Birthday Review: Stories of Ann Leckie

Today is Ann Leckie's birthday. I was delighted to find her first SF story in Subterranean Magazine way back in 2006, and to reprint it in my Best of the Year collection. I was even more delighted when I later learned that we live in neighboring suburbs, and indeed that our children attended the same high school. And I was most delighted of all when she continued to grow as a writer, producing a whole series of excellent short stories, both fantasy and SF, and then winning a Hugo for her first novel, Ancillary Justice. She has written three more SF novels in the same universe, but her new novel, The Raven Tower, is Fantasy, in the mode (and, I believe, sharing a world) with many of her fantasy short stories, which are very interested in questioning the nature of the relationship between gods and humans. (The only downside of her success as a novelist, is, as with many short fiction writers turned novelists, she has published much less short fiction since her novels began appearing.)

Locus, September 2006

I have just recently discovered the new magazine Subterranean, and I have been quite impressed. Issue #4, guest-edited by John Scalzi, concerns SF clichés. Scalzi assembles a nice set of short stories, some of which are essentially japes, as one might expect, but most of which are quite serious attempts at breathing new life into some rather hoary ideas. And most are pretty successful. Scalzi features several very new writers, who acquit themselves admirably, particularly Ann Leckie, whose “Hesperia and Glory” inverts the John Carter template by having a Prince of Mars mysteriously transported to Earth.

Locus, December 2007

Speaking of online publications, “The Snake’s Wife”, by Ann Leckie (Helix, October) is a story of dynastic struggles between two regions in a fantastical world, and as such is somewhat traditional. But there are several legitimately shocking acts at the heart of it, and all is resolved starkly and honestly. The narrator is the third son of an ambitious king of an area devoted to a serpent god. His father, based on prophecies of his god, has decided to refuse the offer for his daughter’s hand of the prince of another land, this one devoted to a sky god, but under the curse of the serpent god. This land’s king is also acting based on his god’s promises. What follows is a story of war, forced marriage, mutilation, and revenge: ultimately suggesting that the promises of gods may come true but ought to regarded with great suspicion.

Locus, August 2008

And while discussing Helix I should mention a particularly strong story from the previous issue (April): Ann Leckie’s “The God of Au”, an original fantasy about the dangers – and benefits – of making bargains with gods, as a group of refugees comes to a remote island and agrees to the demands of the local god; with a variety of consequences.

Locus, December 2008

In the fine online ‘zine Lone Star Stories ... I also enjoyed Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky’s “Needle and Thread”, about a dressmaker charged to make a gown to turn a princess beautiful – but such magic is illegal. And, perhaps, wasted – the prince is not so interested in beauty. The characters are well done, the idea clever –, but it flattens into a somewhat conventional morality fairy tale, not quite what I’ve come to expect from either of these excellent new writers. Still, it does what it aims to do quite well.

Locus, July 2009

Clockwork Phoenix is the most experimental and often the most interesting of the impressive stable of four anthologies published by Norilana. My favorite story is Ann Leckie’s “The Endangered Camp”, which she says resulted from a sort of challenge to combine dinosaurs, post-apocalyptic fiction, and Mars – and does so beautifully as the crew of the first spaceship to Mars witnesses the asteroid striking Earth and wonders what to do.

Locus, February 2010

The February Realms of Fantasy I also like Ann Leckie’s “The Unknown God”, in which the god Aworo, in human form, returns to the city where he tragically misused his power, condemning a woman he loved to, he though, death. He learns she still lives, but in constrained circumstances due to his curse. And naturally she (and her own god) are not too happy with him. Leckie is as ever inventive and logical and grounded about the power and responsibility of godhood.

Locus, December 2012

I thought the Summer issue of Electric Velocipede one of its stronger outings. Ann Leckie's “Night's Slow Poison” is an enjoyable if somewhat old-fashioned story about a man from an isolated planet charged with protecting its main secret – how to navigate there – from its enemies. It's set on a spaceship heading to this planet, though the real interest comes as we learn the back story of the main character – his disappointment in love – or his family's financial distress – either of which, perhaps, might motivate him to treachery?

Locus, January 2015

Strange Horizons completed its annual fund drive in November successfully, and so published a bonus story by Ann Leckie, “She Commands Me and I Obey”. It's good  work, set on a space station, and told by a young novice at a monastery. It seems the rulers of the Precinct are determined by the results of games, and this year the longstanding ruler's champion is to be challenged by a particularly promising upstart. Leckie mixes in some familiar ingredients: the novice with a hidden past, the harsh fate of the games' losers, the hidden motives of the monks, and plenty of political corruption. So the story doesn't really surprise but it's involving and quite fun.

Old Bestseller Review: Snowdrift and other stories, by Georgette Heyer

Snowdrift and other stories, by Georgette Heyer

a review by Rich Horton

When I was a teenager I read every one of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances, and her other romances and historicals (except for My Lord John), and her mysteries, as well. I also read 1 1/2 of her early contemporary novels, but I gave up on them, finding them truly dire. I've reread some of my favorites among the romances on occasion since that time. (My favorites are, I suppose, Sylvester, Sprig Muslin, Frederica, Arabella, and These Old Shades. Probably a couple more could be fit in there.)

