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Witchmark, CL Polk, the last of the Nebula nominees I hadn't read. A lot going on, some interesting worldbuilding and good moments, but I felt like it didn't always quite hang together. A little disjointed from scene to scene, emotions and character stuff sometimes abrupt within scenes, and it maybe had one too many subplots for any one of them to land quite as hard as they could have. I may still read the next one though, the romance is apparently going to be lesbians (this one was dudes).
The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal. I was going to skip this one, having been lukewarm about the novelette, but then it made the Nebulas and the Hugos and here we are. And... I"m still lukewarm about it. I love space, and have a pretty endless appetite for stories about space exploration, and I'm interested by reluctant necessity in stories about how we might grapple as a planet with impending human extinction, but this book felt weirdly short on both of those, for its premise? Like, I guess for the end to feel like a big payoff, Kowal had to ration out how much space we could get before that, but it left a lot of the book just feeling like a workplace drama. And I have a lot of complicated feelings about stories about people struggling with their anxiety and whether/how to treat it (as a person currently not treating mine, myself), but they boil down to my not being into that particular part of this story at this particular time.
I'm excited that I get to rank novels now, though! (And also Long Editors, because one of them edited this, so I was waiting on it to do them.) This is the last of the big fiction categories for me, after this I just have Semipros and Short Editors, Relateds, Fanwriters, and Fanzines, and the three art categories. Which I guess is still a lot, but it feels like progress anyways. Novels and editors behind the cut! ( Read more... )
I'm excited that I get to rank novels now, though! (And also Long Editors, because one of them edited this, so I was waiting on it to do them.) This is the last of the big fiction categories for me, after this I just have Semipros and Short Editors, Relateds, Fanwriters, and Fanzines, and the three art categories. Which I guess is still a lot, but it feels like progress anyways. Novels and editors behind the cut! ( Read more... )
After being in the library queue since February I had a moment of impatience and bought this one; $2.99 on the Kindle is hard to resist. The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang, book was a Nebula finalist and Kuang is up for the Campbell. This is a big impressive debut (and the first book of a trilogy, so I don't think we can even say yet what all Kuang might be doing here once the whole story is told). I'm going to talk about it more behind a cut but I want to put a content note out here for heavy war-atrocity violence (mass murder, mass rape, mutilation, genocide), and please feel free to ask questions about specifics if you're trying to figure out whether you want to read this one.
Spoilers behind cut. ( Read more... )
I'll do the Campbell in its own post for spoiler avoidance.
Spoilers behind cut. ( Read more... )
I'll do the Campbell in its own post for spoiler avoidance.
2019 Hugo short fiction
May. 26th, 2019 03:35 pmFinally read The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander. Liked it more than I expected it to - did some clever stuff, even if I couldn't quite buy a couple of the linchpins.
I have now read all of the short fiction, so thoughts/ballots/predictions behind the cut. ( Read more... )
I have now read all of the short fiction, so thoughts/ballots/predictions behind the cut. ( Read more... )
Black Panther: Long Live The King, written by Nnedi Okorafor and Aaron Covington, art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino and Tana Ford, up for the Graphic Hugo. Continuing my whole "do I actually like comics?" thing, I wasn't super into this. Never felt like there was much in the way of emotional stakes for T'Challa. I don't exactly mean to say that I only care about superheroes when they're suffering, but I definitely care more when they're doing the Buffy thing where the supernatural threats are like concretization of something personal for the hero. Ms. Marvel does a great job with that. Or at least when there's some kind of real dilemma or challenge. Like, okay, this idea of the mute zones, is T'Challa really doing the right thing in mostly ignoring them? Should he be doing more to discourage their isolation? That flashback with his childhood friend, about having to be careful all the time, shouldn't that play out somehow in the subsequent plot? I don't know, give us times when being a superhero is at odds with being king, give us times when the right choice for the kingdom means having to ask something really hard of his people, give us some sense of something going on internally with this guy! I thought the best story in here was the one about the Venom Black Panther, who did have emotional stakes, and a lot of story there in a one-issue space.
Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire, up for Best Novella. I was pleasantly surprised by really enjoying this, a first for this series! I liked the POV character, I liked the cast and their banter in general, I liked the plot. I think it helped that it *had* a real plot, instead of just being backstory like the last one, and it's a niftier plot than the first one. Some really good moments. I'm not sure this would make much sense without "Every Heart A Doorway", but you could definitely skip "Down Among the Sticks and Bones".
Beneath the Sugar Sky, Seanan McGuire, up for Best Novella. I was pleasantly surprised by really enjoying this, a first for this series! I liked the POV character, I liked the cast and their banter in general, I liked the plot. I think it helped that it *had* a real plot, instead of just being backstory like the last one, and it's a niftier plot than the first one. Some really good moments. I'm not sure this would make much sense without "Every Heart A Doorway", but you could definitely skip "Down Among the Sticks and Bones".
