Bewildering Stories’
Third Quarterly Review, 2010

The Editors’ Choices: issues 389-401

“The place to be at Bewildering Stories”

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Bewildering Stories ends the first part of Year 9 with the Review Editors’ selection of favorites from the third 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. 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 402 on October 4, 2010.

The Quarterly News

In the past 13 weeks, the Review Editors cast 734 votes on 98 titles. More than one-third of the titles eligible have qualified as Editors’ Choices. In Short Stories, especially, the selection was gratifyingly difficult: the genre as a whole has been exceptionally solid this past season. The Departments — especially The Critics’ Corner and Challenge Responses — have been very active and thought-provoking.

Proportionally, Short Poetry has also done very well. And both of the two Memoirs — always a challenging genre in which to write — got a round of applause from the Review Board.

Enjoy!

The following tables also serve as a linked index to all the genres and sections in the Review.

Titles selected of titles eligible
Novellas Serials Short Stories Flash Fiction	1 of 2 1 of 2 13 of 41 7 of 26	Poetry Short Poetry Essays Memoirs	5 of 15 5 of 8 1 of 2 2 of 2

Special listings

Departments
The 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.
Memoirs may be true, dramatized, or fictional.
All serialized works — with the possible exception of intermittent serials — must have concluded in or before issue 401 in order to be eligible.
Italics indicate that the serial has titled chapters.

Novellas	Bob Brill, Rod, Rex and Rhoda
Serials	Bill Bowler, Charlenes 2 and 3
Essays	Brian Trent, Circles
Memoirs	Arthur M. Mackeown, On the House Henry F. Tonn, Dating Over Forty

Departments

All selections are listed in chronological order.
If the link’s pop-up title says “with...” the article is a discussion.

The Critics’ Corner, Discussions, Letters

Challenges	Challenge Responses
The Spirit and Practice of Critiques What Were the Songs of Yesteryear? Validation Timing and Indulgence “Never So Good”
Fate Rolls Loaded Dice Rap Around the Clock Wandering Into the Line of Fire Coming Unstuck Wild Pitch Out of the Deeps	Challenge 388: “The Embrace of the Four-Armed Houri” Challenge 393: The Intentional Fallacy Challenge 394: ”Shallalu” “Gooseberry” and “Angel” Challenge 395: “Circles” Challenge 397: “The Lady Teacher Without a Name”