James Nicoll Reviews

A Song of Cheer Again

8^th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S‑F (The Year’s Best S‑F, volume 8)

Edited by Judith Merril

3 Oct, 2023

**Judith Merril’s The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy**

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Judith Merril’s 1963 8^th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S‑F is the 8^th volume of Merril’s Year’s Best S‑F anthology series. Variant titles include The 8^th Annual of the Year’s Best S‑F and The Best of Sci-Fi No. 4. Stories were selected from those published in 1961 and 1962.

8^th Annual Edition is a return to form for Merril and her series.

When Things Fell Apart

Summer Rising

By Sheila Sullivan

1 Oct, 2023

**Because My Tears Are Delicious To You**

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Sheila Sullivan’s 1975 Summer Rising is a stand-alone post-apocalypse science fantasy novel.

Humanity was denied the finality of a dramatic, swift nuclear holocaust. Rather, decades of economic, technological, and social mismanagement have caused a slow, inexorable collapse across the planet. By the 2040s the United Kingdom is united no more. Instead, it is a patchwork of rundown communities forced back into a primitive agrarian lifestyle.

Bara has the misfortune to be pretty. She catches the eye of White Michael, lord of the so-called Outlanders. One rape later and Bara is pregnant with White Michael’s son. She names the boy Con.

Con is destined to be an important man, if he can elude his father and if he can somehow reach the far-off land where his destiny waits.