Recoveries by Susan Palwick

July 10, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Recoveries by Susan Palwick
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Two women who have been friends since they were children—one a recovering alcoholic brought up by parents who believe they’re alien abductees, the other an orphan with an eating disorder—contend with secret that might doom their friendship.

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Kat and Vanessa had such a beautiful friendship. They had essentially decided to fulfill the role of a family member for each other since neither of them had been lucky enough to have healthy relationships with their biological relatives. My favorite scenes were the ones that showed how these two women supported each other no matter what was going on in their lives. They obviously cared about each other quite a bit, and it showed.

I had trouble adjusting to all of the flashbacks. There were so many of them that I found it difficult to remember what was currently going on in the characters’ lives once the plot returned to the present day. As interesting as it was to see why Vanessa and Kat turned out the way they did, I would have preferred to spend more time getting to know them as adults instead of seeing what they were like as teenagers.

The plot twists were well done. I appreciated the fact that there were so few clues about what was really going on with these characters. It made the big reveal even more entertaining than it might have otherwise been. Suddenly realizing that I didn’t have everything figured out about this universe also made me want to keep reading to see what else I might be missing.

Recoveries kept me guessing until the end. This is a good choice for anyone who likes to be surprised by what they read.

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

The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu

July 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Holiday, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (23 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the near future water falls from the sky whenever someone lies (either a mist or a torrential flood depending on the intensity of the lie). This makes life difficult for Matt as he maneuvers the marriage question with his lover and how best to “come out” to his traditional Chinese parents.

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The relationship between Matt and his fiancé, Gus, was so supportive and loving. No matter how poorly Matt was treated by his family, Gus was always there for his partner. It made me smile to see them try to come up with the best way to respond to all of the rude things others were saying to them. I wished they wouldn’t have to worry about other people’s opinions of their relationship, but I was also intrigued by how they responded to everyone who didn’t approve.

I would have liked to see more time spent on the science fiction elements of the plot. The thought of water falling on someone’s head every time they told a lie intrigued me quite a bit. It would have been nice to have a stronger understanding of why and when this sort of thing began happening to the characters due to how much it was affecting their daily lives.

Visiting relatives can bring out all kinds of conflicting emotions during the holidays at times. I thought it was interesting to see how Matt responded to the sometimes ignorant things his family said about his sexual orientation and choice of partner. As much as their comments hurt him, I also got the impression that this character loved his parents and sibling quite a bit. Seeing him struggle with questions related to how much he should share about his life and whether they’d ever fully accept him for who he was made me want to keep reading until everything had been resolved.

The Water That Falls on You From Nowhere was a thought-provoking story that I’d recommend to anyone who has ever dreaded going home for the holidays.

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

Yiwu by Lavie Tidhar

June 12, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Yiwu by Lavie Tidhar
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (26 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the future, lottery winners will get their hearts’ desire, whether it’s turning into a bird, going to Mars, or vanishing into thin air.

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Esham, the main character, was such a likable guy. He spent all of his days selling lottery tickets from a tiny shop. Whether or not he was able to do something as simple as eat breakfast the next morning depended on how many tickets he’d sold the day before, so he was always trying to come up with new ways to draw new customers in his direction. This gave his tale a sense of urgency that made it hard to stop reading until I’d discovered what his fate would be.

There were pacing issues. The beginning and ending were full of exciting revelations, but the middle section didn’t have much happening in it at all. Given the plot twist at the end, it would have been really helpful to have more clues included in the middle when the characters didn’t have as much going on in their lives. This would have made that section more memorable as well as helped me figure out the last couple of scenes in a much shorter amount of time.

Speaking of the big plot twist, I sure didn’t see it coming. While I obviously can’t go into detail about what it was for spoiler reasons, I was pleased with how it was revealed and how it fit into everything I’d figured out about Esham and the society he lived in. The transition between what I already knew about them and what I was about to figure out was seamless.

Yiwu should be read by anyone who has ever wondered what they’d do if they won the lottery.

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

Grace’s Family by James Patrick Kelly

June 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Grace’s Family by James Patrick Kelly
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (45 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The mission: to survey the galaxy and beyond. An endless stream of probes and starships heading out into the universe, surveying, cataloguing, assaying. Forever. And on board those ships, the intrepid explorers who give it all meaning.

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One of the things I liked the most about this tale had to do with the role that humans played in space exploration. Not all of the characters were human, and not all of the humans were necessarily the most important characters in the storyline. This isn’t something I’ve seen a lot of in this genre recently. I truly enjoyed getting to know this universe from so many non-human perspectives.

