Writers of the Future, Vol. 32

The 32nd installment of the Writers of the Future contest, a showcase for new and exceptional speculative fiction and artwork, is an engaging mix of thought-provoking and inventive stories, accompanied by equally impressive illustrations. Several of these tales, such as the opening story, John Lasser's "The Star Tree," in which a family battles with loss across star systems, and Christopher Weber's "Möbius," in which a father's dream is global immortality, deal with vexing questions about the human condition. Others are as quirky as they are entertaining, such as editor Farland's "Hellfire on the High Frontier," a delightful steam punk tale that follows a ranger as he hunts his quarry across the American frontier, and Rachael K. Jones's "Dinosaur Dreams in Infinite Measure," a tale of an old woman's legacy as the inventor of a dinosaur-making machine. Interspersed throughout are essays by L. Ron Hubbard and others on the development of the genre over the decades. This carefully curated selection will appeal to both casual and seasoned readers of speculative fiction. (May)