recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
After the Saucers Landed

*After the Saucers Landed* by Douglas Lain

Published by Night Shade Books, August 2015

Publisher's Description:

**“When the alien gets around to unzipping her jumpsuit it’ll be impossible to see what’s underneath.”**
UFOlogist Harold Flint is heartbroken and depressed that the aliens
that have landed on the White House lawn appear to be straight out of an
 old B movie. They wave to the television cameras in their sequined
jumpsuits, form a nonprofit organization offering new age enlightenment,
 and hover their saucers over the streets of New York looking for
converts.

Harold wants no part of this kitschy invasion until one of the
aliens, a beautiful blonde named Asket, begs him to investigate the
saucers again and write another UFO book. The aliens and their mission
are not as they seem.

Asket isn’t who she seems either. Tracking down her true personality
leads Harold and his cowriter through a maze of identity and
body-swapping madness, descending into paranoia as Harold realizes that
reality, or at least humanity’s perception of it, may be more flexible
than anyone will admit.

*After the Saucers Landed* is a deeply unsettling experimental
 satire, placing author Douglas Lain alongside contemporaries like Jeff
VanderMeer and Charles Yu as one of his generation’s most exciting and
challenging speculative fiction voices.
Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Title: "Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits"

Author: David Wong

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: 06-Oct-2015

Locator

*Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.*

*An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.*

*Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.*

*A young woman from the trailer park.*

*And her very smelly cat.*

*Together, they will decide the future of mankind.*

*Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day.*

*This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.*

*Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.*
Chikodili Emelumadu

**Chikodili Emelumadu** is a new writer who was nominated for a 2015 Shirley Jackson Award and is currently a finalist for the Million Writers Award. Her writing has been recommended by Lois Tilton at *Locus*.

Notable short stories (with links):

1. Soursop, *Apex Magazine*, January 2016.
2. Soup, *One Throne Magazine*, Summer 2015.
3. Story, Story, *Omenana*, March 2015.
4. Candy Girl, *Apex Magazine*, November 2014.
5. Tunbi, *Luna Station Quarterly*, June 2014.

Ms. Emelumadu's story in *Apex,* a magazine that pays $0.06 per word, makes her eligible for the 2016 Campbell Award. See Writertopia:

 "**Which Publications Qualify?** ... Any publication meeting *one* of the following criteria: ... Publications which have a nominal pay rate, particularly those designated by the award sponsor (Dell Magazines). *Nominal is a minimum of 3 cents per word and a total payment of at least $50 (USD).*"
And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes

Title: "...And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes"

Author: Scott Alexander

Published: Star Slate Codex (blog), June 2, 2015

> You head back to Earth less and less frequently now. Starvation is a physical danger, so it doesn’t bother you, though every so often you do like to relax and eat a nice warm meal. But then it’s back to work. You start to think the Milky Way is a dead zone. What about Andromeda…?
>
>
Io9

io9 is a professional magazine and blog about science fiction, science and technology.

In regards the science fiction and fantasy aspects it covers all media - written, TV, films and art.

Overall it is a very useful resource. Well-written, well-presented and generally a very good genre magazine.

Available free online here - http://io9.gizmodo.com/ or just Google io9 to find it
Ether

"Ether" by Zhang Ran, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan and Ken Liu. First English publication in *Clarkesworld Magazine*, January 2015.

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "The narrator lives in a dystopian near-future when everyone seems to be concerned solely with banalities. He is one of the few people who seem to recall how things used to be and to be aware of this phenomenon or bothered by it until he encounters a protest demonstration; as the protesters flee, one of them grabs his hand and spells a word into it. This chance encounter leads to a life-changing experience. At its heart, this story is about a man reclaiming the independent spirit of his youth, the young man who said, “Fuck you” to his brutal, oppressive father but has now fallen into a life-rut with no real friends. But this is also a political story, as we discover when we learn the reason the protesters have resorted to the finger-talking as a way of evading ubiquitous surveillance."
A Thousand Nights

*A Thousand Nights* by E. K. Johnston

Published by Disney Hyperion, October 2015

*Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next. And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. But back in their village her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air in it's place. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun sets and rises, and she is not dead. Night after night Lo-Melkhiin comes to her, and listens to the stories she tells and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong. The words she speaks to him every night are given strange life of their own. She makes things appear. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to rule of a monster.*
Iona Sharma

Iona Sharma, 1st year of eligibility

* "Quarter Days", *GigaNotoSaurus*, December 2015
* "Nine Thousand Hours", *Strange Horizons*, 2015 (Professional Sale)
* "Alnwick", *Middle Planet*, 2015
* "Archana and Chandni", *Betwixt*, 2015
* "Ur", *Expanded Horizons*, November 2014
* "One-Day Listing", *Goldfish Grimm's Spicy Fiction Sushi*, August 2014
A Residence for Friendless Ladies

Title: A Residence for Friendless Ladies

Author: Alice Sola Kim

Published in: *The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction*, Mar/Apr 2015

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "This one begins with strong suggestions of sexuality politics, but in fact it’s old-fashioned horror. Our narrator, self-identifying as a male, was born into a particularly curvaceous female body. When his boarding school took note of the effects of hormones he was dropping, they informed his parents, who planned to send him to a punitive institution. His only refuge is with his grandmother at her eponymous home, a place halfway between residence and reformatory, where he’s forced into skirts and makeup, and taken off testosterone. But the really bad thing, even worse than his body getting its period again, is the house itself, which swallows people...."
I am Graalnak of the Vroon Empire, Destroyer of Galaxies, Supreme Overlord of the Planet Earth. Ask Me Anything.

Story: I am Graalnak of the Vroon Empire, Destroyer of Galaxies, Supreme Overlord of the Planet Earth. Ask Me Anything.

Author: Laura Pearlman.

Published: April 2015, Flash Fiction Online.

http://flashfictiononline.com/main/article/i-am-graalnak-of-the-vroon-empire-destroyer-of-galaxies-supreme-overlord-of-the-planet-earth-ask-me-anything/

*(Ed. --This story is every bit as amazing as its title. Please read now. You will not regret it.--Greg M.)*
Binti

Title: *Binti*

Author: Nnedi Okorafor

Publisher: Tor.com

Publication Date: September 2015

*Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.*

*Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.*

*If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.*
Ghost Champagne

"Ghost Champagne" by Charlie Jane Anders

Published in *Uncanny,* July/August 2015

Description, by Lois Tilton (Locus): "For quite some time, Gloria has been haunted by her own ghost. At first it was mostly just an annoyance, and with help from her shrink, she could cope with the apparition. But lately it’s been seriously interfering—both with her stand-up comedy act and her day job in product development. Eventually, she discovers that she has to dig down to the root of the problem that brought the ghost on."
If Then

*If Then* by Matthew De Abaitua

Published by Angry Robot, September 2015.

Publisher's Description: *In the near future, after the collapse of society as we know it, one English town survives under the protection of the computer algorithms of the Process, which governs every aspect of their lives. The Process gives and it takes. It allocates jobs and resources, giving each person exactly what it has calculated they will need. But it also decides who stays under its protection, and who must be banished to the wilderness beyond. Human life has become totally algorithm-driven, and James, the town bailiff, is charged with making sure the Process’s suggestions are implemented.*

*But now the Process is making soldiers. It is readying for war — the First World War. Mysteriously, the Process is slowly recreating events that took place over a hundred years ago, and is recruiting the town’s men to fight in an artificial reconstruction of the Dardanelles campaign. James, too, must go fight. And he will discover that the Process has become vastly more sophisticated and terrifying than anyone had believed possible.*
Illuminae

*Illuminae* by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers, October 2015

Series: The Illuminae Files #1

*This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.*

*This afternoon, her planet was invaded.*

*The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.*

*But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.*
John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular, the Audiobook, Read by Me, John Scalzi

"John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular, the Audiobook, Read by Me, John Scalzi", audio reading of Alexandra Erin's related work, available for free here

Note: John Scalzi has stated that he will decline all nominations in 2016, but that if this audiobook is nominated, it can be on the ballot as Alexandra Erin's work, he only having declined for his contribution to it.
Forestspirit, Forestspirit

Title: Forestspirit, Forestspirit

Author: Bogi Takacs

Published: Clarkesworld, June 2015: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/takacs\_06\_15/

 Description, by Sam Tomaino [SFRevu]: "Forestspirit is actually alien technology, left behind, that can take many forms. He meets Peter, a human boy, who tells him the group called the Consentience means to destroy the forest. What can they do to stop them?"
Classical Traditions in Science Fiction

Title: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction

Editors: Brett M. Rogers and Benjamin Eldon Stevens

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: February 9, 2015

*For all its concern with change in the present and future, science fiction is deeply rooted in the past and, surprisingly, engages especially deeply with the ancient world. Indeed, both as an area in which the meaning of "classics" is actively transformed and as an open-ended set of texts whose own 'classic' status is a matter of ongoing debate, science fiction reveals much about the roles played by ancient classics in modern times. Classical Traditions in Science Fiction is the first collection in English dedicated to the study of science fiction as a site of classical receptions, offering a much-needed mapping of that important cultural and intellectual terrain.*

*This volume discusses a wide variety of representative examples from both classical antiquity and the past four hundred years of science fiction, beginning with science fiction's "rosy-fingered dawn" and moving toward the other-worldly literature of the present day. As it makes its way through the eras of science fiction, Classical Traditions in Science Fiction exposes the many levels on which science fiction engages the ideas of the ancient world, from minute matters of language and structure to the larger thematic and philosophical concerns.*
Frederik Pohl

Title: Modern Masters of Science Fiction: Frederik Pohl

Author: Michael R. Page

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Series: Modern Masters of Science Fiction, Book 7

Publication Date: September 22, 2015

*One of science fiction's undisputed grandmasters, Frederik Pohl built an astonishing career that spanned more than seven decades. In publishing novels, short stories, and essays, Pohl won millions of readers and seemingly as many awards while leaving a lasting mark on the genre.*

*Michael R. Page traces Pohl's extraordinary journey from discovering books as a boy at the Brooklyn Public Library to publishing the novel All the Lives He Led at age 91. A first-of-its-kind study, Frederik Pohl delves into the iconic works of fiction like The Space Merchants , Jem , and the tales of the Gateway universe, as well as Pohl's creative alliances with the likes of Kornbluth, Clarke, and Asimov. But Page also examines Pohl's as-essential contributions in other areas. He represented many of the major SF writers as a literary agent in the 1940s and 1950s. He helped professionalize the field by midwifing SF publishing at Ballantine and Ace Books. Finally, while working at Galaxy and If , he aided countless careers as, in Gardner Dozois' words, "quite probably the best SF magazine editor who ever .*
Girl Genius: The City of Lightning

*The City of Lightning: A Girl Genius Graphic Novel*

Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio. Drawn by Phil Foglio. Colors by Cheyenne Wright.

Published by Airship Entertainment

Book 2 of the Second Journey of Agatha Heterodyne

Webcomics appeared January 19-November 23, 2015; collected edition to be published in 2016

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20150119#.VvDUeD-RZGs
A House of Her Own

Title: A House of Her Own

Author: Bo Balder

Publisher: F&SF, Sept/Oct 2015

Description, from Lois Tilton [Locus]: "A human colony on a distant world has entered into a symbiotic relationship with a native species of trees that spawn motile forms which eventually grow into hice [plural of house, neat term] for the women they bond with. A girl becomes an adult when her house is large enough to hold her. Aoife caught her own house at age eleven. “It was no bigger than a strawberry, all soft and furry and yellow. Even in the gloom of the giant, bad-tempered trees, it shone like a candle flame.” It’s grown too large for her to carry around when something crashes to the ground and strange women emerge—including women with beards—who declare their intention to establish a government, levy taxes, build roads, and get rid of the alien parasites. Naturally, the women and hice fight back."
Hic Sunt Monstra

"Hic Sunt Monstra" by Brian Trent

Published in *Galaxy's Edge*, Issue 16, September/October 2015

Description, by Michelle Ristuccia (Tangent): "“Hic Sunt Monstra” by Brian Trent shows the reader a distant planet where ice remembers and recreates everything, including the monstrous alien colossus destroyed by human colonists. As character Jillian relates her deceased father's findings on the colossus, the reader is presented with the self-destructive, impulsive side of human nature in a finite and unforgiving universe."
Gatchaman Crowds insight

12 episodes, ran July-September 2015.

Yes, that's "insight" with a small i.

Available for (free, legal) viewing at:

* Crunchyroll (Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, North Africa, Middle East)

**Director:** Kenji Nakamura

**Series composition** (head writer, approximately): Toshiya Ono

**Studio:** Tatsunoko Production

ANN Encyclopedia entry
Barsk

*Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard* by Lawrence M. Schoen

Published by Tor Books, December 2015

*An historian who speaks with the dead is ensnared by the past. A child who feels no pain and who should not exist sees the future. Between them are truths that will shake worlds.*

*In a distant future, no remnants of human beings remain, but their successors thrive throughout the galaxy. These are the offspring of humanity's genius-animals uplifted into walking, talking, sentient beings. The Fant are one such species: anthropomorphic elephants ostracized by other races, and long ago exiled to the rainy ghetto world of Barsk. There, they develop medicines upon which all species now depend. The most coveted of these drugs is koph, which allows a small number of users to interact with the recently deceased and learn their secrets.*

*To break the Fant's control of koph, an offworld shadow group attempts to force the Fant to surrender their knowledge. Jorl, a Fant Speaker with the dead, is compelled to question his deceased best friend, who years ago mysteriously committed suicide. In so doing, Jorl unearths a secret the powers that be would prefer to keep buried forever. Meanwhile, his dead friend's son, a physically challenged young Fant named Pizlo, is driven by disturbing visions to take his first unsteady steps toward an uncertain future.*
Headwater, LLC

Headwater, LLC

by: Sequoia Nagamatsu

Published in: Lightspeed Magazine 56

Publication date: 01/2015

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "An ingenious use of Japanese folklore, specifically the figure of the kappa, a being with a hollow at the top of its head, filled with water said to have magical properties. Yoko once befriended a kappa, Masa, but when she let the Mean Girls at school know about the water, they set up a corporation to exploit them. Now bottled Headwater is a thriving business, but it’s too late for the kappas, in chains..... A story of betrayal and regret..... "
An Inheritance of Ashes

*An Inheritance of Ashes* by Leah Bobet

Published by Clarion, October 2015

Publisher's description: *Six months ago, the men of the lakelands marched south to fight a dark god.*

*Weeks after the final battle was won, sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister, Marthe, are still struggling to maintain their family farm—and are waiting for Marthe's missing husband to return. After a summer of bitter arguments, Hallie is determined to get Roadstead Farm through the winter—and keep what's left of her family together, despite an inheritance destined to drive them apart.*

*But when Hallie hires a wandering veteran in a bid to save the farm, every phantom the men marched south to fight arrives at her front gate. Spider-eyed birds circle the fields, ghostly messages writes themselves on the riverbank, and soon Hallie finds herself keeping her new hired hands despite desperate secrets—and taking dangerous risks. But as she fights to keep both the farm and her new friend safe, ugly truths about her own family are emerging—truths that, amid gods, monsters, and armies, might tear Roadstead Farm apart.*
Elephants and Corpses

Title: Elephants and Corpses

Author: Kameron Hurley

Published: Tor.com, May 2015: http://www.tor.com/2015/05/13/elephants-and-corpses-kameron-hurley/

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "Nev is a body mercenary, which means that in the course of his work he inhabits corpses that he purchases on the docks, if they’re not too far gone. Thus his skills include those of an undertaker, to preserve the goods and keep them in good condition until ready for use. This time, however, there’s a different kind of trouble, as an armed gang bursts into his workroom to steal the body he’s just purchased. It seems the corpse is a member of a religious cult, and incidentally his assistant’s sister. Now they’ve burned his workshop and gratuitously murdered his pet elephant, as well. Tera wants her sister’s body; Nev wants revenge for Falid....."
Gene Mapper

Title: *Gene Mapper*

Author: Taiyo Fujii

Translator: Jim Hubbert

Publisher: Haikasoru

Publication Date: June 16, 2015.

*In a future where reality has been augmented and biology itself has been hacked, the world's food supply is genetically modified, superior, and vulnerable. When gene mapper Hayashida discovers that his custom rice plant has experienced a dysgenic collapse, he suspects sabotage. Hayashida travels Asia to find himself in Ho Chi Minh City with hired-gun hacker Kitamura at his side—and in mortal danger—as he pushes ever nearer to the heart of the mystery.*
Ambergris, or The Sea Sacrifice

Ambergris, or The Sea Sacrifice

By Rhonda Eikamp

Published in Lackington's

Publication date: April 8, 2015

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "There’s a metaphor here for a boundless love, “like the sand on the shore”. Which seems, as these things go, not exceedingly romantic, but that’s how it is. So it was that the old fisherman loved his young wife, and then the daughter she died in the bearing of. To save the child’s life, he gave her to the denizens of the deep in their onshore palace..... "
Golden Son

Title: *Golden Son*

Author: Pierce Brown

Publishing: Del Rey, January 2015

Series: Red Rising #2

*Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope. Until Darrow discovered that it was all a lie, and that the Red were nothing more than unwitting slaves to an elitist ruling class, the Golds, who had been living on Mars in luxury for generations. In RED RISING, Darrow infiltrated Gold society, to fight in secret for a better future for his people. Now fully embedded amongst the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his dangerous work to bring them down from within. It's a journey that will take him further than he's ever been before—but is Darrow truly willing to pay the price that rebellion demands?*
Hostage

*Hostage* by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

Publication: Book View Cafe, January 2015

Series: The Change #2

*Welcome back to Las Anclas, a frontier town in the post-apocalyptic Wild West. In Las Anclas, the skull-faced sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can speed up time, and the squirrels can teleport sandwiches out of your hands.*

*In book one,* Stranger*, teenage prospector Ross Juarez stumbled into town half-dead, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble— including an invasion by Voske, the king of Gold Point. The town defeated Voske’s army, with the deciding blow struck by Ross, but at a great cost.*

*In* Hostage*, a team sent by King Voske captures Ross and takes him to Gold Point. There he meets Kerry, Voske’s teenage daughter, who has been trained to be as ruthless as her father. While his friends in Las Anclas desperately try to rescue him, Ross is forced to engage in a battle of wills with the king himself.*
Envy of Angels

Title: *Envy of Angels* (Sin du Jour #1)

Author: Matt Wallace

Publisher: Tor.com

Publication Date: October 20, 2015

*In New York, eating out can be hell.*Everyone loves a well-catered event, and the supernatural community is no different, but where do demons go to satisfy their culinary cravings?Welcome to Sin du Jour—where devils on horseback are the clients, not the dish.
Crooked

Title: *Crooked*

Author: Austin Grossman

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company

Publication Date: 28-Jul-2015

*Richard Milhous Nixon lived one of the most improbable lives of the twentieth century. Our thirty-seventh president's political career spanned the button-down fifties, the Mad Men sixties, and the turbulent seventies. He faced down the Russians, the Chinese, and ultimately his own government. The man went from political mastermind to a national joke, sobbing in the Oval Office, leaving us with one burning question: how could he have lost it all?*

*Here for the first time is the tale told in his own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up. What if our nation's worst president was actually a pivotal figure caught in a desperate struggle between ordinary life and horrors from another reality? What if the man we call our worst president was, in truth, our greatest?*

*In* Crooked, *Nixon finally reveals the secret history of modern American politics as only Austin Grossman could reimagine it. Combining Lovecraftian suspense, international intrigue, Russian honey traps, and a presidential marriage whose secrets and battles of attrition were their own heroic saga, Grossman's novel is a masterwork of alternative history, equal parts mesmerizing character study and nail-biting Faustian thriller.*
Harrison Squared

Title: *Harrison Squared*

Author: Daryl Gregory

Publisher: Tor

Published: 03/24/2015

Locator:

*Harrison Harrison—H2 to his mom—is a lonely teenager who’s been terrified of the water ever since he was a toddler in California, when a huge sea creature capsized their boat, and his father vanished. One of the “sensitives” who are attuned to the supernatural world, Harrison and his mother have just moved to the worst possible place for a boy like him: Dunnsmouth, a Lovecraftian town perched on rocks above the Atlantic, where strange things go on by night, monsters lurk under the waves, and creepy teachers run the local high school.*

*On Harrison’s first day at school, his mother, a marine biologist, disappears at sea. Harrison must attempt to solve the mystery of her accident, which puts him in conflict with a strange church, a knife­wielding killer, and the Deep Ones, fish­-human hybrids that live in the bay. It will take all his resources—and an unusual host of allies—to defeat the danger and find his mother.*
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Note: Stufflebeam is ineligible for the Campbell due to 2013 professional sales

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

The Girl with Golden Hair, Beneath Ceaseless Skies (2015)

Blight, Escape Pod (2015)

Everything Beneath You, Beneath Ceaseless Skies (2015)

He Came From a Place of Openness and Truth, Lightspeed (2015)

They Come With the Carnival, Daily Science Fiction (2014)

Hero, Daily Science Fiction (2014)

Sleepers, Interzone (2014)

The Damaged, Interzone (2014)

Spiders, Drabblecast (2013)

Mrs. Stiltskin, Lakeside Circus (2013)

An Exodus of Wings, Daily Science Fiction (2013)

The Siren, Strange Horizons (2013)

The Wanderers, Clarkesworld (2013)
Dreams of Shreds and Tatters

*Dreams of Shreds and Tatters* by Amanda Downum

Publication: Solaris, May 2015

*When Liz Drake's best friend vanishes, nothing can stop her nightmares. Driven by the certainty he needs her help, she crosses a continent to search for him. She finds Blake comatose in a Vancouver hospital, victim of a mysterious accident that claimed his lover's life--in her dreams he drowns. Blake's new circle of artists and mystics draws her in, but all of them are lying or keeping dangerous secrets. Soon nightmare creatures stalk the waking city, and Liz can't fight a dream from the daylight world: to rescue Blake she must brave the darkest depths of the dreamlands. Even the attempt could kill her, or leave her mind trapped or broken.*

*And if she succeeds, she must face the monstrous Yellow King, whose slave Blake is on the verge of becoming forever.*
How My Father Became a God

Title: How My Father Became a God

Author: Dilman Dila

Publication: *Terra Incognita: New Short Speculative Stories from Africa* (Modjaji Books, February 2015); *The Apex Book of World SF 4* (Apex, August 2015)

Author's description: "A scifi tale set in an African nation long before colonialism. It features a little girl whose brothers are eager to sell her off into marriage so they can earn cattle to find wives for themselves. She has to rely on her father, an inventor, to fight them off."
Crosstalk: Interviews Conducted by David Langford

Title: Crosstalk: Interviews Conducted by David Langford

Author: David Langford

Publisher: Ansible Editions

Publication Date: July 29, 2015

*Fifteen interviews in which David Langford -- winner of 29 Hugo Awards -- questions other science fiction and fantasy notables. Crosstalk collects all these conversations for the first time in book form.*

**Table of Contents:**

• Introduction (Crosstalk) - essay

• Stephen Baxter: 1999 - interview

• Kristen Britain: 2000 - interview

• John Clute and John Grant: 1999 - interview

• John Clute: 2001 - interview

• George Hay: 1976 - interview

• Tom Holt: 1999 - interview

• Terry Pratchett, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart: 1999 - interview

• Terry Pratchett: 1999 - interview

• Terry Pratchett: 2000 - interview

• Christopher Priest: 1995 - interview

• Alastair Reynolds: 2000 - interview

• John Sladek: 1982 - interview (variant of Sladek at Random 1983)

• Bob Shaw: 1976 - interview

• Kevin Smith: 1980 - interview

• Ian Watson: 1981 - interview (variant of Ian Watson Talks to David Langford 1982)
Catalyst

Title: *Catalyst*

Author: Lydia Kang

Publisher: Kathy Dawson Books

Publication Date: March 24th 2015

Series: Control #2

*In the past year Zel lost her father, the boy she loves, her safety, and any future she might have imagined for herself. Now she, her sister, and the band of genetic outcasts they've come to call their family are forced on the run when their safe house is attacked by men with neural guns. But on the way to a rumored haven in Chicago, Zel hears something--a whisper from Cy, the boy who traded himself for her sister's safety. And when she veers off plan in order to search for him, what she finds is not what she expected. There's more to their genetic mutations than they ever imagined...aspects that make them wonder if they might be accepted by the outside world after all.*
Beatification of the Second Fall

Beatification of the Second Fall

by Sean Robinson

in Apex Magazine, April 2015

Available online: http://www.apex-magazine.com/beatification-of-the-second-fall/

Description, from Sam Tomaino [SFRevu]: "Learner's mother has an angel tied up in their attic. She had found him after getting rid of her abusive husband. Now she abuses the angel to sell parts of him to people for healing purposes. We follow Learner from childhood to adulthood when things come to a climactic end. "
Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers

Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong

Published in Nightmare Magazine Oct. 2015 (Issue 37): Queers Destroy Horror!

Description, by Darcie Little Badger: "The protagonist, Jenny, consumes thoughts, dreams, and confessions. She is sustained by human consciousness instead of flesh and muscle, and the strange meals change her in myriad ways."
Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951-1986

Title: Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951-1986

Author: Marc Aramini

Publisher: Castalia House

Publication Date: July 17, 2016

Between Light and Shadow is the first volume in a two-volume analysis of Gene Wolfe's literary works and takes a comprehensive look at Wolfe's astonishing body of work from 1951 to 1986. Wolfe is famous for creating labyrinthine and complicated stories full of allusions that are not always easily understood; Between Light and Shadow explores every short story and novel that Wolfe composed in the first half of his career.

Between Light and Shadow is not only a holistic illustration of Wolfe's work, but attempts to solve many of the narrative mysteries that have eluded readers for decades. From focused essays interpreting masterpieces such as "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" and "Peace" to complete story analyses which not only delineate allusions and themes but also take a rigorous, logical approach to reading Wolfe, the book is above all an enormous commitment to understanding the work of one of modern literature's most unique and challenging figures.

Between Light and Shadow presents the thesis that objective closure is possible in even Wolfe's most complicated cosmological and metaphysical narratives, and reveals that the mysteries behind the ideas and images inspiring Wolfe are ultimately comprehensible. Weighing in at over 300,000 words, this volume deserves consideration for the vast effort and research put into one of SF's most mystifying authors.
Firefight

Title: *Firefight*

Author: Brandon Sanderson

Publisher: Delacorte

Publication Date: 1/6/2015

Series: The Reckoners (#2)

*They told David it was impossible*—*that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet, Steelheart—invincible, immortal, unconquerable—is dead. And he died by David's hand.*

*Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life more simple. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And there's no one in Newcago who can give him the answers he needs.*

*Babylon Restored, the old borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic, Regalia, David is sure Babylon Restored will lead him to what he needs to find. And while entering another city oppressed by a High Epic despot is a gamble, David's willing to risk it. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David's heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived. Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic—Firefight. And he's willing to go on a quest darker, and more dangerous even, than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.*
Ambiguity Machines: An Examination

Title: Ambiguity Machines: An Examination

Author: Vandana Singh

Published: Tor.com, 29 April 2015

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "The frame here seems science-fictional, with reference to a “Conceptual Machine-Space”, but within are three linked stories that can only be called fantastic, in which the concepts of circuitry and spellcasting blur into each other, and time loses linearity. It’s a mystery that compels individuals to follow it wherever it might lead. It could be said to begin in medieval Timbuktu, where a fantastic device had been first created, then concealed in the desert. Or perhaps in Italy, where the tiles paving the courtyard of an old church were decorated in a fantastic pattern, and one of them had been split in half. Or in the Gobi, where an engineer compelled to make a war machine for his captors finds the missing half of the tile. Or it could be said to be the spirit uniting the individuals who encounter the design, a deep yearning for connection with others."
Damage

Title: Damage

Author: David D. Levine

Published at: Tor.com, 1/21/15

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "This one is a space combat story of a war between the Free Belters and Earth, told by a sentient warship that its technician calls Scraps, because it was cobbled together from the remains of two other salvaged craft. Because of this, it carries the memories of its previous deaths, which can’t be erased from its programming, resulting in anxiety and misgivings that it finds painful. The ship has wondered why it was given such human feelings.... So the ship is entirely devoted, like a lover, to its pilot, “the finest combat pilot in the entire solar system”, although the feeling is hardly reciprocated; to him, the ship is only a tool. At last, with the war effectively lost, they are given one very final mission.... "
Amelia Cole & the Impossible Fate

*Amelia Cole and the Impossible Fate* (TPB collecting six issues)

Story by Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride; art by Nick Brokenshire

Publisher: IDW Publishing, September 2015

Series: Amelia Cole (fourth collected volume)

*The Council has banished Amelia to the Magic World and Hector to the World of Science, leaving Lemmy and the remains of Omega Company fighting to survive in the war torn Blended World! Now that the enemy has been unleashed, our heroes rally against their IMPOSSIBLE FATE!*
Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons

Title: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons & Dragons

Author: Michael Witwer

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: October 6, 2015

*The life story of Gary Gygax, godfather of all fantasy adventure games, has been told only in bits and pieces. Michael Witwer has written a dynamic, dramatized biography of Gygax from his childhood in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to his untimely death in 2008.*

Gygax's magnum opus, Dungeons & Dragons, would explode in popularity throughout the 1970s and '80s and irreversibly alter the world of gaming. D&D is the best-known, best-selling role-playing game of all time, and it boasts an elite class of alumni--Stephen Colbert, Robin Williams, and Junot Diaz all have spoken openly about their experience with the game as teenagers, and some credit it as the workshop where their nascent imaginations were fostered.

Gygax's involvement in the industry lasted long after his dramatic and involuntary departure from D&D's parent company, TSR, and his footprint can be seen in the genre he is largely responsible for creating. But as Witwer shows, perhaps the most compelling facet of his life and work was his unwavering commitment to the power of creativity in the face of myriad sources of adversity, whether cultural, economic, or personal. Through his creation of the role-playing genre, Gygax gave two generations of gamers the tools to invent characters and entire worlds in their minds. Told in narrative-driven and dramatic fashion, Witwer has written an engaging chronicle of the life and legacy of this emperor of the imagination.
Death Comes for the Microbot

"Death Comes for the Microbot" - Aimee Picchi

Flash Fiction Online 2015, edited by Suzanne W. Vincent

 Description, by Sam Tomaino [SFRevu]: "Bee is an AI microbot in the form of a bee in Dr. Nesbeth's laboratory. Bee is saddened that another microbot, Spider, has died. There is only Bee and Cricket left. Bee seeks to find comfort in death."
For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher

Title: For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher

Author: Jason Sizemore

Publisher: Apex Book Company

Publication Date: June 20, 2015

*What does it take to become a Hugo and Stoker Award-nominated editor and publisher? Follow Jason Sizemore's unconventional professional path as it winds through a tiny, overheated Baptist church deep within the coal fields of Appalachia, Kentucky, past a busted printer and a self-serving boss that triggered an early mid-life crisis and the epiphany that he should open a magazine spreading the gospel of science fiction to the masses, all the way to WorldCon 2012 and his first Hugo Awards ceremony.*

In this collection of semi-true and sometimes humorous essays, Jason
xposes the parties, people, and triumphs that shaped him into the Apex Overlord. He also lays bare the hardships and failures that have threatened to take it all away. Meet Thong Girl, heed the warning about the ham, receive rest stop bathroom wisdom, and visit an emergency room straight out of a horror movie in this extraordinary account of life as a publisher and editor.

With rebuttal essays from Maurice Broaddus, Monica Valentinelli, Lesley Conner, and more, For Exposure tells Jason’s story with insight from key players along his road to success. It is a comprehensive and frank look at what Apex and the genre publishing business is about. Take a shot with the publisher, dance the night away, and become a legend. And do it all For Exposure.
A Shot of Salt Water

A Shot of Salt Water

Author: Lisa L. Hannett

Publication: *The Dark*, May 2015

Description, from SFRevu: "In a village where the women go out on boats for an extended time and the men stay home, Billy Rideout is looking forward to the return of his lass, Alberta Stagg, Beetie. But she is carrying a baby with her. It might be his and it might be stolen from the sea. When Billy sees it, he knows it's not his, but custom demands he accept it anyway."
Gypsy

Title: "Gypsy"

Author: Carter Scholz

Publisher: PM Publishing

Reprinted in *The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction*, Nov/Dec 2015

Publication date: Nov 2015 (F&SF), Dec 2015 (PM Publishing)

> She remembered talking to Robert about Fermi's paradox. If the universe harbors life, intelligence, why haven't we seen evidence of it? Why are we alone?
>
>

> Roger favored what he called the Mean Time Between Failures argument. Technological civilizations simply fail, just as the components that make up their technology fail, sooner or later, for reasons as individually insignificant as they are inexorable, and final. Complex systems, after a point, tend away from robustness.
>
>
Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from Joss Whedon

Everything I Need to Know in Life I Learned from Joss Whedon

Valerie Estelle Frankel

Mar 2015

Thought Catalog

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-Know-Learned-Whedon-ebook/dp/B00V9H0ESG

Joss Whedon has much to teach his fans, as he unfurls epics of sacrifice and heroism for superheroes and ordinary people. *Firefly*, like *Alien: Resurrection*, was his anti-authoritarian dystopia, while *Buffy the Vampire Slayer*emphasized girl power and individuality in a world of monsters. *Dollhouse* tackled identity, memory and the soul, reaching from fantasy into philosophy, just as *The Cabin in the Woods* satirized the nebulous "Greater Good." Now, *Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.* and *The Avengers* explore heroism, teamwork, and personal responsibility. Whedon has independent works too, all explored from the paranormal romance film *In Your Eyes* to his feminist skits for Equality Now. In comics, such as *X-Men*, *Runaways*,*Sugarshock*, and *Buffy*, he explores unconventional teams and chosen families. From Angel's quest for faith and redemption in a world of nihilism to the smaller stories of family and friendships in *The Office*, *Glee*, *Parenthood*, and *Roseanne*, not to mention *Much Ado About Nothing*, Whedon offers lessons to improve the world and our roles within it. This book compares themes, motifs, and archetypes across all his works, teasing out the common threads and the messages within.
Cat Pictures, Please

Cat Pictures, Please

By Naomi Kritzer

Published in *Clarkesworld*

Publication date: 01/15

Description, by Lois Tilton [Locus]: "The narrator is an inadvertently self-aware AI with access to the internet, which gives it broad knowledge of individual users. What the AI wonders is what it ought to do with all this information, and its inclination is to help people. But not for free. In exchange, it wants cat pictures. Cute ones, of course...."
A Thousand Nights Till Morning

Title: "A Thousand Nights Till Morning"

Author: Will McIntosh

Published: Asimovs August 2015

*Finalist in the Asimov’s 30th Annual Readers’ Award Poll*

Mark Watson at *Best SF* said:

*And McIntosh sets the scene very well indeed, putting the reader deep inside the story immediately, with protagonist Aiden being given the task of explaining to those on a colony on Mars that they might be all that’s left of humanity after the aforementioned brutal alien invasion of Earth.*

*One of the strong points of the story is that Aiden is far from the usual heroic protagonist. He has a number of issues he is working through, some personality issues, and it’s a huge struggle for him to take on the various roles he has to play throughout the story. When he comes face to face with the aliens he has a bodily reaction that is entirely understandable, but rarely happens in SF. And part of the story arc is him heading back to Earth to find and rescue his relatives. (That doesn’t end well).*

*All in all, the story avoids standard tropes, is a bit bleak at times, but far away from, say, the ‘War of the Worlds’ with Tom Cruse, where he, his son, and cute daughter all survive against the odds and things are going to get back to normal fairly quickly. McIntosh ends with a future that is going to be anything but was has been the norm in the past.*
A Cold Legacy

*A Cold Legacy* by Megan Shepherd

Published by Balzer + Bray, January 2015

Series: The Madman’s Daughter #3

Publisher's description: *After killing the men who tried to steal her father’s research, Juliet—along with Montgomery, Lucy, Balthazar, and a deathly ill Edward—has escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune-tellers who seem to know Juliet’s secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor’s own walls.*

*Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor’s long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she’ll follow her father’s dark footsteps or her mother’s tragic ones, or whether she’ll make her own.*
Jekyll's Mirror

Title: *Jekyll's Mirror*

Author: William Hussey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Publication Date: January 2015 (UK)

*Sam Stillhouse is one of the maladjusted teens recruited by English teacher Miss Crail to take part in 'Project Hyde', to interact online with a series of avatars and get involved with trolling. At first he is fascinated by the project: a social networking site where you are urged to anonymously speak your mind about people. But the more time he spends on the site, the nastier he gets. The site becomes a dangerous outlet for all the anger (which he calls the Wrath) buried inside himself since the murder of his mother. The consequences are a cautionary tale.*