Daily Science Fiction: June 2012 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

Summer is almost done and we have just started with the beginning of Daily SF’s lazy day offerings. So what did we think of them? I’m glad you asked”

 

Debbie’s petunias are dying and her girlfriend Sharon is leaving her, and it’s all the aliens fault in “The Time of Their Visitation” by Lisa Nohealani Morton (debut 6/1 and reviewed by Frank D). Three horned aliens have come to Earth to observe humanity. Debbie is one of the ten percent who can see them. Their entry into our society has changed the way people have thought about their lives and many, like Debbie, resent them for it.

“The Time” is a story about human relationships with voyeuristic aliens as a backdrop. Although harmless, the aliens are getting blamed for every small incident in the world. The reader enters the tale while Sharon is in the middle of moving out. Debbie’s life is falling apart around her and the aliens appear to be enjoying her misfortune.

“The Time” is an examination on how we are quick to blame external events for our own problems. This realization comes to Debbie early into the piece as she observes others attributing the aliens for their own misfortunes. I found this story sweet but too much like other breakup tales. The aliens made it unique but the author wanted to make them a minor subplot so not to take away her real intent for the piece. She succeeded.

 

In “The Princess and the Monster” by Ryan Creel (debut 6/4 and reviewed by Anonymous) a dragon is pursuing its prey. During the pursuit it flies here and it flies there, generally causing mayhem and fear amongst the humans who see it. It eventually finds the elf it seeks and the story ends with jokey finish.

This didn’t work for me on many levels. It was quite a brief story, yet full of jarring usages of a writing style most writers avoid. I found an overuse of conjunctions, particularly with the word ‘And.’ There were several sentences that repeated the same words and phrases, giving the prose an echo effect. A good example being a comparison of the dragons pupils to knives that was repeated. Of course all of this may have been done for a reason (there are no right or wrongs) but to me it felt like the whole thing needed a final edit.

I liked some of the descriptions of the dragon, but ultimately the whole story was based on withholding information from the reader. The dragon knows why it hunts the elf. The reason forms the punchline (or do I mean twist?) of the story, yet this is kept from the reader although it would be foremost in the dragon’s mind. The reader is led to believe it hunts the elf for other reasons. The end of the story felt like a joke–one I have come across before and one that made me feel I’d wasted my time reading the story–and so I felt the ending weakened the story as a whole. Two rocket dragons.

 

“An Open Letter in Defense of Our Alien Overlords” by Katherine Heath Shaeffer (debut 6/5 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) is written as a letter to the editor that outlines the subjugation of Earth by an alien force. The author outlines the good that has come from the occupation, like forced peace and improved environment. He goes on to show how even the alien action of using numbers implanted by genetic tagging serves a higher purpose. But recent changes in the alien force signal changes, but what kind of changes? Will there be renewed hostilities, or is it a signal of something else?

This was an interesting way to cover some standard themes. The author has updated the technology quite well, the biological tagging and violence activated machines were among my favorites. This is a fun romp through a potential future and the author makes the most of a novel take on the subject. Nice story, somewhat reminiscent of the old “War of the Worlds”.

 

“Metal and Flesh” by Steven R. Stewart (debut 6/6 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Sato is human; Kuro-4 is a robot. They are huddled together in the damaged module trying to repair each other so they can survive. Sato needs Kuro-4 to get supplies because the environmental suits have been lost. Kuro-4 needs Sato to provide a reason for someone to come to their aid, because no one would try to save a machine. Mars is forty-four days from Earth. Can they both survive that long?

This is a nicely woven survival tale that is really about what it means to be human. Touching on some of the same themes so common in the work of Phillip K. Dick, this story is very engaging. That alone was enough to endear this story to me, but the author deftly handled the story making it most memorable. Nice little story that you won’t be sorry you took the time to read.

 

Five angels gather for breakfast to discuss business and slaves in “Angel Plantation” by Tina Connolly (debut 6/7 and reviewed by Frank D). The newest member, Angel Jerome, has a fraction of the organslaves his colleagues have. The other plantation owners wonder aloud if he is deserving a spot at their table. Jerome shares their opinion.

The angels in “Angel Plantation” are not like the corporeal beings we all know. The slaves they own are clones of themselves. Where others have work gangs approaching a 100, Jerome keeps only 7. He sees them as extensions of himself, and not tools to further his own wealth.

“Angel Plantation” has a moral that runs back a two centuries and a dilemma we may see in our distant future. It examines what the definition of property is, and touches on the possibility on whether we own our own genetic material. It is a brief tale with many questions we may be faced with yet.

 

An idealist loses her wings in “Fairy Tales” by Eliza Victoria (debut 6/8 and reviewed by Frank D). The Diwata are a lost race. Their world is gone, destroyed by greedy humans. Their magic is powerless without their world and what few that are left, live among humanity. Pauline is a college freelance writer who has been documenting the history of the Diwata people. She has become an expert of their blight. She meets a Diwata noble in the library of the university. Their friendship blossoms, yet they remain too different to become close.

“Fairy Tales” is a complicated tale. What begins as a lone Diwata’s personal tragedy becomes a far larger and grimmer epic. The story is about Pauline’s obsession about a winged fairy-like race. The Diwata that are left are choosing to lose their wings. Some because of injury, others to fit in. The tale follows Pauline and her gradual infatuation with the Diwata and with a lost princess. The wings of the Diwata are their identity, and when the lose them, they lose their future.

“Fairy Tales” is aptly named. It speaks of a naÃ’ ve girl’s hope and of the world a race has lost. It has flashbacks that aren’t written as flashbacks. The tactic turns the story into a disguised mystery, setting up a clever final scene. The story is not for people who gravitate to Daily SF‘s short and sharp fiction, but it is a tale for the ones who appreciate personal struggles. The ending is a promise of a greater tale but is nevertheless satisfying.

 

A better path develops for a distraught man in “Double Exposure” by Lou Antonelli (debut 6/11 and reviewed by Frank D). Jake is about to end it all. He has been trying to keep his high maintenance wife happy for decades and has needed to embezzle to satisfy her spending habits. Now, on the verge of indictment and abandoned by his spouse, he buys a gun. Before he pulls the trigger, he spies a Kodak one-day photo hut. Curious, he pulls up to the window. They are holding pictures of him and his last girlfriend from 30 years before. The package is a lot thicker than it should be.

“Double Exposure” is listed as an Alternative History story but I would classify it as a Magical Realism tale. It is set as a second chance tale, a look into a life that should have been. The author is inspired by his memories of the old photo huts (I remember them) and of their disappearance. A cool idea (photos of another life), one that I could imagine would make for a great anthology.

 

A disabled man is looking forward to his day of rebirth in “Deathday” by Jonas David (debut 6/12 and reviewed by Frank D). In the future, mankind has found a way to make a better life for everybody. A new mechanical body to replace the withering biological one all were born into. The transfer of consciousness is called your Deathday. The process has proven to be failsafe. Once the transfer is made, the new body oversees the old and dead one into the ground. It is a time of celebration and all your friends are there when you emerge from your changing room. So strange how the ones who have made the step find the celebration necessary, but distasteful.

“Deathday” follows along with a debilitated young man named Cobalt. His Deathday is near and a day behind his closest friends own day of rebirth. He is looking forward to the perfect body he has already seen but rumors of a legendary error plague him. Tales of a transfer that went wrong and of a still alive biological half and a wandering mechanical disturb all who have heard it. When he attends his best friend’s Deathday, her reaction to him when she emerges from the changing room strikes him as odd. Those around him assure him that she will be fine. He hopes so but wonders how he will react when he opens his new eyes for the first time.

“Deathday” is a futuristic tale that mirrors our own views of the afterlife. Excitement yet anxiety lie under the surface of Cobalt’s psyche. Evidence that it will be better is all around him. He had no reason to fear his day of rebirth, but his friend Thallium now makes him concerned. I found the tale a bit on the slow side, making the tale read longer than its actual length. I wondered why the author chose to focus on relationships that seemed to have little to do with the development of the plot. Like the protagonist, it all became clear in the final scene. I find that part to be dynamite and well worth the price of admission. Loved the great final act and parting last line.

 

Elise packs for a move in “British Colonial” by Amanda Clark (debut 6/13 and reviewed by Frank D). They are about to leave Beijing, heading back the West, but her dÃ’ cor controlling husband is missing. He always had a taste for a more Western style of decorations, forcing her to leave many of her enchanted Asian prizes behind.

“British Colonial” is the tale of a resentful woman. She is less concerned about the whereabouts of her husband than she is about the things she is leaving behind. The wonderful paintings and etched carvings in the furniture stir to life with her touch, but her husband never liked them, much to his eventual dismay.

“British Colonial” is one brief but dark tale. The ending shouldn’t have been such a surprise but the author’s heavy descriptive writing makes it easy to miss. A thick but delightful tale.

 

Your deepest desires can be achieved with “The Magician of Words” by Ruth Nestvold (debut 6/14 and reviewed by Frank D). The magician plies his trade in an alley of filled with former lives, if you can find him, and have the courage to let him know what you really desire, the sky will be the limit for you.

I wasn’t sure if this tale was metaphorical or not. I am afraid its greater meaning was lost on me.

 

The future in “The Pretty Woman Without Mercy” by Steven Mathes (debut 6/15 and reviewed by Frank D) is bleak and hopeless. Those who no longer age are not welcome in a world too crowded. Knight flees civilization and to the wilderness, where technology is no longer welcome. The scared man stumbles on a house that is yet to be demolished and begs the woman inside for help. She will give him one night’s stay in return for his DNA.

“The Pretty Woman Without Mercy” is a story with a titles that does not fit. The world in which Knight lives is what is harsh. Her offer for shelter is no small offer. The fact that she has two dogs and a gun is what I would consider wise on her part. Knight is a man who is prepared to die. Those who flee to the wilderness can expect no less, but the Earth is not what it used to be. Although wild life is beginning to reclaim to Earth, it may already be too late for them. The sky is already empty of birds and the trees all look sick. The pretty woman may have the answer for the planet and Knight both.

“The Pretty Woman” had a few issues for me. A protagonist with a name I had to get used too, an incomplete premise, and a mismatched title. It took a good portion of it for me to get grounded. It did, however, have a very sweet ending.

 

The protagonist is off to meet her boyfriend’s parents in the fairy world in “Faerie Food” by Kat Otis (debut 6/18 and reviewed by Frank D). There is one hard lesson they give all human visitors, don’t eat the food. It is a rule she intends to not break, but temptation is a hard thing to resist.

“Faerie Food” is a classic story of “the grass is greener on the other side’. The faerie world is gorgeous beyond belief. She feels out of place and unworthy of her half-human boyfriend, Maelon. And worse, the food smells exquisite. Odder still is Maelon’s human father, at home among these stunning beings while happily consuming their food and drink, with a knowing look in his eye.

