Tag: Sarah Pinsker

HUGO REVIEW: Short Story Finalists

written by David Steffen

It’s award season again, and these are the nominees for the Hugo Award, voted by supporting members of this year’s WorldCon. This category covers fiction of less than 7500 words. I love to use the Hugo Awards as a recommended reading list, and I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I do!

1.“STET,” by Sarah Gailey (Fireside Magazine, October 2018)
Written as a heavily-annotated synopsis for a research paper about the life-or-death choices of self-driving cars. I love stories that are written as documents, and this has three levels: the synopsis, the annotations by the editor suggesting changes, and the responses from the author responding to the editor’s suggestions. (“STET” means “let it stand” when responding to editorial suggestions). This hits a lot of my favorite things, between an emotional story, a document-style format, several layers of storytelling, and very concise format. There is a very emotional story here, but much of it is inferred from the tone and the atypical wording for a research paper and the responses to that. Loved it.

2. “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat,” by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine 23, July-August 2018)
Fairy tale about a trio of velociraptors and the prince who is too foolish to ignore all of the warnings. Hilarious and fun spin on fairy tales with a non-human point of view and follows through on its exemplary title.

3. “The Rose MacGregor Drinking and Admiration Society,” by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine 25, November-December 2018)
A group of fairy folk are pining over Rose MacGregor, the one who got away. They are so accustomed to being the ones to be pined over, they’re not sure what to do with themselves when it happens in reverse! This is an entertaining reversal that has the feel of tall tales from the fey about this unconquerable person unique in a world of otherwise entirely conquerable people.

4. “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” by P. Djèlí Clark (Fireside Magazine, February 2018)
Based on apparently true piece of documentation showing that George Washington purchased “nine negro teeth”, this tells the stories of the nine people whose teeth became part of George Washington’s dentures, and what made each of them who they were and how their tooth’s presence affected Washington. With the format this is a small collection of flash fiction with a common theme, interesting and compelling and each one very brief and to the point.

5. “The Court Magician,” by Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed, January 2018)
This is the story of the boy who will become the court magician, always hungry to learn the secrets of the tricks, who will keep on no matter the cost. This is a story of power and the power behind the power, where there is always a trick behind everything.

6. “A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies,” by Alix E. Harrow (Apex Magazine, February 2018)
This is a story about witches and librarians and kids desparate for escape, and how a witch librarian would try to help them. Portal fantasies have always been one of my favorites, so this is up my alley

The Best of Escape Pod 2018

written by David Steffen

Escape Pod is the weekly science fiction podcast, one of the Escape Artists family of podcasts.  At the beginning of 2017 it was edited by Norm Sherman, but when he stepped down from the role two co-editors have filled the positions: S.B. Divya and Mur Lafferty.

In February Escape Pod once again participated in the Artemis Rising event across the Escape Artists podcasts, publishing fantasy stories written by women and nonbinary authors.

Escape Pod published a total of 42 stories in 2018, which is lower than usual because of a combination of longer stories that were split across multiple episodes, as well as mixing in “Flashback Friday” episodes this year, which are republications of stories published earlier in Escape Pod’s history–since Flashback Friday stories have already been considered for previous Best of Escape Pod lists here, they were not considered this time.

Every short story that is eligible for Hugo nominations this year which were first published by Escape Pod are marked with an asterisk (*). 

The List

1.”And Then There Were (N-One)” (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4) by Sarah Pinsker
The author Sarah Pinsker attends a convention of Sarah Pinskers from other dimensions. And then Sarah Pinsker is murdered! Dun dun DUUUUN.

2.”The Revolution, Brought to You By Nike” (Parts 1, 2) by Andrea Phillips
Nike’s new viral marketing campaign is aimed at changing the world.

3.”Caesura” by Hayley Stone
Finding ways to make an AI write poetry as a form of grieving.

4.”Beatrix Released” by Shaenon K. Garrity*
Beatrix Potter, controlling a team of clever animals.

5.”Anna and Marisol in Time and Space” by Tim Pratt
Time travel romance!

Honorable Mentions

“After Midnight at the Zap Stop” by Matthew Claxton*







The Best of Uncanny Magazine Podcast

written by David Steffen

Uncanny Magazine is an online Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine with a commitment to diversity.  Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas are the co-publishers and co-editors-in-chief, and Michi Trota is the managing editor.  The first issue of Uncanny Magazine was published in November 2014.  Uncanny Magazine has already been nominated for and won multiple SF/F awards, including winning the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, and multiples stories first published there nominated in the Hugo story categories, winning a Parsec award, as well as being a finalist for World Fantasy Award and Locus Award.

They release monthly issues, in ebook format, online, and two of the stories every month in the podcast.  Every episode of the podcast features an update on what the Thomases are up to which varies in length between about two minutes and twenty, which includes any publishing changes, convention travel, mention of current events (usually regarding publishing or politics).  Then, the story (sometimes two), the poem, and an interview (often of the author of the story, but that may not always be true).

This list is based on the list of all of the stories published on the podcast only since the beginning of the podcast, which comes to about 50 stories. This list is not based on stories that Uncanny Magazine published in ebook/online formats that weren’t on the podcast, so if you like what you read here, you should certainly go read more of their fiction that wasn’t considered for this list.  This list also doesn’t include poetry because I am a terrible judge of poetry.

The List

1. “Big Thrull and the Askin’ Man” by Max Gladstone
The dialect of the narrative voice of this one took a little bit getting used to, but the incredible reading by Heath Miller helped sell this a lot, he pulled the dialect off splendidly.  The story follows Big Thrull, who is a legendarily tough member of a legendarily tough race that is heavily based on customs and values toughness and straightforwardness, who invites the “Askin’ Man” into her home as a guest who is of a culture and toughness that we would call more ordinary who knows how to ask the right questions to get what he wants.  Big Thrull has to quickly become acquainted the slippery slope of giving small favors.

