Renewed Review: The Engine of Recall, by Karl Schroeder

Here's another piece from the ashes of SF Site -- a review of Karl Schroeder's 2005 collection The Engine of Recall. I've been reading Schroeder's new collection Laika's Ghost, which brings together all his stories about Gennady Malianov, a couple of which are included here. So I thought this might be a good time to repost this review:

Renewed Review: The Engine of Recall, by Karl Schroeder

Canada has been the source of a great deal of intriguing SF over the past decades, much of it at least moderately "hard SF." Hugo and Nebula winner Robert J. Sawyer is of course one of the most prominent of Canadian SF writers. Other significant recent examples [as of 2005] include Robert Charles Wilson, James Alan Gardner, Alison Sinclair, Julie E. Czerneda, Sean Stewart (more of a fantasy writer, of course), and Cory Doctorow. (Though often, it seems to me, Canadian writers have a sort of distributed nationality -- Wilson was born in the US, Stewart grew up splitting time between the US and Canada and now lives in the US, Doctorow spent several years in the US and now lives in Europe.) One of the most rigorously "hard SF" writers to come out of this "Canadian Renaissance" is Karl Schroeder, author of the impressive novels Ventus and Permanence. [And many more since 2005, including the Virga series and Lockstep.] Now [in 2005] Schroeder has published his first story collection, The Engine of Recall (edited by Sawyer for his imprint at Red Deer Press).

The first thing that struck me about the Table of Contents was the relative unfamiliarity of most of the stories. This was a source of mild embarrassment to me, as I consider myself generally very up to date on short SF. It turns out that one engine of the "Canadian Renaissance" I mentioned above has been some Canadian outlets for SF, most notably the magazine On Spec and the anthology series Tesseracts, that to some extent slip under the radar of often US- and/or UK-centric SF readers. So Schroeder managed to publish a passel of first-rate stories without generating quite the buzz he deserved -- though one story here, "The Dragon of Pripyat", was reprinted in Gardner Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Edition, and another, "Halo", was chosen for David Hartwell's anthology The Hard SF Renaissance.

Well, that's one reason for story collections -- to bring to light stuff that might have been missed on first publication. And the stories here are well worthy of this exposure. Take "The Dragon of Pripyat." Gennady Malianov is a morose Russian (or Ukrainian) man hired to investigate a threat to release radioactive material from the remains of Chernobyl. Malianov heads directly to the ghost town of Pripyat. There he meets a curious squatter, and also encounters the mysterious "dragon." He and a remote friend figure out the somewhat mundane (though interesting) nature of the dragon -- the heart of the story, though is the paradoxical landscape of Pripyat. Malianov turns up again in the collection's only original, "Alexander's Road." This time the threat is some missing nuclear warheads in Azerbaijan. Malianov's investigation, however, turns up a couple of further, even scarier, nuclear threats.

One of my favorite stories here is "Halo", set in the same future as Schroeder's novel Permanence. Elise Cantrell is a resident of Dew, a planet of Crucible, a brown dwarf star. Dew has just managed to install an artificial "sun," but this hopeful step is endangered when Elise discovers a message from a hijacked ship, taken over by fanatics who plan to destroy the fragile colony on Dew. She forges a tenuous relationship with one of the original crew of the hijacked ship, but they both know the only ultimate hope for Dew is to destroy the attacking ship, complete with innocent crew members as well as hijackers. This is an excellent example of a moving human story essentially set in an exotic, purely SFnal, environment. Another such story, not quite as successful but still enjoyable, is "The Pools of Air," in which a crew filming in Jupiter's atmosphere are placed in peril by a freak accident to their ship. "The Cold Convergence" is also set in the outer Solar System, this time on Saturn's moon Titan. A psychologist is hired to try to treat a man who has just wandered alone into the Titanian wilderness. The interesting story of the man is undermined a bit by an implausible resolution involving unconvincing real estate laws.

"Making Ghosts" is an interesting story about pioneers in transferring human consciousness to computers, while "The Engine of Recall" involves using such "ghosts" to pilot spaceships in such dangerous environments as the neighborhood of a neutron star.

"Allegiances" tells of a woman in war-torn former Yugoslavia who is cursed by the ability rob other people of the facial recognition sense. An intriguing idea that I don't think the story quite used well. "Hopscotch" is a rather Fortean story, in which the narrator is in love with a woman obsessed with statistical analysis of unusual events such as UFO sightings and raining fish. "Solitaire" tells of a young human criminal who manages to be "adopted" as sort of an interpreter by a solitary, uncommunicative, alien. The ending nicely violates traditional SFnal expectations.

It is clear to readers of Karl Schroeder's novels that he is a fascinating writer of Hard SF. The short stories in The Engine of Recall showcase that imagination effectively -- strong stories that aren't afraid to be adventure stories while also portraying cool ideas.

Review: Jules, Penny & the Rooster, by Daniel Pinkwater

Jules, Penny & the Rooster, by Daniel Pinkwater

a review by Rich Horton

I've read several of Daniel Pinkwater's novels, both those in the Young Adult and those in the Middle Grade categories, and as I wrote elsewhere, all of theme are at least charming, and some are works of genius. That said, I'd sort of lost track of him -- and after all Pinkwater is in his 80s, so I couldn't be sure he was still writing. But last week at Worldcon I found this book at the Tachyon Books table, and Tachyon publisher Jacob Weisman told me that they have published a couple more Pinkwater novels. Good news!

Jules, Penny & the Rooster fits in the "Middle Grade" category, and is definitely a charming story, if perhaps not quite a work of genius. But a fun read! Jules McSchultz is a ten-year old girl whose family has just moved from an apartment in the city to a house in the suburbs. She misses a lot about her old home, but at least, she is sure, she can finally get a dog. But her parents are still very hesitant, so she responds to a contest advertised in the local paper, offering a purebred collie to whoever sends in the best letter. And, of course, she wins. To be sure, the dog hardly seems purebred, and her parents aren't entirely happy, but Jules and the dog -- whom she names Penny -- bond immediately.

Before long Jules and Penny go exploring (as one does with one's dog!) and the end up in the still wooded area beyond there (quite new) subdivision. This area is decidedly strange, not just because of the rooster who joins them. There are mysterious creatures Jules can see out of the corner of her eye, that Jules' brilliant elder sister Philippa identifies as fauns, and on that ground assumed Jules is either making things up or seeing things that aren't there. There's an ugly old woman who looks like a witch and gladly acknowledges that fact, and who also turns out to know Jules' Aunt Gertrude. And there's a giant -- a 5'10" giant. And much more!

The story turns on how to protect this wonderful secret place from such threats as further expansion of the new housing development, and of course the solution includes stuff like an ancient prophesy that seems to involve Jules red hair as well as her companion wolf, chewed up bubblegum enabling telepathy, fairies, Esperanto, a cool bookshop, pizza, and much more. It is, as I said, plenty of fun, sweet and and amusing -- not a masterwork but a worthwhile novel. 

Some notes on rereading The Two Towers.

I participated in a slow read, over the last 15 months or so, of The Lord of the Rings, led by Madeleine Dombrowski at her Substack, Love of Literature. What I've written below is just notes, not well organized, based on comments I made during the read. I should note that this was my third time reading The Lord of the Rings. Slightly more detailed comments are linked below this post, centered on The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King. 

I do think the differences between The Two Towers and The Fellowship of the Ring are stark, and to me they boil down to something like "Now it's really happening." The War -- the shooting war, if you will -- is well and truly started. This book has more action, put most simply, than The Fellowship of the Ring.

The theme of The Two Towers? Hmmm -- that even in the darkest times (and places!), and under the direst threat, it is still important to fight, to resist, and not to lose hope. For there is always hope. And a partial victory is not to be disdained.

The following notes, mostly about character, are just that: notes, prompted in part by questions asked during our slow read. I have note organized then into anything more. (And in a sense The Two Towers, as a middle book, is harder to treat by itself. I have said some more about The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King in the pieces linked below.)

1. Boromir 

The question came up in our reading group: is he redeemed at the end of his life? I think he is, in nearly a Christian sense, in that he has confessed his sins and accepted the consequences. But it in a way he did not grow -- didn't have time to be sure -- he chose (not that there was much choice) to die as he (apparently) lived -- violently. Heroically too -- yes -- but the Heroism he wanted. Not, for example, the heroism Sam embodies. It's interesting that Aragorn is Boromir's true King? Aragorn hearing his confession is in a sense his first overt act as King.

