Bewildering Stories’
Fourth Quarterly Review, 2011

The Editors’ Choices: issues 448-459

“The place to be at Bewildering Stories”

Everything in green is a link.
Pages other than those of the QR open in a new window, so you won’t lose your place.

Bewildering Stories ends the season — fall or spring — with the Review Editors’ selection of favorites from the fourth quarter of 2011. 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 answer a practical question: “If a friend asked you to recommend something from the past quarter of Bewildering Stories, what would you choose?” These are our recommendations.

While the Quarterly Reviews are 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. And there are no quotas: everything or nothing in any genre may qualify. 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, Sarah Ann Watts 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.

The Quarterly News

In the past 12 weeks, the Review Editors cast 874 votes on 111 titles, 62 of which have qualified as Editors’ Choices. Where more than two poems in a collection qualify, the collection title is listed.

Short Stories, Flash Fiction, Poetry and Short Poetry are especially distinguished in this quarter. The Departments — the Challenge Responses, Discussions and Editorials as well as the Art Gallery and Reading Room — have all been quite active.

We think our Review Editors reflect the range of opinion to be found among our readers. The Order of the Hot Potato is livelier than ever with 19 titles.

The Order of Merit is continued for reader interest and as a special acknowledgment to our contributors. It links to the most highly rated work in each genre represented by more than one title in this Quarterly Review. A few other works not listed are nonetheless odds-on favorites to qualify for the 2011 Mariner Awards, at year’s end.

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 460 on January 2, 2012.

Reminder: everything in green is a link.
The following table also serves as a linked index to all the genres and sections in the Review.

Titles selected of titles eligible					Special listings
Novels Novellas Serials Short Stories Flash Fiction	1 of 2 0 of 1 1 of 4 27 of 43 6 of 16	Poetry Short Poetry Drama Essays & Memoirs	15 of 26 8 of 14 1 of 2 3 of 3		Departments The Quarter’s Best Issues The Order of the Hot Potato The Quarter’s Most Bewildering Issues The Order of Merit

Selections are listed in alphabetical order by author unless noted otherwise.
Multiple titles are listed in chronological order.
Italicized titles indicate the presence of chapter, episode or poem subtitles.
All serialized works must have concluded in or before issue 459 in order to be eligible.

Novels	Phillip Donnelly, Kev the Vampire
Serials	Dan Reed, Boys From the Neighborhood
Drama	Marina J. Neary, Lady With a Lamp
Essays & Memoirs	James Graham, Come and See the Blood in the Streets Ann Haelan, Ultimate Particles Ron Van Sweringen, Summer, 1952

Departments

All selections are listed in chronological order.
The Art Gallery and Reading Room are excepted from the Quarterly Reviews.

Challenges	Challenge Responses, The Critics’ Corner, Discussions
Text Me Say Who? Words of Warning Oh, That Knife The Trojan Expedition Gotcha Coming and Going Fulfillment First, Prophecy Later	“Boys from the Neighborhood” What Wine? “The Negatives” Go Tell the Spartans...
Editorials
Promotion: Three Case Studies Spelling and the Playground