3.5 star average for the two stories I've read in this issue so far, which are both free online here at Clarkesworld magazine. Reviews first posted on3.5 star average for the two stories I've read in this issue so far, which are both free online here at Clarkesworld magazine. Reviews first posted on Fantasy Literature:
3 stars for "Fire in the Bone" by Ray Nayler, a humans-vs.-robots tale: While robots work in the field harvesting pakata for the great harvest ship that looms overhead, the unnamed narrator watches them. He somewhat impatiently listens to the philosophical musings of an acquaintance, Albert, who obliquely warns him of youthful desires that should be put away. But the narrator isn’t listening; he’s much more interested in his upcoming clandestine meeting with his forbidden lover … a robot. She meets him in the hallway, and they make arrangements to meet after the upcoming “ritual meal.”
The little church where they meet has stained glass windows that tell a story of his ancestors’ landing on this planet and their dealing with an uprising of the robots. (Some strange Christian symbolism here, BTW.) Despite his love for the robot, the narrator is uneasy about the future. But there are more reasons to be uneasy than he realizes.
It’s an interesting story, but relies too heavily on the surprise factor of an event toward the end, building up to that climactic point. It wasn’t a particularly successful build-up for me, because several events in the story seemed either highly improbable in light of the final reveal (view spoiler)[why would robots need a giant harvest ship? (hide spoiler)]or simply innately unlikely.
4 stars for "They Have All One Breath" by Karl Bunker. It's a reprint from the Dec. 2016 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction and I've posted my review there, but I'll copy it here for convenience:
James is walking down the street late one night when he meets an old friend, Ivan. They walk together toward their apartment building, talking about the huge changes that have occurred ever since the AIs started taking over. It began with weapons falling apart in soldiers’ hands and missiles and tanks fizzling out and dying, averting a war in the Middle East. At the same time, flying bots were dropping tons of food and other necessities on refugee camps to alleviate the suffering.
No one claimed ownership of these Good Samaritan cargo-bots, nor of the gremlinesque nanoes that were screwing up the mechanisms of war. It soon became known that these were machines built and run by other machines. It was becoming undeniably evident that something new was moving upon the face of the land. Indeed, that the world was being rebuilt around us, disassembled and reassembled under our feet. The AIs were taking over, and they were changing the rules.
Over the next months and years the AIs continue changing our world in ways that seem clearly benevolent, or at least intended to improve society. They create nano-bots that cure disease, they solve worldwide problems of hunger and needs, and resolve other problems … often in surprising ways. But not everyone is fully on board with the actions of “the Machine.”
“They Have All One Breath” is strongly reminiscent of Jack Williamson’s well-known classic 1947 novelette With Folded Hands..., but takes a somewhat more ambivalent, nuanced approach to the takeover of society by robots. Karl Bunker effectively uses flashbacks to relate the details of the takeover by the AIs, with the division of opinion about the benefits of the takeover being represented by James and his former partner Lisa. Though Bunker owes a major conceptual debt to Williamson, his story is a thought-provoking and well-written one that’s worth reading.
3 stars for "Fire in the Bone" by Ray Nayler, a humans-vs.-robots tale: While robots work in the field harvesting pakata for the great harvest ship that looms overhead, the unnamed narrator watches them. He somewhat impatiently listens to the philosophical musings of an acquaintance, Albert, who obliquely warns him of youthful desires that should be put away. But the narrator isn’t listening; he’s much more interested in his upcoming clandestine meeting with his forbidden lover … a robot. She meets him in the hallway, and they make arrangements to meet after the upcoming “ritual meal.”
The little church where they meet has stained glass windows that tell a story of his ancestors’ landing on this planet and their dealing with an uprising of the robots. (Some strange Christian symbolism here, BTW.) Despite his love for the robot, the narrator is uneasy about the future. But there are more reasons to be uneasy than he realizes.
It’s an interesting story, but relies too heavily on the surprise factor of an event toward the end, building up to that climactic point. It wasn’t a particularly successful build-up for me, because several events in the story seemed either highly improbable in light of the final reveal (view spoiler)[why would robots need a giant harvest ship? (hide spoiler)]or simply innately unlikely.
4 stars for "They Have All One Breath" by Karl Bunker. It's a reprint from the Dec. 2016 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction and I've posted my review there, but I'll copy it here for convenience:
James is walking down the street late one night when he meets an old friend, Ivan. They walk together toward their apartment building, talking about the huge changes that have occurred ever since the AIs started taking over. It began with weapons falling apart in soldiers’ hands and missiles and tanks fizzling out and dying, averting a war in the Middle East. At the same time, flying bots were dropping tons of food and other necessities on refugee camps to alleviate the suffering.
