Patricia Abbott (pattinase): Ed Gorman's "THE FACE" which is truly amazing. Hope he got the credit for writing it it deserves.

Friday, February 21, 2025

Ed Gorman's "THE FACE" which is truly amazing. Hope he got the credit for writing it it deserves.

https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v084n04_1993-04_Lenny_Silv3r-dtsg0318-SLiV/page/n2/mode/1up

Thanks to Jerry House for finding it.

9 comments:

Diane Kelley said...: Ed Gorman had the ability to write in several genres. What a talented guy!; 11:35 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: I agree. His short stories were memorable, if usually melancholy. He was always on my list of favorite mystery short story writers.; 11:52 AM
Jerry House said...: It came in ninth in the Locus Poll for Best Short Story that year. Ed shoulda won. (The winner was "Close Encounter" by Connie Willis, a good story, but....); 12:50 PM
pattinase (abbott) said...: I can't imagine a better story than this one.; 3:05 PM
Todd Mason said...: One of the few 1990s issues of the magazine I've never owned, much less read. Late than never, 32 years later. Willis was and remains both popular and well-respected in sf fandom/not least the LOCUS-reader subdivision. Ed's story would have to cure a range of neo-natal diseases to beat any of her Pretty Good, much less better, stories.; 7:15 PM
Todd Mason said...: The longlists for 1993 publications: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ay.cgi?28+1994 Ed's story came in 9th, as Jerry notes...one of Kathe Koja's came in 8th. It was a ridiculously good year for short fiction, even by most standards. (Willis placed high in three categories in the '94 poll for ''93, was *1 for both sf novel and short story in the previous poll.); 7:26 PM
Todd Mason said...: Best Short Story
1 Close Encounter Connie Willis
2 Mwalimu in the Squared Circle Mike Resnick
3 The Story So Far Martha Soukup
4 The Bone Woman Charles de Lint
5 Martin on a Wednesday Nancy Kress
6 The Battle of Long Island Nancy Kress
7 Feedback Joe Haldeman
8 I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood Kathe Koja
9 The Face Ed Gorman
10 Useful Phrases Gene Wolfe
11 Sacred Cow Bruce Sterling
12 The Extra Greg Egan
12 The Good Pup Bridget McKenna
14 The Sri Lanka Position Robert Silverberg
15 The Plot to Save Hitler W. R. Thompson
16 Love Toys of the Gods Pat Cadigan
17 Everything That Rises, Must Converge Michael Armstrong
18 Sinner-Saints Kristine Kathryn Rusch
19 Carriers Brian Stableford
20 "Forever," Said the Duck Jonathan Lethem
20 Sea-Scene, or, Vergil and the Ox-Thrall Avram Davidson
22 Cliffs That Laughed R. A. Lafferty

...something in the water, perhaps.; 7:29 PM
Todd Mason said...: Some--a few--of these writers have received everything good they're (are/were) due. Most, not so much.; 7:36 PM
Todd Mason said...: And just before Ed's story in the F&SF issue, Barry's casually brilliant setting of Emily Dickinson in 1993-contemporary NYC, and how things go. https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v084n04_1993-04_Lenny_Silv3r-dtsg0318-SLiV/page/n31/mode/1up?view=theater

And I find I could've read Ed's story and congratulated him on it if I'd fetched my copy of CONFEDERACY OF THE DEAD from the moving boxes much sooner after buying it just before one passage from domicile to domicile.; 8:27 PM