For the last day of the week focusing on authors who belong to ethnic minorities, I’ve managed to find two great stories which are not only thematically similar, but are also both available in audiobook versions!

Both stories are about the complex tangle of oppression – oppressive regimes usually do not get a nuanced treatment in English-language SF and I’m happy to see this change.

Scattered Along the River of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard (a Vietnamese-French woman)

from Clarkesworld #64, Jan 2012 / Audiobook version

A far-future story with postcyberpunk leanings. The embodied nature of the servant swarm bots is very well-depicted – the image of little bots like spiders clinging to everything, including people’s bodies, will stay with me for a long while.

The main plot involves people getting rid of the old guard of revolutionaries – I could immediately relate this to my own country and the stories people tell here. I’ve just said something similar about one of the author’s flash pieces last week; I’m very happy someone is writing these types of stories.

There is a strong political thread, but everything is shown through the lens of family relations, up close and personal. So far this is one of the best SF shorts I’ve read this year.

A final note that’s probably more about me than about the story (oops!): Scattered Along the River of Heaven is not necessarily an easy read… I first tried to read it when my head was still stuffy and I was really dozed from the cold, and I completely lost of track of who was doing what. But then I gave the story a second try when I got better, and to be honest, I was confused over my previous confusion. It did not seem like a story that hard to follow. So I guess the lesson learned is that I should sleep instead of reading when I have a bad cold…

The Book of Locked Doors by Yoon Ha Lee (a Korean-American woman)

from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #91, Mar 2012 / Audiobook version

Yoon Ha Lee reveals her secret in the author interview! This is worth quoting:

I’ve found something unusual for part 5 of our themed week: urban fantasy with vampires! Most of the general SF markets try to avoid this topic these days and vampire fantasy has mostly retreated to its own niche… it seems to be doing quite well there though; in one of the local bookstores I’d spotted a sign advertising “Vampire Books”, with dozens upon dozens of titles, and that’s only the stuff that gets translated into Hungarian, there’s a lot more in English.

The Inconstant Moon by Alaya Dawn Johnson (an African-American woman)

from Tor.com Originals, April 2012

The Roaring Twenties are in full swing and a young girl from the back of beyond decides to try her luck in the big city. But vampire hunting is hard when the vampires are charming, helpful, and well into their serious bid for suffrage. This is an easy-to-read romp, unfortunately without much substance.

The 1920s were a turbulent time, with plenty to inspire writers, but I constantly felt that the author focused on the details that did not interest me. There’s also ample room for intersectionality in the setting, with the women’s suffrage movement in full swing, racial segregation still an everyday reality for African American people, and on top of this, various fantasy issues like were-animal shapeshifting gaining in popularity, vampires stalking innocent citizens, etc. None of the historical background is utilized by the writer beyond superficial namedropping  – the Harlem Renaissance merits one sentence – and very brief reflections, the story focuses on the newly introduced fantasy elements instead.

I would not be bothered by the fantasy elements dominating – this is a fantasy story after all – but the entire setting does not seem very well-thought-out. Would all these factors interact in the way the author shows (or fails to show) them to interact? I felt that was not the case. I don’t mind it if a story focuses on the action – or the romance – at the expense of worldbuilding, but I should feel that there is a coherent fictional universe behind it all.

Just one example: the protagonist is characterized as a “demon hunter”, but it’s not really clear what other types of demons are there beyond vampires – golems are tangentially mentioned, but neither golems or vampires are demons in the usual sense of the word, so I’m a bit confused. If there are other types of demons beyond vampires, do people group them with vampires? If yes, why? If not, why not? When the protagonist becomes disillusioned with hunting vampires, why doesn’t she just switch to hunting golems? And so on. Maybe the novels clear all this up, but after reading this prequel novelette, I have little wish to read more.

The plot is very predictable – I should’ve probably gone into the story expecting not as much urban fantasy but paranormal romance, then I wouldn’t have been as disappointed as I was.

Laurell K. Hamilton did all this – vampire suffrage included – set in the present, and the 1920s setting does not seem to add to the ambience here. There is a market for this type of vampire fiction, but for how long?

Spoilery sentence at the end: I guessed it but I hoped the author would not go for it – I kind of resented that the Nice Vampire was revealed as a criminal, and the coincidence that he was the girl’s father’s enemy was too great to be true.

Similar stuff I’ve reviewed: I haven’t actually reviewed it, but the core SF audience would probably appreciate Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist better – many of the same themes, much less of a light read, but much more rewarding.

