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useriv's review
I'm reading this for the story "The Girl Who Stole Herself" by R. Garcia y Robertson. It is hard to understand, and not in a very good-rewarding way. And I had to start with this story if I wanted to understand the sequel in the May/June 2020 issue. I'm getting to the conclusion it's not worth the effort.
Sometimes I'm self-conscious of writing reviews on the internet because the authors may read them... does this happen to someone else?
Sometimes I'm self-conscious of writing reviews on the internet because the authors may read them... does this happen to someone else?
standback's review
1.0
Unfortunately, an extremely poor issue.
There's one standout story, which I really enjoyed: "Other Worlds and This One," by Cadwell Turnbull. The narrator journeys through time and alternate realities, and the story is simply rich with voice, character and emotion. The story follows along, in parallel, with two very different characters, and the entire thing works marvelously well. Recommended.
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"Anabelle, Annie," by Lisa Goldstein, makes an interesting use of subverting expectations. What starts out feeling like a "Those Damn Rebellious Teens" story winds up criticizing the inclination to dismiss unpleasant truths. It's hard for me to feel this story is very satisfying; it's much more focused on the necessity of leaving the "wrong" side, then it is of claiming much any hope for the "right" one. On the other hand, it does acknowledge this, and the teens are right: ignoring a problem because there's no "happy" solution only makes everything worse.
"Gale Strang" is a character portrait of a young runaway, whois intersex, and the survivor of a childhood of abuse . Engaging and quiet. Employs the rather odd device of a sentient bird cage as narrator, and then doesn't actually do very much with it.
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As for the others, alas. Some I merely didn't enjoy; others were outright grating.
"How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry," by Alexander Jablokov:
This is that unfortunate kind of mystery story where the mystery is finding out what the mystery is.
"Something mysterious is going on" is our lede. And then the story just felt to me like a sequence of "Hey, what's going on," met by "I'm not telling, maybe go ask." It feels to me like very poor mystery construction; the author putting all the story's weight on, essentially, "I've got a secret," without giving me any reason to care about what that secret might be.
I DNF'd about a third of the way through, still with no reason to care about who's up on that bluff or why. I noped out at a scene where the investigator, Sere, is being a callous ass. This portrayal is deliberate, but I don't see what it's meant to be doing -- it's a thoroughly unsympathetic portrayal, leaving me less invested in an already-thin protagonist, nor does it seem to be building up to any particular consequences or story goals. I assume this is likely to be developed somehow later in the story - but I have no idea how, and I didn't stick around to find out. In this way as well, I feel like the story is banking on me being willing to read it through, instead of earning my trust and interest.
"The Patient Dragon," by David Gerrold:
An SF thriller. Sets up a pretty cool opening premise -- the protagonist's is attacked, and her "dragon," a military AI-grade companion, is destroyed, begging a slew of questions: Why? Was she the target, or the dragon itself? Who stands to gain?
The rest of the story doesn't really manage to live up to the set-up, though. Instead of following up on the story's questions, we meander into a "something is happening but we don't know what" situation; the story is engaging enough, but narratively it's treading water, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And the conclusion winds up sudden, rushed, and confusing.
"Field Studies," by Sheila Finch:
A homeless woman is approached by a mysterious, well-meaning individual, calling himself an anthropologist. It's a brief and well-executed. It didn't particularly grab me; it's mostly a portrait of poverty which feels very, very familiar.
"@lantis," by Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw: A stoner adventure with Zep and Del, where everything is gonzo and wacky and insufferable. In the first couple of pages alone, Zep is transformed into a crab and there is "magic foam" involved and somehow nobody has any sense of where or when anything is occurring. I skimmed ahead a bit, and didn't continue.
"An Evening with Severyn Grimes," by Rich Larson (Asimov’s):
A caper story, about renting or buying other people's bodies for personal use. Fun and peppy. Ends on kind of a weird note -- sympathetic to somebody that doesn’t seem to merit it at all.
"The Girl Who Stole Herself," by R. Garcia y Robertson:
Its breakneck pace is tense and exciting at the beginning. But the more octane Robertson pours in, the less coherent and interesting the story becomes. The protagonist being a secret confidante of a virtual monarch, now the target of some vicious slave traders — pretty darn awesome. But then she becomes a space viking! and explosions! and stuff!
It’s a flurry; it tries to maintain the pace by constantly adding *new* elements instead of bringing together strands that have already been established. And with each new element I care less and less. :-/ If the story had ended with her escape, and the rest had been left for a new piece, I feel like it would have worked much much better.
"Transcendental Mission: Riley's Story," by James Gunn, and
"Weighty Matters: Tordor's Story," by James Gunn:
I wasn't enthralled by Gunn's "Escape of the Adastra" last issue; this issue gives me two more teasers for Gunn's new novel.
