A Forest, or a Tree by Tegan Moore

August 26, 2019 By Leave a Comment


A Forest, or a Tree by Tegan Moore
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Four friends, May, Piper, Ailey, and Elizabeth, go on a camping trip. Things slowly begin to go wrong.

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Not every camping trip is a happy one.

The character development was well done. All four of the campers were described in such vivid detail that I had clear images of who they were by the end of the first scene. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, they kept revealing new information about themselves throughout the plot that kept me wondering what they could possibly share with the audience next.

There were some things about the plot that I wished were better explained. This was most true in the final scene when the main character’s options had become limited. Either she would find a way to escape the horrors she discovered in the woods, or she wouldn’t make it home to tell her tale. I was intrigued by the predicament she ended up in, but I did wish the author had explained it all a bit more clearly.

I appreciated the way race and gender was handled in this story. There are certain things women need to think about before going to a remote or unfamiliar area, and I liked the fact that the characters discussed this so openly among themselves. It was also nice to see them acknowledge the racial diversity of the group, especially since they were hiking in a remote area and weren’t sure how or if this might affect their experiences there.

A Forest, or a Tree is a good choice for anyone who has ever felt nervous walking through the woods.

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

One/Zero by Kathleen Ann Goonan

August 22, 2019 By Leave a Comment


One/Zero by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (41 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A near future novelette about the surge in AI that might bring hope to humanity if used well, in Kathleen Ann Goonan’s One/Zero.

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Change is difficult for everyone at times.

This tale did a very good job of balancing the perspectives of its two narrators, a senior citizen named Mai and a teenage girl named Vida. Mai lived a quiet, modest life in the United States, while Vida struggled to keep herself and her young brother alive in refugee camps in Kurdistan after their parents and grandmother were killed. It never would have occurred to me how much these two characters would have in common, but I kept finding small moments in one of their lives that reminded me so much of the other.

I would have liked to see more time spent explaining the technological advancements in this vision of the future. There was some fascinating stuff happening with the way certain types of technology were influencing how people went about their daily lives. It sure would have been helpful to have a better understanding of how it worked and how long people had been using it.

The ending left me wishing for more. While it did provide answers to some of my most pressing questions, I appreciated the fact that it left other questions up to the reader to figure out for ourselves. This could easily be expanded into a full-length novel, and I’d eagerly read it if that ever happens. With that being said, I was satisfied with where it ended.

One/Zero should be read by anyone who has ever had mixed feelings about how technology is changing the lives of average people.

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

Blue Morphos in the Garden by Lis Mitchell

August 19, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Blue Morphos in the Garden by Lis Mitchell
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (22 pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Read Lis Mitchell’s magical realist tale, Blue Morphos in the Garden, a Tor.com original short story. When Vivian and her daughter witness the family matriarch die without leaving a corpse, Vivian can no longer ignore the family “gift” or the choice that lies before her.

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The twist in this tale was something I’ve never seen in this genre before. It had to do with what happens to all of the members of a special family after they die. While the first scene does explain about how their deaths are different from the deaths of ordinary humans, I honestly can’t go into any more detail about it than that without giving away spoilers. Let’s just say that it was hauntingly beautiful and is best discovered by new readers without any additional hints.

I was highly impressed with the character development, especially given the fact that the author had less than two dozen pages to work with here. Vivian and her partner both had well-rounded personalities that revealed themselves early on and quickly began to evolve as a result of both of their reactions to the latest death in the family. This couldn’t have been better written, and it’s made me curious to read more from Ms. Mitchell as soon as possible.

The world building was well done, too. Vivian’s extended family has lived on the same property for generations without revealing their secret to the surrounding community. Every nook and cranny of their land is filled with references to those who lived there in the past. I was as fascinated by the references to the lives of everyone who had once lived there as I was by the fact that they’d been able to keep such a big secret for so long. All of these little details created a setting that felt three-dimensional and real.

Blue Morphos in the Garden was one of the best science fiction short stories I’ve read so far this year. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

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

Milagroso by Isabel Yap

August 16, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Milagroso by Isabel Yap
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (22 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Marty always believed the lab-grown foods he helped produce were miraculous. But in his childhood home of Lucban, real miracles are occurring: artificial food is being transformed into delicious, sustaining produce. As he visits the home he left behind, the vibrant and colorful festival jerks him into a past he both hungers for and wants to forget.

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One of the things I enjoyed the most about this tale was observing how Marty’s friends and relatives reacted to his visit to his hometown. He lived far away and hadn’t been able to come home in a long time. Now that he had a wife and kids, their understanding of who he was as a person needed to be updated. This is something that is common in this scenario, and I was fascinated by how they reacted to the many ways he had changed as well as by how he responded to his parents and neighbors once he realized they still thought of him as the young man he’d been when he first left town many years ago.