No one claimed ownership of these Good Samaritan cargo-bots, nor of the gremlinesque nanoes that were screwing up the mechanisms of war. It soon became known that these were machines built and run by other machines. It was becoming undeniably evident that something new was moving upon the face of the land. Indeed, that the world was being rebuilt around us, disassembled and reassembled under our feet. The AIs were taking over, and they were changing the rules.
Over the next months and years the AIs continue changing our world in ways that seem clearly benevolent, or at least intended to improve society. They create nano-bots that cure disease, they solve worldwide problems of hunger and needs, and resolve other problems … often in surprising ways. But not everyone is fully on board with the actions of “the Machine.”
“They Have All One Breath” is strongly reminiscent of Jack Williamson’s well-known classic 1947 novelette With Folded Hands..., but takes a somewhat more ambivalent, nuanced approach to the takeover of society by robots. Karl Bunker effectively uses flashbacks to relate the details of the takeover by the AIs, with the division of opinion about the benefits of the takeover being represented by James and his former partner Lisa. Though Bunker owes a major conceptual debt to Williamson, his story is a thought-provoking and well-written one that’s worth reading.
Agatha Christie was an extraordinary mystery writer, and several of her earlier works are now free on Project Gutenberg, where I was poking around a fAgatha Christie was an extraordinary mystery writer, and several of her earlier works are now free on Project Gutenberg, where I was poking around a few days ago to see what new books from 1926 are now in the public domain and available for downloading there. I got sucked into this collection of eleven early short stories featuring Christie's favorite detective, Hercule Poirot. The stories are a bit of a mixed bag but it was still fun reading, and Agatha Christie still fools me pretty much every time.
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This collection includes: 1. "The Adventure of 'The Western Star'" - written warnings are sent to two women, an American movie star visiting London and a British lady, ordering them to turn over their identical, valuable diamonds (the Star of the East and the Western Star) ... or else. Solid thumbs up for the mystery element. Minus points for the casual use of racial insults to describe Chinese people (keep in mind this was written in the early 1920s, so this kind of thing comes with the territory). 2. "The Tragedy of Marsdon Manor" - a middle-aged man dies in a strange way, leaving a beautiful young wife behind. Was it suicide? 3. "The Adventure of the Cheap Flat" - a very nice apartment is rented for a suspiciously low price. Poirot too is suspicious. Nefarious dealings ensue. 4. "The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge" - Mr. Havering, a baronet's younger son, consults Poirot and his friend Hastings about the murder of his wealthy uncle at their hunting box in the country. Poirot is ill, so the intrepid Hastings goes to the lodge with Havering, sure he can solve the mystery as well as Poirot could. Hastings is, of course, wrong. 5. "The Million Dollar Bond Robbery" - an enjoyable story featuring a cross-Atlantic voyage and a million dollars in Liberty bonds stolen from a locked chest on board. The chest was in the custody of a nice young banker, who’s now in hot water. His distraught fiancee begs Poirot to figure it out. I came thisclose to figuring it out, and a little more pondering probably would have done it. Still, a good story. 6. "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb" - this story plays with the popular idea of a deadly curse against those who open ancient Egyptian tombs. Several people die. A solid mystery. 7. "The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" - How did wealthy Mrs Opalson's opals pearls get taken from jewel case in her hotel room while her maid and the hotel chambermaid were right there, except for about 15 seconds a couple of times when the maid stepped into a connecting room? I like these stolen jewels mysteries, and this is a tricky one. 8. "The Kidnapped Prime Minister" - The British Prime Minister needs to attend a secret peace conference in France, but someone first tries to shoot him and then kidnaps him on the way. Another interesting one that I had half-figured out ... 9. "The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" - A banker mysteriously disappears from his country home one afternoon, and soon after it is found that the safe in his home has been forced open and emptied. More stolen jewels! plus money and bonds. Christie is at her trickiest here. I thought I had the answer but I was barking up the wrong tree. 10. "The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman" - an Italian count staying in England is murdered, his head crushed by a small marble statue. How then did he telephone his doctor for help? And what is one to make of the remains of the dinner found in the count's apartment? Only Poirot knows. 11. "The Case of the Missing Will" - I really enjoyed this one! No murder, stolen jewels, or other dastardly crimes for a change, just a sneaky, rich dead uncle who wants to make his niece prove herself in order to inherit his wealth. Not being stupid, she turns the case over to Poirot.
