This is the same set of stories listed in the Year-To-Date by
Rating page, grouped by magazine and
issue, to show which issues have multiple recommended stories.
Each magazine section has links to reviews of individual
issues by Locus (Lois Tilton), SFRevu (Sam Tomaino), Tangent (various
reviewers), and GoodReads (various reviewers). This makes it easier to read
reviews by those reviewers even if the stories weren't recommended by them (but
recommended by others).
Magazines
Analog
Science Fiction & Fact
Apex
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Clarkesworld
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Interzone
Lightspeed
Strange Horizons
Tor.com
Uncanny
Other Magazines, etc
Apex
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Clarkesworld
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Interzone
Lightspeed
Strange Horizons
Tor.com
Uncanny
Other Magazines, etc
Anthologies
Bridging
Infinity
Crises and Conflicts
Cyber World
Drowned Worlds
Everything Change
Galactic Games
Now We Are Ten
Science Fiction by Scientists
The Starlit Wood
To Shape the Dark
Trajectories
Crises and Conflicts
Cyber World
Drowned Worlds
Everything Change
Galactic Games
Now We Are Ten
Science Fiction by Scientists
The Starlit Wood
To Shape the Dark
Trajectories
Analog
Science Fiction & Fact
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
|
(Hard SF) Ten-year-old Lee and his
best friend Ben discover a dead animal near their school playground--an
animal that shouldn't exist at all. Chilling.
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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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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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(SF) A violent Martian mining town
reconstructs Wyatt Earp to try to restore order.
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(SF) 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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(Time Travel) Art's twenty-years-future
self returns to warn the graduate student that he's about to ruin his life.
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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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(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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(SF) Three different people share a
remote robotic body. They have three different reasons and three different
experiences.
|
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(SF) In near-future Cornwall, England,
Travis and his wife specialize in arrangements of genetically engineered
flowers that release pheromones that mimic their traditional virtues.
|
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(SF) Janet chairs the governing board
for the asteroid 1820 Geographos, so she's on the hook when a mystery vessel
shows up, hacks their computers, and docks without permission.
|
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(Hard SF) Daisy's efforts to build a
stasis machine are failing, and she's failing as a mother too.
|
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(SF Humor) Around 50 to 100 years from
now, a group of scientists resorts to counterfeiting money to shore up their
inadequate research grants.
|
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The Journeyman: In The Great North Wood by Michael F. Flynn Time: 1h:16m (Novella)
Issue: Analog 06|16
(SF) 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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(SF Humor) Quigby's philosophy is to
find employment that will let him spend the rest of his days doing nothing as
enjoyably as possible. A little philosophy can be a dangerous thing.
|
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(Time Travel) 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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(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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(SF) Katrina and Jeff operate an
asteroid mining station for the S.P.C. It's not bad work except that the
mining companies are at war, using gravel as missiles.
|
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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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Deep Waters Call Out To What Is Deeper Still
by Sarah Frost
Time: 13m (ShortStory) Issue: Analog 09|16
(SF) Pascal uses a mind link to
control fish in a public aquarium. Pascal's big success has been a swordfish,
but a bigger challenge beckons.
|
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Detroit Hammersmith Zero-Gravity Toilet Repairman (Retired)
by Suzanne Palmer Time: 24m (ShortStory)
Issue: Analog 09|16
(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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(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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(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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(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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(SF) The human colony on Kokkal IV
can't expand without permission from the "Evermother," but the
local aliens require they "assimilate the shadows" first.
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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) 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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(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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(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) When Maria witnesses a
ten-year-old boy being abducted, she chases the van with her delivery drone,
and calls for everyone on the net to help.
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(Near-Future SF) Benji was an ordinary
terrier until his master decided to have him sentientized.
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The Continuing Saga of Tom Corbett: Space Cadet
by James Van Pelt Time: 17m (ShortStory)
Issue: Analog 12|16
(SF Adventure) Everyone calls Tomika
"Space Cadet," but she really feels she doesn't belong in this
world.
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Apex
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
|
(Fantasy) Maggie's fisherman father
died at sea recently, and since then, she seems to have acquired some
supernatural powers.
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(Folk Tale) Sal, the country witch,
took a razorback hog as her familiar and named him Rawhead. Sal was a good
witch, but then Rawhead disappeared. Simple, but effective.
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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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(Military SF) Corporal Beckett wants
to avenge his father, who was killed by a legendary sniper. The rebels
against Terra sing songs about the sniper, and they may hold the clue to
finding him.
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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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(Horror) The singer in a band copes
with the discovery that one of his songs caused people to commit suicide.
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(High Fantasy) An immortal assassin
threatens the new king, so he has his sister trained as the ultimate
bodyguard.
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(Slipstream) An old man lies dying,
his faithful companion at his side.
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(Religious Fantasy) An old man quizzes
a dying youth in a place between life and death.
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(Zombie) Jay helps hunt zombies at
night, but he secretly want to find his wife's zombie to say goodbye.
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(Portal Fantasy) Blank and Cipher
walked away from Solution City for moral reasons, but once they see what our
world is like, they have regrets.
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(Horror) Halla is an artist, and every
winter she rents a villa where she can work with almost no human interaction
at all.
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(Horror) Death comes for the
wtich-doctor, but he's not ready to go quite yet.
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(Horror) A mad little child speaks
only to the boarder, and her message is too terrible to believe.