Space Opera, Abbott
May. 24th, 2019 04:43 pmSpace Opera, Catherynne Valente, up for Best Novel. I really enjoyed this - it was sweet and sometimes extremely funny and had one bit that was one of the best scenes I've read in anything in awhile. (Spoilers ( Read more... )) I think I had read a lukewarm review of this somewhere that was like "it's just a rehash of Hitchhiker's Guide" but you know what, Douglas Adams has been gone long enough that there are actual adults who were born after he died, and Pratchett's gone, so why shouldn't Valente step into the absurdist British sff niche. Now I have a book by a woman to talk about if we want to talk about Hitchhiker's, as part of my ongoing "have works by a woman to talk about in any conversation about sff I might have" project. (And also I don't remember Adams ever making me cry, although, honestly, it's been so long I couldn't say. Valente totally got me. Inevitably in public, of course, sigh.)
(Also I was very pleased when she namechecked Adam Lambert specifically because the whole time I was reading it I was thinking about Astolat's Stargate:Atlantis/American Idol crossover where they need a singer. I don't know if this makes any sense without knowing both SGA and AI fanon for context but I love it, so here's a link: Far Far Away.)
Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, drawn by Sami Kivelä, up for Best Graphic Story. This did so much right on paper - bi Black woman reporter embedded in a web of interesting relationships, battling racism and the supernatural in 1972 Detroit - and yet I just didn't care that much. Part of it is probably that this was very much Traditional American Comics, with the pacing and art thereof, and I'm not sure I actually *like* Traditional American Comics, or at least not as much as I like indie comics and manga-influenced comics and stuff like that. Part of it was that the main character was admirable and interesting but hard for me to identify with, in the sense of having some kind of emotional conflict I could feel engaged with, or having a sense of what made her tick beyond her righteousness/determination/etc. I mean, like, there was this thing about how she had to have her exactly two brandies a day, that I kind of thought was going to turn into more of a thing about routine or control or some kind of character thing, but it didn't really. And then finally and maybe most damningly, this sort of thing tends to work much better for me if it's funny. Watchmen and V for Vendetta and Bitch Planet all come to mind as working in the Traditional Comics idiom but they're all full of (dark, dark) jokes. Abbott is straightforward and earnest and just lacks that bite of humor that would really make it memorable, alas.
(Also I was very pleased when she namechecked Adam Lambert specifically because the whole time I was reading it I was thinking about Astolat's Stargate:Atlantis/American Idol crossover where they need a singer. I don't know if this makes any sense without knowing both SGA and AI fanon for context but I love it, so here's a link: Far Far Away.)
Abbott, written by Saladin Ahmed, drawn by Sami Kivelä, up for Best Graphic Story. This did so much right on paper - bi Black woman reporter embedded in a web of interesting relationships, battling racism and the supernatural in 1972 Detroit - and yet I just didn't care that much. Part of it is probably that this was very much Traditional American Comics, with the pacing and art thereof, and I'm not sure I actually *like* Traditional American Comics, or at least not as much as I like indie comics and manga-influenced comics and stuff like that. Part of it was that the main character was admirable and interesting but hard for me to identify with, in the sense of having some kind of emotional conflict I could feel engaged with, or having a sense of what made her tick beyond her righteousness/determination/etc. I mean, like, there was this thing about how she had to have her exactly two brandies a day, that I kind of thought was going to turn into more of a thing about routine or control or some kind of character thing, but it didn't really. And then finally and maybe most damningly, this sort of thing tends to work much better for me if it's funny. Watchmen and V for Vendetta and Bitch Planet all come to mind as working in the Traditional Comics idiom but they're all full of (dark, dark) jokes. Abbott is straightforward and earnest and just lacks that bite of humor that would really make it memorable, alas.
First off, The Invasion, Peadar O'Guilin, 2018, sequel to The Call. Enh. I wanted more meat to the mythology or more payoff from some of the new characters or something. I spent awhile with the first one thinking about whether it was secretly about Brexit or terrorism or the climate crisis or something, but I don't think anything that interesting was being said here; maybe there's something going on about Irish nationalism, but I don't know enough to pick up on it. Content note for suicidality (as well as more body horror etc).
My ballot ranking for all six Lodestar nominees behind the cut. ( Read more... )
My ballot ranking for all six Lodestar nominees behind the cut. ( Read more... )
Dread Nation
May. 14th, 2019 10:00 pmDread Nation, Justina Ireland, 2019 Lodestar nominee. This was terrific. Had me from the first page. Snappy writing, distinctive voice, loved the protag, loved the whole concept, and it's not just silly like some of those "costume drama plus supernatural" movies looked from the trailers (Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, although I should note I haven't actually watched any of them, maybe they're all secretly deep and I'm just being biased), Ireland is saying some really interesting stuff about the utilization of crisis situations to both reinforce and undermine existing structures of power and dominance. We apparently get book two in 2020, and hopefully a book three after that? Because I need a trilogy, after a book 1 this good.