2. Treebeard

On this rereading I found myself appreciating Treebeard -- both the Ent himself and the chapter of that name -- more than I did in previous readings. I find him a fascinating character. I am also rather delighted by the bit in the letter to Auden in which Tolkien confesses to disgust at the scene in Macbeth where "Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane" -- I think Macbeth is a very great play but that scene has always struck me as almost a cheap, trivializing, joke.

I see Treebeard as very effectively a portrayal of something truly ancient. I did wonder though, at his claim to be the oldest creature in Middle Earth. Isn't Tom Bombadil of similar or even greater age? Or am I misremembering. I suppose I regard Old Willow as a sort of Ent, or a variety of Ent, perhaps a half-woken Ent?

3. Saruman

It seems to me that Saruman's desire for control is to a great extent self-centered. Even when (if) his control might be seen as in the service of good, what he wants to a personal reward -- at the very least, acknowedgement of his power, of his (self-perceived) goodness.

Of course in the end his "control", his "power", is false -- as he is unable to resist the lures of Sauron. And part of the reason for this is his desire for reward -- for Sauron (and even the likes of Wormtongue) can offer the "reward" of at least flattery. (I will refrain from making any comment on contemporary politics! -- though I should say this weakness, it seems to me, has beset political leaders at all times, as surely Tolkien knew.)

The question came up in our book group: how is Saruman "creating" Orcs different from Elves "wakening" Ents: As for Saruman's "creation" of Orcs and the Elves wakening of the Ents, I see two differences. One is that the elves merely awakened them -- they did not attempt to "create", they just activated a latent character, or so I see it. Saruman wanted to instill his "creations" with specific characteristics in service to him. It was a selfish act, and motivated by evil intent.

4. Gollum

Was Frodo's pity for Gollum appropriate? Of course! As to whether Frodo would have been justified in killing him -- I believe killing is only justified in true self-defense. And while it's a cheat, we do know if this is a reread that killing Gollum would have been a terrible mistake in the end.

I see Smeagol and Gollum as very much the same person. Two instincts in conflict. Tolkien here is literalizing a conflict many of us have between our better and worse natures -- though Smeagol's "betterness" is, I suppose, only relative.

Perhaps the most obvious way Frodo and Gollum are similar is that both are to some degree slaves of the Ring. Frodo is resisting it to the best of his ability, but if he'd had the Ring as long as Gollum, could he have resisted?

Frodo's choices are all bad, but this reflects the state of all of Middle Earth at this time. War is terrible, but war against Sauron must be waged.

It's an interesting question how differently things might have turned out had Sam been more generous to Gollum. I think Sam's attitude is fully understandable, and in essence was earned by Gollum/Smeagol. The point is, I believe, that no one is beyond repenting, and turning to God. And that the Christlike response is to believe them and accept them ... But Sam as always is the most "human" of the characters ...

5. Faramir

It is interesting that we meet Faramir only after Boromir's death. Seeing them interact may have been intriguing. Boromir is very brave, very strong, and outwardly virtuous, it seems to me. I think his greatest weakness is a longing for power, along with a longing for praise. His bravery seemed in part a bid for approval -- he is brave because if he wasn't he fears he'd be held in contempt. Faramir is very much not looking for power, and his bravery, as evidenced in his treatment of Frodo, is not necessarily physical but moral -- indeed, he spares the hobbits even knowing that many of his fellows will feel he has done wrong.

6. A note on Tolkien's poetry:

I find his poetry a mixed bag. Some simply doesn't work for me. But some is beautiful, including many of the poetic passages in The Lord of the Rings. (I also love "The Last Ship", from his poems included in The Tolkien Reader.)

But in The Two Towers specifically, I'll just mention how much I like the poem Aragorn sings -- "Where now the horse and the rider". It is partly inspired by the great Old English poem "The Wanderer", and it truly captures the Old English style and mood -- no surprise from a scholar like Tolkien of course. But it is truly beautiful, and in many ways the mood of regret, of great things passing away, applies to the entire novel.

The line "They have passed like rain on the mountain" seems also to be echoed (maybe consciously?) in Roy Batty's famous speech at the end of of Blade Runner: "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain."

