The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 7

By: Nina Allan, Elizabeth Bear, Ellen Klages, Gareth L. Powell, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick, Peter Watts

Narrated by: Tom Dheere, Nancy Linari

An unabridged audio collection of the "best of the best" science fiction stories published in 2014 by current and emerging masters of the genre, edited by Allan Kaster, as narrated by top voice talents.

In "Marielena" by Nina Allan, an immigrant is haunted by his past, as well as his present and future, in a disturbingly mean-spirited near-future England.

A convicted serial killer is sentenced to "rightminding" to cure his neurological disorder, which resulted in the sociopathic murdering of 13 women in "Covenant" by Elizabeth Bear.

"The Magician and LaPlace's Demon" by Tom Crosshill follows a powerful AI that discovers the existence of magic and then prosecutes a vendetta against the magicians, who grow more powerful as their numbers dwindle.

In "Sadness" by Timons Esaias, a man strikes back, as best he can, against the powerful aliens who conquered Earth long ago.

In "Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages, a young girl shares her last morning on Earth with her girlfriend before boarding a generation starship.

"Red Lights and Rain" by Gareth L. Powell is a blend of sci-fi and vampire-hunting lore in which the vampires are made, not born.

In "The Sarcophagus" by Robert Reed, the maintenance cyborgs of the Great Ship encounter a stranded spacer in a derelict lifesuit from a long ago ship.

"In Babelsberg" by Alastair Reynolds showcases a robot whose account of the dead colonists recently found on Titan are challenged by another AI.

In "Passage of Earth" by Michel Swanwick, a coroner gets a taste of the Earth invaders' superior intelligence while dissecting a giant worm-like alien.

Finally, in "The Colonel" by Peter Watts, Colonel Moore tries to assess the capabilities of the hived human intelligences that have attacked a compound under his command.

©2015 AudioText (P)2015 AudioText

Excellent collection!

My favourite story was "The Magician and LaPlace's Demon" by Tom Crosshill, but every story is really good. Well worth the credit!

Exceptional dystopian sci-fi short stories

I consider an anthology worth it if I like at least half of the offerings. By that metric, this succeeded, because I liked more than I disliked. The authors understood the assignment, delivering sci-fi shorts but most went further, leaning into dystopia, and triggering deep thoughts. Yes, this nourished my sci-fi loving soul.

Each story, from 20 to 65 minutes in length, has its own chapter. While I appreciate that all titles and authors are in the summary, and introduced by the narrators, it would have been nice if the Table of Contents listed them as well, instead of simply saying "Chapter 1" and leaving the listener to discover which short story was which.

1. Marielena by Nina Allen; Until the hook, this didn't feel like sci-fi, but instead an eerily prescient look a mere 10 years into the future to 2025. It's a story about the immigration experience and is proof that today's (ICE) truth is indeed stranger than fiction.⭐️

2. The Magician and LaPlace's Demon by Tom Crosshill. "You might as well ask how Schrodinger's cat is doing." Riffs on the old saying about magic being science that hasn't been discovered yet and full of things that make you go hmmm.⭐️⭐️

3. The Sarcophagus by Robert Reed - meh. lifeboat limbo was a slow build to not much.

4. Covenant by Elizabeth Bear - correcting a serial killer's brain, from the POV of the killer "point to me"⭐️

5. Sadness by Timons Esaias - “it withdrew its right foot … cut off a toe …and dropped the toe into the hole [in the wall]” huh? This one was weird.

6. Red Light and Rain by Gareth L. Powell - It only needed a fedora and a sax. I dug this dystopian tale of gorilla vampires. ⭐️⭐️

7. In Babelsberg by Alastair Reynolds - when the AI become too human, right down to our flaws⭐️

8. Amicae Aeternum by Ellen Klages - a girl's last morning on earth.

9. Passage of Earth by Machel Swanwick- And (alien) worms shall inherit the earth.⭐️

10. The Colonel by Peter Watts- hive mind story trying too hard to be deep.