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Asimov’s
Science Fiction
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
|
(SF) A young man who just lost his arm
in an accident struggles to adjust to his loss. And something funny is
happening to the stump.
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(Hard SF) Adia pursues a herd of
resurrected mammoths in Alaska. She seems to admire them greatly, so why is
she bringing a gun?
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(Military SF) Constanza flies a
stealthed warplane for the US in a near-future war, and she's picked for a
series of special missions carrying a single, silent, soldier up to the front
and back.
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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) The narrator visits an alien
world to negotiate a trade deal with a race of alien predators who have a bad
reputation.
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(SF) The transmitter sends copies of
people to remote locations, but the copies don't want to do their jobs, and
Margery is in trouble if she can't figure out why.
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(SF, ~2060) A man reviews drawings and
descriptions of animals he knew and loved during his life, updating them to
reflect recent changes. Very moving.
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(Hard SF) A radio astronomer comes to
a conference prepared to deliver a shattering paper, but fully expecting to
die before he gets the chance.
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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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(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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The Grocer's Wife: Enhanced Transcription
by Michael Libling Time: 18m (ShortStory)
Issue: Asimov's 02|16
(SF) Thomas is in the early stages of
Alzheimer's, and his wife, Lynn, is trying to support him. Andy is spying on
him, and wondering why the government is interested in a retired grocer.
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A Partial List of Lists I Have Lost Over Time
by Sunil Patel2 Time: 02m (ShortStory) Issue: Asimov's 03|16
(SF Short-Short) Entirely via lists,
the narrator tells a story about fighting his duplicate from another
dimension.
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(Tale) In the style of the Arabian
Nights, this story tells the tale Batyr related to his wife after an evening
with a great poet.
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(SF) 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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(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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(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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(Fantasy Science) About a thousand
years from now, two powerful AIs struggle to prevent the destruction of the
multiverse.
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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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(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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(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; 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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(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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(SF) Vincent is a famous painter, but
he fears he's grown stale. He has a wild plan to reinvigorate his painting,
which starts with making a backup copy of himself.
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(Mythological Fantasy) In biblical
Egypt, a Hebrew woman driven mad by the loss of her son finds a baby in the
bulrushes.
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(Slipstream) A mother tries to find
something for her teenage daughter at a beach resort where four different
worlds seem to intersect.
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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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(SF) Fourth-grade Emma lives in
Florida with her grandparents. Emma doesn't fit in at school, and Grandma
doesn't help by saying the family is from outer space and aliens are coming
for them soon.
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(SF) A science writer describes the
events that turned a rat experiment into a space-time disaster in downtown
London.
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(SF Horror) EncelaCorp
"streams" the consciousness of explorers to distant parts of the
galaxy. Jonathan worries that the experience may have changed his wife
somehow.
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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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(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) Teenage Bess and Aline go to
comfort their friend Vera after a computer virus disabled her online
"Face."
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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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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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(SF) On Ariel, some people have
modified themselves to fly. Other people can't accept that. Anna is going to
need to choose sides.
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(Near-future SF) A gene designer and
her husband visit the tomb of Charlemagne and think about how they're about
to turn the world upside down.
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KIT: Some Assembly Required by Kathe Koja and Carter Scholz Time: 15m (ShortStory) Issue: Asimov's 08|16
(SF AI) Christopher Marlowe thinks
he's been reincarnated as a 21st Century AI.
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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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(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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(Superhero) A combination of teenage
hormones, a rare gene, and the right stressful event turns a few kids into
superheroes. Liam wants to be one too.
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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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(Post Apocalypse AI) Carver Seven
spends a lot of time talking to the Human Being and helps him make spears and
things. They each want something from the other, if they can manage to
express it.
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(Alien Invasion) You are building a
home on an alien world, despite the objections of the natives and the
complaints of your wife and children.
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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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(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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(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:5 SFRevu:4 GDozois:5 RHorton:5 NClarke JStrahan
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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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(Mainstream) Violet comes to a resort
town to kill herself. Daisy is shipwrecked with a man she loves. Rose is
shipwrecked with a monster.
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(Christian Fantasy) Andrew obsesses
over a used soul he picked up in the gift shop during a tour of Hell.
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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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(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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(SF) Noel's mom is trying to raise an
alien child. Noel, age 10, hates this alien "brother" but can't
seem to get that across to him.
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(Navajo Fantasy) An old Navajo myth
intersects the modern world unexpectedly.
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(Modern Fantasy) Abused by his father,
Rafi leaves his small town, but he sends his best friend Becca a gift that
will change both their lives.
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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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(Mainstream) Two women mourn the death
of a childhood friend and try to make peace with themselves by returning the
mysterious skeleton that tore them apart as teenagers.
|
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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:5 SFRevu:4 GDozois:5 RHorton:4 NClarke Readers
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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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Beneath
Ceaseless Skies
Tangent
Reviews: 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
GoodReads
Reviews: 190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
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(High Fantasy) Having no heir, King
Rulf sends Harlan, his most trusted adviser, to find the son of the king he
overthrew 20 years ago
|
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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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(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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(Space Opera; Xuya) Thuy seeks her
daughter's remains in the twisted parts of unreal space where salvagers pick
over the remains of wrecked starships.
|
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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 narrator's farm is threatened
by a sequence of increasingly irrational demands by the distant emperor.
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(High Fantasy) Exiled emperor Ierois
lives alone on the shore of the Sea of Dreams. Then another exile joins
him--a boy who refuses to give up quite so easily.
