"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections" is a fantasy story by Tina Connolly. It was first published on Tor.com, in 2018.
Saffron is a food taster for the cruel Duke Michal, forced to sample the magically psychoactive confections prepared by the Head Pastry Chef — her imprisoned husband, who can only communicate with her via the specific memories and emotions that the pastries evoke.
"The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections" was a finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novelette [1] and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette of 2018. [2]
Tangent Online called it "enchanting" and "clever and well written". [3] Locus observed that the majority of the story is composed of memories of Saffron's life that are evoked by the pastries, with the banquet forming "a great frame narrative that builds tension perfectly." [4] Rocket Stack Rank , however, faulted the conclusion for going against the rules established earlier in the story, with insufficient foreshadowing to indicate that this was possible. [5]
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine Computer Shopper and was responsible for its monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet.
Peter Watts is a Canadian science fiction author. He specializes in hard science fiction. He earned a Ph.D from the University of British Columbia in 1991 from the Department of Zoology and Resource Ecology. He went on to hold several academic research and teaching positions, and worked as a marine-mammal biologist. He began publishing fiction around the time he finished graduate school.
Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky is an American author who works primarily in speculative fiction genres, writing under the name Elizabeth Bear. She won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Tideline", and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "Shoggoths in Bloom". She is one of a small number of writers who have gone on to win multiple Hugo Awards for fiction after winning the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Mary Robinette Kowal is an American author, translator, art director, and puppeteer. She has worked on puppetry for shows including Jim Henson Productions and the children's show LazyTown. As an author, she is a four-time Hugo Award winner, and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2019-2021.
Rachel Swirsky is an American literary, speculative fiction and fantasy writer, poet, and editor living in Oregon. She was the founding editor of the PodCastle podcast and served as editor from 2008 to 2010. She served as vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2013.
Tina Connolly is an American science fiction and fantasy writer and poet. Her 2012 debut novel Ironskin was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Her flash fiction podcast "Toasted Cake" won the Parsec Award for Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team.
Alyssa Wong is an American writer of speculative fiction, comics, poetry, and games. They are a recipient of the Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, and Locus Award.
Uncanny Magazine is an American science fiction and fantasy online magazine, edited and published by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, based in Urbana, Illinois. Its mascot is a space unicorn.
Sarah Pinsker is an American science fiction and fantasy author. She is a nine-time finalist for the Nebula Award, and her debut novel A Song for a New Day won the 2019 Nebula for Best Novel while her story Our Lady of the Open Road won 2016 award for Best Novelette. Her novelette "Two Truths and a Lie" received both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. Her fiction has also won the Philip K. Dick Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Tiptree Awards.
Brooke Bolander is an American author of speculative fiction.
Neon Yang, formerly JY Yang, is a Singaporean writer of English-language speculative fiction best known for the Tensorate series of novellas published by Tor.com, which have been finalists for the Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, World Fantasy Award, Lambda Literary Award, British Fantasy Award, and Kitschie Award. The first novella in the series, The Black Tides of Heaven, was named one of the "100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time" by Time magazine. Their debut novel, The Genesis of Misery, the first book in The Nullvoid Chronicles, was published in 2022 by Tor Books, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, received a nomination for the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Science Fiction, and was a Finalist for the 2023 Locus Award for Best First Novel and 2023 Compton Crook Award.
Caroline Mariko Yoachim is an author of speculative fiction who writes as Caroline M. Yoachim and Caroline Yoachim.
"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" is a fantasy short story by P. Djèlí Clark, about George Washington's teeth. It was first published in Fireside Fiction in 2018.
The Only Harmless Great Thing is a 2018 alternate history story by Brooke Bolander, exploring the conjunction of Topsy the Elephant and the Radium Girls scandal. It was published by Tor.com.
Dexter Gabriel, better known by his pen name Phenderson Djèlí Clark, is an American speculative fiction writer and historian, who is an assistant professor in the department of history at the University of Connecticut. He uses a pen name to differentiate his literary work from his academic work, and has also published under the name A. Phenderson Clark. This pen name, "Djèlí", makes reference to the griots – traditional Western African storytellers, historians and poets.
"For He Can Creep" is a 2019 historical fantasy short story by Siobhan Carroll, about the historical figure Christopher Smart and his cat, Jeoffry.
Nebula Awards Showcase 54 is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short works edited by Bengali writer Nibedita Sen. It was first published in trade paperback by SFWA, Inc. in November 2020, followed by an ebook edition from the same publisher in December of the same year.
The Best of Harry Turtledove is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author Harry Turtledove. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Subterranean Press in April 2021.
John Wiswell is an American science fiction and fantasy author whose short fiction has won the Locus and Nebula Awards and been a finalist for the Hugo, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards. His debut fantasy novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, was released in April 2024 by DAW Books and Quercus.
"Murder by Pixel: Crime and Responsibility in the Digital Darkness" is a 2022 science fiction short story by S. L. Huang, about chatbots. It was first published in Clarkesworld Magazine.