David Steffen is an editor, publisher, and writer.
If you like what he does you can visit the Support page or buy him a coffee!
He is probably best known for being co-founder and administrator of The Submission Grinder, a donation-supported tool to help writers track their submissions and find publishers for their work . David is also the editor-in-chief here at Diabolical Plots. He is also the editor and publisher of The Long List Anthology: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List series. David also (sometimes) writes fiction, and you can follow on BlueSky for updates on cross-stitch projects and occasionally other things.
Since there’s going to be a lot of people at home a lot more than usual in the near future, we’ve put the Diabolical Plots anthologies on sale for 99 cents USD (or similar value in other currencies) at all ebook vendors. (That is the “Diabolical Plots” anthologies collecting the stories that are published on the Diabolical Plots site itself, not at this point the Long List Anthologies). Check the Books page for links to some of the vendors or search on your favorite ebook vendor.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the Nintendo Switch is a 2019 polished and expanded version of the 1993 Game Boy game of the same title. It is part of the Legend of Zelda series of games that came out shortly after The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and has a very similar look and game engine and many of the same items, but has its own feel and story and additional items and enemies all its own.
The story begins at an indeterminate time in Link’s life, and not even clear which Link it is (as the characters named Link in the series as a whole are actually generations of heroes with the same name, rather than a single character), but I think it’s most likely given the timing of the game that this is the Link from A Link to the Past some short time after that game (because he mentions Zelda. The game begins with a ship that Link is sailing on running into a fierce storm that causes a shipwreck, and he wakes up on mysterious Koholint Island to the face of someone who looks very much like Zelda.
This game is, to this day, a major departure from the series in that it is missing many of the major elements that define the Zelda formula. Most of the games are defined by the magical Triforce and the three people that seem to be tied irrevocably to each of its aspects: Zelda for wisdom, Link for courage, Ganon/Ganondorf for power. But this is not a game about Zelda, or about Ganon (a little funny that a Legend of Zelda game barely mentions the titular princess).
The game is almost entirely the same as the original Game Boy version. The mechanics, enemies, dungeons are generally the same. The most noticeable change is the graphics, which are all 3-d rendered and look very pretty and glossy, and it’s fun to see the update. Other graphics related changes such as the overworld is split up into clear “screens” that scroll from one to another, they instead flow smoothly. A big change is that the Switch takes advantage of having more buttons by assigning dedicated buttons to the most vital items like the sword and the shield–in the original game boy game there were two item buttons that you can assign to anything including the sword and the shield, so if you wanted to use two other items, you couldn’t use the sword and shield at all. There is also a new side game where you can build your own dungeons out of preset room blocks, and a new optional dungeon which you will have to find yourself that’s not part of the main quest.
Whether you played the game when it originally came out or you’re new to it, this is a fun game to get hold of. It’s a good introduction to the series as well, because it is a little more forgiving in some ways than the others in the series.
Visuals The main update from the original are the visuals and they look very nice! Kindof a cute and glossy overhaul, making the character and enemy designs much more detailed than the original Game Boy version was capable of.
Audio Catchy as ever, The Legend of Zelda series has always had excellent earworms.
Challenge Overall this is probably one of the Zelda games with an easier learning curve. The top-down view is easier to navigate for beginner players than the modern full-depth worlds. The phone huts throughout the world give you hints on what you’re supposed to be working on next. If you die in the overworld you can choose to continue on the exact same screen without penalty (this is extremely handy for younger players) and if you die in a dungeon although you have to restart from the beginning you at least get to keep any progress you made (i.e. keys collected, doors unlocked) before you died. It’s a good choice if you want to introduce a kid new to video games to the world of Zelda.
Story The story is pretty light and not particularly sensible. Link spends the game risking his life to wake the godlike entity whose very dreaming defines the island and everything on it. It seems like a really bad plan, and never at any point in the game seems like a good idea, but it’s the only way to move forward with the plot.
Session Time Since you can save anywhere and continue back from that same screen on the overworld this makes it very easy to pick up and down. Although dungeons would require a little bit of re-playthrough you can at least keep progress made. And of course the Switch still has the major advantage of being able to sleep and unsleep very quickly.
Playability Controls are easy to pick up, of course it takes some skill and practice to get get at attacking and dodging effectively.
Replayability There is some replay value in trying to collect all of the secret shells that are scattered throughout the land, to try to earn the rewards, and also to tackle the secret dungeon that’s been added in this version, find all the pieces of heart, and etc.
Originality Of course this incarnation is a remake of an earlier game, so you can’t judge this incarnation fairly on its originality. The original game itself used the format of another game of its time very closely: the SNES game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, including many of the same items. But even at that time it did add a significant number of new things and had its own feel.
