Friday, January 4, 2013

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.


Thursday, January 3, 2013

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?

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

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.