oceanwader's review
4.0
Read this short story only today (published in Clarkesworld, issue 123). Well written and interesting. Hoping now to read a science fiction novel by Ms. Clark.
filipmagnus's review
5.0
With a month-long delay, I finally got to reading the December issue of Clarkesworld Magazine, and although the first story I read fell flat, expectations-wise, I quite enjoyed what followed. You can find my thoughts on every piece of original fiction and non-fiction, below. Have fun!
Original Fiction:
Blue Grey Blue by Yukimi Ogawa is a weird one, and not in an entirely good way. What I liked about the story was the description of colors and the idea of AI taking away colors from people with them, what I disliked was…basically how murky the entire story ended up feeling. I never quite got into it, and that’s a pity. 3 stars.
A Future Far Too Bright by Yosef Lindell is probably one of those short stories which will linger on in my mind. It’s about the correspondence between a son and his time-traveling father; only, what starts out as one kind of science fiction takes a pleasantly surprising turn and becomes a beautiful, hopeful story about the future, hope, and love. 5 stars.
A Tower for the Coming World by Maggie Clark surprised me very pleasantly. It’s told in the present tense, even as months and years pass unnoticeably by, the focus passing from one character to another. Not all of the characters presented in the five thousand words’ worth of story have a direct connection to one another, but they don’t need to. I dislike spoiling short stories, and so I’ll just say that this one draws a picture of an exploited world some sixty-seventy years into the future, where the sins of the fathers are passed down to the sons. This, too, is a story that ends on a hopeful note. 5 stars, again.
Painter of Stars by Wang Yuan, tells the tale of a cleaning robot going far above his function, and becoming an artist. I don’t think another story in recent memory has surprised me as much as this one did – if I had to pick a single story to read out of all of these, I’d pick this one. 5 stars.
Checkerboard Planet, a story about a planet with interesting vegetation, to start with, is the kind of sci-fi story I’d like to see covered in a novel. It’s occasionally funny, there’s a tight storyline going on, a likable main heroine with an interesting trump card in the face of an AI in her head and a cool little job that I’ve never so much as thought of, in the future. If I sat down and wrote a sci-fi story, it would share a lot of the elements that I loved in this one. I’ll be sure to check Eleanor Arnason’s other published works with the main character, Lydia Duluth. 5 stars.
Non-Fiction:
Bugs from Outer Space & Invasive Earth: Planetary Protection, by Julie Novakova:
A spotlight on Planetary Protection, what it is, the dangers of ending it and why we should worry about the very idea of contaminating planets we go to. It’s a problem I’ve not thought about, I’m ashamed to admit – the idea that by going to other planets with unique biospheres – even by sending unmanned flights – we would be contaminating the planet in question, be it Mars or any other, via the bacteria and archea and so on that is ‘typical’ of Earth.
Magician Spies and Wacky Rubbish: A conversation with Bruce Sterling
Interesting for all fans of steampunk and other ‘punk’-ish tales I’ve not read anything by him yet, but I read this interview, and quite enjoyed it. It includes a look into how Sterling’s writing process begins, and as an aspiring young writer, that’s always of interest to me. I quite enjoyed the following sentence, as well: “A lot of contemporary politics has a strong sci-fi tinge nowadays.”
Another Word: The Joy of Helping
A great read, and the title says it all.
Original Fiction:
Blue Grey Blue by Yukimi Ogawa is a weird one, and not in an entirely good way. What I liked about the story was the description of colors and the idea of AI taking away colors from people with them, what I disliked was…basically how murky the entire story ended up feeling. I never quite got into it, and that’s a pity. 3 stars.
A Future Far Too Bright by Yosef Lindell is probably one of those short stories which will linger on in my mind. It’s about the correspondence between a son and his time-traveling father; only, what starts out as one kind of science fiction takes a pleasantly surprising turn and becomes a beautiful, hopeful story about the future, hope, and love. 5 stars.
A Tower for the Coming World by Maggie Clark surprised me very pleasantly. It’s told in the present tense, even as months and years pass unnoticeably by, the focus passing from one character to another. Not all of the characters presented in the five thousand words’ worth of story have a direct connection to one another, but they don’t need to. I dislike spoiling short stories, and so I’ll just say that this one draws a picture of an exploited world some sixty-seventy years into the future, where the sins of the fathers are passed down to the sons. This, too, is a story that ends on a hopeful note. 5 stars, again.
Painter of Stars by Wang Yuan, tells the tale of a cleaning robot going far above his function, and becoming an artist. I don’t think another story in recent memory has surprised me as much as this one did – if I had to pick a single story to read out of all of these, I’d pick this one. 5 stars.
Checkerboard Planet, a story about a planet with interesting vegetation, to start with, is the kind of sci-fi story I’d like to see covered in a novel. It’s occasionally funny, there’s a tight storyline going on, a likable main heroine with an interesting trump card in the face of an AI in her head and a cool little job that I’ve never so much as thought of, in the future. If I sat down and wrote a sci-fi story, it would share a lot of the elements that I loved in this one. I’ll be sure to check Eleanor Arnason’s other published works with the main character, Lydia Duluth. 5 stars.
Non-Fiction:
Bugs from Outer Space & Invasive Earth: Planetary Protection, by Julie Novakova:
A spotlight on Planetary Protection, what it is, the dangers of ending it and why we should worry about the very idea of contaminating planets we go to. It’s a problem I’ve not thought about, I’m ashamed to admit – the idea that by going to other planets with unique biospheres – even by sending unmanned flights – we would be contaminating the planet in question, be it Mars or any other, via the bacteria and archea and so on that is ‘typical’ of Earth.
Magician Spies and Wacky Rubbish: A conversation with Bruce Sterling
Interesting for all fans of steampunk and other ‘punk’-ish tales I’ve not read anything by him yet, but I read this interview, and quite enjoyed it. It includes a look into how Sterling’s writing process begins, and as an aspiring young writer, that’s always of interest to me. I quite enjoyed the following sentence, as well: “A lot of contemporary politics has a strong sci-fi tinge nowadays.”
Another Word: The Joy of Helping
A great read, and the title says it all.
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