2.  “When the Circus Lights Down” by Sarah Pinsker
The circus is a living thing, and the big top tent lights down from the sky and attracts the nearby residents to come and visit before lighting off again sometime in the near future.

3.  “Auspicium Melioris Aevi” by JY Yang 
Harry Lee Kuan Yew is being rigorously tested.  Not just this Harry Lee, but the dozens of other Harry Lees before him, tested against various battle simulations the original Harry Lee had faced up against, and scored and ranked to determine their future fates.

4.  “The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat” by Brooke Bolander
Three velociraptor sisters live together in the wilderness.  One day, a vapid and arrogant prince discovers them there, and after they eat his horse he seems so helpless one of the sisters helps him find his way home.  Hilarious and fun, and with Bolander’s distinctive voice.

5.  “Wooden Feathers” by Ursula Vernon
A woman carves wooden ducks to sell at local fairs.  Every single day an old man buys the cheapest one she has on display with barely a word.  What is he doing with all of those ducks?  This story has one of the best and most surprising moments, where the story suddenly shifts from a curious mystery to something much different. (full disclosure: I reprinted this story in The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List)

Honorable Mentions

“Pipecleaner Sculptures and Other Necessary Work” by Tina Connolly

“Pockets” by Amal El-Mohtar
(full disclosure: I reprinted this story in The Long List Anthology Volume 2: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List)

“Down and Out in R’lyeh” by Catherynne M. Valente
Another story read by Heath Miller who did an incredible job selling the voice on a story that might’ve been difficult to read.  The story uses “squamous” to mean very drunk, and especially with Miller’s reading voice, it really works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVIEW: Hugo Novella Finalists

written by David Steffen

The Hugo Awards Best Novella category covers stories between 17,500 and 40,000 words.  See here for a full list of the nominees this year.  I enjoyed all of the novellas this year, I’m glad that the Hugos use instant-runoff voting so I can give some kind of vote for them all instead of just having to pick one!

1. “And Then There Were (N-One),” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)

A Sarah Pinsker from an alternate reality has discovered how to travel to alternate realities.  One of the first actions this alternate Sarah Pinsker performs is to organize the first SarahCon, attended entirely by Sarah Pinskers of various realities.  This Sarah (an insurance adjuster) grudgingly decides to attend, where she meets hundreds of herselves and is just starting to figure out how to navigate the odd social situation of talking to all these other Sarahs, when a dead body is discovered, apparently a murder, and this Sarah Pinsker is the closest Sarah available to one with detective experience while they wait for the authorities to arrive on the island of the convention.  The victim is Sarah Pinsker.  Pretty much all of the suspects and potential witnesses are Sarah Pinsker.  And Sarah Pinsker is on the case.

This story was wonderful and fun and delightful and hilarious.  There was plenty of humor inherent in the situation, but the murder mystery is played straight–it has all of the components you expect from a murder mystery, except that the scenario adds a bizarre twist to the situation that both complicates (because it’s hard to even tell the people apart) and simplifies (because Sarah has a better understanding of the suspects than she would if they were entirely separate people) the investigation.  This lends itself to the story taking some turns that would only make sense in this very specific situation.  Highly recommended, I have been recommending this to anyone who has asked me what I’m reading.

2. River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

This was previously reviewed at greater length here last year.

Usually alternate history is used to explore the consequences of major political or military events turning out differently.  But sometimes, it can just be used as a reason to tell a Western story about hippo-riding cowboys in Louisiana (alt history because there was an early 20th century proposal to import hippos to raise them for meat).

Winslow Houndstooth had been happy as a hippo rancher until his ranch was burned to the ground.  Now Houndstooth is a hired hand, and he’s accepted a job from the government to clear all of the feral hippos out of the Mississippi, and he also has revenge on his mind to get back at the one who destroyed his ranch.

This is so much fun, very much a western style story but with the significant added wrinkle that their mounts/cattle can bite them in half.  The story is told straight, so the hippos aren’t used for comedy, but that just makes it all the more fun.  It has the feel of a heist sort of story, with Winslow as the leader gathering skilled specialists to perform the seemingly impossible mission.

3. Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Jacqueline and Jillian are twin sisters, weighed under the heavy burden of parental expectations.  Every aspect of what they do and how they present to the world is defined by their parents who wanted the perfect boy and the perfect girl.  Jacqueline is the perfect princess of a girl, never dirty, never impolite, while Jillian is a tomboy who excels at athletics and never does things that might be considered girlish.  When they’re thirteen the girls discover a portal into another world in their house and they travel through it, to a land protected and contained by a vampire and a mad doctor who can raise corpses from the dead.  Portal visitors are a common occurrence here, and due to a prior arrangement, the girls each go into the custody of one of these powerful men and must make their way in this strange world until they can find a doorway home.

This ties into McGuire’s Wayward Children series, but you don’t need any familiarity with the series to read this–it works just fine as a standalone.  It is built largely on the audience expectations of portal stories, so if (like me) those are a particular favorite, you’ll be well-primed for this.  The characters are both well-portayed as real people as well as larger than life in some ways because they are constantly being pushed into boundaries that generally do not fit them.  It’s a story of what makes each of us different from the others, and how our environments and constraints on our behavior end up defining much of who we are.  It’s also a tale of sisterhood coming from a family that didn’t exactly nurture their relationship, thrown into adversity of a strange world.  Well worth the read.

4. All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

The security android (SecBot for short) calls itself Murderbot, but only in the privacy of its own head.  It’s part robot part human, property of the Company, on security detail with a group of humans surveying a planet for resources.  Unbeknownst to its crew, it has successfully hacked its governor module that is supposed to keep it safe and limit its behavior to only those things necessary for its security duties.  But, really, it uses most of that freedom to download and watch entertainment vids in every moment of spare time.  Its current crew is disconcertingly friendly, which is bothersome when it really just wants to be left alone to watch its shows.  When a series of things go wrong with the surveying mission, it’s not clear if its due to the Company’s cut-rate equipment or if someone is sabotaging them.  But Murderbot’s vid-watching has (surprisingly) prepared it for unexpected situations more than its actual functional programming, and if it wants to survive it’s going to have to help its crew get out of this.

