How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future by Rachel Swirsky I don’t read a lot of short stories, so it isn’t surprising that Rachel Swirsky wasn’t on my radar. Stories and novellas are what she is best known for. Subterranean Press has gathered 18 of her works into this collection, How […]
Read MoreMarion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Rachel Swirsky | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | | 5 comments |
In 2009, fans of Realms of Fantasy, a full-size slick magazine, were dismayed to learn that its publisher, Sovereign Media, was shutting it down. Just not enough subscribers, Sovereign said; we can’t afford to keep going. But a savior came along in the form of Publisher Warren Lapine of Tir Na Nog Press, who purchased […]
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I’ve always thought that the novella was a perfect length for short science fiction or fantasy, because it gives an author space enough to build a complete world and form characters who live and breathe in the reader’s imagination. You need more room to do this in these genres than in mainstream literature, where an […]
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It was a treat to reread Geoff Ryman’s “What We Found” to prepare to write this column. As I noted when I wrote about this story for my review on the issue of F&SF in which it originally appeared, Ryman has been writing in recent years of third-world cultures, in such a way that the […]
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The internet has been a tremendous boon to short fiction readers. Many excellent web-based publications, from Subterranean Magazine to Clarkesworld to Beyond Ceaseless Skies to Lightspeed are thriving. Now there’s a new kid on the block: The Dark. Issue 1, dated October 2013, describes itself this way: In the pages of The Dark, you will find […]
Read MoreTerry Weyna | Nnedi Okorafor, Rachel Swirsky | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | | 1 comment |
The most recent two issues of Apex Magazine give us a chance to say goodbye to one editor and hello to the next, and offer an interesting contrast between two strong voices. Issue 55 is Lynne M. Thomas’s last issue of the 26 she has edited. It is a strong issue, with stories that are […]
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To the dismay of all lovers of great speculative short fiction, the Summer issue of Subterranean Magazine is its last. This magazine was notable not just for the quality of its fiction, but for its willingness to publish short fiction at the novelette and novella lengths. The Summer issue ably demonstrates just what we’re going […]
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No, you have not jumped forward in time two days; it’s still Saturday. But the Nebula Awards will be handed out tonight, so this special edition of Magazine Monday discusses the nominated novellas. The late, lamented Subterranean Magazine first published Rachel Swirsky’s “Grand Jeté.” The story is about Mara, a 12-year-old child who is dying […]
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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. Grand Jeté (The Great Leap) by Rachel Swirsky (2014, free at Subterranean Press) “Mara, please wake up. I’ve made you a gift.” But gifts can […]
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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. “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky (2013, free at Apex Magazine) Rachel Swirsky‘s “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” is […]
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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. “Tea Time” by Rachel Swirsky (2015, free at Lightspeed Magazine) A wonderfully impressionistic examination of one small cranny of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. In this case, […]
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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. “The Dryad’s Shoe” by T. Kingfisher (2014, free at Fantasy magazine, $2.99 at Amazon for magazine issue) “The Dryad’s Shoe” is a charming Cinderella retelling […]
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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 Faerie Tree” by Kathleen Kayembe (Nov. 2017, free at Lightspeed, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue) Marianne’s family is in turmoil. Her sister, who always had such plans for her life, […]
Read MoreTadiana Jones and Bill Capossere | Kage Baker, Kij Johnson, Rachel Swirsky | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | | 10 comments |
The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 edited by Kevin J. Anderson The Nebula Awards are one of the great institutions in science fiction and fantasy. Each year since 1965, the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) have voted for the Best Novel, Novella (40,000-17,500 words), Novelette (17,500-7,500 words), and Short Story […]
Read MoreStefan Raets (RETIRED)´s rating: 4 | Amal El-Mohtar, Connie Willis, James Patrick Kelly, Joe Haldeman, Kage Baker, Kevin J. Anderson, Kij Johnson, Michael Bishop, N.K. Jemisin, Paolo Bacigalupi, Rachel Swirsky, Richard Bowes, Saladin Ahmed, Will McIntosh | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | | 2 comments |
Oz Reimagined edited by John Joseph Adams Oz Reimagined is a collection of tales whose characters return as often, if not more often, to the “idea” of Oz as opposed to the actual Oz many of us read about as kids (or adults) and even more of us saw in the famed MGM version of the […]
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Twenty-First Century Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell Twenty-First Century Science Fiction is packed full of excellent science fiction stories. I’ve been reading anthologies lately, partly to improve my own short story writing, and this is the best I’ve found so far. It contains stories by authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi, Cory Doctorow, Catherynne […]
Read MoreMike Reeves-McMillan´s rating: 5 | Brenda Cooper, Catherynne M. Valente, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, Daryl Gregory, David D. Levine, Elizabeth Bear, Genevieve Valentine, James L. Cambias, Jo Walton, John Scalzi, Kage Baker, Karl Schroeder, Liz Williams, Madeline Ashby, Mary Robinette Kowal, Paolo Bacigalupi, Rachel Swirsky, Tobias Buckell, Yoon Ha Lee | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | | no comments |
Women Destroy Science Fiction! Lightspeed Magazine Special Issue: The Stories edited by Christie Yant, Robyn Lupo, Rachel Swirsky Last June, Hugo-winning Lightspeed Magazine, which is edited by John Joseph Adams, devoted an entire issue (Women Destroy Science Fiction!, June 2014, issue #49) to female science fiction writers and editors. Under Christie Yant’s and Robyn Lupo’s editorial […]
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Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 edited by Karen Joy Fowler & John Joseph Adams Karen Joy Fowler is the guest editor of the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016. This is the second book in the annual series, which John Joseph Adams conceived of, and he still plays a large role in the […]
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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 […]
Read MoreMarion 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 | Convention | | 4 comments |
The Nebula Awards event which Terry and I recently attended also offered tours of the Computer History Museum and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. I chose the latter. Growing up in northern California I had heard about this museum. I had always assumed it would be vaguely campy, filled with Rosicrucian mysticism and quasi-historical replicas. To […]
Read MoreMarion Deeds | Rachel Swirsky | Convention | | 2 comments |
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