3.5 stars overall. Not bad at all for a freebie if you like little mystery bites, though I think I like Christie's full-length novels better....more
I picked up this book up on a Kindle sale because I've been on a bit of a Susanna Kearsley binge lately. She wrote the first of this set of four interI picked up this book up on a Kindle sale because I've been on a bit of a Susanna Kearsley binge lately. She wrote the first of this set of four interlocking novellas, by four different historical fiction authors, about the long history of a magnificent but cursed gold watch and the people who come into contact with it over the centuries.
The watch's story begins (at least for the reader) in 1733 Italy, in Kearsley’s story “Weapon of Choice,” which I was delighted to find out has two couples from prior Kearsley novels as its main characters, Anna and Edmund from The Firebird and Mary and Hugh from A Desperate Fortune, along with a political assassin whose plot the four of them are trying to foil. Lots of fun.
The second novella jumps to Edinburgh in 1830, where Lady Darby (the main character in a long-running mystery series by Anna Lee Huber) tries to figure out if the watch is responsible for an outbreak of disease in the city. Meh. I was a little bored.
Then we go to 1870 for the third novella, where the watch is implicated in a series of violent murders in a well-to-do area of London. Violet Harper, an undertaker (from another series by Christine Trent), unfortunately dug up the watch from where Lady Darby had thrown it in a grave many years before, when moving a body to a new grave. Violet gets involved in trying to figure out why the watch temporarily stops (!) an hour before each of these murders. Fairly interesting novella.
We finally end up in a small English village during WWII, where the watch may be the object of a search by a murderous Nazi spy. A former Spitfire pilot, now with MI5, reluctantly joins forces with a local gentlewoman, Rachel Townsend-Smythe, to investigate. This fourth novella, by C.S. Harris, felt a bit rushed at novella length, but it was well-written and makes me inclined to go read more by Harris.
The first and last novellas are definitely a step above the middle two in writing style, for my money. But it was worth the price for those two stories, and for the chance to meet up with Anna and Edmund from The Firebird later in their lives.
Sophia finds life in Arcadia Gardens beautiful and luxurious and wonderful. Certainly,On sale now! Full review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:
Sophia finds life in Arcadia Gardens beautiful and luxurious and wonderful. Certainly, her husband rarely sleeps next to her nowadays and seems preoccupied even when he is around, but of course his work is terribly important, and he gives her so much. And she doesn’t mind all of the rules and restrictions of the Homeowners Association, who are only looking out for the residents’ best interests. The neighbors all love her and respect her husband. She’s really so very lucky. The world is theirs.
But then, for no real reason — and it’s an impulse Sophia desperately regrets later — this morning she pulls open the top left-hand drawer of her vanity. And doesn’t know what to make of what she finds in that drawer.
When a tale about a young wife keeps emphasizing how everything is SO PERFECT and she is SO HAPPY … you know things are going to go south in a big way. And the creepiness and tension keep building and you’re not sure exactly what is going on until the light blinks on in your head and you’re all, OHH, so that’s what this was building toward this whole time. But then it’s too late.
Catherynne Valente does a fascinating mashup of various stories, folktales and tropes — old tales with some current elements and a feminist spin — in this wickedly sharp novella. Comfort Me with Apples weaves in not just the Bluebeard folktale but much more that only becomes apparent as you get deeper into the story. It’s easy to get lost in Valente’s evocative, lyrical prose, but every detail is significant and even symbolic: places, objects and character names (I particularly liked Mr. Semengelof, Mrs. Palfrey and Cascavel). Even the chapter names come into play: each a different type of apple, many of which I’d never heard of before, like Black Twig and Northern Spy.
I didn’t really love Comfort Me with Apples, I think mostly because I don’t care for its troubling worldview (you'll know what I mean), but I’m in awe of Valente’s craft in this disturbing allegorical story. My two co-reviewers at FanLit really loved it - see the link above for their takes.
Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!
Content advisory: It's on the gruesome side of creepiness, and religion and (view spoiler)[and the Bible story used as the basis of this story (hide spoiler)] are given an ugly twist here....more
There are few better literary thrills than unexpectedly stumbling across a Murderbot story! Especially if it's an online freebie.
This story is set aftThere are few better literary thrills than unexpectedly stumbling across a Murderbot story! Especially if it's an online freebie.
