5 Favourite Short Stories for July

I love short stories, but I struggle to find enough time to read them. Somehow in July, I managed to get through several magazines and it was such a fantastic experience. I read:

• The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2014, guest edited by CC Finlay
• Asimov's, July 2014
• Apex Magazine 62 (July 2014)
• Lightspeed Magazine, July 2014

My favourite magazine for the quarter was the guest edited F&SF. My biggest "find" was Apex Magazine. For some reason, I always expected this magazine to border on horror and be too dark for me. This is my first time reading the magazine and I enjoyed it a lot - though the pricing does seem a bit high for the amount of material in it.

Because I haven't been reading short fiction for that long, I tend to treat original material and re-prints in the same light. Unless I've read it before, it feels 'new' to me, which I suppose is the reason editors include reprints.

For the month, my absolute 5 favourites, in ascending order were:

 5. Forlesen, by Gene Wolfe [Lightspeed Magazine]

"Day in the Life of..." This story is quite uncanny and deeply unsettling, while at the same time having some hysterically funny moments. It evokes the oppression, uncertainty and hilarity of modern office-workers incredibly acutely. It also makes one question one's life and direction, as well as raising huge questions about modern life at an aggregate level. What is even more frightening is how long ago this was written!

4. Blessed are the Hungry, by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo [Apex Magazine]

Aboard a generation ship. This story illustrates the conflict between cultural or religious values and the confines of a constrained space. There were so many things I enjoyed about this story, but what I loved most was how specific it was. This wasn't any group of people aboard a generation ship; this was a very specific group.
 

3. The Girls Who Go Below, by Cat Hellison [Magazine of F&SF]

Sibling rivalry. I suppose the fact that this was set in South Africa, written by a South African, may have pre-disposed me to like it. I did enjoy seeing an unexplored side of the South African context - outside of the country, it's hard to appreciate the complexity and insidiousness of the many different backgrounds that exist here. I also loved how deliciously dark this story was.

2. Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology, by Theodora Goss [Lightspeed Magazine]

Sibling rivalry amid conflicts on cultural identity. The story worked on so many levels. At its highest level, it questions how much culture is invented - both internally and externally. It delves into how we interact with new / familiar cultures and also questions the nature of love and personal relationships. Everything about this story is fascinating.

1. Day of the Nuptial Flight, by Sarina Dorie [Magazine of F&SF]

A Bug's Life. I cannot speak highly enough of this story. At first, I found it a little bit tricky to get into, but it absolutely paid off. Reading stories from an "alien" point-of-view sometimes irritates me as it seems to focus more on illustrating how incomprehensible such a view might be, and less on illuminating what our lives are actually about. This story is just so insightful, delightful and moving. I would highly recommend it to anyone.


 

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.

Lightspeed Magazine: October 2012

While not finished reading, I am enjoying this edition much more now that I know which parts to skip over...

This time, I very much enjoyed both Ebook Exclusives included. The first was a Novel Except from Blackwood by Gwenda Bond which started the story of Miranda, a socially outcast girl who starts to see mirages, only to further complicate her life. The second was a novella called Dragonfly from Ursulu K. Le Guin.

For me, reading Le Guin is always comforting, reminding me of snuggling up in warm, fluffy blanket. There is something dependable about her writing and her style means that reading her work is always more about the journey than the destination. On the other hand, this means I experience little urgency when reading her. After painstakingly tracking down her Gifts, Powers etc trilogy, I lost the third book half way through and only felt a pang of regret. I would have liked to have known what happened but didn't feel too upset about it.

One of the ironies I picked up reading the article on her is that the Earthsea movie that she did not like at all is what drew me to reading her books in the first place.

Short Stories: Science Fiction

Flowing Unimpeded to the Enlightenment by Robert Reed.

"Her name is Rhonda, but she hasn't used that ugly business since she was ten.
Artemis is a name pulled from myth, and that's what friends call her, and strangers, and it's how phantoms refer to her when she's walking inside her own dreams."

I think this is the first Robert Reed story that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Each character in the story is clear and interesting and I thought it quite fun that right after discussing the Fermi paradox in one of the articles, there was a story to explore it. I also loved the exploration of the nature of ideas and what they really mean:

"ideas as being vivid organic beings, how they collect to form communities, and some of these communities are strong and enduring, while others perish in a day or twenty years."

Nearly Departed by Pat Cadigan

Allie Deadpan explores brains, but she prefers to stay away from dead ones. In this story, she takes the plunge and so continues an interesting story which touches on the nature of creativity, sanity and identity. When I got to the end, I couldn't believe how long ago this story had been written. Definitely still relevant.

Art of War  by Nancy Kress

Like with Robert Reed, I'm not sure I've enjoyed a story by Nancy Kress before. But this story, I loved! One of my favourite things is where the emotional journey of the character is deeply intertwined with the concepts being explored, creating an inner echo to the story. In this story, the relationship between mother and son and the disastrous assumptions they can make about each other is echoed in the relationship between humans and an alien species. I also thought the construction of this story was masterful.

Bear and Shifty by Benjamin Parzybok

This story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the apocalypse was brought by aliens and humans drift in the fringes, scrounging what they can. It continues the theme of inter-species communication and while not being as profound as the Nancy Kress story, it possesses its own poignancy and human insight.

Starting the Journey with (at) Lightspeed - Sep 2012

Browsing recently, I noticed that Lightspeed - which I understood to be a science fiction magazine - and Fantasy - which covers what you'd expect - had merged under their common editor and now offer a combined publication at a very reasonable Kindle subscription price.

Initially, I feared that Lightspeed would be too similar to Fantasy and Science Fiction - where its editor trained and to which I already have a subscription. Fortunately, it seems to have a feel of its own and some interesting quirks - like re-prints of classic stories. One quirk, the ubiquitous coverage of its writers, including those writers who write short articles about other writers annoyed me, but I did enjoy the Ebook extras, so on balance, I'll take it.

My stand-out favourite would definitely be "The Green Leopard Plague" by Walter Jon Williams. I loved how it combined a solid, multi-layered plotline with a fascinating inter-disciplinary conjecture. As an inter-disciplinarian myself, I found this story worked for me on an emotional and intellectuel level. I loved how the two layers of the plot don't quite come together and the ending was one of the few in the magazine I found truly satisfying. The actual philosophy of Williams in his interview where he promotes the elimination of death I didn't agree with, but this observation did not taint the story.

The novel excerpt from Greg Egan left me cold. I'm probably small-minded but way-out science fiction is something I have difficulty with...

The Artist Showcase is a lovely idea but is a bit lost on a Kindle.They add other material to the Kindle edition and maybe this would have borne only being in the print version.

I have read "The Streets of Ashkelon" by Harry Harrison elsewhere (and as the notes later in the magazine detail it is one of the most re-printed stories) but it is always powerful. The note from the editor in his introduction about the fact that this helped seal the deal for him becoming an atheist, I found annoying and it did detract from my experience of re-reading the story. For me, ideas I disagree with are far more palatable in the form of a powerful story than in prose. Let the story speak for itself!

Overall, I far preferred the selection of Science Fiction stories over the Fantasy selection. All of them offered something fresh, different, thought-provoking and a satisfying ending. As for the Fantasy selection, they all left me hanging. I was particularly disappointed between with the Holly Black and Nina Kiriki Hoffman stories as I really got into them and the endings left me flat. Holly Black, in particular, notes in her interview that she's finally cracked endings for short stories and I don't get it. I absolutely invested into that story - what a great start - and then, nothing...

Anyways, overall, I liked the magazine, though my enjoyment of it definitely started at the highest point and went down from there. Ending with the bite-size author interviews - for every single story - followed by little profiles of the writers of the interviews almost made me claw my eyes out. However, I shall read the next edition, avoiding the bits that have irritated me and hopefully having a more positive experience that leads me to keep my subscription past the 30-day free trial. We shall see.

What we need to see? And read?

I have just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. The book closes with a new Afterword that I don't think appeared in the original version and tries to frame a 'social agenda' for the book.

As a basis, he looks at the introduction of screens into classical music auditions and shows how this resulted in there being more woman in classical orchestras without the need for affirmative action targets. Then, he applies this to conviction rates for different race groups in the US and suggests that we need to be able to remove the consideration of race from the consideration of guilt.

This argument, for me, brings into opposition two of the arguments in the book. The first is that regardless of our perception of ourselves and how open-minded we may be, evidence shows that all of us make rascist and sexist snap judgments. As part of the argument, Malcolm Gladwell outlined how people can be 'primed' and how this affects us. And his argument makes sense. I've heard from many friends who've studied psychology that it is dangerously naive to believe we can assume we are free of prejudice.

The second argument that comes into contradiction is his chapter on the importance of 'mind-reading' and how good - and uniform - humans are in terms of signalling emotion with facial expressions. This suggests that to test someone's inherent honesty, visual cues are important. So, the question is which is more important - do sub-consciouscous biases overwhelm our ability to read people? The statistics cited suggested they do.

