My September short fiction reviews are coming out of order because of some travel early in the month, and GigaNotoSaurus remains on a two-month hiatus, so let’s do a rare late-month, single-issue review and take a look at the September 2025 issue of Clarkesworld. Clarkesworld This issue of Clarkesworld features five short stories and two… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine: Review of Clarkesworld (September 2025)
Early September travel has thrown off my usual reading schedule and has me swapping the order of my regular short fiction reviews. So we’ll save the monthly Clarkesworld review for later and start with Magazine Minis: short reviews of selected stories from the same magazine issues. Today, I’ll be looking at tales that caught my… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Asimov’s, khōréō, and Translunar Travelers Lounge
Travel and an unusually hefty short fiction project this month left me with relatively little time for miscellany, and what time I had was mostly spent in search of the lucky 10,000, focusing on acclaimed 20th century sci-fi that I’d somehow yet to read. And wouldn’t you know it, I found some great stuff! Let’s… Continue reading August 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
To mark the transition between our summer Hugo reading and our regular short fiction reading, my online book club decided to have a session focusing on the finalists for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. Why 2017? Well, the stories were all online, it was before we started our Hugo Readalong, and it… Continue reading A Very Late Evaluation of the 2017 Hugo Longlist for Best Short Story
GigaNotoSaurus has announced a two-month hiatus—and my best wishes go to the staff as they navigate whatever it is that is demanding their attention—so in August and September, my monthly read of two magazines will be reduced to just one. So let’s take a look at Clarkesworld. Clarkesworld This month’s issue includes seven stories: five… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine: Review of Clarkesworld (August 2025)
After finishing up my reading for both the Hugos and SPSFC, I felt strangely on top of things, so I decided to dig into some backlist short fiction. As it turns out, short stories that people are still recommending five (or more) years after their initial publication are disproportionately excellent. I’ve got quite a list… Continue reading July 2025 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
I supplement my full read of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus each month with smaller spotlights on magazines where I may have found 2-3 stories that draw my attention. This month, I had just two magazine issues with multiple stories that caught my eye, so I’m adding a third in Strange Horizons, which typically publishes just one… Continue reading Tar Vol’s Magazine Minis: Lightspeed, Kaleidotrope, and Strange Horizons
As we open the back half of 2025, I’m continuing my monthly reviews of a couple short fiction publications I enjoy immensely: Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus. Clarkesworld The July issue of Clarkesworld features five short stories and two novelettes, one of which is a translated piece weighing in at nearly 15,000 words. The issue opens with… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (July 2025)
This is my fifth year reading and ranking every finalist for the Hugo Awards for the Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, and Best Short Story in the previous year of sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve already posted Best Novel, Best Novella, and Best Novelette, so now it’s time to take a look at Best Short Story. I… Continue reading 2025 Hugo Awards Ballot: Best Short Story
This is my fifth year reading and ranking every finalist for the Hugo Awards for the Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Novelette, and Best Short Story in the previous year of sci-fi and fantasy. I’ve already posted Best Novel and Best Novella, and now it’s time to move to Best Novelette. Novelette is often my… Continue reading 2025 Hugo Awards Ballot: Best Novelette
