#lucius shepard

[victusinveritas]

[withnailrules]

"...from that day forward she lived happily ever after. Except for the dying at the end. And the heartbreak in between."

Lucius Shepard

[balu8]

Vermillion #1 by  Lucius Shepard , Al Davison , Angus McKie and  Ellie DeVille

DC/Helix

[theglintoftherail]

My Capsule Reviews of Classic Speculative Fiction Stories

It just occurred to me that these might be of interest to some of y’all!

For years and years, I’ve been collecting editions of the Annual World’s Best SF anthology series edited by Donald A. Wollheim, which ran from 1972 to 1990. My mom had three or four of these when I was a kid, and they’re incredibly easy to spot in used book stores because of the colorful spines, plus the editor’s tastes align pretty well with mine, so I just kept buying them. Then I realized how easy they were to find online, so I wound up buying them way more quickly than I could read them.

A couple of years ago I decided to commit to reading or rereading every single one of them - and to reviewing every single story in each of them on Goodreads. As of April 2017, I’ve gotten through 10 of them and reviewed a total of 107 stories.

This project has been super rewarding, because after a few anthologies I started to realize that there were a few authors, most of whom I’d never heard of before, whose work I consistently loved. So now I’m able to seek out more of their work. That’s made me even more excited to keep doing these reviews - and once I finish this collection I may start in on a new one.

So! If anyone is interested in reading these reviews (which are usually a paragraph or less long per story), I thought I’d drop in the links to them! I’d love for someone to find a new author because of these posts. 

The reviews so far:

The 1972 Annual World's Best SF The 1974 Annual World's Best SF The 1975 Annual World's Best SF The 1976 Annual World's Best SF The 1978 Annual World's Best SF The 1980 Annual World's Best SF The 1981 Annual World's Best SF The 1986 Annual World's Best SF The 1987 Annual World's Best SF The 1990 Annual World’s Best SF

I’ll keep updating this list as I go.

And those favorite authors I’ve found because of this project, plus the names of the stories of theirs that I loved:

For beautifully written and characterized complex meditations on the nature of humanity, you want:

Michael Bishop Death & Designation Among the Asadi Cathadonian Odyssey The House of Compassionate Sharers

Richard Cowper The Custodians Out There Where the Big Ships Go Those Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel (which I read a long time ago and haven’t reread for review yet)

Lucius Shepard The Jaguar Hunter R & R Surrender

John Varley Options Beatnik Bayou

For well-crafted, perfectly paced narratives with an optional side of social commentary, you want:

George R. R. Martin (I didn’t realize that long before he wrote Game of Thrones, he was an acclaimed science fiction author!) A Song for Lya The Storms of Windhaven Nightflyers

Robert Silverberg Sailing to Byzantium Against Babylon Chiprunner

Joan D. Vinge Eyes of Amber The Peddler's Apprentice (with her husband Vernor Vinge)

[balu8]

Vermillion #1 by  Lucius Shepard , Al Davison , Angus McKie and  Ellie DeVille

DC/Helix

[caribassa]

2025

Lucius Shepard

Le Livre écorné de ma vie

[famousdeaths]

Lucius Shepard : Died March 18, 2014

Lucius Shepard was an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leaned into other genres, such as magical realism.

Link: Lucius Shepard

[caribassa]

2025

Lucius Shepard

Abimagique