Playtime Legend of Zelda experts will probably breeze through most of it, as it is one of the easier games in the series, but there are still quite a few dungeons to discover and defeat as well as plenty of things to discover in the overworld.
Overall The original incarnation of this game is still one of my favorite Game Boy games, an excellent entry in the Legend of Zelda series, and although it borrowed heavy from its SNES predecessor it is still an entertaining and fun game in its own right. This remake of it makes it easy to find for a new generation, as well as updating the graphics and adding some new content, and it was a great deal of fun to revisit it. You can buy it for the Switch for $60 anywhere Nintendo Switch games are sold.
Clarkesworld continues strong this year with a mix of science fiction and fantasy, and edited by Neil Clarke, with Kate Baker producing and usually narrating the podcast. They published 80 stories in 2019 by my count.
Their translation stories are many of my favorites, as they have been for the past few years. Not only have they been publishing translations from Chinese authors, but also from Korean others, and a full third of the stories on this list are translations.
Every short story that is eligible for Hugo nominations this year which were first published by Clarkesworld are marked with an asterisk (*), novelettes are marked with a double-asterisk (**), novellas are marked with a triple-asterisk (***).
The List
1. “Symbiosis Theory” by Choyeop Kim, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, narrated by Kate Baker** This story is incredible, but it’s also a journey that I don’t want to spoil with snappy synopses. It begins with an artist who has memories of a place that she had never been.
2. “The Thing With the Helmets” by Emily C. Skaftun, narrated by Kate Baker * Cursed roller derby helmets and an alien invasion!
3. “To Catch All Sorts of Flying Things” by M.L. Clark, narrated by Kate Baker ** There is a truce among the intelligent species in this colonized area, but suddenly an egg is destroyed, the last egg of a species, and this genocide must be investigated.
4. “Operation Spring Dawn” by Mo Xiong, translated by Rebecca Kuang, narrated by Kate Baker ** Our future ice age is winding down, and now it is time to investigate all of the long-term experiments designed to make the world habitable again before reviving the remnants of humanity.
5. “How Alike Are We” by Bo-Young Kim, translated by Jihyun Park and Gord Sellar, narrated by Kate Baker *** A ship AI wakes up in a synthetic human body with no memory of why this is happening, even though the angry crew insists this was on their own insistence.
6. “Gaze of Robot, Gaze of Bird” by Eric Schwitzgebel, narrated by Kate Baker * The most peculiar AI behavior, which might appear to be a glitch from a casual observer, may have a profound underlying design.
7. “The Face of God” by Bo Balder, narrated by Kate Baker * When the god, a giant humanoid figure, crash-lands and is discovered to have supernatural healing powers, in its parts, the surrounding people make use of this new resource as best they can.
8. “Confessions of a Con Girl” by Nick Wolven, narrated by Kate Baker When social media for every person are publicly displayed and any person can affect another’s reputation with an up or down vote, what would the world look like?
Lightspeed Magazine is the award-nominated science fiction magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, and their podcast is produced by the excellent Skyboat Media. They publish about half of the stories they publish in text. They published about 48 stories in the podcast.
The stories eligible for the upcoming award season are marked with an asterisk (*), with novelettes eligible for the season marked with a double asterisk (**).
The List
1. “Hello, Hello” by Seanan McGuire, narrated by Justine Eyre Great tech invention that revolves around a translation program that seamlessly translates a person’s language including body language into your native language so that you can’t even tell that they are not doing it (including, i.e., sign language)
2. “Her Appetite, His Heart” by Dominica Phetteplace, narrated by Paul Boehmer* A man goes on a quest to find the woman he broke up with a year ago after having a revelation. But she is not as easy to find as he would hope.
3. “A Conch Shell’s Notes” by Shweta Adhyam, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki* Everyone knows that everyone has a voice inside their head that lays out the great options of your life, but we never know what the voice is saying to other people.
4. “The Death of Fire Station 10” by Ray Nayler, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki* Unlike most other buildings in the era of this story, Fire Station 10 was not born smart, it was only upgraded that way later. She has a special place in all of our hearts.
5. “Between the Dark and the Dark” by Deji Bryce Olukotun, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki** We monitor our colonies out there for signs of degradation, including signs of cannibalistic tendencies, so that we can end a colony before it becomes a danger to them. Is it always as obvious a choice as it seems?
Pseudopod is the weekly horror podcast edited by Shawn Garrett and Alex Hofelich.
Pseudopod publishes episodes weekly, with occasional Flash on the Borderlands episodes that collect 3 similar-themed flash stories for a single episode, for a total of 60 stories published in 2019, by my count.
