Here’s the into and list from my October Amazing Stories Column. Feedback encouraged. – Ern
October surprised me by not offering up tales of futuristic hauntings and horror, and I’m not complaining. Ghosts in the machine are fine by me, but that’s where I like to keep them. 2020 has been scary enough already.
What we did get was several good space operas, including a return to Elizabeth Bear’s White Space universe; a new book from Kim Stanley Robinson on how to save the planet from mankind and live to tell about it, the last of Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother novels about life in times of future DHS, and a sexy police procedural from Amanda Bridgeman that will make you long for the 80s. It was also a good month for anthologies, and I take a look at Ben Bova’s favorite picks as well as a curated collection of really fine stories from Escape Pod’s fifteen years of podcasting. Finally, there’s a collection of stories from Cixin Liu, most from his earlier work that gives a window into both author and culture.
Reviewed:
- Machine by Elizabeth Bear
- The Last Campaign by Martin L. Shoemaker
- The Ministry for the Future: A Novel by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Attack Surface: Book 3 of 3: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
- In the Black by Patrick S. Tomlinson
- The Sensation by Amanda Bridgeman
- My Favorites: A Collection of Short Stories by Ben Bova
- Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Anthology by S.B. Divya, Mur Lafferty, et al.
- To Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu