Thursday, February 19, 2009

Fantasy and Science Fiction August 2008



The first issue of F&SF I have ever read. The copy I had was bought from fictionwise.com, and was read by Iphone over a long time, usually while waiting for something. It was pretty good, and might get more these at some later date.
The Political Prisoner • novella by Charles Coleman Finlay
A story about a former political officer of a religious dictatorship, who is taken to a concentration camp for forced labor. Good, exiting and well written story. It could be argued that it isn’t really science fiction, as all events might have happened in any generic gulag, the gene modified people might have been Jews or some other persecuted group and so on. Very good story nevertheless. ****+
Childrun • novelette by Marc Laidlaw
A wandering bard arrives to a small countryside town. He meets a lot of suspicion as almost all the children of the town have disappeared without a slightest trace. Well written, very nice story, good fantasy. ****+
An Open Letter to Earth • shortstory by Scott Dalrymple
Aliens using flying saucers for human abduction write a letter for humanity. Supposedly funny story. **
Another Perfect Day • shortstory by Steven Popkes
Alternative world Prokofiev meets an ardent fan from another alternative world. Nice, ironic story. ***½
Bounty • shortstory by Rand B. Lee
A group of hunters hunt a special prey. Nothing special in the story, might have worked as a part of collection of themed stories, but as such is a bit baffling. **+
But Wait! There's More! • novelette by Richard Mueller
Scriptwriter gets one very attractive offer for writing scripts for infomercials which offer new service which offers to pay hard cash for souls. ***½

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