Anyways, a little bit actually about it, to try to really sell the rec here: it's 1880 and the zombies might be winning the Reconstruction. Jane McKeene has been trained to fight, but are zombies really the worst enemy? (Spoilers, of course not, it's white supremacy.) Despite this being a zombie story, it reads much more like action-adventure than horror; it's pretty low on scary and gross (for a zombie story) and pretty high on badassery. Might appeal to people who liked the Rae Carson Gold Seer books, or Westerfeld's Leviathan, or Buffy, or anyone who'd be into a irrepressible Black heroine talking about the germ theory of disease and whacking off heads. (And clever alt-history, and good character stuff between women characters, and investigation of the way racism commodifies its targets similar to some of what Get Out was doing...)
Anyways, a little bit actually about it, to try to really sell the rec here: it's 1880 and the zombies might be winning the Reconstruction. Jane McKeene has been trained to fight, but are zombies really the worst enemy? (Spoilers, of course not, it's white supremacy.) Despite this being a zombie story, it reads much more like action-adventure than horror; it's pretty low on scary and gross (for a zombie story) and pretty high on badassery. Might appeal to people who liked the Rae Carson Gold Seer books, or Westerfeld's Leviathan, or Buffy, or anyone who'd be into a irrepressible Black heroine talking about the germ theory of disease and whacking off heads. (And clever alt-history, and good character stuff between women characters, and investigation of the way racism commodifies its targets similar to some of what Get Out was doing...)
The Belles
May. 10th, 2019 10:36 amThe Belles, Dhonielle Clayton, 2019 Lodestar nominee. This book was like the makeover scene in Hunger Games only it went on for 400 pages (and I was ready for kids to start killing each other after about 20). I kind of feel bad about how little I enjoyed this book - I liked the author's note at the end, I support what Clayton was trying to do here and I hope it was more effective for actual teens than for my middle-aged self. And I really do love that three of the Lodestar books this year have Black girls on the cover; I like to imagine bookstore owners and teen-section librarians setting up Lodestar displays and there they are. (I have no idea whether any bookstores or librarians actually care about the Lodestar but the publishing industry has such a shitty track record on people of color on covers, I think it's great if the Hugos can chip in a little to that ongoing struggle.)
Some more specifics about how this book didn't work for me and why I think it might have/should have behind the cut. Also, hey, notes for torture and animal harm, I mean I don't discuss the animal harm here but it's in the book.( Read more... )
Some more specifics about how this book didn't work for me and why I think it might have/should have behind the cut. Also, hey, notes for torture and animal harm, I mean I don't discuss the animal harm here but it's in the book.( Read more... )
Deep Roots
May. 3rd, 2019 09:21 pmDeep Roots, Ruthanna Emrys, 2018 sequel to Winter Tide, which I talked about here. I liked this better than Winter Tide, perhaps because I had a better idea this time what kind of book it was going to be and what kind of story it was telling. Not that it can't be fun to not know and be surprised, but in this case coming in with the right expectations seemed to help. And I also think I just particularly liked some of the plot/twists/conflict in this one. Good stuff, extremely thoughtful, sometimes quite moving. Series recommended (but start with the novelette here).
Robots vs Fairies
Apr. 30th, 2019 02:48 pmRobots vs Fairies, 2018 anthology edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, the same team who did the Starlit Wood fairy tale anthology in 2016. (But not related to the Zombies vs Unicorns anthology from 2010.) I didn't think this was quite as outstanding as Starlit Wood, possibly because the theme wasn't quite as much a personal favorite, but it was a good anthology with some good stuff. Some standouts: Alyssa Wong's "All the Time We've Left To Spend", about pop idols and versions of yourself and change vs stasis, my favorite story in the anthology. Madeline Ashby's "Work Shadow/Shadow Work", about aging and belief. Mary Robinette Kowal's "Sound and Fury" has some fun giant robot action. Maria Dahvana Headley's "Adriftica" features an aging dude rock journalist rhapsodizing about the power of rock and I won't lie, I was rolling my eyes pretty hard, but Headley actually pulled it off and I found it surprisingly moving. And Tim Pratt's "Murmured Under The Moon" features a human librarian working for a fairy library and dating one of the books, which is a pretty great concept. The authors got to pick whether they were on "Team Robot" or "Team Fairy"; Wong and Ashby and Kowal all chose Robot, Headley and Pratt chose Fairy, so I guess I'm Team Robot.
Tiptree Awards
Apr. 21st, 2019 03:57 pmI've had this tab about the 2018 Tiptree Awards open for like a month now. I thought it was interesting that of one winner ("They Will Dream In The Garden", Gabriela Damián Miravete) and eleven honor-listees I had heard of exactly one of them (and it was Dirty Computer). I guess the mainstream SF I read isn't doing cutting-edge work around gender? No, wait, I guess I did read one of the stories off of someone's 2018 recs list, "Me, Waiting, Hoping For Something More", which had a strong premise - two strong premises, actually - but as I recall didn't quite land for me somehow in how they came together and resolved, although reading it again I think I like it more. "Sandals Full of Rainwater", though, the other one available online, I have now read and is pretty great, so, recs for both, I guess. Anyways, I do wonder if the Tiptrees are deliberately trying to spotlight stuff that people aren't going to just stumble across in SH or Uncanny or Clarkesworld.
big book boom
Mar. 21st, 2019 11:39 pmThis review post started several days ago as "I haven't been doing anything lately but read" but then since then I did our taxes and played Terraforming Mars and dragged the spouse and kids on a passport-renewing expedition and even during the "not doing anything" phase there were still six loads of laundry and some cooking, so, you know what, whatever.
For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund, an sf YA retelling of Persuasion. I mostly read this to see what she was going to do with it, and I thought she did a reasonable and plausible job, the main problem with which was that Persuasion isn't actually better as YA. YAified, it loses all of Anne's grappling with aging and regret that makes the original so poignant to me - in the Darkness version, the Anne character's choice is more clearly the right choice for her responsibilities/concern for the enslaved workers on her family's land, and her father is closer to a cartoon villain than a snob. I liked how Peterfreund wove the sfnal plot about genetic enhancement into the Louisa character's injury though, and the romance worked, more or less.
(The enslaved workers thing got me thinking about sffnal depictions of slavery, perhaps inspired by the brilliant "robots are class and class is robots" post I read the other day (find it here) - in Darkness, a past technological catastrophe has rendered the descendants of the genetically-enhanced majority heritably developmentally disabled, in ways that aren't entirely specified, and which the "Luddite" ruling class may be deliberately exaggerating (for instance they're mostly mute, but have some signed language, which the Luddites don't encourage), but which limit their independence and ability to learn complex skills. Setting aside the whole "this society's response to mass disability was to enslave everybody" thing - which, I mean, is gross but Peterfreund knows it's gross and she's doing a port of 19th century Britain to this future and honestly 19th century Britain was pretty gross - I think there's something more subtly problematic in sffnal depictions of slavery in which the enslaved people have diminished capacity compared with the enslaving class, through whatever mind-control/genetics/magic/etc, namely that the slavery that for most of us USian readers is the slavery we think of, American chattel slavery, was very much a theft of *skilled labor*, like, my understanding is that African agricultural expertise was part of why African people were so valuable to the American colonizers. And so these sffnal depictions of slaveries that reduce their victims (Peterfreund's slaves are literally called "the Reduced") are erasing an important aspect of real slavery, in a way that might make worldbuilding sense in a given incarnation, but that cumulatively becomes troubling.)
Clockwork Boys, Wonder Engine, and Swordheart, Ursula Vernon as T Kingfisher, which turned out to be a duology and then the first book of a separate trilogy in the same world. I enjoyed these a lot - Vernon is funny and extremely readable and does clever and satisfying setup-and-payoff business and I gasped out loud at [redacted], and the, er, scientific investigation business in Swordheart was *hilarious* and also the best representation of who I would be in a fantasy world that I have ever seen, like that is *totally* the kind of thing I think about. I was a little thrown in Clockwork Boys by expecting the gnole to be worse news than he was, despite there not being cues for that in the text and that not really being Vernon's style... I eventually realized that I was probably bigoted against gnoles on account of The Man Who Sold Rope To them. So, on the one hand, evidence that fictional depictions read 25+ years ago can totally still have subconsciously prejudicial effects, and on the other hand it's not like I had encountered any gnoles since then or done any work examining my gnole stereotypes, and now I have, I guess.
A Tyranny of Queens, Foz Meadows, the sequel to An Accident of Stars, discussed here. I've been reading this for awhile because I had to get it on paper, but finally finished. It's a good followup, Meadows continues to be smart and interesting and this is good high fantasy. I liked the inclusion of a trans character who doesn't want to change their body despite living in a world with magical gender-conformation transformations (that another character has opted for) - that made a lot of sense to me, that whatever the options, people are always going to have a variety of reactions and preferences. These are strong in that way in general, that there's a lot of realistic disagreement and plurality of opinions and overlapping-but-not-identical agendas and such. But also some classic high fantasy epic conflicts. Nicely constructed.
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells, the fourth (and final) Murderbot novella (until we get the novel next year eeeeee). My only regret is that I got this too late to add it to my Hugo nominations... this was *so good* and made me cry and I'm not going to put which part even behind a cut because there are like six books in this post and someone might want to comment without spoilers sitting here but I have A Lot Of Feelings and I guess that itself might be a spoiler but what can I do. (Er, okay, I can't resist: "Cyrnfr, gurl jvyy xvyy ure." Jura Zheqreobg vf nyy bhg bs pyrire unpxf naq culfvpny gevpxf naq gurve ynfg zbfg qrfcrengr erfbeg vf *nfx sbe uryc*, gb nccrny gb gur uhznaf naq ubcr gung gurl jvyy fcner nabgure uhzna'f yvsr, bu zl tbq.)
For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund, an sf YA retelling of Persuasion. I mostly read this to see what she was going to do with it, and I thought she did a reasonable and plausible job, the main problem with which was that Persuasion isn't actually better as YA. YAified, it loses all of Anne's grappling with aging and regret that makes the original so poignant to me - in the Darkness version, the Anne character's choice is more clearly the right choice for her responsibilities/concern for the enslaved workers on her family's land, and her father is closer to a cartoon villain than a snob. I liked how Peterfreund wove the sfnal plot about genetic enhancement into the Louisa character's injury though, and the romance worked, more or less.
(The enslaved workers thing got me thinking about sffnal depictions of slavery, perhaps inspired by the brilliant "robots are class and class is robots" post I read the other day (find it here) - in Darkness, a past technological catastrophe has rendered the descendants of the genetically-enhanced majority heritably developmentally disabled, in ways that aren't entirely specified, and which the "Luddite" ruling class may be deliberately exaggerating (for instance they're mostly mute, but have some signed language, which the Luddites don't encourage), but which limit their independence and ability to learn complex skills. Setting aside the whole "this society's response to mass disability was to enslave everybody" thing - which, I mean, is gross but Peterfreund knows it's gross and she's doing a port of 19th century Britain to this future and honestly 19th century Britain was pretty gross - I think there's something more subtly problematic in sffnal depictions of slavery in which the enslaved people have diminished capacity compared with the enslaving class, through whatever mind-control/genetics/magic/etc, namely that the slavery that for most of us USian readers is the slavery we think of, American chattel slavery, was very much a theft of *skilled labor*, like, my understanding is that African agricultural expertise was part of why African people were so valuable to the American colonizers. And so these sffnal depictions of slaveries that reduce their victims (Peterfreund's slaves are literally called "the Reduced") are erasing an important aspect of real slavery, in a way that might make worldbuilding sense in a given incarnation, but that cumulatively becomes troubling.)
Clockwork Boys, Wonder Engine, and Swordheart, Ursula Vernon as T Kingfisher, which turned out to be a duology and then the first book of a separate trilogy in the same world. I enjoyed these a lot - Vernon is funny and extremely readable and does clever and satisfying setup-and-payoff business and I gasped out loud at [redacted], and the, er, scientific investigation business in Swordheart was *hilarious* and also the best representation of who I would be in a fantasy world that I have ever seen, like that is *totally* the kind of thing I think about. I was a little thrown in Clockwork Boys by expecting the gnole to be worse news than he was, despite there not being cues for that in the text and that not really being Vernon's style... I eventually realized that I was probably bigoted against gnoles on account of The Man Who Sold Rope To them. So, on the one hand, evidence that fictional depictions read 25+ years ago can totally still have subconsciously prejudicial effects, and on the other hand it's not like I had encountered any gnoles since then or done any work examining my gnole stereotypes, and now I have, I guess.
A Tyranny of Queens, Foz Meadows, the sequel to An Accident of Stars, discussed here. I've been reading this for awhile because I had to get it on paper, but finally finished. It's a good followup, Meadows continues to be smart and interesting and this is good high fantasy. I liked the inclusion of a trans character who doesn't want to change their body despite living in a world with magical gender-conformation transformations (that another character has opted for) - that made a lot of sense to me, that whatever the options, people are always going to have a variety of reactions and preferences. These are strong in that way in general, that there's a lot of realistic disagreement and plurality of opinions and overlapping-but-not-identical agendas and such. But also some classic high fantasy epic conflicts. Nicely constructed.
Exit Strategy, Martha Wells, the fourth (and final) Murderbot novella (until we get the novel next year eeeeee). My only regret is that I got this too late to add it to my Hugo nominations... this was *so good* and made me cry and I'm not going to put which part even behind a cut because there are like six books in this post and someone might want to comment without spoilers sitting here but I have A Lot Of Feelings and I guess that itself might be a spoiler but what can I do. (Er, okay, I can't resist: "Cyrnfr, gurl jvyy xvyy ure." Jura Zheqreobg vf nyy bhg bs pyrire unpxf naq culfvpny gevpxf naq gurve ynfg zbfg qrfcrengr erfbeg vf *nfx sbe uryc*, gb nccrny gb gur uhznaf naq ubcr gung gurl jvyy fcner nabgure uhzna'f yvsr, bu zl tbq.)
2018 online short SFF f/f recs
Mar. 4th, 2019 06:58 pmThis is sort of related to a conversation about overtly gay reccing: I have tried here to pull out all of the stories I recced that have f/f content, mostly with whatever I said about them originally. Please note that I might have missed some and I might be misremembering something, I read a lot of stories and it's easy to conflate.
Seedlings, Audrey R. Hollis, Strange Horizons. Magical realism about change and relationships. Josh, still a squick warning.
Tamales in Space, and Other Phrases For the Beginning Speaker, Gabriela Santiago, Strange Horizons. (Well, okay, two stories in, this has become complicated: I'm reading Carmela and Venessa as together but they could just be friends/business partners.)
Missed Connections, Alena Flick, Strange Horizons. Sweet small story about interpersonal interaction.
Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse, S.B. Divya, Uncanny. (What about f/f/m relationships? What about stories that kill some of their LGBTQ characters?)
How to Swallow the Moon, Isabel Yap, Uncanny. A fairy tale set in the Philippines; love between a girl in a tower and her handmaid. NOVELETTE.
Nitrate Nocturnes, Ruth Joffre, Lightspeed. A timer story in Lightspeed!. This is a beloved premise in fanfic and I'm always interested to see what pro fic does with the same ideas. NOVELETTE
Waterbirds, G.V. Anderson, Lightspeed. A robot lady, her boss, and her lover. Really good.
Mouths, Lizz Huerta, Lightspeed. Vivid postapocalyptic magical realism.
The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys, Tor.com. Grad school, now with extra bonus life-distorting properties! This is really good. NOVELETTE
Recoveries, Susan Palwick, Tor.com. (And then there's this one, which is definitely not f/f, but is about the complicated friendship between two women, to the extent that I think that someone who wants stories that center women and their relationships with other women might still be like, yeah, okay, that was relevant to my interests.) NOVELETTE
The Starfish Girl, Maureen McHugh, Slate/Future Tense Fiction. (Likewise, in fandom one might call this "pre-slash", even though there's no overt f/f content here. If you read it and ship the two female main characters, does the rec become f/f even if the story wasn't?)
Fireskin, Joanne Rixon, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Neat chronic-illness metaphor.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. (Yet another dubious inclusion on this list! The POV character is a nonhuman proto-dragon and uses "it" as a pronoun. Partway through the story, that character then takes human-ish form and gets involved with a human woman, who thinks of herself as starting a relationship with another woman, and the POV character doesn't seem to mind this or feel misgendered. So, it's not f/f, it's f/genderless creature who doesn't mind taking on a human gender role for social purposes. I'm guessing the person I made this list for will be amused by this story and will not mind my having put it on this list. In other contexts I might not.)
Seedlings, Audrey R. Hollis, Strange Horizons. Magical realism about change and relationships. Josh, still a squick warning.
Tamales in Space, and Other Phrases For the Beginning Speaker, Gabriela Santiago, Strange Horizons. (Well, okay, two stories in, this has become complicated: I'm reading Carmela and Venessa as together but they could just be friends/business partners.)
Missed Connections, Alena Flick, Strange Horizons. Sweet small story about interpersonal interaction.
Contingency Plans for the Apocalypse, S.B. Divya, Uncanny. (What about f/f/m relationships? What about stories that kill some of their LGBTQ characters?)
How to Swallow the Moon, Isabel Yap, Uncanny. A fairy tale set in the Philippines; love between a girl in a tower and her handmaid. NOVELETTE.
Nitrate Nocturnes, Ruth Joffre, Lightspeed. A timer story in Lightspeed!. This is a beloved premise in fanfic and I'm always interested to see what pro fic does with the same ideas. NOVELETTE
Waterbirds, G.V. Anderson, Lightspeed. A robot lady, her boss, and her lover. Really good.
Mouths, Lizz Huerta, Lightspeed. Vivid postapocalyptic magical realism.
The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys, Tor.com. Grad school, now with extra bonus life-distorting properties! This is really good. NOVELETTE
Recoveries, Susan Palwick, Tor.com. (And then there's this one, which is definitely not f/f, but is about the complicated friendship between two women, to the extent that I think that someone who wants stories that center women and their relationships with other women might still be like, yeah, okay, that was relevant to my interests.) NOVELETTE
The Starfish Girl, Maureen McHugh, Slate/Future Tense Fiction. (Likewise, in fandom one might call this "pre-slash", even though there's no overt f/f content here. If you read it and ship the two female main characters, does the rec become f/f even if the story wasn't?)