So I was surprised to see, at Sally Kobee's booth at Boskone a couple of weeks ago, a Heyer book I didn't recognize: Snowdrift and other stories. It turns out, however, that this is a slight expansion of her only story collection, which I read back in the day under the title Pistols for Two. This book adds three "recently discovered" stories to the 11 that appeared in the first collection. Apparently she wrote nearly two dozen short stories all told -- I suspect the stories not reprinted have contemporary settings. The book seems to have been assembled by Jennifer Kloester, who has written two books about Heyer, including a biography. She also provides an introduction.

Heyer was a novelist, and these short stories don't show her at her best. But they are by and large cute and enjoyable, if implausible and often vaguely unsatisfying. She just doesn't have time to unspool the sort of plot she could do at greater length, and, more importantly, she couldn't really make the inevitable end of story realizations that the two main characters are destined to be together very convincing. Falling in love at first sight is a romance convention, but the fun of many of Heyer's books is that even if the characters do fall in love at first sight (and they usually do not) it takes them a few hundred pages to realize it. Herein they mostly have to be ready to get married within 20 pages.

The stories are:

"Snowdrift" (5700 words)
"Full Moon" (6600 words)
"Pistols for Two" (5500 words)
"A Clandestine Affair" (8700 words)
"Bath Miss" (5400 words)
"Pink Domino" (5500 words)
"A Husband for Fanny" (5300 words)
"To Have the Honour" (6000 words)
"Night at the Inn" (6200 words)
"The Duel" (5000 words)
"Hazard" (5800 words)
"Pursuit" (5200 words)
"Runaway Match" (4900 words)
"Incident on the Bath Road" (5100 words)

(The last three stories on that list are the "recent discoveries".)

There are a couple of duels, several elopements (though nobody actually reaches Gretna Green), and lots of 30-something men falling in love with and quickly claiming girls of 19 or so. There are also a couple of cases of older men and older women getting together (that is, men in their late 30s or 40s, women in the mid to late 20s -- in one case, a widow well into her 30s, though!) -- I have always liked those better in principle, in her novels as well as these stories -- the women are more mature, more even matches for the men. The cases where men almost twice the age of the girl heroines marry them seem problematic -- and it's worse in these short stories, where there is really no established relationship -- the characters don't know much about each other except that they like the other's looks, and maybe that they are decent to talk to for a few minutes. But there you are -- that's the nature of the genre, I suppose.

As I said, though I found these stories less satisfying than Heyer's novels, they were still enjoyable. The conversation is often amusing. The plots are simple, but in at least a couple of cases there are cute twists. It is amusing as a reader to guess from the beginning what's going to happen -- amusing but generally fairly easy. Certainly a minor part of Heyer's oeuvre, and likely only for completists, but if you are a fan, these are worth your time.

Birthday Review: Stories of John Barnes (and one novel, A Princess of the Aerie)

Today is John Barnes's birthday. I think he's one of the best pure SF writers of our time. In particular, The Sky So Big and Black is one of the best SF novels of this millennium -- and one of the scariest. Here's a selection of my reviews of his work in Locus, plus a review of his novel A Princess of the Aerie that appeared in the UK magazine 3SF.

Locus, November 2005

The November Analog features a novella by John Barnes, the latest in his Thousand Cultures series, which opened with a beautiful Analog novelette, “Canso de Fis de Jovent”. “The Diversification of His Fancy” reads like a bridge to a new novel. That said, it stands pretty well alone, though it may be a bit too long. Giraut Leones, the series’ hero, is now a celebrated musician (as well as a spy) – and he has also been a target of assassination attempts. His latest concert seems likely to be the venue for another attempt – and so we witness his “entourage” as they try to protect him. His entourage includes (among others) his ex-wife; his once dead friend; his father, who is now younger than him; and his lover. We learn little enough about the assassination plot (I presume that’s left for the novel?), but we learn a lot about the background of the Thousand Cultures, and especially about their somewhat imperfect immortality technology, which is based on recorded minds being downloaded into new bodies. (Hence the once dead friend and the younger father.) This story turns movingly on one of the central imperfections of this technology: not everyone can be saved and downloaded.

Locus, January 2006

The January-February Analog is also strong, indeed, one of the best issues in some time. There is good work in particular from Rajnar Vajra, Mark W. Tiedemann, and Richard A. Lovett, and an intriguing far future reverse take on today’s environmental controversies by Julian Flood, “Change”. But the best story is the longest: John Barnes’s “’The Night is Fine’, the Walrus Said”, a direct sequel to “The Diversification of its Fancy” (November 2005), and due to be followed by its own sequel in March. Indeed, it would appear that Barnes’s latest Thousand Cultures novel is perhaps being stealthily serialized in Analog, at least in part. I have no complaints! The stories work well enough on their own, though they are very clearly parts of a larger whole.  In this story Giraut Leones is again the subject of multiple assassination attempts as he tries to get his latest musical project finished. He seems to be the target of some faction of a group of illegal human colonies on distant planets. Things are further complicated when he begins to fall for a woman from his past – who seems to be connected to a representative of those colonies, and who is also a passionate Ixist. (The Ixist religion (introduced in an earlier book) being the subject of Giraut’s latest work.) The ending reveals some secrets, and sets the stage for much more to be revealed soon – involving AIs, aliens, the curious life-extension tech on this future, and of course the illegal colonies.

Locus, February 2006

John Barnes’s latest Thousand Cultures story continues in the March Analog with “The Little White Nerves Went Last”. A recording of Giraut Leones’s old boss Shan has been hosted in Giraut, and both are in the custody of rogue “aintellects”. Shan in particular had been a fierce opponent of AI rights, and this story consists mostly of his account of his childhood on a distant planet. The story reveals some important secrets of Barnes’s future – the source of his enabling “springer” (matter transmitter) technology, and the nature and motivations of a threatening alien civilization. This story is interesting and moving, if at times just a bit pat. The stage seems well and truly set for a pretty spectacular finish.

Locus, May 2006

I thought the best stories in the first issue of Baen's Universe were two longer novelettes. “Poga” by John Barnes, is a fantasy about a woman, Plain Old Goddamn Amy (or “Poga”), whose father was a struggling fantasy writer who suddenly made it big. In this world, Elfland is roughly Wyoming, and she lives in Colorado, near the border. She is struggling with a lonely life, and her dead father’s ambiguous legacy, and her uneasy relationship with the fantastical promise of Elfland.

Locus, November 2006

In October at Baen's Universe I thought two stories stood out – perhaps not quite what a reader of Baen Books would expect. ... Even better is John Barnes’s “Every Hole is Outlined”, set very far in the future, and essentially the life story of a girl sold from slavery into service on a starship. The small starship crew lives at a different rate, in essence, from planetbound people, and in a very different way as well. And there are mysteries – in particular the ghosts … Barnes’s heroine goes from a young girl more or less manipulated into marriage with an old man to the ship’s captain, and as we read of her life we learn fascinating snippets of the culture she inhabits. It’s quite a moving story, and it hints at a very interesting future.

Locus, February 2007

The new online magazine Helix offers a very good third issue. Among several strong stories I’ll mention particularly John Barnes’s “Rod Rapid and His Electric Chair” is a very mordantly funny send up of a Tom Swift-like series of books and more to the point the racist and fascist views expressed therein – which lead to the end of the world.

Locus, September 2007

The August Baen’s Universe includes another strong story from John Barnes, who had two of the best stories there last year. “An Ocean is a Snowflake, Four Billion Miles Away” is about a couple of documentary makers on Mars to record the impact of a comet as part of the terraforming effort. They have sort of a Red Mars/Green Mars conflict: Léoa’s point of view is to mourn the loss of the old Mars, while Thorby (a significant name in SF terms, but I admit I can’t figure out the reason for the nod to Citizen of the Galaxy) wants to celebrate the coming of a new Mars, and also wants to document Big Energy Release Events – that is to say, things blowing up. The story turns, however, on their more personal characters – Thorby’s lonely life, Léoa’s ambition – as plotwise it pivots on an accident on the surface of Mars.

Locus, January 2010

However, they (Jim Baen's Universe) do close 2009 with perhaps the best story they’ve published yet, and one of the great stories of the year: John Barnes’s “Things Undone”. Rastigevat is a highborn member of a rather darkly formed society. His partner is of lower class, but we learn quickly that they are in love, for which the lower born individual is liable to be executed. Their job is curious – they track down time travelers and try to minimize the damage they can cause. The story turns on several things – the feelings of the main characters (Rastigevat in particular, as he seems to be borderline autistic), eventual revelations about the true nature of this world – an alternate history – and why it’s different to our world, the rather subtle delineation of the extent of the differences (accompanied by some of the typical alternate history namedropping, but here employed to much better effect than usual), and of course a conspiracy … In the end it’s very moving, very involving – I was reminded of one of my favorite time travel stories of all time, John Brunner’s “The Fullness of Time”.

Locus, March 2011

Jonathan Strahan serves notice that 2011 may be as strong a year as the past few in original anthologies with Engineering Infinity. ... John Barnes closes the book with “The Birds and the Bees and the Gasoline Trees”. Stephanie and her husband Lars are part of an expedition to the Southern Ocean to investigate a curious feature: a mat of huge upside down “trees”. The nature of the trees and the reason for them is pretty neat, in an SFnal way. The story also has a fine character-based conflict, as Lars’s ex-wife, a humaniform android built for space exploration is also along on the trip; and Stephanie is fiercely jealous of her, a jealousy only complicated by her being as nice as she is physically and mentally superior. Fine work from a first-rate but I feel underrated writer.

Life on Mars Review (Locus, May 2011)

Finally the best two stories come from Ian McDonald and John Barnes. ...Barnes’s “Martian Heart” posits a condition that affects a significant subset of Martian colonists, whereby their heart fails due to the conditions on the planet. The “colonists” here are essentially indentured. For example, the narrator, Cap, and his wife Sam are homeless people on Earth, shipped to Mars in lieu of time in the army, hoping to earn their way back to Earth by prospecting. But the odds of a prospector hitting it big are minuscule – so they’re likely stuck on Mars. And things get worse when Sam’s heart begins to fail. The story is in a sense about how Cap – who is telling it decades later – finally hits it big – and why Sam is the reason he did. Sentimental stuff, I suppose, but in the best way, and it hit me right in the gut.

Locus, December 2012

Strahan also gives us a new anthology of stories set in the relatively near future Solar System, Edge of Infinity, which has a plethora of neat pieces. ... John Barnes's “Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh”, about an AI who gets involved (it's his job) with the relationship issues of a man and a woman – which ends up impacting the relationship of humans and  AIs quite profoundly.

Review of A Princess of the Aerie for 3SF, April 2003

Last year I was quite taken with John Barnes's novel The Duke of Uranium, a romp set in a well-inhabited 36th Century Solar System over That novel introduced Jak Jinnaka, a charismatic young man who, it is hinted, will achieve great (and perhaps sinister) power later in his life. Barnes seemed to deliberately sprinkle that book with references to Heinlein, and in many ways it read like a present-day Heinlein juvenile. But Barnes evidently has different things in mind, and the sequel, A Princess of the Aerie, is certainly not a Young Adult book. It is, however, an interesting and very enjoyable read, set in a politically and technologically fascinating future.

Jak's former girlfriend, Shyf, was revealed in the first book to be a princess of a nation in the Aerie, a cluster of space habitats located at the Earth-Sun L4 point. Jak lives in the Hive, at the L5 point, and he's studying at the Public Service Academy, with his friend Dujuv, a young man with panther-derived genes. Jak is looking for a class project, and at the same time he gets a message from Shyf, asking him for help and hinting at a resumption of their relationship. So Jak, Dujuv, and Dujuv's ex-girlfriend Myxenna, head for the Aerie. Once there, however, they find that Shyf claims not to have sent any such message. They also learn that Shyf is not the person they thought she was, instead she is a sex-mad, power-mad, spoiled brat. But Jak and his friends, partly because of what seems to be unusual luck on Jak's part, foil an attempt on the Princess's father's life. As a reward, they are sent to the hellish mines of Mercury, where they get involved with a revolution against a group angling to take control of Mercury's resources.

The story is exciting in itself, and furthermore it is fascinating in its cynical view of realpolitik as it applies to the 36th Century. Our view of Jak is complicated enormously in this second of his adventures: it's clear that he's not quite what he seems, but it's also clear that his friends (and former friends) don't understand him well either. I'm looking forward to further stories detailing the career of Jak Jinnaka -- and I do want to see what he makes of his life and times.

Review: The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak, by Brian Katcher

The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak, by Brian Katcher

Katherine Tegen Books, 2015, Trade Paperback $9.99

a review by Rich Horton

At Archon in 2018 I shared an autographing table with Brian Katcher. Since neither of us had signing lines to rival George R. R. Martin, we had got to talk to each other a fair bit, and we exchanged copies of each other’s book. I came out ahead in that deal, with The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak, no doubt.

Brian is local, from the St. Louis area, now living in outstate Missouri. We already had a mutual friend, Kristin Darden, who is part of the book group (run by Mark Tiedemann) that I participate in. I believe Kristin went to college with Brian. And, indeed, she showed up at our signing …

This isn’t a science fiction book, but it’s SF-adjacent, in that all the action takes place at an SF convention. (Based, to some extent, on Brian’s experiences at Archon when he was much younger – though I doubt he ever got up to the more hair-raising things Ana and Zak get up to in this book!) As such, the atmosphere, and the characters, are readily recognizable to those of us who attend cons regularly.

Ana is a smart kid in her senior year of High School in Tacoma, WA. She’s obsessed with her grades, and with her outside activities – in part because her parents insist on this, in part because she wants to be able to go to college somewhere besides the University of Washington at Tacoma, and in part because her parents won’t let her do anything else, for initially mysterious reasons having to do with her sister Nichole, and with the fact that she doesn’t have a sister anymore. One of her activities is Quiz Bowl.

Zak is also fairly smart, but he’s a slacker. His father died of cancer not too long ago, and his mother has remarried, and Zak can’t stand his stepfather. Though, it should be said, the stepfather doesn’t seem like a bad guy – maybe just a bit clueless. Zak’s career plan is Tacoma Community College, followed by some kind of tech service job maybe – just enough to keep him in gaming equipment and allow him to attend the occasional con. Oh, and he has a bit of a crush on Ana, who has no idea he even exists (and whose self image is skewed enough that she can’t believe anyone could have a crush on her.)

Then Zak’s academic advisor, who is also the Quiz Bowl sponsor, shanghais him onto the Quiz Bowl team – because she’s caught him cheating on a paper, and because she thinks he’s better than that. Zak agrees in order to be able to graduate – and then realizes the Quiz Bowl tournament is the same weekend as his favorite con! All is lost!

The Quiz Bowl star, however, is Ana’s kid brother Clayton, who is just as hemmed in by his parents as Ana. But he’s a bit more rebellious, and when Zak mentions to Clayton that the convention he’s missing is in Seattle, not too far from the Quiz Bowl hotel, Clayton sneaks out and goes to the con. Which is a disaster on several levels – for the Quiz Bowl team, and more importantly for Ana, who is convinced her parents will blame her. So the only thing to do is for Ana to go to the con and retrieve Clayton – and Ana needs a native guide, i.e. Zak.

So they go, Ana naturally contemptuous of Zak, and of all his nerdy friends. And Clayton proves to be hard to track down … meaning we get a tour of various convention traditions – the gaming room, a filk session, an SCA tournament, etc.. At each of which Ana or Zak or both cause chaos, either because they don’t know what’s up (Ana), or they’re trying to catch up with Clayton (both). And then something really scary happens …

The reader knows where this is going. This genre of YA novel is as well-defined as any romance novel – the mismatched kids are going to realize that they have more in common than they knew. They are going to (with the help of the other person) come to some place of, if not resolution, at least improvement or better understanding of their own family situation. They are going to become at least close friends, probably bf/gf – and, yes, all this eventuates. And that’s cool, because what matters is the journey. Do we believe in these kids, and care for them? Yes. And are their adventures, no matter how small-scale or large-scale, enjoyable? Yes. Will their experiences at least set them on the path to a better future? Yes.

I really liked this book, and I’m glad I had the good fortune to semi-randomly encounter it. (Kristin tells me that Brian’s Almost Perfect is even better.) I don’t think you need to be an SF fan, or a con-goer, to like the book – not at all. But if you are, there’s a bit extra in there for you.

Birthday Review: Stories of Liz Williams

Today is Liz Williams' birthday. She is one of our really fine writers, and perhaps doesn't get as much notice as she deserves. Here's my reviews of her work from Locus:

Locus, June 2002

"The Banquet of the Lords of Night", by Liz Williams (Asimov's, June), is very atmospheric, about a pastry chef in the future, when Earth has apparently fallen under the sway of aliens who cannot tolerate light.  The plot is in the end quite ordinary, but the presentation is neat enough to make the story worth the reading.

Locus, October 2004

Strange Horizons featured two strong, original, science fiction stories in August. Liz Williams's "The Pale" is a selkie story, set in the Scottish island, which are for some reason mysteriously isolated. The narrator's mother is apparently a selkie – the story is partly a clever way to give that a science-fictional rationale, but more significantly the sadness of the personal story of the selkie and her husband and children comes through.

Locus, December 2004

The Fall Electric Velocipede features fine work from Liz Williams. "The Marsella" is about a young Englishman in Barcelona who indulges at an absinthe bar and finds himself in a hallucinatory episode where he must fight a dragon as a Champion of the goddess Cybele.

Locus, March 2005

I liked the whole of the February Realms of Fantasy without any story quite standing out. Liz Williams's "All Fish and Dracula" portrays a naive participant in a Goth Weekend, who witness, without fully understanding, some sinister happenings one Samhain night.

Locus, May 2005

Liz Williams is all over the place this month. Her Asimov's story, "La Gran Muerte", didn't particularly excite me, but I enjoyed stories from the April Realms of Fantasy and the Spring Electric Velocipede. "Blackthorn and Nettles", from RoF, is a fine Welsh-set fantasy, in which a woman falls in love with a smooth young man, but falls afoul of his too-close sister. "Serpent's Tooth", from Electric Velocipede, is a nice traditional SF story about an anthropologist on a planet where the local species is near extinction, and where humans are trying to help the survivors reproduce. He gets involved with a possibly sinister alien (from yet another species) and with the newborn locals – with unexpected results.

Locus, January 2006

Realms of Fantasy closes 2005 with another fine issue. Two regulars contribute the best stories. ... Liz Williams’s “Mortegarde” is distinguished first by a fascinating setting: a series of vastly different worlds like fruit on a world tree. Travel to other worlds is possible but dangerous. Her protagonist is summoned to Mortegarde, a world of wyverns, to present his scientific, rationalist, views – perhaps not to their approval.

From the Introduction to my 2009 Best of the Year volume

And yet there remain stories that draw us in with their exotic settings, such as Liz Williams’s “Spiderhorse” (Realms of Fantasy, August), in which the Norse myths (and Odin’s horse) are viewed from a very original angle.

Locus, January 2014

In Old Mars some authors embrace the pulpish past wholeheartedly ...Also pulpish in overall shape, but ultimately one of the best stories in the book, is “Out of Scarlight”, by Liz Williams, about Zuneida Peace, who began her career as “a seducer of Princes (and occasionally Princesses)” who is now a bounty hunter of sorts, tracking a Princess of the Desert People, who has apparently been kidnapped by a sorcerer … An old rival of hers, Nightwall Dair, is on the track of the same girl, for a different client. Of course there are changes to ring on this familiar setup – Zuneida has a perhaps unfortunate crush on the Princess in question, and both Nightwall Dair and the Princess have slightly untraditional agendas. The traditional pulpish color, and the variation on the traditional plot, are both well done. Really nice stuff.

Locus, December 2018

Gardner Dozois’ final (I presume) original anthology, The Book of Magic, is here, and it lives up to the high standards set by his previous work. The best work includes ... Liz Williams’ “Sungrazer”, an effectively mysterious story of a retired astronomer who is also secretly a magician; and his encounter with a sort of fire spirit, which leads him to negotiating with living stars to save the Earth from a comet.

I also review Liz Williams' novels Snake Agent and Precious Dragon at SF Site.

Birthday Review: Stories of A. M. Dellamonica

Today is Alyx Dellamonica's birthday. So here's a collection of my reviews of her short fiction, from my Locus column. It's not as long a collection as it might be ... which can only mean one thing! Ms. Dellamonica should write more short fiction!

Locus, April 2002

The most recent stories in Sci Fiction do nothing to mar the site's well-deserved reputation as the best online source of new short SF, and one of the best sources period. Well worth a look is Alyx Dellamonica's "Three Times Over the Falls": a typically twisty time travel tale, with a man from the future trying to make sure a present day rock band stays together. Stories about the vital importance of rock music to the future never convince me, but that quibble aside this a sound, entertaining, fast moving piece.

Locus, November 2002

The October/November issue of Asimov's is another impressive one. Locus reviewer A. M. Dellamonica contributes "A Slow Day at the Gallery", a fine, cynical, story about a visitor to an alien art gallery with a sinister mission.

Locus, February 2003

Speaking of Canada, the theme for the Winter issue of the e-mail distributed Oceans of the Mind is Canadian writers. A. M. Dellamonica contributes the prize: "Living the Quiet Life", about a far future human society mostly consisting of humans genetically enhanced to be "Quick": telepathic, with special healing powers, etc. Some are "Quiet": they lack these extra powers. Nerethe is "Quick" but passes for Quiet. One of her close "Quiet" friends is the chief negotiator with aliens, who distrust the "mindpicking" abilities of the Quick. Nerethe finds herself pressured to violate her agreements to stay Quiet and to spy on an alien ambassador, who seems to be planning some treachery. Dellamonica sets up an intriguing and original background, and forces her protagonist into a believably wrenching moral corner.

Locus, April 2012

At Tor.com in February I saw a couple of fine pieces. Alyx Dellamonica's “Among the Silvering Herd” introduces an intriguing character, merchant and diplomat Gale Feliachild. She's been hired to help the island kingdom of Redcap get out from under an onerous tribute they owe a more powerful neighbor. That political story is well enough done if in the end a bit inconsequential, but Gale is an interesting character, and there are fascinating social tidbits mentioned, as well as a personal story involving her unwilling replacement of her ship's captain with a younger man. This particular story is nice enough, but what I really want is more in the same milieu. 

Locus, April 2016

There are some strong recent stories in Tor.com. A. M. Dellamonica continues her series of stories of Gale Felachild and Captain Parrish in “The Glass Galago”, set early in their teaming. The issue here is political: a proposal to increase regulations on magical alterations of people, with a dangerous example at hand: a “script” which changes animals such as the title galago, or humans, to glass. It’s interesting in the short run, but dangerous if not reversed. The problem is, the inventor of this script has lost it, and a woman who has been transformed may die. Gale and Parrish’s job is to find the script, and perhaps also find who took it and why. It’s a nice little mystery, and it fills in some worthwhile background on the society in which this continuingly intriguing series is set.

Locus, April 2017

Also in Tor.com is the latest Gale Feliachild story from A. M. Dellamonica, “Losing Heart Among the Tall”. Entertaining as ever with this series – this one is from the point of view of Captain Sloot, returning home to retire and leave the protection of Gale to young Parrish. All is complicated by the theft of the Heart of the ship Temperance, which could mean the end of the truce that tamed the pirates. Gale’s sister Beatrice turns out to be central to recovering and protecting the Heart – but her price might be a pledge that Sloot forgo his retirement. These are some of the most enjoyable nautical fantasies of recent years, and perhaps a bit underappreciated.

Hugo Nomination Thoughts, 2019: Summary Post

Hugo Nomination Thoughts, 2019

Here’s my summary of my thoughts about potential Hugo nominees. This year I’ll be a lot briefer than the past couple of years, primarily because I haven’t read as many novels as in past years. Indeed, these are mostly looks at the short fiction. I make a few remarks about other categories, but for the most part (Fan Writer, Short Form Editor, and Campbell perhaps excepted), I don't have terribly strong opinions on most of them.

First, my obligatory “Philosophy” disclaimer – though I participate with a lot of enjoyment in Hugo nomination and voting every year, I am philosophically convinced that there is no such thing as the “best” story – “best” piece of art, period. This doesn’t mean I don’t think some art is better than other art – I absolutely do think that. But I think that at the top, there is no way to draw fine distinctions, to insist on rankings. Different stories do different things, all worthwhile. I can readily change my own mind about which stories I prefer – it might depend on how important to me that “thing” they do is (and of course most stories do multiple different things!) – it might depend on my mood that day – it might depend on something new I’ve read that makes me think differently about a certain subject. And one more thing – I claim no special authority of my own. I have my own tastes, and indeed my own prejudices. So too does everyone else. I have blind spots, and I have things that affect me more profoundly than they might affect others. I’ve also read a lot of SF – and that changes my reactions to stories as well – and not in a way that need be considered privileged.

Anway, as ever, in the lists below, I’ll suggest somewhere between 3 and 8 or so items that might be on my final ballot. Those will be in no particular order. And the other stories I list will all really be about as good – and I might change my mind before my ballot goes in.

I've alread made posts about Novella, Novelette, and Short Story -- below are links to those posts.

Novella

Novella Recommendations

Novelette

Novelette Recommendations

Short Story

Short Story Recommendations

Other Categories:

Best Novel

Every year I mention that I haven’t read a lot of novels. I’m going to mention these novels as reasonable candidates, and then admit that I really truly haven’t read enough novels to make a strong recommendation. Two of these are first novels that I really like – but while certainly strong indicators of the talents of their writers, may not be quite Hugo material.

Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee

Pride and Prometheus, by John Kessel

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewomen, by Theodora Goss

The Calculating Sky, by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Robots of Gotham, by Todd McAulty

The Quantum Magician, by Derek Künsken

The Nebula nomination list includes Kowal’s novel and several I haven’t gotten to: The Poppy War, by R. F. Kuang, Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik, Blackfish City, by Sam Miller, Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse; and Witchmark, by C. L. Polk. The Novik and Miller novels at least have been on my TBR list for some time – the Kuang novel also seems impressive. I have to admit I haven’t even heard of the Polk novel (my bad, I suppose, but there are so many …), and reviews of Roanhorse’s novel seemed to suggest “Promising first novel, but not really award material”, but obviously, not having read it, I can’t say more.

Best Series

Here’s JJ’s list of eligible series posted at File 770: http://file770.com/best-series-hugo-eligible-series-from-2018/. Much props to JJ for the tireless work of maintain this list, but … I think the list itself speaks to problems with the whole concept of this award.

I was skeptical about this award from the start, and I don’t think its history helps it. I’m really bothered by the way adding one short story to a very old series, for example, makes it again eligible (as with Earthsea, objectively by far the most worthy and influential eligible series, but does “Firelight”, beautiful as it absolutely is, really mean we should give it an award now?) Also, the endless parsing of “series” vs. “sub-series”. The way an award can be for, really, semi-random assemblages of related works. I could go on and on.

Best YA Novel

This is the first official year for this new award, I believe. (Wasn’t last year a trial run, that is to say, a Special Convention Award, not part of the official process? [Martin informs me in the comments that in fact last year was the first year for the official award, but that it now has a name, the Lodestar.) It is not a Hugo, but it will be administered and awarded by the World Science Fiction Society using essentially the same process as for the Hugos (and the Campbell). I can only suggest a look at the YA category in the Locus Recommended Reading list: https://locusmag.com/2019/02/2018-locus-recommended-reading-list/. I do think this award is worthwhile, but I quite honestly have read no YA work from 2018.

Best Graphic Story

I don't read much in this category, but I thought I should mention a shorter piece I liked a great deal, "Resolution", by Clifford V. Johnson, from the MIT Press anthology Twelve Tomorrows.

Dramatic Presentation

Long Form

I don’t think there’s much suspense about what will win the Hugo this year, and I think Black Panther is a fine film that might very well be the right choice. Beyond that, I saw Annihilation, which was impressive but didn’t quite hold together for me. I’d say it’s worthy of a nomination. I saw Solo, which I enjoyed, but which I can’t call all that great. Perhaps Black Mirror: Bandersnatch? I haven’t seen enough of its permutations yet. And that’s about all I saw this year.

Short Form

As for Short Form, I watch relatively little TV. And that that I did watch was either non-SF, or not from 2018 (such as Black Mirror Season 4, which came out December 29, 2017).

Fan Categories

In the remaining categories (as, really, with all the categories except short fiction) I do want to emphasize what may be obvious – these are people and things that I personally enjoyed, but I know there’s a lot of excellent work I’ve missed. I’ll be nominating things that impressed me, but I’ll be glad to check out the stuff other people nominate.

Best Fan Writer

I’ll reiterate my admiration for John Boston and John O’Neill. John Boston’s most publicly available recent stuff is at Galactic Journey, where he reviews issues of Amazing from 55 years ago, month by month. (It will be noted, perhaps, that I also review issues of Amazing from the same period, at Black Gate.) John’s work there is linked by this tag: http://galacticjourney.org/tag/john-boston/.

