recall: I gave "Where There is Nothing, There is God" by David Erik Nelson an unofficial "honorable mention" for Tangent (which doesn't have honorable mentions), liked "Einstein's Shadow" by Allen M. Steele okay, and probably thought "The Journeyman: In The Great North Wood" by Michael F. Flynn was fair, though the Journeyman tales are all kind of fair to me and blend together. "The Liar" was definitely my favorite.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your work in reviewing these, Greg, and in doing these posts, Eric.