So, then, should we remove any indicators or bias from the justice system?

I'm not sure what the answer is. One thing which occurs to me is that abstracting from visual cues in the case of classical musicians makes sense because the most important information is aural. This plays to Gladwell's argument on the need to select the significant information. It seems easy to carry over in certain cases - for instance, in choosing a researcher reading research samples without names seems a clear way to go. But what information provides cues for guilt versus innocence?

This reminded me of a story I recently read by Ken Liu called Real Faces (reviewed below). In this case, it wasn't about abstracting in the case of guilt, but in the case of hiring an individual. Though a different context, it occured to me that the story could be a direct response to Gladwell's closing Afterword and while it doesn't offer a conclusion to the argument, it certainly raised a lot of interesting questions about the role context plays and how perceptions can be manipulated.

It also reminded me how important story-telling is. I read once that CS Lewis always felt furthest from God right after participating in a debate to defend his existence and closest when writing his Narnia stories. Sometimes, a cogent argument is far less powerful and sheds far less light than the same point as part of a narrative.

Another author that reminds me of this is NK Jemisin. I must be honest, whenever I have read her prose, I find it so deeply veined with anger that I struggle to focus on her argument. However, I loved her series, The Inheritance Trilogy and have dived into the first book of her new series. Her books make me think and because they are couched in stories, I find myself far more open into delving into her ideas through narrative than argument.

F&SF - July Edition - Short Stories

I didn't really enjoy the Short Stories - again. But Ken Liu is coming up as a clear favourite of mine. His work is diverse and clever, without sacrificing the emotional side.

Hartmut's World by Albert E. Cowdrey

A wealthy man imports more than he bargained for when he has a European castle transported - brick by brick - to America. I hate reading accents. I didn't like it in Lorna Doone and I still don't. It doesn't work for me and neither did this short story.

The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times by Eleanor Arnason

A folk tale told for an alien race. Saying at the end of the story that this doesn't have an emotional pay-off for humans because humans aren't the intended audience does not forgive it not having an emotional pay-off for the only sentient species who can read it. I believe strongly that stories have to reach me both emotionally and intellectuelly. If I don't get it in my gut, my head isn't interested. Personal preference, but that's where I stand.

A Natural History of Autumn by Jeffrey Ford

A chance meeting of a businessman and a hostess takes a nasty turn. Clever, but I didn't really care in the end.

Wizard by Michaele Jordon

An ordinary teen meets a handsome wizard - okay, it's a bit better than that sounds. But not by much. It feels like a first chapter in a type of book that there are already too many of. Honestly suprised to find it in F&SF.

Real Faces by Ken Liu

A woman doing an interview in a world only ever so slightly in the future. Definitely the best of the short stories in my opinion. It takes a few current trends, pushes them ever so slightly further and examines the results. Made sense on an emotional, psycological level; made me think; made me feel. Ten out of ten!

F&SF - July Edition - the Long Pieces

The Novellas and Novelets were the stronger part of this edition, from my perspective. I only really loved one, but the rest I found engaging and they all reached the bar of me actually enjoying reading them.

On balance, though, there were too many wizard stories - across the long and short pieces - in this edition. Nothing against wizards, but none of these seemed to add that much. All these wizards came off as twee.

Novella: The Fullness of Time by Kate Wilhelm

Cat recruits Mercedes to help unravel the secrets of a mysterious family. I loved this story as you begin to suspect what's happening right before it happens and there is always another secret behind this. The structure and plotting of the story aid its thematic development - something which always works for me.

I read another story by Kate Wilhem that struck me - and has stayed with me - a few months ago: Bloodletting in the Mammoth Book of the End of the World. I need to track down more by this author!

Novelet: Wearaway and Flambeau by Matthew Hughes

A thief finds there are all sorts of things to be learned on the wrong side of a dangerous wizard. Entertaining and very readable. I enjoyed this and it had a clever ending.

Novelet: The Afflicted by Matthew Johnson

A nurse has decided to stay with her patients in a world where aging has gone badly wrong. A touching story that I enjoyed reading but it didn't leave a deep impression.

Novelet: Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls by Rachel Pollack

Jack Shade has to help a man who believes his wife strayed too far into a world she didn't really understand. Again, I enjoyed reading it and it had some clever moments, but no real emotional pay-off.

January F&SF: the Short Stories

The Comfort of Strangers by Alexander Jablokov

The tale of a sex-worker on a space station, used to accomodating the most peculiar of species. While having interesting aspects to it, this story is not the sort of thing I enjoy.

Maxwell's Demon by Ken Liu

The story of a Japanese-American in the Second World War who has to try and prove her loyalty to both sides of her background. I thought this was a thought-provoking look at what loyalty and patriotism means, if anything at all.

Scrap Dragon by Naomi Kritzer

A humorous take on dealing with the dragon. This is the story that was in the Free Digest that convinced me to subscribe to the Extended Version.

In the Trenches by Michael Alexander

A german soldier is stuck in the trenches and meets a kobold. While eminently readable, I thought many of the ideas in this story (soldiers from opposite sides meeting; how immortality would reduce our enjoyment of life) are pretty tired.

Canto MCML by Lewis Shiner

Short piece set in a historical, futuristic world. Again, I didn't think any of the ideas here particularly interesting or new.

Overall, I definitely preferred the Novelets to the Short Stories, though I did like the Ken Liu and Naomi Kritzner stories.

January F&SF: the Novelets

Small Towns by Felicity Shoulders
Set in the aftermath of World War One, Ms Shoulders weaves together the story of a man trying to rebuild his memories of his home and an unusual young woman trying to find her place in the world. Moving and well-constructed story.

The Secret of the City of Gold by Ron Goulart
A mystery set in London in 1901, featuring Harry Challenge, which I understand is a long-standing character of Mr Goulart. Reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes story. An enjoyable read.

Umbrella Men by John G. McDaid
An unusual conspiracy tale centering around, of all things, umbrellas. I found this story particularly heartening, as even though it showed the world being changed by magic, it somehow conveyed the idea that small things can make a difference.

Alien Land by KD Wentworth
The story of how a housewife responds to an innocuous invasion where aliens simply move into the neighbourhood. I liked how the character changed through the story and how the reader was brought into that journey.

Mindbender by Albert E. Cowdrey
Agent Brown is assigned to the protection of a now-useless Russian spy who has spilled his secrets to the US authorities and who resents being taken away from his primary obsession of pursuing an assasin known as the Mandrake. Enjoyable.

The Colour Least Used by Nature by Ted Kosmatka
The story of the shipbuilder, Kuwa'i, who is caught between an old world of walking trees and the encroaching modern world. While stories of traditional culture and colonialists intersecting are hardly uncommon, I thought the author brought his own unique and moving interpretation to the story.

My favourites of the novelets were Small Towns and the Colour Least Used by Nature. Definitely convinced me that I made the right decision in subscribing to the Extended Edition of F&SF on Kindle.

Setting out with Fantasy and Science Fiction

Several years ago, I read through a few issues of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (edited by Gordon van Gelder) and, at the time, it didn't really speak to me.

Then, a little while after getting my Kindle, I noticed they were offering a free, teaser subscription so I signed up. After reading three teaser editions, which contained one of the stories and all the non-fiction from the extended editions, I decided to sign up for the Extended Edition subscription this January.

At $0.99 per month, it appears to be the cheapest of the science fiction magazines on Kindle subscription (Asimov's and Analog are both $2.99 per month), plus it is jam-packed with good fiction. I'm still working through the stories from the January edition and I've enjoyed every single one to varying degrees (more about that in future posts).

I also really enjoy the non-fiction, for which I didn't need to upgrade to the Extended Edition. I particularly enjoy Charles de Lint's Books to Look For. He's given me some good recommendations and he always gives sufficient information in his reviews to work out whether it's my kind of book without spoiling the story.

2011: Books I Couldn't Put Down

NK Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms and the Kingdom of Gods: Very original, very enjoyable fantasy. All the reviews praising these books almost put me off because they made them sound so very esoteric. But while clever, orginal and thought-provoking, these books are eminently readable and have characters that make you care.

Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: The true life story of a mountaineer whose abortive attempt to climb K2 turned into a mission to educate the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Beautiful, uplifting story of how one person can make a difference.

Ben Bova's Jupiter: I'm not normally a reader of hard science fiction, but I loved this book. One of the things I normally dislike about hard science fiction is that it's all about the ideas and the technology and I find the characters flat and unsympathetic. The characters in this, though a small cast, were eminently believeable and I loved living through their story. Also one of the best portrayals of a character with a deep faith.

George RR Martin's (ed) Busted Flush and Suicide Kings: I've often been fascinated by the question of how super-heroes would deal with the complexities of a world beyond American suburbs fighting crime. Both of these books came from different angles in approaching the issue but had such rich answers. I loved Busted Flush for the complexity of the primary character and Suicide Kings for its wrestling with some of Africa's great challenges.