Stories that are eligible for this year’s Hugo and Nebula Awards are marked with an asterisk (*), all of which would be credited to Pseudopod as the original publisher.
2. “Black Matter” by Vivian Shaw, narrated by Robert Eccles* A necromancer who works for the NTSB and is responsible for determining the cause of transportation disasters by talking to the dead!
3. “House Party Blues” by Suzanne Palmer, narrated by Halloween Bloodfrost Monster point of view as something that can possess and eat human beings, excellent POV work.
4. “Last Week I Was Esther” by Deborah L. Davitt, narrated by John Bell* Another great monster POV tale, a monster who wears its victims personas, but also carries them as voices inside its head forevermore.
5. “The Happiest Place” by Kevin Wabaunsee, narrated by John Bell* Theme park after the end of the world!
Cast of Wonders is the YA branch of the Escape Artists podcasts, edited by Marguerite Kenner and Katherine Inskip, covering all speculative genres and aiming to appeal to YA audiences. Marguerite Kenner announced at the end of the last episode of the year that that was the last episode she was editing before stepping down. She will be missed!
This year’s offerings included their usual staff pick re-airing of stories from last year (which are not considered for the list since they were already considered for a previous list), and stories for their Banned Books Week theme, for a total of about 43 stories considered for the list.
Short Stories that are Hugo and Nebula eligible for the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The List
1. “The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections” (Part 1 and Part 2) by Tina Connolly, narrated by Alethea Kontis This is one of my favorite stories in years. The layers! Based around confections that draw you back into immersive flashbacks that evoke a particular feeling based on the ingredients of the confection.
2. “Blame it on the Bees” by Rachel Menard, narrated by Tina Connolly* A teen grieving over her dead friend discovers that her friend’s soul has become housed in a flower.
3. “Common Grounds and Various Teas” by Sherin Nicole, narrated by Jesenia Pineda* A family that can harness the power of stories, and finding your own way in a family tradition.
4. “A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension” by Andrea M. Pawley, narrated by Dani Daly Tale from an android child’s point of view, about how she fits in with her family, and how roles change as the family changes.
The Drabblecast is a weekly (theoretically) podcast of strange stories for strange listeners (such as yourself). It is edited, published, and hosted by Norm Sherman. In 2016-2017 it gradually fell into hiatus for a couple years until a big relaunch plan with a Kickstarter to help keep it going. It’s very exciting that the podcast is going again and I hope it goes well. This list covers the years of 2016-2019, which includes stories both before and after the hiatus.
I don’t consider my own stories for these lists, but I did want to mention that two of my own stories have been published in Drabblecast in that time: “I Will Remain” (narrated by Nick Camm) and “We Do Not Speak of the Not Speaking” (narrated by Norm Sherman).
I do consider stories that I previously published on Diabolical Plots, but add an extra story to the list so that it doesn’t bump one off the list.
Stories eligible for Hugo and Nebula awards for this year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The List
1. “The Best Scarlet Ceremony Ever!” by Shaenon K. Garrity* An original story commissioned for Lovecraft month, advertised as Sweet Valley High meets Lovecraft.
2. “Giraffe Cyborg Cleans House!” by Matthew Sanborn Smithread One of the most ungainly household cyborgs really just wants to help however it can, but life isn’t easy for a household giraffe cyborg.
3. “Necessary Cuts” by Bryan Miller* Another original story for Lovecraft Month, this one about copyediting a Lovecraft style book of madness.
4. “Beauty Tips for the Apocalypse” by Karen Heuler* An original story for Women and Aliens Month, which is exactly what it sounds like.
5. “Night of the Living POTUS” by Adam-Troy Castro Whenever a new President is sworn in, on the first night of his Presidency he has to face off against the resurrected vicious versions of every POTUS that preceded them.
6. “The Translator” by Eboni J. Dunbar* Being a translator for aliens is much more than simply learning a language.
Spies in Disguise is a 2019 computer-animated action/comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The movie follows super-suave celebrity spy (ala James Bond) Lance Sterling (Will Smith), who is on the top of his game, able to infiltrate an enemy’s facility and make it look effortless with a combination of martial arts, gadgets, and catchy one-liners.
But Sterling seems to meet his match facing off against an unknown adversary with a robot hand (Ben Mendelsohn), when he takes the blame for the theft of an expensive drone, and barely escapes agency headquarters when Marcy Koppel (Rashida Jones) of the agency tries to to apprehend him for it. He makes an unlikely friend in a gadget-inventor Walter Beckett (Tom Holland) he got fired from the agency that same day for his flashy but pacifist gadgets. Shortly after, Sterling unknowingly drinks down an experimental chemical formula that turns him into… a pigeon, albeit a pigeon with human intelligence and speech. Being a pigeon makes most of his tactics… less than effective, though it does have a certain appeal in the fact that there is a major manhunt looking for him but they don’t know he’s a pigeon.