As for John O’Neill, of course his central contribution is as editor of Black Gate, for which he writes a great deal of the content, often about, “vintage” books he’s found on Ebay or at conventions, and also about upcoming fantasy books.

Another Black Gate writer, and fan writer in general, who did great work last year was Steven Silver, particularly his “Birthday Reviews”.

I should also mention Charles Payseur, a very worthy Fan Writer nominee last year, whose Quick Sip reviews of short fiction should not be missed.

And as for myself, I too am a fan writer (at least my blog writing and my stuff for Black Gate qualifies, if perhaps not my work for Locus, which I guess is now officially professional). I was pretty proud of my writing last year. I would note in particular my reviews of old magazines at Black Gate, particularly Amazing and Fantastic in the Cele Goldsmith Lalli era, and my various reviews of Ace Doubles (and other SF) at my blog Strange at Ecbatan (rrhorton.blogspot.com) (and often linked from Black Gate.) The other thing I did this year at my blog was a set of “Birthday Reviews” of my own, inspired by Steven’s series, in which I tried to honor SF writers on their birthdays, either with reviews of their novels, or, particularly, with reviews of their short fiction.

Best Fanzine

As I did last year, I plan to nominate Black Gate, Galactic Journey, and Rocket Stack Rank for the Best Fanzine Hugo. I’m particularly partial in this context to Black Gate, primarily of course because I have been a contributor since the print days (issue #2 and most of the subsequent issues). Black Gate is notable for publishing a lot of content on a very wide variety of topics, from promoting new book releases to publishing occasional original and reprinted fiction to reviewing old issues of Galaxy (Matthew Wuertz) and Amazing/Fantastic/etc. (me) to intriguing posts about travel and architecture by Sean MacLachlan. Rocket Stack Rank and Galactic Journey are a bit more tightly focused: the former primarily reviews and rates short fiction, as well as assembling statistics about other reviewers (myself included) and their reactions to the stories; while the latter, as I mentioned above, is reviewing old SF magazines from 55 years past.

(Incidentally, Black Gate failed to get a Hugo nomination last year because of the new EPH algorithm for ranking nomination votes. I would suggest that possibly this was not an example of the algorithm really doing what it was designed for.)

Finally, I’ll mention the other SF-oriented site I read and enjoy regularly – File 770 (http://file770.com/ ), which is (deservedly) very well known, having been nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo numerous times and having won some as well. 2018 was their 40^th Anniversary! 

Best Editor

For this year, I’d mainly like to suggest that Jonathan Strahan really deserves a Hugo. His work has been consistently excellent for years, and this year in particular is a significant year, as the last book in his “Infinity” series of original anthologies came out: Infinity’s End. And this book was particularly impressive, a really remarkable original anthology. He also does some editing for Tor.com, and among his many impressive acquisitions, Ian McDonald’s outstanding novella Time Was stands out. (This should not be taken as denying the excellent work of many others, such as John Joseph Adams, Neil Clarke, Sheila Williams, and C. C. Finlay, who will probably fill out the rest of my ballot – there are several more. (I am giving some precedence to editors whose magazines don’t have their own category, such as Adams, Williams, Clarke, and Finlay, or who do a lot of work in anthologies or other places (like Tor.com) which also don’t have categories. Semiprozine editors, excellent as many of them are, kind of get two bites at the apple.)

Best Related Work

I have two books to recommend. Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is a really remarkable work, detailing the intersecting lives and careers of John W. Campbell, Jr., L. Ron Hubbard, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein. Exceptionally well researched, very well written – a tremendous contribution to the field. The other book is one I have a personal stake in – but I think it’s a very worthy nominee anyway. This is Jo Walton’s An Informal History of the Hugos, which covers the history of the Hugos from 1953 through the end of the 20^th Century. Jo writes intelligently and charmingly about all the awards, particularly novel, and goes into detail about a number of the novels. She also included extended comments from the original online posts, with many contributors – but the main contributors, I say immodestly, were the late great Gardner Dozois and myself – both of us mostly discussing the short fiction. I was inordinately proud and thrilled to be a co-dedicatee with Gardner and with Kevin Standlee.

Campbell

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, also “Not a Hugo”. This is given to the best writer whose first professional publication in the SF or Fantasy field appeared in the past two years (2017 or 2018). Writertopia has a page, not guaranteed to be complete, with a list of eligible authors: http://www.writertopia.com/awards/campbell .

I went through that list and came up with the following writers who have done something that impressed me:

L. X. Beckett

R. S. Benedict

J. R. Dawson

Giovanni di Feo

Tonya Liburd

Vina Jie-Min Prasad

Cadwell Turnbull

D. A. Xiaolin Spires

Many of these were on my list last year – only Beckett and Turnbull are new to my list. Both published very impressive stories this year, as did Dawson and Benedict and Liburd. Prasad was my top choice last year, and while I thought her one story in 2018 not quite as strong as her 2017 stuff, her body of work is absolutely Campbell-worthy. As usual, I haven’t read novels by any of these – I know there are other writers with strong novels that I just haven’t read (Katherine Arden and Rivers Solomon, most obviously).