Murderbot is a fun and charming character in its own way.  While some parts of its personality are far from mine (a casual attitude toward violence, but that’s inherent in its programming) I think its character is particularly appealing for introverts who may find friendliness from others alarming at times.  Murderbot is a very competent character and it’s a solid action story, but the biggest charm of it for me was just enjoying the kind of odd personality traits, different from most human characters in stories but also different from most robot characters in stories.  Fun, and the first of a series.

5. Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)

The original Binti was reviewed here as part of the Hugo Novella Review in 2016.  Binti: Home is the second story in the series.

Binti is the first human from the Himba culture to travel to the stars where she is attending Oomza University, where she is learning to refine her skill for mentally manipulating magical formulas.  The first story told of the tragic happenings of her trip where she was the sole survivor of an attack by the jellyfish-like Meduse and went on to help forge a peace between humans and Meduse, and in the process was physically changed so that her braids became like a Meduse’s tentacles, able to move of their own volition.  Now she is returning home to Earth to her family to go on a pilgrimage during her break in her schooling, and she’s bringing her Meduse friend Okwu with her.  With the truce with the Meduse still fresh and tentative, and with Binti changed dramatically by her new experiences since leaving home, she doesn’t know how her family and culture will receive her.

Solid story, and I like following Binti as much as the first time.  The first book took place mostly off-Earth so you didn’t get to see much of Binti’s home or her culture directly.  This story takes place almost entirely here, we get to know her family and her background better.  This story is the second in what I think will be a trilogy and it does feel like that–it is clearly building FROM something, and clearly building TO something where it will go next, but as itself I wanted to get the rest of the story–I will be excited to read the third story.  I would recommend not starting the series with this book–I don’t think you’ll get everything out of it if you haven’t seen Binti’s path so far, and the previous conflict with the Meduse and the beginning of the truce.

6. The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

Mokoya and Akeha are the twin children of the Protector, sold to the Monastery at birth.  Mokoya is plagued by visions of the future that can’t be changed, and Akeha is drawn to political revolution.  The Machinist rebellion is growing, the power of technology growing quickly and threatening the iron rule of the Protectorate and their soldiers, and both of the siblings see the terrible things their mother does to maintain her rule.  They must make decisions about where their loyalties lie and where their abilities are best used.

This story ties into the author’s Tensorate series, and was dual-released with another novella in the same universe The Red Threads of Fortune, but it works as a standalone–you don’t need any prior knowledge of the characters or universe to be able to follow the story.  I haven’t read the related novella or the other books in the series, but I enjoyed getting to know the twins and their relationship with each other.  What I found particularly interesting was some of the cultural details, especially how children are not considered a specific gender until they’re old enough to decide their gender for themselves, and how Tensorate magic is used to facilitate this process–although parts of living under Protectorate rule seem oppressive, this particular aspect was positive and interesting.

 

HUGO REVIEW: Novelette Finalists

written by David Steffen

Science fiction award season is here again, and the Hugo final ballot was announced for WorldCon 76 in San Jose.

On to the novelette category, my favorite category of all the Hugo categories, covering stories between 7500 and 17500 words.  This review covers all six finalists.

1. “Wind Will Rove,” by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, September/October 2017)

This story is told by a musician several generations into a trip on a generation ship.  The pristinely preserved historic records of entertainment media have been erased by a hacker a long time ago, and people are divided about whether to try to reproduce exactly the art from memory or to try to make something wholly original.

This story took a little bit to really reel me in–I was interested, but not fully invested until I picked up what it was doing with the discussion of generations of adapted music.  The story shows how the new and the old are not necessarily as disparate ideas as they might seem in live music, where new trends are the gradual course of change from old trends as musicians put something new into the familiar.  Much like the setting with the futuristic setting and the instruments that haven’t changed in a long time.

2.  “A Series of Steaks,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)

“All known forgeries are tales of failure”, the story begins.  Helena of Splendid Beef Enterprises is a forger, not of money, not of art, but of beef, writing patterns for 3-D printers to print beef from raw materials that can’t be told from the real thing–getting the marbling just right, the red of the meat, the white of the fat and bone.  If the government catches wind of what she’s doing, she’ll be in a lot of trouble, but she has a good business going with her established clients.  But when a new prospect calls to arrange her services on a much larger scale than usual with threats, she’s not sure she can afford to refuse.

Riveting story, between the part of the story about the forgery itself and the attempts to make it look real in all its detail, and the other part dealing with the conflict with the anonymous coercing client.  Great use of near-future SF ideas and extrapolating from current trends and technology.

3.  “The Secret Life of Bots,” by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)

The bot is woken by the Ship and assigned maintenance task 944 in the queue, which is to deal with an “Incidental”, an unspecified biological pest that has gotten loose aboard the ship.  The task turns out to be a much bigger ordeal than it first sounds like; this isn’t just a rat or a cockroach, this one threatens the very integrity of the ship and if it’s going to have any chance at succeeding it has to use all of the resources at hand.

Action-packed fun story, not a dull moment as this bot that’s really not designed for the task at hand does its darnedest to do it anyway.  Interesting discussion on the strength of intuition vs logic.

4.  “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time,” by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny, May/June 2017)

Finley, a trans man, is attacked by a vampire while taking a piss in an alley, even though vampires are supposed to go to blood banks instead of attacking people unless those people have applied to become vampires.  Finley couldn’t apply to become a vampire even if he wanted to, because one of the restrictions is that “people who have taken steps to medically transition” are not allowed.  He can’t register because of that, and unregistered vampires, if discovered, are hunted and killed.  So he is stuck with this situation and will be the first to enter the unknown territory of what happens to a trans body as it changes from human to vampire body.

