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Published in Asimov’s, October-November  2004

(This story is collected in The Turing Test from Elastic Press)

Published in Asimov’s, March 2004

Reviews:

“From the writer’s bio we learn that Chris Beckett has been a social worker, a career that judging from “Tammy Pendant” lends a tint of gritty nastiness to one’s worldview. The title character is a problem teen caught in the ministrations of the British social service. We meet her in between foster homes, suffering the attentions of psychologists and caseworkers. Tammy is bitter and angry. She alienates everyone who might otherwise care for her. All the kids at the center where Tammy now lives know about the Shifters, a group of people who can move between worlds. Here’s Tammy’s self-defined salvation. She seduces a Shifter, steals his bag of magic pills, and takes one, only to be caught by the police and brought to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. The system, it seems, won’t let her go. Does the experience change Tammy? That would be telling. Suffice it to say that this is an excellent story with a mean streak that’s true to the very end.” – Jeremy Lyon, Tangent

Published in Interzone, February 2003

(This story is collected in The Turing Test from Elastic Press)

Published in Interzone, October 2002

(This story is collected in The Turing Test from Elastic Press)

Reprints:

• A.I.s,  edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann,  published by Ace Books 2004.

Published in Interzone, June-July 2002

Reprints:

• Year’s Best Science Fiction # 20, edited by Gardner Dozois, published by St Martin’s Press, 2003

Continue reading “To Become a Warrior”

Published in Interzone, November 2001; 4th place in annual Interzone reader’s poll.

Published in Interzone, October 2001; 1st place in annual Interzone reader’s poll.

(The starting point for the novel of the same name)

Reprints:

• Year’s Best Science Fiction # 19, edited by Gardner Dozois, published by St Martin’s Press, 2002

Published in Interzone, October 2000

(This story is collected in The Turing Test from Elastic Press)

Reviews:

“I don’t often laugh out loud when reading, and even less often at stories that are not comedic. “Snapshots of Apirania” by Chris Beckett is not comedic, and it made me laugh. It is funny in a peculiar sort of way. The story is simply the monolog of someone displaying their vacation slides, from their trip to Apirania, a world somewhere else in our galaxy. The narrator is as clueless as any aloha shirted American wandering the streets of Lhasa looking for french fries. It is the tension between the scenes described in the snapshots and the narrator’s remarks on them that brings both laughter and sadness. A clever story, this is the gem of the issue.” – Jay Lake, Tangent

Published in Interzone, April 2000

(This story is collected in The Turing Test from Elastic Press)

Reviews:

“Simply put, this is the best time travel story I’ve ever read. The story opens on the yacht of Alex, a recent college graduate and ne’er-do-well, who has invited his friend Han on a sailing trip. They spend some time happily cruising about the Mediterranean together until Alex’s meddling father drops in (via helicopter, of course,) and gifts them with a time machine. The three of them decide to sail their ship to the sack of Troy, and join in the “fun” of the Trojan Horse. Alex, who is dubious about this whole affair from the beginning is out-voted by the exuberance of his father and his friend. One of the great things about this piece is how much it really is about Alex. Both Han and Alex’s father go through the adventure fairly unfazed, but Alex is affected very deeply by it. Things will never be the same for him, and, with luck, the reader as well.” – Lynda Moorhouse, Tangent