In today’s instalment of Ethnic Minorities Week, I present two authors who not only belong to ethnic minorities but are also queer. This wasn’t really planned… I’d already scheduled the stories when I realized Rahul Kanakia was gay; he mentioned it on his blog (which is, by the way, a great read).

What Everyone Remembers by Rahul Kanakia (an Indian-American gay man)

from Clarkesworld, Jan 2012 (there is also an audiobook version)

This story is written from the POV of a genetically engineered sentient insect. Isn’t that great? I should review more stories about insects. (There is a whole magazine dedicated to the theme!)

A lot of abuse and cruelty happens; humans have not gotten nicer or less speciesist in the future either. Of course the point is that all this abuse is bad (phew!), but just so that you know. Some of the characters should’ve read this TVTropes page… (I think that’s the other point.)

At first the ending made me go like “wait, WHAT?” Then I looked at the title and it suddenly made sense. Well played!

Recognizing Gabe: un cuento de hadas by Alberto Yáñez (a Mexican-American bisexual man)

from Strange Horizons, Jan 2012

This is a story about a Mexican-American family with a fairy godmother living in Mexico. She occasionally visits, and magic ensues.

The first-person protagonist is trans and… how do I explain this without spoilers… imagine all the bad SF tropes that crop up whenever trans* stuff is combined with magic. None of those occur in Recognizing Gabe. (I was really worried at first!) It skirts really close, but as far as I can tell, it gets things right.

Read it, it’s heart-warming! Also, it’s always great to see a new author, and Mexican-themed stories usually do not disappoint – check out the tag page if you are curious.

The flash roundup posts are back! I decided to tie them to the week’s theme, so this time you get five stories by authors who belong to ethnic minorities. All stories were published in Daily Science Fiction in 2012.

Unfortunately I did not manage to find five distinct authors who belong to ethnic minorities in this year’s DSF lineup (did I miss someone?), but there were several flash stories by the same authors, so I’ve decided to include two pieces by Benjamin Rosenbaum. I could’ve also picked Aliette de Bodard, but I’ll review a longer story by her later during Ethnic Minorities Week, G-d willing. I still have a reallllllllllly bad cold…

The Take by Alex Shvartsman (a Russian-American Jewish man who is also an immigrant to the US)

Acting combined with memory recording and erasure. Interesting, but a bit too heavy on the exposition. (To my Hungarian readers – György Juhász had a series of short stories about memory recording in the Solaria diskmag of yore; if memory serves right, it was quite similar to this flash piece.)

Memories of My Mother by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man)

I know I was complaining about special relativity stories, but this one manages to put a little personal twist on the theme. Well done. I laud Ken Liu for resisting the urge to turn this into a longer story; it’s beautiful in its sparse poignance.

Things Exist by Imitation of Numbers by Benjamin Rosenbaum (an American Jewish man who’s also an immigrant to Switzerland)

If there is such a thing as a Pythagorean romance, this is it. It’s part of a series, The Numbers Quartet: “four powerful authors have come together here to examine a dozen important concepts in mathematics through short short fiction pieces.” That sounds like hard-SF, but this story takes a more poetic angle. I liked it, so let’s see more of the quartet…

The Heartless Light of Stars by Aliette de Bodard (a Vietnamese-French woman)

Another interesting take on relativity, so maybe I should just shut up and take back my complaints. What if both FTL and relativistic communication exists, but FTL is connected to economic and political privilege?

“And, unless you could bribe an official for access to the only ansible station in the country–high up north, in Ha Noi–delayed messages were the only thing you ever got back from space.”

If Hungary ever makes it into the future without imploding, I expect something similar… These stories ought to be written and I seldom see Americans writing them.

Nilly by Benjamin Rosenbaum (an American Jewish man who’s also an immigrant to Switzerland)

This one supposedly focuses on quaternions, but it’s a story about imaginary friends, a rather tenuous link. Someone’s imaginary friend becomes another person’s walk-in (not described as such, and I wonder if the author even knows the term). I wasn’t satisfied with the ending, but the story was an interesting read.

Brownie points for this part: “Meg opened her eyes, and sure enough, she’d mastered the trick, her cultural patrimony, the crown jewel of her civilization, that invigorating willful ignorance–the unseeing of spirits. She looked where he’d been, and only saw the books on the shelf.”

Spoiler for the ending: the last sentence, while ambiguous, seemed to imply that there was no place for Nilly in this world; I think it would’ve been better to take the story in the direction of reconciliation.

Whew, I managed to finish the roundup before Shabbes, so you’re getting it now. Have fun!