Veronica Roth's Divergent: I loved how this book dug into very thought-provoking questions about what's really wrong with the world, what self-sacrifice is and how we choose our morality within a highly approachable young adult, fast-moving, plot-driven package.

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy: I devoured these three books in two days. Definitely my favourite teen craze so far (and I enjoyed both Harry Potter and Twilight), primarily because it highlights so many real issues. For me the Capital and the Districts were a dramatised representation of Dependency theory's Core and Periphery. These books ask hard questions about poverty, social justice and how we judge and treat one another.

Favourites from Daily Science Fiction

In August, I signed up for Daily Science Fiction to receive my daily dose of speculative fiction. With the stories ranging from flash fiction length to full-length novellas on Fridays, I have found stories to love, stories to hate and ones that got me thinking. My favorites for the year were:

#5 Beauty, Deconstructed by Adam Colston
An excellent story of humanity meeting an utterly alien mindset. I often find stories that try to capture alien intelligence annoying as I find the author often obsfucates and makes things so complex as to render the story meaningless. This story, however, I found balanced exactly the right amount of 'otherness' and relatibility.

#4 Character is What You Are by Michael R. Fletcher
This story's premise cut me to the core - in that, if companies could erase your memories of being at work to protect their intellectuel property, they would. It also set off a whole train full of thoughts from the role memory plays in responsibility to how we use our time.

#3 Now Until by Jonathan Fredrick Parks
For me, this poignant story set me meditating on the importance of hope and imagination.

#2 Ten Speeds at the End of the World by Guinevere Robin Rowell
I love stories about the end of the world and I particularly loved this one because unlike most of its fellows, it showed how the beauty of the human spirit can triumph at the end.

#1 Like Origami in Water by Damien Walters Grintalis
This story cuts close to home and yet is based on a speculative fiction premise. Absolutely magnificent and everything I look for in a short story.

Promising Series

I have read all of Robin Hobb's previous books, preferring the Liveship Traders to the Fool and Assassin books. I approached the first of the Soldier Son trilogy with some trepidation because it was a first-person narrative like the Fool and Assassin books. Also I'd heard they were quite a different to Hobb's previous work.

I should not have been nervous. Shaman's Crossing was quite different, with a much slower pace, but still excellent. In many ways, it is the tale of unintended consequences. A father, concerned that his soldier son will be a good officer, hands him over to a conquered enemy for a lesson he believe the boy cannot learn from an ally. When the boy is returned gravely wounded, his father realises his mistake, though he has no idea how far it extends.

I thought the book provided an intriguing look at both cultural and gender differences, as well as the kind of shenanigans that go on in all-boys environment. It reminded me a bit of the Song of the Lioness books that I read when I was younger and I enjoyed it a great deal. I definitely intend to read the rest of the books, though I have to say Hobb did not seem leave any clues as to the direction future books will take.

Another first book I have recently devoured is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. I had heard good things about Novik's books and a friend, knowing I like fantasy, had bought me one of the books from the series as a birthday gift. So when suvudu.com offered the first book in the series for free, I downloaded it. Despite the headaches reading on a computer screen gives me, I devoured the book in short order. If the intention of making the first book freely available was to whet the appetite for the rest of the series (which I have no doubt it was), then it has amply succeeded.

Set in an alternative history where dragons are real and important component of any fighting force, it is the story of a British naval officer thrust into the life of an aviator when he captures a French ship carrying an about-to-hatch dragon egg. Aviators live apart from the rest of society, let alone other fighting forces, and he has to adjust to a strange new life aided and abetted by his new companion Temeraire.

I loved the story and the concept. I thought the characters were well-constructed and the plot well-balanced. It is probably one of the best books I have read in quite some time and I look forward with great eagerness to reading the continuing adventures of Laurence and Temeraire.

Shiny and New

As I'm currently living in the UK, I decided to get out a subscription to Interzone. I read a lot of short fiction, mostly online, and beyond the anthologies I buy don't really make much of a contribution back. So I figured this was my chance.

My first Interzone arrived today (#220) and I must admit to being excited. I love the cover and it has that glorious smell of printed paper. It reminds me of when I was younger and my subscription of Cricket used to arrive. Anyways, so I'm feeling very excited about digging into Interzone. Hopefully, it will live up to my expectations as I've taken out a year's subscription!