Vampires can be a hard sell for me, but this one at least took a new angle in that I don’t think I’ve seen another story with a trans vampire.  The logical consequences of stereotypical vampire traits extended to Finley’s body made for some new revelations in this area.  I appreciated how the vampire that turned him, after the initial act, was actually generally supportive in helping Finley figure out how to cope and even thrive in this new and unprecedented life beginning for him.

5.  “Children of Thorns, Children of Water,” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny, July-August 2017)

Thuan and Kim Cuc are descendants of dragons who live beneath the Seine, whose mission is to infiltrate the house of a Fallen angel who claims to rule over much of Paris by applying for entrance into the house, posing as a poor unfortunate houseless.  Hawthorn house has shown an unusual interest in the Seine lately and the dragons want to know why, so they need eyes in the house.  They don’t know what the test is going to be, and they’ll need to avoid revealing their dragon magic in any way that might be noticed.  But something else is going on here besides just the test itself.

This was a very interesting setting, and the mission of infiltration set it up for a lot of tension, especially with the nature of the test unknown and new oddities appearing alongside the test.  This was my first exposure to de Bodard’s world here, and I felt like I was playing catch-up–a magical ability would be revealed at a crucial moment and I hadn’t known that was possible.  This isn’t necessarily bad, but I felt like I had to revise my understanding of the situation pretty often–this might be because de Bodard has released a couple novels in this world already and the story might be written with readers of the books in mind?

6.  “Extracurricular Activities,” by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 15, 2017)

Shuos Jedao, a heptarchate commando, is sent on a secret mission to infiltrate Du Station in the Gwa Reality to find out what happened to their former classmate and captain of a warmoth whose last distress call came from there.  To enact this plan, Jedao is put in command of a merchant troop.

I’m not sure why, but I didn’t end up feeling particularly invested in the outcome of Jedao’s mission–I didn’t have anything against Jedao, but I didn’t feel the tension of the mission outcome–I’m not sure if these are characters from novels and so I might be missing background information?  It could also be that I never really felt like the outcome was in question–I felt like Jedao had everything under control from pretty much start to finish; I never felt like there was a point where the outcome hung in the balance.

 

Long List Anthology Volume 3 Kickstarter

written by David Steffen

The Kickstarter for the Long List Anthology Volume 3 is launched as of this morning!  This is the third in a series of anthologies collecting works from the longer list of works that got a lot of Hugo Award nomination votes from the fans.

The art this year is a lovely piece by Amanda Makepeace.

 

The stories lined up are:

Short Stories (base goal)

  • “Lullaby for a Lost World” by Aliette de Bodard
  • “A Salvaging of Ghosts” by Aliette de Bodard
  • “Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands” by Seanan McGuire
  • “Things With Beards” by Sam J. Miller
  • “Red in Tooth and Cog” by Cat Rambo
  • “Terminal” by Lavie Tidhar
  • “Razorback” by Ursula Vernon
  • “Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0” by Caroline M. Yoachim

Novelettes (stretch goal)  

  • “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” by P. Djèlí Clark
  • “Red as Blood and White as Bone” by Theodora Goss
  • “The Venus Effect” by Joseph Allen Hill
  • “Foxfire, Foxfire” by Yoon Ha Lee
  • “The Visitor From Taured” by Ian R. MacLeod
  • “Sooner or Later, Everything Falls Into the Sea” by Sarah Pinsker
  • “Blood Grains Speak Through Memories” by Jason Sanford

Novellas (stretch goal) 

  • “Runtime” by S.B. Divya
  • “Chimera” by Gu Shi, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu
  • “Forest of Memory” by Mary Robinette Kowal

 

I hope you are as excited as I am!  Thank you for your support!

 

The Best of Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2015-2016

written by David Steffen

This post covers two years of Beneath Ceaseless Skies–they didn’t publish quite enough stories in 2015 to do a list.  Beneath Ceaseless Skies continues to publish quality other-world fiction, edited by Scott H. Andrews.  This list only covers the stories they published on their podcast, which is a bit less than half of the stories they publish–one podcast every two weeks.  They published 45 original stories on the podcast in 2015-2016.

The stories that are eligible for this year’s science fiction awards (like the Hugo and Nebula) are marked with an asterisk (*).  BCS publishes all original fiction, but only that was first published in the 2016 calendar year is eligible.

The List

1. “The Punctuality Machine, Or, A Steampunk Libretto” by Bill Powell
Written as a futuristic time-travel musical plays written in the 1800s, with a full-cast recording.  So much fun!

2.  “The Sweetest Skill” by Tony Pi*
The third in a series of short stories about the candy magician Ao, who can make magical animated candies as well as negotiating arrangements with spirits of the Zodiac for greater powers.  Again he is drawn into using his powers in the service of others.  This story stands by itself, but if you want to find out more about his powers, and why he owes the debts that he does, you should also read the first story, “A Sweet Calling” published at Clarkesworld, and the second story “No Sweeter Art” published at Beneath Ceaseless Skies in previous years.

3.  “The Night Bazaar For Women Becoming Reptiles” by Rachael K. Jones*
Jones has a penchant for the weird, and this story is a prime example.  In the city in this story, everyone has a daytime life and a nighttime life, each with different lovers and different occupations and different expectations.  The protagonist sells reptile eggs to women at the Night Bazaar that transform them into reptiles, but she longs for such a transformation herself.

4.  “Blessed Are Those That Have Seen, and Do Not Believe” by D.K. Thompson*
Another entry in the St. Darwin’s Spirituals story, a kind of steampunk noir where Darwin invented goggles that allow the wearer to see spirits, and there are other supernatural elements as well.

