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.

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 we have two stories by women authors. I’m trying to come up with a schedule… I’ve just read something I loved, recommended by a reader (review coming soon IY”H), so keep those recommendations coming! Also, feel free to recommend bad stories, especially if they have to do with underrepresented groups. I’ll review them and hopefully that’ll help others avoid Teh Suffarz

Nebula nominations are closing in two weeks! There’s still time for the Hugos though… and I also need to decide what to nominate for the Carl Brandon awards. I have a metric TON of short stories I’d love to nominate, but seeing as these awards usually go to longer-form works, that might be a waste of time. Still, I’ve read several good novelettes and novellas that would be a good fit; I just need to make up my mind. Carl Brandon nominations are open to everyone, so head over:

The Carl Brandon Parallax Award is for an outstanding speculative fiction work by a self-identified writer of color. The Carl Brandon Kindred Award is for an oustanding speculative fiction work dealing with race and ethnicity. You may nominate the same work for both awards.

After the short intermission, back to today’s stories:

This Strange Way of Dying by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a Mexican-Canadian woman)

from GigaNotoSaurus – audio version available on Podcastle

This story was published in GigaNotoSaurus, a magazine specializing in novelettes, but it’s not actually a novelette (the word count is around 5400) – just mentioning this in case you want to nominate it for awards. Despite the length, it is a quick read, as Moreno-Garcia’s other stories: she writes lean prose that simply flies by. Let’s see what this one offers!

A girl makes a pact with Death, over the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution. The fascinating setting saves the story from being a boring rehash of the old theme.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia also writes straight-up fantasy, but to be honest I appreciate it more when she sets her stories a bit closer to home – especially since she does not tend to overexoticize anything. I’ve wondered if some magazines pressured “ethnic” writers in that direction, or maybe that’s just the kind of style that tends to resonate with the (white, American) editors. Anyway, Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a good counterexample: her stories are not loaded down with extraneous detail, but they are still pronouncedly local. More please!

The Sighted Watchmaker by Vylar Kaftan (an American woman)

from Lightspeed (Dec 2011)

An “alien observer” story, with a twist. I think I dislike this “with a twist” template more and more with each passing day: in a story building on ages-old tropes, where said tropes are changed in one specific way, the reader (ME!) still has to wade through too much of the same old same old in order to get to the heart of the matter.

Still, the change was interesting (it made me feel the author would see some opposition from both sides of the creationism debate) and the writing was touching. I also liked the sweeping perspective. I wouldn’t choose this story as one of the year’s best – like Rich Horton did -, but it was decent enough.

Today we have two stories from venues I haven’t discussed yet – the Boston Review (!) and Fantasy (which recently merged with Lightspeed).

Thirty Seconds from Now by John Chu (a Chinese-American man)

from the Boston Review (Sep/Oct 2011)

This is a surprisingly well-written story about a gay relationship featuring a precognitive protagonist. (I was surprised primarily because this was the author’s first publication and it did not even appear in a genre magazine -  literary authors who casually try genre writing often end up producing really derivative content.) I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on John Chu from now on!

There’s something I really disliked in this story, though. Precognition is not portrayed similarly to the way people report precognitive experiences in real life; it’s more dramatic and SFnal. That alone would not be a problem, but I have issues with the way it’s presented.

My friend Dash has an excellent post on precognition in SF, you should read it; it’s a lot longer than this review, with plenty of food for thought. Precognitive characters in SF never having a stable romantic relationship is explicitly called out.

The author – a gay man? – successfully avoids the bad gay tropes, but still hits many of the bad precognition tropes. (Whether precognition is “real” is completely irrelevant here – what matters is that many people have experiences they interpret as precognitive, and that should be considered.)

At least the story is told from Scott’s, the precognitive person’s point of view, and as his partner Tony (spoiler!) first belittles, then rejects his experiences, Tony comes across as a jerk. This still begs the question why Scott, knowing everything in advance, still opts to enter the relationship. A bad relationship is better than none at all? I don’t buy that.

I strongly dislike the formatting on the magazine’s website, but I shouldn’t blame the author for that If you try to export the text, be sure to remove the out-of-place quotes. The printable version doesn’t have them, but still has, of all things, the comment form. *grumble!*

Choose Your Adventure by Kat Howard (an American woman)

from the April 2011 issue of Fantasy Magazine

I came across this story in a year’s best list, but it was somewhat of a disappointment. At least it’s short – barely over flash length.

It’s structured as a kind of faux Choose Your Adventure book, but it’s meant to be read in a linear fashion. That’s an interesting innovation – if I can call it an innovation rather than a setback!

I felt like the author was trying to “tame” the medium of interactive fiction to make it palatable to the mainstream. I hazard a guess that most people familiar with interactive storytelling will find the story boring and derivative in comparison to what’s available out there, not in pro venues like Fantasy, but out there regardless.

For everyone else, allow me to recommend the Interactive Fiction Database instead. And a bit of shameless self-promotion: I have also written introductions to interactive fiction both in English and in Hungarian.

Also, while we’re at the 2012 Hugos, Yoon Ha Lee’s Conservation of Shadows is a much better story based on similar themes (second-person narrative, linear fiction inspired by nonlinear fiction). It’s one of my candidates for nomination so far.

Longer stuff for the weekend – here’s a novelette by a writer team!

A Militant Peace by David Klecha (an American man) and Tobias S. Buckell (a Grenadan-American man)

from the November 2011 issue of Clarkesworld

This is straight-up military SF and an interesting take on overwhelming force. Alas, my suspension of disbelief was really strained several times – not a good sign when it comes to supposedly realistic near-future SF!

First, I’ve found the general political scenario unbelievable (this is not really a spoiler, it’s how the story starts): Vietnamese UN troops invade North Korea “peacefully” by creating unassailable “alternative settlement zones” where civilians can flee.

Let’s say that again: the UN invades North Korea. Sure, and pigs fly. (If you kick them hard enough…) And this process is expected to last a decade? With no one else interfering?

Second, armies expecting to be literally invincible because of the huge technological disparity are sometimes in for a surprise. To offer an example that’s geographically close, the Serbians shot down an American F-117 stealth plane in the Kosovo war (1999) using Soviet technology from the 1960s. (The Serbian commander was an ethnic minority Hungarian; his Wikipedia page is quite detailed and describes the incident in detail.)

Also, the story seems to assume that North Korea stagnates; if other armies were to develop such amazing defenses, North Koreans might also be able to acquire them – espionage, proliferation, etc. the options are endless! After all, they apparently have nuclear weapons…

One of the story’s points is (spoiler!) that psychological vulnerability is also a form of vulnerability, so at least it’s not an “our army is perfect” tale, but it edges close – if the characters were American instead of Vietnamese, the novelette would read as straight-up propaganda for the American right wing. (And I like military SF, I’m not one of those people who are bothered by fictional depictions of armed conflict.) At least the story raises the very real issue of the UN troops not having a mandate strong enough to prevent atrocities.

Semi-related link I’ve been meaning to show you for a while now: Planeman’s Bluffer’s Guides. They include a detailed treatment of both Pyongyang’s and Hanoi’s anti-aircraft defenses based on Google Earth data. Unfortunately his blog seems to be down… (gee, I wonder why؟)

Today we have two stories about religion! Errrr… Scientology and the Flying Spaghetti Monster qualify, right?

The Hubbard Continuum by Lavie Tidhar (an Israeli Jewish man)

from Redstone Science Fiction, March 2011

L. Ron Hubbard was right and the future is a Scientologist nightmare with with Clears, Pre-Clears, implant stations and such. The plot is a short, fun romp with time travel and “psychic Thetan death-rays”; maybe a bit too self-referential for my tastes, though it’s by no means as bad as the usual ‘writing about writers who are writing’. I can’t help feeling Scientology ought to be more… paranoia-inducing.

I’m getting tired of repeating “this story was inspired by X, this story was inspired by Y”, but what can I do? Surely there is nothing new under the sun, but to see so many stories which are direct homages or rewrites is disappointing, even when they turn out to be decent work after all. I didn’t expect this! With that being said, this story was apparently inspired by William Gibson’s The Gernsback Continuum, except here the future is not Gernsbackian, but Hubbardian. Apparently, because the debt is not acknowledged by the author (compare Liu’s novella in my previous post), though the title makes it obvious. Still, I couldn’t find a single review online which noticed the link. This probably explains why the story is better-received than it ought to be: it seems more original than it actually is.

Grace Immaculate by Gregory Benford (an American man)

from Tor.com Originals, Oct 19 2011

A flash story about first contact with aliens and religion, with a twist. I’m bored with SF where the aliens learn something from the humans which Would Never Have Occurred To Them Otherwise – that’s so anthropocentric. But at least here (spoiler!) the aliens get the last laugh.

This one is mostly for completionists – while we’re at it: do send me links to religion-related SF, gotta catch ‘em all! – or those who really just want a mildly amusing story to go with their morning coffee.

Today we have two stories about human-alien interaction! To be honest I prefer the term “extraterrestrial”, it’s less value-laden… but that’s probably only me.

Join by Liz Coleman (an American woman) – I don’t have a link for her personal website

from the September 2011 issue of Lightspeed

A story about a human man who becomes a surrogate father to an alien joined to his body – for the time being, at least. A topic I personally find fascinating, and the characterization of the protagonist is decent.

I’m surprised SFnal body modification usually does not relate to the real-life body modification subculture in any shape or form, it’s like the authors do not even know (or have trouble contemplating?) that such a thing exists. This story is an exception! Unfortunately that alone does not really carry it through to the conclusion.

The protagonist visits his family on Earth and a strained coming-out scene ensues. It made me groan – the whole story looks like an extended metaphor for gay adoption even if that was not the author’s intent. It really comes across as  “look, I’m writing a story about a current issue, JUST IN SPAAACE“. Aliens are used as stand-ins for minority groups all too often and this is a trend I strongly dislike. If people want to write about minority groups, they should write about minority groups. If people want to write about aliens, they should write about aliens. Mixing the two has very unfortunate implications even if, I repeat, that was not the author’s original intent.

Also, I think the mother’s reaction was completely unrealistic (spoiler cut): the mother goes from “I’d never seen her like this. She looked like a wilted flower, her hand draped limply over her knee, her big onyx ring dangling from her grasp. She looked at me with empty eyes.” to “But she slowly smiled as she looked at the photo, and then at Ngoraich’s battered casing, and asked: “What’s her name?”” People don’t change that much in the course of a single conversation. I guess the author wanted a happy ending, but this is a huge oversimplification of coming out (related to any topic), and thus potentially harmful to people who’ve had to go through a coming-out talk themselves.

One more spoilery note: I’m not saying coming-out stories should always have bad endings, G-d forbid! But if the author wanted to end the story on a positive note, she shouldn’t have set up the story this way, with people starting off from an extremely negative position.

Making My Entrance Again with My Usual Flair by Ken Scholes (an American man)

from Tor.com Originals (Jan 12 2011)

This is a lighthearted story about a clown and a monkey… There are a few moments of brilliance here and there, but by and large the story is not very deep. Terry Bisson has proven that one can write humorous stories which are also very profound, and that really influences my expectations. If something is not very deep, it should at least be unique and memorable, and this story is neither.

It’s an okay read, but definitely not award-winning material. I find it hard enough to say much about it, but fortunately I ranted all too long about the first story, so there’s enough for you to read

All That Touches the Air by An Owomoyela (an American asexual neutrois person of color)

from the April 2011 issue of Lightspeed

A lengthy alien-contact story with great characterization. Very few stories try to tackle the fundamental claustrophobia inherent in living in an alien environment (Bios by Robert Charles Wilson comes to mind, and… not much else) and this one does a great job. It’s great to see that not everyone reacts the same way, and some people might take precautions a bit too far, just like in real life.

There is also an annoying little know-it-all in there, a character type seldom seen in SF probably because it uncomfortably reminds most authors of their childhood selves.

It’s hard to say whether this story is better than Frozen Voice, the author’s previous work I reviewed… I enjoyed this one more on an intellectual level, but Frozen Voice had more striking imagery that stayed with me over time. (I am a very visual sort of person, you can bribe me with spiffy pictures ) Anyway, both stories are well worth the read!

As before, read the author interview – it gives a really new perspective on the story. (And yes, there’s a bit about childhood selves in there…)

The Rotten Beast by Mary E. Pearson (an American woman)

from Tor.com Originals (Nov 30 2011)

What a simplistic tale. I kept on waiting for a faint glimmer of originality – or perhaps a masterful twist that will subvert all the bad tropes in the story at the same time – but no, nothing.

Of course maybe we’re all just dealing with an unreliable narrator – after all, she is an emotional teenager who comes across as the straw-man who people like to attack when talking about religious fundamentalists. (No, actual religious fundamentalists are not necessarily like that, but this is an unrelated tangent best saved for some other time.) There is no mention of religion in the story though, there are only lengthy anti-technology and anti-science rants that are about as profound as those conspiracy theories about Satan’s barcode printed on your forehead.

The technology is laughable: “I press my hand to my chest and try to feel the biochips clicking away inside”, “Being controlled by all the computer chips stuffed into his Biogel?”. I understand this is a YA story, but young adults are not stupid for the most part; they should not be treated as such.

Unfortunately there is not a shred of evidence in the story itself that the narrator is unreliable. Moreover, the story is a straight-up retelling of Eve and the apple, except… with a peach. I’m serious. A peach.

I’d say this one is a lemon.

(:O Couldn’t resist…)

I’m no longer doing these reviews magazine by magazine and in chronological order. I read a lot of stuff which I haven’t reviewed yet that I’ve found really meh, and I want to spice up the mehness a bit. Some magazines are quite consistently boring. (At least Clarkesworld tends to be interesting even when I dislike the stories in question.) Maybe I’ll post about that later on…

Spoiler cuts are the same as usual.

Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow by Corey Mariani (an American man)

from the Jan 2011 issue of Lightspeed

This is the author’s first publication (congrats!) and despite that he writes with a firm, self-assured voice. Alas, I’ve found the worldbuilding sorely lacking: if it is possible to change people’s sexual orientation in this hypothetical future, why is it not possible to change their social predilections? Why do the adults turn several children into killers instead of simply making the opposite change to their victim? Even the protagonist asks “It seems to me that they could have lit that house on fire just as easily as we did. They didn’t have to show us all of those awful things.” So why did they do that? Are the adults just evil for no particular reason, or am I missing something? I expected more after the fascinating start.

Transcript of Interaction Between Astronaut Mike Scudderman and the OnStar Hands-Free A.I. Crash Advisor by Grady Hendrix (an American man)

from the June 2011 issue of Lightspeed

A short, humorous story about a crash landing and… wait, there’s no sense in summarizing when all that is included in the story title anyway.

I suppose I would’ve found it funnier if I had hands-on experience with real-life OnStar systems; it’s not very amusing to read about an unfamiliar thing being parodied. Unfortunately this limits the story readership to regions where OnStar is available…

Further still, the story is eerily similar to Mars: A Traveler’s Guide by Ruth Nestvold (also available as an audiobook in podcast form). The Nestvold story has a different angle, though; much more melancholy. Also, AI chatlogs in general have been done to death in SF – I’ve even seen the topic on magazine “do not submit” lists.

The “sensual lovemaking” parts were amusing, but that’s about the only positive thing I can say about this story.

Endnote: Grady Hendrix often writes about Asian topics, but he is not actually Asian, hence this post is not tagged with Asian writers.

After a successful subscription drive, Clarkesworld is switching to three stories per month starting with this issue. So let’s see what we have…

I’m going to say right away that I’m not a fan of stories published in parts spaced out with a month between them. Sure, this way there is more material per issue, there is also more longer-form fiction available for free, but I strongly dislike having to wait for the next instalment – it makes me think I’m back in the days of old Galaktika issues printed on yellowing and brittle paper, as opposed to the bright and glamorous twenty-first century. Then again, I’m the sort of person who watches entire seasons of a TV series in a week, and then goes for months not watching any television at all. Coming to think of it, I should be doing that again, it’s been a while… anyway, let’s get back to the issue.

Clarkesworld, Issue 61 – October 2011

Staying Behind by Ken Liu (a Chinese-American man)

A post-Raptu– errr, I mean post-Singularity story, very realistic, very down-to-earth. I liked it, but I liked Ken Liu’s previous story in Clarkesworld this year much better. There’s not much to say about it, there are some fascinating ambiguities in there, but I’d rather not venture into spoiler territory, especially when the story itself is quite short (as in this case).

For Dash – there is a very minor mention of technological telepathy.

Pony by Erik Amundsen (an American man)

Ponies are back in fashion – I blame My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This time we have gritty postcyberpunk space pony wranglers. Not bad, eh? The story is charming and aggressive at the same time. Well, maybe not exactly charming, but quite good nonetheless.

There is a strong narrative voice, the kind that would be annoying were the story much longer, but at this length it works quite well. I could almost hear the gruffy macho protagonist grumbling in my ears while reading.

Also, a highly quotable line: “in space, you can’t not telegraph the evil you’re about to commit.” There are other similar nuggets interspersed throughout the story, but you’ll have to read it to find them.

Silently and Very Fast (Part 1 of 3) by Catherynne M. Valente (an American woman)

Another mention of Sumerian mythology in Clarkesworld (see the previous one). I don’t want to go all prescriptivist, and there’s no One True Way of spelling Sumerian, but the spelling of Ereshkigal as Erishkegal really annoyed me – it’s one of those little persistent nags I can’t get rid of while reading. Fortunately, the story soon veered off and took a different path altogether.

I know Valente has a very vocal fanbase (which includes some of my friends), but her style never clicked with me. “She has chosen her body at age seven, all black eyes and sparrowy bones.” Is that supposed to be poetic, or is she literally covered in black eyes?

Still, here the purple has been dialed down a few notches and the story is actually readable, though not particularly engaging. I found myself growing sleepy and I was increasingly inclined to skim. Japan also makes an appearance as an Ooh So Exotic Backdrop (and Look, They Are Eating Exotic Food!). I’m thoroughly uninterested in the sequels, and if not for this series of reviews, I would probably skip them altogether.

On the upside, there is a good point made about the Turing test and privilege. It’s just lost in the flowery prose.