This tale serves as an excellent metaphor for those who are in fear of meeting a loved one’s family. Too often many fear we won’t measure up to a standard we could never hope to match, when the truth is we already are an equal. An excellently executed work of flash fiction.

 

A single father mourns for his lost wife in “Ryan’s World” by Paul Ebbs (debut 6/19 and reviewed by Frank D). The colonists are poor on Ryan’s world. Transport land but paying for the things that will heal and benefit the farmer’s lives, are beyond their means to purchase. He is pooling his money so when the same illness afflicts his son, he will be able to save him when he couldn’t his wife.

The majority of “Ryan’s World” is a sad and depressing tale. The protagonist is racked with guilt. He allowed his wife to pass so he could save their son when the time came. Now every Sunday after church, he alone visits her grave.

I have more I would like to say about this tale but a twist at the end prevents me from revealing more. I can say it changed the sad tone of the tale, drastically. Whether you approve or not I cannot say but I will admit it left my feelings conflicted.

 

A convicted sorcerer confesses his crimes to His Imperial Majesty in “Dark Roads for the Eternal Ruler” by Eric James Stone (debut 6/20 and reviewed Frank D). The former right hand man to the prince has decade old offenses had come to light, leaving the future ruler no choice but to convict him. The sorcerer reveals his atrocities to his country’s new emperor. His crimes were made on the prince’s behalf so he could become the ruler, and now he has one last gift to give.

“Dark Roads” is written as a letter. The protagonist expresses joy at the prince’s ascension to power but regrets that he couldn’t be a part of them. His crimes were hidden by an amnesia spell that had expired, and now more will soon be revealed, inflicting the emperor with shame. His letter serves as a confession and a last act of loyalty.

This story has a very clever outcome. Kudos to Mr Stone.

 

A dairymaid plots her rise to power in “Peas, Plots, and Peril” by Melissa Mead (debut 6/21 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist is a clever and opportunistic cold soul. Through guile, rumors, and false identities; she manages a coup that is the stuff of fairy tales.

“Peas” is an intentionally vague tale. It took me a second read for me to discover that I was reading a tale of the ascension of an evil character in a popular fairy tale. Fascinating, but I found myself wishing for more details.

 

A mysterious boogeyman plagues people in their homes in “The Midnight Knock Again” by Patricia Russo (debut 6/22 and reviewed by Frank D). The first thing parents teach their children is to never answer the “knock’ on the door. It happens at odd times, is distinct from normal knocks, and will change you, or take you, if you answer the door. The “knock’ never comes to the happy in society. Great pains are taken to watch over the depressed and solemn to keep them from making a mistake they will regret. The few that have opened the door have a shell shocked expression that never leaves them. Legends of what is behind the knock vary but only the most down and out would want to answer it ” or the hopelessly curious.

“Midnight Knock” is a creepy tale. The author uses the greater part of the tale to tell about the mysterious knocks and of what happens to those who answer it. The long campfire-ish tale narrative approach works to establish the ominous feel of the knockers. The second half of the story follows along with the protagonist. Some bad fortune has brought the knocks to his door. His curiosity gets the best of him. What he finds is not what he expects.

The “victims’ of the knockers all share a type of amnesia after an encounter. Why this would be is never explained satisfactory. What the story does moralize is a boogeyman may not be so frightening if you’re willing to face it, and most boogeymen live in the dark regions and doubts within us. Although long, “Midnight Knock” is a story that seizes you. I found myself curious to find out what lay behind the knock and satisfied when I found out what it was. I don’t understand why the protagonist had to suffer from amnesia. It turned his adventure into doubt of its reality. What was satisfying was a protagonist willing to find out for the benefit of us all. I found the story to be a nice and enlightening tale.

 

The protagonist buys a vacuum for her mother in “Taking Care of Ma” by Lee Hallison (debut 6/25 and reviewed by Frank D). The vacuum cleaner is a self-reliant, AI unit, but Ma doesn’t want something else doing the cleaning and attaches a handle to the machine. Her daughter is frustrated by her mother’s resistance to technology but the salesman has assured her that the unit will adjust to her mother’s extrinsic behavior.

“Taking Care” is a cute story with a very cute ending that made me smile.

 

“The Watchmaker’s Gift” by Rich Matrunick (debut 6/26 and reviewed by Frank D). An old woman brings roadkill back to life with the golden gears of clockworks. The protagonist is a turtle she saved before. Along with restored life, intelligence is granted to the animals saved. The gears must be wound. Mortality is in the form of spent springs and lives lost.

“The Watchmaker’s Gift” is a different type of Frankenstein tale. The woman in this tale resurrects the animals for reasons that aren’t as noble as the protagonist believed. The story ends up being a tale of companionship. I hesitate summarizing anymore so as not to ruin the outcome of the piece.

 

Monsters make a plea in “The Dream of the Night-Shift Power Worker” by Edoardo Albert (debut 6/27 and reviewed by Frank D). They say the world has become dull, in need of pizzazz and a little excitement. They can give it to mankind (and they won’t bother you at all). All you need to do is turn out the lights.

The tale is more of a bad sales pitch then it is a story.

 

A man must pass a religious loyalty checkpoint in “Sacred Artifacts” by Greg Leunig (debut 6/28 and reviewed by Frank D). In a future fundamentalist America, individuals must prove their commitment to Christianity by stepping on the religious icons of other religions. Those who fail the test are dealt with immediately. The Atheist protagonist contemplates standing for his principles as his parents did.

“Sacred Artifacts” is set in a very dark America. Intolerance for other faiths transforms the nation into a fascist state. The tale is of one man’s resolve.

 

“Answer Man” by A. J. Barr (debut 6/29 and reviewed by Frank D). Mikey Holder has the solution to your problem. His fee is 100 grand and his answer will come at any time. His clients must be willing to accept his call no matter the hour, but satisfaction is guaranteed. The solutions to other people’s problems come to him while he is in the throes of ecstasy, which makes it difficult for him to maintain a relationship when he has to suddenly jump up to make a call.

“Answer Man” is a collaborative work. A story of an extrinsic man with an old talent, it took me until the end to be able to grasp its point. The tale starts off when Mikey abruptly ends an intimate moment to call a client. The solution to the problem his client desperately needed was so simplistically genius it made me laugh. The story takes a turn and Mikey’s life becomes complicated when he meets his soul mate on a flight. Mikey wants to treat his new love like a lady, and not like the inspirational spark that has cheapen every other girl in his life.

“Answer Man” is an odd love story. I can sympathize with his problem (actually, jealous would be a more accurate emotional reaction for me) but I could not understand what the problem was. The premise being that his solution solving had become dry when he met his love. Why? A problem existed for the protagonist when I really saw no reason why it should.

Strong writing, interesting characters, but if you’re looking for a simple solution for the complicated “Answer Man”, you best look elsewhere.

 

Not Just Rockets And Robots ” indeed

I have a few friends that don’t like reading on a computer screen. I also know of a few writers who will only submit to print publications. So a 21st century novel idea of a publisher sending a daily story via email is something that would never be their cup of tea. Too bad for them, or is it?

There were plenty of reasons for aspiring authors ” and fans of ” speculative fiction to attend this year’s Worldcon in Chicago. At the time of this writing, the con had yet to open, but if you were there hopefully you had a chance to attend Daily Science Fiction’s launch of their first print publication, Not Just Rockets and Robots ” a collection of their first year of stories is now available for your bookshelf.

I haven’t purchased the book but have read enough of those stories to give it an enthusiastic recommendation. I am curious to know if the collection was set in chronological order or not. The collective work of the Alphabet Quartet would have been nice if it were assembled together or not. Regardless how it was done, if you know of a fan of fantasy and/or science fiction, Not Just Rockets and Robots may be the perfect gift for them this Christmas.

 

Michele Barasso and Jonathan Laden are the editors of Daily Science Fiction. Sept 1st marks their second full year of publication. They wanted to make speculative fiction as easily available to its readers as possible. As Mr Laden said in an interview earlier this year to Write 1 Sub 1, “Daily Science Fiction was our way to change the publishing industry. As quotable people have said, “First be the change you want to see from the world”‘.

Canny Valley Comics Report Card

For those of you who don’t know, Canny Valley is my (Anthony) web comic project. Today marks the six month anniversary since launch and I thought I’d share some of my lessons learned.

Not surprisingly, creating comics is much like any other creative endeavor. I’ll be posting an article soon detailing the basic work flow I use so I won’t go into that here. But suffice it to say that I frequently face some of the same challenges I face with my writing. A blank comic template is just as imposing as a blank page.

I launched the comic with a good friend of mine, Scott Wolf. Scott and I had very a similar sense of humor as well as almost parallel interests. The comic was going to be about gaming and internet culture which was something we both know a lot about. But even as wide a net as those two generic subjects cast, we soon found that our audience was too small. Early comics would reel in only a handful of visitors.

Traffic

As an artist, I create art for personal enjoyment but like most creators I really wanted other people to enjoy it as well. What fun is it to work so hard on something and no one see it? So I set about learning how to market the site. I wasn’t completely ignorant about this but even with the knowledge I had, I learned a lot from the process.

Initially I posted the comic to the major content driven sites like Reddit and 9gag. We immediately saw a bump in traffic. At the low low price of free, you just could beat this form of advertising. This also allowed me to specifically target groups of people who had interest in the topic of the comic. Still, this method didn’t produce the sort of numbers I wanted and I began to look at other options.

I joined the Project Wonderful network after we published our 30th comic. They require a lively stream of content to participate in their network which really keeps the quality of publishers high. I recommend it to anyone who wants to drive traffic to their site.

At this point I began to see that not all visitors are created equally. When the comic first launched we really had very little archived content so a visitor typically meant only a handful of pageviews if not just one. However, as we built up more and more content I began to see an interesting trend. Visitors from websites like Reddit or 9gag came to view the specific comic they were linked to and then left. On the other hand, visitors that came from other comic sites by clicking an ad would stick around. Often viewing the entire catalog!

This pattern has persisted today. The quality of visitors (measured by pageviews per visit) is much higher with these targeted ads. Advertising on other comics reaps visitors who are interested in consuming comics and that is very valuable.

The comic is averaging about a thousand pageviews a day with some days spiking into the tens of thousands. I think I’m making progress on that front.

Creation

As mentioned in Monday’s blog post on the comic site, Scott has departed from Canny Valley. This was a result of the unflinching challenge to constantly create content. This comic, or rather comic creation in general, is my passion. I’m enjoying it more than any creative endeavor I’ve ever been a part of. For Scott, the comic was a fun thing to do and the need for constant creation was eating him alive. My point here is that taking on a task that is simply one deadline after another is not for the faint of heart.