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(Fantasy) Aril knows not to let
rabbits into the garden--no matter how politely they ask. Picket's an awfully
nice rabbit, though, and he needs her help.
|
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(Chinese Fantasy; Candyman Ao) New to
Chengdu, young Ao doesn't expect the fearsome tiger spirit to ask him for a
favor--to rescue the Guardian of Chengdu. Ao has some magic, but cleverness
may be more important.
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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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(High Fantasy) To defeat the armies of
the Efficate, the Cteri train some of their children to be weapons of mass
destruction.
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(Fantasy) Tamalat has come to a priest
to find out how to restore her friend Brio's shadow, in the hopes it will
restore him to what he once was.
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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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(High Fantasy) After a long absence,
Melishem returns to Talyut to challenge her rival to single combat. But
Sikata is already dead.
|
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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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(Steampunk) An agent from the
city-state of Montreal lies in prison after unsuccessfully trying to
apprehend a man who stole Montreal's secret immortality treatment.
|
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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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(Horror) Perdita lives in the house on
the hill and tends the graveyard. A traveler on a mission disturbs her
solitude, and a thing under the graveyard needs to be killed.
|
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(High Fantasy) Despite the rebellion,
the narrator makes friends with a local girl, and she wonders when their
bird-like overlords will come to replace her heart.
|
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(Indian Steampunk) Mr. and Mrs. Coates
came to India to hunt the most difficult prey, and no one can convince them
that hunting the Great Worm is suicide.
|
|
(Greek Mythos) The trees in the grove
used to be women, and the Guardian protects them zealously from the men who
still pursue them.
|
Clarkesworld
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
Locus Reviews: 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121
122 123
|
(SF) Charles Mann leads a wild,
exciting life, which he shares with millions who join his
"live-link."
|
|
(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.
|
|
Between Dragons and Their Wrath
by An Owomoyela and Rachel
Swirsky Time: 15m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 113
(Fantasy) Teenage friends Domei and
Hano live in a refugee camp for survivors of a war fought with dragons.
|
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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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(SF) An AI trying to establish a human
colony discovers there's an individual it cannot account for.
|
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(SF) Badar has a 4-year contract sits
all alone at a salvage site on Kepler-186f.
|
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(Time Travel) Narrator, in 1983, takes
a job that involves going back to 1945 to do some dirty work, but she becomes
infatuated with her target.
|
|
(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.
|
|
(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) After an alien terrorist kills
Majd's little brother back on Earth, he struggles to accept it, and starts
making changes to his own life.
|
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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.
|
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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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(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.
|
|
(SF) Shi handles elderly clients who
are recruited to help steer starships through space. Her job is winding up,
and one of her last clients presents a special challenge.
|
|
(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.
|
|
And Then, One Day, The Air Was Full Of Voices by Margaret Ronald Time: 17m (ShortStory)
Issue: Clarkesworld 117
(SF) Dr. Kostia spent thirty years
interpreting broadcasts from the Coronals for other people on Earth. The last
broadcasts have caused a lot of disruption, even in her own family.
|
|
(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.
|
|
(Horror) Following a disaster in
Antarctica, MacReady spends summer 1983 in New York and starts to wonder what
he might have brought back with him.
Other
Reviews RSR
Mini-Review [3] Recommended By: SFRevu:4 GDozois:5 RHorton:5 NClarke JStrahan Nebula
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(Time Travel) An "illness"
causes a man to wake each morning in the previous day, and as he lives his
life backwards, he sees the mistakes he made.
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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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(Hard SF) Charlie's team has been out
of touch with the Mars mission for a month. While she's attending her
mother's funeral, a mysterious 47-second-long message arrives.
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(SF Horror) An asteroid miner is cast
adrift by a collision. Her suit can preserve her life indefinitely, but not
her sanity.
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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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Aphrodite's Blood, Decanted by
Jennifer Campbell-Hicks Time: 08m (ShortStory) Issue: Clarkesworld 120
(AI Fantasy) The humans disappeared
years ago, but the Factory AI can't accept that they're gone, so he makes a
plan to bring them back.
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(Hard SF) Seventeen-year-old Allegra's
mad father has trapped them both on 51 PegasiD. They'll both die there unless
she can find a way to get help.
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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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(Near Future Fantasy Dystopia) In a
2042 Ireland beset by ecological catastrophe, the narrator meets a fairy at a
protest.
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(Math SF) Explorers find a wrecked
alien spaceship, a dead alien, and a logbook that suggests he came from a
world with different laws of physics.
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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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(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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(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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(SF AI) In a world ruled by AIs, the
only work that pays is entertainment.
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(SF Humor) Nigerian astronaut Abacha
Tunde has been abandoned in space since 1990 and he would appreciate some
help getting home.
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(SF Android) You adopt an android
baby. You name him Ben. He grows amazingly fast.
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(Near-Future SF) Jesse Is just in the
third grade, but his dad sends him letters telling him about the time-machine
experiment he's working on.
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(SF) The destruction of the new Space
Elevator puts human expansion into space at risk.
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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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(SF) A robot discovers it has artistic
talent and sets out to save the world by tattooing stars on people.
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Fantasy &
Science Fiction
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
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(Urban Fantasy) Julia hunts for a
mysterious white horse in Central Park, certain it must be a unicorn that can
heal her friend who is dying of cancer.
