Category: Science Fiction

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Science Fiction

Read The Mausoleum’s Children

Read The Mausoleum’s Children – Uncanny Magazine by Aliette de Bodard

Thuận Lộc stared at the cup.

It was dark, and mottled with the characteristic patterning of silver-eye fungus. The tea inside was trembling—the faint vibrations from the Mausoleum, the dead ships’ atrophied motors that would never again allow them to hang, weightless, among the stars. Even now—even standing far away from it in that small shed made of scrap metal and recycled filters—even now, that place could still reach her.

This feels like an emotional sister piece to the Xuya novella I recently read, Seven of Infinities.

Categories
Comics Science Fiction

Read SFSX Vol. 1

Read SFSX (Safe Sex) Volume 1

In a draconian America where sexuality is strictly bureaucratized and policed, a group of queer sex workers keep the magic alive in an underground club called the Dirty Mind. Using their unique talents for bondage and seduction, they resolve to infiltrate the mysterious government Pleasure Center, free their incarcerated friends, and fight the power!

Love the Tula Lotay covers. I liked the more realistic style interior art towards the beginning; I thought the more cartoony chapter felt off for the dystopian fare. There was a lot of violence and torture, though it didn’t squick me out as much as Monstress. The characters were underdeveloped as this was very plot-focused, with constant action — I’d have liked more between Avory and George, especially earlier in the story. I think there could have been more interesting things going on on the 13th floor — the villains were a little one-note. I didn’t like the ending <spoiler>because it sets up a repeat of the same plot in book 2</spoiler>.

Categories
Science Fiction Writing

Read The Jewel-Hinged Jaw

Read Jewel Hinged Jaw: Notes on the Language of Science Fict… by Samuel R. Delany

From the four-time Nebula Award–winning author, an indispensable work of science fiction criticism, revised and expanded.Samuel R. Delany’s The Jewel-Hinged Jaw appeared originally in 1977, and is now long out of print and hard to find. The impact of its demonstration that science fiction was a special language, rather than just gadgets and green-skinned aliens, began reverberations still felt in science fiction criticism. This edition includes two new essays, one written at the time and one written about those times, as well as an introduction by writer and teacher Matthew Cheney, placing Delany’s work in historical context.

Overall he comes off as pretentious, name-droppy, and braggy, and I’m not inclined to read his fiction based on this. There were some extremely interesting bits and pieces, unfortunately buried in a lot of rambling.

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Categories
Science Fiction

Read Rose/House

Read Rose/House

Basit Deniau’s houses were haunted to begin with.

A house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing: a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile with a thinking creature that is not human? That is something else altogether. But now Deniau’s been dead a year, and Rose House is locked up tight, as commanded by the architect’s will: all his possessions and files and sketches are confined in its archives, and their only keeper is Rose House itself. Rose House, and one other.

Dr. Selene Gisil, one of Deniau’s former protégé, is permitted to come into Rose House once a year. She alone may open Rose House’s vaults, look at drawings and art, talk with Rose House’s animating intelligence all she likes. Until this week, Dr. Gisil was the only person whom Rose House spoke to.

But even an animate intelligence that haunts a house has some failsafes common to all AIs. For instance: all AIs must report the presence of a dead body to the nearest law enforcement agency.

There is a dead person in Rose House. The house says so. It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Gisil. It is someone else. Rose House, having completed its duty of care and informed Detective Maritza Smith of the China Lake police precinct that there is in fact a dead person inside it, dead of unnatural causes—has shut up.

No one can get inside Rose House, except Dr. Gisil. Dr. Gisil was not in North America when Rose House called the China Lake precinct. But someone did. And someone died there. And someone may be there still.

Moody and confusing, without resolution. I’d hoped things might be explained but they were left opaque, and the clues we were given don’t line up with what we’re told happens. It has the trappings of a murder mystery but it’s more of a ghost story.

Really nice cover.

Categories
Mystery Romance Science Fiction

Read Seven of Infinities

Read Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard

Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student.

Sunless Woods is a mindship—and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.

When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship–and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.

signed monograph page with black and white copy of cover art
another signed library copy 😳

For a novella, it accomplished quite a bit in terms of character and action. This one was more of a romance than the previous story I read in this universe; I thought it mostly worked, even if the denouement was a hair quick. I’d have liked for the main character to be a little more settled in her change at the end, and the ship hadn’t fully reckoned with her desires. Just one inexplicable character action towards the beginning — why would the dead woman bring along such valuable, identifiable items with her?

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Categories
Romance Science Fiction

Read Queen of Dust

Read Queen of Dust

Anastasia meets The Bodyguard in this riveting, sexy science fiction romance about a seductress forced to guard her heart against the enemy soldier duty-bound to protect her

She should despise him…

Mara Leanor is the last of her kind—the last Balti temptress, a woman schooled in the art of pleasures great and small. She’s waited years to return to her home planet only to find that Balti, once lush and beautiful, is losing its battle with the enemy occupation she despises. Harder to despise is Calvy D’Aldiern, the enemy captain turned bodyguard assigned to protect her, who seems intent on breaking down her walls instead.

He should detest her…

Cal has one shot at getting back to his proving he can follow orders without doing anything stupid. Like falling for the woman slipping into his bed to take her pleasures and give none of her self. While Mara discovers how different Cal is from the rigid, self-righteous invaders, Cal confirms that a Balti temptress is impossible to deny.

Their desire threatens them both…

Caught in the planet’s tide of change, with his assignment rushing to its end and her people driven toward revolt, Cal and Mara must decide if their present matters more than her past and his future.

*Very* explicit, starting from the very first scene. The second half was more focused on the storyline.

I liked this but also wanted more from it? The heroine’s relationship with the largely absent Liam is load-bearing but not established strongly enough to understand why she was so determined to stay with this loser and keep making excuses for him. He’s a jerk from basically the first page.

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Categories
Mystery Science Fiction

Read Emergent Properties

Read Emergent Properties

Emergent Properties is the touching adventure of an intrepid A.I. reporter hot on the heels of brewing corporate warfare from Nebula Award-nominated author Aimee Ogden.

A state-of-the-art AI with a talent for asking questions and finding answers, Scorn is nevertheless a parental disappointment. Defying the expectations of zir human mothers, CEOs of the world’s most powerful corporations, Scorn has made a life of zir own as an investigative reporter, crisscrossing the globe in pursuit of the truth, no matter the danger.

In the middle of investigating a story on the moon, Scorn comes back online to discover ze has no memory of the past ten days—and no idea what story ze was even chasing. Letting it go is not an option—not if ze wants to prove zirself. Scorn must retrace zir steps in a harrowing journey to uncover an even more explosive truth than ze could have ever imagined.

Interesting world building, especially some fun ideas about how a disembodied AI might think and act. The plot was a little hard to follow because it relied on a bunch of politics and various corporations that I couldn’t keep track of. I was never clear exactly what ze thought might be happening re: autonomy on the moon.

I don’t think this needed to be a novel but extending what was here might have made it more impactful. The relationships all relied on like one, maybe two brief conversations. I thought the denouement was too quick and didn’t grapple enough with the emotional implications of the climax.

Categories
Comics Science Fiction

Read Project ARKA: Into the Dark Unknown

Read Project ARKA: Into the Dark Unknown

In the year 2182, citizens of a dying Earth flee to a distant promised land in a massive colony ship, the Arka III. They do not reach their intended destination…

In the not-too-distant future, the Earth has been destroyed, its orbit withering and its citizens desperate to escape to the stars. The solution? The Arka project, massive vessels bound for the distant planet of Leonis.

When the passengers of Arka III awaken from their long intergalactic journey, they realize they’re not on Leonis. Not only that, their journey has taken much longer than the planned two hundred years, and has landed them in a starless, seemingly endless void. Eric Rives, the ship’s second-in-command, and his partner Jia Tang are sent on an exploratory mission to investigate the dark labyrinth that surrounds them…but what they find is beyond belief.

Rama meets colony ships. I haven’t read the original but suspect this adaptation tried to stay too true to it because there was so much plot there wasn’t room to develop any characters or explain things. I thought the sentient insects were the most unique aspect, but the plot instead focused on the explorers, which is much more trodden territory, so less interesting.

I didn’t understand Johanna’s motivations and suspected there must be some nefarious reason, but I think it was all her. Eric is a bumbling tool — it would have been more interesting for Jia to serve as the other main character to Johanna instead.

The art was pretty but the people were leaden — either neutral expressions, closed mouths when they’re speaking, or dramatically over the top. The insects were almost more expressive by virtue of body language — though I had a hard time telling them apart, which made their story difficult to follow.

Categories
Culture Science Fiction Technology

The value of canon

I’ve been stuck on “canon” lately, and not quite sure why. Sure, I’m a genre fiction author, so understanding the genre I work in is materially valuable. But I have long avoided anything resembling literary analysis (the last time I took an English class was 11th grade of high school — I challenged English 101 in college and as a science major didn’t have any literary requirements). Why is this dogging me now, twenty years later?

My friend kindly humored me in talking about genre yet again this week 😉 We talked through that there are many types of canon within the same genre (specifically, sci-fi); there’s the canon of works that have been most valuable to me; there’s the canon I think is important to understanding how the genre came to be but not for its literary merits; there’s the canon of what we want the genre to be; there’s the canon of ideas and works I expect people to be familiar with when working in the genre; there’s the canon I’d recommend to a new reader of the genre; there’s the literary SF canon and the TV/movie SF canon (which I’d argue are separate though linked); there’s the canon for understanding the genre’s broader cultural impact. These are all dramatically different lists. And I think what I’m really interested in is how genre — through canonical works — has influenced and continues to influence culture, especially around how we relate to technology and conceptualize AI.

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Categories
Romance Science Fiction

Read The Yearning

Read The Yearning by Alana Khan

Stranded on a deserted asteroid with only a robot for company, Eve discovers circuitry can have more heart and soul than anyone she’s ever met.

Eve
It’s hard to imagine things could become more desperate than being abducted by aliens, but I’m even more terrified when I wake up to a huge, faceless metallic robot. I never dreamed 420 would crave my body, have the soul of a poet, or would soon own my heart.

420
I’ve been alone on this barren asteroid for hundreds of years. When Eve crashes here, she’s a gift from the stars. Now I must battle both nature and our enemies to protect the female who is more important to me than life itself.

This was really good! The heroine starts off competent, which is a relief when so many heroines in the genre are clutzy and too scared to do anything. 420’s evolution is interesting to see unfold. I love how considerate of each other they are. Their partnership in the lab is delightful. The ending is heartwarming. That epilogue tho — I almost cried!

From the Claimed Among the Stars anthology, which I am still working my way through a couple years later 😂 It has 49 novellas in it so I feel pretty good I’ve made it through 13 of them. I’ve also vetoed / DNF’d 9, so there are still 27 remaining to try — check back in five years? 🤷‍♀️😄