Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega

The Movement dropped me off on the outskirts of Urumqi city, deep in Xinjiang province.  They sent me there to get lost in the wilderness of what used to be western China, to stay hidden in one of the few places left on Earth that hadn’t been claimed by the mega corps.  It was a dry, windy day, the dust kicking up and the truck’s old diesel engine coughing dirty fumes in my face.

Not much was said.  It was just another job.  They handed me a bottle of water purification tablets, a thick stack of bills denominated in yuan and a terrarium of frogs.

from “The Garden of Tian Zi” bv Emery Huang

Writers of the Future Vol. XXV contains twelve stories by “new” writers (many of them have been at it for years, but “have not professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium”), first, second and third-place winners of the 2008 quarterly contest.  They’re all at least worth a read, and most of them are really freaking good.

Rating: 4/5 stars

I enjoyed WotF Vol. XXIV (my favorite collected therein being Patrick Lundrigan‘s “Hangar Queen”) but I dare say this one surpasses it.  Aside from “The Garden of Tian Zi”, my favorites from this year’s volume were all third-place winners: “The Assignment of Runner ETI” by Fiona Lehn, “Life in Steam” by Grá Linnaea, and “Gray Queen Homecoming” by Schon M. Zwakman, though that’s not to say I didn’t also get a big kick out of “Gone Black” by Matthew S. Rotundo, “The Farthest Born” by Gary Kloster, “The Shadow Man” by Donald Mead, “Risqueman” by Mike Wood, “After the Final Sunset, Again” by Jordan Lapp, “The Reflection of Memory” by C.L. Holland, “The Candy Store” by Heather McDougal and “The Dizzy Bridge” by Krista Hoeppner Leahy.  The collection also contains an introduction by editor K.D. Wentworth, an essay each by Hubbard, Robert Silverberg and artist Ron Lindahn, and 12 illustrations, one for each story, by Illustrators of the Future contest winners.

If you don’t trust my judgment (which, why should you?), the winning stories were selected by the following panel of judges: Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, Gregory Benford, Algis Budrys, Orson Scott Card, Sean Williams, Brian Herbert, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Eric Kotani, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Robert Silverberg and K.D. Wentworth.

If you’re interested in entering the contest (as I am), I highly recommend this collection to get a sense of the quality and type of writing they’re looking for.  If you’re just looking for an eclectic, fun collection of short speculative fiction, Writers of the Future Vol. XXV should treat you real nice.

Happy reading and writing and cuídate.