The latest winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest for new speculative-fiction writers offer excellent stories that reach the farthest corners of speculative fiction and fantasy. However, many of this year’s entries have coalesced around two mostly science-fictional themes: five of the 12 stories (including two of the best, “Slip Stone” by Sandra Skalski and “A World of Repetitions” by Seth Atwater Jr.) play with concepts of time travel, while three of the remaining stories, including Robert F. Lowell’s standout “Kill Switch,” will draw in lovers of SF featuring robots and AI characters. Fantasy is well represented by Joel C. Scoberg’s dystopian “The Stench of Freedom,” the borderline horror of Lauren McGuire’s “Karma Birds,” and Jefferson Snow’s mysterious “The Rune Witch.” The collection is rounded out by bonus stories from veterans Tim Powers and Sean Williams.
VERDICT As in previous years, this 41st collection in the series successfully showcases future voices representing the vast spectrum of the speculative fiction genre, from strange new worlds to grim and eldritch old ones, from the past to the future and oscillating in between.
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