I have yet to miss a comic deadline; though a couple have pushed late into the night. I have to credit Scott’s early involvement for that but the reason that success has persisted is because I was able to internalize the creative process into my daily life.

I’m constantly aware of the need for comics ideas so they frequently come to me when I’m not really trying to think of one at all. In fact, the best ideas typically are inspired this way. Additionally, the actual drawing of the comic is built into my schedule in such a way that it’s automatic. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve gotten to the point where I can knock out a comic in two hours if I stay focused.

I think this internalization is key to keeping something like this going. It’s the same for writers. If writing is part of who you are then you’ll never suffer from lack of writing time. It becomes what you do when you are idle.

That is half the key to success in my mind. Do this, and you’re half-way there.

As I mentioned above. A post specifically about the creative process I use is in the works. So keep your eye out for that and thanks for reading.

“WorldCon 2012 Con Report” or “David Steffen Finds Fandom”

written by David Steffen

I’m beginning to write this article from the huge lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago. It’s 10 o’clock Monday morning, the last day of WorldCon, which this year is Chicon 7. As I sit here and watch the escalators, ambushing familiar faces to sneak in some goodbyes, I am feeling very nostalgic about the weekend already.

This is the first big SF convention that I’ve ever been to, and the only one where I came with a large number of friends I’d known ahead of time. The only convention I’ve been to besides this has been MiniCon in the Twin Cities, which is a few hundred people, and although I’ve made some friends there, I didn’t know any of them ahead of time. Here at WorldCon there are literally dozens of people whom I have met in some respect, varying from casual acquaintances from forums, to editors who have considered my stories for their magazines, to close friends who I’ve been in continuous contact with for years. I tried to write down all the names of these people I’d met, and came up with at least 60, and I’m sure I’m forgetting some, with another dozen that I would’ve liked to meet but never quite got the chance.

I think I finally understand, to a much larger extent, what fandom is all about. The greatest thing about SF fandom is how welcoming it is to everyone. No matter what race, nationality, religion, sexuality, body type, no matter what, you are welcomed with open arms. I’ve always loved that, but previously–I don’t know exactly how to explain this–although I never felt unwelcome, I don’t think I ever felt like I was a PART of the group. I felt like I was being welcomed warmly into a group but not exactly part of the group. I think that everything about it was the way I have approached MiniCon attendance. I go to MiniCon during the day, show up at the first panel that I’m interested in and leave after the last panel I’m interested in. Since so much of the programming emphasizes panels, it seemed to me like panels were what it was about (despite others telling me that that wasn’t the point at all). And I would talk to people as the opportunity arose, but since I was so panel-focused, most of the time I spent was sitting listening to other people talk without a lot of opportunity for conversation with others. But now I’m realizing that the way that I have been approaching MiniCon is all wrong. Panels are good, but they’re not the point.

I can pinpoint the moment when this became real to me. One of the first panels I went to was “Short Story as Proving Ground” with some panelists that I’ve known online, Brad Torgersen, Vylar Kaftan, and others. I arrived late, and so I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone beforehand. After the panel, I met quite a few people that I’ve known online for a long time, shook some hands and was quite happy to be meeting them. But when I met Annie Bellet, who’s been a friend online for years, she didn’t go for a handshake, she immediately gave me a big hug. And moments later a similar greeting from another longtime friend, Laurie Gailunas. I really felt, at that moment, like these people aren’t just friends, aren’t just colleagues. These people are family, welcoming me with open arms. I realize that sounds corny. But that’s how it felt, and that feeling has persisted through the rest of the con. So, thanks Annie, Laurie, and thanks everyone else who has made me feel so welcome.

I’m not even sure where to get started with this con report.

Dude, you’re really only getting STARTED? You’ve written flash fiction stories that are shorter than that introduction.

Don’t pay attention to that italicized bit. That’s my internal critic. He’s just cranky from being ignored–I don’t know how he got out of the dungeon. Anyway, back to the topic of where to get started: I thought about splitting it up by day, but figured that would get a bit too dry of a “list” format that wouldn’t at all match how I feel about my first big con experience.

The People

There is no way that I can possibly list all of the people that I met this weekend, so I’m not even going to try. I will mention a few. I roomed with Donald Mead and Bryant Thomas Schmidt, both very nice guys. I was very excited to meet Annie Bellet, Hugo-nominated Brad Torgersen, Laurie Gailunas, and Alastair Mayer, who I’ve been in a writing group with for the last few years. There are so many others that I met that I know through various forums or publications, Brennan Harvey, Thomas Carpenter, Alex Kane, Laurie Tom, Dawn Bonnana, Christie Yant (who wrote my favorite story in years, the Three Feats of Agani), Nancy Fulda, Gio Clairval. Many others whose work I have enjoyed over the years, like Rajan Khanna, David D. Levine, Ferret Steinmetz. And I got an autograph from Mr. George R. R. Martin, while managing not to go too fanboy on him.

As I have been sitting here writing this article, others have come and gone around me. I have been sitting next to a woman for the last hour as I type away, and moments ago realized that the woman is LaShawn Wanak, whom I have had many a discussion about fiction on the Escape Artists forums over the last few years! Man this is a crazy place, to meet so many people I know digitally.

The Editors

Wait, wait, aren’t editors people? What kind of stupid categories are these, anyway?

I concede that editors are people. Many of them might even be entirely human. Not John Joseph Adams, clearly, because he regularly violates causality by sending rejections from his Lightspeed EVEN BEFORE the story has been sent to him and somehow he does this without unraveling spacetime. On top of that, no flesh and blood human being could possibly juggle all the anthologies that he puts together all at the same time. Regardless of his superhuman state, he seems to be a very nice guy, even though he’s rejected my stories more than any other editor on the planet.

Also met Gordon Van Gelder, who was one of the first editors I submitted to at Fantasy & Science Fiction. And Stanley Schmidt, the current editor of Analog who has seen all the SF stories I’ve written, as well as Trevor Quachri, who will soon be inundated by my stories in Stan’s stead. Jason Sizemore. And Mur Lafferty, who has the unique distinction in my mind of being the only magazine editor I’ve met who has bought a story from me (for Escape Pod).

It was fun meeting these people, whom I’ve corresponded with so often, if in only the most spare and businesslike way.

Those dulcet tones

What kind of stupid category is that? “Those dulcet tones”. Sheesh.

There was one very small category of people whom I was especially excited to meet.

Wait, wait, so you had a category called “The People” followed by two categories which are subsets of people. Your Software Engineer’s license is going to be revoked if anyone ever founds out–

Ah, that’s better. I found my handy dandy internal critic club that I’d left in my other pants, and put it to good use. He’s back in the dungeons where he belongs. Anyway…

So this very small category is but a category of two, podcast hosts who have been keeping me company in a unidirectional fashion on my daily commute. Mur Lafferty, editor and host of Escape Pod, and Kate Baker, host and narrator of the Clarkesworld podcast. I have talked to both of them before this convention. Mur has bought one of my stories. I’ve talked to Kate before, both as part of her work as a staff member of SFWA, and to share my Best of Clarkesworld lists. Corresponding with them via email was one thing, but easy enough to separate from the podcast because of the different medium. Talking to them in person, though, was very strange (in the best possible way). I have listened to both of them for SO many hours, I felt like I was talking to best friends of many years. They both have such beautiful reading voices.

It sort of reminded me of those times when I’ve gone to a play with incredibly good actors, and then greeted the actors afterward. Theater can establish such a perceived intimacy that it’s easy to feel like you know the person as a close friend, and so if I follow my instinct and greet them as a warm friend without thinking, it’s very confusing for both parties. I think in this case it was more so, because I have listened to them both for so many hours. I kept waiting for Kate to say “Let me tell you a story.”

It was really, really surreal, as if I talked to my iPod and it suddenly started responding to me. And, so far, I haven’t been served a restraining order, so at the very least I think I managed not to creep either of them out with one-sided over-familiarity.

The Parties

Every night, parties. Usually I don’t like parties much, but these are writer parties. Many familiar faces, and you can stand around and talk about writing. There’s not really anybody in real life that I talk to about writing without them getting bored after a few minutes, so this was a lot of fun. Tor and Baen both hosted big parties, but one of the highlights of the weekend was the “Pink and Blue” release party of Cat Rambo and Stina Leicht. Cat Rambo just released an anthology of her short stories titled “Near + Far” (she’s the pink) and Stina Leicht (she’s the blue) something as well, I think it was her book “Of Blood and Honey”. This was a highlight of the weekend, a good turnout with lots of people I wanted to meet.

Panels/Events

I’ll just list the ones I went to briefly, for anyone who’d like to know more than I said, ask in the comments.

Thursday

Opening Ceremonies–formatted like a late-night talk show with the entertaining John Scalzi as host, he interviewed all of the major guests of the con.
Mike Resnick Reading
Nancy Fulda Reading
The Short Story as Testing Ground–This was the first panel I went to that I’d mentioned previously, with Brad and Vylar as panelists. Good content, but especially exciting to meet a bunch of people after.

Friday

Mark J. Ferrari Reading–I’ve critiqued some book chapters of Mark’s upcoming book, was nice to meet him
George R. R. Martin Autograph Session–Got a copy of “Game of Thrones” autographed
John Joseph Adams Reading–Fiction reading of stories bought by JJA, including by Christie Yant and David D. Levine. Very enjoyable, especially Levine’s clever parody of Superman from a Lex Luthor point of view justifying his seemingly evil actions.
Filling the Magazines–Great panel of editors, Gordon Van Gelder, Stanley Schmidt, John Joseph Adams, Jason Sizemore, Ellen Datlow
Ferrett Steinmetz Reading–I think Ferrett’s really hit his stride lately, I like each story more and more.
Open Mic Reading–Ferrett inexplicably was scheduled for another 90 minute session and he opened it up for volunteers. I was very happy about this since I registered for the con much too late to be in any programming. So I read my favorite of my own work, the unpublished “Hungry Void”. I had a lot of trouble keeping my voice steady because that story always makes me want to cry.

Saturday

Codex Breakfast–Great fun to meet dozens from my favorite online writer’s forum
George R. R. Martin Interview
Effective Habits for Aspiring Authors–A panel with Annie Bellet and Brad Torgersen
Critique Session–My sole programming commitment, Deirdre Saoirse Moen and I lead a critique session of 3 authors who signed up. A very enjoyable experience. I like critiquing anyway, was enjoyable to do this in person for a change.
Escape Pod Meetup–I showed up very late for this due to the critique session commitment, but was happy to find some people still hanging around. Met some great people involved in one of my favorite podcasts.

