9. From Newer Writers

Only one book fit this category this year, the annual Writers of the Future anthology.

Writers of the Future, Volume XXIV, edited by Algis Budrys.

Subtotals: 1 book, 13 stories (10 novelettes, 3 short stories), about 120,000 words of new fiction.
Stats: 8 stories by women (61.5%), 9 SF stories (69%).

Well, as I implied, this category only exists because in the past there have been multiple entries ... this year just the one. As usual, it's a pretty good book, especially considering all the writers are new. The stories I particularly liked were "Simulacrum’s Children", by Sarah L. Edwards, and Al Bogdan’s "The Girl Who Whispered Beauty". In the first, a robot works to build a more perfect robot in a steampunkish milieu. In the second, "whisper girls" breathe life, or energy, or beauty, into their employers -- inevitably, the protagonist is driven to rebel.

Tags: 2008, anthologies, yearly summaries