Item 202 (@item202) Bsky

Short Fiction Review: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issues 454 & 455 Four highly readable tales, with two standing out in particular.

Short Fiction Review: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issues 454 & 455

Four highly readable tales, with two standing out in particular.

9 hours ago 0 0 0 0

2026 Hugo Award Fiction Shortlists: A Comparative Analysis Let's see how good I am at picking Hugo finalists! (News flash, I'm not.)

2026 Hugo Award Fiction Shortlists: A Comparative Analysis

Let's see how good I am at picking Hugo finalists! (News flash, I'm not.)

1 day ago 0 0 0 0

Novel Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi A tightly written SF thriller with one, big fatal flaw.

Novel Review: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi

A tightly written SF thriller with one, big fatal flaw.

3 days ago 0 0 0 0

“Child of the Mountain” by Gunnar de Winter ★★★ Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 220, January 2025 /Story Link/ Chime is a bioengineered, possibly immortal child who serves the sisters of a religious order on a remote mountain. Chime is tasked with initiating the resurrection of each sister after death, by retrieving a "seed" from their skulls once the vultures have picked their bones clean. Chime then regrows the sister's nervous system and places it in a printed body.

Dark and bloody dystopian SF.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

I was 11yo when I first saw Eraserhead. I waited until my parents went to bed to watch it with the volume low. Years later, I watched it again as an adult and realized that I had no greater or lesser understanding of it as an adult than as a child. That's one hell of an artist can pull that off.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

“Strange Events at Fletcher and Front!” by Tom R. Pike ★★★ Analog Science Fiction & Fact, January/February 2025 George is an inventor in early 20th century New York. When the novelette opens, he is being chased by thugs he is certain were sent by one of the big energy barons (Rockefeller, Edison, or Frick) to abduct him. Just as the out-of-shape George runs out of steam, a strange, masked "intervenor" appears through a strange door and dispatches George's would be abductors, using an impossible, futuristic energy weapon.

A climate-focused novelette with good character work, clear and concise prose, and steady pacing.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

“Our Lady of the Gyre” by Doug Franklin ★★★ Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January/February 2025 Mel, who narrates the story, sails a ship around the Pacific that submerges captured carbon in the ocean in the form of diatoms. The "Lady" referred to in the title is an orbiting artificial intelligence who sends warnings about potential weather disasters. Years before, Mel's wife was killed during one such disaster. Now, another weather event looms just as Mel takes on two young deck hands to help on his latest drift around the gyre (a ring-like rotation of ocean currents).

Well-constructed cli-fi with agreeable characters.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

“When There Are Two of You: A Documentary” by Zun Yu Tan ★★ Clarkesworld Issue 220, January 2025 (Story Link) As the title suggests, this short story is structured as a series of interviews. The interviewees are all people who use, or have used, a new technology called Sentience, which is literally a digital copy of yourself, implanted in your own head to help make you a better you. The two main interviewees are Walter Lee II, the first Android built to house a sentience, who continues on after his original self dies; and Joyce Chu, who comes to believe her Sentience may not have all the answers.

An intriguing premise, not fully realized.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

“A Heap of Petrified Gods” by Adelehin Ijasan ★★★ Lightspeed Magazine Issue 176, January 2025 (Story Link) In this compact, cogent fable about the immigrant experience, the narrator is a man from Lagos who moves to a new country (England, presumably?) with his family's personal god in tow. In order to keep extending his visa he must give up pieces of himself (his language, his sense of humor, memories, etc.) until he is only left with one thing.

A bittersweet allegory about losing oneself.