Putting Down the Masters

Severian is an apprentice torturer with a perfect memory who runs into trouble when he falls in love with one of his guild's 'clients', as they are euphemistically known.

I picked up Gene Wolfe's collected works which make up the "Book of the New Sun" with great excitement after very much enjoying his award-winning novella "Memorare". But I must admit to being gravely disappointed.

The book is touted as a classic work of science fantasy in particular and speculative fiction in general. And it is well-written and has many subtle quirks. The worldbuilding is grand in scale and the ideas are intriguing. But, for me, examining a society where torturers have a guild and executioners seen as some kind of artists, is bait, not meat.

I found the jargon invented for the world alienating, rather than immersive. The plot twists and turns like an out of control snake and while all of these diversions may serve some higher purpose, perhaps thematic, it didn't hold my interest.

And the primary thing that I loved in "Memorare" is absent in "The Shadow of the Torturer". Gene Wolfe's characters and their interactions were so true-to-life and real in "Memorare" but in the book, it always felt like I was separated from them by a wall of water. I don't 'get' Severian or anyone else he interacts with. Possibly with the exception of Severian's initial infatuation with Thecla, I found the romantic interludes dull. Everything in the story felt unfamiliar.

And maybe that's the point and what other people love about the book. Recently, I came across a study group which is month-by-month reading these books of Gene Wolfe. And I would take nothing away from him as a writer - his prose is incredible and he clearly is some people's cup-of-tea.

But he's not mine. All the same, it's been hard to put the book done - not because I was engaged, but because I felt guilty. Putting down literary classics that bored me (like Dickens) has never really bothered me but there's something about putting down a speculative fiction classic that bothers me. This is supposed to be my genre.

Then I remember how many books there are that I'll never get around to reading. How many classics there are and how many I do enjoy. It's alright if there are some authors (or in this case, books) that I don't enjoy and whose work I can't get through. Even if they are good.

Some Winning Stories

Oceanview Publishing is an independent publisher of mystery, thriller and suspense novels. In 2008, they launched their first short story contest and assembled a star-studded cast of judges. Now the judges have made their decision and the three winning stories have been posted. Enjoyable stories all, I preferred the winner and first of the winning finalists - they both had my favourite thing about a good short story, which is a killer ending. (I did find it interesting, though, that none of the stories really fit into the genres that the company focuses on. But then their parameters were pretty broad.)

The first-prize story, "Mississippi Pearl" by Joel Arnold, is the story of a family drama - the things that tie people together and the things that ripple down the years. The characters jump off the page, so vivid in their details, and the imagery is carefully appropriate.

After reading it, I needed a bit of a laugh to cheer me up and that's exactly what I got from "Me and the Bank" by K.G. McAbee. A clever little story that looks at those friendships you can't ignore and the assumptions that can lead you into trouble. The voice of the story wore a little on me about half-way through, but the ending was worth pressing through for.

The second winning finalist, "Heavenly Chorus" by Karen Pullen, seemed the weakest to me. It didn't seem as well-written as the others. I also didn't particularly like the change in tone from serious to silly. It struck me as a bit disrespectful. Also, the change in direction in the story at one point didn't seem properly motivated. However, it is a clever idea and some will enjoy this irreverent story.

Considering the overall quality of the stories, I do hope Oceanview turn the competition into an annual fixture.

An Old Tale, A New Story

I loved the Disney "My Little Mermaid" when I was a little girl. Not quite as much as I loved "Sleeping Beauty", but still. I could sing all the words to "Unda da Sea". But I also loved the dark, dismal original. I don't remember ever reading it (though I probably did). I remember hearing it. As a girl, my parents surrounded me with audio tapes to send me to sleep (the choice to give me the original fairy tales to lull me to sleep was possibly not the most well-thought through idea on their part). I remember the agony when the mermaid gets her wish and the horrid despair when she becomes just on the waves.

So when I read Alethea Kontis's story behind the story of "Blood and Water" on the editor of IGMS's blog it really resonated with me. I wanted to read the story -- but I didn't have a subscription to IGMS and, at the time, no way of getting one. So now that the story has become freely available on the IGMS website, of course I've read it. And I was not disappointed. Kontis answered all the questions she posed in the blog entry that had originally intrigued me and added a very unique twist to the old fairy tale.

The story starts off from the perspective of the "witch", a witch who seems at odds with herself over whether to grant the mermaid's witch but who ultimately gives in. And so begins the story of a mermaid who grows two legs but still isn't quite human. Picked up by a pirate ship, she has to come to terms with her new nature, confusing surroundings and the question of how to find her prince.