This story is set after the first four novellas in this series (and yes, you really do need to read them first). Murderbot is now in the Preservation System with Dr. Ayda Mensah, the closest person to a friend it has, and Murderbot has come a long way to even consider being friends with someone. Mensah is struggling with PTSD in the aftermath of being kidnapped in Exit Strategy, but she's assiduously hiding her personal trauma from everyone around her. The rest of Preservation is struggling with the problem of having a highly dangerous Security Unit on their peaceful planet (the words "killing machine" are thought, if not said).
This is a quieter story in the series, and not a lot happens, but it's always a pleasure being in this fascinating world. "Home: Habitat" is notable for being narrated by Mensah, and I liked being inside her head and seeing how she views Murderbot. They have such a unique relationship and respect for each other.
SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.” “No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot. “It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone.
4.5 stars for this suspenseful Tor.com story, a 2021 Locus Award finalist. Free to read online here at Tor.com. Final review, first posted on FantasyL4.5 stars for this suspenseful Tor.com story, a 2021 Locus Award finalist. Free to read online here at Tor.com. Final review, first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:
Chessup is a day laborer working as part of a crew outside of Boulder, Colorado, helping to clean up a creek that was filled with trash in the aftermath of a flood. At the end of the day, looking to borrow a battery from the crew’s bulldozer to jumpstart his old car, Chessup finds something very old tangled up in the roots of a tree that the bulldozer had pulled down.
With visions of selling his discovery to a pawnbroker for cash, Chessup sets about removing it from the tangle of tree roots. He’s about to leave when his co-worker Burned Dan, who wears a bandanna over his face like a train robber, confronts him and demands that Chessup sell his find to Dan instead. But darkness is beginning to fall, and it may be too late for both of them …
Stephen Graham Jones’ “Wait for Night,” a Locus finalist short story, weaves a familiar mythology into an unusual setting. A pair of world-weary, down-on-their-luck workers are the main characters, and Jones’ depiction of Chessup’s character and his world is stellar.
Thirty minutes later, that five o’clock whistle blowing a couple hours late, my uncle’s unregistered Buick fell into its usual routine of refusing to start, and I was the only one still parked in the pullout. I sloped back down to the creek to splash my face, consider my life, and all the decisions I’d made to get me to this point.
The characterization remains true even as Chessup finds himself in an intense life-and-death situation, faced with choices he never thought he’d be required to make. Burned Dan is equally interesting, making seemingly off-hand comments earlier in the story whose true import becomes all too clear later on. It’s exceptional storytelling, with so much going on between the lines....more
4.5 stars. Elegantly written Asian-inspired fantasy novella, nominated for a Hugo award, that was far, far better than I expected.
A traveling NB cleri4.5 stars. Elegantly written Asian-inspired fantasy novella, nominated for a Hugo award, that was far, far better than I expected.
A traveling NB cleric, Chih, makes their way to an isolated villa where the empress In-Yo, who recently died, once lived in exile. Now, many years later, it's inhabited only by the empress's now-elderly servant, called Rabbit. While Chih examines the old records and artifacts, Rabbit gradually unfolds the story of In-Yo to Chih and their talking hoopoe bird companion. She was a princess from a northern kingdom that lost a war, and was given away in marriage (read: hostage) to the southern empire, one of the many wives of the emperor. But In-Yo isn't quite as helpless and accepting of her fate as she might at first seem.
I have to admit I got an ARC of this book last year and it joined the stack of "maybe-read" unrequested ARCs, partly because — true confessions here — I'm getting a little tired of the endless focus on angry-feminist/queer-character fantasy. Some of it's good, but a lot of it is message fiction and I'm not into being preached at in my fictional reading. But when it made the list of Hugo nominees, I dusted off my copy and jumped into it. And ended up seriously enjoying it! Nghi Vo's writing is lovely and evocative, and there's a lot going on under the surface with both the characters and the plot. It's like a delightful puzzle box.
Full review to come. Thanks to Tor for the ARC!...more
I read the short story "Mr. Death" because I’m pretty much interested in everything Alix Harrow writes. I wasn’t expecting to have to hide my face so I read the short story "Mr. Death" because I’m pretty much interested in everything Alix Harrow writes. I wasn’t expecting to have to hide my face so my husband wouldn’t ask me why I was crying.
Sam Grayson, who died at age 44 from lung cancer, was offered an alternative to crossing the river of death into the great beyond. His reaper, Raz, offers him a job as a Junior Reaper with the Department of Death. It becomes Sam's job to escort the souls of people who have died across the river where they disperse and become part of the endless cosmos of love.
