REVIEW: "Camphor" by Mark W. Tiedemann

Review of Mark W. Tiedemann, “Camphor”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact March/April (2020): 84–93 (Kindle) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Remy serves as the representative of a large interstellar empire to a colony that’s been isolated from the rest of humanity for centuries. After three years on the post, Remy receives a visit from Havelock, another representative sent there to investigate — and if necessary, prevent — the potential spread of a deadly virus that originated from a non-native animal on the planet. Their investigation leads to a surprising revelation about the planet and its native population.

At a time when our own planet is on the verge of a viral epidemic, this story is bound to resonate quite strongly with anyone who’s been paying attention to the news. Even though the story’s conception is likely unrelated to COVID-19, it still manages to hit a nerve.

That said, this story is ultimately not about the epidemic. Rather, it is a slow-building mystery about the secret past of the planet and its inhabitants — and as far as the mystery is concerned, it is a rather weak one. There are several things that don’t quite add up and require a serious leap of faith on behalf of the reader. The explanation for the natives’ inoculation is hand-waved into the story, and so is the solution of the mystery. Moreover, I found the plot seriously lacking in any significant stakes or obstacles for the characters. Things more-or-less fall into place one after another, making for a less than compelling read.

There are things to appreciate in “Camphor,” but the overall plot makes for a weak mystery that does not hold up to its potential.

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REVIEW: “Gliese 581g” by John C. Mannone

Review of John C. Mannone, “Gliese 581g”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 191-193 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This poem comes with an informative note! “The exoplanet, Gliese 581g is a highly contested planet about twice Earth’s mass in the middle of the habitable zone” (p. 193), and it is also the subject of the poem…or rather, it’s the objective of the space crew that are en route to colonise it. But of course, we never know what might greet us when we finally do make it to another planet…

The poem itself is written with a repetitive structure — not quite a rondelle, not quite a villanelle, but picking up a phrase from one stanza and reusing or adapting it in the next. I love this sort of poetry, but I felt that this one would have benefited from have a slightly more defined structure — the repetitions felt repetitive, rather than structured, at times. Still, Mannone’s poems remain one of the highlights of the volume.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Do We Build A House to Stand Forever” by Katie Conrad

Review of Katie Conrad, “Do We Build a House To Stand Forever”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 89-106 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Saira and Tuija are the last two survivors of an exploratory mission sent out by the human colony on Io, intended to see what lay beyond the edges of human exploration and knowledge. They have each been in their ships for three years, and have at least five years left before they will return home. The thing about exploratory missions is that you never know what you will find; but even so, neither Saira nor Tuija nor the command center back at Io had any idea that Tuija would find what she found…

I enjoyed this story a lot – the pacing was good, the story was interesting, Saira and Tuija were sympathetic, and I had no idea how things would resolve until they did. Thumbs up!

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: "Birds of Feather" by Gregor Hartmann

Review of Gregor Hartmann, “Birds of Feather”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact January/February (2020): 152–158 (print) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.

Contains spoilers.

Frank, a distinguished astrophysicist at the local Institute of Technology, has a developed a new kind of telescope that will revolutionize space exploration as we know it. The theory is sound, but there has not yet been any experimental verification of Frank’s ideas. Unfortunately, neither the Space Agency nor Frank’s own department will approve the deployment. With the aid of Rivo, his carefree brother, Frank must resort to more illicit means to get his revolutionary telescope up in space.

It’s always nice to read an author who has a distinct and recognizable voice. Hartmann certain fits the profile. His sense of humor and casual-yet-precise style of narration stands out in most of his stories, including this one. In “Birds of Feather”, the plot has a few moments that are a bit hard to swallow and seriously test the readers’ willing suspension of disbelief. For example, the obstacles placed in the way of Frank’s research are not particularly believable — and neither is his extreme reaction to them. However, as the story focuses mainly on the relationship between Frank and his brother, I find the aforementioned flaws rather easy to forgive. Especially since the main characters are so well realized.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable story even though it’s not one of the author’s most memorable.

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REVIEW: “The Space Traveler’s Tense” and “The Space-Traveler’s Husband” by Benjamin S. Grossberg

Review of Benjamin S. Grossberg, “The Space-Traveler’s Tense” and “The Space-Traveler’s Husband”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 145-148 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

I’m not sure if these two back-to-back poems were meant to be read as a set, but given their titles and proximity I decided to read them as such.

As an amateur linguist, I loved the premise of the first poem — a new tense for “nouns in the process of passing”, a tense to speak of dying friends, of dinners being eaten, of “a planet you no longer stand on // but which still exerts on you its // considerable tug” (p. 145). It is also the tense that the space-traveler uses to talk of a planet dweller they once shared their couch, and their years, with.

Nothing more detailed is said of this planet dweller, other than his gender, but I prefer to think that he is the husband that the second poem refers to. This poem was not as evocative as the first one, but the two complement each other well — I would be interested in reading the entire story of the space-traveler and their husband, told through such poems.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Nothing Lasts” by David Estringel

Review of David Estringel, “Nothing Lasts”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 79-80 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

If the hope of this anthology is to engage the wider public with science through the media of fiction and poetry, then the lesson we are to apparently learn from this poem is that “Nothing lasts”, which is both the title and the refrain at the end of each verse. It is a depressing and hopeless message.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “We Feel Autumn in Our Bones” by Joe Butler

Review of Joe Butler, “We Feel Autumn in Our Bones”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 73-78 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Content warning: Contemplation of abortion.

To my taste, the story was slightly overwritten — I kept feeling like a just a few fewer words in each sentence would’ve tightened and sharpened everything up — but it was premised upon such an intriguing idea that by the end of it, I forgave the overwriting. There are many different ways that authors can contemplate solutions to the every growing population on Earth; Butler’s was a take I’d not seen before, and I enjoyed that.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Dark Constellations Beneath Electron Microscope” by Carla Durbach

Review of Carla Durbach, “Dark Constellations Beneath Elecron Microscope”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 59-60- — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Lately I’ve been struggling about what makes a poem a good SF poem. Durbach’s poem is just that: It tells an undeniably and intrinsically science fiction story, but in a way that enhances the beauty of the poem rather than distracts.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: “Another Heart” by Bryan Arneson

Review of Bryan Arneson, “Another Heart”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 61-71 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

This is the kind of SF that I really like — the science is subtle and in the background, but it emphasizes our most basic questions: What makes us human? What are emotions? These and others were brought to the fore through the lense of the character Rosco, whose own status (robot? enhanced human?) remains uncertain right until the very end.

Sara L. Uckelman1 Comment

REVIEW: Beneath Strange Stars edited by David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland

Review of David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020) — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This gorgeously thick volume of short stories and poems is a charity anthology supporting the Association for Science Education, the United Kingdom’s professional association for teachers of science and science technicians and “the largest subject association in the UK” (p. 11), with proceeds going to benefit the ASE’s wider educational mission. Hannah Russell, the ASE’s chief executive officer, provides a brief introduction to the volume that stresses the importance of novel ways to engage the wider community with science of all kinds — such ways including, naturally, science fiction and speculative fiction more generally.

I expected more science fiction and less fantasy, and the quality of the stories varied. But even so, as a whole, the stories and poems in this collection made good on what was promised: They both entertain and instruct. And across the board, the poems were the high points. I do not usually have a very high tolerance for poetry, but I really enjoyed so many of the poems in this anthology.

As usual, we’ll review each of the stories in turn, and link the reviews back here when they are published.

Sara L. Uckelman34 Comments