While at the moment I don’t have the time for a novel (to read or to review), I thought I’d link to a few short stories that I’ve found exceptional in the past. I’ll probably add to this list as I find or recall others. These have been published in Baen’s Universe, Abyss & Apex, Ideomancer, IGMS, ChiZine, and Lone Star Stories.
"Cryptic Coloration" (Elizabeth Bear, Baen’s Universe). A Promethean Age story from Elizabeth Bear, set before the events of Blood & Iron with Matthew as a central character. Hard to pinpoint why I like this one so much, but the first scene drags you right under at the very beginning. Bear has an entire set of short stories up on her site — "Ice", which became The Edda of Burdens, and "Black Is the Color" are also among my favorites.
"The Altruist and the Dead Man" (Ed Cowan, Ideomancer). You don’t really get it at first, but the deeper you get the more bowled over you are — it’s a twisted, funny, tragic allegory. And the end is just stunning.
"Things With Sharp Teeth" (Astrid Atkinson, Ideomancer). Another one where the line between allegory and literal reality is so blurred that even after you finish it, your mind still circles it, trying to wrap itself around what it means, exactly.
"Deadnauts" (Ted Kosmatka, Ideomancer) Cryogenics bring a single voyager to the end of the universe. The repetition of lines and the pervasiveness of the cold are the most striking elements here.
"One Wicker Day" (Andrew S. Fuller, Abyss & Apex) Maybe I’m just fascinated by a certain aesthetic of death, but this one also sees dead people. The language associated with the dead is very beautiful, and the small-town setting grounds it. I don’t know about the last line; it’s rather anticlimactic, but that could be the point, given the above observation about small-town setting.
"We Never Talk About My Brother" (Peter S. Beagle, IGMS) A twist on the Biblical story of Jacob and Esau, with some really nice sibling relationships. The main character’s voice is compelling, especially in the transcript format.
Fossils (Sunil Sadanand, ChiZine) Dead planets, ghost cities. The last ones to go have it the worst. "Extinction is never sudden, but rather, a gradual process of collective dissolution."
The Parable of the Shower (Leah Bobet, Lone Star Stories) Finally, a funny one. "The angel of the LORD cometh upon you in the shower at the worst possible moment: one hand placed upon thy right buttock and the other bearing soap, radio blaring, humming a heathen song of sin."
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time (Catherine Valente, Clarkesworld) A must-read for anyone working with creation myths. "You cannot travel faster than yourself—faster than experience divided by memory divided by gravity divided by the Singularity beyond which you cannot model yourself divided by a square of wet concrete divided by a sheet of plate glass divided by birth divided by science fiction writers divided by the end of everything. Life divides itself indefinitely—it can approach but never touch zero. The speed of Persephone is a constant."