A review by nataliya_x
Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #298, Special Double-Issue for BCS Science-Fantasy Month 5 by Christine Tyler, Aliya Whiteley, Scott H. Andrews, Yoon Ha Lee, Katrina Smith
3.0
This is a review for Hugo Awards-nominated short story “Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee. (Adding review here in case individual entry for that story gets deleted.)
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It’s a spacefaring retelling of Andersen’s “Little Mermaid”, I guess — and despite my ambivalence of fairytale reimaginings, it’s actually alright. But the problem is — unlike it’s earthly inspiration, this one has no real stakes. It’s sweet and pleasant and comforting, but that’s it. It needs something else there, something to give just it a bit of a bite.
It’s a story full of kindness, compassion, understanding, biological AND found family, and the dangers and threats hinted at early on do not have a payoff. There’s a price to pay sometime in the future, perhaps, but it’s hidden comfortably under layers of wondrous sweetness. I doubt I’ll remember it tomorrow, let alone months or years later.
Too easy, too sweet. Nothing wrong with it, but I suspect Hans Christian Andersen would have disapproved.
3 low-stakes unimpressed stars.
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Read it free here: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-mermaid-astronaut/
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My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299
———
It’s a spacefaring retelling of Andersen’s “Little Mermaid”, I guess — and despite my ambivalence of fairytale reimaginings, it’s actually alright. But the problem is — unlike it’s earthly inspiration, this one has no real stakes. It’s sweet and pleasant and comforting, but that’s it. It needs something else there, something to give just it a bit of a bite.
“That’s not the kind of difficulty I meant,” the witch said. “I can give you two legs like the humans, that you might walk on land, or upon the deck of a starfaring ship for that matter. The rest, though—the rest is up to you. For there’s more to starfaring than having legs. You’ll have to familiarize yourself with their alerts, read oxygen gauges, watch out for toxic atmospheres and flesh-eating pathogens, and that’s just the beginning.”
It’s a story full of kindness, compassion, understanding, biological AND found family, and the dangers and threats hinted at early on do not have a payoff. There’s a price to pay sometime in the future, perhaps, but it’s hidden comfortably under layers of wondrous sweetness. I doubt I’ll remember it tomorrow, let alone months or years later.
Too easy, too sweet. Nothing wrong with it, but I suspect Hans Christian Andersen would have disapproved.
3 low-stakes unimpressed stars.
———————
Read it free here: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-mermaid-astronaut/
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299