5.  “Court Bindings” by Karalynn Lee
The protagonist is the bodyguard of a princess against the assassins of foreign courts, while watching her grow in her magic to compel other living beings to her will.

Honorable Mentions

“The King in the Cathedral” by Rich Larson

“The Mountains His Crown” by Sarah Pinsker*

 

Review: Nebula Novelette Nominees

written by David Steffen

And the next category up in Nebula nominees, voted by professional SF and fantasy authors, stories from 7500-17,500 words. As I work my way up in the category lengths I generally enjoy less of the stories because the longer categories could often do with significant trimming.

So I was surprised and pleased after only really digging one of the stories in the Short Story category, that this category did much better.

 

1. ‘‘Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters,” Henry Lien (Asimov’s 12/13)
Suki Jiang, inhabitant of the world of Pearl, has been sent to a boarding school for being willful and disrespectful to her parents. This is the essay she writes about her experiences at Pearl Rehabilitative Colony for Ungrateful Daughters. The main measure of worth in this society is ability to perform martial arts while ice-skating on the surface that is made of pearl.

I found the protagonist of this story extremely entertaining, proud to the point of arrogance and focused on her goals even when she doesn’t take much time for forethought before the things she says and does. The story had my vote from an early moment when Suki faces off in martial arts skating against a team of nuns who want to cut her hair as punishment.

 

2. ‘‘They Shall Salt the Earth with Seeds of Glass,” Alaya Dawn Johnson (Asimov’s 1/13)
No one knows why the glassmen have come, forcing us to follow their rules and their moralities, punishing with sudden violence any resistance against them. Those who survive have little time to concentrate on anything else but trying to eke out a living from the land under the eye of the glassmen. No one has even seen a glassman in the flesh, because they hide behind their remote controlled devices. One of their rules is that no abortions are outlawed, and the protagonist’s sister wants to find a doctor who will give her an illegal aboriton, but they have to travel some distance to find one while avoiding glassmen who will force her to stay at a hospital to carry the baby to term.

The glassmen in this story were scary and strange enough that their presence in the story carried my like for it. I felt for the main characters and very much wanted them to survive their journey, and was kept guessing what the glassmen really were and what they really wanted throughout.

 

3. ‘‘The Waiting Stars,” Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky)
This is told as two seemingly separate stories, taking place in a world that will be familiar to her fans, as she has told stories from this world before. One story is about Lan Nhen and her sister Cuc as they go to rescue a damaged mindship that contains the mind of a relative. They come from the Dai Viet culture where ships are controlled by human minds, birthed as mechanical objects from human wombs. The other story follows Catherine, who has been “rescued” from Dai Viet culture by the empire which has tried to give her a new life in the imperial way.

Aliette’s stories have a great deal to say about how cultures interact with each other, not in the war that is often the subject of SF stories, but more in regards to cultural assimilation, imperialism, and the motivations of individuals who are just trying to survive in the boundaries where wildly disparate cultures intersect. She has a real gift for exploring this topic. This is a very good story. It did take me most of the story to guess how the two tales are related to each other, but it was done well. The fact that I placed it as #3 on the list is no insult to its quality, it’s just that this category held some tough competition.

 

4. ‘‘In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind,’‘ Sarah Pinsker (Strange Horizons 7/1 , 7/8/13)
Millie’s husband George is in the hospital, and he might not be long for this world. In a comatose state, he moves his hand in a drawing motion. Given a pen he sketches the rough blueprint of a structure she’d never seen him draw in all his years as an architect, even the more fanciful conceptual projects he’d drawn in his career for the military. What could it be?

As with the #3 on the list, this one’s not #4 because I disliked it–it was just a tough crowd. I felt like Millie and George were real people. They sounded like great people to know and I was especially interested in the sprawling backyard treehouse of motley design that he put together for his children. I was interested to see where it all turned out and I was fully invested in the story. It was a good story, it just didn’t quite work for me as well as the other ones.

 

5. ‘‘The Litigation Master and the Monkey King,” Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/13)
Tian Haoli, the litigation master, is approached by a man carrying a text which has been forbidden by the emperor, pursued by the emperor’s assassins. The man asks Tian Haoli to hide the book for him, and he must then decide what to do.

This wasn’t really speculative fiction. The Monkey King himself was the only pseudo-speculative element, but it seemed pretty clear that this was just a figment of the litigation master’s imagination. The story is based in real tragedy, but I thought it was a little too heavy on message. It was hard to just go along with the story when it seemed the author was just using it as a medium to tell about a historical event that people might not be aware of. I prefer story to be primary, message secondary. As a documentary, I’d want to read more, but as fiction it left something to be desired.

 

6. ‘‘Paranormal Romance,” Christopher Barzak (Lightspeed 6/13)
“This is a story about a witch. Not the kind you’re thinking of either.” Sheila is a modern witch who specialized in love. Helping a lonely person find new love, helping a person in a fading marriage hold it together, anything along those lines, but she’s never had much luck in love herself.

I didn’t find very much in the story to keep my interest. The opening lines seem to match a pattern I’ve noticed in some recent stories in the last few years which start with some variation of “I’m going to tell you a fairy tale. But not the kind of fairy tale you’re expecting.” I’ve never found this to be a very intriguing beginning, because the format never ends up being much less predictable than the fairy tale it claims to be totally unlike.

In this case, I could’ve used some tension, some goal for the character. She seems content enough doing her everyday work. She’s good at what she does. Her mom continually is trying to set her up on romantic outings, but she doesn’t really seem that concerned about her lack of a relationship. And if she doesn’t seem that concerned, why should I be? But in the end it seems that what the story was about was her finding a relationship, something which she wasn’t looking for at all. Generally a story with a relationship as a major factor shows me that the person really wants a relationship, or perhaps there is other focal tension and the relationship grows from that. This one was neither, and I didn’t think it worked. So, generally, I found the story quite dull and lacking in tension, and I was never interested in the love interest, and it didn’t really matter to me whether a relationship started or not because the character didn’t seem that concerned.