Though it can be a tough job, all goes well with Sam until he's given the job of overseeing the death of Lawrence Harper, who is only 2 1/2 years old, and suffers from an undiagnosed heart ailment. And Sam has never really recovered from the death of his own son Ian at a young age.
This is a collection of 15 Christmas-themed stories and short works by John Scalzi, mostly humorous but with a few serious notes. Review first posted This is a collection of 15 Christmas-themed stories and short works by John Scalzi, mostly humorous but with a few serious notes. Review first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:
I spent part of Christmas Day 2020 reading A Very Scalzi Christmas, a (mostly) humorous collection of short Christmas-themed pieces by, naturally, John Scalzi. As Marion so aptly commented in her review of Scalzi’s highly similar collection Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi, “this collection of works does verge on the silly. It jumps the border of silly. It tap-dances and cartwheels through the world of silly, shrieking ‘Wheeeee!’ ” It’s the same in this case, except with a few more serious pieces to offset the absurd and satirical ones.
Of the humorous pieces, I had two favorites: First, there’s “Jangle the Elf Grants Wishes,” in which Jangle’s boss, the head of the Department of Non-Material Christmas Wishes, tries to make Jangle understand that he can’t just grant someone’s Christmas wish without considering the larger repercussions. If Genevieve wants a white Christmas, Jangle’s style is to send a blizzard that dumps two feet of snow on four states, causing massive travel delays and power outages. Jangle is kind of the Christmas version of the monkey’s paw. The other is the final piece, “Resolutions for the New Year: A Bullet Point List,” which begins in classic fashion, losing weight and exercising more, but devolves into a diatribe against his ex-girlfriend Kate, who left him for Chuck, the annoying dude from Accounting. Probably because of all of the narrator’s monologues about robot uprisings and cloning. He’s clearly an alarmingly creepy person, but it’s still a very funny piece.
The Christmas holiday frequently sits somewhat uneasily at the intersection of religious observance and commercial overindulgence, and Scalzi has a keen eye for the foibles of some of the secular traditions associated with Christmas. In “A Bitter November,” the month of November invades Scalzi’s kitchen and, while swiping and eating his Thanksgiving leftovers, complains, well, bitterly, about how December and its holiday festivities have invaded the month of November, especially the days after Thanksgiving, when everyone’s attention shifts to Christmas decorations and shopping. “Interview with Santa’s Reindeer Wrangler” explains how nobody at the North Pole is a fan of the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”:
Well, it makes us look like jerks, doesn’t it? A young reindeer is discriminated against up to and until he has marginal utility. I mean, really. Who looks good in that scenario? Not all of the other reindeer, who come across as bigots and bullies. And not Santa, who is implicitly tacit in reindeer bigotry.
“An Interview with the Christmas Bunny” is a Q&A session with the newly-appointed Christmas Bunny, under a franchise sold by the Easter Bunny. The Bunny is in the thick of plans to compete with Santa and drive down his popularity, though he admits he’s been told he needs to leave Jesus strictly alone. There’s also “An Interview with the Nativity Innkeeper,” in which the innkeeper defends his actions on that fateful night and criticizes the wise men’s gift choices for the Christ child (“Have you ever in your life gone to a baby shower where someone says, congratulations on the baby, here’s some perfume. No. Because most people have some sense.”).
Underlying the satirical humor is Scalzi’s goodhearted affection for Christmas, which comes out most clearly in the sole poem in the collection, “Jackie Jones and Melrose Mandy,” in which a girl with an immense collection of dolls begins to understand how the joy of Christmas is more in giving than getting, and in the short stories “Christmas in July” and “Sarah’s Sister.” Those two stories are the longest works in this collection, and the most serious and touching, particularly “Sarah’s Sister,” which shoots straight past sentimental and heads for the tearjerker target.
Most of the pieces in A Very Scalzi Christmas have been previously published on his website “The Whatever” or elsewhere, but three of the better pieces are new and exclusive to this collection. The collection was an amusing way to while away an hour or two with Christmas-flavored works....more
Written by James Joyce in 1907 (published in 1914 as part of his Dubliners collection), "The Dead" is a novella about a Christmas early January "FeastWritten by James Joyce in 1907 (published in 1914 as part of his Dubliners collection), "The Dead" is a novella about a Christmas early January "Feast of the Epiphany" holiday party in Dublin, Ireland, focusing on the subtler interpersonal communications and relationships between the relatives and others at the party, especially between teacher Gabriel Conroy and his wife Gretta.
