Clarkesworld #54 – March 2011

I enjoyed this issue, but I still had gripes with both stories. By the way, I forgot to mention that the previous issue had a great “making of” feature about the cover image, by Julie Dillon. I wish all issues had a similar column, this would also help me decide who to pick in the artist categories of the Hugo! Artists talking about their technique make a more memorable impression on me than picture dumps.

The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from the Great Book) by Nnedi Okorafor (a Nigerian-American woman)

Lush greenery is a recurring theme in Nnedi Okorafor’s work and this particular story is no exception. Yay for lush greenery! As for the rest, it’s certainly an interesting, fast-paced tale, but it leaves way too many questions unresolved. All kinds of intriguing plot elements are introduced, but none of them are discussed in detail. The title refers to a larger text – I could see this story work as a chapter of a novel, but not as much as a standalone short story, even though I’d enjoyed it while reading. (Nnedi Okorafor’s website says that the story is set in the universe of Who Fears Death, which is on my TBR pile – I liked her other novels a lot, so I have high hopes for this one as well.)

Being a scientist, I tend to dislike stories which heavily build on the evil scientist trope, especially when there is no particular justification for this. The rationale behind including a Holocaust scene also eluded me, was it included just to demonstrate how evil the scientists were? It certainly did not seem to serve any other purpose.

Also, minor annoyance (but one I see quite often in stories, and this one was no exception): the Bible includes the Torah, these are not separate sacred texts. If someone is trying to say that a character read both the Christian and the Jewish versions of the Bible, the proper word for the latter is “the Tanach”. Spellings may vary, “Tanakh” is also used.

Perfect Lies by Gwendolyn Clare (an American woman)

I love interspecies diplomatic relations stories, and this one is also fascinating, but I am confused: did the author just rediscover high functioning autism / Asperger syndrome? The protagonist’s behavior shows many characteristics of autism, which enable her to negotiate with the aliens, but she is  repeatedly described as “the only human”  capable of doing so. I don’t really know what to think: is this an instance of deliberate erasure, or “only” ignorance? I read the comments on the story, and I’m not the first person the Asperger analogy occurred to – so it’s probably not a case of “one who has a hammer sees nails everywhere”

I think the moral is, if you make up a cognitive minority, try hard to make sure the group does not already exist, and if it does, take that into account?