"Finisterra", David Moles

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) December 2007 – science fantasy
<<- F&SF Dec 2007 cover by Cory and Catska Ench for "Finisterra"

Bianca Nazario y Arenas, daughter in a family of aeronautical engineers, takes a job on Sky, a gas-giant world featuring an archipelago of island-sized floating creatures called zaratán. Thousands of people live and farm on top of the humongous zaratán named Finisterra. Bianca's employer Valadez, and his spidery, alien, firija associates, are butchering zaratanes for their skin and bones, despite the fact that the Concilium considers zaratanes a protected species.

This is a story has a memorable setting. The characters speak Spanish and Arabic, which is nicely different. Yet it's a bit hard to believe that someone like Bianca would take this job, even to escape her surprisingly patriarchal society on Earth. I would have liked to read more about the wondrous aspects of Sky.

"All the Things You Are", Mike Resnick

NT Jim Baen's Universe October 2006 - science fiction
A man saves a girl by confronting armed robbers and is mortally wounded. This wasn't the first time he put himself in such danger. Another man had repeatedly risked his life playing the hero too. A spaceport security man learns that both men saw service in the Patrukan War on the deserted planet of Nikita. What affected the battle survivors on Nikita? The security man travels lightyears on his vacation to find out.

This is a readable story, but, in my opinion, hardly groundbreaking. Plus, if you know something is an illusion, even if it's a pleasant illusion, why would you fall for it?

"Dawn, and Sunset, and the Colours of the Earth", Michael F. Flynn

NT ASFM (Asimov's Science Fiction) October/November 2006 – science fiction
One morning a ferry heading from Seattle to Bremerton mysteriously vanishes into the fog with nearly a thousand people aboard. No wreckage is found and eyewitnesses and radar report anomalous circumstances at the time of the ferry's disappearance. This story tells how some people are affected by this tragedy and what scientists determine happened.

This is an interesting, readable novelette. I could have done with more admirable bereaved folks and less about adultery, though. I particularly liked the viewpoints of the fisherman and The Adventure Club and the realistically kooky Internet postings.

"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)", Geoff Ryman

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) October/November 2006 - fantasy
This fantasy tale is set in a time like today in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. According to the author "this is a completely untrue story about someone who must exist." The story is about a rich young woman named Sith, who is Pol Pot's daughter. She lives an eccentric, narrow life trying to avoid unpleasantness. Sith falls in love with Dara, a young salesman working at a mobile phone shop. Sith is afraid to admit who she is. Sith is haunted by ghosts with no one to mourn them that call on her cell phones, and whose faces appear on her photocopier.

An exotic, colorful, (dare I say) haunting novelette. I enjoy tales with modern day ghosts. I was very impressed with this story. A very worthy Hugo award nominee.

"The Djinn's Wife", Ian McDonald

NT ASFM (Asimov's Science Fiction) JULY 2006 - science fiction
In the near-future in Delhi India, young female dancer Esha meets a handsome admirer who appears out of nowhere, like a djinn. He is the diplomat A.J. Rao, an artificial intelligence or aeai. That he spends time with her is noticed by government Inspector Thacker, a so-called Krishna cop. When Esha marries A.J. Rao she becomes a tabloid celebrity. But soon her husband's differences begin to annoy Esha.

A clever, well-written story set in an exotic future. Includes an interestingly different love scene. This story shares the same background as McDonald's story "The Little Goddess".

"Home Movies", Mary Rosenblum

NT ASFM (Asimov's Science Fiction) APR/May 2006 - science fiction/romance
Kayla is hired to record a family wedding, week-long reunion for an old woman who is a Mars Colony administrator. Kayla is more than a cameraman, she is what is called a chameleon. She takes a nano that records vision, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. After the job she downloads her recording and loses all memory of it. The old woman who wants the wedding covered is especially interested in one of her extended family, a handsome young man named Ethan.

The science fiction background is mainly a framework for a what ends up being a love story. A pleasant tale.

"Penultima Thule", Chris Willrich

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) AUG 2006 - fantasy
A thieving couple, Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone, take a "cacography" book to the northern rim of their flat world to throw it off the edge. This book, Mashed Rags Bound in Dead Cow, is so magically malicious that reading it is fatal, sort of like Monty Python's Killer Joke. In the far North, Gaunt and Bone encounter Stonekin, Hunger Stones, and Tornarssuk, which are tool-using polar bears.

A strange, but imaginatively strange, fantasy trek. Apparently previous stories have featured these characters.

"Damascus", Daryl Gregory

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) DEC 2006 - science fiction
This is a story that slowly and interestingly unfolds. It features a disease that CDC is concerned about, a strange communion, and a woman with her own personal Jesus.

