I need to blog about other stuff, if only to start to sort my head out.  Did we talk about What Remains? It’s an awesome three story chapbook that Aqueduct Press published for Wiscon, and it features two new stories by Geoff Ryman and one by Ellen Klages.  I read it a couple months back.  Ellen’s story, “Echoes of Aurora” is one of my favorite stories of the year.  She had a peach of a story in Firebirds Soaring and has contributed a delightful story for Eclipse Three, but I think “Echoes’ is my favorite for this year.  There were only 150 copies of the chapbook done for Wiscon, but I think some might still be available.

What else? I loved Kij Johnson’s “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles”, which was published on Tor.com a while back.  You can read it online.   I think Kij is going through a real golden patch at the moment, which is why I’ve asked her to write for Eclipse Four.  Surely someone will do a collection of her stories sometime soon.

I also just read John C. Wright’s fantasy, “One Bright Star to Guide Them”.  John’s got a bunch of interesting stories out this year, most notably I think in The New Space Opera 2, but this novelette was really impressive.  When I was reading it I ended up wanting to research Carbonel, which I think is just a name he’s re-using.  Oh, and I think Robert Charles Wilson’s story from Other Earths, “This Peaceable Land or the Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe”, is one of the year’s highlights.

What else?  Hmnmm.  Go find some Peter Watts to read.  I remain disappointed that we couldn’t find a way to get his excellent novellete “The Things” into Eclipse Three.  His “The Island” from The New Space Opera 2 is great, but I think this was possibly even better. The only reason you won’t be reading it later this year is because we were unsure about copyright conflicts with The Thing screenplay and “Who Goes There?”, but if those can ever be resolved you’re in for a treat.

More soon. I’m reading! As fast as I can.  Oh, and I ask Nalo Hopkinson to write for Eclipse Four. Don’t know if she will – her schedule’s dominated by novel commitments, but I hope so.