Terry Bisson | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

SFF Author: Terry Bisson

(1942- )
Terry Ballantine Bisson is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories. His stories have won two Nebulas, a Hugo, and two Locus Awards. Terry Bisson was born and raised in Kentucky. Learn more about this author at Terry Bisson’s website.
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Numbers Don’t Lie: A cocktail of laughs and what-ifs

Numbers Don’t Lie by Terry Bisson

In 2005, Tachyon Press published three of Terry Bisson linked novellas in one volume, called Numbers Don’t Lie. This short, fun book follows Irving, a Brooklynite lawyer, and his genius best friend Wilson Wu on a series of adventures.

Wilson is a six-foot-tall Chinese American polymath; he is a math genius, he’s studied meteorology, botany, Chinese herbs, pastry-making, law and the care of camels at a caravansari in the Gobi. The three stories collected in Numbers Don’t Lie were published separately in Asimov’s.

Fire on the Mountain: Alternate history with a political flavor

Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson

What if America’s Civil War had been, not a war of unification, but a war to end slavery? What if John Brown had succeeded at Harper’s Ferry?

In his short utopian novel Fire on the Mountain, Terry Bisson contemplates those questions.
Bisson’s story is simple and human, but he uses it to muse on how the Civil War could have gone differently. Yasmin Abraham Martin Odinga is an archeologist recently back from a dig in Olduvai,

Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Terry Bisson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

SHORTS: Liu, Bisson, Kowal, Landis

There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. In honor of the just-ended MidAmeriCon II and the awarding of the 2016 Hugos, this week’s reviews are all past Hugo award winners that are available to read free online.

“Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu (2012, originally published in The Future is Japanese anthology, reprinted 2013 and free online at Lightspeed, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue). 2013 Hugo award (short story)

Hiroto Shimizu is a twenty-five year old man living on a generation spaceship that left Earth when Hiroto was eight years old,

SHORTS: Killjoy, Gaiman, Arimah, Tolbert, Bisson

There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.

“Everything that Isn’t Winter” by Margaret Killjoy (Oct. 2016, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)

This piece includes a great range of storytelling in few words. “Everything that Isn’t Winter” is set post-apocalypse in a small community that has carved out a comfortable place in the new world. The setting may sound run-of-the-mill, but what Killjoy does with it makes it come to life.

SHORTS: Corey, Gilman, Vaughn, McDonald, Bisson

Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.

The Vital Abyss by James S.A. Corey (2015, $2.99 Kindle, $4.95 audio)

I haven’t read or watched THE EXPANSE yet, but I purchased some of the related novellas when they were on sale at Audible. The first one I read was The Vital Abyss and I loved it.

SHORTS: Reiss, Bisson, Wells, Spahn

Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.

“Double or Nothing” by Alter S. Reiss (free at Daily Science Fiction, March 27, 2018)

A man has an android made that is an exact copy of himself, so the android can do all his work and tedious chores while the man enjoys his newfound free time. He’s actually not surprised when the android gets deeply annoyed with the system,

The Secret History of Fantasy: Stories that redefine the genre

The Secret History of Fantasy edited by Peter S. Beagle

The basic premise of the SECRET HISTORY anthologies (there’s also a science fiction one, The Secret History of Science Fiction, which I haven’t read) is that there’s a type of writing that got missed or buried because other things were more popular, more commercial, or dodged the spec-fic labeling. Certainly that’s the thrust of Peter S. Beagle‘s introduction, and the two other non-fiction pieces by Ursula K. Le Guin and editor David G.

Mike Reeves-McMillan´s rating: 4 | Francesca Lia Block, Gregory Maguire, Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Lethem, Kij Johnson, Maureen McHugh, Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, Peter S. Beagle, Robert Holdstock, Stephen King, Susanna Clarke, Terry Bisson, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Marion and Terry report on the 2013 Nebula Awards Weekend

The 48th Annual Nebula Awards weekend was held by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America at the San Jose Convention Center in northern California from May 17 through 19, 2013. Terry Weyna and I, who both live in Northern California and both are aspiring writers, decided to see what a bunch of published writers get up to when they party together.

Marion Deeds: I think what surprised me most is how light on programming the weekend was. I thought there would be sessions about the nuts and bolts of a writing career,

Marion Deeds | Aliette De_Bodard, Connie Willis, E.C. Myers, Gene Wolfe, Joe Haldeman, John Scalzi, Ken Liu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Rachel Swirsky, Robert Silverberg, Saladin Ahmed, Sarah Beth Durst, Steven Gould, Terry Bisson, William C. Dietz | Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

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February 2025

Marion Deeds on A Conventional Boy: A fun welcome-back to the LAUNDRY FILESFebruary 25, 2025
Shoot, I just handed the book on so I can't check, but I think this book takes places sooner than…
Paul Connelly on A Conventional Boy: A fun welcome-back to the LAUNDRY FILESFebruary 24, 2025
Is this part of the "New Management" branch of the Laundry Files? As in, has the Elder God Nyarlahotep taken…
Marion Deeds on Wood Sprites: Takes a surprising and welcome turnFebruary 21, 2025
I was reading along with no trouble suspending disbelief until I got to "internet influencers!" And then I thought, "Well,…
Thomas on Blindsight: Mind-blowing hard SF about first contact, consciousnessFebruary 20, 2025
I recently stumbled upon the topic of hard science fiction novels, by reading a comment somewhere referring to Greg Egan's…
Aj Mosco on ZITA THE SPACEGIRL by Ben HatkeFebruary 19, 2025
This story, possibly altered who I would become and showed me that my imagination wasn't a burden. I think i…

SFF Author: Terry Bisson

Numbers Don’t Lie: A cocktail of laughs and what-ifs

Fire on the Mountain: Alternate history with a political flavor

SHORTS: Liu, Bisson, Kowal, Landis

SHORTS: Killjoy, Gaiman, Arimah, Tolbert, Bisson

SHORTS: Corey, Gilman, Vaughn, McDonald, Bisson

SHORTS: Reiss, Bisson, Wells, Spahn

The Secret History of Fantasy: Stories that redefine the genre

Marion and Terry report on the 2013 Nebula Awards Weekend

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