Comments on the other books:

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Return of the King

Answers to Early Women Science Fiction Writers Quiz

Here are the answers to the quiz I posted a couple of days ago. (Here's the original quiz.)

1.  One of the earliest women to hold major creative roles in television science fiction, D. C. Fontana followed the producer of The Lieutenant to a new franchise where she became a writer, story editor, and later associate producer, helping shape much of its early mythology. Name this franchise.

STAR TREK

2.  The very first woman to be named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America began writing historical fiction for young readers in the 1930s, adopting a male pseudonym as was common in that era. She turned to science fiction with the short story "People of the Crater" in 1947, and published her first science fiction novel, Star Man's Son, 2250 A. D., in 1952. Dozens of novels followed until (and beyond!) her death in 2005. Her most famous series is probably Witch World. Name this writer (either her given name or the male-coded pseudonym (which she later took as her legal name.))

ALICE MARY NORTON/ANDRE NORTON

3.  Any quiz about pioneering women science fiction writers could hardly omit mentioning Mary Shelley, whom Brian W. Aldiss championed as the first SF writer, thanks to her first novel, Frankenstein (1818). But Shelley was no one-hit wonder -- she published six further novels as well as short fiction, poetry, travel narratives, and biographies. Name the 1826 post-apocalyptic novel that was her final venture into science fiction.

THE LAST MAN

4.  While Mary Shelley is now widely cited as the first "true" science fiction writer, there were earlier works involving science-fictional tropes, such as Lucian of Samosata's True History (late 2nd Century CE), Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634), and The Blazing World (1666). Name the Englishwoman, a prominent natural philosopher in her time, who wrote the latter novel.

MARGARET CAVENDISH nee LUCAS/DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE

5.  Possibly no science fiction/fantasy magazine has been so closely associated with a single artist as Weird Tales between 1932 and 1945, when 66 covers, for almost half the magazine's issues, were painted by which woman? The most iconic of these covers is shown in the image below.

MARGARET BRUNDAGE (I really didn't mean to have two Margarets back to back!)

6.  One of the very best SF writers of all time had a career in the field that lasted from 1933 to 1958, after which she mostly wrote for television. She was known for her early series about Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith, and for later masterworks including "No Woman Born" and "Vintage Season", and while much of her work was in collaboration with her husband Henry Kuttner, the best of it (in my opinion) was her work alone. Name this woman -- but don't use her married name(s) nor any of her pseudonyms, which included Lawrence O'Donnell, Lewis Padgett, and C. H. Liddell among others.

CATHERINE L. MOORE

7.  Women editors were rare in science fiction magazines before the 1970s -- Dorothy McIlwraith at the aforementioned Weird Tales in the 1940s, and Bea Mahaffey, at Other Worlds, Universe and others in the early 1950s, were the most notable before the great Cele Goldsmith Lalli, who took over two companion magazines in 1958 and edited them until 1965, publishing major early work by such writers as Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, J. G. Ballard, and Thomas Disch. Name either of these two magazines, one of which still survives today, and which is famed as the first magazine devoted primarily to science fiction. 

AMAZING or FANTASTIC 

8.  Begum Rokeya Hossain, a Bengali Muslim woman, published which remarkable story in The Indian Ladies' Magazine in 1905? The story is a reverie about a future utopia, characterized by women in power, solar energy, world peace, and even flying cars (but not grapes or raisins).

"SULTANA'S DREAM"

9.  Name the writer, editor, critic, and anthologist whose first sale, "That Only a Mother" (1948) ended up in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I. Her most significant contributions to SF include an early and eclectic series of anthologies collecting the best short SF of the year. After moving to Canada in the late 1960s she had a profound effect on that country's SF scene, initiating the Tesseracts series of anthologies of Canadian SF, and donating her collection of SF-related material to the Toronto Public Library to establish a research library now named for her.

JUDITH MERRIL

10.  Margaret St. Clair, who also wrote as Idris Seabright, is in my opinion an underrated early master of modern science fiction. She began selling science fiction and detective fiction in 1946, and her work includes brilliant short fiction like "Short in the Chest", "An Egg a Month from All Over", and "The Sacred Martian Pig", as well as novels including Sign of the Labrys. She was a relatively early convert to which modern religion? Her beliefs are reflected in much of her later work. This religion was recently removed from the US Department of Defense list of accepted faiths.

WICCA

11.  Now for a fictional character, who qualifies as a pioneering woman as she was one of the first female superheroes in the comics, debuting in 1941. The character was created by psychiatrist William Marston, and was influenced, he sometimes suggested, by his two polyamorous wives*, Elizabeth Holloway and Olive Byrne, and perhaps also by Olive's aunt, the birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. (*Holloway was Marston's legal wife, but it seems that all three regarded themselves as part of the marriage.) Who was this superhero?

WONDER WOMAN

12.  Leigh Brackett sold her first story in 1940, and went on to have a brilliant multi-faceted career, including science fiction novels like The Sword of Rhiannon and The Long Tomorrow (first novel by a woman to be shortlisted for the Hugo Award), crime fiction such as No Good From a Corpse, and writing for films (she collaborated with William Faulkner on the screenplay for The Big Sleep.) Shortly before her death in 1978 she turned in the first draft of the screenplay for which blockbuster science fiction movie?

STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

13. Some important science fiction was produced by women outside the science fiction genre. What Not is a satirical novel published just as the first World War was ending, about a future in which war is outlawed and breeding is controlled on strictly eugenic grounds (by a Ministry of Brains!). Who was this author, a committed pacifist who published many other novels, gaining greatest success with her last, The Towers of Trebizond (1956).

ROSE MACAULAY

14. The first woman writer to publish original fiction under her own name in the science fiction magazines was Clare Winger Harris, who placed a dozen stories in magazines such as Science Wonder Stories between 1926 and 1933, including "The Fate of the Poseidonia" and "The Miracle of the Lily". She was posthumously given which award in 2024, given annually to an unfairly neglected science fiction writer.

CORDWAINER SMITH REDISCOVERY AWARD

15. Thea von Harbou wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay for which classic 1927 science fiction film, directed by her husband Fritz Lang. Von Harbou pulled the same trick for another Lang-directed science fiction film, Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon (1928)). Alas, her marriage and collaboration with Lang collapsed in part because of mutual infidelity but also due to von Harbou's involvement with the Nazi party.

METROPOLIS

When the quiz was played on Learned League, the hardest question was Margaret Brundage, and the second hardest was "Sultana's Dream". If it had been a live question, I imagine Rose Macaulay would have been hard as well. (What Not is available from my publisher (of my upcoming anthology of philosophical science fiction, that will include "Sultana's Dream" as well as an excerpt from Frankenstein): MIT Presss, as part of their "Radium Era SF" series -- the cover is shown at the top of this post.) The easiest questions were Star Trek and The Empire Strikes Back.

Quiz: Early Women Science Fiction Writers (etc.)

As I do many years, I created a quiz for the online trivia league I play in (Learned League.) This year the subject was "Early Women Science Fiction Writers" -- generally focussing on writers who started before 1950, but with a couple questions about editors, TV writers, and even fictional characters, and with a couple questions leaking into the 1950s and even 1960s.

The format of the quiz is 12 questions. But I always create alternative questions, to give me a choice, especially if the people who playtest the quiz uncover issues, or if something else happens, such as, for one question this year, a very similar question happening to be asked on the Learned League site shortly before my quiz appeared. The first 12 questions below are the ones that were part of the official quiz, and the last 3 are alternates. 

I usually try to make these quizzes of middling difficulty for the general player, but in this case the quiz played very hard (for the most part) -- and I regarded this as a virtue of sorts, because the whole aim of the quiz was to bring oft-neglected writers to broader notice. That said, while it was very hard for the general reader, it will play quite a bit easier for science fiction fans, as I imagine many of my readers here are.

I will post the answers in a few days. Put your guesses in the comments if you wish.

1.  One of the earliest women to hold major creative roles in television science fiction, D. C. Fontana followed the producer of The Lieutenant to a new franchise where she became a writer, story editor, and later associate producer, helping shape much of its early mythology. Name this franchise.

2.  The very first woman to be named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America began writing historical fiction for young readers in the 1930s, adopting a male pseudonym as was common in that era. She turned to science fiction with the short story "People of the Crater" in 1947, and published her first science fiction novel, Star Man's Son, 2250 A. D., in 1952. Dozens of novels followed until (and beyond!) her death in 2005. Her most famous series is probably Witch World. Name this writer (either her given name or the male-coded pseudonym (which she later took as her legal name.))

