Review of Kel Purcill, “Luminous”, Luna Station Quarterly 41 (2020): Read online. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
Shaz’s modern-day fairy-tale ended with an unhappily ever after, so she got divorced. Now in the freedom of being happily single, she can do whatever she wants — and with whomever she wants.
This is a sweet little story. It’s not really to my taste, but if you like romance and magical realism, then this is a story for you!
Review of L. C. Street, “A Unicorn in the Time of Dinosaurs”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 263-274 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
Trek lives in a post-apocalyptic society ravaged by global warming and dinosaurs. Most cities lie abandoned, and much modern tech no longer exists or works. Trek herself makes a living as a messenger, running routes between the isolated civilisations. Keeping to the same route, the same pace, every day is what keeps her safe — any deviation can result in eventual death. So when she drops her canteen one day, she should have left it for lost; but instead, she turns around to retrieve it. A slight pause in her routine, a moment for something to start tracking her, and she ends up in an abandoned village to keep safe overnight. The unicorn she meets that night is not all that it seems…
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.
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.
Review of Richard A. Lovett, “Guns Don’t Kill”, Analog Science Fiction and Fact January/February (2020): 159–163 (print) – Purchase Here. Reviewed by John Atom.
Contains spoilers.
This piece contains three separate stories about “smartguns” — i.e. guns controlled by AI. In each case, the guns prevent their respective owners from doing something bad or stupid, like committing murder or killing deer when it’s not hunting season. Some terrible tragedies are successfully prevented.
There are a few things to like in Lovett’s story. Using AI as a solution to senseless gun violence is an clever idea — perhaps unrealistic for a real world implementation, but clever nevertheless. On the other hand, the plotting and characterization leave a lot to be desired. The first two vignettes were dull and forgetful, grossly overshadowed by the author’s obvious attempt at a message. The third vignette works a little better. The alternating points of view between Ethan and the cops went a long way into keeping the tensions high. I only wish the final twist (AI conversing with itself) was not there, as it accomplishes nothing but enforce an already heavy-handed message.
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.
Review of Jonathan Coolidge, “Star Tipping”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 163-176 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
Content warning: Contemplation of suicide, explicit descriptions of pain and injury.
This story starts in media res with a crash and a bang — literally: Church, the first-person present-tense narrator is in a pretty gruesomely described car crash. What follows isn’t much more pleasant, as we’re taken on a trip down Church’s memory lane, filled with unhappiness and hurt.
Just at the point where I was wondering “what is speculative about this?” the story takes a sharp turn into superhero-land as Church discovers — via unexpectedly using them — he has achieved superpowers.
This story wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I can still appreciate the quality of its crafting.
Review of Marla Cantrell, “As Long As You Remember”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 81-87 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
This is the story of Chick, an itinerant car-thief who never stays in town more than a few days. It isn’t clear where he is going or why — if he is running from something, or two something. The story is told at an arm’s length remove, being a factual recounting of his actions. It is only when we get brief glimpses of the person who is doing the recounting that any sort of story develops, that we get to see a side of Chick that isn’t quite as unsympathetic as the facts present. Things veer off in a strange direction at the end, leaving the reader (well, me) with an uncertain resolution. I’m still not sure why Chick’s story is one that I should care about.
Review of Shelby Van Pelt, “Carry On”, in David G. Clark, Callum Colback, Joe Butler, and Alex Hareland, eds., Beneath Strange Stars, (TL;DR Press, 2020): 49-58 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)
This was a story full of paradoxes. It was full of sharp, fine details that made the setting feel intimate and real, and yet I couldn’t tell you where or when it was set. The first-person narrator continually addresses an unnamed “you”, but that “you” is not me, the reader. Instead, it feels like we’re inside the narrator’s head, overhearing her internal monologue, as she recites her history and how she and her friend ended up stranded in a desert when almost everyone else has moved on, made the long trek to the south.
Even in the ending is shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. I think I know what happened — but I won’t spoil the surprise by telling it here.
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.
SFF Reviews