Lightspeed Magazine, January 2013

My overall impression of this issue was a lot of good ideas that didn't quite turn into stories for me. I like stories with interesting ideas but I like them to affect me emotionally as well. I want to care about the characters. I like the plot and the themes to echo one another. I just wanted more, so on completing reading this issue, I felt a bit flat.

The Fear Gun by Judith Berman
Novella (Ebook Exclusive)

" 'Order,' she said, 'is not the same as civilisation. Order is about the strong controlling the weak. Civilisation is about protecting the weaker from the stronger, about us all living together in empathy, cultivating the connections between us--' ".

Aliens have landed, human civilisation splintered but we won in the end and now those who are left are trying to put life back together. In a small American town close to the site of a downed alien ship, different approaches to life after the alien invasion clash when the military roll in.

For some reason, this story reminded me of the TV series Jericho - I suppose because it is set in post-apocalyptic setting, but also because how it pokes into the lives and perspectives of different characters who all have conflicting ends, but are all sympathetic. The story is well-structured and the mechanism of how the story is told - dipping into the lives of an array of characters - supports the character-building and the themes of the tale.

In this rather disappointing issue, the novella was a definite highlight.

Impulse by Steven Gould
Novel Excerpt (Ebook Exclusive)

I've only seen the movie Jumper but this extract made me wonder whether the book was in fact much better than the movie. I like this take on how someone with supernatural powers would operate in our actual world. I think I may track this book down.

The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics by Daniel Abraham
Short Story: Fantasy

This was another highlight of this issue. As a student of economics, I was tickled by the series of conundrums faced by the Cambist. Due to its fairy tale structure, the story is told in a rather 'light' style and yet you feel deeply for the characters and some of the questions raised by the story are profound. The fairy tale feel, the characters, the themes and the plot all complement each other perfectly.

With Tales in Their Teeth, From the Mountain They Came by AC Wise
Short Story: Fantasy

This is where my disappointment with this issue started. After being unable to find closure in a relationship, a woman travels to a mysterious library to try and understand the magic of words. This story left me cold.

Daltharee by Jeffrey Ford
Short Story: Fantasy

A story of a city in a bottle in a world of shrinking rays and other such borderline-technology. I liked the style and there were some interesting ideas, but ultimately I didn't connect with the characters and found the plot itself unsatisfying.

Purity Test by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Short Story: Fantasy

I normally adore Rusch and I normally adore new takes on fairy tale or mythical themes. However, this didn't feel that original or interesting, and while I initially engaged with the protagonist and liked the structure of the tale, I ultimately didn't feel like the tale had an emotional pay-off.

The Sounds of Old Earth by Matthew Kessel
Short Story: Science Fiction

A man living in Old Earth's last days meets a group of teenagers that set him reminiscing about his own family. I liked aspects of this and it had some interesting ideas about our respect for the past and our modern 'throw-away' culture. Of all the stories, I wasn't mad about in this issue, this probably came closest to actually pulling together its structure, themes, characters and plot for a decent pay-off, but something made it fall just short.

Addison Howell and the Clockroach by Cherie Priest
Short Story: Science Fiction

The same story told in three different ways about a recluse who invents something outside of an American town in the eighteenth century. This story struck me as an attempt to be too clever by half. Ultimately, it had no characters and no themes. The structure undermined the plot - which I think was the point - but there was absolutely nothing of substance to this story. What was the reader meant to be left with?

Lifeline by Jonathan Olfert
Short Story: Science Fiction

The nebulous hope of meeting one's 'lifeline' brings two people from opposite ends of the economic spectrum together in a futuristic world. This one also had some interesting ideas and arguments, but what the author was trying to say about how the rich treat the poor and vice-versa didn't seem to be adequately served by the characters or plot.

Child-Empress of Mars by Theodora Goss
Short Story: Science Fiction

I also normally enjoy Goss and I almost enjoyed this. I liked the familiarity of the "sword and planet" tale, a la  Burroughs, combined with the contrast of how an alien life form sees it. These aliens have utterly different priorities and different way of looking at life, and Goss still makes it accessible. However, I thought the conclusion of the tale a bit trite and ultimately, the story didn't come together for me.

Lightspeed December 2012

I did find this edition disappointing as there were quite a few pieces I disliked. However, I have generally warmed to this magazine, so long as I don't read all the author-blurbs. I did note that the subscription price has gone up, though the editor explained that this was imposed by Amazon, rather than being a decision by the magazine.

Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang (Novella - Ebook exclusive)
When aliens arrive, a translator gets roped into learning the alien's language without revealing too much about human beings. As it happens, the translator not only learns their languages - there are two - but also gains insight into an utterly 'alien' outlook on life.

I found this novella satisfying on all levels. It had a great plot, consisting of two interlinking strands. It had a clever construction that mirrored the themes of the story and it had some very interesting ideas on the relationship between free will and predestination. Absolute perfection!

Cold Days by Jim Butcher (Novel Excerpt - Ebook Exclusive)
An interesting peek into a series I'm constantly seeing about. However, the excerpt confirmed my suspicion that I would not enjoy the books.

Short Stories: Science Fiction

The Perfect Match by Ken Liu
Sai lives in a world where all the algorithms to find your "favourite" have extended into every niche of your life. This story reflects on many of the themes of our modern world - what is the value of privacy? what is the difference between a government and a corporation knowing all about you? what happens if all our preferences are catered to, and we can all concentrate in our sub-niches without ever having to encounter anything disruptive?

