http://dailysciencefiction.com/fantas...Lovely. The passion of a dancer.

I listened to one novellette & 4 stories. I either disliked or wasn't impressed by any of them. The best was "Makeisha in Time" by Rachael K. Jones" & that was just OK. "The Breath of War" took way too long to make its point & I could never get my suspension of disbelief going. "When it Ends, He Catches Her" was short, at least. Ditto for "Toad Mouth". "Covenant" by Bear never grabbed me either. None of them did. The points were obvious & just not presented to my taste.It's pretty obvious that t...

"The Long List Anthology" edited by David Steffen [3.75/5] The stories in this anthology were very different in content, genre, and in how much I enjoyed them. I think the stories in this anthology were all well chosen though as I think everybody will find stories in this one as they're so different."The Breath of War" by Aliette de Bodard [4/5]The setting in this story is really good. It has kind of a fantastic vibe but this story is a science-fiction story. The main character is also really

This is a story that would have been on the 2015 Hugo ballot but for the Sad Puppies/Rabid Puppies slating.Aisa is a dancer, or former dancer, dancing on an empty stage in an abandoned, decaying theater. She's dancing one of her favorite leading roles, except that in the last dance number, she should be dancing with partner, who is not there. The final, triumphant leap must be omitted, because Balege is not there to catch her.And then there is applause from an audience of one.The time and place

Splendid, very short story: dance & the transmutation of pain into perfection.When It Ends, He Catches Her

All dancers knew their springtime was short. A dancer's fate was to break or fade away, a short season of glory, if they were lucky. And Aisa had been lucky, very lucky. Until all the luck went away, for everyone. this is just your typical zombie/ballet mashup tale.no but srsly, it's an unexpectedly lovely and successful combination of two things that should never make sense together, like moose and seal!it starts out with the haunting image of a ballerina dancing alone in a decaying theater, he...

I was going to give this three stars instead of four until I got to the ending. Very nice.Read it here.

A short story I "found" through a night owly friend here. ;)As with comics, I'm also new to short stories and only started because of Neil Gaiman. Then I found Mary Robinette Kowal and was equally impressed. However, when being spoilt by all the good stories, I get very suspicious whenever the next is being recommended. I'm always afraid something will ruin the experience for me.Aaaaanyway!This story is about ballet. It's also about the zombie apocalypse. That is a very peculiar mix! So yeah, I

This is a short story which I read as part of The Long List Anthology: More Stories from the Hugo Awards Nomination List. It's probably the sweetest zombie story I've ever read.

In a world without Puppies throwing temper tantrums, this would have been nominated for a Hugo in 2015. This story deserved to win. It gave me shivers it was such a beautiful taIe. I wouldn't normally read this genre, so I'm glad I didn't know what it was. It snuck up on me and surprised me: there ARE still interesting stories to be told about this type of character.

This review is for "When It Ends, He Catches Her" by Eugie Foster. I liked this story. I love post-apocalyptic fiction of all kinds but I didn't find it as intriguing as many others did. I did enjoy the exploration of what memories we hold on to and keep and what is lost in death.

* SPOILER ALERT * A romantic fantasy story of zombie love in a post-apocalyptic world by a writer sadly taken from the world too soon by cancer. This story was published on the day she died which gives a certain poignancy to the tale. A minor piece but sensitively written.

Who knew that poignant and zombiepocalypse could go together so well? "When It Ends, He Catches Her," nominated for the 2014 short story Nebula, is about two ballet dancers, still loving their art and trying to maintain it when everything around them has fallen to pieces.When the last stages and theaters in the artists' district had barred their doors, when all the performances had gone forever dark, Aisa had found this place, this nameless ghost of a theater. So ramshackle to be beneath the Mag...

The dim shadows were kinder to the theater's dilapidation. A single candle to aid the dirty sheen of the moon through the rent beams of the ancient roof, easier to overlook the worn and warped floorboards, the tattered curtains, the mildew-ridden walls. Easier as well to overlook the dingy skirt with its hem all ragged, once purest white and fine, and her shoes, almost fallen to pieces, the toes cracked and painstakingly re-wrapped with hoarded strips of linen. Once, not long ago, Aisa wouldn't

This is a breathtakingly good anthology, full of powerful stories that were definitely award-worthy. "The Breath of War" by Aliette de Bodard is at the same time universal (the protagonist's concerns include family and personal risk) and particular. It raises the question of how our creations embody our own conflicts. "When It Ends, He Catches Her" by Eugie Foster is that astonishing thing, a zombie story that I don't dislike, and it does something truly powerful and moving. "Toad Words" by T. K...

Only two stories I liked here, Max Gladstone`s, A Kiss With Teeth, an original ideea about a vampire in our time - and I`m not usually into vampire stories- and from Rachael K. Jones, Makeisha In Time, about a girl that can travel back in time, but with disastrous effects for her present life.From the other texts I didn`t like the ideea, the style or the execution of the stories.So, this peculiar Anthology was definitely not in my zone of interest.

Anthologies are always hard to rate, since of course you won’t like every story, but with this one I find it especially difficult. There is a good chunk of stories that are phenomenal and really deserve to be nominated for prices, that have great, creative SFF ideas and execute them in a meaningful, emotional way, but then there are stories that I think belong more into the genre of contemporary, with tagged on speculative elements that in some cases didn’t affect the plot or the core of the con...

A rather lovely short-short story, whose genre is not immediately apparent (but is spoilered in some of the other reviews here). The story's thoughts on death take on an extra poignancy when one knows that the author was terminally ill when writing it, and died the day after publication.This is one of several stories that should have been on the Hugo ballot this year, were the awards not hijacked by fascists. It's better than anything that made the list.

https://thebookloversboudoir.wordpres...This is an impressive collection of stories that fit into the speculative / science fiction / horror / fantasy genres, often straddling multiple. I was familiar with some authors such as Elizabeth Bear, T. Kingfisher and Scott Lynch but there are a host of writers I’ve never read / heard of before. What impressed me is the diversity and range of stories on offer, no two are alike and each one offers something completely unexpected and different. Most antho...