Part #2 of my series focusing on authors who belong to ethnic minorities brings you a novelette! (Sorry, I messed up scheduling slightly – I wanted to post the novelette reviews over the weekend, but the short story reviews that were supposed to be posted first aren’t finished yet… I have a bad cold and yesterday I couldn’t trust myself to write a single coherent sentence )

Nomad by Karin Lowachee (a Guyanese-Canadian woman who is also an immigrant)

from Lightspeed, Apr 2012

This novelette was simultaneously released in Lightspeed and in the Armored anthology edited by Lightspeed‘s editor, John Joseph Adams. Armored features 23 SF stories about… powered armor. I love that kind of narrow focus,  I also enjoy military SF, so I’m thinking of picking up the anthology.

This one is a teaser story of sorts – read it and then decide whether to buy the book. I commend Adams for picking this one as a teaser over a story by a better-known writer. (I also like it a lot that the lineup includes several women – sadly, that’s a risk when considering the anthology’s target market. Karen Traviss, my favorite military-SF writer, is unfortunately missing, but she gave up short fiction a few years ago.)

Nomad is about sentient, symbiotic power armor – imagine little hearts floating around my head, symbiosis is one of my favorite themes. Nomad is told from the point of view of the armor (!), with the focus on the relationship between the armor and the wearer. Better and better…

…but with all that, this novelette still did not really grab me. How did that happen? First, aspects of the story clashed with each other – for example, the relationship was described as very close:

“I have memories of Tommy from five minutes after his first cry in this world, and before he died he had all of mine. Like the first time I opened my hand and saw my faint reflection in my perfect obsidian armor. Before the battle damage.

I remember the first time I set my hand over his and our grips locked together and became one. It took no thought to move our hand because the integration was more instinct than intellect.”

But somehow love was treated like a taboo topic and one was not supposed to get too close to one’s armor. Eh? That made little sense to me. (Also, just a little note – people who grow up together usually do not feel romantic love toward each other.)

Second, the plot was not very interesting. I did not expect it to be interesting since the focus was supposed to be on the characterization, but the characterization did not ring true to me. Maybe next time…

I’m still curious about the anthology, because this story was not at all what I’d expected to read under a heading like “Part Human. Part Machine. All Soldier.”

Similar stories I’ve reviewed: A Militant Peace by David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell. The Klecha-Buckell duo also have a story in Armored. (Plus Buckell is also from the Caribbean like Lowachee!)

We kick off Ethnic Minorities Week with a Ken Liu novelette! (I know, I know, it’s the middle of the week, so now is probably not the best time to start it… but it will last a week.)

The Five Elements of the Heart Mind by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man)

from Lightspeed, Jan 2012

You probably know by now that I’m a rabid Ken Liu fan, so that’s how I approached this hard-SF story too. At this point, he mostly has to race himself, not the rest of the field.

This is not his best-written work – his recent historical fantasy novella in GigaNotoSaurus was much more poetic, for example. Here, the characters read more like placeholder examples to demonstrate an idea than real flesh-and-blood people.

But Ken Liu’s hard SF is so well-thought-out – it seems like no one else writes this kind of stuff any longer, and especially not with references that point to recent research papers. (Dear authors: I’m fed up with stories about special relativity. Especially if you’re getting it wrong.) The Five Elements of the Heart Mind is centered around some fascinating biology; I found myself thinking about the implications for days.

An extra plus is that traditional Chinese medicine is presented in a positive light. American SF tends to have such a huge aversion toward everything that can even remotely be construed as mystical that it verges on the painfully embarrassing. This story has none of that and it still manages to have real science.

A few words about reprints first -

Innsmouth Magazine: Collected Issues 1-4 is now available for the Kindle; it features my short story Bottomless Lake Bus Stop.

My poem The Handcrafted Motions of Flight is also set to be reprinted in the upcoming Stone Telling queer chapbook.

Finally, something new: Issue #3 of Comets and Criminals is coming out on the first of May and it will feature my poem My Planet / Silence and Noise.

While we’re at May 1… you might consider participating in the international general strike organized by various Occupy branches. International Workers’ Day is a public holiday in many countries (including Hungary), but not in all countries, and even if you have the day off, you can participate in a demonstration. There are many traditional and nontraditional organizations demonstrating on May 1 as usual and you can join your favorite group.

Here’s a matching song, a cappella in the spirit of the season (there is also some chest thumping ): the male a cappella choir of the Rochester Institute of Technology sings the Chemical Workers’ Song. I like this rendition a lot, though not all soloists are equally good. The song was written in the 1960s by Ron Angel.

Aaand now for another surprise *drumroll*: I’ve decided to run a readers’ choice thing and allow you to choose next week’s theme (ethnic minorities week starts tomorrow!). The poll is on Livejournal because I was lazy and that seemed like the easiest solution. I think everyone can use the poll, it’s not restricted to LJ users, but if you have trouble voting, you can also vote right here at prezzey.net. Just comment on this entry with your pick and let me know whether you want me to unscreen your comment or not. All votes on LJ are screened.

Vote now! The link takes you to my LJ.

This is the surprise I’ve promised – my virtual anthology! All free and legal downloads, all the time! Available formats vary from story to story. I can’t offer a batch download due to copyright issues, but you can make your own – the finished anthology is about 104 000 words long!

I did not read everything last year (this year I started earlier), so there must be a lot of stuff that’s missing. But everything that is in there is awesome. I did read all the stories nominated for major awards which were available as free downloads, so if something is missing from those, that’s for a reason.

I originally did not want to add author ethnicities etc., because they are all listed on the review pages anyway, and I didn’t want this list to get too crowded with information. I decided to add them because the Hugo list was so dominated by straight white American males, and I got the impression people did not even read these stories since they did not appear in print venues (for the most part). Note that most of these stories are from professional markets, though not all of them are.

Tying Knots by Ken Liu, a Chinese-American man (Clarkesworld)
- read the story, listen to the audiobook, read my review
Near-future hard SF with a postcolonialist mindset. I’m putting this one first because it’s probably the one that could most appeal to longtime SF fans.

A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel by Yoon Ha Lee, a Korean-American woman (Tor.com)
- read the story, read my review
A poetic fantasy short story, the diametric opposite of Tying Knots (which is why I put this one second).

All That Touches the Air by An Owomoyela, an American neutrois person of color (Lightspeed)
- read the story, read my review
Straight-up science fiction about colonists on an alien planet and local lifeforms. Great characterization!

The Death Collector by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a Mexican-Canadian woman who is also an immigrant (AEScifi.ca)
- read the story, read my review
My favorite flash story of the year. Time travel with dashing Mexican actors.

Shipbirth by Aliette de Bodard, a French-Vietnamese woman (Asimov’s, Nebula shortlisted)
- read the story, read my review
A science-fantasy story with Aztecs in space and a genderfluid transsexual protagonist.

Held Close in Syllables of Light by Rose Lemberg, a Russian-Israeli American queer woman who is also an immigrant (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
- read the story, read my review
A beautifully crafted fantasy novelette with an interesting take on magic. Probably my worldbuilding favorite of the year.

Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son by Tom Crosshill, a Latvian-American man who is also an immigrant (Lightspeed, Nebula shortlisted)
- read the story (it also includes a popup for the audiobook), read my review
Good solid science fiction in a tradition I’ve been missing from Western SF.

Pataki by Nisi Shawl, an African-American bisexual woman (Strange Horizons)
- read the story, read my review
Urban fantasy with realistic African-diaspora magic. I should’ve probably read more of the Strange Horizons stories last year.

Trickster by Mari Ness, an American woman (Clarkesworld)
- read the story, listen to the audiobook, read my review
A science fantasy adventure with a disabled protagonist who does not get magically cured. Thank you.

Tloque Nahuaque by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, a Mexican woman (Future Lovecraft) Translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- read the story, read my review
A short Lovecraftian fantasy story with better physics than what’s seen in some of the award-nominated stories.

Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove, an American Jewish man (Tor.com)
- read the story, read my review
My favorite novella of the year, I’m very surprised it wasn’t shortlisted anywhere. It does something very interesting with shtetl-kitsch tropes.

Swallowing Ghosts by Cat Rambo, an American woman (Daily Science Fiction)
- read the story, read my review
Cat Rambo had a lot of published fiction this year, but my favorite is probably this cute and whimsical flash piece.

Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee, a Korean-American woman (Clarkesworld)
- read the story, listen to the audiobook, read my review
The best fantasy story of the year as far as I’m concerned. It also brings back the feel, if not the structure, of classic text adventures.

The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu, a Chinese-American man (Panverse 3, Hugo and Nebula shortlisted)
- read the story, read my review
This is a long SF novella with very graphic content, so you’ve been warned.

At Livia’s Bar by Pierre Mejlak, a Maltese man (Words Without Borders) Translated by Antoine Cassar
- read the story, read my review
A charming short-short to relax after The Man Who Ended History.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu, a Chinese-American man (F&SF, Hugo and Nebula shortlisted)
- read the story, read my review
I decided to start and end my virtual anthology with Ken Liu, because he really dominated this year. This story, which was also shortlisted all over, is a beautiful urban-fantasy take on immigration.

