Saturday, January 06, 2018

Some recommended reading from 2017

If I had to pick one, my story of the year still would be "The Wretched and the Beautiful" by E. Lily Yu, from Terraform.
Here are a few things published in 2017 that I commend to y'all's attention, especially readers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. At the end, three TV series are thrown in. The list may update; my reading is spotty, and my memory spottier still. Happy reading!

Non-fiction
In Search of Silence: The Journals of Samuel R. Delany, Volume 1: 1957-1969, ed. by Kenneth R. James (Wesleyan University of Press)

Novels
Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown (HarperVoyager, July)
A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess (Book 2 in the Kingdom on Fire trilogy; Random, September)
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor, February)
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (Saga, June)
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (Knopf, June)
The Moon and the Other by John Kessel (Saga, April)
The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen, July)

Novellas
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy (Tor.com, August)
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (Tor.com, January)
“And Then There Were (N-One)” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/and-then-there-were-n-one/)
“The Border State” by Christopher Rowe (Telling the Map, Small Beer, July)
“I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s, November/December)

Single-Author Collections
Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages (Tachyon, May)
Hainish Novels and Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, ed. by Brian Attebery (2 vols., Library of America, September)
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf, October)
Speaking to Skull Kings and Other Stories by Emily B. Cataneo (JournalStone, May)
Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (Morrow, October)
Dear Sweet Filthy World by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Subterranean, March)
The Blood of Four Gods and Other Stories by Jamie Lackey (Air and Nothingness Press, September)
Telling the Map by Christopher Rowe (Small Beer, July)

Novelettes
“Come as You Are” by Dale Bailey (Asimov’s, May/June)
“Gale Strang” by Michael Bishop (Asimov’s, July/August)
“Dirty Old Town” by Richard Bowes (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June)
“And the Village Breathes” by Emily C. Cataneo (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, October: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/and-the-village-breathes/)
“The Hermit of Houston” by Samuel R. Delany (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October)
“After the Harvest, Before the Fall” by Scott Edelman (Analog, January/February)
“How Val Finally Escaped from the Basement” by Scott Edelman (Analog, November/December)
“The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine” by Greg Egan (Asimov’s, November/December)
“Three Can Keep a Secret” by Gregory Frost and Bill Johnson (Asimov’s, March/April)
“Afiya’s Song” by Justin C. Key (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August)
“@lantis” by Marc Laidlaw and Rudy Rucker (Asimov’s, July/August)
“Making Us Monsters” by Sam J. Miller and Lara Elena Donnelly (Uncanny, November/December: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/making-us-monsters/)
“Wind Will Rove” by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, September/October: http://www.sarahpinsker.com/wind_will_rove)
“Bourbon, Sugar, Grace” by Jessica Reisman (Tor.com, June: https://www.tor.com/2017/06/07/bourbon-sugar-grace/)
“A Human Stain” by Kelly Robson (Tor.com, January: https://www.tor.com/2017/01/04/a-human-stain/)
“We Who Live in the Heart” by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld, May: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/robson_05_17/)
“Universe Box” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s, September/October)
“Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time” by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny, May/June: http://uncannymagazine.com/article/small-changes-long-periods-time/)
“The West Topeka Triangle” by Jeremiah Tolbert (Lightspeed, January: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/west-topeka-triangle/)
“Other Worlds and This One” by Cadwell Turnbull (Asimov’s, July/August)
“In Dublin’s Fair City” by Rick Wilber (Asimov’s, November/December)
“Attachments” by Kate Wilhelm (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December)
“Excerpts from a Film” by A.C. Wise (Tor.com, March: https://www.tor.com/2017/03/21/excerpts-from-a-film-1942-1987/

