Since Doug did it for Realms of Fantasy, I might as well do it for F&SF…

The Locus recommended reading list for 2006 was recently released. Here are the F&SF stories that made the list:

Novellas

• “Hallucigenia”, Laird Barron (F&SF 06/6)
• “The Revivalist”, Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 3/06)
• “The Lineaments of Gratified Desire”, Ysabeau S. Wilce (F&SF 7/06)

Novelettes

• “El Regalo”, Peter S. Beagle (F&SF 10-11/06)
• “Counterfactual”, Gardner Dozois (F&SF 6/06)
• “Okanoggan Falls“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF 8/06
• “Damascus“, Daryl Gregory (F&SF 12/06)
• “Shambhala”, Alex Irvine (F&SF 3/06)
• “Journey into the Kingdom”, M. Rickert (F&SF 5/06)
• “The Christmas Witch”, M. Rickert (F&SF 12/06)
• “Kansas, She Says, Is the Name of the Star”, Robert Garcia y Robertson (F&SF 7/06)
• “Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter (Fantasy)”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF 10-11/06)
• “Penultima Thule“, Chris Willrich (F&SF 8/06)

Short Stories

• “Journey to Gantica”, Matthew Corradi (F&SF 1/06) **a Slush Survivor**
• “Revelation”, Albert E. Cowdrey (F&SF 10-11/06)
• “Killers”, Carol Emshwiller (F&SF 10-11/06)
• “The Moment of Joy Before,” Claudia O’Keefe (F&SF 4/06)
• “Holding Pattern”, Stephen Popkes (F&SF 7/06)
• “With By Good Intentions”, Carrie Richerson (F&SF 10-11/06)
• “Another Word for Map Is Faith”, Christopher Rowe (F&SF 8/06)
  

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January’s acquisitions include:

• Bread and Circus by Steven Popkes
• Against the Current by Robert Silverberg
• If We Can Save Just One Child by Robert Reed              
• The Minuteman’s Witch by Charles Coleman Finlay
• Two Weeks After by M. Ramsey Chapman    
• The Bird Shaman’s Girl by Judith Moffett        

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December’s acquisitions include:

• Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge by Kevin N. Haw (a slush survivor)
• Mystery Hill by Alex Irvine
• Wrong Number by Alexander Jablokov
• Firooz and His Broth by Alex Jeffers
• The Tomb Wife by Gwyneth Jones
• The Salting and Canning of Benevloence D. by Al Michaud
• The Quest for Creeping Charlie by James Powell
• Character Flu by Robert Reed
• Reunion by Robert Reed
• It’s a Wonderful Life by Michaela Roessner
• The Fullness of Time by Kate Wilhelm
  

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calico_reaction, who has diligently been reviewing F&SF for the past several months, has posted some thoughts about which stories published by F&SF in 2006 were the best of the bunch.

Agree? Disagree? Got your own list?

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This month, we bought the following:

“Cold Comfort” by Ray Vukcevich

“Lázaro y Antonio” by Marta Randall

“Thrilling Wonder Tales” by Albert E. Cowdrey

“With Full Power” by Albert E. Cowdrey

“At These Prices” by Esther M. Friesner

“If Angels Fight” by Richard Bowes

“Urdumheim” by Michael Swanwick

“The Mole Cure” by Nancy Farmer

“The Star to Every Wandering Barque” by James Stoddard

“Fragrant Goddess” by Paul Park

“Sweet Trap” (reprint) by Matthew Hughes

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A small batch this month. We’ve got a post-Katrina New Orleans story from a man who witnessed the carnage first-hand: Albert Cowdrey; a humorous tale about a writer’s attempt to ghostwrite a memoir for a witch-queen from Ron Goulart; and a tale of xenoanthropology from Lawrence C. Connolly (returning to the pages of F&SF at last!). We also bought reprint rights to Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Tamarisk Hunter,” which originally appeared in a special edition of High Country News, an environmental newspaper.

Oh, and somewhere in the nether-realms between monthly acquisitions, we bought a new Neil Gaiman story, which I don’t think I previously announced because it wasn’t finalized yet.

Don’t despair slushbombers: I don’t think Gordon’s gone through all that stuff yet (or at least hasn’t made final decisions on it, anyway).

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Humor Competition Editor Carol Pinchefsky asked me to spread the word about the current humor competition because she hasn’t received enough suitable entries as of yet.

F&SF COMPETITION 73: MERGE AND CONVERGE

Take at least one genre book or short story, and merge it with another name. Then describe the plot of your new creation. Limit your description to fifty words, and submit no more than six entries. Remember to include your name and address. If you make me laugh, you win a prize.

Example: Foundation and Empire Strikes Back from Foundation and Empire and The Empire Strikes Back

Hari Selden goes to Dagobah to learn the ways of the Jedi and become powerful enough to defeat the Mule. Unfortunately for Hari, the Mule is his father.

Send entries to carol a-t cybrid d-o-t net; entries must be received before November 15, 2006. First prizes is a signed limited edition copy of Majestrum by Matthew Hughes; second prize are advanced copies of three forthcoming novels; any runners-up receive a one-year subscription to F&SF.

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If you’re thinking of writing a post-apocalyptic story right now, you might want to hold off for a bit and work on other things. At the moment, it seems like at least 75% of the SF we’re seeing is, if not strictly about post-apocalyptic life, is set in a post-apocalyptic future–so much so that we’ve got good stories we might need to pass on just because we’ve got too much similar in inventory.

Don’t get me wrong; I love me some post-apocalyptic “wandering in a depopulated world, scrounging cans of Campbell’s pork and beans, defending one’s family from marauders”* as much as the next guy, but unless we’re going to change the name of the magazine to Mutants and Marauders Monthly, we’ve got to draw the line somewhere.

*From John Varley’s “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged).”

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JJA: I’m going down into the dungeon* now.

GVG: Could you bring up a cask of Amontillado?

JJA: For the love of god, Montresor …can’t you get it yourself?

*A/K/A the basement, where we keep our filing.

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Although it’s been a busy month, we’ve still managed to make some acquisitions (though it must be noted, we bought our stories this month pre-slush bomb; I always wait to post them until the end of the month to make sure all the authors have received their contracts already). Okay, so, we’ve got: a new tale full of literary references by Daryl Gregory; a new one from one of my slush survivors, Donald Mead; a SFnal relationship tale from K. D. Wentworth; a historical fantasy from Sean McMullen; a fab new lit’ry fantasy from M. Rickert; a big long, bad-ass music novella by Lucius Shepard; and after too long an absence, John Langan returns to our pages–all I can say about it is, “Holy Apocalypse, Batman! This story’s awesome.”

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