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pearseanderson's review
4.0
Thank you Lightspeed magazine for providing me with three months worth of free issues. Well, not me specifically, but in general this is a great deal people should jump on before it pops away.
Great job Lightspeed magazine. Damn. This issue was better than Clarkesworld's March issue, and that is honestly really impressive to me.
Observations:
"The Wordless" was a piece of subdued, interesting queer sci-fi that let its details settle into the reader like dust in the story's port planet after a ship takes off. Very happy Das will be writing more in this universe.
"Come-from-Aways" and "Death Every Seventy-Two Minutes" were solid, and clearly written by big players, but they didn't push me far enough. The plots went a distance and then seemed to fall over like bad desert wanderers.
"The Debt of the Innocent" introduced me to a cool new anthology called Glorifying Terrorism I'll have to check out, because similar to "Three Bodies at Mitanni," this story made me question my morals. Really successfully. Still though, favorite story in the sci-fi section would probably be Das's.
"Soccer Fields and Frozen Lakes" reads like sci-fi, but it was categorized under fantasy. This one made my eyes water. The Encroaching Presence of government control, a la alienation of ethnic groups like Jews or American Indians really struck a cord and worked throughout, and the Presence itself had a similar effective behavior to Alexi Zentner's Encroaching Presence of Winter in Touch.
"The Stone Lover" was really quick, cute, and unique. It followed all the behaviors of a fairy tale (according to Kate Bernheimer, these are flatness, abstraction, intuitive logic, and normalized magic). Glad to see I'm enjoying Classics/Greek mythos for once.
"La Peau Verte" ended in SUCH A SIMILAR NOTE to a story in Year's Best Weird Fiction I had to do a double take. Not a great ending, but the middle was really rockin', and Kiernan uses red herrings and clues to her utmost advantage.
"Phantom Pain" wasn't fantasy either, and it wasn't my favorite either. But I decided to stick around for the ~6000 word ride and eh, wasn't a huge disappointment.
This month's book reviews could've used a Rule of Threes. The author spotlights were nice though, and the TV review too.
I skipped the novella and Orbital Cloud excerpt. Shoot me, I was in the mood for small fiction. 8/10 overall, pretty good buddy, pretty good.
Great job Lightspeed magazine. Damn. This issue was better than Clarkesworld's March issue, and that is honestly really impressive to me.
Observations:
"The Wordless" was a piece of subdued, interesting queer sci-fi that let its details settle into the reader like dust in the story's port planet after a ship takes off. Very happy Das will be writing more in this universe.
"Come-from-Aways" and "Death Every Seventy-Two Minutes" were solid, and clearly written by big players, but they didn't push me far enough. The plots went a distance and then seemed to fall over like bad desert wanderers.
"The Debt of the Innocent" introduced me to a cool new anthology called Glorifying Terrorism I'll have to check out, because similar to "Three Bodies at Mitanni," this story made me question my morals. Really successfully. Still though, favorite story in the sci-fi section would probably be Das's.
"Soccer Fields and Frozen Lakes" reads like sci-fi, but it was categorized under fantasy. This one made my eyes water. The Encroaching Presence of government control, a la alienation of ethnic groups like Jews or American Indians really struck a cord and worked throughout, and the Presence itself had a similar effective behavior to Alexi Zentner's Encroaching Presence of Winter in Touch.
"The Stone Lover" was really quick, cute, and unique. It followed all the behaviors of a fairy tale (according to Kate Bernheimer, these are flatness, abstraction, intuitive logic, and normalized magic). Glad to see I'm enjoying Classics/Greek mythos for once.
"La Peau Verte" ended in SUCH A SIMILAR NOTE to a story in Year's Best Weird Fiction I had to do a double take. Not a great ending, but the middle was really rockin', and Kiernan uses red herrings and clues to her utmost advantage.
"Phantom Pain" wasn't fantasy either, and it wasn't my favorite either. But I decided to stick around for the ~6000 word ride and eh, wasn't a huge disappointment.
This month's book reviews could've used a Rule of Threes. The author spotlights were nice though, and the TV review too.
