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Thus concludes recommendations from Lightspeed! Up next, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, or Uncanny or something, I haven't decided yet.
The Cavern of the Screaming Eye, Jeremiah Tolbert. Dungeon-crawling teens! I'm a huge sucker for this sort of thing. Tolbert really seems to have my number. *NOVELETTE
Fade To Red: Three Interviews About Sebold's Mars Trilogy, Stephen S. Power. Started slow then ka-wow. Really satisfying when something isn't just a gimmick but the exact way the story needs to be told.
Plea, Mary Anne Mohanraj. I read this when it came out and it was devastating then and it's devastating now.
The Venus Effect, Joseph Allen Hill. "Topical" stories - stories that engage the news, that try to grapple directly with big contemporary movements and issues - are so interesting to me. Like, there are various virtues that make me want to rec stories - Fun, Clever, Well-Crafted, Emotionally Moving, Important - and a decent topical story will pretty much always strike me as Important? (Which is not to say this one isn't also any of those others.) I dunno, I know some people think stories are always weaker if they're entangled so heavily with the context of their time, and I admit I'm personally pretty revolted by topical stories from "the other side", Puppy-nominated garbage arguing for America uber alles, etc. But I don't think sff is stronger if it sticks its head in a bag and *doesn't* engage. Anyways, blah blah, topicality is maybe most powerful when you don't expect it, maybe I have already said too much. *NOVELETTE
The Cavern of the Screaming Eye, Jeremiah Tolbert. Dungeon-crawling teens! I'm a huge sucker for this sort of thing. Tolbert really seems to have my number. *NOVELETTE
Fade To Red: Three Interviews About Sebold's Mars Trilogy, Stephen S. Power. Started slow then ka-wow. Really satisfying when something isn't just a gimmick but the exact way the story needs to be told.
Plea, Mary Anne Mohanraj. I read this when it came out and it was devastating then and it's devastating now.
The Venus Effect, Joseph Allen Hill. "Topical" stories - stories that engage the news, that try to grapple directly with big contemporary movements and issues - are so interesting to me. Like, there are various virtues that make me want to rec stories - Fun, Clever, Well-Crafted, Emotionally Moving, Important - and a decent topical story will pretty much always strike me as Important? (Which is not to say this one isn't also any of those others.) I dunno, I know some people think stories are always weaker if they're entangled so heavily with the context of their time, and I admit I'm personally pretty revolted by topical stories from "the other side", Puppy-nominated garbage arguing for America uber alles, etc. But I don't think sff is stronger if it sticks its head in a bag and *doesn't* engage. Anyways, blah blah, topicality is maybe most powerful when you don't expect it, maybe I have already said too much. *NOVELETTE
