Winning Mars
Appeared in: Interzone 196 and Dangerous Games, an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann)
One liner: First Mars colony accidentally started by reality TV show.
Recognition: Honorable Mention, 2005 Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois; Virtual Best of the Year, 2005, by Rich Horton
What the reviewers say: Jason Stoddard’s ‘Winning Mars’ is a glittering string of pearls (The Agony Column)
Saving Mars
Appeared in: Interzone 200
One liner: Geeks on Mars vs power players on Earth.
Recognition: Honorable Mention, 2005 Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois; Virtual Best of the Year, 2005, by Rich Horton
What the reviewers say: Heady stuff, and Stoddard manages to pack in a lot of political machination with a dash of the human condition. (Tangent Online)
Softly Shining in the Forbidden Dark
Appeared in: Interzone 208
One liner: In a lonely universe, how far will we go for contact?
What the reviewers say: Intensely poetic . . . if the reader can plough through the opening, he’ll have a mind-stretching experience in reward. (Tangent Online)
The Best of Your Life
Appeared in: Interzone 207
One liner: Leverage your entire future value for a life you could never otherwise afford.
What the reviewers say: A dark and scarily believable take on the Brave New World that may await us. (Best SF)
Far Horizon
Appeared in: Interzone 214
One liner: What would you do if you could do anything?
What the reviewers say: This is one of those increasingly rare stories that reminds the jaded reader of why they started reading SF in the first place. (Colin Harvey)
Panacea
Appeared in: Sci Fiction
One liner: What if one of those 19th-century patent medicines actually worked—and extended life indefinitely?
Recognition: Finalist, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award; Finalist, The Sidewise Awards for Alternate History; Honorable Mention, 2005 Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois; Virtual Best of the Year, 2005, by Rich Horton
What the reviewers say: When it comes to alternate history, Stoddard handles this extremely well: his alternative takes on World War II and on the first use of nuclear weapons are particularly persuasive — and extremely chilling. (IROSF)
The Elephant Ironclads
Appeared in: The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (original antho edited by Ellen Datlow)
One liner: What if Lincoln had accepted those war elephants?
Willpower
Appeared in: Futurismic, upcoming in Rich Horton’s Unplugged: The Best of Online Fiction
One liner: There’s only one thing that can get you there.
What the reviewers say: And Jason Stoddard’s “Willpower” is a very moving look at a man stuck in an interesting form of economic distress — taking bids on daily jobs online — who ends up fortuitously with a chance to be a Martian astronaut — partly, for both good and ill, because he used to play a game based on a Burroughs-like Mars. The story is unabashedly for SF lovers, and it recalled to me in a way the way Sturgeon’s “The Man Who Lost the Sea” made me feel. (Rich Horton)
Changing the Tune
Appeared in: Futurismic
One liner: Actually, Cory’s summary says it all.
Recognition: Honorable Mention, 2005 Year’s Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois
What the reviewers say: A sweet dystopian short about a world where every utterance is subject to offended micro-lawsuits from eavesdropping, entrenched Gen-X and Boomer busybodies. (BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow)
Jack’s Gift
Appeared in: Futurismic
One liner: Santa’s in Alaska. No, really.
What the reviewers say: “Jack’s Gift” is a quirky, delightful seasonal short story about the rise of the artificial, institutionalized Santa. (Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing)
Terms of Service
Appeared in: Darker Matter
One liner: A young government employee must renegotiate a very strange contract.
What the reviewers say: A delicately constructed confection of a story which is immensely entertaining whilst never once going for the cheap laugh. A surprise of the most pleasant kind. (Tangent Online)
True History
Appeared in: Darker Matter
One liner: What if we could make ourselves anything we wanted to be?
What the reviewers say: Stoddard is an effortlessly ambitious author, able to balance intimate character moments with colossal ideas. (The Fix Online)
Unfinished
Appeared in: Strange Horizons
One liner: When you’re Editing minds, what do you really see?
Recognition: Honorable Mention in L. Blunt Jackson’s Best of 2004 on IROSF
Revision
Appeared in: Strange Horizons
One liner: Designer minds and the cult of the collaborative mind.
Recognition: I think the central idea here is fascinating, and Stoddard is using it to ask good questions about the nature of personality and the dangers of meddling with it. (Rich Horton)
Exception
Appeared in: Strange Horizons
One liner: One of the strangest minds you’d ever hope to Edit.
Recognition: Honorable Mention, 2005 The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Gardner Dozois.
What the reviewers say: As with last year, my favorite novelette (from Strange Horizons) was a Gillam Anderson story by Jason Stoddard, “Exception”. (Rich Horton)
Making Payments
Appeared in: Strange Horizons
One liner: Life in the Young Couples Colony.
Fermi Packet
Appeared in: Talebones
One liner: What if it was the network, not the planet, that our visitors were after?
What the reviewers say: While post-singularity fiction is one of the leading flavours of big-name sf at the moment, particularly in the UK, I don’t encounter many short stories of the type, and very few that simultaneously press as many buttons as Stoddard’s output manages to. (Velcro City Tourist Board)
Anima, Animus
Appeared in: Talebones
One liner: Finding a soul. Losing another.
Recognition: Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction 2006, Gardner Dozois.
Mini Jesus Clones Replacing Elvis As Most Popular Holiday Gift
Appeared in: Fiction Inferno
One liner: The title says it all.
What the reviewers say: “One of the most deranged, inventive, and original pieces we’ve seen all year.”
Moments of Brilliance (GUD #0)
Appeared in: GUD #0
One liner: Baby go boom.
What the reviewers say: The language is provocative and the imagery borders on lush. Once I caught the flow of the story, I was captivated. (Tangent Online)
Taos Melody
Appeared in: Fortean Bureau
One liner: “The most Fortean story we’ve seen.”