The Loud Table by Jonathan Carroll

November 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Loud Table by Jonathan Carroll
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (25 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“The Loud Table” by Jonathan Carroll is an sf-fantasy about four elderly men who regularly hang out. One of the men is worried that he’s getting Alzheimer’s, but the truth might be even more discomforting.

The result is a harder and a more frequent generic soft cialis erection. Sometimes the wife and children’s health seems more viagra cheap prescription important to the eyes. Not as many constituencies could be prescription du viagra served by the smaller package to be divided between 11 projects. So, how to lead a viagra india prices normal sex life despite suffering from ED. Few things are more frightening than losing memories.

The plot twists in this story were well done. Based on the blurb, I knew something out of the ordinary was going to be happening to one of the characters, but I never would have guessed what was truly bothering him. There was so much creativity included in the author’s descriptions of what was bothering this character and why his doctor’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease might not have been as accurate as he originally thought.

I often found myself mixing up the four main characters. While I expected them to have a lot in common due to their similar ages, interests, and personalities, they shared so many similarities that I couldn’t keep everyone straight. Over and over again I’d misremember a detail from one of their lives as something that happened to someone else instead. It would have been helpful to have more context clues about who was who. Even something as simple as giving one of them an unusual hobby or describing him as much more or less outgoing than his friends would have gone a long way in helping me keep them separate in my mind.

With that being said, the friendships between all four characters felt incredibly genuine. Despite their occasionally snarky comments to one another, I caught a strong sense of how much they cared about each other. They’d known each other for so many years that they could often predict what their friends were going to say and do ahead of time. Little details like this showed the audience the result of such long friendships without needing any of the characters to say much out loud about their feelings at all. This was the perfect way to describe four men who probably wouldn’t have been comfortable talking about their emotions in such a deep way, too.

I’d especially recommend The Loud Table to anyone who has ever come down with strange symptoms that were hard to pin down to one cause.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones

October 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Night Cyclist by Stephen Graham Jones
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (35 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“The Night Cyclist” by Stephen Graham Jones is a horror novelette about a middle-aged chef whose nightly bicycle ride home is interrupted by an unexpected encounter.

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The main character was an incredibly brave man. I never would have had the courage to do what he did when he encountered something completely out of the ordinary on his bike ride home after dark. He was riding in such a deserted area that I would have been worried about something terrible happening under those circumstances and with no witnesses around to help. This rash decision suited his assertive and risk-taking personality perfectly, though. If anyone was going to run towards danger instead of away from it, he would have been the guy to do that.

There were a few parts of the ending that didn’t quite make sense to me. They had to do with how the protagonist reacted once the most climatic scene had wrapped up and he was left to decide what to do next. His reaction wasn’t what I would have expected from him based on how he’d behaved in the past. It would have been helpful to have a more thorough explanation of why he acted this way.

The world building felt quite realistic to me. Due to the fact that the main character didn’t have superpowers or any particular interest in things that can’t be explained by science, I appreciated how much time it took him to realize that something odd was happening. That was an understandable reaction from him. Even though I always wanted to know more than he was slowly figuring out, I liked the fact that the author stayed so true to this character’s down-to-earth approach to stuff he didn’t understand.

Anyone who has ever been alarmed by a strange sound after dark should give The Night Cyclist a try.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin

October 17, 2018 By 1 Comment


The City Born Great by N.K. Jemisin
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (26 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In this standalone short story by N. K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season, the winner of this year’s Hugo Award for Best Novel, New York City is about to go through a few changes. Like all great metropolises before it, when a city gets big enough, old enough, it must be born; but there are ancient enemies who cannot tolerate new life. Thus New York will live or die by the efforts of a reluctant midwife…and how well he can learn to sing the city’s mighty song.

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The world building was fantastic. I could almost hear the thump of the city’s heartbeat as the narrator learned more about what makes a city literally come alive and why only a few people are aware of why this happens. This felt like the opening chapter of a full-length book in a very positive way. As satisfied as I was by how much I learned about this universe, I also wished I could keep reading for a few hundred more pages.

It would have been nice to know the main character’s name. His character development was handled nicely in general, so it felt odd to me to never learn something as simple as what his birth family, past teachers, or current fellow homeless friends called him. He was such a private person that I would have understood if he only wanted to share a nickname with the audience, but it still would have been helpful to know what name to use for him regardless of whether it was his legal one.

The ending was perfect, though. I’d grown attached to the main character, so I was happy to see how his life turned out after the conclusion of his original mission. I also liked seeing how his attempt to help New York be born was connected to the fates of many other cities as well. It was interesting to get a deeper understanding of the world the characters lived in, and it made me hope for a sequel.

I’d heartily recommend The City Born Great to anyone who loves modern science fiction.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The High Lonesome Frontier by Rebecca Campbell

October 16, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The High Lonesome Frontier by Rebecca Campbell
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (21 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A meditation about the evolution and influence of a song written in 1902 over the next 150 plus years.

