The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear

May 21, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (18 pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

There’s a harpy with bronze wings living in the dumpster behind Desiree’s building. She’s ugly and she eats garbage, but she has a little kingdom back there. Desiree wants something of her own, too — something all hers. Can that foul old thing possibly help her?

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Desiree was a foster child who was living with an incurable, disfiguring illness. The doctors had originally thought she’d die at a very young age, so she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with herself once she outlived all of their earlier predictions. While there were times when I wished she could have a more optimistic opinion about what her life would be like after she aged out of foster care, I also understood why she feared turning eighteen so much. She had been dealt a tough hand in life, and she didn’t have the support system that most people have at that age.

It was interesting to compare Desiree’s place in society to how the harpy was treated. They shared far more in common than I originally guessed they would, from their loneliness to their troubles connecting to almost anyone who happened to stumble across them in life. This wasn’t something I was expecting to find in this story, but I sure did enjoy finding examples of all of the types of experiences that both of them could relate to.

The ending was everything I’d hoped it would be. Based on how few choices Desiree and the harpy had in the beginning of this piece, I could only think of a few different ways their encounters would eventually end. I’d grown to like Desiree that I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to them and if she’d figure out a way to fix some of the problems that had been plaguing her since birth.

The Horrid Glory of Its Wings was a dark tale that I’d recommend to anyone who has ever felt stuck in unfortunate circumstances.

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This Chance Planet by Elizabeth Bear

May 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment


This Chance Planet by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“This Chance Planet” by Elizabeth Bear is a near future science fiction story about a young Russian waitress with ambitions to become an engineer and her musician boyfriend, who wants her to gestate a liver for money so his band can tour. Plus, there’s a dog.

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The world Petra and her boyfriend lived in was very similar to our own in many ways. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that showcased the few but important differences between them. For example, I was fascinated by the descriptions of how growing a new liver or other organ for a stranger worked and what their society did to encourage people to sign up for this medical procedure. It seemed like something that could happen in our world if the current laws didn’t exist, and that made those scenes even more attention-grabbing than they would have otherwise been.

It would have been helpful to have a better understanding of how the science fiction elements of this plot worked. They were mentioned so briefly and rarely that I was never quite sure how they all fit together. While I definitely do enjoy thinking about what an author meant by a specific reference or throwaway line, there simply weren’t enough of those hints in this tale to explain to me what was happening when dog seemed to know what was going on in the main character’s life.

One of my other favorite parts of the storyline had to do with that stray dog that Petra befriended while taking the train in to work every day. The dog didn’t have a name or a home, but she was intelligent enough to ride the train on her own and get to know the humans she met there. I’ve heard of similar things happening in Russia in real life, so I really enjoyed seeing a fictionalized account of what this sort of thing might be like.

If you like dogs, I’d recommend checking out This Chance Planet.

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Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes

May 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Historical
Length: Short Story (54 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“Burning Girls”, by Veronica Schanoes, is a fascinating dark fantasy novella about a Jewish girl educated by her grandmother as a healer and witch growing up in an increasingly hostile environment in Poland in the late nineteenth century. In addition to the natural danger of destruction by Cossacks, she must deal with a demon plaguing her family.

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The world building was phenomenal. I loved the fact that the author incorporated scenes from well-known fairy tales and real historical events into the troubles that Deborah, the main character, and her family faced. Not only was it fun to pick out those elements of the plot, they made the early twentieth century come alive in my imagination. I could imagine exactly what it would be like to live in Poland or the United States during that period of time.

I would have preferred to see some more time spent on character development. Deborah and her family made the same mistakes over and over again while they were trying to escape the clutches of the demon who was tormenting them. I was surprised by the fact that they didn’t seem to learn from their previous mistakes, and I would have liked to know why they kept making choices that hadn’t worked out well for them at all in the past.

One of the things I appreciated the most about this story had to do with how witches were treated in it. Deborah was only a little girl when her family realized that she’d inherited her grandmother’s special abilities, and they made sure she had all of the training she needed in order to become proficient at her future occupation. Her talents were seen as a gift, not a curse. While she did require guidance and training, I liked the fact that being a witch was thought of as a positive thing in this universe.

Burning Girls is a must-read for anyone who adores fairy tales.

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

The Final Now by Gregory Benford

May 14, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Final Now by Gregory Benford
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (17 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Once upon a moment, the One spoke to He and She, and learned that infinity and eternity are slippery concepts. At best.
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Imagine being able to see the end of the universe in person!

One of my favorite parts of this book was the philosophical discussion between the characters about the meaning of life and what happens after someone dies. While the blurb did give away hints about where the narrators were going with all of this, I wasn’t expecting to see so much of the plot devoted to explaining why the universe is set up the way it is. There was a reason for everything that occurred from the moment it was created until the moment it stopped existing. I was fascinated by how this process worked and why the average human’s understanding of it today might not match how it will actually be.

All three of the characters in this tale had almost identical speaking patterns. While I understood why gods like He and She would talk the same way, the origins of One were so wildly different from the individuals who called this being into existence once again that I was surprised by how few differences I could find between the way they spoke. It would have been helpful to have a more detailed explanation of why this was so, especially none of them seemed all that interested in being described by personalized names or their physical appearances. Telling them all apart was difficult at times due to this.

When I wasn’t having these issues remembering who was who, the dialogue made me think a lot about what it means to be an individual and how the line between an individual and the group they belong to can be blurred over a long period of time. The line between where He began and She ended was never clear-cut. They shared their thoughts and feelings so seamlessly between one another that I almost thought of them as two halves of the same character. Similar things began to happen with One as well once I figured out who that individual was and how they were connected to He and She.

I’d recommend The Final Now to anyone who enjoys hard science fiction.

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The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica

May 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The eerie thing about Paige Adolpha wasn’t how she turned up right when I was reading about her in the paper. It wasn’t her fame as the star witness in the local werewolf trial. What brought on the gooseflesh, first time I saw her, was she’s the spitting image of her murdered identical twin.

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It’s not very often that I read about a murder in the fantasy genre. This isn’t a topic that seems to be widely explored there, so I was curious to see how the author was planning to show how a trial could unfold after a mystery has already been solved and the killer identified. Since there weren’t any clues to piece together, I was able to sit back, relax, and wait to find out more details about why Paige’s sister was killed and how she was adjusting to her life without her twin.

The plot was easy to predict ahead of time. While I was very interested in the premise in the beginning, being able to guess what was going to happen next so regularly made it hard for me to remain interested in the storyline. I like to be challenged or surprised a little when I read, and there weren’t opportunities for me to do that here.

Romance was the last thing I was expecting to find in this tale, but it suited the characters nicely. They were both in a place in their lives when falling in love was something they might be interested in. Only time would tell if one or both of them would end up taking that leap by the final scene, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions as they decided what they wanted to do with their growing attractions to each other.

I’d recommend The Cage to anyone who likes to mix romance into an urban fantasy setting.

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Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction by Jo Walton

May 10, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction by Jo Walton
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (18 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It’s 1960, and the Axis powers dominate the world. Life goes on, because, as we see in “Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction,” history is driven both by big events and by small temptations…

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Including newspaper headlines from this alternate universe was a clever way to show how their world was different from ours in all sorts of ways. I wished I could read all of those imaginary articles in full after I spotted their headlines. They gave tantalizing hints about just how devastating World War II was for the United States, among other nations.

There were so many characters in this story that I struggled to keep track of who all they were and how they were connected to each other. As fascinated as I originally was by the premise, it was frustrating to meet a character only to have the narrator switch focus to someone else a page or two later. Eighteen pages simply wasn’t enough space to give all of them enough time to show the audience who they really were.

The ending was well written. Writing it as a cliffhanger made a lot of sense given how unstable the lives of the characters had been for many years. Surviving the war and the long period of deprivation that came after it was no guarantee that anything would ever change for them. They lived from one day to the next with little hope for a better future, and I liked the fact that this was reflected in how things ended for them.

I’d recommend Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction to anyone who has ever wondered how history might have been different if the Allied powers had lost World War II.

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The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder by Elizabeth Bear

May 9, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (22 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In art as in life, you’ve got to change in order to live. Even when your audience—and maybe your friends—thinks it would be great if you stayed the same forever. In some cases, literally forever.

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One of the things that surprised me the most about this tale was how long it took for any of the science fiction elements of it to be revealed in even the smallest way. That isn’t generally how this genre works, so I truly wondered what was going on for a while there. All of that questioning paid off beautifully at a certain part of the plot, though, and I liked the way the author tied everything together. It made a lot of sense once all of the pieces began to fall into place.

I would have liked to see more attention paid to the character development. Emma had a fascinating backstory as an aging rock star who had been out of the limelight for many years. With that being said, I never felt like I got to know her well as an individual. Her musical talent was obvious, but I’d struggle to describe what her personality was like in general.

