Free Fiction: Diamonds in the Sky, a science fiction anthology

Diamonds is the Sky is a science fiction anthology spawned by the National Science Foundation, which taught a class on astronomy to a collection of science fiction writers. In turn, the writers’ stories have been developed into a free anthology for edu-tainment use.

The contents listing is here.

Murky Depths #6

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Where much of speculative fiction questions or outright violates our perceptions of reality, the first contribution to Murky Depths #6, “The Lastest Marianne” by Alan Frackelton, takes a more direct route. This surreal tale concerns a haunted man’s progressive descent into madness… Full review at The Fix.

Apex Magazine: January 2009

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Reminiscent of a Children’s Help Network commercial, Ruth Nestvold’s “On the Shadow Side of the Beast” is tale of a post apocalyptic world that offers no real explanation of what happened to ruin Berlin. It touches on a lot in a small space, children vs. adults, lack of education, the quest for survival, all set against a backdrop different from the America-centric one most often found in science fiction. It feels like only part of a story though, with a lot left up to the imagination and plenty of ends left open.

“In Memory” by James Stone is a disturbing tale of humans pushing their limits to unimaginable extremes. Kenny is a mathematician who uploaded himself into an experimental program long ago. After his mother’s funeral he notices a number of missing gaps in his memory and discovers he’s locked away parts of his memory from himself. What’s hidden is dark and terrible. Despite the tech heavy cloak on this tale at its core it’s about the struggles of the human mind trying to deal with the terrible and the tragic events in our lives. While Kenny is accused of becoming less human by locking his memories away, the action to cut out painful memories is very human, and in this tale, made possible by technological advances.

“Starter House” by Jason Palmer is quite the strange tale, where houses are giant creatures that must be chained and pained into submission for the survival of the humans living on a planet far away. What starts as a strange commentary touching on elitism and classism, quickly turns into a reflection of our current housing market and war issues. From there, as the prestige of owning a purebred house is stripped away by the struggle to survive in poverty, the story becomes one of a war between a man and his house. This tale is surreal, complex and not to be missed.

“Edison’s Dead Men” by Ed Turner is another reprint from Permuted Press’ History is Dead anthology. A bit too serious and dangerous to be a pure dark humor tale, it’s not your average zombie story. It is part science fiction, historically so, speculating on
“What if Edison’s electricity made zombies?” It’s a fun little mad scientist tale readers should be sure not to over look.

This Issue also features:

Popped Culture: This is Totally Going on the DVR by Justin Stewart

Confessions of a Book Junkie: Book Burning by Lavie Tidhar

Preliminary Nebula Ballot up

See the list here.

Year’s Best SF/F Bites the Dust

After 21 years the Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy is ceasing publication. There will be no 2008 volume, but the editors hope to find a new home for similar anthologies.

Year’s Best Horror editor Ellen Datlow also announced that she’s been asked to do two volumes of Year’s Best Horror for Night Shade Press.