 

Daily Science Fiction: July 2013 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

Whew. Just emptied a big pile of commitments on my desk and can finally get around to reviewing some excellent material. So while I’m going over August’s offerings, why don’t you take a gander at what July’s stories were all about.

 

Remembrance by David G. Uffelman (debut 7/1 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

The Old Mother of a herd of elephants hears news of grief from her distant counterpart. As she prepares to move the herd, to pay respects, she’s questioned by her eldest daughter and eventual successor. This is a good lesson for the younger, and for all. They set out on their journey because the Old Mother knows best.

What I didn’t know until after reading the story comments is that the human, the object of the elephants’ grief and respect, was based on Laurence Anthony. The “Elephant Whisperer.” I felt the tale was lovely, and after learning this fact, I gained a deeper appreciation for the entire story.

 

Memories like Bread, Words like Little White Stones by Cecile Cristofari (debut 7/2 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

When an elderly man loses his memories, his wife, unable to watch him drift away, picks up a summer job delivering mail. At first, she sees a postcard that reminds her of an earlier holiday.

Before long, like the real life postman (Ferdinand Cheval) who collected stones along his route to build a palace, the woman’s letters grew into a house. But in fiction, the house could become real, and inviting, and welcoming.

Beautifully written, the story builds, a piece at a time, toward a warm and peaceful conclusion.

 

Scramble! by Melissa Mead (debut 7/3 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

A twist on Humpty Dumpty, living on a different planet, guarding other eggs. When the king’s men knock him down, crack him, and refuse to put him back together again…

Humpty Dumpty gets even.

 

In Portal Worlds and Your Child: A Parent’s Guide (With Examples) by Matt Mikalatos (debut 7/4 and eviewed by Dustin Adams) we have a wonderful guide (with examples) of what to do, and how to react, should your child be able and inclined to travel or have traveled via portal to another world.

I appreciated the layout of the story, and following one particular girl through her travels there and back, but one thing hung me up a bit. On the one hand we have the guide, which begins firmly entrenched in the fantastic reality of a child– “Watch for imaginary friends, talking
animals, or strange behaviors (avoiding sidewalk cracks, fear of open closets, obsessively locking bedroom windows, etc.).” Which I loved, because I figured this would be a story that would leave me questioning my perception of reality. On the other hand, the story itself journeyed into the realm of fantasy, becoming its own fantastic world, which, for me, negated the “reality” of the earlier writing.

However, that said, this remains an enjoyable read. (And a handy guide.)

 

Memories of Mirrored Worlds, by Barbara A. Barnett (debut 7/5 and reviewed by Dustin Adams) gives us glimpses of the life of Alison Marie, Queen of the Nightlands, daughter of reality, and Servant of Death. This tale is filled with the melancholy of someone who is physically torn between two worlds, but also emotionally. Alison Marie wishes to return to the world where she is a queen, and is visited many times over her life by those beckoning for her return, but she cannot because to go is to forget her own mother.

While I appreciated the sadness and the duality within Alison Marie, I felt somewhat let down by the introduction of a new character late in the story, who is granted that which Alison Marie cannot have. Seemed too easy.

 

Of Ash and Old Dreams by Sara Grey (debut 7/8 and reviewed by James Hanzelka)

She is no longer a young girl sweeping ash from a fireplace and dreaming of true love; she is a queen. But her feet have grown fat and the glass slippers hurt to wear. The years wear on and the magic gown of her youth becomes a worn and faded reminder of the past. The parade of years will eventually turn her hair to grey and she can no longer muster the strength to attend the affairs beside her king, but what else can she do she is a queen?

This is a very good story that explores the concept of what happens after the ball where Cinderella meets her prince charming. The author has done a masterful job of capture the slow decay brought on by time and leads us to a place we all get to eventually. Well written and well-paced this is a very good story. Take the time to read it.

 

Tell Them of the Sky by A. T. Greenblatt (debut 7/8 and reviewed by James Hanzelka)

She first came into his shop wearing a silk robe, the crÃ’ me color so out of place in the city. Aya plays with the toy birds and kites, but doesn’t ask the question. Over the years she and Kitkun dance around her desire to know what is above the black layer of smog overhead. She asks about the sky, but isn’t ready to seek it. In time she goes to fight in the latest war and Kitkun fears he has lost her, but when she returns she is sadder and wiser. Will she seek the sky?

This is a nice story, well told and well-paced. In it you can find the quest of youth for the unknown and the determination to seek your dreams later in life. The characters are well drawn and the author does a very good job of building relationship. Give this one a read.

 

Bedtime Stories by Jayson Sanders (debut 7/10 and reviewed by Frank D). The Creator is putting down His children for their great sleep. They beg and plead that they are not ready, but it is time for them to go. They are due on last story before they make room for those who come next.

“Bedtime Stories” is a tale of a deity ushering out mankind. It is written as a loving parent tucking in their children for their nighttime rest. A brief and distant tale.

 

The Flight Stone by KJ Kabza (debut 7/11 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist is a starving orphaned girl selected to become an air knight. The airborne horses cannot handle a heavy load so the small and light are needed to fill the duty. The best chance to become a knight is to remain thin. Failure means expulsion. As cruel as the school is, it is far better than the streets.

“The Flight Stone” is a tale of desperation. The children have nothing but the school, but to remain, they have to weigh almost nothing. Even the smallest of growth spurts dooms a candidate. This tale is a metaphor for the conditions that creates bulimia. The story is difficult to get through and sad. Knowing why air knights are so important would have helped. Without it, the tale was nothing more than a needless child abuse story to me.

