My life in books

John Chu, "Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me"; Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2017
http://uncannymagazine.com/article/making-magic-lightning-strike/

What prices are we prepared to pay to become what we most want to be - or think we want to be? This science-fictional story of the proverbial 98-pound weakling who wants to be a muscle man explores this question with sensitivity and compassion. The protagonist has made a heavy bargain - taking a dangerous underground job in return fir extensive alterations that turn his body into the muscular machine he longs to be, but even with all the external changes, it isn't quite enough.


Nicole Kornher-Stace, "Last Chance"; Clarkesworld, July 2017
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kornher-stace_07_17/

A post-apocalyptic story about a young girl who is captured by scavengers and used as a labourer to search for 'Before' treasures in a dangerous ruin. The protagonist's voice is well-developed and consistent, the story interesting, and the ending holds out some hope that taking the proverbial last chance nay bring something good. A good read.


Vina Jie-Min Prasad, "Fandom for Robots"; Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2017
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/fandom-for-robots/

Computron is the only sentient robot ever created, by accident, by a scientist who was never able to recreate his achievement. Computron 'lives' in a museum devoted to the history of robotics; it displays its sentience to museum visitors by answering their random questions. One day, a young visitor asks Computron if it has ever watched a particular anime series about a human and a sentient robot seeking revenge for the destruction of the human's family. Computron watches the anime, and discovers fandom. It's a charming story with sone spot-on observations about fandom, shipping, and fanfic. It's also a bit of a parable, about the way that the most unlikely of outsiders can find acceptance and friendship in the online world of fandom.


Rebecca Roanhorse, "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience (TM)"; Apex Magazine, August 8, 2017
https://www.apex-magazine.com/welcome-to-your-authentic-indian-experience/

Jesse Turnblatt, like most of his co-workers at Sedona Sweats, is a 'real Indian' who sells VR fantasy experiences to white tourists who "don’t want a real Indian experience. They want what they see in the movies." So he gives them fantasies about Indians who never were, until one day he meets a client who wants so much more.

This is half science fiction, half horror, and all about the real Indian experiences of cultural appropriation, the intersection of racism and sexism, theft of land, culture and even identity, and ultimately, genocide. The ending floored me with its parallels to the history of white appropriation of everything Indigenous. Read it.


Malinda Lo, "Ghost Town"; Uncanny Magazine, September/October, 2017 (originally published in Defy the Dark, ed. Saundra Mitchell, 2013)
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/ghost-town/

It's Halloween in Pinnacle, a small town in Colorado with a history of mining prosperity during the 'Old West' and a tradition of celebrating its ghosts. Ty is a young butch transplanted from San Francisco with her family to a place where she doesn't fit in, where there's no real place for a young lesbian among all the Beckys and Chads. When popular girl at school McKenzie invites her to go ghost hunting on Halloween, Ty accepts.

This is a ghost story. A good one. It's also a story about bullying and anti-queer bigotry and the history of violence against transgressive women - and a sisterhood that transcends the grave. It's told in layers, peeling back the events of the evening until the reader finally understands everything, and the impact is all the more because of this. I liked it a lot.


Lavie Tidhar, "The Old Dispensation"; Tor.com, February 8, 2017
https://www.tor.com/2017/02/08/the-old-dispensation/

The short story is framed as the observations of a telepathic ruler (or rulers, or some intermediate being with multiple consciousness) known as the Exilarch torturing one of its trained assassins to determine just what happened on his latest mission, from which he returned somehow changed. It is set in an interstellar theocratic empire based on Jewish tradition and culture, but it's a nasty place indeed, where heresy merits death and the Treif - races outside the rules of acceptability - are freely warred on to the point of extermination. Lavie leaves quite a lot to the reader to work out, including the nature of the Exilarch, the origin of the Empire, and the consequences of what happened to the assassin during his mission. Interesting reading, but I found it unsatisfying despite the suggestion at the end that the Exilarch's reign of terror might be nearing its end.


Yoon Ha Lee, "Extracurricular Activities"; Tor.com, February 15, 2017
https://www.tor.com/2017/02/15/extracurricular-activities/

Lee's novelette is set in the same universe as his novels Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem, and features one of the protagonists from that series, but is more accessible to the casual reader. It is set early in Shuos Jedao's career, and demonstrates the combination of skill, daring and foresight that will make Jedao legendary. The narrative has a light, at tines almost comedic tone, but there are hints of what is to come, particularly in Jedao's consciousness of the number of kills he makes. Yet at the sane time it's clear that he is dangerous, and thinks in terms of threat and violence. For readers of the novels, it's an interesting glimpse into one of Lee's most interesting characters. For those who don't already know Shuos Jedao, it's a finely crafted sf spy story.

Aegri Somnia, (eds.) Jason Sizemore and Gill Ainsworth

Despite its name – which means, in Latin, “a sick man’s dream,” this is a collection of stories to keep you awake at night. As Sizemore says in his introduction, “when you present a theme such as Aegri Somnia to a group of twisted horror writers, well, you should expect disturbing results.”

Now, I don’t read a lot of material that falls into the realms that can be variously described as horror, dark fantasy, supernatural horror, or horror fantasy (is there a specific name for dark or horror science fiction? – because there’s certainly some of that in this anthology too). But “a lot” is a relative term. I have more than a nodding acquaintance with some of the early masters – Shelley, Stoker, Poe, Lovecraft, Bloch, Smith – and some of the modern greats – King, Straub, Koontz, Striber, Wilson, Barker, Rice – and a few others along the way. In fact, when I’m in the mood, I derive a profound visceral pleasure from the experience of being freaked out of my skull.

Which brings us back to Aegri Somnia.

I must admit, in the interests of full disclosure, that I bought this collection because of one story, “YY,” by Jennifer Pelland. Pelland is not only a personal friend, but someone with a great deal of talent as a writer, and I’m delighted to see her work in publication. “YY” is a gruesome tale about misogyny, paternity, posterity, and what can happen when science is mis-used in support of questionable ideology. I enjoyed the story very much, as I knew I would.

Not unexpectedly, there are lots of other chilling freak-out reads in this collection. Some of my other favourites from the collection are:

“The League of Lost Girls” by Christopher Rowe – a satirical look at the conventions of the drama, with a true horror twist at the end.

“Nothing of Me” by Eugie Foster – A rich reworking of Greek legends, where the greatest horror lies in what we do to ourselves.

“Heal Thyself” by Scott Nicholson – in which the question is raised, not just for each of us, but for society as a whole: which is worse, the memory of past horrors committed, or the fear of retribution long-delayed.

“Letters from Weirdside” by Lavie Tidhar – a chilling and intriguing meditation on the processes of creativity and the sources of dreams and nightmares.

“Mens Rea” by Steven Savile – I have a particular, personal horror of being accused, hunted, punished, unjustly, of being innocent and yet trapped in the fate of the guilty. This story pushed those buttons, hard. And it doesn’t come out all right in the end, which is why this is a personal horror, because you know, the cavalry doesn’t usually come riding over the hill at the very last moment.

“Well of the Waters” by Mari Adkins – this little story about things falling apart draws on some very traditional Celtic elements – and if you know anything about me by now, you’ll know I can’t resist being drawn into a story like that.

Other stories included in the anthology – and all of them worth reading, even if they did not strike me quite as powerfully as the others:

“All Praise to the Dreamer” by Nancy Frieda
“On the Shoulders of Giants” by Bryn Sparks
“Dream Takers” by Rhonda Eudaly
“Wishbones” by Cherie Priest
“All Becomes as Wormwood” by Angeline Hawkes

Just the thing for reading on a dark and windy night, when you’re all alone…