I don't do top ten lists each year, and in a year like 2015 it poses a huge challenge, in no small part because I neither read much new fiction nor saw a large number of new movies.  That said, there were books released that I did enjoy, including the horror tales These Last Embers by Simon Stranzas and The Visible Filth by Nathan Ballingrud.  Many fans held Alastair Reynolds's novella Slow Bullets in their hands and found it wanting, perhaps because it lacked the heft (read: page numbers) of Revelation Space or Blue Remembered Earth, but I found its bare-bones tale among his best work.  Another space opera, the incredible Archangel by Marguerite Reed, announced the arrival of a bold new talent.

This month's Watching the Future column for SF Signal will feature a recap of genre movies, including a list of my favorite science fiction movies.  Although it seemed like a good year for SF cinema in general, too much of it left me underwhelmed.  Outside of the genre, movies seemed to fare much better.  Below includes my favorite movies released in 2015.  It is worth your while to seek them out.

In no particular order:

Mad Max: Fury Road
Carol
Brooklyn
Ex Machina
The Revenant
Creed
The Martian
Bone Tomahawk
Spotlight
​Inside Out

A new year has begun.  Thank Jeebus.

I look at 2015 as a mixed bag.  On the plus side, I sold an autobiographical essay to Flame Tree Press for its book Science Fiction Movie Posters by David Golder.  I also finished fiction, though...

...on the minus side, my new fiction did not sell, and I have yet to find homes for two pieces.  I don't even want to go into a few of the personal upheavals that occurred as the year drew to a close.

I don't have many resolutions for 2016, except some of the usual: write more (I will work on my film column for SF Signal this weekend, which will include a list of what I considered the year's best genre fare, and will begin plotting and writing stories I've been meaning to get to), read more (I met my reading challenge on Goodreads, a task I hope to repeat this year), and try to be a bit better about completing what set out to do.

Wishing you all a very good year.