It's a melancholy but insightful novella about our disappointments in life and love and how we often don't really see other people or understand their feelings. Gabriel views himself as better than most other people around him but he's actually stuck in a rut, personally, romantically (in his marriage), and even in his political views (as are, arguably, most of the party guests). There may be a hopeful note to the ending, but not even the professional critics agree on that, so read it and decide for yourself. :)
I didn't much care for it when I read it in college as an English major, but now that I'm older and wiser (and took more time to look at the online critical analysis) it appealed to me more. Sparknotes and Cliffnotes websites were both insightful, but I felt like I really hit the jackpot with this annotated version of the story and its very detailed notes, especially about the very last paragraph of the story: http://www.mendele.com/WWD/WWDdead.no... Here's a link to the story itself, on the website with the linked annotations: http://www.mendele.com/WWD/WWDdead.html
I would rate this 3 1/2 stars based on my prior read, but 5 stars on reread. Now I want to read it again. :) Read it when you're in the mood for something thoughtful and deep.
December 2020 buddy read with the Retro Reads group....more
3.5 stars. "Christmas by Injunction" is an amusing Old West Christmas tale by the great short story writer O. Henry, written some 100 years ago. A pro3.5 stars. "Christmas by Injunction" is an amusing Old West Christmas tale by the great short story writer O. Henry, written some 100 years ago. A prospector who goes by the name of Cherokee (because he lived with that tribe for a while, not because he's of that tribe) finds a large nugget of gold in California, and invites all of his friends to try their luck in his area. They all come, forming the town of Yellowhammer, and all end up doing better than Cherokee himself.
So he takes off and, several months later, strikes it rich elsewhere. A generous-hearted man who likes to share his good fortune and wealth, he writes to the good people of Yellowhammer and asks them to put together a party of children on Christmas day, and he'll ride into town dressed as Santa and hand out lots of gifts. The big problem: Cherokee has forgotten that there's not a single child in the town of Yellowhammer. But some of the townspeople have an idea ...
O. Henry had a gift with words.
"She had once possessed a certain style of beauty that would never wholly leave her and would never wholly return."
It's a light short story, with some very funny dialogue (especially between a miner named Trinidad and a pompous but kindhearted judge), a poignant but hopeful note to it, and (of course) that trademark O. Henry twist to the ending. Recommended if you like old-fashioned stories.
So I'm in the middle of working my way through Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, and a 100-page novella seemed like a really good break fSo I'm in the middle of working my way through Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, and a 100-page novella seemed like a really good break from a 1000-page epic last night!
"Penric's Demon" is the first in a series of fantasy novellas by the amazing author Lois McMaster Bujold (she of Vorkosigan Saga fame). This one didn't knock me over - I think it's probably too short to really do that - but it's a solid beginning and a unique fantasy world.
Penric, the younger son of a rural baron's family, is traveling to meet the girl he's been arranged to marry when he meets up with the caravan of a woman who's dying in the road. He offers whatever assistance he can, the woman accepts it ... and Penric's life is completely upended. For the woman was a respected sorceress carrying a "demon" within her, and the demon has now hopped to Pen and is making herself comfortable in his body, using his mouth to speak, etc.
Everyone promptly freaks out. Demons endow the person they're living in with magical powers, and this one (who Pen names Desdemona) is a particularly powerful (not to mention valuable) demon and Penric is in no way trained to handle it. His betrothed regretfully breaks their engagement and Pen, along with his demonic rider, is shipped off to the closest office of the god that the demon belongs to. Where more problems await both Pen and Desdemona.
It took me a little while to absorb the concept that demons, as used in this book, aren't your typical evil spirits. They're more like a broken-off piece of the god, but they can develop personalities and have strong opinions ... which Desdemona does. And they can cause a huge amount of trouble if they take over and control their human. But Pen treats Desdemona with more respect and consideration than most of her prior humans have, and she seems inclined to work with him despite his being so young and untrained.
A good set-up, and I'm looking forward to the next one in this series!...more
3.5ish stars. This is a collection of fantasy and SF short stories by the very talented Ken Liu, many of them set in a future where humans choose to b3.5ish stars. This is a collection of fantasy and SF short stories by the very talented Ken Liu, many of them set in a future where humans choose to be “uploaded” into a virtual world, like a voluntary Matrix. Liu is great at focusing on relationships while also exploring ideas.
RTC. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Thanks!...more
3.5ish stars. Kitty Norville is a werewolf radio disk jockey who is, in my mind at least, kind of like Mercy Thompson's and Kate Daniels' less well-kn3.5ish stars. Kitty Norville is a werewolf radio disk jockey who is, in my mind at least, kind of like Mercy Thompson's and Kate Daniels' less well-known little sister, which is a little unfair to Kitty since her first book predates both of the others'. But they all inhabit comparable urban fantasy worlds with werewolves, vampires and other magical goings-on. Kitty's world just never grabbed me quite as much as the others.