Extra audiobook bonus:

To Follow the Waves by Amal El-Mohtar (Steam-Powered I)
- listen to the audiobook, my review
The text of the story is unfortunately not available free of charge, which is why I didn’t put it into the anthology. It’s a gorgeous lesbian steampunk romance set in Damascus.

Honorable mentions (links point to my reviews, which point to further free downloads):

* Sauerkraut Station by Ferrett Steinmetz, an American man (GigaNotoSaurus, Nebula shortlisted)
* Dancing the Warrior by Marie Brennan, an American woman (Beneath Ceaseless Skies)
* Frozen Voice by An Owomoyela, an American neutrois person of color (Clarkesworld) – audiobook also available
* Ghostweight by Yoon Ha Lee, a Korean-American woman (Clarkesworld) – audiobook also available

Note: I’ve not included any stories from Expanded Horizons because of the obvious conflict of interest (I help run the site), but we’ve had a lot of great stuff last year too; I think the April issue was my favorite.

I’m sorry I’m behind on posting – Pesach did not do much good for my stomach (I’ll spare you the grisly details) and now I barely have enough time to post before the last two days start and I won’t be able to use electricity.

Here is one of the stories still missing from my Hugo reviews. I’ve also read The Copenhagen Interpretation, and I take back my remark about the 90s – that one is straight from the 60s. I’ll try to review it right after the holiday, and I’ve also been working on getting a surprise ready – a big, huge surprise! I’ve promised it a long time ago (you’ve probably forgotten about it by now…) but I decided this would be the ideal time to finish it – the Hugo shortlist was so disappointing, and now I want to show you there is more to current SF than that.

As for today’s story…

Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue by John Scalzi (an American man)

from Tor.com Originals, Apr 2011

The beginning section reads like the entire plot of Skyrim, which is especially amusing given that this is a fantasy parody story, and it predates Skyrim by half a year. That’s a win!

Unfortunately, Shadow War is also very haphazardly assembled. Sure, maybe that was the point. But not much effort went into it, and it shows. I found myself thinking the very same story by a less well-known author would probably not have seen the light of day, let alone be published at Tor.com.

People have done this over and over. Anyone who’s read their share can write a fantasy spoof, and as far as spoofs go, I’ve read a lot better ones than Shadow War. It’s not bad – I’ve cracked a grin or two – but it’s not great either. The April-Fools conceit that this was supposed to be a chapter from his upcoming novel was probably half the fun. A more tightly focused parody rather than “this is a general parody of classic fantasy” would’ve probably worked better.

BTW he has written fantasy before – The God Engines is a science-fantasy novella. (I read it – it had a lot of promise, but it did not deliver on all counts. I was OK with this because I got the book from a book swap, but I would’ve been angry if I had to spend money on it!)

We’re interrupting the regular updates with an announcement -

Brit Mandelo just reviewed Stone Telling 7 at Tor.com and had some very favorable things to say about my poem:

And, while I found all of these works rewarding and stunning in different ways, there were a few poems that stood out to me and stuck in my head for a long while [...] “The Handcrafted Motions of Flight,” by Bogi Takács, is a genderqueer poem with alternate pronouns, a fascinating resistance to government from the inside, and the strongest speculative grounding of the lot, for me. The central figure of the poem sees forward to past lives, including one in particular, where the life in question is lived by a neutrois incarnation of themselves, saying: “I had to assemble everything from pieces/and I could not chance upon a gender/until I realized that was a gender in itself.”

Yay!

I have to say I did not dare to read the review at first – Rose Lemberg had to email me to tell me it was positive. (Thank you!) I thought it would say something like “it was a great issue, but a few poems were out of place / not up to the usual high standard / etc.” – a negative highlight of sorts. I’ve read the issue, I think it was awesome, and I would not in a million years have thought of anyone deciding to highlight my poem in a positive way, in such a strong issue. I still have a hard time believing it happened.

I’ve just worked myself into the ground with Pesach cleaning coinciding with several work-related deadlines, I feel really exhausted and not particularly enthused about writing anything, so this has come at the best possible time.

The poem actually owes a lot to Rose Lemberg’s and Shweta Narayan’s editorial suggestions – the first version was much shorter because I simply did not have confidence that anyone would ever want to read a longer poem by me.

So now I’m feeling much more enthusiastic about writing poetry, and writing poetry in English…