I’ve not decided how or where or in what form I’m going to blog about my 2009 reading, but I’m pretty much resolved to do so.  The changes at Last Short Story have me reading much earlier than usual – I normally deliver the year’s best and take a month or so off short fiction, but this year I’m already a couple magazines and anthos into next year.

There’s much to do, of course, that might derail me.  In addition to festive celebrations, I’m back at the day job, which looks like it’s going to be interesting and challenging, but for some reason just now feels more like an entirely new thing and kind of intimidating. I’m also waiting on copyedits for the year’s best and the much-delayed Godlike Machines, while doing my part to complete New Space Opera 2.  I also have a couple unwritten proposals sitting in the back of my mind, bothering me, which I should get to soon.

Still, what am I reading? Well, I’ve just finished off the January issues of F&SF and Asimov’s, and am working my way through Peter Crowther’s We Think, Therefore We Are.  I found the opening salvos from the magazines for 2009 pretty solid, but overall unspectacular.  The best in F&SF, for mine, was Charlie Finlay’s “The Minuteman’s Wish”, which apparently ties in with some upcoming novels.  It’s a good story, but does feel like it leads into something longer, rather than being complete in an of itself.  The best in Asimov’s was probably Will McIntosh’s “Bridesicle”, which I would describe as a very solid professional piece of short SF centered around the old theme of why would people revive frozen corpsicles in the future.  It’s too early to say much about the Crowther anthology – I’m only four stories into it – but it seems worth your while.  When I’m finished it, I’ll say more.  Then back to Ellen’s Poe, I think.