I found the beginning of this story confusing for two reasons. One, the characters used a lot of slang terms without explaining what any of those words meant to the audience. Two, the characters’ relationships to each other were not explained well. Figuring out all of the references and relationships meant that it took me a while to actually begin to enjoy the plot. It would have been helpful to have all of this stuff laid out clearly much earlier on.

The world building was handled nicely. The narrator expected the audience to put some effort into figuring out how this society worked, and I appreciated that. In the end, there were exactly enough clues about every step in the process to make me feel satisfied with how much had been shared even though I would have loved to keep learning more about this vision of the future. If Mr. Kelly ever writes a sequel, though, I want to be first in line to read it.

Grace’s Family should be read by anyone who is in the mood for an interstellar adventure.

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

The Library of Lost Things by Matthew Bright

June 5, 2018 By 1 Comment


The Library of Lost Things by Matthew Bright
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Welcome to the Library of Lost Things, where the shelves are stuffed with books that have fallen through the cracks—from volumes of lovelorn teenage poetry to famous works of literature long destroyed or lost. They’re all here, pulled from history and watched over by the Librarian, curated by the Collectors, nibbled on by the rats. Filed away, never to be read. At least, until Thomas, the boy with the secret, comes to the Library.

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The plot twists were well written. I enjoyed trying to figure out why Thomas ended up at the Library of Lost Things, especially since it didn’t seem to be the sort of place that the average person would know about. The more time he spent at his new job, the harder I worked to put all of the clues together before the narrator revealed what was going on with this character and the delightfully peculiar coworkers he’d just met.

It would have been nice to have more world building. I adored the idea of a magical library that collected and preserved books that have been lost to humanity, but it would have preferred to see more time spent explaining when this place was first created and how they acquired such a rare collection of materials. There was so much about it that was never explained.

Not everyone would be well-suited for working in such an unusual place. My favorite scenes were the ones that showed what the employees were like. They all had quirky parts of their personalities that ended up making them the perfect candidates for their positions. It was especially interesting to see Thomas go through the interviewing process and adjust to his first days on the job. He obviously belonged there just as much as anyone else who’d been selected.

The Library of Lost Things was a creative tale I’d recommend to anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to read a novel that no longer exists in our world.

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

Mental Diplopia by Julianna Baggott

June 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Mental Diplopia by Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (31 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

There seems to be a strange new disease spreading around the world. People are getting stuck in the past in mostly happy memories. They are straddling the line between now and then. Although the disease ends in death, the infected seem to go willingly. The epidemiologist seeks the answers to this viral mystery while she is falling in love and yet trying not to get infected, in Julianna Baggott’s Mental Diplopia.

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I’ve never read a tale about a pandemic that involved characters feeling happy and peaceful while they were dying from an incurable disease, so I was quite curious to see how that would change the typical progression of this sort of science fiction. The descriptions of this ailment only made me more interested in finding out where it came from and why it had such a strange set of symptoms. While this worked perfectly well as a short story, I would love to read a sequel someday about what happened next.

It would have been helpful to know more about how the main character met Oliver, her love interest. They clearly had a lot of chemistry, and I started rooting for them to somehow have a happy ending as soon as he was introduced. The only thing missing in their relationship was an explanation of how and when it began. Had it been included, I would have been perfectly happy to give out a much higher rating.

The unnamed protagonist was an intelligent and sensible epidemiologist. I enjoyed reading her calm and often understated descriptions of how this disease progressed and what happened to humanity once the vast majority of people had died from it. There was something compelling about reading such a factual account of a worldwide tragedy. Seeing it from the perspective of someone in the medical field made me even more interested in finding out how it would end than I would have otherwise been because of this. Her slight detachment from the subject matter gave her the objective point of view that the plot needed in order to truly drive its message home.

Mental Diplopia is a great choice for anyone who would enjoy reading a somewhat romantic take on the end of the world as we know it.

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

We Have Always Lived on Mars by Cecil Castellucci

June 1, 2018 By 2 Comments


We Have Always Lived on Mars by Cecil Castellucci
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (17 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Nina, one of the few descendants of human colony on Mars that was abandoned by Earth, is surprised to discover that she can breathe the toxic atmosphere of the Martian surface. The crew, thinking that their attempts at terraforming and breeding for Martian adaptability have finally payed off, rejoice at the prospect of a brighter future. But Nina’s about to unlock the mystery of the disaster that stranded them on Mars… and nothing will ever be the same.

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Wow, talk about plot twists! There were some fantastic ones in this story. I loved the way they were revealed to both the characters and the audience simultaneously. It was interesting to figure out what was happening at the same time that Nina was also putting the pieces together about what must have really happened generations ago when her ancestors lost touch with the outside world.

