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djotaku's review against another edition
4.0
A nice, solid collection this month. Here are my per-story thoughts:
Carouseling: An extremely sad and touching story about a couple and an experiment at a CERN-like lab. Wonder if the story was written/conceived back when everyone was afraid the collider would make a black hole. (That's not what happens, but I could definitely see it as an inspiration).
What will we do without exile: I've read many stories, both fiction and non-fiction about exiles from war. This is one of the first that deals with the friction between the new and old exiles. As someone who's the child of exiles (as is my wife), this story really hit home.
Violets on the Tongue: Another tale of exile, but this time it becomes more of an existential tale and eventually morphs into a mind-bending trip. Fun to read, though.
Logistics: Most fun opening sentence I've read in a short story in a while. This story was a bit tough to read in the middle of COVID-19. But I enjoyed the tone and it was different from the usual post-apocalyptic story in a few interesting ways. Fun to see how the genre is evolving.
The Wings of Earth (translated): I would say it's kind of a Chinese 2001: A Space Odessy. It's interesting in how the narrative flows. It's a little different that what I'm used to. But it was still a very interesting story that kept me guessing until the end.
The Baby Eaters: A very neat examination of another culture and their norms by using an alien race. I thought the alien culture was well conceived and the story flowed quite well. I'd read more in this universe.
Kit: Some Assembly Required: Kit Marlowe keeps appearing in various stories. I wonder why he has such a hold on writers. He was in the first book that gave me a deep dive into the Sidhe (or perhaps the second, I read them within the same year, I believe) as a character. Here once again as an emergent AI. This short story has an interesting structure where the narrative of the story is intermingled with a narrative that seems to me (who still knows nothing of Marlowe) to be autobiographical. It's an interesting story and an interesting take on emergent AI when there seem to be more and more of these stories as we get closer to potentially achieving the goal of AI. I was quite amused.
Non-Fiction
Inspiring Writers with Four Scientific Breakthroughs: The author guides the reader through a series of technologies that are currently in early stages and can serve as a basis for inspiration for near-future SF stories or extrapolated out to further future stories.
Quarks, Colonialism, and Alternate Realities: A conversation with Vandana Singh: This one was less about any individual story of Ms. Singh's and more about how her life and culture shape her outlook and her stories. I found it fascinating. Both types of interviews work well, but when I'm not familiar with the author, I really prefer this type of interview because I love learning about how other people see the world.
Another word: Breathing Life into Characters: One of my favorite readers to do work for Escape Artists explains how she gets into the head space of the characters.
Editor's Desk: Nine, Three, Six: A little about anthology releases and then a little about some Hugo nominees who'd appeared in Clarkesworld.
Carouseling: An extremely sad and touching story about a couple and an experiment at a CERN-like lab. Wonder if the story was written/conceived back when everyone was afraid the collider would make a black hole. (That's not what happens, but I could definitely see it as an inspiration).
What will we do without exile: I've read many stories, both fiction and non-fiction about exiles from war. This is one of the first that deals with the friction between the new and old exiles. As someone who's the child of exiles (as is my wife), this story really hit home.
Violets on the Tongue: Another tale of exile, but this time it becomes more of an existential tale and eventually morphs into a mind-bending trip. Fun to read, though.
Logistics: Most fun opening sentence I've read in a short story in a while. This story was a bit tough to read in the middle of COVID-19. But I enjoyed the tone and it was different from the usual post-apocalyptic story in a few interesting ways. Fun to see how the genre is evolving.
The Wings of Earth (translated): I would say it's kind of a Chinese 2001: A Space Odessy. It's interesting in how the narrative flows. It's a little different that what I'm used to. But it was still a very interesting story that kept me guessing until the end.
The Baby Eaters: A very neat examination of another culture and their norms by using an alien race. I thought the alien culture was well conceived and the story flowed quite well. I'd read more in this universe.
Kit: Some Assembly Required: Kit Marlowe keeps appearing in various stories. I wonder why he has such a hold on writers. He was in the first book that gave me a deep dive into the Sidhe (or perhaps the second, I read them within the same year, I believe) as a character. Here once again as an emergent AI. This short story has an interesting structure where the narrative of the story is intermingled with a narrative that seems to me (who still knows nothing of Marlowe) to be autobiographical. It's an interesting story and an interesting take on emergent AI when there seem to be more and more of these stories as we get closer to potentially achieving the goal of AI. I was quite amused.
Non-Fiction
Inspiring Writers with Four Scientific Breakthroughs: The author guides the reader through a series of technologies that are currently in early stages and can serve as a basis for inspiration for near-future SF stories or extrapolated out to further future stories.
Quarks, Colonialism, and Alternate Realities: A conversation with Vandana Singh: This one was less about any individual story of Ms. Singh's and more about how her life and culture shape her outlook and her stories. I found it fascinating. Both types of interviews work well, but when I'm not familiar with the author, I really prefer this type of interview because I love learning about how other people see the world.