I went into this movie with low expectations. It looked like an okay movie to take a kid too, and I thought there was a pretty good chance that I would nap through it. But I thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought it was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed Will Smith in particular–it reminded me in some ways of his character in the original Men In Black, suave when he needs to be, but out of his element, with a sense of humor that helps him get through more difficult times. I liked the interaction between them, Sterling’s confident and gungho but violent means eventually coming to see the benefits to Beckett’s preferred nonviolent engagement. The villain is suitably scary and easy to root against. My particular favorite part of the movie were the comic relief from the secondary pigeon characters.
I would recommend it, especially if you have kids, but even if not.
Podcastle is the weekly fantasy podcast published by Escape Artists, which at the beginning of 2019 was co-edited by Jen Albert and Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali. During the year Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali stepped down and now at this time the podcast is co-edited by Jen Albert and Cherae Clark. As well as weekly full-length feature episodes, they also publish occasional standalone flash stories as bonus episodes, as well as multiple short-short stories for the occasional feature episode collection.
Podcastle published 50 stories by my count in 2019.
As it happens, every story on this list was originally published prior to 2019, so none of them are eligible for Hugo and Nebula awards, but there are plenty of other great stories published there for you to consider if you like that sort of thing.
The List
1. “The Resurrectionist” by J.P. Sullivan, narrated by Wilson Fowlie The skill of resurrecting people has fallen out of favor but there are still people who do it, it’s a matter of visiting the deceased in their dreamlike interstitial space and bringing them back across the divide by hook or by crook.
2. “The Bone Poet and God” by Matt Dovey, narrated by Eliza Chan Every bone carries four magical runes on their body, engraved to the bone, including one that they are born with and isn’t revealed until they die.
3. “The Masochist’s Assistant” by Auston Habershaw, narrated by Matt Dovey It is no easy job being the assistant of a magical masochist who demands he be killed at regular intervals every day.
4. “Balloon Man” by Shiv Ramdas, narrated by Kaushik Narasimhan Whatever is true, the opposite is also true. That is the way of stories.
5. “The Deliverers of Their Country” by E. Nesbit, narrated by Katherine Inskip Dragons are back in the world and proving to be quite a menace, which Effie only finds out when one gets stuck in her eye.
Escape Pod is the weekly science fiction podcast, one of the Escape Artists family of podcasts, edited by S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty.
Escape Pod published a total of 41 stories in 2018, which is lower than it has been in some years because of a combination of longer stories that were split across multiple episodes, as well as mixing in “Flashback Friday” episodes this year, which are republications of stories published earlier in Escape Pod’s history–since Flashback Friday stories have already been considered for previous Best of Escape Pod lists here, they were not considered this time.
And let me say that Escape Pod has been in incredible form this year–it was very hard to winnow the list down to this length, and I had to cut stories that I would recommend to get it down to the length. If you like what you read in this list, there are many many more where that came from!
Every short story that is eligible for Hugo nominations this year which were first published by Escape Pod are marked with an asterisk (*).
The List
1. “Failsafe” by Tim Chawaga, narrated by Tina Connolly* Failsafes are legally required human components to automated systems that serve as impediments to machine uprisings by being able to refuse to participate if something starts happening. There aren’t many left and they are left and they are chosen specifically for their empathy.
2. “When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis” by Annalee Newitz, read by Louis Evans I love stories of artificial intelligences that do great things because they find new ways to apply their specialized programming, and this is one of those! In this case a drone designed to help the CDC stop disease outbreaks early.
3. “Optimizing the Verified Good” by Effie Seiberg, narrated by Trendane Sparks Battlebots! This story is about a cleaning bot that operates in a battlebot arena cleaning up the damaged parts after battles to clear the way for the next battle. It decides that a more optimal way to keep the arena clean would be to reduce the amount of damaged robots–another in the subgenre of robots following their programming and doing unexpected things as a result.
4. “The Great Scientist Rivalry on Planet Sourdough” by Beth Goder, narrated by Divya Breed, Mur Lafferty, Adam Pracht,Alasdair Stuart, and Tina Connolly Hilarious full-cast recording with multiple point of view characters all with their own clashing motivations.
5. “Flash Crash” by Louis Evans, narrated by Ibba Armancas* Another in the robots following their programming and doing unexpected things, in this case an investment AI expanding as it goes.