This story once again confirms by high opinion of Ken Liu. He extends the questions of the current world into the future and then puts people into the resulting world. Every one of his stories slightly alters the way I see our world afterwards and lingers in my memory for long after.

Swanwatch by Yoon Ha Lee
In this space opera world, upsetting the wrong powerful individual will see you exiled to the end of the world to create art significant enough to justify your release. As Dragon explains to Swan, the artists exiled to the end of the universe are not sent because of their genius, but because their release seems so unlikely. Still, Swan perseveres with her musical composition. I liked reading this. I didn't love it.

Dreams in Dust by D. Thomas Minton
Keraf is running out of water when he encounters a family that he desperately tries to recruit to his cause so they will save his life. The story is short and I didn't get its point.

Lazaro y Antonio by Marta Randall
Lazaro is not that smart and he's struggling in the Curve, the seedy part of a space port. He's trying to get by. Fortunately, whenever things seem to get really bad, this guy Antonio turns up and helps out. Why?

I adored this story. It starts in this stop-start, confusing way which makes so much sense once you're able to peer through Lazaro's befuddlement to what he's lost. It is a beautiful, gratifying story that is well worth reading.

Short Stories: Fantasy

An Accounting by Brian Evenson
A man's testimony about how he ended up as a 'Midwestern Jesus' in a dystopian United States. I liked the unreliable narrator and the story works. I didn't find it great, and I don't see why it is Fantasy, rather than Science Fiction.

Family Teeth (Part 5): American Jackal by JT Petty
Family Teeth (Part 6): St. Polycarp's Home for Happy Wanderers by Sarah Langan
A pair of stories by a husband and a wife about a pack of werecoyotes. Seeing that Lightspeed has a dark fantasy / horror sister magazine, I do not see why these appeared here. They're good, but much too dark and gory for me.

Catskin by Kelly Link
I read this before and hated it. I saw no need to wade through it again.

F&SF Nov 2012: the Short Stories

Claim Blame by Alan Dean Foster
Another installment in a series about Mad Amos Malone who assists with supernatural problems in pioneer America. This story had no suspense and no "moral". Of all the installments in this installment-heavy issue, this is probably the one that annoyed me the most.

Application by Lewis Shiner
A delightful, cautionary tale at flash-fiction length.

Breathe by Steven Popkes
A story of two brothers who have inherited an alternative form of vampirism. As one of the brothers observes, you can't really call it anything else and yet it is nothing like a traditional vampire. What I liked about this story is that the speculative aspect fitted so superbly with a tale about siblings with profoundly different outlooks on life and how their relationship with each other and their father copes with this.

The Ladies in Waiting by Albert E. Cowdrey
Another series and another set of problem-solvers. To be fair all the other series have single protagonists while this one has a couple. Still, these formulaic series with no suspense feel like a throwback to an earlier form of fiction which does not delight my sensibilities.

If the Stars Reverse Their Courses, If the Rivers Run Back from the Sea by Alter S. Reiss
In the wake of a civil war, a retired colonel seeks a way to set the past right. This story contains an interesting take on how a "multiverse" might work and how changing the past may or may not affect things. Ultimately, though, I found the tale unsatisfying.

Waiting for a Me Like You by Chris Willrich
Another take on the "multiverse" and what it might mean in which Bob voyages out to take a new assignment. Like the other "multiverse" tale, I didn't see the point of this one. It's only virtue is that it was short. Maybe they were supposed to create a juxtaposition?

F&SF Nov 2012: the Long Pieces

For my Christmas break, I saved the November edition of F&SF as well as the December edition of Lightspeed. After holding myself back from reading them, I did find them somewhat disappointing. In the case of F&SF, this was driven primarily by how many of the stories were part of an ongoing series. I do not enjoy short fiction series. Give me a novel or a stand-alone.

Katabasis by Robert Reed (Novella)

An unusual guide and an unusual tourist tackle the long trek at the heart of "the Great Ship". I did enjoy this story, though I always struggle with hard science fiction which is often so immersed in "otherness". That's one of the reasons I enjoy short fiction as I don't know if I've ever been able to read an entire hard science fiction book (scratch that as I think Ben Bova's Jupiter probably qualifies).

High Stakes by Naomi Kritzer (Novelet)

This story is part of a series on a teenager growing up on a series of ships in a libertarian experiment to escape the state. Despite being part of a series, I would recommend it as I think this story has very interesting themes shaped around an intriguing plot where the young protagonist becomes an assistant to the producer of a reality TV series set in this libertarian playground. I would prefer to read Rebecca's stories compiled into a single, seamless novel but I will take the stories in the mean-time.

In this year's F&SF's, there were two stories set in this setting as well as a stand-alone story called Scrap Dragon by Naomi Kritzer, all of which I enjoyed.

The Problem of the Elusive Cracksman by Ron Goulart (Novelet)

Another installment in the adventures of Harry Challenge, a private investigator that reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, despite being American. While this series of stories is readable, they do irritate me. There are formulaic and I would prefer if F&SF didn't waste space on them.

Heaventide by KJ Kabza (Novelet)

Daybreak-under-Clouds desperately wants to be a Traveler and explore the world, but Traveling is for males and Daybreak-under-Clouds has already been confined to the world of womanhood. This story seeks to portray a world in which gender roles and physical sex have been utterly separated - and what is interesting is that the world seems to be more confining, instead of less. While this is an interesting angle, it felt like the story was too short-lived to really explore the underlying ideas.