Sunday

The Future of Analog–Panel including Stanley Schmidt (editor until Friday), Trevor Quachri (editor after Friday), Brad Torgersen and Richard Lovett to discuss the editorial change and just generally the future of the magazine.
Podcasting 101–Okay, so I have little interest in starting a podcast (though I’d like to try some voice acting). I mostly went to hear Mur Lafferty and Kate Baker talk.
Neil Gaimain Theatre–One of four plays performed at this convention written by Neil Gaiman, this one a reimagining of the Snow White story with the stepmother as the hero and Snow White as a vampire. It feels entirely more real than the original story.

The Hugos

The Hugo award ceremony was a lot of fun. John Scalzi made a very entertaining host. This was an odd experience too, because it had a feel very much like the major award ceremonies you see on TV (but without the upstaging and with half the runtime), but I KNOW some of these people. I was particularly rooting for Brad Torgersen, Mur Lafferty, and Nancy Fulda to win in their respective categories. They didn’t, but I hope they’re not too disappointed about it–to be voted by fandom to be one of the top 5 favorite in any category is an amazing accomplishment.

I won’t list all the winners here, because those have been published for days. I was excited to see Jim C. Hines win for Best Fan Writer. If you haven’t read his blog posts about female and male poses on fantasy covers, you should–he actually reproduces all of the poses he discusses, to both thought-provoking points and comic effect. I was disappointed that the “Remedial Chaos Theory” of Community didn’t win for Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form, because that category is always dominated by Dr. Who. Game of Thrones Season 1 on HBO won Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, against a tough field. Ken Liu‘s “Paper Menagerie” for Best Short Story, a well deserved win, that story is so good.

Wrap Up

I’m wrapping this up in my office at home on Wednesday, having hopped a plane home on Monday and gone back to my engineering work yesterday. I still feel a bit disoriented, culture-shock I guess, at being back in my daily life instead of this brief but intense visit into the convention scene.

This has been a really great experience for me, which I’m having trouble finding just the right words to describe. I feel like I’ve found fandom, after never quite being able to see quite where or what it was, and when I finally got here someone had saved a seat for me. Thank you to everyone who has made me feel so welcome–even just the little things added up to a great experience.

Hugo Picks 2012 (Part 1)

written by David Steffen

This is the first year that I’ve chosen to pay for a supporting membership to Worldcon. This is where the Hugo awards, the fan-based major award of the science fiction community, are presented. Paying for a supporting membership not only gives you the right to nominate and to vote, but also gives you the Hugo packet, a package containing most of the individual Hugo nominated works and examples of work from Hugo nominated individuals and magazines. That’s a load of bargain-priced brand-new fiction at $50.

Now, I should mention that I don’t think that the Hugos are generally indicative of the best science fiction and fantasy out there. Many of the nominees and winners I just find perplexing, often dull or unimaginative, and some authors get nominated every year even when it seems entirely clear to me that they are just “phoning it in” and the fans somehow feel that they are obligated to vote for this person.

Another thing I should add is that I only ended up getting registered on July 19th, a relative latecomer to the registration. The Hugo voting deadline was on July 31st, and I had only read a few of the entries. So to fully vote, I had more reading to do than I had time to do it. So for this first installment I’ll only be covering those categories in which I had a chance to absorb enough of the content that I feel comfortable making an informed vote. For each category I’ll list my first choice as well as any others that I was close to voting for.

 

Best Novella

1. The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson
An Imperial engineer travels to a small town on the banks of a mist-river to connect two halves of the empire. Novellas in general tend to be too slow for my tastes. This one is as slow as most, but I felt like it really used the space effectively. I really felt like I knew the characters by the end and I wanted them to be happy.
2. Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal
This one was a close contender for my top pick. It’s an effective science fiction mystery story, which uses the SF effectively as more than just a backdrop. Mystery generally isn’t my favorite genre or I might’ve picked this as the top instead.

 

Best Novelette

1. Ray of Light by Brad R. Torgerson
Brad’s a friend, but I didn’t pick his story because of that. I truly thought that this was the best of the group. It made me care about the characters. This takes place in a future Earth where inexplicable aliens have come and put up a shield between Earth and the sun so that the earth freezes over. The only humans who lived are those who fled deep below the ocean’s surface to live in underwater colonies. Nobody expects the surface to be thawed for several more lifetimes, but when a group of teenagers goes missing, a father goes to investigate.
2. Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
A story about a romance between a man who can see the future and a woman who can see a variety of possible futures. I enjoyed reading this one as well, though its appeal was more of a thought experiment than the emotional connection I am more typically looking for.

Best Short Story

1. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
The story of the son of a Chinese mail-order bride and the emotional connection she tries to make with him. Heartbreaking on several levels, this story really made me watch for more Ken Liu stories.
2. Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book 1: The Dead City: Prologue by John Scalzi
This story was posted as an April Fool’s joke last year on Tor.com, formatted as an excerpt from an upcoming Scalzi novel. It was based on a previous blog post analyzing the most common words used in fantasy novel titles. John Scalzi took this as a challenge, and wrote this beast of a title, and the story itself is just as funny, making fun of all the common epic fantasy cliches. I heard Scalzi read this live at MiniCon 2011, and the live performance made it even better.
3. Movement by Nancy Fulda
The story of a child with “temporal autism”, although the story says explicitly that it is not actually autism but is has some common symptoms. The girl does not think on the same timescale as everyone around her, this story is about her efforts to understand the world around her on her own terms.

 

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

1. Hugo
Awesome Martin Scorsese movie adapted from the children’s book titled The Invention of Hugo Cabret.ÂÂFollows an orphan boy living in the mechanical depths of a train station in Paris in 1931. The main storyline itself is really great, but it was very effective at showing the magical appeal of early cinema in the few decades before that.
2. Game of Thrones Season 1
I haven’t read any of George R. R. Martin’s books in this series, so this was my first exposure to them. The casting is amazing across the board, the special effects are great, great characters, great plot. Not a lot of fantasy in it, though there are a few select key places of fantasy, as the name implies much of it revolves around political maneuvering to rule countries. Great stuff, and it makes me want to read the books. Now if Martin would only ever finish writing them.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

1. Remedial Chaos Theory (Community)

This is one of the best shows on TV right now anyway, but this episode was above and beyond. It begins with a simple enough premise. The study group that the show centers around is at one of their apartments, and have ordered in some pizza. The apartment building’s door buzzer is broken, so when the pizza man arrives, someone has to go down to retrieve it. Nobody wants to, so they roll a die to decide. From there the episode splits into 6 timelines, each one with a different person going down to get the pizza. It doesn’t sound that interesting, but a lot of small variations add up to major and differing consequences between each timeline. I’m hoping for another Hugo nomination next year for the Community episode “Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne”, in which Pierce and the rest of the study group have to play a very complex 8-bit video game to earn Pierce’s inheritance. Brilliant. I wanted to play that game so much!

 

Best Editor (Short Form)

1. Neil Clarke
2. John Joseph Adams
3. Sheila Williams
4. Stanley Schmidt

 

Best Artist

1. Dan Dos Santos

I just think that Dos Santos’s artwork is the best out there today. I have a signed print of his illustration of Moiraine that was published in ebook rerelease of the Wheel of Time series.

 

Best Magazine

1. Apex
2. Lightspeed

 

Best Fan Artist

1. Maurine Starkey

 

Best Fancast

1. SF Signal Podcast
I like the SF Signal site anyway, but I really liked the discussion in the example episode with a lot of recognizable names about the future of the publishing industry
2. SF Squeecast
A Christmas themed episode that was a lot of fun. All of the members of the group are clearly having fun while they tape, and they really comes across.
3. Galactic Suburbia Podcast

 

Best New Writer

1. Mur Lafferty

Strange to think that she counts as a new writer because I’ve been listening to her stuff for years on the Escape Artists podcasts, and hearing about her self-published books. I really like her style though, some of my favorite EA episodes have been written by her.

 

As the year rolls on I’ll be reading the rest of the Hugo packet just for fun, at which point I might have more posts to pick out my favorites. And this is also the first year that I’ve been eligible for SFWA membership, which means that I can now nominate and vote for the Nebula award–so I may have something about that as well.

Daily Science Fiction: May 2012 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

We have another month of reviews for you! Thank you to those who helped me to smoke out find Mr Anonymous. His reviewing talents were desperately needed missed here. Now on to the good stuff.

 

A woman counts the tragedies in her life in “Seven Losses of Na Re” by Rose Lemburg (debut 5/1 and reviewed by Frank D).

The author of “Seven Losses” uses her own memories as a template for this story. The subject of this depressing tale is of a Ukrainian Jewish peasant girl who tells of events in her life ranging from Stalin’s oppression into the later years of the Soviet Union.

 

Alicia finds comfort with a friends creation in “Clem” by Cassandra Rose Clarke (debut 5/2 and reviewed by Frank D). Clem, Alicia’s close friend and co-worker, has passed away. She evades her colleagues by eating her lunch in Clem’s old office. After four days of dining in her departed friend’s work environment, the computer that Clem created speaks to Alicia.

There wasn’t much to this piece. It was a type of story I have seen before, two people connect by a common friend who has died that become fast friends. What made it different was that one of the people was a machine. I had trouble buying that the office Clem worked in would be left vacant yet her equipment would be left undisturbed as if she were on a vacation. It was a hole in the premise that felt should have been filled.

 

The boogeyman returns to the protagonist’s life to ask for a favor in “An Old Acquaintance” by K. G. Jewell (debut 5/3 and reviewed by Frank D). It seems times have gotten hard for Oscar (the name the protagonist has given his boogeyman). Kids have night lights and stay up later these days. He needs a referral, and the much older protagonist has just the kid in mind.

This story is short so I won’t reveal any more of this very delightful and funny tale. I enjoyed it immensely.

Recommended.

 

Becca has a special relationship with her departed uncle in “Dancing in the Dark” by Stephanie Burgis (debut 5/4 and reviewed by Frank D). Becca’s family is getting smaller. Both of her parents have just died. Now her uncles Kev and Rom care for her and her brother Billy. Jack died in a robbery years before but keeps Becca company. A photo she has of him with an old girlfriend is what keeps him around. Only she can see Jack, and she sees him in a different light when the strange woman in the photo shows up at the front door one day.

“Dancing” is a sad tale. The grim tone of it made it difficult for me to enjoy. However, after reading the author’s comments on the inspiration of the piece, I can see that the tale was a work of therapy for the author. I did find the end satisfying.

 

Sylvia wants to know from her parents when they’ll be going on their yearly vacation in “One Childhood of Many” by Andrew S. Fuller (debut 5/7 and reviewed by Frank D). Sylvia is eager to start the family trip to Lake Moo-noo fHul-pa, a magical place fitting ‘Alice in Wonderland’. She speaks of the spectacular things they do every year there.

“One Childhood” reads more like a spoiled and bored child’s wool gathering in her over active imagination, which may be what the tale was all about in the end.

