REVIEW: "Cooling Chaos" by Gregory Benford

Review of Gregory Benford, “Cooling Chaos”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April (2020): 117–122 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

A group of scientists and engineers come up with a measure of last resort to combat climate change: an aerosol spray that will reflect sunlight back into space. This new invention is first tested locally to cool down cities and prevent forest fires, before it is applied on a global scale in the Artic and the Antarctic. Despite some political opposition, the effort succeeds, ushering new hope for the future.

This is a speculative piece through and through, with little to none of what may be considered “science fiction.” I very much appreciated Benford’s highly realistic depiction of of the science, including the provided reference at the end which should be accessible by anyone. However, as a work of fiction there is hardly a story here. A big chunk of the text consists of preachy exposition of what has happened, or will happen, to Earth as a result of climate change, and how the proposed technology will fix it. Though informative to many, the overall result is rather uninspiring given the lackluster plot and characters. Not to say hard to get through. The readers will benefit a lot more from Benford’s fact article in the same issue, “Veiling the Earth,” to which this is presented as a companion piece.

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REVIEW: "A Stone's Throw From You" by Jenn Reese

Review of Jenn Reese, “A Stone’s Throw From You”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April (2020): 111–112 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

A young woman talks to the dead body her estranged sister. She is a scientist helping to save a world ravaged by pollution and climate change. However, she had to abandon her family in doing so. She hopes this final message to her sister will help her find some solace.

Unlike most stories of the kind, I felt the author made good use of the second person in this one. The whole thing is short enough to read like an extended monologue, almost in one breath. Overall, the story has a good sense of pacing. The author’s tendency to preach, which crept up almost every other paragraph, slightly diminishes the flow of the prose, though it is still an enjoyable, albeit too brief, read.

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REVIEW: "Midstrathe Exploding" by Andy Dudak

Review of Andy Dudak, “Midstrathe Exploding”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April (2020): 101–105 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom. 

Contains spoilers. 

A bomb with unusual temporal effects has exploded in Midstrathe, and for the last 200 years, it has been slowly engulfing the city with its expanding wave-front. Everything caught within it slows down to an almost absolute stop. Ciaran, a 14 year-old orphan, works for a rogue organization that leads over-eager “tourists” near the wave-front. One day he has to escort one such tourist — an old woman — near the wave-front. When they arrive, the old woman surprises Ciaran by going past the safety line and entering the wave-front despite his warnings not to. This is against the rules, but Ciaran finds himself unable to stop her. She goes through the bubble, leaving Ciaran with no choice but to skip town.

“Midstrathe Exploding” has one of the most original science fiction premises that I’ve read in a while. Aside from the use of a “time-bomb” as an Armageddon device — a uniquely ingenious idea in itself — this story shows a fascinating view of how a society would adapt to such an unusual catastrophic event. Dudak’s evocative prose goes a long way into bringing the strange melancholy of his setting into life, even if his intentional vagueness makes the plot a bit hard to follow. There’s a lot to digest here, especially since the author uses a litany of new terms that can throw the reader off (click-chance, scrip, Dyads, temporal normalization, etc.). It is the kind of story that almost certainly requires a second reading, though not one that necessarily rewards it. While I thoroughly enjoyed the world that the author has created even upon multiple readings, I can easily see certain readers feeling disappointed at the rather lackluster plot. It would be interesting to see the author revisit the setting with a more expanded story.  

Overall, I recommend this story. Like much of science fiction, “Midstrathe Exploding” may not be for everyone, but it is worth a try, if only for its richly unique and inspired premise.

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REVIEW: “Radio, Out By Pluto” by Lydia Pauly

Review of Lydia Pauly, “Radio, Out By Pluto”, Luna Station Quarterly 41 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This was a very sciencey-fiction story, with a mostly-robot protagonist collecting data in a satellite above Pluto. If sciencey stories are your jam, you’ll probably enjoy this. If you’re looking more for character development and personal relationships, then pass on, there are other stories better for you.

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REVIEW: “The Einsteiners” by J. Askew

Review of J. Askew, “The Einsteiners”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 237-247 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I appreciate a novel take on time-travel, and that’s what Askew’s “skimming” is, liking skipping a stone across a flat pond, but instead of a rock and a flat space of water, it’s a person and a black hole.