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Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?
by Nick Wolven Time: 22m (ShortStory)
Issue: F&SF 01.02|16
(SF) When "mediaterrorists"
attack, the disrupt Caspar's comfortable life in a near-future where everyone
is connected.
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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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(SF) About 100 years from now,
eleven-year-old Theodore meets a robot from "the far future" which
demands he find gasoline for it, but Theo isn't even sure what that is.
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(Horror) Helena's mom's a witch, their
small town is blaming them for a missing boy, she and her girlfriend have to
stay in the closet, and to top it off, there are chicken skeletons walking
around.
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(High Fantasy) 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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(Urban Fantasy) Jimmy and Morrie's
"Paranormal Services" investigates a haunted forest--tree farm,
actually.
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(Fantasy) Hilil weaves and ties the
best knots in Sulik, but a curse causes made things to fall apart at her
touch.
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(Hard SF) The Chinese Mars base asks
old First-Expedition crew members Julia and Viktor for help with a problem
involving Mars's only large native life form.
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(Alternate History Fantasy) In a
modern San Francisco in a world with super heroes and monsters, a retired
super villain hires a detective to investigate the death of a giant octopus.
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(SF) When a feral robot steals her
phone, Renee acquires a keen interest in the little robotic ecosystem that
flourishes in the park.
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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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The Language of the Silent by Juliette Wade and Sheila Finch Time: 32m (Novelette) Issue: F&SF 03.04|16
(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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(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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(Modern Fantasy) When Penny's house
burns, she rebuilds a smaller place on the ashes. She only misses a few of
the contents, and really wishes for a way to get them back.
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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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(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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(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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(SF) Noel works at his uncle's company
managing a machine that predicts when old fads will come back into style. He
peeks at historical trends and finds something disturbing.
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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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An Open Letter To The Person Who Took My Smoothie From The Break Room
Fridge
by Oliver Buckram Time: 02m (ShortStory)
Issue: F&SF 07.08|16
(Cartoon Humor) Someone in the
Alliance of Doom has stolen Dr. Nemesis's smoothie, and he e-mails his fellow
super-villains to complain.
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(Post Apocalypse) Filip is an advanced
AI, and his job is taking care of Ella, who may be the last person left on
Earth.
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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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(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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(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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(Historical Fantasy) Boswell recounts
a story of Dr. Johnson that he never revealed before. Involving a country
estate, a scandal, and a ghost.
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(Near-Future SF) Willem loves Dr.
Isley more than he loves his real life. Even though she's just a character in
a soap opera.
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(Near-Future SF) Julie had
reservations about using hardware that can make people fall in love, but at
age 35, she let herself get talked into it.
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(Near-Future SF) Gwen and Eliza are
college roommates who start a business making miniature houses that can talk
about the murders committed there.
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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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(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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(High Fantasy) The old magician rarely
takes students, but young Schmendrick has so much potential--if he could just
make his spells come out right.
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(Historical Fantasy) In 1961, Larry
joins the LA mob as an enforcer, keeping the wrong people from fixing the
horses. But does that include an old man who only talks to them?
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The Voice in the Cornfield, the Word Made Flesh
by Desirina Boskovich Time: 17m (ShortStory)
Issue: F&SF 09.10|16
(Present-day SF) An alien crash lands
in a cornfield. It tries to get help, but no one can see or hear it. Almost
no one.
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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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(High Fantasy) The stakes on Yildirim
and Ramadami's duels have risen to where they threaten the economies of Onsen
and Dushiq.
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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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(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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(SF) The crew exploring planet
Omega-Alpha are dismayed to see their spaceship take off, leaving them
marooned.
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(Historical Fantasy) Martin fulfils
his dream of entering the dragonlands via a secret mountain pass in France.
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(Historical Fantasy) Horace was a
celebrated blues player, but he failed to make the move to jazz. Now he's
washed up, and desperate enough to sell his soul, if need be.
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(High Fantasy) 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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Interzone
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
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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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(SF Fantasy) When Earth's day changed
to 96 hours, some adapted (with drugs) and some did not (with lights). Now
they hate/fear each other. But two young people are curious.
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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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(Hard SF) On 61 Virginis b, Keller
endures the cold, the two gravities, and the poisonous air at 30-atmospheres
to study the only alien artifact ever found by humans.
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(SF) A disfiguring illness drove Lilly
to leave Earth and live in a community of aliens who think she's beautiful.
Trouble is, they like her too much.
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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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Not Recommended for Guests of a Philosophically Uncertain Disposition
by Michelle Ann King Time: 08m (ShortStory)
Issue: Interzone 263
(Magical Realism) Just outside Las
Vegas, The Fracture is a place where reality itself seems to be broken.
Damita manages the visitor center and gift shop.
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Ten Confessions of Blue Mercury Addicts by Anna Spencer
by Alexander Marsh Freed Time: 17m (ShortStory) Issue: Interzone 263
(Science Fantasy) Anna investigates
people addicted to a drug that slows down time so much that they can experience
a year in the time it takes to fall from an airplane.
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(Slipstream) While fourteen-year-old
Ellie's parents are away, her world starts to change into something very
strange.
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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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(SF) A woman spends the night with a
man who seems like no man she's ever met in this world.
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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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(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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(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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(Transhuman SF) StateCorp has made a
fortune creating modified humans with animal characteristics. They take care
of failures like Cat, but at a price.
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(SF) A woman on death row is offered a
fortune for her children if she'll let another woman take over her body.