Fireskin, Joanne Rixon, Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Neat chronic-illness metaphor.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. (Yet another dubious inclusion on this list! The POV character is a nonhuman proto-dragon and uses "it" as a pronoun. Partway through the story, that character then takes human-ish form and gets involved with a human woman, who thinks of herself as starting a relationship with another woman, and the POV character doesn't seem to mind this or feel misgendered. So, it's not f/f, it's f/genderless creature who doesn't mind taking on a human gender role for social purposes. I'm guessing the person I made this list for will be amused by this story and will not mind my having put it on this list. In other contexts I might not.)
2018 online short SFF - misc 2
Mar. 2nd, 2019 10:39 amI picked up some of these from Charles Payseur's Quick Sip Reviews and particularly his Sippy Awards, some from the Lady Business blog's Hugo recs, some from the Locus list, some just from... somewhere.
The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change, Virginia M. Mohlere, Luna Station Quarterly. Adorable story dedicated to iguanamouth (this comic, in particular).
More Tomorrow, Premee Mohamed, Automata. A scientist stranded in the Devonian, trying to survive.
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, Fireside. I would call this an awards-season frontrunner; it's on the Nebula ballot and I've heard enough buzz around it that I think we'll probably see it on the Hugos. Some neat magical alternate history. What's up with teeth this year, though, I feel like there have really been an atypical number of stories involving teeth. (I haven't been reccing them all, but I think I've recced a couple.)
Memento Mori, Tiah Marie Beautement, Omenana. A mer-lady with Ehlers-Danlos who's dating Death.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. An imugi - a Korean proto-dragon - trying to become a full-fledged dragon. I loved this. Cho is so, so good.
Wild Ones, Vanessa Fogg, Bracken. This is *such* a middle-aged mom story but, lo.
Orange World, Karen Russell, The New Yorker. A new mom makes a bargain, and then has to deal with it. NOVELETTE
The Thing In the Walls Wants Your Small Change, Virginia M. Mohlere, Luna Station Quarterly. Adorable story dedicated to iguanamouth (this comic, in particular).
More Tomorrow, Premee Mohamed, Automata. A scientist stranded in the Devonian, trying to survive.
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, Phenderson Djèlí Clark, Fireside. I would call this an awards-season frontrunner; it's on the Nebula ballot and I've heard enough buzz around it that I think we'll probably see it on the Hugos. Some neat magical alternate history. What's up with teeth this year, though, I feel like there have really been an atypical number of stories involving teeth. (I haven't been reccing them all, but I think I've recced a couple.)
Memento Mori, Tiah Marie Beautement, Omenana. A mer-lady with Ehlers-Danlos who's dating Death.
If At First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again, Zen Cho, the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog. An imugi - a Korean proto-dragon - trying to become a full-fledged dragon. I loved this. Cho is so, so good.
Wild Ones, Vanessa Fogg, Bracken. This is *such* a middle-aged mom story but, lo.
Orange World, Karen Russell, The New Yorker. A new mom makes a bargain, and then has to deal with it. NOVELETTE
Flesh and Stone, Kathryn Yelinek. A sculptor and his wife.
Court of Birth, Court of Strength, Aliette de Bodard. A sweaterboy and an absolute nightmare search for a missing kid in the House of Shattered Wings universe. NOVELETTE
Magic Potion Behind-the-Mountains, Jaymee Goh. A magistrate comes from the big city to a small town. Simple and sweet.
The Tragedy of Zayred the Splendid, Grace Seybold. Bards and stories.
In the Ground, Before the Freeze, Margaret Ronald. A mountain woman and a lowland man.
A Martyr's Art, J.P. Sullivan. This was very satisfying.
Court of Birth, Court of Strength, Aliette de Bodard. A sweaterboy and an absolute nightmare search for a missing kid in the House of Shattered Wings universe. NOVELETTE
Magic Potion Behind-the-Mountains, Jaymee Goh. A magistrate comes from the big city to a small town. Simple and sweet.
The Tragedy of Zayred the Splendid, Grace Seybold. Bards and stories.
In the Ground, Before the Freeze, Margaret Ronald. A mountain woman and a lowland man.
A Martyr's Art, J.P. Sullivan. This was very satisfying.
I was hoping to be done by today and get a shortlist up but I'm only halfway through BCS and still have a bunch of miscellaneous recs to check out, so... that's where I am.
Suite for Accompanied Cello, Tamara Vardomskaya. A musician and a competition.
Penitents, Rich Larson. Some quality disturbing imagery here.
Do As I Do, Sing As I Sing, Sarah Pinsker. Tradition vs innovation.
Gennesaret, Phoenix Alexander. Major content note for child death. Mixed feelings about this - this story is pretty clearly a direct response to a certain extremely horrific news photo of recent years, probably one of the most upsetting things I've ever seen (unfortunately on Facebook w/no option not to look), and on the one hand I'm not sure we should science-fictionalize things like that, and on the other hand it's a powerful story and, to me, at least, feels like it honors and respects the refugees that inspired it. So... I don't know. Not a rec, but I wanted to talk about it.
