Recensori in anteprimaPaul Cornell

Editor Donna Scott has scoured magazines, anthologies, webzines and obscure genre corners to discover the very best science fiction stories by British and British-based authors published during 2021. Two dozen stories, varying greatly in subject matter and style, from superb technological mystery to conflict on very alien worlds, from sweet, sad stories symptomatic of the tense times we have lived through to tales optimistic for better times to come, and even a dash of wry humour here and there for good measure.

Donna Scott is a director and recent chair of the BSFA, as well as being a distinguished poet, writer, and stand-up comedian. Donna is also a free-lance editor who has worked behind the scenes for a number of major publishers over the course of several years.

Contents

Introduction – Donna Scott

Distribution – Paul Cornell

Stealthcare – Liz Williams

Down and Out Under the Tannhauser Gate – David Gullen

Me Two – Keith Brooke and Eric Brown

The Andraiad – Tim Major

Bloodbirds – Martin Sketchley

Going Home – Martin Westlake

Okamoto’s Lens – A.N. Myers

Love in the Age of Operator Errors – Ryan Vance

Stone of Sorrow – Peter Sutton

Henrietta – T.H. Dray

A History of Food Additives in 22nd Century Britain – Emma Levin

The Trip – Michael Crouch

The Ghosts of Trees – Fiona Moore

The Opaque Mirror of Your Face – Russell Hemmell

More Sea Creatures to See – Aliya Whiteley

The End of All Our Exploring – Gary Couzens

How Does My Garden Grow? – David Cleden

Girls’ Night Out – Teika Marija Smits

Bar Hopping for Astronauts – Leo X. Robertson

In Aeturnus – Phillip Irving

A Spark in a Flask – Emma Johanna Puranen

A Pall of Moondust – Nick Wood

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

This ‘Deliciously Dark’ collection of stories written by Pete Sutton, tells tales themed on the counting magpies song – “One for sorrow… “ A Tiding of Magpies is an enchanting short story collection which will give you a pleasurable shiver up the spine. Whether it is waking up to unmentionable sounds in Not Alone, or taking a trip to the land of stories in Five for Silver, the surprising use of a robot butler in I, Butler or competition winners It Falls and An Unexpected Return, these thirty-one tales, ranging from tiny flash fiction to long stories of several thousand words, always entertain, even when they unnerve. These darkly fantastical tales have been published in anthologies and magazines or written especially and collected here for the first time by Kensington Gore Publishing. Pete Sutton helps organise Bristol Festival of Literature where he is well-known as ‘the genre guy.’ He writes The Bristol Book Blog - http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/ as well as edits Far Horizons Magazine - https://farhorizonsmagazine.wordpress.com/ "Pete Sutton has a talent for the fantastic." – Paul Cornell (Shadow Police series, This Damned Band, Doctor Who, Elementary) “…there is a sweet and subtle music to Sutton's stories. They take you to strange places." – Mike Carey (Lucifer, The Unwritten, The Girl with all the Gifts, Fellside) "As if Raymond Carver turned his hand to writing science fiction.” – David Gullen (Clarke Award judge)

Available as mobi, epub, or pdf. Paul Cornell has written Doctor Who for the BBC, Batman & Robin for DC, and Wolverine for Marvel. He has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, the Eagle Award for his comics, and shares a Writer’s Guild Award for television. He is one of only two people to be Hugo Award nominated for all three media. A Better Way to Die is his first ever short story collection. Featured here are both his contributions to George RR Martin’s Wildcards series and all the Jonathan Hamilton stories, including “One of Our Bastards is Missing”, shortlisted for the Hugo Award in 2010, and “A Better Way to Die”, winner of a BSFA Award in 2011. With an introduction by John Scalzi, the eBook edition provides a comprehensive collection of the author's short fiction, featuring two bonus stories not available in the hardcopy editions, and two that do not appear in the paperback. 1. Introduction by John Scalzi 2. Sunflower Pump * Bonus story 3. The Greys * Bonus story 4. The Deer Stalker 5. Horror Story * Bonus story 6. Michael Laurits is: DROWNING 7. Global Collider Generation: an Idyll 8. Secret Identity 9. The Occurrence at Slocombe Priory 10. A Map of Lychford * Bonus story 11. The Sensible Folly 12. More (Wild Cards) 13. The Elephant in the Room (Wild Cards) 14. A New Arrival at the House of Love 15. The Ghosts of Christmas 16. Tom 17. Ramesses on the Frontier 18. Zeta Reticuli 19. Catherine Drewe 20. One of our Bastards is Missing 21. The Copenhagen Interpretation 22. A Better Way to Die