Bewildering Stories’
Second Quarterly Review, 2010
The Editors’ Choices: issues 377-388
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Bewildering Stories ends Year 8 with the Review Editors’ selection of favorites from the second quarter of 2010. New readers will have easy access to the recent best of Bewildering Stories, and veteran readers will have a chance to catch up on anything they may have missed.
The Quarterly Reviews are Bewildering Stories’ honor roll. While they’re not a contest or competition in the strict sense of the term, we’ll match them against any contest or poll in terms of fairness: in the past 12 weeks, the Review Editors cast 872 votes on 117 titles. And there are no quotas: everything or nothing in any genre may qualify for a Quarterly Review. The Review Editors vote according to their estimate of each work’s success on its own terms.
As always, the Review Board’s discussions have been extensive and lively. A big Thank You to Bill Bowler, Bertil Falk, Gary Inbinder, Harry Lang, Michael E. Lloyd, Marina J. Neary, Carmen Ruggero and Lewayne L. White.
We also express special gratitude to our Coordinating Editor Bill Bowler and the Associate Editors. Their insightful and detailed critiques of submissions help us set what we like to think is an Internet standard for editorial practice and for service to our contributors and readers.
Finally and foremost we congratulate the authors represented here. They and their works have well earned the honor. We hope they will inspire all our contributors.
Regular publication resumes with issue 389 on June 28, 2010.
The Quarterly News
The second quarter of 2010 saw unusual and remarkable activity in the Departments, especially The Critics’ Corner, the Challenge Responses, Discussions, and Letters. The Reading Room has also begun a series of Excerpts, which will continue in the third quarter.
Short Poetry is exceptionally strong: almost 80 percent has been selected. For the first time, if memory serves, Short Poetry has more titles than Poetry in a Quarterly Review. In contrast, Flash Fiction retains its reputation as a very challenging genre: only one-fifth of the titles qualified.
The Review Editors are keenly aware that serialized works represent a big investment in space for Bewildering Stories and a big investment in time for readers. The debates on Novels, Novellas, and Serials were long and insightful. If a serialized work qualifies for the Quarterly Review, the Editors feel it repays the investments in one way or another.
The following tables also serve as a linked index to all the genres and sections in the Review.
| Titles selected of titles eligible | |||
|
Novels Novella Serials Short Stories Flash Fiction |
1 of 2 1 of 1 3 of 3 29 of 46 5 of 25 |
Poetry Short Poetry Essays Memoirs |
10 of 23 11 of 14 2 of 3 |
|
Special listings
DepartmentsThe Quarter’s Best Issues The Order of the Hot Potato The Quarter’s Most Bewildering Issues |
- Selections are listed in alphabetical order by author unless noted otherwise.
- Multiple titles are listed in chronological order.
- All serialized works — with the possible exception of intermittent serials — must have concluded in or before issue 388 in order to be eligible.
- Memoirs may be true, dramatized, or fictional.
| Novels | Karlos Allen, Rusted Chrome |
|---|---|
| Novella | Bill Bowler, High School Honey |
| Serials |
Resha Caner, Dark World Graham Debenham, Past Imperfect Danielle L. Parker, Reaper |
| Memoirs |
Eric G. Müller, The Horse Michael Murry, The Hero With a Single Face |
DepartmentsAll selections are listed in chronological order.
The Critics’ Corner, Discussions, LettersJohn Stocks and Don Webb, “Stain of Light” | |
| Challenges | Challenge Responses |
|---|---|
|
Bertrand Cayzac and Don Webb,
Oonah V. Joslin, “R is for Rocket...” Tantra Bensko, On the Unexplainable Oonah V. Joslin, Industrial Poems Tabaré Alvarez, “The Corridor” | |