 

“The Rush of the Wind and the Roar of the Engines, and the Call of the Open Road” by Lavie Tidhar (debut 5/8 and reviewed by Dustin Adams) is more of a summation, or a cataloging. For a moment I thought perhaps a character was on a super-futuristic ride, a history of a local portion of the universe, but no. Maybe?

The writing was fine, but I think this story would work best upon a second read. There could be nuances here I didn’t catch reading it though only once. However, I find stories without characters difficult to latch on to. Especially one spanning a time frame, and divulging a history. In the end, I have to ask myself if it’s worth committing this litany of fictional facts to memory.

I’ll skip the second read.

 

The protagonist travels to the Great Library of Tourmaline to read the Tome in “The Tome of Tourmaline” by Ken Liu (debut 5/9 and reviewed by Frank D). The words in the book have power. Power of the inner wonder in each person. It is mysterious, moving, and magical. The story within is the story each person needs to read for themselves. What is in it? You’ll have to read the Tome for yourself to find out.

If you are looking for a story as marvelous as the fictional book in “The Tome”, you might as well pass this story by. This tale is only about how one man is moved by words and a tale you will never see. So what is the point of “The Tome”, you may ask? This story was an exercise in prose. Ken Liu demonstrates on how writing a story that is only about a person reading a story, can be done so well. Even the ending to this piece I found intriguing.

“The Tome” is a tale for writers and serves as a lesson on how to write well.

 

In “Wrong World” by Steve J Myers (debut 5/10 and reviewed by Anonymous) the story is delivered as a monologue to doctor (psychiatrist, methinks…). The main character is explaining why he was picked up by the police, naked and ranting on the highway.

The story glances at the idea of a multiverse; a theory that every possibility can happen and does happen in other versions of the universe and there exist an infinite number of universes.

It’s a nice idea to think that in some universe, by making a different decision at some crucial point in your life, you are a rich and famous author, loved by all (or perhaps that’s just me…). In ‘Wrong World’ –the title kinda gives it away–things don’t go as planned for the main character.

I found this story mildly entertaining. The main hook is the explanation of events leading up to the main character being arrested running down the highway naked. I found motivations a little lacking–someone who has saved money for years suddenly risking it all on the roulette table based on some knowledge of physics seemed a little far-fetched. No doubt people do odd things, but I’d want some reason for their sudden change in character (stopped taking his meds?). Turning thirty wasn’t enough for me.

 

“Great White Ship” by Lou Antonelli (debut 5/11 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

A traveler stuck waiting for a flight strikes up a conversation with an old airline employee. The Old Timer tells him a story of a Great White Airship that arrives from a most unusual destination. The story of a craft from an alternate reality and how it got there is only the precursor to the final act.

This is one of my favorite stories from this site. I have a great passion for lighter-than-air craft and their potential as a future means of transport, which opens the story. The author uses this speculation to launch into an engaging tale. As fascinating as the main story line is, the alternate history premise that accompanies it is just as worthwhile. This story was well written and very well thought out. It is well worth the read.

Recommended.

 

The family hears the call in “The Call” by Erin M. Hartshorn (debut 5/14 and reviewed by James Hanzelka), a summons to adventure and new worlds. It’s a call that ends in death; yet it’s a call that none can ignore. Ash heard it first and has answered his last call. His sister has heard it at times, but she know his oldest child is hearing it more strongly, and far too early. When she finally hears it clearly, can she ignore it? Even if she must to protect Ash’s child?

This is a good story about family, far off adventures and unheeded callings. I like the way the author built the suspense and mystery in a short story set in a single venue. She also touched on how differently our destiny calls each one of us. Nicely crafted tale and well written prose.

 

“Dragoman” by Helen Jackson (debut 5/15 and reviewed by Frank D). Amanda is the only person who can save the planet from giant lizards, so the story begins. She is a young girl who plays two grandfathers to get what she wants, and she wants a lizard for a pet. The lizards like to dance, and Amanda seems to know what their steps mean.

“Dragoman” starts as a rivalry between two grandpas. The tale drifts away from that subplot and becomes a completely different story. It made me wonder if half the story was needed to tell this tale.

 

Young Jason is on the run from a monster in “Monsters Big and Small” by Jakob Drud (debut 5/16 and reviewed by Frank D). Jason is a troubled child. He just hurt another child and his single parent father is furious at him. His teachers say he is filled with anger, but Jason has a bigger worry; there is a monster under his bed.

“Monsters” is a tale where metaphors become reality. Jason is afraid. He really doesn’t believe he is an angry boy but he knows that he is scared. He feels alone and frightened. What he needs is someone to slay his monster for him. Salvation comes from a person who is familiar yet a stranger to him.

It is a very rare feat when an author can write a metaphor within a metaphor. This is a very good story, one worth reading.

 

An Ark to the stars is man’s last chance in “Hoist With an Ark to the Stars” by David Glen Larson (debut 5/17 and reviewed by Frank D). A comet is headed straight towards the Earth. All attempts to stop it have failed. The Ark is the vessel that will repair the Earth. Filled with the genetic make-up of the planet, it is set for a half million year journey back to its home.

“Hoist” is told from the eyes of a janitor left roaming in the most important room in history. The fate of Earth has been sealed, but there is no time like the present time for cleanliness. The silliness of that notion was just one of the problems with the premise that I had. The ending to this piece is one that I have seen before.

 

John is marooned on a wasteland in “The Vault” by Leslie Claire Walker (debut 5/18 and reviewed by Frank D), and discovers he has brought with him what he hoped to escape from. John has crashed on a world others avoid. He has done so intentionally but finds his most precious possession in the vault of the ship, his 15 year old daughter, Reya.

John wants to know why his daughter would stow away. She has questions of her own for her father. John discovers the answers are what he was escaping from all along. His journey to get lost becomes an opportunity to be found.

“The Vault” is a voyage of self-discovery. Items John has lost and forgotten about, are found with his daughter’s help. A moment in the story shows the wayward soul what true loss is all about. Although heartwarming, I found this tale to be a slow solving puzzle. It took half of the tale for me to figure out what the real dilemma to the story was. By then, any sympathy I had for John’s blight was long gone.

 

The protagonist is waiting for her magical moment in “Fantasies” by Jasmine Fahmy (debut 5/21 and reviewed by Frank D). She counts the day on her calendar, waiting for a letter, sign, event that she has read about in the many books that she has read.

“Fantasies” is a cute tale. My own daughter went through the same dilemma the over-imaginative child in this tale goes through. A very enjoyable tale.

 

“The Numbers” by Timothy Moore (debut 5/22 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

The world is plugged in, tied together to the point where everyone can view each other’s emotions. Everyone lives vicariously through the eyes of others. Parties and hedonism is the rule. Danny feels out of place, a schmuck lost in the sea of beautiful people. Now they are sending out numbers, the sum total of you as a being. Danny is sure his will be the source of amusement, something to provide comic relief to the world. He is astonished when they are shown, but he has forgotten how saints are treated in their own land.

This story was well written and shows us a glimpse of a possible future. One where idle frivolity is the rule of the day. Where individuals derive pleasure from the joy and misery of others. Into this the author has placed a genuine good person, one who actually cares for others. The story of what happens is a well written and well thought out cautionary tale. This is a good read.

 

The protagonist searches the bookstore for something to fill her empty life in “Wishes” by Patricia Ash (debut 5/23 and reviewed by James Hanzelka), something to provide brightness she doesn’t have. She finds it in a book titled “Wishes”. She finds more than she bargained for. She finds peace, but will others see it the same way?

This story is a nice little fable. A story of finding solace and our place in the world. A story of finding something that someone else couldn’t understand. It’s also a fable about finding happiness where you least expect it. This is a good story.

Recommended.

 

In “Pocket” by Elizabeth Creith (debut 5/24 and reviewed by Anonymous), a customer at a cafe notices how the pretty waitress, Zenobia (Zen for short) is able to produce, from her tiny pocket, whatever customers need– extra creamer, sugar, ketchup, etc. It is a very small pocket…

He turns up one day unexpectedly and discovers a little too much…

This very short story was nicely done. It is well-written and subtle with a nice tone throughout. I liked the ending, although a touch more explanation wouldn’t have gone amiss. I would give the story 5 out 7 rocket dragons.

 

“Ballad of a Hot Air Balloon-Headed Girl” by Douglas F. Warrick (debut 5/25 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

A young man trains to be a soldier and loves a girl who fantasizes her head will burst into flame and carry her away. The girl has fashioned a balloon to catch the heat from the conflagration and attached it to her body. The boy like to climb trees. As the young man is drawn into the harsh realities of war, the young woman becomes more enmeshed in her fantasy. The girl begins to change, but so does the young man. Finally they have grown apart and she makes a final appeal for him to leave reality and join her, but he cannot. He spends the rest of his life regretting the decision, finally trying to join the girl, but is it too late. Has the chance passed him by, or can he regain what was lost?

This is a tale that interweaves the harsh reality of war and politics with pure fantasy. The author does a good job of playing off both storylines and intersecting them in the lives of two young lovers. The writing is vivid and well structured; though it was long I found it easy to read. The story will not be for everyone, but if you invest the time your will be rewarded.

 

A man toys with death in “Endgame” by Thomas Canfield (debut 5/28 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist in this tale has received his death machine. It is set at 30 seconds and counts down from there. The voice is seductive, inviting. Once the machine is started, the time cannot be reset but can be stopped. It is scary and alluring.

“Endgame” is about dancing with death. Your own means of expiration is in your hands. What will death be like? What will I feel when it comes? The questions have an answer, it is all a matter if your curiosity is stronger than will for preservation. Good story but if it were me, I would have bought a safe and locked the damn thing inside.

 

A pair of research scientists conduct a series of interviews with the were-people in “Brief Interviews With Therianthropes” by Marissa Lingen & Alec Austin (debut 5/29 and reviewed by Frank D). Dr’s Yue and Bjornson contact and question the werewolf, were-bear, were-orca, and such, of society, trying to determine how they fit into today’s world.

This is an amusing tale. A fun piece to read.

 

In “The Girl She Truly Was” by Lauren K. Moody (debut 5/30 and reviewed by Anonymous) Ms Moody re-tells the story of Cinderella. The only difference between this and the classic fairytale is that Cinderella is born a boy, but feels as though he should be girl–what we call gender dysphoria nowadays. Apart from that, the story pretty much unfolds the way you’d expect, with magic filling the gaps and making the whole thing work.

It was well written, but since the twist of the story (what makes it unique) happens at the beginning, the rest of the story seems a little predictable as barely changes from the original.

 

The protagonist is meeting her alien hybrid daughter for the first time in “Sapience and Maternal Instincts” by Krystal Claxton (debut 5/31 and reviewed by Frank D). Twenty years later, she can see a bit of herself in her alien offspring. Gathering the nerve to meet her was difficult but they do share a bloodline, and a bit more she soon discovers.

