Right dab in the middle of August's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a most stunning science fiction novella. "Arkfall," by Carolyn Ives Gillman, (who is my new sf writing hero, interview found here) is a story with a young,female protagonist facing personal challenges that reflect social difficulties within a brave new world. There's depth to this story and science and characters you wouldn't expect, but it is all made of shiny and deserves a Nebula recommendation. Or ten of them. Someone do that for me, would you?

Recommendations from the latest batch of magazines.

From Asimov's Science Fiction, June 2007: "Tideline" by Elizabeth Bear and "Scrawl Daddy" by Jack Skillingstead.

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 2007: "If We Can Save Just One Child" by Robert Reed, "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang and Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers" by John Lanagan.

From Interzone, Jul-Aug 2007: Exvisible by Carlos Hernandez.

From Fantasy Magazine, Spring 2007: "Seven Crooked Tinies" by Marly Youmans, "The Impossibilities of Crows" by Catherine M. Morrison, "His Wife" by Bruce McAllister, and The Girl With Blueberry Eyes" by Lisa Mantchev.

From Apex, Volume 1:Issue 9: "The End of Crazy" by Katherine Sparrow.

From Shimmer, Winter 2007: "Tom Cofferwillow Comes Undone" by Stephen L. Moss.

From Say...what's the combination?: Known Forms or How the Aliens Stole My Clone Babies for Jesus" by Melissa Moorer, "Into the Woods" by Marguerite Croft.

Sure, I've been reading. The ones I loved:

From Saffron and Brimstone Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand, The Lost Domain: Four Stories "Kronia," "Calypso in Berlin," "Echo," and "The Saffron Gatherers."

From Asimov's Science Fiction July 2007: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress, "Bullet Dance" by John Schoffstall and "Roxie" by Robert Reed.

From Asimov's Science Fiction August 2007: "The Bridge" by Kathleen Anne Goonan (reprint), "Dead House Point" by Daryl Gregory.

From Asimov's Science Fiction: "My Heart As Dry As Dust" by Kim Zimring, "How Music Begins" by James Van Pelt, "What Wolves Know" by Kit Reed. (Note: I haven't finished reading the R. Garcia Y Robertson novelette.)

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: May 2007, "The Master Miller's Tale" by Ian R. MacLeod and "The Tamarisk Hunter" by Paolo Bacigalupi.

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 2007: "The Tomb Wife" by Gwyneth Jones.

From Electric Velocipede Issue No. 12, "Reduction Descending" by Luke Jackson, "A Miracle in Shreveport" by Michael Jasper, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Jay Caselberg and "Dr. Black and the Village of Stones" by Brendan Connell.

From Lady Churchill's Robot Wristlet Issue No. 20: "The Third Kind of Darkness" by M. Brock Moorer, "Workshop" by Laura Evans, "I'll Give In" by Meghan McCarron, "In the Lobby of the Mission Palms" by Jon Hanson, "The Last Worders" by Karen Joy Fowler, "Prolegomenon to the Adventures of Chílde Phoenix" by Marly Youmans.

From Reflection's Edge, "Dead Lovers" by A. M. Muffaz.

From Realms of Fantasy, August 2007: "Little Miss Apocalypse" by Christopher Barzak, "Metaphysics" by Elizabeth Glover and "A Trade in Serpents" by Alan Smale.

From Interzone Issue 210: "Toke" by Tim Akers.

From Weird Tales, April-May 2007: "The Man Who Carved Skulls" by Richard Parks, "Six Scents" by Lisa Mantchev and "Spider Comes Home" by Gerald Houarner.

From Strange Horizons (remember their fund drive, please), "29 Union Leaders Can't Be Wrong" by Genevieve Valentine.

From Chizine, "The Vine That Ate the South" by Bill Kte'pi.

I've been trying to catch up with the reading of short fiction, not that I haven't been reading it, just the reading has gotten behind. And, I haven't pointed anyone to the good stuff lately.

"The Sledge-Marker's Daughter" by Alastair Reynolds in Interzone April 2007.

"The Good Detective" by M. John Harrison in Interzone April 2007.

"Wizard's Six" by Alex Irvine in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 2007.

"Lazaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction June 2007.

"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction July 2007.

"Bluecoat Jack" by Sarah Totton in Text:Ur The New Book of Masks edited by Forrest Aguirre.

"The Histories of Now" by Jonathan Wood in Behind the Wainscot edited by Paul Jessup May 2007.