Kitty's Mix Tape is a collection of short stories set in this world, Carrie Vaughn's way of wrapping up the 16- book Kitty Norville series. Some of the stories are odd and ends (the two blue moon short shorts were kind of head-scratchers) or slice-of-life types of stories. Several of them star secondary characters from the series, like Rick the vampire master. There are some definite 4-star level stories in the mix here: I especially enjoyed "The Beaux Wilde," a Regency-era tale about a lonely young woman who's an empath and three "Wilde" brothers who unexpectedly move into the neighborhood, and "Defining Shadows," about Detective Jessi Hardin's efforts to solve a gruesome magical crime.
Full review to come. Thanks to Tachyon and NetGalley for the ARC!...more
This review is for the spooky title story by Charles Dickens, "To Be Read at Dusk," published in 1852. You can download or read this story for free heThis review is for the spooky title story by Charles Dickens, "To Be Read at Dusk," published in 1852. You can download or read this story for free here at Project Gutenberg.
The unnamed narrator happens across five couriers sitting on a bench near a Swiss mountain, the Great St. Bernard, "looking at the remote heights, stained by the setting sun as if a mighty quantity of red wine had been broached upon the mountain top, and had not yet had time to sink into the snow." <--Read: It's bloody red, and the imagery is underscored by the bodies of unlucky travelers stored in a nearby shed.
The couriers begin to talk of ghost stories - but not your ordinary ghosts. One story is of a young wife who has a portentous vision of a dark man that haunts her. The other story is of two twin brothers: when one brother falls ill, he tells the other brother, who is leaving on a long trip, "If I get quite better, I’ll come back and see you before you go. If I don’t feel well enough to resume my visit where I leave it off, why you will come and see me before you go." And apparently he REALLY means it.
This is a haunting story (or really three stories: two framed by a third) that can be read on a few different levels. Are there ghosts? Or is it a purely psychological tale, with no real ghosts, just people frightening themselves? Or is Dickens, perhaps, telling us a deeper tale, using symbolism?
I was scratching my head over some of the aspects of this tale and how to interpret them, so I went on a Google search and came across the most fascinating essay here: https://journals.openedition.org/jsse.... It’s a little dense and scholarly but has some really intriguing ideas in it. I recommend it if you want to do a deep dive!
3.5ish stars for this Nebula-nominated SF/fantasy novelette. Persephone Aim is sorting through her dead grandmother's memorabilia and possessions, whi3.5ish stars for this Nebula-nominated SF/fantasy novelette. Persephone Aim is sorting through her dead grandmother's memorabilia and possessions, which is worse than it sounds because Grandmother was a hoarder. There are a few valuables left behind from Grandmother's illustrious career as a stage magician, but most of it is junk or worse. But things get interesting when Persephone finds an odd metal hand, marked with swastikas and lightning bolts, and then a mechanical leg.
Meanwhile some government agents are asking if they can "help" sort all of Grandmother's things, and Persephone's own mother has come into town and is starting to act all aggressive about Grandmother's possessions ...
I started "Carpe Glitter" with high hopes but ended feeling a little let down. The beginning and even the middle were great, but it ended with an underwhelming rush. I think it was supposed to be scarier than it was. It felt like the last part needed more details, more events, just ... MORE.
If you're interested in scary + hoarding relatives, I'd suggest The Twisted Ones over this one.
4.5 stars - my favorite of the 1944 stories nominated for Retro Hugo awards! You can read "Arena" free online here or here. Review first posted on Fan4.5 stars - my favorite of the 1944 stories nominated for Retro Hugo awards! You can read "Arena" free online here or here. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature, together with reviews for ALL of the current Retro Hugo novelette and short story nominees. Seriously, this FanLit column took me HOURS to put together, even though I didn't write all of the reviews in it, so please scoot over there and take a quick look and let me know if my efforts paid off. Feel free to add a comment to the thread there. :)
So, "Arena":
Two huge space fleets near Pluto are about to engage in a battle to the death: Humans and the aliens they call the Outsiders. Bob Carson, a young human in an individual scout ship, is about to engage with his Outsider counterpart in another scouter when he suddenly blacks out, only to awaken under a dome on a planet in another dimension. Across from him is a large red ball with retractable tentacles that turns out to be the Outsider scout, and the two are separated by an invisible barrier.
