As in my two previous posts, I've read through the short fiction output of Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Asimov's and Strange Horizons for the third quarter of this year, plus one novella from Subterranean Press and four novellas from Tor.com (but see my doubts on that score below), following my methodology. I had hoped to finish this at the beginning of September, but got sidetracked by investigating the Retro Hugo eligible fiction of 1940, a satisfying but lengthy process. My conclusions are as follows:

I bought and read all four of the books marketed as "Tor.com novellas". It was more difficulty than I expected to find a listing of authors, title and publication dates – the best I found was this prospective listing of the covers posted in June, before any of them had been issued, and although all the listed works do appear to have been published on schedule, it would have been helpful to have an index. More seriously, by my count two of the four are over the 40,000 word limit for the Hugo Best Novella category – I reckon that Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson is more like 43,000 and Sunset Mantle by Alter Reiss looks like 42,000 to me. I'm open to correction, of course, and even if I'm right, both are within the range of discretion for the Hugo administrators.

I read the four on a transatlantic flight, which may not be the best circumstances to appreciate them. Paul Cornell's Witches of Lychford grabbed me; the other three (the last is Binti by Nnedi Okorafor) less so. So I'm adding Witches of Lychford to my nominations list.

While we're on separately published novellas, Subterranean Press's Speak Easy, by Catherynne M. Valente, also failed to grab me; Valente's prose is gorgeous as usual, but I was not engaged by the plot or characters. I am in some doubt as to whether my hit rate for separately published novellas justifies the outlay in acquiring them, and I am considering how thoroughly I feel I need to look at all nine of the Tor.com novellas published in the last quarter of 2015.

From the Tor.com website, the three stories that jumped out at me were "Islands off the Coast of Capitola, 1978", by David Herter, a novelette; "Fabulous Beasts", by Priya Sharma, also a novelette; and "Please Undo This Hurt", by Seth Dickinson, a short story at just over 7,000 words.

Clarkesworld achieved the impossible with an anthropomorphic robot story that actually worked for me, "Android Whores Can't Cry", by Natalia Theodoridou – in general, it's a trope that I absolutely hate, but this had sufficient originality and verve to overcome my resistance. The other two that particularly grabbed me were "Security Check", by Han Song, and "Loving Grace", by Erica L. Satifka, but neither sufficiently to get on my list. Clarkesworld also published the worst story I have read from 2015, "The Hunger Tower", by Pan Haitian, which has been expertly dissected by Greg Hullender and Vivienne Raper.

From Asimov's, the standout story for me was "Caisson" by Karl Bunker. Greg Hullender complains that it had no sf element at all, but I think he's simply wrong; it's about a fossil egg that (probably) hatches. I also liked “Acres of Perhaps” by Will Ludwigsen and “The God Year” by Jim Grimsley. One story where the sfnal element did seem to me completely irrelevant to the plot was “Calved” by Sam J. Miller. I suspect it will pick up a fair few nomination votes but mine won't be one of them.

Perhaps I was suffering from pre-Christmas slump at the time of reading, but Strange Horizons' fiction didn't grab me as much as on some previous readings. Having said that, I did enjoy "It Brought Us All Together", by Marissa Lingen, a great high school plague story.

I see that my tastes are in almost complete opposition to Greg Hullender's aggregation at Rocket Stack Rank (apart from "The Hunger Tower"), but I really appreciate the work he has done in pulling the lists of recommended stories together for July, August and September. Likewise I have precisely one crossover (Priya Sharma's "Fabulous Beasts") with the Ladybusiness list for the third quarter. Tastes vary.

What I'm still considering for nomination

Novellas
Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric's Demon (Spectrum)
Paul Cornell, Witches of Lychford
Eugene Fischer, "The New Mother" (Asimov's, Apr/May 2015)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch "Inhuman Garbage" (Asimov's, Mar 2015)
Allen M. Steele, "The Long Wait" (Asimov's, Jan 2015)

Novelette
Eneasz Brodski, "Red Legacy" (Asimov's, Feb 2015)
Paul Evanby, "Utrechtenaar" (1, 2 – Strange Horizons, June 2015 – surprised to find it only 9,000 words)
Sarah Pinsker, "Our Lady of the Open Road" (Asimov's, Jun 2015)
Priya Sharma, "Fabulous Beasts" (Tor.com, July 2015)
Vandana Singh, "Ambiguity Machines: An Examination" (Tor.com, Apr 2015 – at 7800 words it just scrapes into this category)

Short Stories
Karl Bunker, "Caisson" (Asimov's, August 2015)
Nino Cipri, "The Shape of My Name" (Tor.com, Mar 2015)
L.S. Johnson, "Vacui Magia" (Strange Horizons, Jan 2015)
Jay O'Connell, "Willing Flesh" (Asimov's, Apr/May 2015)
Robert Reed, "The Empress in Her Glory" (Clarkesworld, Apr 2015)
Kelly Robson, "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill" (Clarkesworld, Feb 2015)
Iona Sharma, "Nine Thousand Hours" (Strange Horizons, April 2015)
Natalia Theodoridou, "Android Whores Can't Cry" (Clarkesworld, July 2015)

All three categories full, but I shall read the fourth quarter’s sf from those outlets anyway, and a few more, then start pruning.

