The Best Short SF: The Asimov’s Science Fiction 2024 Readers Poll
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Asimov’s Science Fiction, January/February and November/December 2024.
Cover art by Maurizio Manzieri and John Sumrow
Here’s a look at a few of the finalists for the 2024 Asimov’s Readers Award, voted on by readers and given to the most popular stories from Asimov’s Science Fiction the previous year. (Read each of the stories at the Asimov’s website by clicking on the titles below.)
“Wildest Skies,” a Novella by Sean Monaghan
From Asimov’s Science Fiction, November-December 2024
The title suggests a much wilder adventure than the somewhat cozy, but satisfying, one we get. Ed Linklater is the sole survivor of a missile strike that destroys his ship while surveying the planet Dashell IV. He is able to land safely on the Earth-like planet and is eventually befriended by a ten-eyed alien he calls Casper.
After living with Casper’s tribe for some time, he is led to a strange complex of stone structures, where he meets Barnaby, a fellow human who has survived another crash, sixteen years earlier. Barnaby’s only companion is Erica, who is immobilized and partly merged with an AI.