I would have preferred to see more world building in this story. There were so many hints about what the future was like that weren’t explained as well as they could have been. Other than knowing that practically all of the food people ate was artificially produced, I didn’t have a good sense of what Marty’s society was like in general. Everything other than the food was described in terms that were simply too generic for me to imagine what it would be like to live in his world.

With that being said, I did enjoy the descriptions of the food people ate. Since Marty worked for a company that produced food in their laboratories, he had a much clearer understanding of what his loved ones were eating than most people would have known. The little comments he made about stuff like how everything was designed to meet all of the nutritional needs of humans only made me more curious about his job and what, exactly, was in their meals.

Milagroso should be read by anyone who has ever read a long list of ingredients on a boxed food item at a grocery store and wondered what some of those terms really meant.

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

Adult Children of Alien Beings by Dennis Danvers

August 12, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Adult Children of Alien Beings by Dennis Danvers
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (36 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Adult Children of Alien Beings by Dennis Danvers is a science fiction novelette about the emotional journey of a man seeking the truth about his parents, who were always rather ….odd, and his own heritage.

Some childhoods are stranger than others.
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The title gave away an important piece of the plot. Yes, there are aliens in this world. No, they probably won’t behave exactly how most readers might expect them to. Figuring out the similarities and differences between them and humans was one of my favorite parts of reading this tale. They weren’t exactly the little green men that have shown up in countless other science fiction universes, and I thought that was a refreshing change from the norm.

I would have loved to see more attention paid to the alien’s culture. Their physiology and how they were able to blend into human society were described in enough detail to satisfy me, but I found myself feeling incredibly curious about how their minds were different from human minds. Given how diverse human cultures are from one corner of the globe to another, I would have expected intelligent beings from another planet to be even more strikingly different from us than other humans beings who share our DNA and have the same ancestors, whether they lived a few generations ago or much further back in history than that. With more development in this area, I would have given this a much higher rating. The premise itself was wonderful.

The character development was well written. Stan, the protagonist, had gone through several failed marriages, a life-threatening illness, and more in his lifetime. He had so many more questions about his origins than he had answers when the first scene began. I truly enjoyed seeing him try to fit the pieces of his life together and see if he could make peace with the parts of it that still caused him pain.

This is the first short story in a series. It can be read as a standalone work. I would suggest also checking out the sequel, Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main, to anyone who enjoys this tale, though!

If you’ve ever wondered about the idiosyncrasies of your parents, Adult Children of Alien Beings might be right up your alley.

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

The Deepest Rift by Ruthanna Emrys

August 7, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Deepest Rift by Ruthanna Emrys
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (34 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the deepest canyon in the inhabited worlds, giant mantas soar through the air and leave patterned structures behind. A team of sapiologists seek to prove that these delicate filaments are true language, not just bee’s dance. But time has run out, and their reckoning is upon them. Will they prove that their research is valid, or will they be scattered to the corners of the galaxy?

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The giant mantas truly felt like aliens to me. Not only was the world they lived in nothing at all like any environment we have on Earth, their species didn’t behave anything like humans do either. Sign language and the spoken word didn’t seem to mean anything to them at all. What made them even more interesting was the fact that they did show a few faint signs of communicating with each other, but the researchers couldn’t figure out what those messages meant or even if they were actually some form of communication. The more I learned about this species, the more curious I became to figure them out.

I would have preferred to see a little more time spent developing the ending. There was so much conflict going on in the earlier scenes that I was slightly surprised by how quickly everything was wrapped up. Even an extra conversation or two about the things the characters disagreed on regarding their research would have been enough for me to give this tale a five-star rating.

The relationships between Nitra, Meical, and Yevgeny were as complicated as they were fascinating. I can’t say much about how they all knew each other without giving away spoilers, but I deeply enjoyed the fact that the author put so much thought into their backstories and then allowed all of that information to slowly reveal itself at exactly the right portions of the plot.

I’d recommend The Deepest Rift to anyone who enjoys first contact stories.

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

At the End of Babel by Michael Livingston

August 6, 2019 By Leave a Comment


At the End of Babel by Michael Livingston
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

At the right time, in the right place, words have the power to change the world.

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Tabitha was such a likeable main character. She’d been through something truly awful as a child, and the memories of that event stayed with her well into adulthood. I found her reaction to the past to be as realistic as it was sympathetic. Just about anyone would have behaved the same way in those same circumstances, and I desperately wanted her to finally make peace with her past.

There were several plot holes that I found distracting. While I totally understood why the main character might not remember everything from her childhood and culture perfectly, especially since some of it was wrapped up in some pretty traumatic experiences, not having access to this information was frustrating for me as a reader. I kept feeling like I’d stepped into the middle of a conversation without getting a strong sense of how it all started.