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(Fantasy Horror) The narrator resents
being transformed into a monster to fight for her tribe, not least because
she thinks they're screwing it up.
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(SF Thriller) The narrator is a con
man in near-future Thailand, and he has a scheme that might net him enough to
retire.
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Lightspeed
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
Locus Reviews: 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
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(SF) Suzanne's worries about her aging
father are interrupted by her ex-husband, who left her two years ago to go
explore the frontier of the solar system.
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(SF) Agatha wants a svelte replacement
for her plump body, but since she can't get one grown in a reasonable time,
she looks into an illegal swap.
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(Urban Fantasy) In the near future,
Ben uses cryosleep for a side-effect: while he's under, he can meet his dead
wife. Trouble is, he has a new wife.
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(Science Fantasy) Charlotte is tired
of being a disembodied brain; she wants a real body of her own, as soon as
she can afford it.
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Not by Wardrobe, Tornado, or Looking Glass
by Jeremiah Tolbert Time: 17m (ShortStory)
Issue: Lightspeed 69
(Urban Fantasy) Rabbit holes open at
random, summoning people to fairy-tale universes where they are the heroes.
Louisa keeps waiting for one to open for her.
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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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(Hard SF) In an near future when
everyone has brain implants, a computer virus can be a health issue.
Especially when it turns users into killers.
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(Slipstream) Electricity does strange
things around Arthur, especially when he gets excited. He's excited about
Christina, so their first date is going to be a real adventure.
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Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary
Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0 by
Caroline M. Yoachim Time: 07m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 70
(SF Humor) A choose-your-own-adventure
story in which you navigate the clinic on a space station full of aliens.
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(Fantasy) She was 15 when a dragon
abducted her. 16 when a prince rescued her and married her. Now she's 55,
returning to the cave where she was held.
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(Superhero) Mary hasn't seen her
ex-boyfriend in eight years, but when she witnesses super-villain
"Techhunter" robbing a bank, she sees a strong resemblance.
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The Birth Will Take Place on a Mutually Acceptable
Research Vessel by Matthew
Bailey1 Time: 17m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 71
(SF) You're having a baby. The first
Human-Tharkan hybrid. And everyone wants into the act--including both
governments.
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(Hard SF) Irit wants to do her Ph.D.
thesis on quantum physics and the mind. She lost her girlfriend four months
ago, but she thinks there may be a way to change reality.
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(Military SF) On top of fighting
against an anarchist revolution, a soldier copes with what he's sure is a man
pretending to be a woman in the Women's Volunteer Corps.
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(Fairytale Fantasy) A member of a
group of powerful beings who make stories real tells us the truth about
Solomon Grundy and why he had to die.
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(SF) A disabled human veteran takes in
a disabled AI veteran. The AI doesn't talk anymore due to trauma, but Tawn
tries to get through to it, even though his mother thinks it's dangerous.
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(SF) Gas leaking from a deep well is
slowly asphyxiating everyone in a community, and two boys discuss what they
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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(YA SF) Two kids get together at a
summer science camp after one tricks the other into eating her "psychic
ice cream" which causes people to read minds.
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(SF) A woman appears to be helping a
child recover from some form of brain damage. His perceptions and memory are
off, but something is off about her too.
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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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(Fantasy Humor) The world's greatest
assassin sits in his lair, waiting for people to come to him to beg his
assistance.
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(Fantasy) Neal and Killian are young
lovers. Together they think they can keep the dragons from destroying the
world.
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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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(Psionic SF) Ava recounts the visit of
the "Needlers" to Earth and her part in the attempts to communicate
with the aliens.
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(Fable) A crocodile visits a man whose
ambitions have led him far away from home and family.
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See The Unseeable, Know The Unknowable
by Maria Dahvana Headley Time: 16m (ShortStory) Issue: Lightspeed 76
(Modern Fantasy) A circus comes to
town, but the tickets are for fifty years ago or fifty years from now.
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(SF) Riley hacked his personal
teleporter to make illegal copies of himself. The police have found him out,
and he's trying to lead all 17 of him to safety.
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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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(Portal Fantasy) 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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(Fantasy Horror) Despite her parents'
best efforts, Agatha was born to be a witch, and eventually they turned her
over to St. Medusa's school.
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(Slipstream) Jack has been stranded at
summer camp for seven years, since his parents keep forgetting to pick him
up. On the bright side, his dragon egg is about to hatch.
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(Horror) In near-future Toronto, a
young Chinese-Canadian girl sneaks out to seek the services of an illegal
underground surgeon.
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(Slipstream) B's werewolf dad beats
her, but what really gets her down is she hasn't become supernatural like her
friends have.
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Strange Horizons
Tangent
Reviews: 01/04 01/11 01/18
01/25 02/01 02/08
02/15 02/22 02/29 03/07 03/14 03/21 03/28
04/04 04/11 04/18 04/25
05/02 05/09
05/16 05/23 05/30
06/06 06/13 06/20 06/27
07/04 07/11
07/18 07/25
08/01 08/08
08/15 08/22 08/29
09/05 09/12 09/19 09/26
10/03 10/10
10/17 10/24
10/31 11/07 11/14 11/21 11/28 12/05 12/12 12/19 12/26
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How the God Auzh-Aravik Brought Order to the World
Outside the World by Arkady Martine2
Time: 08m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 01/18/16
(Fantasy/Myth) The goddess of order
has been flayed, and without the laws on her skin, the world will fall into
chaos. So she goes beyond the world to look for it.
