Saturday, March 2, 2019

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.

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