With that being said, the ending was pretty memorable. There were times in the beginning when I wondered how literally I should be taking certain things the protagonist was saying. Her expectations of the journey she was on were high, and I wasn’t sure if she was speaking metaphorically to the audience. While I can’t say much more about this part of the plot without hinting at major spoilers, I was pleased with how all of the hints at the beginning came together by the final scene.

I’d recommend At the End of Babel to anyone who has ever tried to explore something painful from the past, whether it was from their own life or from the lives of other people.

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

In the Cave of the Delicate Singers by Lucy Taylor

August 6, 2019 By Leave a Comment


In the Cave of the Delicate Singers by Lucy Taylor
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (26 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In the Cave of the Delicate Singers by Lucy Taylor is a horror story about a woman with a rare form of synesthesia who can feel sound waves and the dangerous rescue mission she undertakes in a cave with a nasty past.

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This was one of the goriest stories I’ve read so far this year. Let’s just say that the reputation of the cave where people keep disappearing is well deserved. This isn’t a case of anyone making up stories about an innocent place or exaggerating what they might have experienced there. I liked the fact that the narrator was so explicit about why this place was dangerous and what happened to anyone who dared to enter it.

What I would have liked to see explained better was how Karyn’s synesthesia affected her reaction to the cave. There are so few books out there about this disorder that I was looking forward to meeting a character who had it. The fact that the plot didn’t go into a lot of detail about this was a bit of a disappointment. There was so much more they could have done with her unusual reaction to sound in this environment.

With that being said, the ending was amazing. The earlier scenes were so dark that I did wonder how the author was going to tie everything together in the final scene. It was only after thinking back to earlier scenes that I realized just how much work she put into not only foreshadowing the end but also making sure every scene pointed to the most logical conclusion for this piece. I enjoyed seeing everything come together and will be keeping an eye out for more stories from Ms. Taylor in the future.

Anyone who enjoys horror should give In the Cave of the Delicate Singers a try.

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

The Log Goblin by Brian Staveley

August 5, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Log Goblin by Brian Staveley
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (13 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

On a cold winter’s night, a goblin is caught stealing firewood. Then things start getting weird.

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The plot twists in this tale were fabulous. I honestly didn’t see most of them coming, and the few I’d made educated guesses about still found plenty of ways to surprise and delight me. It was a great deal of fun to see all of the effort the author put into keeping the audience on our toes while at the same time providing a truly satisfying storyline.

There was only one tiny thing I would have liked to see written differently, and it had to do with the setting. This could have been set a few winters ago just as easily as it could have been set a few thousand winters ago. I wondered which one of these options was closer to the author’s original vision, and I wished it had been made a little clearer to the readers. Losing firewood in a world where help is potentially a phone call or email away is an entirely different experience from knowing that one’s death is guaranteed if the supply of wood runs out before winter does.

Other than this minor criticism, I loved how much room this story gave the audience to come up with our own ideas about who the two characters were outside of what the narrator told us about himself and the goblin who stole his precious firewood. Even their names were left up to the audience’s imagination, and that was a wonderful way to make this feel timeless.

The Log Goblin is the perfect thing to read for anyone who is currently experiencing winter conditions or wishes they could get a blast of icy cold air in the middle of summer.

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Oral Argument by Kim Stanley Robinson

June 14, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Oral Argument by Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (16 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Tor is thrilled to have the opportunity to publish internationally bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson’s first stand-alone short story in 25 years.

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What some folks think of as a terrible future might be looked at very differently from other perspectives.

The main character’s personality was well developed. Despite the fact that we never learned their name or even their gender identity, I felt like I got to know them well from the occasionally exasperated replies they gave to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. They had obviously put a lot of work into this preparing for this special hearing, and their dismay at how little the Chief Justice understood about what this character’s clients were going through was both understandable and a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a highly intelligent lawyer who was struggling to break an extremely complex case down into simpler segments.

There weren’t quite enough details in this story for me to fully put together what happened. I caught the gist of it, but I also found myself feeling frustrated by all of the references in the transcript to things that were never explained. It would have been helpful to understand the timeline of events a bit better so I could understand why this case happened and what the lawyers who appealed it to the Supreme Court were hoping to accomplish.

With that being said, I did understand enough of the one side of this conversation that was recorded to know that our species had gone through a remarkable change in this universe. I can’t go into detail about what sort of change it was without giving away spoilers, but I did appreciate how much thought the author put into figuring out how such a leap forward in our development would alter every single part of human society that anyone can imagine. This section of the plot was well developed, and it left me wanting more in a good way.

I’d recommend Oral Argument to anyone who is interested in creative take on what the future of humanity might be like.

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