 

A fighter climbs into unlucky number thirteen in On The Big-Fisted Circuit by Cat Rambo (debut 7/12 and reviewed by Frank D). Jane is a mecha-suit fighter, battling in four story robots for the honor of corporate sponsors. The suit has twelve previous pilots, and thirteen is the unwritten limit of a suit. The previous pilot backed out but that isn’t an option for Jane. She fights so her impoverished family will have a better life, and fights like this pay too well, even when the outcome is ordained.

“On The Big-Fisted Circuit” is Riley in an Aliens hydraulic suit set in a Real Steel premise. Jane has a problem many up-and-coming athletes have today; they are the sum of the hopes and dreams of their impoverished family. The self-sacrificing premise is a common one and made this story of Ms Rambo’s disappointing and impressive at the same time for me. The storyline was a thin one, and its outcome predictable. It is a testament to Ms Rambo’s skill that she could stretch it out and compile it to make it more than it really was. Nevertheless, “Big-Fisted” was a story I’ve heard before. Only the setting, and Ms Rambo’s fresh paint, gave it an original feel.

 

A married couple shops for fruit in Theories of Pain by Rose Lemberg (debut 7/15 and reviewed by Frank D). The two characters in this tale buy an apple, wait for it to rot, while they live their life. The changing events are like the different textures of fruit (or I could be completely wrong).

Truthfully, I’m not sure what this was about. I couldn’t make the connections between the analogies and metaphors the author was after. The point of the piece was lost on me.

 

A persistent novelist makes his pitch to a publisher in Diamond Doubles by Eric Brown (debut 7/16 and reviewed by Frank D). A series of letters is presented as a possible explanation for the disappearance of a book publisher. The letters are a series of pitches, accompanied by manuscripts, speaking of life in the far future, written by a “T Traveler”. They hint of the authors past, and of our distant future.

This tongue and cheek tale has a premise that is quite predictable. Cute.

 

A hasty hostage taking creates a new opportunity for the protagonist in The Negotiation by D. Thomas Minton (debut 7/17 and reviewed by Frank D). Samson is a desperate man, down on his luck with a series of bad choices has led him to strap explosives to his chest, demanding money from a bank. Alexandre used to hold a job to deal with poor souls like Samson: attempt to appeal to their good side and save them for themselves. He was terrible at it. Samson presents a new opportunity for Alexandre, and this job appeals to his previous weakness. He just needs Samson to cooperate.

The premise to this story relies on the twist. A bit out of the blue (the twist) but a good one nevertheless. Not bad.

 

A temporal maintenance worker follows time tourists in Join Our Team of Time Travel Professionals by Sarah Pinsker(debut 7/18 and reviewed by Frank D). Its Magda’s first day of her job. She is a disguised bag lady tailing tourists of the future in modern day New York. Her job is to pick up the trash they leave behind , remnants of the future , and follow them until the pick-up point. Then it occurs to her, what if she misses the pick-up point?

“Join Our Team” examines the menial work of time travel. It is cheaper to hire people like Magda to pick up after time tourists then it is to train the tourists to blend in the past. Magda needs this job , so much she didn’t read the fine print when she signed her contract. Amusing little piece.

 

For Your Protection by Steven Mathes (debut 7/19 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Joseph has his weekly appointment for a brain scan. He prepares himself, both physically and mentally: new clothes and reminders to not answer the voices in his head out loud. As he nears the park the female voice tells him to take a cab; he resists but finally hails a car. Halfway around the park the air shimmers and the veil drops, trapping most of the people inside. By the time he gets to the mental health center only a few bots are left chasing papers that are blowing in the wind. He turns and heads into the center with the waiting scanner.

This is the beginning of a really good story, but unfortunately this tale doesn’t live up to the promise of these early scenes. The world Joseph inhabits is a mishmash of crazy, aliens and intrigue, but the reader is never sure which. This can be a decent premise if well handled; this one wasn’t and I never developed a real affinity for Joseph or a good sense for his world. I would have liked more.

 

Demonic Summoning, Ratings and Reviews by Simon Kewin (debut 7/19 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

This collection of ratings is a summary of user’s reviews for the app Demonic Summoning. It seems the users found the app to work less well than expected, unless the instructions are followed explicitly. Even then mixed reviews seem to indicate some difficulty with making the app run properly. A few users were cut off mid review, indicating the software may contain discontinuities of a critical nature. Still the developer does ensure that these issues will be corrected and encourages prospective users to give it a try. I will report on our success as soon as I can locate my researcher.

This is a very cleverly done little ditty done as a collection of user reviews of software for summoning demons. The author has done a good job of leading us along with the path from negative reviews, to positive reviews, to downright scary results. A nicely done ending caps the thing off. It may not be your cup of tea, but I enjoyed it immensely.

 

An enticing invitation to an unknown destination tempts an overworked student in Breaking Orbit by Rachael Acks (debut 7/23 and reviewed by Frank D). A dragon rolls up to the platform in place of Ayako’s usual train. It tells Ayako to jump on, but the wary student hesitates. A homeless man warns Ayako that the dragon will stop coming if she keeps refusing, but what good can come from pursuing a whim?

“Breaking Orbit” is a tale of choices. The dragon represents the sum of Ayako’s dreams. She has responsibilities with her education. Would it be wise to turn her back on them? The tale is a good metaphor for all who weigh of pursuing frivolity against boring practicality.

 

A time traveler helps a boy face his bullies in Sticks and Stones by Kevin Pickett (debut 7/24 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist stands next to a small child who is about to pummeled by four larger and meaner boys. The cloaked guardian has a way of evening the odds for the child who will grow up to do great things.

Not a bad time traveling tale. Didn’t catch the subtle twist until my second read.

 

Squeak by Emma Osbourne (debut 7/25 and reviewed by Frank D). Keesa wanted to be a lion, but instead becomes a mouse when her time for transformation arrives. She doesn’t understand why the gods refused her wish, until the hunters arrive.