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This was the first time I’ve ever seen a song being treated like a character, much less the protagonist. I was impressed with Ms. Campbell’s creative approach this topic. Even though it wasn’t a sentient being, the song’s evolution over time were fascinating to watch. The identity of the person who originally sang it was forgotten by many fans which only made it more appealing and mysterious to future generations.

The only thing I wish had been done differently had to do with the non-chronological order of the scenes. As much as I adored seeing how the song was rediscovered by each new generation, in a few spots it was slightly confusing to jump around so much in the timeline. While I did soon figure out how to piece everything together, this is something I would have liked to see tweaked. It was the only thing holding this story back from a perfect rating from me.

One of the most magical things about music is how effortlessly it can evoke the same emotion in everyone who listens to it no matter who they are or how many years later they discover it. This was a theme that was explored in depth in this tale. Every single person who sang, heard, played, or was otherwise exposed to this song responded to it with the same mixture of feelings. I can’t say what those feelings were, exactly, without giving away spoilers, but I was amazed by how often this kept happening no matter how many generations had passed since it was originally written and recorded.

The High Lonesome Frontier was a beautiful piece of science fiction that I’d strongly recommend to anyone who has ever absent-mindedly hummed a tune that they could only half remember.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Three Lives of Sonata James by Lettie Prell

October 12, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Three Lives of Sonata James by Lettie Prell
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (33 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In a cyber-enhanced, futuristic Chicago, Sonata knows near-immortality is achievable through downloading her mind into a cyborg body after death. But this young artist wants to prove that living forever isn’t the same as living a beautiful life. The Three Lives of Sonata James, a Tor.com Original from science fiction author Lettie Prell.

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There were some well-done plot twists in this story. I didn’t see the first one coming, so I gasped when it arrived. It was surprising, wonderful, and just a little unnerving in a good way. The rest of the plot twists were easier to predict ahead of time, but I still enjoying watching them unfold as Sonata tried to figure out if she could avoid living forever and how her loved would react to such a controversial decision for their time.

Cyborgs faced a lot of conflict with the humans they were living alongside. I was fascinated by why the tension between them started and wondered if they’d find a solution to it. While Sonata did answer some of my questions, there were still many parts of this subplot that I didn’t fully understand. It would have been nice to have more details about it so I could better understand why she reacted the way she did to the thought of becoming a robot and living forever.

Sonata’s friendship with Dante was another highlight of the storyline for me. They knew each other so deeply that they could almost finish one another’s sentences. These are the sort of interactions I truly look forward to reading about because of how much depth they add to not only the characters but also to their friendships. Dante and Sonata felt like real people to me because of it, and their relationship felt genuine as well.

The Three Lives of Sonata James was a thought-provoking tale that should be read by anyone who has ever wished to live forever.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar

October 9, 2018 By 2 Comments


The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror
Length: Short Story (31 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A space opera adventure set in a universe controlled and run by Jewish religious authorities. An enforcer is sent to a distant planet where he discovers an android who changes his mind about what is right and wrong

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There’s something to be said for a plot twist involving a major character that is only vaguely hinted at. While I did end up figuring out what it was probably going to be ahead of time, this in no way made it less interesting to see if my prediction was going to turn out to be the correct one. The fact that the characters involved in it were so surprised by what happened made me grin. I wish I could say more about this, but I don’t want to give away any spoilers about something that was a highlight of the storyline for me.

I found it confusing to jump back and forth in the timeline of this story so often. As interested as I was in the plot itself, it was hard to keep track of when everything happened due to certain key scenes appearing to being shared much sooner or later than they actually happened. There were several times when I had to stop and reread a previous scene due to all of the trouble I had placing it in the timeline, and I’m still not entirely sure I have all of them sorted out correctly.

The world building was well done. I originally wondered if this was part of a series due to all of the little details the author included about things that had happened in the distant past. When I found out it wasn’t, I was even more impressed by how much work had been put into creating such a detailed world in only a few dozen pages.

I’d recommend The Old Dispensation to anyone who loves dark and futuristic science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Greenest Gecko by Ploy Pirapokin

October 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Greenest Gecko by Ploy Pirapokin
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

After an unusual public incident in which the frail, elderly president is revitalized, geckos are now considered to bring good luck. At the Ministry of Merit, Fon is secretly in charge of building the next Gecko Cannon for the family of president of Bankim’s eightieth birthday. She is honored to be assigned this duty and works diligently to create and deliver this extraordinary machine.

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It was easy to relate to Fon. She was so open about her hopes and dreams that I couldn’t help but to wish that some of them would come true for her. I also appreciated the fact that she was quietly willing to break certain rules she’d grown up with that her parents would have been a little horrified to hear she was no longer following. These moments brought depth to her personality and made me eager to find out what would happen to her next.

I had trouble keeping track of who all of the characters were. There were a lot of them, and the descriptions of who they were and how they were connected to Fon were so brief that it was hard to remember it all. It would have been nice to either be reminded of how everyone knew each other or to be told much more about what they looked like so I could picture everyone clearly.

Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored the strict social structures of Bankim, Cameroon. Everyone in this society was expected to fulfill a specific role, and up until recently there was little room for deviation from that path. While I don’t know how similar this is to how things really are in Cameroon, I was intrigued by Fon’s reactions to the way her culture seemed to be shifting as her generation slowly became old enough to influence the social mores. These sections were as well-written as they were thought provoking.

I’d recommend The Greenest Gecko to anyone who enjoys humor in their science fiction.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Virtual Swallows of Hog Island by Julianna Baggott

October 2, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Virtual Swallows of Hog Island by Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (23 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Review by: Astilbe

In “The Virtual Swallows of Hog Island,” a programmer finds himself working for the self-proclaimed “Bad-Boy of Virtual-Reality Therapy.” While his boss is breaking new ground and breaking the rules and his coworkers are engaging in questionable uses of the latest technology, the lonely programmer is in a state of mourning over his deep personal losses and must figure out his own form of therapy.

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One of the things I enjoyed the most about this tale was what a good job it did at showing a wide variety of tragedies that someone might have trouble recovering from. All of the grieving characters in it were dealing with the same emotions, but the circumstances that lead to their fragile states couldn’t have come from a more diverse set of experiences based on the identities, ages, and even the species of the individuals they had lost. They covered the full gamut of various living beings that someone might mourn, and that was a very good thing.

There were a few mild pacing issues in the beginning. Archer, the narrator, spent so much time describing his work and the clients his programs helped that it took a little while for me to realize what the conflicts of this tale were going to be. I’m glad I stuck around through those sections, though, because the scenes that came after them were well worth the somewhat slow start.

The ending caught me by surprise in a wonderful and memorable way. While there were a few hints about how what was to come earlier on, I didn’t actually put them all together until after I knew how the final scene would be resolved. This isn’t something that happens to me very often, so it was fascinating to go back and see what I’d missed once I realized that the author had a few tricks up her sleeve.

I’d recommend The Virtual Swallows of Hog Island to anyone who has ever had to grieve over the loss of someone they really loved.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story by S.B. Divya

October 1, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story by S.B. Divya
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (33 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Moena lives in a world of her own making, sealed off from the deadly pathogens of Bangalore in her own personal biome. But when she meets Rahul, a beautiful man working to clean up his city, her need for him draws her into danger. She will risk her health and her work to satisfy her lust for Rahul, and may find love along the way… in S.B. Divya’s Microbiota and the Masses, a Tor.com Original.

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The romantic subplot was handled beautifully. I was initially a little surprised at the thought of someone who lived such an isolated and restrictive lifestyle having any chance at all of falling in love, especially since the main character had many other pressing problems to deal with at the same time. Ms. Divya balanced the romance and science fiction portions of her story perfectly, though, and I loved seeing the protagonist move between her personal and professional lives with such ease. It brought a lot of nuance to her personality that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten a chance to see.

Moena’s reasons for sealing herself off from all of the pathogens in Bangalore weren’t easy to figure out. My original theory about why she chose to do this turned out to be completely inaccurate. Given how important this was for the plot, I wish she’d been much more clear early on about why she made such a drastic decision for herself. It wouldn’t have given away any spoilers, and it would have helped me understand what sort of science fiction tale I was actually reading.

One of my favorite parts of this scene had to do with Moena’s scientific research. She lived in an area that was heavily polluted and full of germs that could make even a healthy adult dangerously ill. The exact nature of her research wasn’t revealed until later on in the storyline, but I was fascinated by the thought of one scientist attempting to solve a problem that entire teams of experts had yet to figure out.

Microbiota and the Masses: A Love Story should be read by fans of the romance and science fiction genres alike.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage by Alix E. Harrow

September 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage by Alix E. Harrow
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Historical
Length: Short Story (49 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Oona’s blood is a river delta blending east and west, her hair red as Tennessee clay, her heart tangled as the wild lands she maps. By tracing rivers in ink on paper, Oona pins the land down to one reality and betrays her people. Can she escape the bonds of gold and blood and bone that tie her to the Imperial American River Company?

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Oona’s character development was amazing. Not only did I get a perfectly clear understanding of why she’d decided to do things that violated her moral code, I had a great deal of sympathy for the reasons that lead to her making these choices. She was a complex and sympathetic person from the first scene to the last one. The only thing better than getting to know her was seeing how she evolved over the course the of the plot.

It would have been helpful to have clarification about which Native American tribe Oona was supposed to have come from. While I understood why some parts of her family tree were so mysterious for her, not knowing about such an important detail about her life was a little disappointing to me as a reader because of how much else I’d been told about other parts of her life that were much less significant to her.

The ending was as poetic as it was satisfying. I’d come to appreciate the protagonist’s sometimes whimsical approach to describing her past and present. Seeing her continue this trend even to the end of the final paragraph was delightful. It was exactly what I’d expect from Oona, and it left me feeling quite pleased with how her conflicts were resolved.

I’d heartily recommend The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage to new and longterm fans of the fantasy genre alike.

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