The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes, Siobhan Carroll. An army marches on its stomach.
Fireskin, Joanne Rixon. Neat chronic-illness metaphor.
Suite for Accompanied Cello, Tamara Vardomskaya. A musician and a competition.
Penitents, Rich Larson. Some quality disturbing imagery here.
Do As I Do, Sing As I Sing, Sarah Pinsker. Tradition vs innovation.
Gennesaret, Phoenix Alexander. Major content note for child death. Mixed feelings about this - this story is pretty clearly a direct response to a certain extremely horrific news photo of recent years, probably one of the most upsetting things I've ever seen (unfortunately on Facebook w/no option not to look), and on the one hand I'm not sure we should science-fictionalize things like that, and on the other hand it's a powerful story and, to me, at least, feels like it honors and respects the refugees that inspired it. So... I don't know. Not a rec, but I wanted to talk about it.
The War of Light and Shadow, in Five Dishes, Siobhan Carroll. An army marches on its stomach.
Fireskin, Joanne Rixon. Neat chronic-illness metaphor.
Slate did a monthly series of speculative near-future stories under the series name "Future Tense Fiction" about new technological dangers and situations, which is a kind of thing I like a lot, so, no surprise, I liked a bunch of these:
Domestic Violence, Madeline Ashby. Smart homes and intimate partner abuse.
The Minnesota Diet, Charlie Jane Anders. Food security and algorithms.
The Starfish Girl, Maureen McHugh. Medical tech and sports rules.
Overvalued, Mark Stasenko. Stock trading and college funding.
When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis, Annalee Newitz. In which the crows have a more functional society than the humans. Epidemiology and AI.
Domestic Violence, Madeline Ashby. Smart homes and intimate partner abuse.
The Minnesota Diet, Charlie Jane Anders. Food security and algorithms.
The Starfish Girl, Maureen McHugh. Medical tech and sports rules.
Overvalued, Mark Stasenko. Stock trading and college funding.
When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis, Annalee Newitz. In which the crows have a more functional society than the humans. Epidemiology and AI.
2018 online short SFF - Apex
Feb. 24th, 2019 11:42 pmCaptain Midrise, Jim Marino. An aging superhero, and how his city reacts.
Three Meetings of the Pregnant Man Support Group, James Beamon. Good old alien incubation!
Work, and Ye Shall Eat, Walter McKnight. A historical reenactment town and... some kind of apocalypse. Maybe.
A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, Alix E. Harrow. A librarian, a kid, and some rules.
ETA: I already recced Naomi Kritzer's Field Biology of the Wee Fairies back in the early misc round, but it was from Apex so I'll note it here for completeness.
Three Meetings of the Pregnant Man Support Group, James Beamon. Good old alien incubation!
Work, and Ye Shall Eat, Walter McKnight. A historical reenactment town and... some kind of apocalypse. Maybe.
A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, Alix E. Harrow. A librarian, a kid, and some rules.
ETA: I already recced Naomi Kritzer's Field Biology of the Wee Fairies back in the early misc round, but it was from Apex so I'll note it here for completeness.
2018 online short SFF - Tor.com
Feb. 23rd, 2019 03:20 pmNine Last Days on Planet Earth, Daryl Gregory. I actually read this ages ago because Sue Burke recommended it. A compelling alien invasion and family story. NOVELETTE
The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys. Grad school, now with extra bonus life-distorting properties! This is really good. NOVELETTE
The Kite Maker, Brenda Peynado. Maybe it's weird that we're trying to tell and read stories about the atrocity while we're in the middle of the atrocity. But, anyways, this is about refugees, and is very painful and real.
The Need for Air, Lettie Prell. Transhumanist parenting troubles.
Recoveries, Susan Palwick. An alcoholic woman considering relapsing, and her friend with an eating disorder. Really sharply-drawn character stuff here. NOVELETTE
Meat And Salt And Sparks, Rich Larson. Chimpanzee detective and a murder case.
The Guile, Ian McDonald. I'm not so much into stage-magician stories (or anything about performers) but this was pretty good.
The Word of Flesh and Soul, Ruthanna Emrys. Grad school, now with extra bonus life-distorting properties! This is really good. NOVELETTE
The Kite Maker, Brenda Peynado. Maybe it's weird that we're trying to tell and read stories about the atrocity while we're in the middle of the atrocity. But, anyways, this is about refugees, and is very painful and real.
The Need for Air, Lettie Prell. Transhumanist parenting troubles.
Recoveries, Susan Palwick. An alcoholic woman considering relapsing, and her friend with an eating disorder. Really sharply-drawn character stuff here. NOVELETTE
Meat And Salt And Sparks, Rich Larson. Chimpanzee detective and a murder case.
The Guile, Ian McDonald. I'm not so much into stage-magician stories (or anything about performers) but this was pretty good.