“Sapience” is a unique twist on the parent/child reunion trope. Like a mother who is meeting the child she gave up for adoption, the protagonist is full of anxiety. Unlike those women, she was forced to carry the daughter who is sitting before her. The story evolves into something sweet and loving. I found myself as surprised at the outcome as the protagonist did.

Recommended.

 

Making the List

While looking for material to post here, I found this delightful reviewing site, BestScienceFictionStories. The ezine reviews speculative fiction spanning several decades with links of where you can find them. I just read and enjoyed the sites administrator’s (Rusty) assessment of OSC’s award winning novelette Ender’s Game.

Rusty invites guests to post a review and I found one done by an Amanda Watson. She lists the top four magazines new writers should consider when they are submitting their speculative fiction tales. Daily SF ranked # 3 on her list (behind Lightspeed and Clarkesworld). Here is a short excerptâ€

â€Daily Science Fiction publishes a relatively high volume of stories, many new writers find it to be an excellent site to use as a vehicle to establish themselves in the science fiction writing world. Just don’t be surprised if your first few submissions to this magazine don’t make the cutâ€

#4 on her list is Asimov’s (never a bad thing when you can beat Asimov’s on a list). I found that I agreed with most of Ms Watson’s advice, but heading my list of the greatest understatements of the year, she writesâ€

â€Don’t get discouraged if your story doesn’t get published by one of the magazines listed aboveâ€

Please, please don’t be discouraged if you don’t get published by any of the publications on her list but plan on buying a sheet of drywall if you do. You will need to repair the hole in the ceiling your head made when you jumped for joy when you received your acceptance.

Unidentified Funny Objects edited by Alex Shvartsman is an anthology of humorous speculative fiction. The publication will debut in late 2012 and will be available in print and e-book formats. UFO has already locked up many regular Daily SF authors , such as Mike Resnick, Lavie Tidhar, and Ken Liu (to name a very few) – and has opened up their kickstarter campaign, an opportunity to guarantee your own copy of the book and contribute to expand this ambitious project.

ÂThe editor and Daily SF author, Alex Shvartsman, has said the project is filling up nicely (a claim this associate editor can verify) but says he still has room for more hilarious material. If you think you have what it takes to be funny, feel free to check out UFO’s guidelines. For an idea what it takes, UFO would like to give you a taste of funny with Jake Kerr’s “The Alien Invasion As Seen In The Twitter Stream Of @DWEEBLESS”.

 

The Best of Lightspeed (& Fantasy) Podcast

written by David Steffen

John Joseph Adams has been getting a lot of attention in recent years. He used to be the slush reader for Fantasy & Science Fiction, but has gone one to be the editor and publisher of Lightspeed, and of their horror sister Nightmare. He has also published quite a few themed fiction anthologies like The Living Dead, Wastelands, and By Blood We Live.

Fantasy Magazine has been around for quite a few years. Lightspeed is only a couple years old, started by Fantasy‘s publisher Sean Wallace and edited by John Joseph Adams. In 2011 John Joseph Adams became the editor and publisher of both, and chose to consolidate the two into a single magazine titled Lightspeed, but which contains the same amount of fantasy and science fiction stories that the individual magazines had carried. From the beginning Lightspeed has had a podcast that has broadcast all of their stories alongside the text publications. When JJA took over Fantasy, he started their podcast as well, but it only lasted 10 episodes before the merger absorbed Fantasy into Lightspeed.

So this is a “Best of” list combining all of Lightspeed‘s podcasted backlog, combined with the 10 Fantasy Magazine episodes in consideration as well.

 

1. The Way of Cross and Dragon by George R. R. Martin
Yes, Lightspeed has managed to attract some big household names like George R. R. Martin. This particular short story was published before I was born. But George is not on this list because he’s well known. These lists are based strictly on merit–I considered his story on the same grounds as everyone else. My #2 choice was very close to this story in my ranking, but this one edged it out because it is centered around my favorite topic for speculation–religion. This story is about a member of an intergalactic Catholic church in the future who is tasked with rooting out heretics in far-flung star systems. He is sent toward a particularly strange sect centered around Judas Iscariot.

2. The Old Equations by Jake Kerr
Based around a future civilization with quantum-based technology, which is an alternate future, based around a past in which Albert Einstein’s theories were dismissed as nonsense. In this future, one of the first interstellar trips at near-light speed is begun. Since they don’t understand the concepts of relativity, they have to figure out all those problematic details as they go. An interesting science problem, with a strong human story at the core of it. In some ways it reminds me of the excellent flash story “Deep Moves” by Bill Highsmith (which I cannot seem to find active link for, too bad)

3. The Taste of Starlight by John R. Fultz
Fair warning: This one will likely be too dark for many viewers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. A long-haul intergalactic trip with a crew in stasis goes wrong in mid-flight when the cryochambers become damaged and a crew member wakes up years too early. He can’t re-enter cryo, and he has to figure out a way to stay alive until the end of the flight. An entire colony’s survival depends on his technical skills, after all.

4. Using it and Losing It by Jonathan Lethem
A man who is sick of dealing with people enjoys a visit to a country where he does not speak the language because of the freedom from conversation it grants him. Returning home, he decides that he wants that freedom in the comfort of his own country, and he sets out to forcefully forget all language.

5. A Hole to China by Catherynne M. Valente
A very fascinating story in the age-old tradition of a child who finds a secret fantasy world. A girl sets out to dig a hole to China and finds hidden worlds beneath her backyard. Lots of great worldbuilding here, a lot of fun to read.

6. Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son by Tom Crosshill
I always like a good story from a skewed perspective. This story is told from the point of view of a Russian child who is the subject of scientific experiments to see if he can be taught to move and manipulate objects on a quantum level. It’s a bit confusing at first, because the boy does not understand what is happening very clearly, but stick with it and it sorts itself out.

7. Transcript of Interaction Between Astronaut Mike Scudderman and the OnStar Hands-Free A.I. Crash Advisor by Grady Hendrix
“You are going to die,” are the first words from the OnStar crash advisor after crash landing on a planet. (don’t worry, that happens right away, that’s not a spoiler). This story is exactly what the title makes it sound like. Lots of fun, dark humor, and the ending is superb.

8.ÂÂ More Than the Sum of His Parts by Joe Haldeman
A man badly injured in an industrial accident is reconstructed with cyborg parts. The story begins as he is going through his procedures, and progresses as he becomes more and more familiar with his new superhuman abilities, and how they set him apart in every way from his fellow men.

 

Honorable Mentions:

Bubbles by David Brin

Dark Sanctuary by Gregory Benford

Four Short Novels by Joe Haldeman
“Eventually it came to pass that no one ever had to die.” A vague opening that could lead any number of routes to tell a good story. In this case, Joe Haldeman has taken this beginning and gone four separate ways for it. Generally these are very high level, often without individual characters, or I probably would’ve ranked this one higher, but it was very interesting, if not emotionally engaging. It’s illustrative of the concept of story triggers, wherein a single prompt can send four authors in four completely different direction, but with just one author involved.

Lessons From a Clockwork Queen by Megan Arkenberg
Generally this one is written a bit distantly for my tastes, but the ideas in it are good enough, and the writing is charming enough that I liked it nonetheless. It’s written as a fairy tale story about a clockwork queen, with fable-style morals sprinkled throughout.

Lucky Pig Studio Relaunch!

written by David Steffen

In late 2010, I launched a 2010 Cafepress store called Lucky Pig Studio with artist Joey Jordan who did our site art. Not a lot has happened there. I think part of the reason is that I never figured out how to make a unified storefront.

Well I’ve put it together now, and so I’m in the midst of a relaunch of the store. I really hope that people like it. I’m talking with Anthony to see if we can figure out how to insert a Cafepress sidebar to the site to make it easy to from this site.

Last time I launched all at once. This time I’m going to try a more measured approach. I’m going to open a new design each day that comes on a wide range of products, and for now they’ll be about 10% less than the usual price.

So this is the 1st day, and here’s the first design. It’s the iconic image of Lucky Pig Studios, the “Lucky Pig!” This design is based on the studios namesake, a piglet that my wife and I rescued from the side of a South Dakota Interstate in the summer of 2010 in the heat of summer. We got it some food, and got it out of the brutal August heat, and to a hooved animal rescue society. So that was one lucky pig.

Interview: Lois Tilton

interviewed by Carl Slaughter

Lois Tilton is the short fiction reviewer for Locus Online. ÂPreviously, she reviewed short fiction for the Internet Review of Science Fiction. ÂShe won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in the short form category for her story “Pericles the Tyrant” in 2006. In 2005, her story, “The Gladiator’s War” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette. ÂShe has also written several novels concerning vampires and media-related novels, one each in the Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine universes. She has published 4 novels: Vampire Winter (1990), Darkness on the Ice (1993), Written in Venom (2000), Darkspawn (2000). She sold over 70 piece of short fiction between 1985 and 2009, many of which appeared in Asimov’s and Realms of Fantasy. Many of her stories have been included in anthologies.

 

CARL SLAUGHTER: What type of relationship does a reviewer have with the science fiction community? Do you hobnob with authors and publishers? What happens at conventions when fans, authors, editors, and publishers discover you’re the Locus reviewer? Do they argue with you, thank you, lobby you on behalf of an upcoming story, avoid you?

LOIS TILTON: Essentially, I don’t have a relationship with the science fiction community. I don’t believe I’ve been to a convention since I started reviewing. For one thing, they don’t invite me. And I don’t really see the use in it. I don’t particularly enjoy most conventions, where I find myself with nothing much to do except maybe the token panel. An author goes to these things to rub the elbow with agents and editors, bask in the presence of the famous, hang out with the posse. I’m not there anymore.

Almost all my previous interaction with the SF community has been online, but online has gone Elsewhere these days and I feel no inclination to chase it around. This makes me fairly insulated from the tides of community opinion, which I consider to be an advantage. It lets me form my opinion of a story without being influenced by prevailing views. I don’t know what stories are currently popular on Facebook or being denounced on Twitter. Think of a hermit in a cave with limited internet access.

CS:Â How does your background as a successful writer influence your reviewing?

LT: It’s a huge advantage that I’m no longer writing fiction. I don’t have to be concerned about the reactions of publishers and editors who might be in a position to reject my stuff. In my first column at IROSF, I wrote as my manifesto: “I consider that my mandate is to the readers, not the authors or editors of the stories I review. I have no one else to please and no one else’s opinion concerns me, save that of the editors of IROSF.” This still holds true, mutatis mutandis, with Locus. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t keep doing reviews. When I reached the age of curmudgeonhood I decided that the rest of life is too short to let other people tell me what I can and can’t say.