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(Historical Fantasy) In a prison in
18th-century France, Montague struggles to redeem himself by completing one
last magical device before he dies.
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(Near Future SF) Kellsey's a
transsexual 11-year-old girl. Improved technology makes that easier, but also
creates new problems, and she seeks advice from recordings her mother made
for her "son" before she died.
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We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?
by Rebecca Ann Jordan Time: 12m (ShortStory)
Issue: Strange Horizons 04/18/16
(SF) Filo/Gee, an intelligent giant
amoeba, isn't the ideal college roommate, particularly since he experiences
the world through touching and tasting, which is hard on books, electronics,
and relationships.
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The First Confirmed Case Of Non-Corporeal Recursion:
Patient Anita R. by Benjamin
C. Kinney1
Time: 11m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 06/06/16
(Paranormal) Anita used to study
ghosts, but now she is one, and she's finding it frustrating to always seem
to be arguing with her husband.
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Life In Stone, Glass, And Plastic
by José Pablo Iriarte Time: 14m (ShortStory)
Issue: Strange Horizons 06/13/16
(Modern Fantasy) Sergio is called to
remove an offensive mural, but when he touches it, it makes him
"remember" things from other people's lives.
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(Android) Brother Francis is an
android in an orbiting monastery. Their human patron has taken an interest in
him, and involves him in studying a mysterious, ancient golden android.
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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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(Modern Fantasy) Twenty years ago,
Jess was a teenage swamp witch in the Everglades. She flirted with the boys
and took what she wanted, but Ben saw her for what she really was.
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Applied Cenotaphics in the Long, Long Longitudes
by Vajra Chandrasekera
Time: 21m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 09/05/16
(Near-Future SF) An interview with a
simulation of the dead artist, Satka, who still has a big online following
years after her death.
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(Slipstream) Grandpa is gone, but the
young narrator is determined to win the Tastiest Ribs competition in his
memory, even if he's not quite sure how you're supposed to use the dragon.
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A Spell to Retrieve Your Lover from the Bottom of
the Sea by Ada Hoffmann Time: 08m (ShortStory) Issue: Strange Horizons 11/07/16
(Magical Allegory) Your lover has sunk
to the bottom of the sea. You're a witch with tremendous powers, but can you
really save him?
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(Hard SF) A corroded railing gives
way, and Kent falls from a Venusian cloud city to near-certain death. But it
takes a long time to fall fifty kilometers.
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(Historical Fantasy) On the even of
the Nazi takeover, a young German man's first assignment fixing a living
statue becomes more complicated than he expected.
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Tor.com
Locus Reviews: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
Nov Dec
GoodReads Reviews: Search
for the title and author
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(Fantasy; Stormwrack) Captain Gale
Feliachild and her handsome first mate, Garland Parrish, must find the
inscription for a spell that turns people's skins into glass. Entertaining.
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(High Fantasy Humor) A warrior woman
and a thief fleeing from the south meet a male warrior fleeing from the north
in the middle of a bridge. Then it gets complicated.
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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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(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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(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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(Steampunk) In 1880s London, Sir
Arthur's "Illogic Engine" has gone missing, so he seeks help from
Mycroft Holmes.
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A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers
by Alyssa Wong Time: 11m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 03/02/16
(Magical Realism) Hannah watched her
sister Melanie die, incinerated with her own magic. Hannah can't accept that
and sets out to use her own magic to put things right.
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(Fantasy Humor) Angels who operate the
Celestial Switchboard fielding mortal prayer requests get frustrated and even
depressed.
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(SF) Despite not being a telepath,
Calla worked out a way to play chess with her captor, Major Larn, during the
recent war. Now they're going to finish their game.
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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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From the Editorial Page of the Falchester Weekly
Review (A Lady Trent Story) by Marie Brennan Time: 06m (ShortStory)
Issue: Tor.com 04/05/16
(Fantasy) In which we read an exchange
of letters between a naturalist who claims to have discovered a cockatrice
and a lady who is skeptical.
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(Planetary SF) A vast fleet of
"jalopies" carry individuals on a one-way trip from Earth to Mars.
People do it for different reasons, some of which we learn about in this
story.
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(Fashion SF) Maria is a super model in
a future that doesn't hesitate to modify the bodies of the models for maximum
impact.
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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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(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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Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure
What It Was by Paul
McAuley
Time: 20m (ShortStory) Issue: Tor.com 07/20/16
(SF; Jackaroo) On the planet First
Foot, the small town of Joe's Corner faces conflict over building a radio
telescope close to local alien artifacts.
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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.
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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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(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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(Post Apocalypse) Just as things are
looking up, survivors in a Northwest community face a threat from the east.
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(Modern Fantasy) Anwar and Joe get an
unexpected cat and a promise of nine years of good luck. Things are great,
until nine years later they get another cat.
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(Present-day SF) Four retired men meet
every day for conversation. One of them worries he's showing symptoms of
Alzheimer's.
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(Historical Fantasy) Pippa and her
automaton attempt to destroy an undead pest infesting the future site of a
chalet.
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(Chinese Fantasy) Sometimes a unicorn assisted Judge Kao Yu, and because
he was so just and honest, he never feared its judgment. Until now.
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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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Uncanny
Recommended stories in the same issue have the same shading,
which alternate by issue.
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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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(Fantasy) Every year, Far Island rises
from the sea, and the spirits of the dead return to Near Island, until the
bone horses usher them back on the third day. The horses need a living rider,
and Rowan is sure she can do it and survive.
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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.
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(Modern Fantasy) Two couples come to a
cabin by the lake to relax and enjoy four days together. Then one of them
disappears.
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(Near-Future SF) Lydia's boyfriend,
Ross, was just a brain in a jar. So how, exactly, did she injure him during
sex?
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(Fairy Tale) A young, newly minted
witch meets an equally green knight, and they go off together in search of
dragons.
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(Horror) When newlyweds Courtney and
Josh rent an old Victorian in Baltimore, they're told to stay out of the
attic. But they hear noises up there at night. Footsteps.
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(Horror) The girl he killed was much
more than merely human, and there will be consequences.
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(Horror) What if the Green Knight were
real? What if he were still alive? What if he had his own reality show? And
how does his wife really feel about the whole thing?
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Other Magazines,
Anthologies, etc
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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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(Near-Future SF) Christian returns to
Anguilla to say goodbye before an attempt to raise it covers the island with
lava.
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Mice Among Elephants by Larry Niven and Gregory
Benford Time: 24m (ShortStory) Issue: Bridging Infinity 2016
(Hard SF) Sunseeker decelerates into
the Excelsius system to investigate a gravity-wave generator built by
potentially hostile aliens.
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(Climate Change) An AI tries to carry
out the last wishes of the last human governors to bring back snow and ice.
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(SF) Luis signed up for a six-month
solo tour of duty on an almost-complete space station. He should be alone,
except for the AI, but he's sure he hears other people.
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(Far-Future SF; Great Ship) An ancient
robot tells a human how it helped build a planet-sized ship and what the
consequences were.
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(SF Humor) Sion and her best friend
get invited on the first interstellar flight, which is odd, since they're
teenagers, and that kind of technology doesn't really exist.
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(Far Future SF) Mia marks her
birthdays as powers of 7, which gives her lots of time to work out her issues
with her mother.
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Six Degrees of Separation Freedom by Pat Cadigan Time: 19m (ShortStory)
Issue: Bridging Infinity 2016
(Transhuman) Recruiting people to live
in space is harder when they have to accept irreversable body modifications.
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Sixteen Questions for Kamala Chatterjee by Alastair Reynolds Time: 14m (ShortStory)
Issue: Bridging Infinity 2016
(Far-Future SF) Kamala discovered an
alien artifact inside the sun, and she spent her life finding a way to reach
it.
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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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(Far-Future SF) Kiu Alee escapes a
death sentence by agreeing to pilot a very special vehicle to a very xenophobic
arcology in deep space.
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(Horror) Four friends meet for a
writer’s critique group, on a stormy night when a dangerous beast is on the
loose outside.
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(SF) Four Warm Currents leads a
project to drill through the ice at the Roof of the World to finally discover
what’s on the other side, but the closer he gets, the more opposition there
is.
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(Modern Fantasy) Malka is a little
Jewish girl living in Brooklyn in 1920. She likes her new friend, David, even
though he’s older than her, black, Christian, and claims to be dead.
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(Military SF) The war against the
alien Trefoil was going well until they unleashed an unexpected weapon.
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(Post Apocalypse) When fan #6 fails,
the underground city's AI decides to abandon it, but an overachieving worker
is determined to fix it anyway.
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(Cyber SF) Anj and EJ's fledgling
hacking business gets a contract to decrypt an old AI-encrypted USB drive.
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(Cyber SF) Stricken with muscular
dystrophy, the teenage narrator lives almost entirely in VR, where she hopes
a rogue AI can save her.
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Because Change Was The Ocean And We Lived By Her Mercy
by Charlie Jane Anders
Time: 21m (ShortStory) Issue: Drowned Worlds 2016
(Post-Apocalypse) Pris abandons
22nd-Century Fairbanks and moves to a commune that floats above the ruins of
San Francisco.
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(Climate Change) Derek and Zack visit
the underwater ruins of New Orleans, where they'd honeymooned fifty years
before.
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Dispatches From The Cradle: The Hermit -- Forty-Eight Hours In The Sea
Of Massachusetts by Ken Liu
Time: 22m (ShortStory) Issue: Drowned Worlds 2016
(Post Apocalypse) Around 2650 AD, the
narrator interviews a wealthy recluse who lives above the sunken ruins of
Boston.
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(Near-Future SF) A refugee from a
drowned island nation works on the Antarctic peninsula, where he studies
mysterious stones with elven runes in his spare time.
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(Climate Change) On the edge of the
ruined land, village people worship Orcas as gods. Unbeliever Kelb is up to
something, and Adze tries to help him because she loves him.
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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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(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.
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(Climate Change) In 2048, things are
bad in Malaysia, especially for young refugees with no papers. Maslinia is
sure she could be successful, if she could only get a break.
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(Black Historical Fantasy) In the
closing years of segregation, Emmaline uses her magic to help neighbors and
protect her children, for trouble is coming.
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(Modern Fantasy) A Hatian girl and a
Syrian girl flee their countries but with very different results.
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(African Fantasy) After her father's
death, Tausi needs someone to take her from Epoulu before her aunts marry her
off.
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(Portal Fantasy) Ellie used to travel
freely to the other world, but lately her door doesn’t work. In fact, all the
portals are broken for some reason.