"The Utter Proximity of God" by Michael J. DeLucca in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Rats" by Veronica Schanoes in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Climbing Redemption Mountain" by Mikal Trimm in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"Hunger" by Vandana Singh in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"When It Rains, You'd Better Get Out of Ulga" by Adrian Ferrero in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

"A Dirge for Prestor John" by Catherynne M. Valente in Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss.

Electric Velocipede Fall 2006. Not my first issue of EV, and that should tell you something right there. Mmm hmm. I did find this issue surprising, surprising in a good way. Thirteen tales of fiction (seven of those tales by women) and four poems (two each from Christina Sng and Catherynne M. Valente). Genre. I suppose that should go without saying.

EV is a good zine and this issue is an good issue. I'm hard put upon which stories to discuss and at what length. Especially with my time restraints. So, I am going to be much too brief and skip around, or skip entirely, some pieces that deserve mention.

First, I have a love (that is small and bright like a spark, but, at a moment's notice can flame suddenly like a solar flare) for stylistic, fancy prose. Such is the stories by Catherynne M. Valente and Sonya Taaffe. Ms Valente's "Milk and Apples" is an examination of the wicked step mother in Snow White, but it isn't the mother's fault, especially when the mother is a child turned into a crone but conditions of which she has no control. A sad tale. Ms Taaffe's tale is a very short piece examining the "Bar Golem." It is a love story of sorts.

Marly Youmans. Her name should be becoming popular right now. I know I enjoy her work. In this issue of EV, her story, "The Geode" adds a piece of the magical in a realistic story told from the mother's point of view. Poignant. Beautiful.

"Quitting Dreams" by Matthew Cheney and Jeffrey Ford is a tale of a futuristic disaster, with individual salvation, although that salvation is also a type of curse.

And, Tobias Buckell has a very strong story where American history and a futuristic society blend. "The Duel" is one of the strongest stories I've seen from Tobias. Recommended.

I'd like to add, almost as an afterthought, but not really. I loved the poetry in this issue. I usually have little to say about poetry selections, but these works are very noteworthy.

Shimmer, Summer 2006. This was my first reading of Shimmer, a small zine of beauty. Shiny front and back cover with beautiful, and I want to say photoworkshopped, art. So beautiful that I felt badly toting it around and about and marring it a bit from my crude habits and behavior. Nine pieces of fictions, very short pieces, smaller than flash in a couple of instances. Speculative or fantastical, of course. I'm thinking the publication tends a bit more towards literal writing than most zines, although there is a garden gnome story (not what you'd think) and an alien story (not what you'd think, but, yes, an Earth with aliens and local politics.) I should also note that there is an interview within the issue: Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.

Among my favorite pieces, there is a very short poetic flash piece by Beverly Jackson called "A Fish Tale" where the narrator's morning walk with her dog leds to a lifetime of love and a moment of heartache. A small sample from it:

A pony-sized Airedale pup galumphs across the shoreline stones to greet my mutt. A sturdy man with curly hair and teeth like dice unfurls his line and waves. I lift my hand and marry him.

Tom Pendergrass' "Urban Renewal" is a tale told in memorandums about the woman who lives in a shoe with many children, thirteen to be exact.

And, and, and it is extremely difficult to present a new story based upon an older one that has been written upon any number time before, in this case, the story of Bluebeard. Angela Slater's "Bluebeard" presents a new and fresh approach. Written from the perspective of a smart, young girl who accompanies her mother to Bluebeard's home, it becomes a story of not only of family, but the strengthen and weaknesses in the family structure.

I liked this issue, and I look forward to reading the new one.

Postscripts Summer 2006. Nice variety of styles, and I have to admit to a difference in editorial content as compared to US publications. I'm not really prepared to discuss how different or why different, but it has to do with perspective within/of the fiction, I'm thinking. Even when/if the writers are American. (This isn't my first issue of Postscripts btw.) Solid is what I'd call the selections. Well crafted. I'm a fan girl of Zoran Zivkovic so the piece from him with its protagonist dining in an elevator, "The Elevator," with frequent interruptions and various stories within the story delighted me. I also pointedly liked Stephen Volk's "A Paper Tissue," a story about a married couple in middle age on vacation in which things change. And, I loved the story with no plot and no characterization, "False Dawn of Parrots" by Rhys Hughes. Perfect measure of references, strangeness, illustrations and connections.