Squeak is a story of faith. The protagonist learns why our prayers are sometimes ignored and how a curse can be a blessing in disguise. A good short tale.

 

By The Hands of Juan Peron by Eric James Stone (debut 7/26 and reviewed by Frank D).

Tomas Peron is summoned by his father, Juan Peron , Emperor of Latin America. The Emperor informs his Catholic priest son that he will be the next person in line to the throne. Tomas does not approve of his father’s heavy hand, nor does he like the Emperor’s treatment of the church, but Juan has trump card that can change Tomas’s mind. God exists, and he can prove it.

“By The Hands” is an alternative history tale involving the late Juan Peron of Argentina. His nation is the dominant nation of Earth in this timeline. Their technological superiority was made possible thanks to a crashed saucer and surviving alien in 1947. The Argentinian timeline is one of five diversions from a common historical thread marked by the dropping of the atomic bombs in World War II. The surviving alien, named Angelica, has said the multiple timelines are made possible by design and is watched over by the Prime Observer. The Observer decides which timeline is worthy to pursue and is usually determined by a major event that gathers His attention. The Argentinians have used the alien technology to keep tabs on the other timelines. Juan knows God (or Prime Observer) will erase all but one line, and he has a plan to make sure the Argentinian line that will be the one that must survive. So when one alternative timeline has discover the means to travel to other lines, Juan decides to execute a plan that will attract the attention of God so He will show favor on his world , a plan that will involve the death of millions.

I admit, nothing gets me excited like a well-planned work of alternative history. “By The Hands” is a tale that stays true to the genre. The premise is nicely detailed, complete with a firm set of rules. Juan Peron is a hundred year old man, still very much alive thanks to alien assisted rejuvenation technology. He rules with an iron hand, much to the dismay of Tomas. Tomas agrees to his father’s request to be his heir but has second thoughts when he grasps his fathers ‘ends-justifying-the-means’ plan for survival.

“By The Hands” is a good tale. True to history with teasers for histories that never were. If you like Alternative History as much as I, then you won’t want to miss this one.

 

He was the most expert programmer in the world, in The Programmer and the Social Worker, or, A Love Story about Feature Creep by Tina Connolly (debut 7/29 and reviewed by James Hanzelka), but when his wife fell sick he packed up his seven laptops, unrolled CAT6 cable, and escaped to the cellar. She went to work, shopped, read her library books and slept alone. After seven days he emerged with bloodshot eyes and full of caffeine. He drug her to Sweden for the cure. Each time they put her under she demurred, but they cajoled, pleaded and begged until she relented. In the end she was permanently cured, her code perfected. But would the feature creep end the love story?

This is a strange little tale. Lots of computer speak and gobbledygook to wade through, but underneath is a nice love story and two opposites. The story winds on, with the programmer driven to save his wife, she trying to hold on to the normal. He succeeds beyond his wildest imagination, or at least hers, but in doing so she starts to leave him behind. When she turns back to beckon him to her, will he follow? I liked this story, not as much as some, but the subtext was quite endearing. Give it a try.

 

Super-Parents Last All Childhood Long by Erica L. Satifka (debut 7/30 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Caleb planned to break up with Shora after the movie, but when they got back to her room and she removed her shirt, he couldn’t do it. Still she was crazy to believe her parents were robots. Well not crazy, but definitely strange. Later, he went to the bathroom and searched her medicine cabinet, but found no pills. She wasn’t crazy, just strange. Later, at the store, as he buys a paper to look for work he starts to notice how distant and remote people are. Just the result of today’s isolated society, or was it?

I never did get fully into this story. Maybe it was by design because it was drawing a comparison to the remoteness of interaction in today’s society and what we perceive as the blandness of robotic emotions. To me, however, the plot just never fully developed. It just sort of bumped along with the underlying subtext, but never drew me in to the characters.

 

A man is plagued by an object of his guilt in The Dollmaker’s Grief by Michelle M. Denham (debut 7/31 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist recognizes an android doll standing in a shop’s window. The object is a reminder of a dark and regrettable moment in his life. The doll is missing something, something the protagonist can never give it.

“The Dollmaker’s Grief” is a solemn tale with a depressing twist. I was impressed that the author managed to make a sad story even sadder.

 

Making Your Money Work For Youâ€

For a good three years Daily Science Fiction has been laying a foundation as an attraction. With an original distribution plan, a rate to attract the best talent, and a selection of material that spans the breadth of speculative fiction, the publication has become a magnet for readers around the world. In short, you couldn’t find a better billboard if drove the length of the Washington Beltway (go ahead and try, I dare ya).

If you have a book, event, film, or Fortune Five Hundred product (McDonalds or Coca-Cola would be fine), and you want to focus your message on a specific audience, you can’t find a better place than Daily Science Fiction. DSF‘s readers are not a group of comic book nerds who hide in the closet to read by flashlight. No. They were a group of comic book nerds who used to hide in the closet to read by flashlight, but are now doctors, lawyers, professors, and successful career business men and woman. They are bright, on the upper half of money earners, and above all, loyal. Your Ad showcased on the electronic pages of DSF will be seen and your item will be noticed. Looking for an edge in a crowded market? Daily Science Fiction will help your product stand out in a crowd.

And because the friends of our friends are Diabolical Plots’ friends, here is this month’s bio featuring Daily SF‘s first advertising customer.

 

UFO2cover-200x300Why does science fiction and fantasy have to be so serious? Who says it has to be?

Alex Shvartsman (got to be funny with a name like that) has given us his latest anthology of side-splitting works of speculative fiction. Unidentified Funny Objects 2 is now available for purchase. Featuring original works from Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg, Ken Liu, and Tim Pratt (to name just a few), UFO2 promises to be a hit. It’s funny. I should know, and I’m not saying that just because I helped to pick them out.

Associate Editor’s pick: “Class Action Orc” by James Beamon. Some lawyer jokes just never get old.