It was a slow month for novels, but my goodness was it an incredible month for short fiction. Thanks to a final push of reading from Hugo finalist publications, my monthly favorites list is the longest it’s been all year. And then I put down the 2021 publications and promptly found my two favorite stories… Continue reading August 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
I read a ton of short fiction this month, with a mix of 2022 publications, 2021 pieces from Hugo-shortlisted magazines or editors, and even one backlist award winner. As for the longer works, all but one of my reviews posted in July was either an SPSFC or Hugo finalist, so the majority of the links… Continue reading July 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
2022 marks my second year voting in the Hugo Awards for the best science fiction and fantasy published in the previous year. Today I will be looking at Best Novelette, for works between 7500 and 17500 words. A full half of last year’s Hugo shortlist for Best Novelette were the kinds of stories you remember… Continue reading 2022 Hugo Awards Ballot: Best Novelette
Like last year, I started my journey through the Hugo Awards with the Best Short Story finalists. Also like last year, two of the finalists were on my own nominating ballot, so whatever became of the pieces I hadn’t previously read, I was guaranteed to have a pair of strong choices at the top. Every… Continue reading 2022 Hugo Awards Ballot: Short Story
It’s been a big month of short fiction reading, with a lot of volume and a lot of really good stuff. On the long fiction side, it’s been a successful month as well, though mostly limited to SPSFC and Hugos. So what were my favorites? Let’s get to the roundup. Short Fiction June Favorites “Seen… Continue reading June 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
Between illness and travel and more illness, it’s been a weird spring. I hardly read any short fiction in April, so I’m rolling two months of short fiction together into one post. Because nomination deadlines passed in mid-March, I pivoted from catching up on “Best of 2021” lists to reading whatever caught my fancy, and… Continue reading April/May 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
Awards nomination season is over, so March was a transition away from catching up on everything I could read from “Best of 2021” lists back to reading whatever struck my fancy (and, on the longer work, fit my last few Bingo squares–March 31 is the end of the Bingo year). I did find a gem… Continue reading March 2022 Roundup and Short Fiction Focus
How do you review Lafferty? I asked myself a similar question when I wrote an Author Spotlight post about him last year, and it returns as I consider the short story collection The Best of R.A. Lafferty. Because this isn’t a novel, there is no plot to summarize, but even if there were, it wouldn’t… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Collection Review: The Best of R.A. Lafferty
January delivered plenty of “Best of 2021” recommended reading lists, and so February was my heaviest month of short-fiction reading since I jumped back into the form in 2020. I made plenty of additions to my Hugo Nomination Draft, and I had such a good time reading that, even after going back at the end… Continue reading February 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
Moving into the new year, I’m going to make a small change to how I do my round-up posts. I feel like writing extended short story reviews would be too much, but with the length of my unusual comments, it’s hard to capture why a story might not work for me, and so my entries… Continue reading January 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