3.  Any quiz about pioneering women science fiction writers could hardly omit mentioning Mary Shelley, whom Brian W. Aldiss championed as the first SF writer, thanks to her first novel, Frankenstein (1818). But Shelley was no one-hit wonder -- she published six further novels as well as short fiction, poetry, travel narratives, and biographies. Name the 1826 post-apocalyptic novel that was her final venture into science fiction.

4.  While Mary Shelley is now widely cited as the first "true" science fiction writer, there were earlier works involving science-fictional tropes, such as Lucian of Samosata's True History (late 2nd Century CE), Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634), and The Blazing World (1666). Name the Englishwoman, a prominent natural philosopher in her time, who wrote the latter novel.

5.  Possibly no science fiction/fantasy magazine has been so closely associated with a single artist as Weird Tales between 1932 and 1945, when 66 covers, for almost half the magazine's issues, were painted by which woman? The most iconic of these covers is shown in the image below.

6.  One of the very best SF writers of all time had a career in the field that lasted from 1933 to 1958, after which she mostly wrote for television. She was known for her early series about Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith, and for later masterworks including "No Woman Born" and "Vintage Season", and while much of her work was in collaboration with her husband Henry Kuttner, the best of it (in my opinion) was her work alone. Name this woman -- but don't use her married name(s) nor any of her pseudonyms, which included Lawrence O'Donnell, Lewis Padgett, and C. H. Liddell among others.

7.  Women editors were rare in science fiction magazines before the 1970s -- Dorothy McIlwraith at the aforementioned Weird Tales in the 1940s, and Bea Mahaffey, at Other Worlds, Universe and others in the early 1950s, were the most notable before the great Cele Goldsmith Lalli, who took over two companion magazines in 1958 and edited them until 1965, publishing major early work by such writers as Ursula K. Le Guin, Roger Zelazny, J. G. Ballard, and Thomas Disch. Name either of these two magazines, one of which still survives today, and which is famed as the first magazine devoted primarily to science fiction. 

8.  Begum Rokeya Hossain, a Bengali Muslim woman, published which remarkable story in The Indian Ladies' Magazine in 1905? The story is a reverie about a future utopia, characterized by women in power, solar energy, world peace, and even flying cars (but not grapes or raisins).

9.  Name the writer, editor, critic, and anthologist whose first sale, "That Only a Mother" (1948) ended up in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I. Her most significant contributions to SF include an early and eclectic series of anthologies collecting the best short SF of the year. After moving to Canada in the late 1960s she had a profound effect on that country's SF scene, initiating the Tesseracts series of anthologies of Canadian SF, and donating her collection of SF-related material to the Toronto Public Library to establish a research library now named for her.

10.  Margaret St. Clair, who also wrote as Idris Seabright, is in my opinion an underrated early master of modern science fiction. She began selling science fiction and detective fiction in 1946, and her work includes brilliant short fiction like "Short in the Chest", "An Egg a Month from All Over", and "The Sacred Martian Pig", as well as novels including Sign of the Labrys. She was a relatively early convert to which modern religion? Her beliefs are reflected in much of her later work. This religion was recently removed from the US Department of Defense list of accepted faiths.

11.  Now for a fictional character, who qualifies as a pioneering woman as she was one of the first female superheroes in the comics, debuting in 1941. The character was created by psychiatrist William Marston, and was influenced, he sometimes suggested, by his two polyamorous wives*, Elizabeth Holloway and Olive Byrne, and perhaps also by Olive's aunt, the birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. (*Holloway was Marston's legal wife, but it seems that all three regarded themselves as part of the marriage.) Who was this superhero?

12.  Leigh Brackett sold her first story in 1940, and went on to have a brilliant multi-faceted career, including science fiction novels like The Sword of Rhiannon and The Long Tomorrow (first novel by a woman to be shortlisted for the Hugo Award), crime fiction such as No Good From a Corpse, and writing for films (she collaborated with William Faulkner on the screenplay for The Big Sleep.) Shortly before her death in 1978 she turned in the first draft of the screenplay for which blockbuster science fiction movie?