Esther, the narrator, is one of the Einsteiners, one of the few people who has a legal license to skim. All she hopes is that she’ll get through to the other side of the black hole known as Lilith — a hundred years into the future — at the same time as her girlfriend, Andee, and before humanity makes first contact with an alien civilisation. Unfortunately, only one of those hopes will be realised…

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REVIEW: "Expecting to Fly" by Edd Vick and Manny Frishberg

Review of Edd Vick and Manny Frishberg, “Expecting to Fly”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April (2020): 94–100 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Yetsade is the sole survivor of a spaceship that crashed on an alien planet where the predominant species is a group of bird-like creatures that roam the high skies. Yetsade grows up fully ingrained into the natives’ culture, even though she’s painfully aware that her anatomical differences — the lack of wings — will never allow her to fly. Eventually, another human spaceship arrives on the planet and takes Yetsade back to humanity. With the eager help of her teacher, Rhonda, Yetsade is able to adapt quickly to a human life, though she struggles to consider herself as part of the species. Her heart will always be with her former family.

From a science fictional perspective, “Expecting to Fly” has a rather implausible premise. It is essentially a “Mowgli in space” kind of a story, except that its futuristic trappings somehow make it less palatable than Kipling’s classic. It’s simply inconceivable that a child would survive in such an alien environment, or that it would be allowed to return after such a short acclimation period. This makes it especially disappointing since it is an otherwise fine story. Through the perspective of a well-realized protagonist, the authors give an exquisite description of the planets native life and their harsh customs. It was bold and original. Even Yetsade’s solution at the end was clever despite the overall implausibility of the situation.

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REVIEW: “Blind Charity” by Lyle Enright

Review of Lyle Enright, “Blind Charity”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 227-235 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I did not understand this story — too may obscure references to unknown gods and unspeakable heresies. I didn’t grow up in this world, so I didn’t understand all the cultural references, or even what, exactly happened. And though the Huntress, Viorica Zelgathi had a revelation at the end of the story, the reader, unfortunately, was not party to the same revelation, so I was just left in darkness.

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REVIEW: “Perennial” by Laura Duerr

Review of Laura Duerr, “Perennial”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 221-226 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

The best near-future/dystopia is the sort that seems so plausible, you half expect it to already be true. Even though we don’t currently have body mods like MalibuGlow or enlarged irises or GentleTone arms, they’re all plausible enough, and once you entertain the idea of cosmetic body mods then it’s an easy hop, skip, and a jump to government-required, industrial mods for manual labor, the sort you get when your “parents were either critically ill, dead, absent, or in so much debt that their only solution was to enroll their daughter in a government work program and have her transformed into a machine” (p. 223). A scarily realistic story, softened by some really likeable characters.

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REVIEW: “Kaitlin’s Unicorns” by L. L. Asher

Review of L. L. Asher, “Kaitlin’s Unicorns”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 211-220 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content note: death of a child, death of a disabled person, cruelty to animals, contemplation of suicide, ableism.

I kept adding new items to the content note while reading the story — never a very good sign. In a nutshell, Margret is mourning the recent-ish death of her daughter, Kaitlin, by escaping into the nearby forest that Kaitlin always imagined one day she’d meet a unicorn in. Well, Margret meets the unicorn, and what happens afterwards is not pleasant. I get that Margret is hurting, but despite the obvious pain she’s in, she is not a sympathetic character: Pain and sorrow is never an excuse for violence. Add to this the “twist” that after Kaitlin’s death the “unicorn fixed everything” (p. 220) — i.e., Kaitlin is alive and no longer wheelchair bound — and, well, there was just so much about this story I didn’t like, unfortunately. This is not the disability rep I want to be seeing.

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REVIEW: “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee

Review of Yoon Ha Lee, “The Mermaid Astronaut”, Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue 298 (February 27, 2020): Read online. Reviewed by Richard Lohmeyer.  

This story’s wonderfully imagined central character, is a mermaid who has named herself Essarala, or “seeks the stars.” She is one of many mermaids who dwell “in the deep and dreaming oceans of her world.” But unlike the other mermaids, including her younger sister Kiovasa, Essarala really does long to visit the stars, not just sit on a rock gazing up at them. She gets her chance when traders from off-world arrive. In exchange for a promise to the witch beneath the waves, Essarala gives up her mermaid’s tail for legs and joins the traders on their voyages. After many wondrous years of travel, she finally returns home for a reason much more important than the need to fulfill her promise to the witch. This is a charming story about the competing desire to explore the wider world (or universe) and the joys and duties of home and family. It’s an excellent way to open this special, double-sized issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.   

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