Those of you who grew up in the UK around the same time as I did will surely remember this fun BBC series, shown on Saturday mornings in the 1970s. It concerns the adventures of seven kids whose den is a disused double decker bus somewhere near Watford (actually of course Elstree studios). Here are the absurdly catchy opening titles:

Here Come The Double Deckers may not be Great Art, but I think that it is overdue for an episode-by-episode analysis of the kind we've seen for many cult shows. (An interesting coincidence – 17 episodes were made in total; the same number as The Prisoner.) I can't pretend to follow the likes of Tat Wood, let alone Philip Sandifer, but this is a first step towards reclaiming this show.

Each of the episodes used to be individually available on Youtube; alas, they have been taken down, but it's pretty easy to get hold of on DVD and by other means. Each episode is only 20 minutes long. Give it a try; you may be surprised how much you like it.

Episode 1: Tiger Takes Off
First shown: 12 September 1970 (US), 1 January 1971 (UK)
Director: Harry Booth
Writers: Glyn Jones and Harry Booth
Appearing apart from the Double Deckers:
Melvyn Hayes as Albert the Street Cleaner

Plot

This is the one everyone remembers: Brains designs a hovercraft, and Tiger accidentally gets inside it and switches it on, giving rise to hilarious chase scenes through studio sets and carefully selected streets.

Glorious moments

• The opening scenes where Brains enters the den by a complex locking mechanism.
• The other complex mechanism by which Brains moves a bit of paper to the top of a flight of steps which he then climbs himself.

• Tiger: "What's 'decorum'?"
  Scooper: "Whatever it is, this meeting hasn't got it."

• The slapstick of assembling the hovercraft, with the kids actually holding still for the sequence of snapshots at the end rather than using freeze frames or, god help us, actual photographs.
  
• The chase is really well put together (if just a little repetitive, but come on, it doesn't last all that long).
• The classic line is when the rest of the gang have established communication with Tiger and are trying to help her tell right from left:
  

  Brains (reminding Tiger which is her right hand): "The hand you hold your spoon in…"
  Tiger (indignantly): "I haven't got a spoon!"

  (One of the best lines in the entire series.)
  

Less glorious moments

Doughnut is fat. It's funny, you see. (More of this to come, I'm afraid.)

Billie ends up nursing the boys at the end. (Though this is because she was sensible enough not to go into the water.)

What's all this then?

The hovercraft was cutting-edge technology, not to mention a triumph of British engineering, when this was made – the first commercial services across the Channel had launched in 1968. Brains' real innovation is the fuel, which is rather lightly skipped over.

Lots of kids would have played at building a hovercraft and taking it for a ride. The plot, such as it is, is glorious wish fulfillment.

Where's that?

This episode has some of the most extensive location work of any, and thanks to David Noades we can identify most of it. As he comments, the shot of Doughnut feeding pigeons in Trafalgar Square must have been very tricky (and presumably expensive) to set up, for not very much payoff. The libary is the Elstree library. Most of the hovercraft chase is in the Borehamwood Estate, and the pond at the end of that sequence is the duckpond in Letchmore Heath, which still looks much the same according to Google Maps.

Who's that?

Debbie Russ is the youngest of the regular cast, playing Tiger when she was only 10. This is one of her best episodes of the 17. It was her first filmed role; after Double Deckers she did a couple more in the early 1970s, but did not stay in acting. She is available for voiceover work.

Melvyn Hayes appears as Albert in 11 of the 17 episodes, and is also credited as dialogue coach for the kids. His first big TV role was as Edek in a 1957 production of Ian Serrailler's novel The Silver Sword, in which Barry Letts played his father and Fraser Hines the mysterious Jan. His first big film role was in 1957 as the young version of Peter Cushing's Victor Frankenstein; he also appeared as a sidekick to Cushing in 1960 in The Flesh and the Fiends, and then as Cliff Richard's sidekick in The Young Ones (1961) and Summer Holiday (1963), the last of these also featuring a converted double-decker London bus. Hayes is the one in the hat; Jeremy "Boba Fett" Bulloch also appears:

At the time Here Come The Double Deckers was made, he was married to Wendy Padbury, who had just finished her time as Zoe on Doctor Who. He is probably best known in the UK for his role as Bombardier 'Gloria' Beaumont in every episode of the 8 series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, which ran from 1974 to 1981. He is still working, and turns 81 later this month.

See you next week…

…for The Case of the Missing Doughnut.

A poll about books which are celebrating their anniversaries this year. Recommendations (including from me) in the comments.

As with the previous year, the best-selling book of 1916 was a forgotten work by Booth Tarkington, in this case Seventeen. The best-selling book of 1966 was Valley of the Dolls.