The Nebula shortlist has just been released! Let’s take a look at the relevant categories:

Short story

* Her Husband’s Hands by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed)
* Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son by Tom Crosshill (Lightspeed)
* Movement by Nancy Fulda (Asimov’s)
* Shipbirth by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s)
* The Axiom of Choice by David W. Goldman (New Haven Review)
* The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld)
* The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu (F&SF)

I’ve reviewed the stories by Crosshill, de Bodard, Yu and Liu; links point to my reviews, which also contain links to the full text. I hope that’s not too confusing!

I’m especially pleased to see Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son on the shortlist, as it read like an “Eastern European” story – I’m not only referring to the setting here, but the general style -, and I was worried Americans would not appreciate it. I got the impression that growing up, the author read the same SF as I did! As he is from Latvia, that’s quite possible…

(Strangely enough, Expanded Horizons just got a story which I would also characterize as having that particular Eastern European flavor – except the author was Indian-American!)

Ken Liu’s nomination was a given, but I’m surprised by the lack of work by Yoon Ha Lee, there was a lot of buzz about her recent stories in the blogosphere, and for good reason.

I’m pleased to say that all shortlisted stories this year are available for free. This means I’m going to review the missing stories soon, G-d willing, and then I’ll be able to make recommendations to my readers who are SFWA members. (Based on the incoming links, I wonder if most of my readers are SFWA members.)

Yu’s story didn’t really grab me, but the others I’ve reviewed were great. I’m also happy to see a quite diverse lineup!

Novelette

* Fields of Gold by Rachel Swirsky (Eclipse 4)
* Ray of Light by Brad R. Torgersen (Analog)
* Sauerkraut Station by Ferrett Steinmetz (GigaNotoSaurus)
* Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor.com)
* The Migratory Pattern of Dancers by Katherine Sparrow (GigaNotoSaurus)
* The Old Equations by Jake Kerr (Lightspeed)
* What We Found by Geoff Ryman (F&SF)

Not much luck here, I haven’t read any of these yet. I would’ve gotten to several of them if I started reviewing works earlier – I was making my way through the GigaNotoSaurus and Tor.com novelettes -, but it’s too late now!

Four of the seven novelettes are available for free; The Mary Sue has a list.

Novella

* Kiss Me Twice by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s)
* Silently and Very Fast by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld)
* The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman (F&SF)
* The Man Who Bridged the Mist by Kij Johnson (Asimov’s)
* The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu (Panverse 3)
* With Unclean Hands by Adam-Troy Castro (Analog)

I’ve only reviewed three novellas so far – it hasn’t been my main focus – so I’m surprised to see two of them on the shortlist. Unfortunately, the third was my favorite: Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove. Maybe we can AAALLL nominate it for the Hugo!

This also means I’ll have to review parts 2 and 3 of Silently and Very Fast. I’m not really looking forward to that… if there was one work this year whose appeal I failed to see, it was that one.

Of the rest, Kiss Me Twice is available for free; The Man Who Bridged the Mist looks free, but it’s actually not the complete text. I hate it when Asimov’s does the “read the conclusion in our current issue” thing. Grmbl!

The Gardens of Landler Abbey by Megan Arkenberg (an American woman)

from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 83 (Dec 2011)

This is a novelette about war crimes and the industrialization of warfare, set in a pseudo-English fantasy milieu. The topic is very important – I think – and not as frequently seen in fantasy as in science fiction, but here I felt there was a mismatch between the ambience and the content.

The burgeoning 19th-century style and the depictions of rich socialites really distracted from the plot. It is possible to write about fake-European fantasy nobility and serious issues of warfare at the same time – Lois McMaster Bujold’s space-opera Vorkosigan saga is the proof. But it’s a delicate affair, and this particular novelette didn’t hit that sweet spot of balance, for me at least. (I wonder if the Vorkosigan saga served as direct inspiration, seeing that the author runs a webzine named after one of the Vorkosigan novels, Mirror Dance; or is that a coincidence?)

The pacing also seemed off – I found myself skimming the long, meandering descriptions (and had to force myself not to do that), then when the protagonist had a conversation with the owner of the gardens, the story sped up, only to slow down again. The ending was abrupt at best, and the horror elements seemed tacked on and introduced all too late.

Arkenberg is a prolific and adventurous writer, so maybe I should try something else by her…? Readers interested in the topic of war crimes in speculative fiction should try Ken Liu’s The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary instead.

Again, three reviews to catch up with myself.

Shipbirth by Aliette de Bodard (a Vietnamese-French woman)

from Asimov’s, February 2011

A transgender protagonist! Another first for 2011. Someone told me they did not expect to see any trans characters in this year’s crop, so this was a pleasant surprise. This is not a token mention, either; the character’s gender identity is a major part of the story.

In the future, Aztecs rule space (can I say YAY?). Their society is strongly gender-segregated, but it’s relatively easy for people to change their gender if they so desire. The main character was born female, he presently identifies as male, but he constantly feels out of place. I read it as a story about a gender-fluid or possibly androgynous person in a very much binary-gendered world, but the author might have had something else in mind (note: spoilery discussion after the link). I’m a bit confused by the author’s explanation of the main character having made the wrong decision – to me it looked like choosing either gender would’ve been a wrong decision.

Spoilery quote that should sway you toward my own position : “In the end, he was a man–unable to bear the shame of killing an unarmed woman. In the end, he was a woman–made to give life, to yield life, but never to take it.”

The main plot is about women giving birth to spaceship components. I kid you not. I like body horror, so I read with rapt attention.

What I’m concerned about is how I don’t seem to agree with anyone on how to interpret this story, including, apparently, the author? Many people say it is a good portrayal of a transgendered person – which I disagree with, and which the author explicitly disclaims. But the concept of non-binary gender did not even enter the equation…?

Princess Courage by Nadia Bulkin (an Indonesian-American woman)

A high fantasy story where the empire-builders are presented in an unfavorable light. A nice deconstruction of subgenre tropes – tropes which should be stomped on and ground into dust as far as I’m concerned, I’m not a fan of high fantasy to say the least. So that’s great so far, but unfortunately the story itself is not very engaging beyond that.

I think this is a case of preaching to the choir: I don’t need to be convinced that classic high fantasy is racist and colonialist, so I found the story didactic and the fantasy elements somewhat boring. I confess I have no idea how the general readership would react…

At Livia’s Bar by Pierre Mejlak (a Maltese man) – also available in Maltese

from Words without Borders (Dec 2011, “The Fantastic”), translated by Antoine Cassar

This story is about worldbuilding. Quite literally! I think one can interpret it in an entirely non-speculative manner, but I’m also OK with calling it speculative fiction. In any case, it’s short, poignant and beautiful, so you should read it right now!

There was no update yesterday, so today I offer three reviews – read about stories by women authors from all over the world!

The Map by Nazli Eray (a Turkish woman) – also available in Turkish

from Words without Borders (Dec 2011, “The Fantastic”), translated by Robert P. Finn

This is one of those hard-to-categorize stories – you can call it magical realist, slipstream, or you can even pretend it’s regular literary fiction. Two young women buy “a General Map of Man with a special interpretation” from an old bookseller, and then proceed to use the map to figure out their boyfriends. Strangeness ensues.

It’s a quick fun read, but one that stays with you. The general idea of “interpretative maps” of continents, countries and even people really charmed me, I wish there was a similar map of Hungary *chuckle* – the only thing I can think of along those lines is the Subjective Atlas of Hungary, unfortunately the official website seems to be down at the moment… but even that’s not exactly the same. Probably good for all of us – “interpretative maps” seemed quite dangerous in the story!

(By the way – Lamb by Elham Eshraghi and The Mirror by Soheila Beski from the same issue of the magazine are also interesting reads, but I think they do not contain any speculative element, so I’m not reviewing them.)

The Fox by Malinda Lo (a Chinese-American lesbian woman who is also an immigrant)

from Subterranean Press (Summer 2011, YA special issue)

Malinda Lo has two novels out – and more forthcoming -, but this is her first published short story. The protagonist also appears in her novel Huntress, which I haven’t read yet – the author says this story should stand on its own, but it might contain minor spoilers.

It is a lesbian romance story featuring a shapeshifter. The setting is kind of bland and nondescript – maybe it’s better fleshed out in the novel. There is a human king, a fairy queen, a chosen one, a magical object… all well-trod high fantasy terrain, except with lesbian romance.

The Fox might possibly be the only lesbian YA SF story available for free in the Hugo 2012 crop – it’s definitely the only one I’ve seen, comment if you know of others -, but beyond that it’s not particularly interesting.

Tloque Nahuaque by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (a Mexican woman)

from Future Lovecraft

The Large Hadron Collider will destroy the world as we know it – we’ve heard this from alarmists the world over, but finally someone wrote a good story about it too. In sharp contrast to the alarmists, García-Rosas knows what the LHC actually does, and she can also write in sweeping Lovecraftian style. The end result is much appreciated.

The story is set in Mexico, where some people have an unsettlingly clear idea what to do if a sleeping Aztec deity awakens… There are some juicy Mythos parallels in there. I wonder about my own religion (BTW – there is a Lovecraftian Bible story in She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Horror, but it’s not really what I have in mind here.)

As before, five free stories with mini-reviews. I originally did not intend to make themed posts, but this time I managed to find five stories by Chinese-American authors, so this is a Chinese-American-themed post!

It seems like there is a lot of flash fiction by people who belong to underrepresented groups. I have to say I was totally unaware of this, so many great flash stories just fly below the radar – they never get reviewed anywhere, never get promoted, etc. I’ve been wondering about setting up a small award for “best SF flash story by an underrepresented author” (which is a very broad category) – I’m reading all this stuff anyway, I might as well pick the best. I don’t really have any money to offer as an award prize, but at least I can provide some publicity. What do you folks think? Anyone else interested in forming an awards committee? Maybe we could do a fundraiser to fund a prize? I’m just thinking out loud here.

Let’s get back to the actual stories… Don’t forget to check out the battle standings! Scroll down, the flash listings are at the bottom. (I assume once I’ve read everything I managed to find, the one on top gets the prize…)

The Apocalypse Artist by Claire Light (a Chinese-American woman)

from See|Saw

Mythpunk with a light touch of body horror. A bit too eclectic for my tastes, but interesting.

To the stars by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man) and Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Nature Futures (February 2011)

I’ve already praised Ken Liu’s ability to make good fiction out of forum postings and online flamewars, but this one is not it. It’s a rather unfocused and pointless ramble. I’d rather read an actual flamewar…

Ascension by Su-Yee Lin (a Chinese-American woman)

from Ideomancer (March 2011)

A taken-child tale with beautiful imagery – leaves falling upward! The mother acted more like an older sister, which confused me slightly, but maybe she gave birth very young…

Selfless by Kenneth S. Kao (a Chinese-American man)

from Daily Science Fiction

A highly personal take on cloning. It leaves a lot for the imagination, but isn’t that what flash is for?

A good time by Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Nature Futures (April 2011)

Yet another sexbot story. *groan* The “microeconomics of prostitution” theme seems to come from SuperFreakonomics.

Also, unbelievably low dig: “Maybe the potholes in my neighbourhood were finally fixed last year at the expense of some socially stunted invalid who scheduled daily appointments of sexual therapy?” (Yeah, I get it that this is a first-person story and the narrator is a jerk. Still.)

I think I’ve reviewed all freely available novelettes and novellas by authors of color eligible for this year’s awards… There are plenty of other underrepresented groups, but those are not listed separately, and people belonging to them are thus harder to find. I’m especially having trouble finding free stories by and about members of sexual minorities, so I’d appreciate a headsup…

The Fall of Alacan by Tobias S. Buckell (a Grenadan-American man)

from the Summer 2011 issue of Subterranean Press

I’m not a fan of Buckell’s science fiction, but this one is a classic fantasy novelette. I read it just for the sake of completeness, not particularly looking forward to it, but I was pleasantly surprised.

This is a good, solid, action-packed fantasy adventure. There’s everything from the coarse thief who is kind at heart to the kiss of the beautiful princess in the tower, nothing new, but the pieces fit well together. The tale kept me reading at a rapid pace up till the last words even though I’m not fond of classic swords and sorcery, or protagonists who are criminals.

I like stories where the characters have to battle against a hostile environment – here we have poisonous plants whose growth is accelerated by magic use. I would’ve loved to see more of the ecosystem, though that would’ve been slightly out of place in an adventure-focused novelette. Maybe a longer work – for example, the Coldfire trilogy by Celia S. Friedman introduces a well-thought-out magical ecosystem in a swords and sorcery adventure, so it’s definitely doable, but the series consists of three doorstopper-sized volumes!

I was slightly put off by the ‘they are going to keep on using magic, and this is going to lead to their downfall’ vibe, but these seemed the protagonist’s thoughts, and apparently most people in the setting did not think that way. The Fall of Alacan is definitely not an anti-magic story – the protagonist is repeatedly saved by magic, first by enchanted objects, then by a magic-user. Though maybe it can be interpreted as a ‘lonesome hero sees all that’s wrong with the world’ story…

The male protagonist taking care of a child by himself was also an interesting detail, in a fantasy adventure these sorts of themes usually don’t go further than ‘wow, unexpectedly revealed inheritance!’. And the relationship was absolutely not portrayed as the man getting saddled with a child, though the character himself seemed to think so at the outset!

I’m sorry there was no update on Thursday – I had connectivity issues. There was a change of ownership at our ISP, and we’ve been seeing more downtime than usual.. let’s hope I manage to post this one!

A Prince of Thirteen Days by Alaya Dawn Johnson (an African-American woman)

from the June 2011 issue of Fantasy Magazine

This is a novelette from the Borderlands anthology, reprinted in Fantasy. (Yes, it’s eligible for this year’s Hugos – the reprints cycle is faster and faster!)

It’s an urban fantasy story, maybe a bit too urban-fantasy-ish for my tastes… does every work in this subgenre have to do with the characters having sex? That and vampires. There are no vampires in this one, but it’s all about sex. I didn’t really understand how the protagonist went from receiving a prophecy of love to “I must have sex with a statue”. It’s not graphic at all, but very sex-centered nonetheless, and in a rather forced way.

I’m all for thoughtful or deeply felt explorations of sexuality (for example see my glowing review of Amal El-Mohtar’s lesbian steampunk story), and this story had all the potential, with a multigenerational family setup, teen pregnancy, etc., but ultimately the sexual theme felt like a gimmick. As if the whole novelette was written just so that in the opening paragraphs, the heroine could ask a statue to have sex with her.

I also found the first-person / third-person transitions slightly distracting… when I’m thinking “look, a literary device” while reading, that’s not a very good sign. I prefer to enjoy the work as a whole, not its form by itself, unless the form is very very inventive. This wasn’t inventive, just distracting.

On the plus side, I really liked the casual mentions of everyday magic (cooking magic, minor prophecies, etc.) and the interactions of the family members. I wished there was more of that and less of the main plot… maybe I’m just not sexual enough!

This is going to be a semi-regular feature if all goes well. Here is my weekly roundup of links of interest.

* Demonstrate! If you’re an EU citizen, join a Stop ACTA protest in your neighborhood on Feb 11! One-sentence summary from Reddit: “ACTA is an international intellectual property enforcement treaty with far-reaching implications for freedom of expression and human rights.” Here’s the central site with a nice map and all. You can also read about the protests on FSF.org.

(for fellow frummies: several demos end well after motzei Shabbat, so we can join in the fun this time…)

Read:

* Hugo-eligible works by people of color published in 2011 – a really helpful crowdsourced list! I’ve found lots of stuff to review there.

* Best LGBTQ works of 2011 – also includes non-SF (Note: I’m not sure I’d recommend Cage of Zeus, it was interesting, but it had several aspects I found really problematic. I’ve been meaning to write a review for ages now…)

* Errors in Mass Effect: Deception – Tie-in novel series gets a new writer (William C. Dietz), who then proceeds to rewrite minority characters as majority characters. Choice quote: “While this list may seem nit-picky considering some of the errors, there are a handful worth mentioning that have very legitimate reasons for being upset over.  This includes a character ‘growing up’ from being autistic, turning Mass Effect’s only gay male character straight and then killing him, and being literally impossible to reconcile with the timeline made by the games, comics and other books.” There was such fan uproar that the publisher vowed to fix these issues in upcoming editions. We’ll see…

* The Hey Sweetheart Scenario: Deconstructing How Role-Playing Games Talk to Women – Accurate and insightful. After 20-30 hours of playing Fallout 3, I came across the first such “oh look you are a woman” conversation, and I realized that one of the features that contributed to my enjoyment of the game was that it did not constantly push this on me when I was playing a female character. The linked article explains the issue very eloquently!

See:

* Kilian Eng, Selected Works + Interview – Kilian Eng is a Swedish SF artist whose work is absolutely, mind-numbingly awesome. If you’re a Moebius fan, you’re  especially going to love his style. For more great art, check out Eng’s portfolio!

Another set of five free flash stories, eligible for this year’s awards. I’ve also decided to list authors who are immigrants. I haven’t gone over previous posts yet – if you see an immigrant author untagged, let me know!

The English Cemetery by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a Mexican-Canadian woman who is an immigrant)

from Coffinmouth, Sep 2011

A poetic meditation on expatriate-hood from a local’s point of view, with a touch of fantasy. This is the third story by the author about death in 2011! In case you’re wondering, that’s not meant to be a complaint

Safe Empathy by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man)

from Daily Science Fiction, Nov 2011

I thought I’d reviewed all of his free stories this year, but apparently not. He doesn’t even link to this story on his website, and I can see why – it’s probably his weakest to day. Also, there’s some very inequal gender-role stuff in there.

 …And A Bottle Of Rum by Melissa Mead (an American woman)

from Daily Science Fiction, Jan 2011

An amusing story about sympathetic magic and teleportation (the author calls it “telekinesis”, but it seems to be mostly teleportation). With pirates. Everything is better with pirates?

Spidersong by Alex Shvartsman (a Russian-American Jewish man who is an immigrant)

from Daily Science Fiction, Oct 2011

Yay, groupminds! Augh. Spoiler: I really disliked the twist at the end – while it is inventive and chilling, it promotes one of my most hated tropes, the evil groupmind. 

Jade Dragon by Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Daily Science Fiction, Jan 2011

A take on economic exploitation in future China. Something about it didn’t ring true to me… this is the sort of thing best written from experience.

The author’s comments shed some light on my feelings – she wrote about an event that happened to her in the position of privilege, from the other person’s POV. I think that’s a bad idea and I’m not going to cut the author any slack just because she herself is underprivileged in other respects.

Today I’m reviewing reader recommendations! To be honest, one was a “read this one because it has characters who belong to underrepresented groups, but you’ll probably hate it” kind of recommendation… but that still counts, right?

To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar (an Arab Canadian woman)

from Steam-Powered I: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, free audiobook available from Podcastle

Amal El-Mohtar was kind enough to send me a copy of the anthology, as the story text is not available online free of charge. But don’t worry, there is a 100% free audiobook version! (People asked if I also considered reviewing stories which only had free audio versions. Short answer: yes, but you’ll probably see a review faster if you send me a copy of the text.)

This is a lesbian fantasy story (well duh!) set in Awesome Alt-History Damascus. It’s not very strictly steampunk, but that’s probably a plus, because the setting is the diametric opposite of derivative.

I loved the way hair, especially unbound hair, had erotic appeal – this is a concept that’s also present in my culture, but which usually gets blank stares from Westerners! Now I’ll know where to refer those people, as El-Mohtar’s descriptions are really beautiful and convincing at the same time.

Geeky women are very, very underrepresented in SF – I am pleased to say this story has a geeky protagonist, if that concept even makes sense in Awesome Alt-History Damascus.

The main technological gimmick has to do with dream control. Telepathy also seems to be a theme without ever being named; the two main characters share a bond they themselves find hard to understand. There is also a small hint of BDSM toward the end, more implied than explicated – now, telepathy and BDSM sounds like a recipe for disaster, but I loved the way it was presented here.

I haven’t read the rest of the anthology yet – were any other stories sold as reprints? I’d prefer to link to free stuff.

Long Enough and Just So Long by Cat Rambo (an American woman)

from Lightspeed (Feb 2011)

I usually enjoy Cat Rambo’s work, and she picked Long Enough and Just So Long as the story she would push for this year’s award nominations, so I thought this one would be great. Sure, there are interesting characters in there: a physically disabled protagonist, a character with Asperger syndrome, etc. (finally I get to use my disabled_characters tag again!) But I’m frankly puzzled about Rambo’s decision.

Many details did not cohere for me, and I had to read the author interview to understand that. This story is based on a Heinlein juvenile. I have to say I don’t have the same emotional attachment to Heinlein juveniles as many American SF fans seem to do, having grown up in the Eastern bloc; I tried to read some as an adult, but failed to see the allure. I also can’t comprehend why someone would pick as their best of 2011 a work that was heavily inspired by another author’s work.

It is also a sexbot story. (Maybe I should say OH NO THIS IS YET ANOTHER SEXBOT STORY. Expanded Horizons has this theme on the instant rejections list, and for good reason.) “I want to please you. But at the same time I know it’s just the way I’m programmed.” *GROAN* Do I really have to explain why this is so problematic? Do I really really have to?

And before someone brings that up – the fact that the story features a male sexbot doesn’t make it much better.

Bonus: a great flash story by Cat Rambo, also from this year’s crop. Snappy, cute, funny! If only Long Enough and Just So Long was this good…