Bewildering Stories’
First Quarterly Review, 2012

The Editors’ Choices: issues 460-471

“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 — winter or summer, depending on your hemisphere — with the Review Editors’ selection of favorites from the first quarter of 2012. 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 924 votes on 117 titles, 50 of which have qualified as Editors’ Choices.

We think our Review Editors reflect the range of opinion to be found among our readers. The Order of the Hot Potato is as lively as ever with 16 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 works in genres represented by more than one title in this Quarterly Review.

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 472 on April 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	0 of 1 1 of 2 (none) 19 of 45 4 of 17	Poetry Short Poetry Drama Essays & Memoirs	16 of 30 6 of 14 (none) 4 of 7		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 471 in order to be eligible.

Novellas	Bill Bowler, The Shepherd of Zakhbaal
Essays & Memoirs	Charles C. Cole A Visitor in the Night The Cryptid in the Break Room Sandra Crook, The Rag and Bone Man Richard Ong, A Need for Speed

Departments

All selections are listed in chronological order.
Titles in The Reading Room are listed on our Reviews page. The Art Gallery is not included.

Challenges	Challenge Responses, The Critics’ Corner, Discussions
In the Cards Crash But Don’t Burn On the Sea and Over Three to Make Ready	Spelling and the Playground Life Beyond the Speed of c “The Man Who Had Lived There” Loose Ends
Special Feature
Dr. Jeannette Norden, On Storytelling in Teaching