13. Some important science fiction was produced by women outside the science fiction genre. What Not is a satirical novel published just as the first World War was ending, about a future in which war is outlawed and breeding is controlled on strictly eugenic grounds (by a Ministry of Brains!). Who was this author, a committed pacifist who published many other novels, gaining greatest success with her last, The Towers of Trebizond (1956).

14. The first woman writer to publish original fiction under her own name in the science fiction magazines was Clare Winger Harris, who placed a dozen stories in magazines such as Science Wonder Stories between 1926 and 1933, including "The Fate of the Poseidonia" and "The Miracle of the Lily". She was posthumously given which award in 2024, given annually to an unfairly neglected science fiction writer.

15. Thea von Harbou wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay for which classic 1927 science fiction film, directed by her husband Fritz Lang. Von Harbou pulled the same trick for another Lang-directed science fiction film, Frau im Mond (The Woman in the Moon (1928)). Alas, her marriage and collaboration with Lang collapsed in part because of mutual infidelity but also due to von Harbou's involvement with the Nazi party.

A recent novella: Making History, by K. J. Parker

Making History, by K. J. Parker

a review by Rich Horton

K. J. Parker's latest novella is Making History, from 2025. Parker is a very enjoyable writer, either under his real name (Tom Holt) or Parker pseudonym. His work is almost always comic, but the tone varies, with the Tom Holt stories being rather lighter, even daffier; while the Parker stories are profoundly cynical, and often verge on tragedy. (Holt's greatest work, in my admittedly unconventional opinion, is a diptych (latterly republished in a single volume) called Goat Song/The Walled Orchard, a bleakly funny and ultimately truly tragic historical novel about the Athenian invasion of Syracuse. Holt published a few more historical novels set in Ancient Greece, some loosely connected to this book.) 

Most of Parker's work is set in a sort of secondary world that roughly resembles, maybe, our world at something like the time of the Byzantine Emperor. These stories occasionally contain explicit fantastical elements, but usually do not. The geography of that "world" is somewhat consistent, the history, not so much -- it serves primarily as a ready-made setting for these stories, giving him a stage with a reusable set of props -- a religion, a few perpetually rival countries, a consistent technological level, some cultural figures to reference. Parker's interests as a novelist are a cynical view of of political actions, a despairing view of human relationships (particularly those between men and women), and a fascinated view of the ins and outs of technology, art, and language. 

Making History is told by a linguist in the country of Aelia. Aelia has somewhat recently been taken over by a man called Gyges, who is seeking to pick a fight with a neighboring country. To do so, he needs to establish that this country was responsible for wiping out Aelia's Golden Age ancestors. So he recruits a team of the best academics in the country, and orders them to create a convincing archaeological dig that will prove this. The narrator has to invent a convincing proto-Aelian language, and his fellows have to design art, and buildings, and tools and such. This gives Parker the latitude to interestingly describe how such an enterprise would work ... which is right up Parker's alley.

The rub comes when somehow some of these artifacts start appearing, even though they haven't really been created yet. Eventually, even the whole city is unearthed. What could be happening? Is it possible that they did their job so well that they perfectly mimicked real history that no one had known about? Or is someone on their team leaking information to the enemy. Or is it something more sinister?

The narrator knows only one thing -- he has to escape. So he asks his mistress -- a prostitute who has plenty of connections among the criminal class -- to arrange this. Now, this being a Parker novel, you know that if a woman, especially a woman the protagonist cares about but who is probably out of his league, gets involved, well, things won't turn out so well... 

Bottom line for me, alas, is that while I enjoyed this story well enough, it ultimately seemed too much of a same with many previous Parker stories. The cynicism seemed overdetermined, and the plot really didn't convince. In the end, this is not one of K. J. Parker's best efforts.

Hugo Ballot Thoughts, Best Novella (and links to the rest)

Here are links to my reviews of all the Hugo nominated novellas. In what I think is not a terribly strong shortlist, I have a clear first place vote, a clear last place vote, and four stories in the middle. The list below is my current planned ballot. Each title is linked to my review.

The River Has Roots, by Amal El-Mohtar

Cinder House, by Freya Marske

What Stalks the Deep, by T. Kingfisher

Automatic Noodle, by Annalee Newitz

The Summer War, by Naomi Novik

Murder by Memory, by Olivia Waite

Here are links to my other ballot summaries for this year:

Best Novel

Best Novelette

Best Short Story