I skipped the novella and Orbital Cloud excerpt. Shoot me, I was in the mood for small fiction. 8/10 overall, pretty good buddy, pretty good.
sarrie's review
4.0
My favorites out of this was The Worldless (the language in this one was stellar - I've got puns for days), The Debt of the Innocent (which was incredibly hard to read but so engaging), and probably The Stone Lover (this one felt like a classic fairy tale, but twisted). There were a lot of good ones in there, I enjoyed almost every story in the issue, but those three were the ones that stick out to me.
mikewhiteman's review
3.0
The Worldless - Indrapramit Das ***
Heavy on the neologisms but a touching story of people working around a starship port, some who choose to become refugees to get away, and the costs to them and their kin.
The Debt Of The Innocent - Rachel Swirsky ****
Examines the morality and effectiveness of violent acts of protest at their most extreme through four couples with newborn babies, linked by the nurse caring for their children.
Death Every Seventy-Two Minutes - Adam-Troy Castro ***
Takes the idea of a man experiencing the unlikely death of a parallel version of himself every 72 minutes to its logical conclusion, although it would have been good to see it explored a little further on the way.
Come-From-Aways - Julian Mortimer Smith ***
Atmospheric tale of small-town life touched by strange artifacts washed up on the beach. How quickly the mysterious becomes the everyday.
Phantom Pain - Eileen Gunn **
Disjointed, time-hopping, hallucinatory story of a wounded soldier. Dull military sections and flat description of pain mechanisms and disorders.
The Stone Lover - Marta Randall **
A short fable on the dangers of obsession (and masturbation, apparently?) Never really rises above "it's bad".
La Peau Verte - Caitlín R. Kiernan **
Meandering fairy story that pads out a couple of nice sections at the beginning and end with lots of "what really happened in my traumatic childhood" psychology.
Soccer Fields And Frozen Lakes - Greg Kurzawa ***
Grieving, melancholic story. The parts about the monitoring and dehumanisation of hybrids felt somehow mismatched from the parts showing a man dealing with loss of his family. Maybe a bit more room to expand would have firmed the connection up. Enjoyed this nonetheless.
Proving The Rule - Holly Phillips ***
A journalist investigates rumours of something keeping magic out of the world. Liked a lot about this one, but the vague worldbuilding and the way it ends bring it down just a touch.
Heavy on the neologisms but a touching story of people working around a starship port, some who choose to become refugees to get away, and the costs to them and their kin.
The Debt Of The Innocent - Rachel Swirsky ****
Examines the morality and effectiveness of violent acts of protest at their most extreme through four couples with newborn babies, linked by the nurse caring for their children.
Death Every Seventy-Two Minutes - Adam-Troy Castro ***
Takes the idea of a man experiencing the unlikely death of a parallel version of himself every 72 minutes to its logical conclusion, although it would have been good to see it explored a little further on the way.
Come-From-Aways - Julian Mortimer Smith ***
Atmospheric tale of small-town life touched by strange artifacts washed up on the beach. How quickly the mysterious becomes the everyday.
Phantom Pain - Eileen Gunn **
Disjointed, time-hopping, hallucinatory story of a wounded soldier. Dull military sections and flat description of pain mechanisms and disorders.
The Stone Lover - Marta Randall **
A short fable on the dangers of obsession (and masturbation, apparently?) Never really rises above "it's bad".
La Peau Verte - Caitlín R. Kiernan **
Meandering fairy story that pads out a couple of nice sections at the beginning and end with lots of "what really happened in my traumatic childhood" psychology.
Soccer Fields And Frozen Lakes - Greg Kurzawa ***
Grieving, melancholic story. The parts about the monitoring and dehumanisation of hybrids felt somehow mismatched from the parts showing a man dealing with loss of his family. Maybe a bit more room to expand would have firmed the connection up. Enjoyed this nonetheless.
Proving The Rule - Holly Phillips ***
A journalist investigates rumours of something keeping magic out of the world. Liked a lot about this one, but the vague worldbuilding and the way it ends bring it down just a touch.
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