The year is 1853 and famed naturalist and evolutionary theoretician Charles Darwin is still sunk in the grieving melancholy left by the death of his beloved daughter Annie two years before. Even the loving support of his wife and other children, along with his good friend Boz, novelist Charles Dickens, isn't helping as Darwin sinks into a despairing crisis of faith. With a fair amount of storytelling sleight of hand, author Taylor jars his protagonist back to painful awareness with a startling confrontation between the old ways of myth and magic and the new age of science and technology. The story lurches just a bit in its vividly executed climax, but the author's footing is mostly sure. Larry Taylor's talent is clearly one to watch.
Second place goes to a tale eerily resonant with the story just described.
When he was young, Trelawny fell gravely ill and was dispatched to a sanatorium in North Carolina. The independent Miss White is the result of enlightened upbringing by a now-deceased, but obviously quite enlightened woman with something of a scientific background. As young men will, Trelawny falls deeply in love with Hyacinth, but with startling and tragic results. Author Goss displays both a sensuously poetic voice and a gift for creating what once would have been called a scientific romance. His story draws from familiar science fiction materials, but boosts the effect through crisp storytelling.