Short Stories
“Invasion of the Saucer-Men” by Dale Bailey (Asimov’s, March/April)
“Old Teacups and Kitchen Witches” by Kate Baker (Cast of Wonders, April: http://www.castofwonders.org/2017/04/episode-246-old-teacups-and-kitchen-witches-by-kate-baker/)
“We Regret the Error” by Terry Bisson (Asimov’s, March/April)
“Goner” by Gregory Norman Bossert (Asimov’s, March/April)
“The Fall of the Mundanaeum” by Rebecca Campbell (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, September: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-fall-of-the-mundaneum/)
“Lares Familiares, 1981” by Rebecca Campbell (Liminal Stories, May: http://liminalstoriesmag.com/issue3/lares-familiares-1981)
“On Highway 18” by Rebecca Campbell (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October)
“The Lily Rose” by Emily C. Cataneo (The Dark, February: http://thedarkmagazine.com/the-lily-rose/)
“Glasswort, Ice” by Emily C. Cataneo (Lackington’s, Spring: https://lackingtons.com/2017/08/23/glasswort-ice-by-emily-b-cataneo/)
“The Two Choice Foxtrot of Chapham County” by Tina Connolly (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October)
“Itself at the Heart of Things” by Andrea M. Corbin (Shimmer, July: https://www.shimmerzine.com/itself-at-the-heart-of-things/)
“Raise-the-Dead Cobbler” by Andrea M. Corbin (Shimmer, November): https://www.shimmerzine.com/raise-the-dead-cobbler/
“My Time Among the Bridge Blowers” by Eugene Fischer (The New Voices of Fantasy, ed. Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, Tachyon)
“Persephone of the Crows” by Karen Joy Fowler (Asimov’s, May/June)
“Eruption” by Jaymee Goh (Anathema, August: http://www.anathemamag.com/eruption)
“The Last Cheng Beng Gift” by Jaymee Goh (Lightspeed, September: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/last-cheng-beng-gift/)
“The Escape of the Adastra: Asha’s Story” and its five companion stories by James Gunn (Asimov’s, May/June through November/December)
“Riding the Blue Line with Jack Kerouac” by Sandra McDonald (Asimov’s, September/October)
“eyes i dare not meet in dreams” by Sunny Moraine (Tor.com, June: https://www.tor.com/2017/06/14/eyes-i-dare-not-meet-in-dreams/)
“In the Blind” by Sunny Moraine (Clarkesworld, August: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/moraine_08_17/)
“Shape Without Form, Shade Without Color” by Sunny Moraine (Tor.com, May: https://www.tor.com/2017/05/31/shape-without-form-shade-without-color/)
“Grandmaster” by Jay O’Connell (Analog, March/April)
“Number Thirty-Nine Skink” by Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s, March/April)
“The Ones Who Know Where They Are Going” by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, March/April)
“Disturbance in the Produce Aisle” by Kit Reed (Asimov’s, September/October)
“Longing for Stars Once Lost” by A. Merc Rustad (Lightspeed, October: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/longing-stars-lost/)
“Monster Girls Don’t Cry” by A. Merc Rustad (Uncanny, January/February: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/monster-girls-dont-cry/)
“The First Day of Someone Else’s Life” by John Schoffstall (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June)
“Never Yawn Under a Banyan Tree” by Nibedita Sen (Anathema, August: http://www.anathemamag.com/never-yawn-under-a-banyan-tree/)
“Queen of Dirt” by Nisi Shawl (Apex, February: https://www.apex-magazine.com/queen-of-dirt/)
“The Waking of Giants” by Adrian Simmons (Lackington’s, Summer: https://lackingtons.com/2017/11/28/the-waking-of-giants-by-adrian-simmons/)
“Starlight Express” by Michael Swanwick (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October)
“Wendy, Darling” by A.C. Wise (Daily Science Fiction, June: http://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/fairy-tales/a-c-wise/wendy-darling)
“Shadow Station” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Nature, April: https://www.nature.com/articles/544264a)
“The Wretched and the Beautiful” by E. Lily Yu (Terraform, February: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ezaava/the-wretched-and-the-beautiful)

TV Series
Twin Peaks: The Return (dir. David Lynch, written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, 18 episodes, Showtime, from May 21)
Fargo, Season 3 (10 episodes, FX, from April 19)
The Young Pope (dir. Paolo Sorrentino, 10 episodes, HBO, from Jan. 15; previously aired in Europe in 2016)
Wormwood (dir. Errol Morris, 6 episodes, Netflix, Dec. 15)