partial book review

My library loan ran out on Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant and I don't think I'm going to re-queue for it, so, partial review. Really well-written but I realized after starting it that I remembered the short story it was based on (here) and nothing was going to end well and, look, I don't mean to say that people shouldn't write angry/frustrated/despairing books, there are lots of reasons to be angry/frustrated/despairing and to want to grapple with the harshness of the world in literature, but I am a simple little mind that enjoys feeling good feelings, I like my tragedy all beautiful and operatic, or, even better, I want hope and happy endings. I don't know, maybe I would have ended up loving it - the writing was really good - but in a world of limited time, I am just not enthused about reading a novel so I can get slammed with painfulness.

2015 Online Short Science Fiction and Fantasy - Clarkesworld

Short stories from Clarkesworld. Top recs in bold.

Last year, in addition to Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Clarkesworld, I also read short stories from Giganotosaurus, Tor.com, Daily SF, Apex, Subterranean, Crossed Genres, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I think this year I'm going to skip the rest of them, or, rather, I already read through Giganotosaurus and Tor.com looking for novelettes, I may do the same with Apex (I think they tag, which is so useful) and call it a day.

Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight, Aliette de Bodard. She's just so good. This is another Dai Viet Empire story, a "normal life" story rather than a war story.

Cat Pictures Please, Naomi Kritzer. Benevolent AI tries out interventions.

Indelible, Gwendolyn Clare. Remembering a sister. Short but kicks.

Slowly Builds An Empire, Naim Kabir. Interesting story about a non-telepath in a telepathic future society.

Postcards From Monster Island, Emily Devenport. I really like fiction remixes in which a horror or terror is re-seen in a more humanistic/optimistic light. This is a take on giant monster movies.

For the Love of Sylvia City, Andrea M. Pawley. Benthans vs drylanders in this story about refugees, assimilation, and isolationism.

This Wanderer, in the Dark of the Year, Kris Millering. What if a crash-landed alien was recovered by terrorists?

Forestspirit, Forestspirit, Bogi Takács. AI vs neural network in a small battle.

When Your Child Strays From God, Sam J Miller. Great voice as this mom confronts her teen son's drug use.

In the Queue for the Worldship Munawwer, Sara Saab. Made me cry (I'm a huge sucker for this kind of thing.) Evacuating the Earth.

2015 Online Short Science Fiction and Fantasy - Novelettes

OK, Apex's tagging is a bit haphazard, but they also don't publish many novelettes, so I'm just going to go ahead and rec the novelettes I have - two from GigaNotoSaurus, one from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and three from Clarkesworld.

The Body Corporate, Mark Pantoja in GigaNotoSaurus. An alien planet where the familiar might be more dangerous than the strange.

Drinking with the Elfin Knight, Ginger Weil in GigaNotoSaurus. Adolescence, with magic.

Grandmother-nai-Leylit's Cloth of Winds, Rose Lemberg in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Names and identities and choices and love.

So Much Cooking, Naomi Kritzer, in Clarkesworld. Posts from a food blog, and fears of bird flu. I loved this.

The Servant, Emily Devenport in Clarkesworld. Intrigue on a generation ship.

Morrigan in Shadow, Seth Dickinson in Clarkesworld. This is in the world of a story I liked last year, Morrigan in the Sunglare, space military SF about ethics and strategy. Damn, ka-wow, Big SF.