"Damascus" is an impressive speculative fiction story which is set in the present day.

"Shambhala", Alex Irvine

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) March 2006 - science fiction
Shambhala is a commercial virtual world, where people move to escape their physical bodies. But now Shambhala is crashing. Mike Chancey and various professional Nerds somewhere on earth, see computer status indicators are going yellow and red and worry about the legal ramifications. Shannon DeWalt, who is in the virt or virtual world, searches for Charon, who is knowledgeable, and sees the apocalypse from the inside.

I like the idea of and many of the details of this story, but the characters didn’t really draw me in.

"A Soul in a Bottle", Tim Powers

NT - 2006 book from Subterranean Press - fantasy
At Hollywood's Chinese Theater, book trader George Sydney meets a striking red-headed woman. They talk about poetry and then kiss. George longs to see her again. When he does, she literally disappears. George has fallen in love with a ghost. She, he learns, is the poet Cheyenne Fleming, who accidentally shot herself back in 1969. Cheyenne wants George’s help so that she can go back to the past, so she won’t have died.

A colorfully told story, and memorable. George apparently drinks and Cheyenne isn't an angel. This is not your typical ghost story or love story.

"The Long and The Short and The Tall", John Morressy

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) Feb 2006 – fantasy
The King of the Dwarves hires the wizard Kedrigern to find his stolen magical belt. Along the way the wizard goes to a fair where he encounters an old friend, the giant Ossomore, and later solves the crime.

A sort of rambling, but pleasant story. Apparently part of a loose series of stories.

"Boon", Madeleine E. Robbins

NT F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction) Feb 2006 – fantasy
Elves have come to New York City. Young unmarried mother Mia, who is just scrapping by with a waitress job, is uncomfortable with elves. After the lady who watched her baby daughter takes ills, Mia reluctantly hires a gnome couple as child sitters.

This is an entertaining contemporary fantasy tale.

"The Kewlest Thing of All", David Ira Cleary

NT ASFM Mar 2006 - science fiction
<<- Asimov's Science Fiction Mar 2006 cover by J.K. Potter for "The Kewlest Thing of All"
Genuinely cool girl Bonny Brood, who has a videophone embedded in her palm and browser windows across her skin, is guerilla marketing "kewlness" to fat and uncool Katelyn Sayed. Bonny is blocking Katelyn from being branded by corporation Steward International for this guy Terrence. The setting is a future San Francisco after melt waters flood the city.

This seems like updated cyberpunk. It humorously includes a girl on girl crush. The ending confounded me somewhat, but I'd recommend this novelette.

"Dead Men Walking", Paul J. McAuley

NT ASFM March 2006 - science fiction
A prison guard on Uranus’s moon Ariel records his last testament. He sought to capture a vat-grown assassin who was killing political prisoners from the Quiet War.

A decent story that contains, in my opinion, overly graphic violent details.

"Dark Eden", Chris Beckett

NT ASFM March 2006 - sci-fi
The three galactonauts of the Defiant refuse to cancel their mission. They take an interceptor ship with two British space-cops along when they make a space leap. They find a planet with no sun that is strangely warm and has breathable air.

SF cliché story with updated, sometimes humorous, trimmings.

"The Gabble", Neal Asher

NT ASFM March 2006 - science fiction
Scientists on the alien world of Masada study its unusual lifeforms. Jonas researches the dangerous hooders which take apart humans to small fragments and are repelled only by powerful weapons such as proton cannons. Shardelle studies the huge gabbleducks whose speech is frustratingly untranslatable. Jonas travels with Shardelle in an ATV to do work in the field.

An impressive science fiction story set on another world. This novelette worked for me despite some technobabble jargon and enigmatic references to other things in this fictional universe. I’d like to read more by Neal Asher.

"Less than Nothing", Robert Reed

NT F&SF Jan 2006 - modern fantasy
Native American boy Raven Dream is banished from his people. Angry ghost One-Less follows him to ranch of Blue Clad and Stone Face, otherwise known as Edward and Clare. The hidden Lakota people call others demons.

Part of a series, which I haven’t read the other stories. Nonetheless, this novelette was well-written enough to hold my interest.

"The Boy in Zaquitos", Bruce McAllister

NT F&SF Jan 2006 - fiction
Retired operative tells of tells of his South American missions for the CIA in the 1960s. He was spreading pneumonic plague, trying to make it look natural, germ warfare. Doing this work put him in therapy.

Interesting but uncomfortable story. It reads more like fact than fiction. Made me wonder where the facts ended.