mikewhiteman's review
4.0
Carouseling - Rich Larson *****
I'm a sucker for a big emotional moment and this one hits hard. Ostap and Alyce are in a long-distance relationship, using linkwear to feel each other's bodies and dance together while apart. Everything takes a turn when an experiment at Alyce's work goes wrong and the whole lab disappears. Their relationship is established with lots of sweet little touches, then that upheaval and the following events take things to the next level. Touchingly beautiful, tears everywhere.
Without Exile - Eleanna Castroianni ***
The structure of this one is nicely implemented, with Nell addressing her robotic assistant Luciole directly as events progress. It gives the intimacy of a first person account while constantly considering how another sees them and reacts, but is awkward in places. The story of a lawyer assisting refugees from the culture she was adopted from apply to the one she has grown up in is well conceived and sociopolitically layered but slipped into mawkishness near the end.
Violets On The Tongue - Nin Harris ****
Full of sensuous language, exploring the complex relationship between two human colonisers and an alien native, both romantic and political, as they deal with the impact their arrival on an alien world has had on both its inhabitants and the world itself. The way they have to subsume into each other and the over-soul to reconcile is full of wonder, although it wobbles on the edge of vagueness.
Logistics - AJ Fitzwater ***
Not completely convinced that rendering a vlog/livestream into text form works, but its well done and brings out the personality of the main character in a neat way. The threats of the post-apocalyptic world seem somewhat removed, the tone staying largely irreverent but for single lines of transcripted sobbing undercutting the facade. The lightness always quickly returns, but then this is a story about hunting for tampons in the wasteland, so that airy humour is a feature.
The Wings Of Earth - Jiang Bo, trans. Andy Dudak ***
First contact story with lots of cool imagery - the titular wings in particular - and a focus on co-operation succeeding and taking the advantages that come, while politics scrambles and guesses wrong. Gentle and positive.
The Baby Eaters - Ian McHugh **
This sort of looks at the ways in which propaganda becomes used to justify war, without ever really facing it head on, and then says the propaganda is in fact true - odd. A well-worn predator-prey alien interaction doesn't liven it up.
KIT: Some Assembly Required - Kathe Koja & Carter Scholz ***
An emergent AI models itself on Christopher Marlowe as it becomes self aware and develops itself, dealing with both it huge powers and its limitations as a creation of man. A neat idea but the juxtaposition didn't feel completely effective.
I'm a sucker for a big emotional moment and this one hits hard. Ostap and Alyce are in a long-distance relationship, using linkwear to feel each other's bodies and dance together while apart. Everything takes a turn when an experiment at Alyce's work goes wrong and the whole lab disappears. Their relationship is established with lots of sweet little touches, then that upheaval and the following events take things to the next level. Touchingly beautiful, tears everywhere.
Without Exile - Eleanna Castroianni ***
The structure of this one is nicely implemented, with Nell addressing her robotic assistant Luciole directly as events progress. It gives the intimacy of a first person account while constantly considering how another sees them and reacts, but is awkward in places. The story of a lawyer assisting refugees from the culture she was adopted from apply to the one she has grown up in is well conceived and sociopolitically layered but slipped into mawkishness near the end.
Violets On The Tongue - Nin Harris ****
Full of sensuous language, exploring the complex relationship between two human colonisers and an alien native, both romantic and political, as they deal with the impact their arrival on an alien world has had on both its inhabitants and the world itself. The way they have to subsume into each other and the over-soul to reconcile is full of wonder, although it wobbles on the edge of vagueness.
Logistics - AJ Fitzwater ***
Not completely convinced that rendering a vlog/livestream into text form works, but its well done and brings out the personality of the main character in a neat way. The threats of the post-apocalyptic world seem somewhat removed, the tone staying largely irreverent but for single lines of transcripted sobbing undercutting the facade. The lightness always quickly returns, but then this is a story about hunting for tampons in the wasteland, so that airy humour is a feature.
The Wings Of Earth - Jiang Bo, trans. Andy Dudak ***
First contact story with lots of cool imagery - the titular wings in particular - and a focus on co-operation succeeding and taking the advantages that come, while politics scrambles and guesses wrong. Gentle and positive.
The Baby Eaters - Ian McHugh **
This sort of looks at the ways in which propaganda becomes used to justify war, without ever really facing it head on, and then says the propaganda is in fact true - odd. A well-worn predator-prey alien interaction doesn't liven it up.
KIT: Some Assembly Required - Kathe Koja & Carter Scholz ***
An emergent AI models itself on Christopher Marlowe as it becomes self aware and develops itself, dealing with both it huge powers and its limitations as a creation of man. A neat idea but the juxtaposition didn't feel completely effective.
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