Alice Payne Arrives, by Kate Heartfield

[Single]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Time Travel; Alice Payne) Alice is an unhappy black lesbian aristocrat living in a Steampunk 1788 England. Prudence is a time traveler from 2145 unhappy with how the Time War is going. This is what happens when they meet. (28,536 words; Time: 1h:35m)

Recommended By: 🏆Nebula+2 (Q&A)

See related articles on Tor.com.

Static Ruin, by Corey J. White

[Tor Novella]

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(Space Opera; Voidwitch) The Voidwitch Saga concludes with Marius Xi (Mars) searching for her father in hopes of finding a cure for the young psionic boy she’s befriended. (39,510 words; Time: 2h:11m)

This story does not stand alone; you need to read the first two novellas in the series first. See related articles on Tor.com.

Girl with a Curl, by R. Garcia y Robertson

[Asimov's]

★★★★☆ Spectacular and Surprising

(Space Opera; The Family) Amanda James, unlikely survivor of a battle with slavers, finds herself in command of the largest remaining battleship in the Jovian system. But can she stay in command? (28,167 words; Time: 1h:33m)

Recommended By: 👍RSR+1 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

This story simply continues the last installment. Readers interested in this series should start from the beginning.

Joyride, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

[Asimov's]

★★★★★ Moving story in a fascinating setting with lots of action

(Space Opera; Diving Universe) A Fleet training ship passes close to a “scrapheap” of abandoned ships, and Teenage Nadim, leads a group of his friends to “borrow” a scout ship and check it out. (18,409 words; Time: 1h:01m)

Recommended By: 👍RSR+2 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)

Although this is set in the author’s “Diving Universe,” it shares no characters with the other stories, so you can enjoy this story without having read the rest of it, and you can read this one first without spoiling the rest of the series.

Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells

[Tor Novella]

★★★★☆ Great characters, Good Conclusion to a Great Series

(SF Thriller; Murderbot Diaries) Muderbot’s recent exploits targeting GrayCris have hurt the company enough that it has kidnapped Murderbot’s friend, Mensah, thinking she was behind it all. It has to rescue her, even though this may be a trap. (35,829 words; Time: 1h:59m)

Although some effort has been made to make this story stand alone, it is fourth in a series, and readers are strongly advised to start with “Condition Red.” See related articles on Tor.com.

We Ragged Few, by Kate Marshall

[BCS]

★★★★★ Strong Characters, Intricate Plot, Lots of Surprises

(Dark Fantasy) When Reyna kills a rot hound, she knows her dead sister’s prophecy is coming true, and there’s not much time to convince the rest of the hold they all need to flee. (25,052 words; Time: 1h:23m)

Shadowdrop, by Chris Willrich

[BCS]

★★★★★ Action, Adventure, Tragedy, Victory—with Lots of Cats.

(Fantasy Adventure; Eldshore) Action, Adventure, Tragedy, Victory—with Lots of Cats. (23,550 words; Time: 1h:18m)

Although the author has set a lot of stories in this same universe, there’s no need to read any of them before enjoying this story. It stands alone beautifully

War Cry, by Brian McClellan

[Tor Novella]

★★★★☆ A Great War Story with Just a Bit of Fantasy

(Military Fantasy) After more than thirty years of war, the enemy is getting close to the capital city. Teado’s little team of rangers are holding them off, but they’re starving, and running out of everything, so a chance to ambush an enemy food convey is something they can’t pass up. (22,309 words; Time: 1h:14m)

The Black God's Drums, by P. Djèlí Clark

[Single]

★★★★★ Rich World, Great Characters, Lots of Action

(Steampunk ) The Civil War left the US in pieces, and New Orleans is a free city. A teenage cutpurse overhears a plot by Confederate officers to steal a powerful magic weapon, and she sets out to stop them. (24,861 words; Time: 1h:22m)

Recommended By: 🏆Hugo+2 🏆Nebula+2 👍RSR+2 (Q&A)

See related articles on Tor.com.

