#asimovssciencefiction — Public Fediverse posts

As a mail subscriber to #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine, I get a vote in their 2025 reader's awards. It was fun to go back and re-read my favourite stories for the year to decide my rankings:

Best Novella:
1. Quantum Ghosts, #NancyKress
2. The Chronolithographer's Assistant, #SuzannePalmer
3. Spare Parts for the Mind, #GregEgan

Best Novelette:
1. Most Things, #RichLarson
2. On the Night Shift, #ZoharJacobs
3. The Fight Goes On, #HarryTurtledove

Best Short Story:
1. Catch a Tiger in the Snow, #RayNayler
2. Lolo's Last Run, #EMKerkman
3. Woolly, #CarrieVaughn

Best Poem:
1. I Try to Explain the Concept of Teeth to My Alien Roommate, #RachelLinton

Best Cover:
1. July/August, #MaurizioManzieri (attached image)

- My subscription started after the Jan/Feb issue, so that got snubbed.
- For all that print #SciFi magazines are now extremely marginal commercially and culturally, this one at least still attracts some pretty great material (mixed in, admittedly, with some so-so stuff) including by veteran greats of the genre - Kress and Turtledove are still producing amazing work in their mid-late 70s!
- I found the Novella section hardest to trim down to 3, with narrow cuts for stories by T.R. Napper, Ted Kosmatka, and John Kessel.
- It was a great year for pets in SF stories, or maybe as a dog- and cat-lover I'm just sucker for them. I found a place in my heart for Lolo, Magritte, Goobler the miniature woolly mammoth, Sponge, and of course, the tiger in the snow!

The most recent #AsimovsScienceFiction to appear in my mailbox features an absorbing cover future story from #GregEgan about a dementia sufferer's experimental brain implants that lead him to a partial recovery, but also highlights a world of techbro hype, conspiracy theories, and dubious intellectual property claims surrounding the technology. My favourite story in the collection was the beautiful, very short, 'Catch a Tiger in the Snow' by #RayNayler . Also nice to see a rare appearance of a New Zealand author in a #SciFi collection, #SeanMonaghan . @bookstodon #Bookstodon

@scifi Finished the July/August issue of #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine. A bit of a rollercoaster of quality this issue, with the low point a story by Dominica Phetteplace that I found remarkably clumsily written. But, more importantly, very high high points: #RichLarson with a story that delivers everything from Lovecraftian horror, to a chase scene involving a drone with a flamethrower, to stoner comedy, and #SuzannePalmer , who I didn't believe I've ever read before, with a poignant and exciting cover story.

New edition of #AsimovsScienceFiction just arrived in the mail! Looking forward to the #RichLarson in particular. @scifi

#FinishedReading my first of a subscription to #AsimovsScienceFiction magazine. With its wonky printing (page margins randomly shifting, print changing darkness across each page) it feels a bit like samizdat; I don't mind that, but surely they could have done better with the cover (credited only to image corporation Shutterstock). More importantly the stories were solid and entertaining, although not top tier. My favourites were 'The Hidden God' by #TRNapper and 'On the Night Shift' by #ZoharJacobs , one a satirical thriller of AI attaining sentience and declaring class war, the other a fairly realistic story of mission control for a Mars landing trying to work through a climate change induced superstorm on Earth. #NancyKress , one of my favourite short story writers, has part 1 of a 2 part story so I'm intrigued to see where that goes next issue! @scifi

@FredKiesche
Good news! #AsimovsScienceFiction is now available as an epub directly from them for $6 an issue; $2 less than #Magzter.

https://www.asimovs.com/product/asimovs-fiction-digital-subscription/

The bad news is that for those using Magzter is that the unused part of a subscription is not refundable because it is considered a 'purchase' rather than a subscription and a "Purchase made on Magzter cannot be cancelled...no refund for purchase can be issued."

I am now stuck with three remaining issues that are difficult to read.

#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories Jul/Aug 2023
#SF #Fantasy

What>We>Will>Never>Be by #RobertReed

Revenge is a dish best served cold…VERY cold. The continued saga of the Great Ship and the times after the creation of the Scar.

#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories Jul/Aug 2023
#SF #Fantasy

Bridges by #SeanMonaghan

Ages after the robots went away, the abandoned intelligent machinery supply folk with housing, food, clothing, and even bridges.
 What happens when the AI programing goes awry?

An excellent allegory for the mayhem that cancer causes.


Pairs well with the anime “Cells At Work.”

#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories Jul/Aug 2023
#SF #Fantasy

Showdown On Planetoid Pencrux by #Garth Nix

It’s minor planet, not Tombstone, Doc is not a dentist, and there is no corral—but there is a shootout. Will the good guys, gals, and others win?


Now if we could just get John Ford to direct!

#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories May/June 2023 #SF #Fantasy

- Zoo Station by #LavieTidhar

Days of future past in low earth orbit; a sad remembrance of things that were and are not likely to ever be again. 


#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories May/June 2023 #SF #Fantasy

Boomerang by #BillJohnson & #GregoryFrost

Do we check out the super cold planet we came to study, or the derelict alien spacecraft in orbit around it?
Why not do both!

At the same time!

After all, what could go wrong?

#AsimovsScienceFiction #FavoriteStories Mar/Apr 2023
#SF #Fantasy

The Errata by #KATeryna (Translated by #AlexShvartsman)

It sucks being a kid in steerage on a generational ship….until you find that magical place where you are on top of the world.