"Riley's Story" is hardly a story. Riley is literally in the dark the entire story, until at the end, he's offered a mission he can't refuse -- to tag along with a mysterious pilgrimage and a mysterious prophet, presumably in Gunn's new book. That's it.
I didn't bother continuing to Tordor's story. Somehow, next issue is going to have two more of these. Why? WHY?
---
This is the third issue in my subscription, and it's a very dispiriting one. I'm getting the strong impression this magazine isn't for me.
There's one standout story, which I really enjoyed: "Other Worlds and This One," by Cadwell Turnbull. The narrator journeys through time and alternate realities, and the story is simply rich with voice, character and emotion. The story follows along, in parallel, with two very different characters, and the entire thing works marvelously well. Recommended.
---
"Anabelle, Annie," by Lisa Goldstein, makes an interesting use of subverting expectations. What starts out feeling like a "Those Damn Rebellious Teens" story winds up criticizing the inclination to dismiss unpleasant truths. It's hard for me to feel this story is very satisfying; it's much more focused on the necessity of leaving the "wrong" side, then it is of claiming much any hope for the "right" one. On the other hand, it does acknowledge this, and the teens are right: ignoring a problem because there's no "happy" solution only makes everything worse.
"Gale Strang" is a character portrait of a young runaway, who
---
As for the others, alas. Some I merely didn't enjoy; others were outright grating.
"How Sere Picked Up Her Laundry," by Alexander Jablokov:
This is that unfortunate kind of mystery story where the mystery is finding out what the mystery is.
"Something mysterious is going on" is our lede. And then the story just felt to me like a sequence of "Hey, what's going on," met by "I'm not telling, maybe go ask
I DNF'd about a third of the way through, still with no reason to care about who's up on that bluff or why. I noped out at a scene where the investigator, Sere, is being a callous ass. This portrayal is deliberate, but I don't see what it's meant to be doing -- it's a thoroughly unsympathetic portrayal, leaving me less invested in an already-thin protagonist, nor does it seem to be building up to any particular consequences or story goals. I assume this is likely to be developed somehow later in the story - but I have no idea how, and I didn't stick around to find out. In this way as well, I feel like the story is banking on me being willing to read it through, instead of earning my trust and interest.
"The Patient Dragon," by David Gerrold:
An SF thriller. Sets up a pretty cool opening premise -- the protagonist's is attacked, and her "dragon," a military AI-grade companion, is destroyed, begging a slew of questions: Why? Was she the target, or the dragon itself? Who stands to gain?
The rest of the story doesn't really manage to live up to the set-up, though. Instead of following up on the story's questions, we meander into a "something is happening but we don't know what" situation; the story is engaging enough, but narratively it's treading water, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And the conclusion winds up sudden, rushed, and confusing.
"Field Studies," by Sheila Finch:
A homeless woman is approached by a mysterious, well-meaning individual, calling himself an anthropologist. It's a brief and well-executed. It didn't particularly grab me; it's mostly a portrait of poverty which feels very, very familiar.
"@lantis," by Rudy Rucker and Marc Laidlaw: A stoner adventure with Zep and Del, where everything is gonzo and wacky and insufferable. In the first couple of pages alone, Zep is transformed into a crab and there is "magic foam" involved and somehow nobody has any sense of where or when anything is occurring. I skimmed ahead a bit, and didn't continue.
"An Evening with Severyn Grimes," by Rich Larson (Asimov’s):
A caper story, about renting or buying other people's bodies for personal use. Fun and peppy. Ends on kind of a weird note -- sympathetic to somebody that doesn’t seem to merit it at all.
"The Girl Who Stole Herself," by R. Garcia y Robertson:
Its breakneck pace is tense and exciting at the beginning. But the more octane Robertson pours in, the less coherent and interesting the story becomes. The protagonist being a secret confidante of a virtual monarch, now the target of some vicious slave traders — pretty darn awesome. But then she becomes a space viking! and explosions! and stuff!
It’s a flurry; it tries to maintain the pace by constantly adding *new* elements instead of bringing together strands that have already been established. And with each new element I care less and less. :-/ If the story had ended with her escape, and the rest had been left for a new piece, I feel like it would have worked much much better.
"Transcendental Mission: Riley's Story," by James Gunn, and
"Weighty Matters: Tordor's Story," by James Gunn:
I wasn't enthralled by Gunn's "Escape of the Adastra" last issue; this issue gives me two more teasers for Gunn's new novel.
"Riley's Story" is hardly a story. Riley is literally in the dark the entire story, until at the end, he's offered a mission he can't refuse -- to tag along with a mysterious pilgrimage and a mysterious prophet, presumably in Gunn's new book. That's it.
I didn't bother continuing to Tordor's story. Somehow, next issue is going to have two more of these. Why? WHY?
---
This is the third issue in my subscription, and it's a very dispiriting one. I'm getting the strong impression this magazine isn't for me.
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