First of all, I’ve made a reviews queue page you can look at – feel free to comment if you need a specific story to be reviewed. The list is not linked from the frontpage yet, because I haven’t figured out where to put it…

A big thank-you to Amal El-Mohtar and Rose Lemberg who sent me novelette and novella recommendations in response to yesterday’s anxious ramble! I’ve also managed to dig up 4 more novellas I haven’t read, two from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, one from Tor.com and one from some kind of book published by… Intel?! I’ve already read one of the BCS ones and it was nice.

Then, the links:

* Help Rose Lemberg get to Wiscon – fundraiser! I think she’s done a lot for the entire SF field, and she’s helped my reviews project too and has been very helpful to me in general. So you should go forth and donate to get her to Wiscon! She doesn’t need a very huge sum. There is also an auction of small artbooks about shapechangers (yay shapechangers!) where you can get her to make a block print of a chosen animal for you.

* Two science publishers delve into science fiction – looks cool and I’m happy to see more hard-SF-focused venues

* List of queer-friendly fiction markets – incomplete and slightly outdated, but at least it exists (it should be publicly editable, but I couldn’t log in with OpenID – does it work for anyone else?)

* Heavily anticipated indie game Fez finally has a release date – May 2 on XBLA.

* A post about the psychological consequences of American Indian mascots, from the great blog Native Appropriations (be sure to read both Parts 1 and 2!)

* The Future is Japanese! – Haikasoru anthology coming up! I’ve already preordered it…

 * Two “Sh*t people say” videos you shouldn’t miss: S#!T Ignorant People Say To Autistics and Sh*t People Say to Asexuals. “Have you had your hormones checked?!”

* Assassin’s Creed 3 promo image leak: the game will apparently be set in America and feature an American Indian protagonist. Well um? I’m not sure this is going to end well? (Please Hashem let me be proven wrong this time!!)

* This is old, old news, but I somehow missed out on this anthology when it came out: Glorifying Terrorism. “The purpose of the stories and poems in this book is to glorify terrorism.” It’s a free-speech exercise and political protest, with a great list of contributors.

* Innsmouth Free Press has a fundraiser! They are a small Lovecraftian magazine, but they’ve published many international writers, authors of color, etc. The current issue also has a story set in an observatory on the Slovakian-Czech border, by a British author who lives in the Czech Republic. I’ll have to remind myself not to forget reviewing this issue once I get to the 2012 stories. (After the Hugos close for nominations, I think…)

* I was very surprised to see Flash Fiction Online (a SFWA-qualifying market) include the following in their guidelines:

There are things that we’ll consider, but that are a hard sell for us. These include: Second-person point-of-view (does the story really need that perspective?), queer fiction (in particular, stories which would be obvious or trite if the characters had been straight), polemical fiction (we prefer stories with messages in them over messages told as stories). That said, we won’t rule out any of these, so the worst case is that we say “no”.

Emphasis my own. They have a quite short list of do not wants, but somehow queer fiction is on it. I see some of the Expanded Horizons slush, and I can say that there is very little in it which I would characterize as “stories which would be obvious or trite if the characters had been straight” (what does that even mean?), even though Expanded Horizons explicitly solicits for queer fiction. So is that really such a huge problem that it has to be specifically mentioned in Flash Fiction Online‘s rather brief guidelines, or is it just prejudice at work?

Edited to add: it’s the latter, see the comments for discussion (thank you Rose!).

* Against the Wall, an interesting-looking indie game that reminds me of K. W. Jeter’s Farewell Horizontal. There is a playable alpha version on the website (I haven’t tried it yet)

* And one for the lolwut – Vermin Supreme, Democratic candidate participating in the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum:

In today’s instalment: a good story about magic/psi/etc. and a bad one! (This post was scheduled before the Nebula shortlist was released; I’ll review the missing stories from the shortlist soon IY”H.)

Pataki – part 1, part 2 – by Nisi Shawl (an African-American woman)

from Strange Horizons (April 2011)

This story appeared as a two-parter, but it’s not particularly long and does not reach the word count for a novelette, unless I really miscounted something.

The protagonist is an African-American magical practitioner in the Yoruba tradition, and the story is quite realistic (as far as I can tell), to the point that it is possible to read it as non-speculative. It’s well-told and would not be out of place in a general literary magazine either.

I think the story also describes the slightly ad hoc and unexpected nature of magic very well – maybe some people would see this as a weakness (‘of all things, why did that happen?’), but I think this is actually a strength and something I seldom see in SF, with its ‘recipes for plots that work’ and all.

I’m slightly concerned that Pataki won’t find its way to appreciative readers, especially since Strange Horizons has been publishing a relatively small amount of fiction lately. I can only speak for myself, but I also find the concept of a two-parter annoying, and I often skip such stories altogether at the time the first part is released, then I forget to go back to them later.

Please don’t skip this story, you’ll only berate yourself for it later, like I did!

(completely unrelated: in Hungarian, Pataki is a common surname meaning ‘of the brook’. The story has absolutely nothing to do with Hungary, but I guess many of my readers would wonder about that, so I’m preempting the question.)

Defenders by Will McIntosh (an American man)

from the August 2011 issue of Lightspeed

This is an alien-invasion story where the sentient robots built to defend against the invaders have run amok. An interesting idea, and the author also discusses post-traumatic stress and things that most “whee alien shooter” type stories would not even touch with a ten-foot pole (but which would inevitably impact the lives of characters, were the story to transpire in the real world).

The defender robots are also genuinely scary, with their violent outbursts that seem unpredictable at first but make eerie sense when one contemplates the setting. So far so good, huh?

Unfortunately, the aliens are just a mashup of bad telepathy tropes played straight. OMG telepathic aliens invading people’s minds! Teh Scary! The author tries to counterpoint this by (huge spoilers:) having the actual aliens be kind of cute, but it all breaks down when one begins to consider their motives. They hate killing – as a telepathic life form they are non-aggressive (again a trope) – and they invaded Earth only because they did not have anywhere else to go. They did not even try to negotiate for some sort of solution involving peaceful immigration, because humans obviously hate telepathic beings so much that they would never allow them to immigrate, and the aliens knew this in advance.

Excuse me but WHAT?!?! First, negotiation is often the favorable option even when one side already knows the other will refuse, because if the other refuses, the side that offered to negotiate has the moral high ground. Second, the author’s underlying assumption is blatantly false. I know majority Americans are often very opposed to the concept of psi, magic, etc. on purely emotional grounds (= OMG SCARY, invasion of privacy, and so on). But this does not mean that people from other countries, or even minority Americans feel the same way. For example, about 70% of Hungarian university students report they have had a precognitive experience. Or to bring an example from a developed country, again about 70% of Icelanders believe in the existence of precognitive dreams. The above story by Nisi Shawl, who is African-American,  also features a non-othered, positive depiction of magic.

Also, why would a sentient being be an it? If you really can’t guess an alien’s gender, you can always use singular they, Spivak pronouns or something similar.

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!

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 don’t want to nominate flash stories for awards, and it seems pointless to review such short works at length, but I do want to list them and tag them appropriately… hopefully it’ll help others find them! All of these stories are eligible for the Hugos and are under 1000 words – or, in some cases, just barely over 1000 words; I decided to include stories just over the limit, because my word counts might not be perfect.

I’ll also have a separate battle for these stories, I think people like that feature.

Note: I always keep the original capitalization in titles – I haven’t mentioned this before, but the magazines in this entry use different capitalization schemes, and it all looks a bit messy.

Orkish Cornbread by Ranko Trifković (a Serbian man)

from Words without Borders, Dec 2011. Translated by the author

A fun idea, but the translation could’ve used some editing.

The Death Collector by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (a Mexican-Canadian woman)

from AEscifi.ca, Feb 2011

Great, atmospheric, deadly. Similar to her previously reviewed story, except even better. Highly recommended.

The Universe reef by Tobias Buckell (a Grenadan-American man)

from Nature Futures, May 2011

An interesting setting, but little story. This would’ve better served as a backdrop for a lengthier work. (Great point about islands though!)

Futures by Cat Rambo (an American woman)

from The Dream People, 2011

Poetic; not very unique, but well told. Also very short – even for flash.

Every girl dreams of falling in love by Shelly Li (a Chinese-American woman)

from Nature Futures, Sep 2011

This is basically the Super Soldier trope, with Super Soldier Guy further othered by having the POV character be a different person.

Love and Anarchy and Science Fiction by Angela Ambroz (an Italian-Slovenian woman)

from Redstone Science Fiction (June 2011)

This story hasn’t gotten enough attention if you ask me. Ambroz writes with flair – she has an eye both for small details and for the epic, which is exactly what you want when it comes to a sweeping space-opera yarn like this one.

I see the author in the characters – Angela Ambroz travelled far and wide and lived in many places, from Fiji to the UK, and she’s also Italian like the protagonist’s love interest. I don’t know if she ever tried to topple any empires in the process I also wonder about her connection to Tibet – this is her second story I came across that had Tibetan characters (the other being Shahrukh and the Tibetans, set in the same universe as far as I can tell).

I loved how the protagonist was masculine (as befits a bodyguard), but female. We could certainly see more of that in SF; even space-marine stuff often tends to shy away from explicitly masculine women.

There’s something that bugs me, though – I don’t like it when people are being lectured on their own history. Plus (spoiler!) I’m somewhat tired of “romance across lines of privilege” stories, and they raise many issues, but this story whizzed by so fast I only noticed this upon reflection.

I also wonder what Indian people think of Hindustan being painted as a future imperialistic superpower! (If this happened with one of my ethnicities, I think I’d both be flattered in a twisted sense and kind of apprehensive, as in, do you really have to…? :O )

Bonus: the World SF Blog just had a link to an article on Italian SF earlier today. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but it doesn’t seem to mention a single Italian writer who writes in English… well, Angela Ambroz is one!

In Which Faster-Than-Light Travel Solves All of Our Problems by Chris Stabback (an Australian man)

from Clarkesworld (Dec 2011)

Another of those ‘style is substance’ stories like this one. I think it was Samuel Delany who once wrote that one should only write in first person if the narrator’s voice is important and unique… Stabback certainly delivers on that count, and his ‘I am a spacefaring recluse’ narrator does have a strong voice, but that does not necessarily mean it is enjoyable.

The plot is just a bunch of clichés thrown together, so the story either makes an impact based on style, or does not make an impact at all. It seems to be quite controversial with readers on the Clarkesworld website, some people love it, while others are puzzled at the adulation.

I think it remains to be seen whether the author can write something different and equally distinctive (in which case everyone should pay close attention) or whether this is him speaking instead of his protagonist. His website vaguely suggests the latter, but there’s so little text on it it’s hard to say!

Today’s stories are both about… apples! In a roundabout way, at least… You know you are tempted to read on!

Black Fire by Tanith Lee (a British woman)

from the January 2011 issue of Lightspeed

This has to be the first British work I’m reviewing unless I’ve managed to miss something. It is a retelling of the Adam and Eve story – I do love me some Bible fanfic, but Black Fire just isn’t strong enough.

The narrative is composed of police interviews with ordinary citizens. With this type of structure, a lot hinges on the voices being convincing. Here, the citizens sound realistic, but also slightly boring.

Special groanworthy quote: “My last thought is, I confess, is this really then what is meant by Science Fiction?“

iTime by Ferrett Steinmetz (an American man)

from the September 2011 issue of Redstone Science Fiction

A highly readable time travel story with two shortcomings. First, one of the characters is such a stereotyped vacuous bimbo that I found the first half of the story hard to read, I kept on cringing. Sure, the protagonist is a hacker girl, but as the story is based around their interactions,  the difference between these two women only emphasizes that the author tried to build on lazy stereotypes. The complete opposite of a caricature is also a caricature.

The second shortcoming is worldbuilding-related: there is zero social context. Minor characters are completely oblivious to the time-travel technology, even though a resale market has sprung up already: “Daddy paid four hundred thousand on eBay for an unbonded four-hour model,” she said, puffing out her chest. Still, no one understands that Miss Vacuous Bimbo is using a time-travel gizmo!

Also, the device must have a really horrendous user interface if  (spoiler!) Bimbo manages to use it without ever being exposed to any warnings. Even my Nintendo Wii keeps on telling me to please wear the controller strap, and that’s really minor in comparison. As the name strongly hints at the fictional gizmo being produced by Apple, a company whose strong suit is providing a smooth user experience, this is even more puzzling.

It’s a shame – the temptation aspect is very well-executed, and I liked  that different characters experienced similar temptation for different reasons. There is also a “learning social interactions” theme to the story that will probably resonate with many readers.