I would have liked to be introduced to a few more of Nina’s fellow colonists. While there wouldn’t have been enough space to introduce all twenty-four of them, their community was small enough that I think more of them could have made an appearance in this tale before Nina began to discover clues about why all of their ancestors had been stranded in the first place.

The ending made me wish for a sequel. As satisfied as I was by all of the answers that the main character found, I also desperately wanted to know what would happen to her and her community next. She had so many decisions to make after the end of the final scene. I wished I could see her reaction to everything that had happened as well as everything that was about to happen to her next.

We Have Always Lived on Mars was the sort of book I’d recommend to brand new and longterm fans of this genre alike. It had something for everyone.

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

Silver Linings by Tim Pratt

May 29, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Silver Linings by Tim Pratt
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (16 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Even ordinarily, cloudmining can be dangerous — those silver linings are heavy and potentially lethal — but it’s nothing compared being a cloudminer on the run.

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The plot twists were nicely written. I didn’t see most of them coming, and that made this tale a lot of fun to read. No sooner did I think I knew what was going to happen next then the author would completely surprise me yet again with where the storyline went or what the characters casually revealed about themselves that they hadn’t previously mentioned.

It would have been nice to know the main character’s name. I spent most of my reading time not sure if this person was a man or a woman. While this question was eventually answered, I would have liked to know their name as well since none of the other characters even described the protagonist’s appearance. It felt a little odd to never find out something as basic as their name when I also had no mental image of what they looked like. While this is a minor criticism, it did bother me enough to mention it in my review.

My favorite part of the ending was how much it left me yearning for more. The major questions I had about what cloudmining was and why the main character had chosen that occupation were answered more than satisfactorily, but I still wished I could have a few hundred more pages to really dig into this world. It was quite different from Earth in both subtle and immediately noticeable ways. The small glimpses I caught of how it all worked were delightful.

Silver Linings was a highly creative tale that I’d recommend to anyone who has ever wondered what life might be like on other planets.

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Our King and His Court by Rich Larson

May 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Our King and His Court by Rich Larson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A futuristic story about a high-ranking soldier in a criminal gang who has conflicting loyalties to his monstrous boss and that boss’s innocent young son.

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The world building was really well done. Scipio, the main character, lived in a violent, post-apocalyptic society where only the strongest and most cunning people had any chance of survival. It wasn’t a pleasant place to live by any means, but I did have a vivid impression of what it was like to live in a world run by sociopathic criminals. Danger lurked everywhere there. Escaping it completely wasn’t an option, but someone who was intelligent could reduce their chances of dying painfully if they played the game the right way.

It would have been helpful to have the same attention to detail paid to the character development. I wouldn’t expect to spend a lot of time exploring the personalities and backstories of characters in such a strongly plot-based tale, but it would have been nice to get to know them better as individuals before terrible things began happening to and around them.

I loved the plot twists. It was surprising to see how many of them Mr. Larson was able to squeeze into such a short story. He did an excellent job of gently foreshadowing what would happen next without make it easy for his readers to figure everything out in advance. I especially appreciated how much effort he put into showing how inhumanely El Tirano, Scipio’s boss, treated everyone around him. That clue could have easily given the audience too much or too little information about what was coming next, but the author handled it perfectly.

If you like dark and sometimes disturbing science fiction, give Our King and His Court a try.

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

Faster Gun by Elizabeth Bear

May 28, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Faster Gun by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (35 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It’s hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, and a hundred times too big to be a ship. It looks like nothing anyone ever saw. And it’s crashed just outside Tombstone with something alive inside.

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This wasn’t like any western I’ve ever read before. The thought of mixing cowboys with space aliens made me grin. I was curious to see how these genres would merge together, and I was pleased with how the author found ways to show just how bizarre the idea of a flying ship from a faraway planet would be to the average person who lived in the nineteenth century and knew almost nothing about science.

I found the storyline hard to follow. While I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be told in a chronological order, there weren’t enough hints about when all of the scenes took place for me to keep them straight in my mind. Remembering which scene was supposed to first made it difficult for me to enjoy the plot in general. I kept mixing up the order of events, and that made the reading process a frustrating one.

The characters were interesting. I liked the fact that the descriptions of them were so vivid and detailed. It made it easy to remember who everyone was and how they knew one another no matter if they were the protagonist or someone who only appeared in the plot a handful of times. Reading the narrator’s descriptions of the people who crossed his path was also a fun way to get to know his personality and values based on what he did and didn’t like about the folks around him.

Faster Gun should be read by anyone who has ever wished there were more aliens and spaceships in the wild west of the 1800s.

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