Harry and the Lewises, by Edward M. Lerner

[Analog]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(SF Thriller) Ted’s tired of writing trash for a tabloid, so he takes an offer to research something strange that happened during the Lewis and Clarke expedition—stranger than anything even the tabloid ever printed. (22,869 words; Time: 1h:16m)

The Secret City, by Rick Wilber

[Asimov's]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Multiverse; Moe Berg) In Moe’s world, the Nazi’s are winning World War II, having already used one nuclear weapon on the remains of the British government in exile. Moe tries to help Enrico Fermi get to America to help build an atom bomb small enough to fit in a plane. (24,117 words; Time: 1h:20m)

Although this is one of several Moe Berg stories, it’s not essential to read the others first.

3-Adica, by Greg Egan

[Asimov's]

★★★☆☆ Mixed

(Virtual Reality; 3-Adica Universe) Sentient characters in a massive online multiplayer game exploit a flaw in the operating system to escape to a safe place that’s only rumored to exist. (19,991 words; Time: 1h:06m)

Recommended By: 🏆Readers+0 👍JMcGregor+1 👍RHorton.r+1 (Q&A)

The Million, by Karl Schroeder

[Tor Novella]

★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention

(SF Thriller; Lockstep) Earth’s billions live just one month every thirty years. The rest of the time, “The Million” live in luxury on an almost empty planet, and they don’t tolerate unauthorized “visitors” like Gavin. (39,174 words; Time: 2h:10m)

Although this is set in Schroeder’s “Lockstep” universe, this story stands by itself. See related articles on Tor.com.

Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells

[Tor Novella]

★★★★★ Great Protagonist, Thrilling and Moving Plot.

(SF Thriller; Murderbot Diaries) Murderbot’s hunt for evidence against the GrayCris corporation leads it to a supposedly abandoned terraforming facility it thinks was a cover for illegally extracting alien remnants. (35,206 words; Time: 1h:57m)

You need to start from the beginning of the series; this story would be hard to understand on its own. See related articles on Tor.com.

The Descent of Monsters, by JY Yang

[Tor Novella]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Silkpunk; Tensorate) Sariman investigates the suspicious deaths of everyone at a Tensorate research lab, who seem to have been killed by a monster they made themselves. (26,786 words; Time: 1h:29m)

Although this story is third in the Tensorate series, it’ll work to read this one first and then look at those two if you liked this one

The Tale of the Alcubierre Horse, by Kathleen Ann Goonan

[Anthology]

★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended

(SF Fairy Tale) In 2095, a giant starship heads for the stars despite the fact that it’s nowhere near ready. (19,566 words; Time: 1h:05m)

Recommended By: GDozois+1 RHorton+2 NClarke+2

Although this was originally published in the UK in 2017, the first US Publication was in March 2018, so it should be eligible for the 2019 Hugo Awards at the 2019 WorldCon, to be held in Dublin.

The Expert System's Brother, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

[Tor Novella]

★★★★☆ A fascinating world and a plot with lots of twists and turns

(Lost Colony SF Western) Young Handry’s life changes forever when he’s accidentally soaked in a “severing” mixture, which alienates him from the people in his village. (37,449 words; Time: 2h:04m)

Justice Calling, by Lyra Alice Schneider

[Single]

★★★☆☆ Average

(Lost Colony SF Western; Lost Colonies) Sheriff Penny Lux struggles to save her planet from a young Firestarter, but the off-worlders who trained him don’t want to get involved, so she gets help from her reluctant ex-partner, who’s wanted for kidnapping (24,128 words; Time: 1h:20m)

Although this is the first story in a series, it stands alone quite well.

Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling, by L.X. Beckett

[F&SF]

★★★★★ A Gripping Story in a Fascinating Setting

(Near-Future SF) A young musician/writer’s attempt to recover his online social standing leads him to dangerous people whose idea of “art” can be life-threatening, especially to the desperate. (24,472 words; Time: 1h:21m)

Recommended By: 🏆₁Sturgeon+3 📙₁NClarke+2 👍RHorton.r+1 👍RSR+2 (Q&A)

Starship Mountain, by Allen M. Steele

[Asimov's]

★★★★★ Fun characters, interesting setting, solid plot

(SF Colony; Sanctuary) Jeremy Crowe hunts for a missing nobleman’s daughter in a human colony on Tau Ceti e reduced to flintlock-era technology. (20,074 words; Time: 1h:06m)

This story is self-contained and enjoyable by itself. However, the author has stated it’s part of a novel (to be named “Sanctuary”) and his short story by the same name serves as a prologue, telling how humans first came to Tau Ceti about 250 years before the action of this story