Short and Sublime: January 2015 Round-Up
Short and Sublime is a new column spotlighting great short fiction. January stories include optimistic sci-fi tales, feminist subversions of problematic tropes in fantasy, and creatures from mythologies both real and imagined. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Don’t get close, or you will smell. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Here she comes, go run and tell. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Her mama casts them voodoo spells. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Take your Haitian tail to Hell!
Book Review: The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction of the Year, Volume 8
While not quite Dozois-sized in the number of stories and pages it contains, The Best Fantasy and Science Fiction of the Year Volume 8 edited by Jonathan Strahan does have one major advantage over its counterpart. Strahan, unlike Gardner Dozois’s own yearly tomes, boldly mixes both science fiction and fantasy into one volume, rather than trying to figure out what belongs in Science Fiction and what is firmly in the domain of fantasy. Eight volumes in, Strahan’s editorial voice in selecting the best of the year from both SF and fantasy together is distinctive and strong. The stories are:
Thoughts on the Hugo Nominated Short Stories by Adam Callaway
(Edit: this post was actually written by Adam Callaway. I forgot that WordPress would use my ID to indicate the author if I was the one who created it. Sorry for any confusion.) I am both pleasantly surprised and just a little disappointed with this year’s batch of nominees. There were no short stories I found to be of poor quality. In my opinion, there was one mediocre story, two good ones, and one very good one. I wish there had been a full ballot of short stories to read through. I also wish there had been more diversity in terms of theme and content. In the end, I feel like these are incredibly mature stories that show the changing face of speculative literature in the 21st century. In many ways, they share more in common with fiction published in the New Yorker than Amazing Stories. Instead of ray guns and magic swords, you have metafiction and magical realism. Regardless of the quality of these stories, this is a Good Thing for the future of the genre. But are these really the best stories genre produced last year? Hmm… Here are my brief thoughts on each of the nominees:
