I’ve just finished my November 2009 book – only a couple days late. I had chosen the latest edition of this unfortunately irregular anthology. I say “irregular” as since I’ve resubscribed the editions appear to be coming out less often – in fact I think there will only be three this year rather than four. It’s a shame, and I certainly hope it doesn’t go the way that other anthologies appear to – do people not read the printed word these days? Certainly I know a couple people who would prefer that others do the imagining for them in the form of film. Tsk, the youth of today.
Anyway, I digress. “Postscripts #19″ returns to the usual mix of Sci-Fi and Horror, after number 18s focus on just the Horror. There are some good stories in this edition (it seems odd to call it “issue” – it’s far from being a magazine), in amongst those I didn’t… appreciate quite so much – that’s simply the way anthologies go… it’s rare that I’ll thoroughly enjoy every story.
Highlights for me include Daniel Abraham’s “Balfour and Merriwether in The Adventure of the Emperor’s Vengeance”, the characters being of more interest to me than the story. Matthew Hughes provides a decent Luff Imbry story in the form of “Enemey of the Good” – I’d previously read another Luff Imbry story in another Postscripts – while M.K. Hobson’s “The Warlock and the Man of the Word” is an entertaining fantasy-western… Demons and Cowboys, what’s not to like? I also enjoyed David N. Drake’s “A Life Cliched”, which read like a Philip K. Dick or Greg Egan story, where Genre Fiction is used as a means to provide social comment. Plus, at only two pages long it’s ideal for a visit to the smallest room.
My book for December 2009 has been picked – Charles Stross’ “Saturn’s Children”. Not, as some would have us believe, a follow-up to “Singularity Sky” and “Iron Sunrise”, but I hope I enjoy it as much as I did those two.