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(Sports SF) At the 2144 Olympics,
hosted by the thriving space colonies who survived Earth, Zory aims to win
despite her lack of augments.
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(Sports SF) Pawl Maricelli, a referee
in the athletic contest meant to strengthen the fragile peace between humans
and Errellians, is threatened by those who don't want peace.
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(Sports SF) Gloria and her friends
play one last game of hockey before they leave the alien space station
they've been stuck on ever since their dreams of interstellar competition
collapsed.
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(Sports SF Humor) KayT means to lead
her girls to victory in the cheerleading event at the Galactic games,
provided the Snargs don't eat them first.
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(Sports SF) The human team awakens
naked, with no memories, but speaking a shared language, and ready to
compete--at something.
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(SF Humor) If Liz can just get a few
more species to participate, she can get bowling added as an event in the
Intergalactic Games. It's a bad time to have fone problems.
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(Chinese Post-Apocalyptic Slipstream)
Long after the fall of humanity, a dragon/horse robot wakes up and explores
the ruins of Beijing.
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A Non-Hero's Guide to the Road of Monsters
by A.T. Greenblatt Time: 19m (ShortStory)
Issue: Mothership Zeta 3
(Slipstream) Rather than killing the
monster, Devon would rather negotiate with them and blog about it later.
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(Multiverse) The narrator walks the
worlds while waiting for her husband to get home.
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Some Things I Probably Should Have Mentioned Earlier
by Laura Pearlman Time: 05m (ShortStory)
Issue: Mothership Zeta 3
(SF Humor) A man gets a letter from
his wife, explaining a few things. She's not exactly human, but that's not
the worst part.
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(Hard SF) AIs are too expensive to
discard, even after a major disaster, but how do you fix one that seems to
have gone crazy?
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(Fantasy) Dr. Kampfe's group of
travelling players visits Sevengraves, a place so poor that every performance
feels like charity.
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(Allegory) Young people enter the
pyramid on the first floor, but although the parties are great, they aspire
to ascend.
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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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(Horror) Ignoring how the adult world
is falling apart, teenage Annie tries to lose herself in a new video game.
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(SF Horror) Professor Macguire's work
on multiple universes drove him insane, but Dean hopes to learn enough from
him to finish his dissertation.
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(SF; Luna) Five Irish sisters enjoy a
celebration using money their aunt sends them from the moon.
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Penric And The Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold Time: 2h:05m (Novella) Issue: Penric And The Shaman 06/24/16
(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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(High Fantasy; Five Gods) Penric's
secret mission to Cedonia gets off to a bad start when he's arrested and
thrown into a pit to die.
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(Hard SF) Trying to find
"outside," Ogby's team digs into the ice at the bottom of the
world, but Roov's team has been getting better results blasting rocks at the
top.
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(Zombie) Ever since he became a
zombie, Professor Wissen has felt unwanted by the university, although some
of his students think it's kind of cool.
|
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Turing de Force by Edward M. Lerner Time: 12m (ShortStory)
Issue: Science Fiction by Scientists 2016
(Hard SF) Two extraterrestrial AIs
arrive in our solar system and try to decide whether human beings are
intelligent.
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Whisper Road (Murder Ballad No. 9) by Caitlín R. Kiernan Time: 00m (ShortStory)
Issue: Sirenia Digest 125
Not reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank.
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(SF) A police detective tries to cope
with an attractive female robot who confesses to murder.
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(Drug SF) In the middle of
preparations for Tindal’s roommate’s funeral, two teenagers show up and start
eating the psychotropic drugs off the wall.
|
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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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(Historical Fantasy) In the Old West,
a murder under a full moon brings a thing across “The Line.” A thing seeking
vengeance, and with a broad idea of responsibility.
|
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(Science Fantasy) As a physics grad
student, Sophie researches mirrors as potential gateways to alternate
realities. She shares her unexpected results.
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(Fairy Tale) Tabitha has been walking
a long time, trying to wear out seven pairs of iron shoes; Amira has been
sitting alone on a glass hill that suitors try to climb.
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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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(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 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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The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle
by Sofia Samatar Time: 11m (ShortStory)
Issue: Starlit Wood 2016
(Meta Fiction) Mahliya will be down in
a bit to tell you the story, but we'll begin by telling you a love story.
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(Horror) When old Merle was young, he
wanted to paint all the bars in South Jersey. He did The Thousand Eyes last.
A hard place to find. A place where The Voice of Death performs on
Wednesdays.
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The Magical Properties of Unicorn Ivory by Carlos Hernandez Time: 15m (ShortStory)
Issue: The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria 2016
(Magical SF) Writing a story on
Unicorns in Scotland, Gabby tangles with some poachers.
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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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(Slipstream Metafiction) Once upon a
time a man’s therapist asked him to write a story about himself, his family,
and the strange world he lived in, with its dragons and lawyers, witches and
doctors, and the darkness closing in.
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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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(Space Opera; Xuya) Dan Linh returns
from twenty-years exile to head up her old lab again. She’s a scientist, not
a politician; can she really make it work?
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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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(Far-Future SF) Irtholin visits her
friend Anketil to tell her that a long-lost starship has been found, and to
try to interest her in helping salvage it.
|
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(Scientific Fantasy) The villages fall
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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(Hard SF) Edith’s lab wants to improve
the Casimir pump enough to use it for space travel, but Edith can’t help
running her own experiments even without permission.
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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.
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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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(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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(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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(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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(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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(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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(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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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; 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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