Fame is a complicated topic. The scenes that showed how being famous had affected Emma’s life in both positive and negative ways were among my favorite ones in this story. She had many conflicting feelings about her experiences as a member of a well-known band that had eventually broken up for reasons that were beyond her control. This isn’t a topic I’ve seen explored very often in science fiction, and it made for an interesting peek at types of conflicts that can exist among musicians that I’d never thought about before.

The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder should be read by anyone who has ever wished their favorite musician or band would never stop making music.

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A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel by Yoon Ha Lee

May 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment


A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel by Yoon Ha Lee
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (12 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Among the universe’s civilizations, some conceive of the journey between stars as the sailing of bright ships, and others as tunneling through the crevices of night. Some look upon their far-voyaging as a migratory imperative, and name their vessels after birds or butterflies….

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The descriptions of the various types of aliens were fascinating. Each planet the narrator described was inhabited by a unique, intelligent race that had figured out how to make the most of the place they lived in. The planet that was full of dancers interested me the most. I’d never thought about what an entire culture based on dance would look like, but it sure sounded like an amusing place to visit.

This story was comprised of a series of vignettes about different alien species and cultures. As much as I enjoyed learning about all of the different types of aliens that the author had come up with, I didn’t like the fact that there wasn’t a well-defined plot to tie everything together. After one species had been described, the narrator moved on to the next one without talking about the connections between them or what they might have thought of each other. That struck me as odd, and it made it hard to stay interested in what would happen next.

The final sentence intrigued me. It referenced something that hadn’t been mentioned earlier on in the plot, and it did so in a way that made me yearn for more information about it. I appreciated the care the author took in telling the audience the basic information we needed to know while still leaving plenty of facts up to the imagination.

I’d recommend A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel to anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered if humans are alone in the galaxy.

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

Played Your Eyes by Jonathan Carroll

May 7, 2018 By Leave a Comment


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

A fantasy about a woman bequeathed an odd gift by a former lover who broke up with her, then died—his handwriting. Why did he do this and what does it mean? Find out in Jonathan Carroll’s Played Your Eyes.

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Mr. Carroll had a beautiful writing style. His descriptions of his characters and settings were brief, but he packed a lot of imagery into what he did say about them. I also appreciated the fact that he clearly explained how the unnamed main character’s new ability worked. The idea of inheriting someone else’s handwriting puzzled me a bit at first, so I was glad to have so many opportunities to see how she summoned his handwriting and what sorts of things she used it for.

The main character had endured an ugly, abrupt breakup years before the first scene of this tale began. I was intrigued by how strongly her memories of that period in her life continued to impact the decisions she made, but I would have liked to see more time spent explaining exactly what happened between her and her ex. It was never quite clear to me if their relationship was beginning to become abusive or if they’d simply been a terrible match for each other, and knowing that information was critical in order to understand how the protagonist responded when her ex left her his handwriting after he died.

The ending fit the tone of this story perfectly. While I did see the twist coming ahead of time, it wasn’t something that was easy to figure out and it didn’t impact how much I enjoyed discovering how it all unfolded. One of the most interesting things about the final scene was how much it played with the readers’ expectations of what was going to happen next. This is something that I’d especially recommend to anyone who knows this genre well and who is looking for something out of the ordinary.

Played Your Eyes was clever and thought provoking. It should be read by anyone who enjoys science fiction that expects its readers to come up with their own conclusions about what it all means.

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Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill by Marie Rutkoski

May 7, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill by Marie Rutkoski
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (15 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Few know that the Great Chicago Fire was started deliberately, as a genocide of deadly creatures called Shades. Fewer still know that they didn’t die, not quite…but one human will confront the truth when an ominous beauty makes him gamble for his life.

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The world-building was well done. Ms. Rutkoski crafted a detailed history of the Shades that explained their violent and sad history with humans beautifully. It honestly felt like it was part of a much longer series due to how much care had been taken to show how everything had ended up at this point. Knowing it was written as a standalone work only made it all that more impressive to me.

I wish the ending had been explained in more detail. It took me some time to figure out what was going on in it. Everything happened so quickly that there wasn’t much space to show Zephyr’s thought processes or why she made the choices she did. With that being said, I still enjoyed the final scene quite a bit. It fit the tone of the story nicely.

Zephyr’s motives for wanting to harm humans made a lot of sense. I originally wasn’t sure what I’d think of a character who was so fixated on revenge, but I ended up liking her a lot. Had I been in her shoes, I almost certainly would have felt the same way she did about humans regardless of what I decided to do with that anger. She had excellent reasons for feeling the way that she did. I ultimately couldn’t blame her for them at all.

Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill left me yearning for more. Anyone who likes the Roaring Twenties should definitely check it out.

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