Another word: Breathing Life into Characters: One of my favorite readers to do work for Escape Artists explains how she gets into the head space of the characters.
Editor's Desk: Nine, Three, Six: A little about anthology releases and then a little about some Hugo nominees who'd appeared in Clarkesworld.
mikewhiteman's review
4.0
Carouseling - Rich Larson *****
I'm a sucker for a big emotional moment and this one hits hard. Ostap and Alyce are in a long-distance relationship, using linkwear to feel each other's bodies and dance together while apart. Everything takes a turn when an experiment at Alyce's work goes wrong and the whole lab disappears. Their relationship is established with lots of sweet little touches, then that upheaval and the following events take things to the next level. Touchingly beautiful, tears everywhere.
Without Exile - Eleanna Castroianni ***
The structure of this one is nicely implemented, with Nell addressing her robotic assistant Luciole directly as events progress. It gives the intimacy of a first person account while constantly considering how another sees them and reacts, but is awkward in places. The story of a lawyer assisting refugees from the culture she was adopted from apply to the one she has grown up in is well conceived and sociopolitically layered but slipped into mawkishness near the end.
Violets On The Tongue - Nin Harris ****
Full of sensuous language, exploring the complex relationship between two human colonisers and an alien native, both romantic and political, as they deal with the impact their arrival on an alien world has had on both its inhabitants and the world itself. The way they have to subsume into each other and the over-soul to reconcile is full of wonder, although it wobbles on the edge of vagueness.
Logistics - AJ Fitzwater ***
Not completely convinced that rendering a vlog/livestream into text form works, but its well done and brings out the personality of the main character in a neat way. The threats of the post-apocalyptic world seem somewhat removed, the tone staying largely irreverent but for single lines of transcripted sobbing undercutting the facade. The lightness always quickly returns, but then this is a story about hunting for tampons in the wasteland, so that airy humour is a feature.
The Wings Of Earth - Jiang Bo, trans. Andy Dudak ***
First contact story with lots of cool imagery - the titular wings in particular - and a focus on co-operation succeeding and taking the advantages that come, while politics scrambles and guesses wrong. Gentle and positive.
The Baby Eaters - Ian McHugh **
This sort of looks at the ways in which propaganda becomes used to justify war, without ever really facing it head on, and then says the propaganda is in fact true - odd. A well-worn predator-prey alien interaction doesn't liven it up.
KIT: Some Assembly Required - Kathe Koja & Carter Scholz ***
An emergent AI models itself on Christopher Marlowe as it becomes self aware and develops itself, dealing with both it huge powers and its limitations as a creation of man. A neat idea but the juxtaposition didn't feel completely effective.
I'm a sucker for a big emotional moment and this one hits hard. Ostap and Alyce are in a long-distance relationship, using linkwear to feel each other's bodies and dance together while apart. Everything takes a turn when an experiment at Alyce's work goes wrong and the whole lab disappears. Their relationship is established with lots of sweet little touches, then that upheaval and the following events take things to the next level. Touchingly beautiful, tears everywhere.
Without Exile - Eleanna Castroianni ***
The structure of this one is nicely implemented, with Nell addressing her robotic assistant Luciole directly as events progress. It gives the intimacy of a first person account while constantly considering how another sees them and reacts, but is awkward in places. The story of a lawyer assisting refugees from the culture she was adopted from apply to the one she has grown up in is well conceived and sociopolitically layered but slipped into mawkishness near the end.
Violets On The Tongue - Nin Harris ****
Full of sensuous language, exploring the complex relationship between two human colonisers and an alien native, both romantic and political, as they deal with the impact their arrival on an alien world has had on both its inhabitants and the world itself. The way they have to subsume into each other and the over-soul to reconcile is full of wonder, although it wobbles on the edge of vagueness.
Logistics - AJ Fitzwater ***
Not completely convinced that rendering a vlog/livestream into text form works, but its well done and brings out the personality of the main character in a neat way. The threats of the post-apocalyptic world seem somewhat removed, the tone staying largely irreverent but for single lines of transcripted sobbing undercutting the facade. The lightness always quickly returns, but then this is a story about hunting for tampons in the wasteland, so that airy humour is a feature.
The Wings Of Earth - Jiang Bo, trans. Andy Dudak ***
First contact story with lots of cool imagery - the titular wings in particular - and a focus on co-operation succeeding and taking the advantages that come, while politics scrambles and guesses wrong. Gentle and positive.
The Baby Eaters - Ian McHugh **
This sort of looks at the ways in which propaganda becomes used to justify war, without ever really facing it head on, and then says the propaganda is in fact true - odd. A well-worn predator-prey alien interaction doesn't liven it up.
KIT: Some Assembly Required - Kathe Koja & Carter Scholz ***
An emergent AI models itself on Christopher Marlowe as it becomes self aware and develops itself, dealing with both it huge powers and its limitations as a creation of man. A neat idea but the juxtaposition didn't feel completely effective.
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