CS:Â Have an author or publisher ever tried to fire or prevent you from reviewing any more of their stories, or wrote you nastigrams, or publicly corrected your review?

LT: If any publishers have ever attempted to get me fired, it apparently hasn’t worked so far. On a very few occasions, publishers have indeed been peeved by my opinions enough that they stopped sending me stuff for review. Sometimes I review it anyway, and it doesn’t work in the case of online zines that anyone can read.

As far as author reaction goes, I find that it usually falls into two categories: “Lois Tilton trashed my story, who the hell does she think she is?” and “Lois Tilton recommended my story, what a great reviewer!” Writers tend to take critical reaction personally. I do everything I can to keep it from being personal on my side. So if it comes to that, and it has, I’ll write a negative review of a friend’s story and recommend stuff from a person I happen to dislike.

CS:Â Do meet or correspond with other reviewers and what do you talk about?

LT: I’ve always liked reading reviews, by which I mean reviews with something to say, not just lists with a few stars next to the titles. I like to read other reviewers’ opinions of the stories I’ve read, to see how far we agree and disagree. Have I seen many reviews from other sources that totally changed my assessment of a work? Not really. Sometimes I think, well, that’s a good point. Sometimes, “Duh! How could I miss that!”

Even where there is strong disagreement, it’s definitely a Good Thing to have reviewers who come to a work from different points of view, using different scales of critical measurement. There’s a lot of subjectivity in these things. Even in factual matters, if an author, say, misstates the size of the solar system, different reviewers will assign more or less importance to the error.

Earlier this year, the three regular short fiction reviewers from Locus , Horton, Dozois and Tilton , did a roundtable thing for podcast on reviewing the year’s stories, but there were technical difficulties in the recording. Which was too bad, I think readers would have found it interesting. One thing on which we all agreed was not having enough time to read many novels.

CS:Â Tell us about the reviewing process.

LT: The advantage I have, reviewing online, is the absence of space constraints. I don’t have the word limits that reviewers for print venues have to put up with. When I started doing this, it was common for reviewers to pick out the most notable stories in a magazine and skip over the rest. There wasn’t a lot of negative commentary. Because I don’t have the space constraints, I decided I would comment on every story in every publication I review, including the bad ones. This definitely means some negative reviews. Authors may not like this, but as I’ve said, I’m writing for readers, not authors.

In choosing publications to review, I first look at what I think most readers will be reading. The digests, the regular prozines, both print and online. I also like to review the little magazines and less-seen publications of higher quality, to point potential readers in their direction. I’ve made it a point to read any new publication sent to me, but that doesn’t guarantee I’ll review it if I find the quality to be sub-professional. In essence, I want to review publications that I think readers will want to read.

There don’t seem to be many high-quality original anthologies anymore, and publishers don’t always send them to me, which is vexing. I miss out on some good stuff that way. But another policy I adopted when I started this gig is “Text flows to the reviewer.” Which means I don’t spend my own money on material for review. I’m also not happy about jumping through hoops to access stuff from third-party sites with proprietary formats and encoding.

CS:Â Do you wear kid gloves when you review a story by a new writer?

LT: I don’t hold new authors to a different standard. If a story is supposed to be good enough to be professionally published, this means it ought to be ready for review as a professional story. It does no one a favor if I say, “Well, this one is good enough for a new writer.“ I think readers want to find good stories, regardless of the author’s age or experience. What I will do, particularly in the case of excellent work from a new author, is point out that the writer is new to the game so that readers can look out for more stuff from that author.

CS:Â Any stories you labeled duds that won awards; stories you consider a jewel that received little or no attention; cases of the rest of the speculative fiction community agreeing with you that a story is a dud or a jewel?

LT: The trouble with awards is that most of them are made on other grounds than quality. There’s the popularity of some authors, there’s outright logrolling, there’s contagious groupthink, whereby people assume that if so many other people like a given work, it must be good. And beyond all that is the inescapable fact that most readers, including some of those who vote on awards ballots, don’t read all that widely. They may only read stuff by their friends, or stuff recommended by their friends; some people will vote for stuff by their friends without bothering to read it.

Knowing this, it’s no surprise when inferior fiction ends up getting awards. I very much doubt if a negative review by me has ever changed this. I do think that a strong recommendation from me may have helped boost some stories into contention. At least, I’d like to think so.

 

Carl Slaughter is a writer, reviewer, critiquer, muse, English teacher, recruiter, webmaster, editorialist, essayist, and journalist. His essay on Chinese culture is in Beijing Review and his essay on Korean culture is in Korea Times. His latest essay is on Internet piracy. He is also the editor of ESL Book Review. He has traveled to 19 countries on 4 continents. He has a collection of 1500 DVD movies and TV shows, a collection of Asian and Egyptian art, and an almost unmanageable number of ESL, history, law, business, and science textbooks. At the moment he is teaching ESL in China. He reviewed extensively for Tangent for 2 years, has participated extensively in the Critters Workshop for 5 years, contributes research frequently on the Writers of the Future Forum, and currently writes reviews and conducts interviews for Diabolical Plots. His career plans include contest judge, anthologist, magazine editor, and eventually television producer.

Daily Science Fiction: April 2012 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

Are you still an avid reader of Daily SF? You should be. Read on and see whyâ€

 

“What Jerry Knows” by Shane D. Rhinewald (debut 4/2 and reviewed by Frank D) is the tale of a savant. Jerry prattles off numbers, important events in history, and formulas. Jerry is lost in his mind, but the protagonist knows how lost all of man would be without Jerry’s obsession with numbers.

“What Jerry Knows” is more of a reminiscence, than a tale. The story is brief, and I don’t want to reveal too much, but the tale is about the protagonist’s need to show his gratitude. Not a bad tale. Very nice.

 

“This Rough Magic” by Christie Yant (debut 4/3 and reviewed by Dustin Adams) is somewhat abstract, drawing little on a plot arc, but is nevertheless quite a delightful read. I classify this as a romance story, and while that might not be for everyone, perhaps not even me, I enjoyed each word of this flash fiction length tale.

The writing is solid and flawless. The setting, while simple, is given complexity by the uncertain nature of the story’s narrator. She has great power, yes, but it’s mollified by a man whose life she saves, leading to a great dichotomy of character.

While this strikes me as more of a scene than a story, I’m inclined to *recommend* it based on the writing skill alone, but it also happens to be a great scene.

Recommended.

 

Sora saves the Emperor’s life with the magic of his flute in “After” by C. L. Holland (debut 4/4 and reviewed by James Hanzelka). He is rewarded with gold and the removal of his hands. Once healed, he is escorted outside the palace to be robbed. Found by others who have suffered a similar fate his damaged soul is healed by their presence, allowing him to repay the Emperor in time.

This was an interesting piece, well developed and well written. The story of revenge served by those most harmed is a satisfying, if familiar tale. The twist provided in this one will hold your interest.

 

Ava is enduring a visit from her father in “Back In My Day” by Stacy Danielle Lepper (debut 4/5 and reviewed by James Hanzelka) . Tired about hearing how everything was better, “Back in My Day”. He blithely ignores each of her counter arguments, continuing the argument until she demonstrates the upside of progress.

I’m conflicted on this story. There are some odd constructs that I found confusing. For example, in the opening when she flicks a switch and the baby opens his eyes; it lead me to believe he was an android. This ambiguity is disconcerting and it took several reads to sort out the intent. In spite of this I generally liked the story, particularly the ending. Something I wish was possible today.

 

In “Nameless” by Mari Ness (debut 4/5 and reviewed by James Hanzelka), the protagonist’s name has been stolen. The singer tries to sing her a name, her aunts and uncles try to find her name and she can’t remember her name. The singer takes her on a trek to find her name, but as she discovers it can be a long journey for someone who is nameless.

This is a long meandering story of discovery, with little discovered. It does a good job of creating a world, but not much else. If you are drawn to esoteric studies in world building this is your story, if not, I would advise not investing the time.

 

A time traveler sets to compound a wrong into a right in “Older, Wiser, Time Traveler” by M. Bennardo (debut 4/9 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist in this tale talks of a hypothetical circumstance with himself on the merits of time traveling to undo a crime of passion. The man discusses steps needed to carry out his plan while he steels himself with what must be done.

The narration of “Older” has the appearance of an interview. It took me some time to place who and what the characters in this tale, and their roles, were. Intriguing tale told by a strong writer. I enjoyed the end result.

 

Hero devolves into a relic in “Rust” by Steven Saus (debut 4/10 and reviewed by Frank D). Max Ribaldo had been one of many soldiers cut down in battle. But good soldiers never die when advanced technology can find another use for them. Max serves many years as a cyborg fighting machine. Now he is the last one. His remaining time is as an artifact and guide for a museum. Max thinks back to his time as a soldier, and contemplates how much of his humanity remains.

“Rust” is less about a battle droid and more about the line in which machine erases the man within. Max has always believed, or perhaps has an overriding program, that convinces him that he is still human. The story bounces from a museum tour group to flashbacks of Max’s career.

Max is a cold and clinical being. His answers to questions are factual, even when the questions are meant to elicit an emotion response. The reader is left with the impression the man within has been erased, but the question remains on whether it is the hardware that has made Max that way or the horrors of war.

Rust is a thought provoking work of science fiction.

 

A man must have a mysterious box in “A Case of Curiosities” by Guy Anthony De Marco (debut 4/11 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist is intrigued with a box in a novelty store. The box is full of curiosities, alluring items that can’t be removed.

The story is full of twists. The tinkerer who sold him the box proves to have ulterior motives. The changing story made it difficult for me to buy the premise.

 

Elle receives two presents for her birthday in “A Hole in Time” by Amy Gaertner (debut 4/12 and reviewed by Frank D). A gift that is purchased with sentiment, and another that erases the sentiment away. Elle is a research scientist. Her colleague, Luisa, presents her with her latest invention, a hole in time. She is willing to share credit with Elle but Elle fails to see the value of Luisa’s findings.

The protagonist in “The Hole” is suffering from an early version of a mid-life crisis. She comes off as irritated from the start, so when Luisa has two unexpected gifts for her, Elle is cold, contrite and unappreciative. The ‘hole’ Luisa discovers is an imperfection in time and space but its effects are psychological.

I confess, I wasn’t taken in with this story. An unlikeable protagonist coupled with a premise that didn’t go anywhere made for a tale where I didn’t really care about. Like Elle, I couldn’t see the significance of Luisa’s hole, although I doubt I would have dismissed it as she did. Most of the story was a subplot of Elle’s dour disposition. Sure, her career hasn’t turned out the way she would have liked but that only made her like everyone else.

“A Hole in Time” is a good metaphor for my experience reading it.

 

“A Slice of 3.141592653589793238462643” by Oliver Buckram (debut 4/13 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

How can you argue with a story that’s 314 words long and about Ï€? Three characters with historically significant names eat Pie, drink coffee, and debate the strange patterns surrounding this enigmatic number.

