Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007“Finisterra” (novelette)
by David Moles
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 2007

(The first of a series in which I’ll review the stories slated for inclusion in Gardner Dozois’ upcoming The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, due out from St. Martin’s Griffin in July 2008.)

The Story: Bianca Nazario, an engineer from a Spanish/Muslim community where her status as both a woman and a Christian stifled her talents and prospects, accepts a job from a shady character named Valadez. That job takes her to Sky, a gas giant planet with an Earth-like nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere but no ground, where gigantic flying creatures called zaratánes have become settlements—living, floating islands kilometers long with ecologies and weather patterns, where humans eke out meager existences. (more…)