A disembodied voice informs Carson that if the space battle ensues, one side will be wholly exterminated, but that “winner” will be so damaged that it will “retrogress and never fulfill its destiny, but decay and return to mindless dust.” So this powerful entity has plucked Carson and the Outsider out of the two fleets to fight a one-on-one duel to the death. This being will destroy the entire spacefleet of the loser, allowing the winning species to continue to progress. But given the invisible barrier between the two, it will be a battle of brains as much as physical strength.
I first came across "Arena" at about age 13 in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964, a book that was instrumental in shaping my love and tastes for SF. "Arena" was one of the most compelling and memorable stories in the collection, and rereading it now, a few decades later, I’m impressed with how well this novelette has withstood the test of time. Compared to some of the other Retro Hugo nominees from this year, it’s an outstanding piece of storytelling, and there’s a nice note of irony to the ending.
"Arena" was used at least partially as inspiration for a famous Star Trek episode in 1967 (also called Arena), which has a quite different ending. Many prefer the Star Trek ending, and I can't really argue with that, but considering that this was written during WWII, when the mood for righteous war was at its peak, it’s impressive that Brown actually took the time to show that Carson does attempt to make peace with the Outsider, which responds with a wave of hatred so strong that it physically weakens him.
"Arena" may be somewhat lacking in depth and nuance, but as a suspenseful, well-told SF action tale from this era, it’s hard to beat....more
A village girl, Suss, has the unusual power of shapeshifting into a wolf. Suss loves her time as a wolf, in large part because her severe chronic pain completely disappears in that form and she’s free to run and explore and feel truly alive. But she feels guilty because of her dead mother’s scolding, and she doesn’t want to lose her connections to her best friend and neighbors. More, there’s the problem of valuable livestock in her village being killed by a canine predator, and Suss worries that she’s losing touch because she has no memory of doing this in her wolf form.
As with much current speculative fiction, diversity is a prominent feature in this story, but it’s an unusual one — Suss’s unexplained chronic pain — and it’s well-integrated and even integral to the plot. Sarah Gailey’s writing is engaging: the reader understands Suss’s physical pain and stress, and it feels like these villagers are real people.
Nan is the oldest person either of us have ever known. She tells people that she’s three hundred years old, and I believe her, if only because I don’t know for sure that spite can’t pickle a person into immortality. She’s tall and hale with broad shoulders and all of her original teeth, a fact she’ll tell anyone who will listen.
The central conflict in Away with the Wolves felt like it was resolved a bit too quickly and neatly, but I still enjoyed this warmhearted story and the way it stresses the importance of friendship and interpersonal connections — whether you’re a human or a wolf. Or both....more
Ten-year-old Nyma is3.5 stars. This Hugo award-nominated short story is free online here at Tor.com. Final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Ten-year-old Nyma is chosen for a singular role in her country: to be the child whose life stands between the president’s decision to deploy devastating seres bombs in the war against their enemy. The only copy of the access codes to the seres missiles are in a capsule implanted next to Nyma’s heart. The law requires that the president personally kill the carrier child with a ceremonial dagger, to retrieve the codes to launch the bombs. Once the new president, Otto Han, is elected, Nyma is always to be near him. And despite President Han’s reluctance to grow closer to Nyma (he initially resists even knowing her name), it inevitably happens, while the war news grows more and more grim.
The theme and issue are clearly stated in this story, multiple times and in varying ways:
Do you truly wish to use such weapons so badly, that you would be willing to do as the law requires and murder a child of your own land with your own hands in order to gain access to them?
It’s pretty good message fiction: what if the government made it really (REALLY!!) hard for the president to pull the plug on deploying nuclear weapons? Is the loss of so many other lives, a belief in the rightness of your cause, the fear that your own country will be devastated if you don’t take action, sufficient? These are difficult questions that both President Han and the reader struggle with, and Huang doesn’t offer an easy answer. What makes it even more difficult is Nyma’s own belief in the necessity of her role, despite her wish to live.
But I can’t quite wrap my brain around the idea of enough people agreeing to create a law that deliberately uses an innocent child as the sacrifice that the president personally needs to take, with his own hands, in order to bomb the enemy. On the other hand, Ursula K. Le Guin‘s famous short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” a thematically similar parable about the ethics of the greater good, also uses an innocent child as an even more inexplicable sacrifice, and I think that story is great. Maybe Huang’s writing style, which is far less subtle, just didn’t engage me as much as Le Guin’s did.
In any case it’s great food for thought, and is a Hugo nominee....more
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