314 words. Really? Yes. Fun story. Worth reading.

 

The protagonist is dumped by her boyfriend in “Objects in Space” by Alex Livingston (debut 4/16 and reviewed by Frank D). David’s ‘Dear John’ letter only states that he ‘needs space’. The protagonist had to sacrifice something dear to her just for the right to read it. She hunts down David to find out what he meant.

This story is set in a future where there is a limit for the amount of things you can have. Not conducive to a pack rat, to say the least. “Objects” is semantically clever. I liked the to-the-point ending of this piece.

 

Reality TV catches Mars’ first astronauts by surprise in “Infested” by Stephen V. Ramey (debut 4/17 and reviewed by Frank D). A crewmember finds the first micro-camera in a bathroom. Soon, the news leaks to the rest of the crew and a search to find all the cameras tears the ship apart.

“Infested” is a story of how people react when they discover their privacy has been sacrificed for a voyeuristic public. I found this tale to be quite clever and accurate. If I were I a part of this crew, I may have done the same thing they had, even if he consequences proved to be far worse than the violation of my privacy.

Recommended.

 

“A Special Day” by Shannon Fay (debut 4/18 and reviewed by Frank D). A ski bunny takes a sudden interest in the protagonist and buys him a coffee. The ensuing conversation drifts to an unlikely subject.

The subject matter in “A Special Day” is about the day no one celebrates, the pre-anniversary date of their death. It is a day only the snow bunny can appreciate. The tale has a twist that comes out of nowhere yet isn’t surprising when it is revealed. I found the story to be sound but was one where the protagonist became a third wheel in the tale. Interesting.

 

Artor the Sorcerer aims to seize the great books of sorcery held in a vault in “Undone” by Greg Porter (debut 4/19 and reviewed by Frank D). But a pest has foiled his ambitions.

This very brief tale introduces a pun-ly named creature that completes the crafty twist of this tale.

 

Something menacing lurks in the deep in “Mad Cats and Englishmen” by Laura Anne Gilman (debut 4/20 and reviewed by Frank D). The pirate ships’, Fifth of Moon, mascot can feel its presence. As a cat, Oliver knows when he is being watched. The ships extrinsic Captain has been oddly distant and on edge. Herself, the Quartermaster, is aware of his strange behavior as well. The Fifth of Moon is a hunted vessel, hunted by something evil below the waves.

Taking “Mad Cats” all in is an adventure all by itself. It is a serious tale set in the high seas of the 17th century with a mythological monster, and a cast of characters worthy of a Disney cartoon. The story centers around a mismatched trio: a talking cat, a woman who serves as second-in-command, and a brighter than the average parrot. The first half of the tale serves as a gradual buildup of tension. Danger lurks unseen. The crew can feel it. Danger reveals itself in the form of a sea serpent. The beast is after the Fifth of Moon, and the Captain is up to the challenge of facing down a worthy opponent.

“Mad Cats” is long tale for Daily SF, and I don’t just mean its actual length. The story is told unnaturally long for the publication’s usual choice of sharp and to-the-point fiction. Despite the unusual characters used to tell this tale, the plot to “Mad Cats” reads like a cliff note version of Moby Dick, but with a monster motivated by the thrill of the chase instead of vengeance.

On the surface, using Oliver as the stories protagonist seems odd and unnecessary, but as I was reading the tales climatic scene, I concluded that using a talking cat as the narrator was a stroke of brilliance. Fifth of Moon became the monster’s play thing. Only a cat could identify with the chasing of prey for sport. Oliver’s inner psyche knew they were in trouble before any signs of danger became apparent to the rest of the crew, which helped to set the tone of this piece.

If you have little patience for a slowly developing plot, you may want to avoid this tale. But if you like the idea of meshing Narnia-like characters into a literary classic storyline, by all means give “Mad Cats” a look.

 

Two sisters stop at an intersection and are confronted with the image of a Mutie in need of help in “Ella and The Man” by K.S. Clay (debut 4/23 and reviewed by Frank D). Muties are the diseased of a future tomorrow. Inflicted with a sickness that leave them speechless, and other aliments not clearly defined, they are the pariah of society. The Mutie looks familiar to Ella. She wants to help the man but her sister, Carmen, is dead set against it. A passing motorcyclist changes things when he throws a Molotov cocktail on the Mutie. Ella springs into action, forcing her sister to react.

The Muties’ in “Ella” are modern day lepers. The disease has become so widespread the hospitals no longer treat it. Things have degenerated to the point where compassion has gone out the window.

I found this tale choppy. The dialog came out in half spoken sentences, the author’s way of showing her protagonist’s distraction. It made much of tale confusing, which is too bad because I rather liked the sudden change of events when the cyclist appeared and the twist at the end. Not too bad of a story.

 

A man has a hard time getting over a break up in “You’ve Ruined This For Me” by Ewan C. Forbes (debut 4/24 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist is depressed. He won’t leave his house, answer the phone, go to work†Nothing outside, even Armageddon, can get him to care enough to rejoin the real world.

This is the tale of one self-absorbed man. All the noises, news reports, and warnings from his friends can get him to see if the world has gone on without him. As odd of a premise as that sounds, I am betting everyone has been in the same place this clod finds himself in this story. Kudos to the author for creating such a convincingly heartbroken man.

 

“Dolly at the End of the World” by Amanda C. Davis (debut 4/25 and reviewed by Anonymous) is a brief, post-apocalyptic story about a young woman/girl called Dolly, who looks after a red box. Most of the dialogue in the first part of the story is Dolly conversing with herself, and responding as though it is her Pappy speaking, and not her–a split personality kind of thing. It’s quite a nice touch and gives a sense to the odd circumstances she grew up in. One thing Pappy told her was to never open the red box–okay, pappy…

But then Malcolm turns up and he seems to have little respect for Pappy’s edicts…

It’s quite a nice little story, but since it was written from the point of view of a naive young person who has grown up alone and has very little experience, it felt a little one dimensional at times, but the nice writing helped.

 

A brother would do almost anything for a sister who has always been there for him in “You Can’t Come Here Anymore” by Luc Reid (debut 4/26 and reviewed by Frank D). Almost.

This very short tale had an ending I still haven’t fully grasped.

 

Pritchard chooses to get in touch with his emotional side in “The Bittersweet Here and After” by Maggie Clark (debut 4/27 and reviewed by Frank D). Pritchard’s wife Myna is dying. Frail, hacking up blood, her end is near. Pritchard wants to be able to experience the grief of losing a loved one so chooses to disable his emotional governing nano-protocols. Absorbing the full brunt of bitter emotions grants him the ability to see people for who they are, while making him appear dangerous to those around him.

“The Bittersweet” is set in a world where emotional outbursts are kept in check by technology. “Ease” tapers the bitter feelings that mankind suffers through. Those who have embraced the technology have excelled in society while the ones who haven’t are falling behind. The benefits aren’t always so grand, however. A story of a dancer who kept dancing on broken feet moves Pritchard to forgo Ease while his wife is ill. He senses he has lost something, and wishes to not miss what will be important during his most trying of times.

I had to read this tale twice to be able to grasp its meaning. The author chose to tell this original concept from the perspective of a man experiencing the feelings of men in years gone by. Nano-protocols in this tale are shown in a soft 1984-esque light. Society has benefited from the technology. Crimes of passion have fallen, children are easier to deal with, and wars are things of the past. Governments, production, businesses , all run smoother. All the people in Pritchard’s life tell him he is making a mistake and that his choice is a selfish one.

Pritchard sees the world through the eyes of a bitter man struck with grief and guilt. Ease has taken away the filters many of us have installed to spare our fellow man from the hurtful thoughts we have stored safely within. His friends and co-workers are rude. The observations they make are callous and uncalled for. Still others wonder what real feelings are like, questioning whether the people that are close to them have suppressed the real them within because technology has deemed it better for society.

“The Bittersweet” is a thick tale. It is told through subtle body language and with the gurgling feelings of a man who hasn’t truly grasped his own feelings in a very long time. There is an underlining subplot in that the story explores the age old question of what is best for society; the greater good of man versus what it is to be a man. I am glad I read it a second time or I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate the effort Ms Clark put into it. The story is difficult to grasp with the way she told it, but a story like this could be told in only the way she chose. For those of you who wonder where man is heading attached with the little bits of technology that have become so ingrained into our culture, this story is a can’t miss. It may prove to have been prophetic, one day.

 

“Diatra” by Kevin Pickett (debut 4/30 and reviewed by Anonymous) is a short story about the decommissioning of a living space craft and it glances at the relationship that has developed between the craft and its captain.

This is a very brief story that didn’t really grab me as it feels like not much happens. The ship is manoeuvred into position and is driven toward a star. There is some dialogue between the ship and the captain and there are some emotional buttons pressed, but only in passing.

I am aware from the bio that this is the author’s first published piece and, with that in mind, there are a lot of positives to take away (smooth writing, nice pacing) but I think the story would have benefited from a little more happening, perhaps a final twist or something.

 

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I have nothing to add here. I would have liked to have announced a Daily SF story as a finalist in the Million Writer’s Award (didn’t happen), or cheered that Locus and/or Tangent Online has decided to change their policy and include Daily SF in their circle of publications worthy of covering (fat chance). I can tell you about the wonderful Kindle editions of past months of Daily SF, they are worth checking out.

There is one opinion I’d like to share. I would like give my first recommendation for the art of this month. I think all of the monthly covers DSF have used have been first class, but this month’s DSF rocket with a wonderful fiery moon and outstanding star filled sky was extra special. Jonathan Westbrook deserves recognition for the splendid work of art.


Have you’ve seen this person? He is wanted for crimes against the written word and for assault and battery on the English language. Despite being rejected over 800 times he still mercilessly stalks and harasses editors of speculative fiction, and may be responsible for several of them closing down because of his failure to take a hint. If you have seen him or know of his whereabouts, contact Diabolical Plots immediately. Seize any material he is in possession of (laptop, pad and paper, quill and parchment) to stop his crime spree, by any means necessary.

Specutopia Inaugural Issue!

written by David Steffen

Just a brief note to point out that the brand new speculative fiction magazine Specutopia has launched, edited by Dale Wise. They publish every 2 months in various and sundry electronic formats, for $3.49 you’ll get 7 short stories, including my story “Never Idle” about a man who can talk to cars and the woman he stops to help on the side of the road when she’s having car trouble.

If you want a sample of the kinds of stories are in the issue, you can read Greg Mellor’s “Hollow Spaces” for free on their website. If you check back around August 1st, James Beamon’s “Death of the World’s Greatest Detective” will be available to read for free.

Enjoy! And if you do buy a copy, feel free to make a comment here about my story or the issue in general!