/lit/ - Literature

>>23257474
Liberty's Daughter - Naomi Kritzer (2023)

Rebecca Garrison, 16 years old, has lived in New Minerva since her father brought her to the seastead when she was 4. The seastead is located 220 nautical miles west of Los Angeles and was founded 49 years ago. It's an assortment of man-made islands, platforms, ships, freighters, and other vessels. Each collection of these is considered their own country with their own set of laws. What they share in common is a libertarian ideology, ranging from literally anything is allowed to minimal statism. Everyone has to buy a stake to become a citizen, otherwise they're a guest worker and probably soon to be literally sold into conditions little better than slavery. There's no public infrastructure or government services almost anywhere. A significant part of the economy works on the barter system, which is where Beck has found her niche as a finder. She trades favors and items and helps out at the miscellany store. This takes her all over the seastead, which eventually leads to her becoming more involved in its darker sides. Everything that happens here may be normal to her, but that doesn't mean it's ethical. She knows the majority of adults are criminals fleeing punishment, especially the wealthy ones, but she has no idea about why the seastead is allowed to continue existing or that there are secrets here that could change the world.

6 of the stories that make up this novel were serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 2012-2015, which is where I read them. The seventh story, the epilogue, has only been published here. I enjoyed them both then and now. I was somewhat disappointed that there's only about an additional 2% in terms of word count added to the first 6 stories. When I did a text comparison I saw the scenes that were added, which surprisingly weren't to better connect the stories together. There wasn't as much reworking of what already existed as I hoped for, as it was mostly word choice and sentence level changes. Two examples are that the seastead's population went from 22,000 to 80,000 and one minor character's name was changed from Kat to Jen. What I had in mind would've made it an easy 5 stars for me, and probably significantly better for others reading it here for the first time. I'm strongly biased towards liking this because it's the sort of near future daily life adventures in a speculative society that I especially enjoy.

What I found most interesting in reading these stories again was how much the context had changed in only ten years or so. Interest in seasteading seems to have vanished relative to charter cities, the covid pandemic happened and changed how I viewed mass outbreaks in illness and how people react to them. Part of this book probably comes off as much more conspiratorial than it was at the time if only because Kritzer wrote what some of the paranoid and reasonable fears were ahead of their manifestation.

Rating: 4.5/5 (4)

>>20329453
Broken Stars - Ken Liu, editor, and translator along with Carmen Yiling Yan (2019)

Even though it says science fiction, this collection skews much more towards speculative fiction, with an emphasis on allegories and twists. The one story that I enjoyed I had read previously before, so this was a definite loss for me overall. Even so, it was an interesting look at an anthology of Chinese fiction and what they represented.

Goodnight, Melancholy - Xia Jia (2015/2017)
A dual perspective story that alternated between a depressed person who had emotional support AI constructs and Alan Turing. This was also a metastory. It was well-done, but I considered it mostly a novelty.
Ok

Moonlight - Liu Cixin (2009/2017)
A guy's future self told him that only he could save the world. Disaster ensues, repeatedly.
Meh

Broken Stars - Tang Fei (2016/2016)
I don't understand why this was the title story. This was senseless, mean-spirited, and dismal. It was a contemporary high school story and the broken stars were metaphorical.
Blah

Submarines - Han Song (2014/2017)
Liu says this author's works are especially dense allegories and I admit that I wasn't able to comprehend them at all. Peasants constructed piecemeal submarines in terrible conditions which eventually caught on fire and couldn't be put out because the physical properties of water betrayed them and then the more prosperous profited from their scraps.
Blah

Salinger and the Koreans - Han Song (2016/2016)
The Cosmic Observer brought J.D. Salinger to McDonalds and then North Korea took over the world.
Blah

Under a Dangling Sky - Cheng Jingbo (2004/2017)
A mixture of greek myths and SF stories about dolphins.
Blah

What Has Passed Shall In Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu (-/2015)
When I first read this story in the March-April 2015 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine I was thoroughly impressed. I've thought of it a lot in the years that followed. There are relatively few works that have had a noticeable impact on my worldview and this was one of them. I read it again and it was even better than I remembered. This lifelong saga of romance and tragedy began in the 2010s and ended in the 1940s. Everyone progresses through life as they normally would, but sociopolitical events occur in reverse chronology. This presentation greatly affected me emotionally and psychologically. I became convinced that what is viewed as progress, in whatever way that's defined, isn't anything more than arbitrary changes from prior events. The development of civilization isn't assured and regression, from my perspective, ever looms. Recent events have made this all the more evident. This wasn't ever published ever in China, and possibly couldn't be due to its content. It's easily my favorite work from China that I've read, though that's rather few, and it's also one of my favorite novellas.
Highly Enjoyable

>>18252397
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May-June 2021 (F&SF, #755)

NOVELLAS
Refugees - Robert Grossbach
Literal illegal aliens, miniscule in size, seek asylum in Long Island from their government. A lengthy court case ensues.
Ok

NOVELETS
The World, A Carcass - Rich Larson
Her royal parents have died. She's fourteen. Now she must live with her uncle who wants to marry her off, which is where she meets a man called Nothing. A gothic fantasy story.
Ok

Babylon System - Maurice Broaddus
A story about for-profit prisons and their relation to slavery in the Albion colony of America. It's very much about religion and oppression. This was written to provide more information about a character, a Rastafari, from one of the author's steampunk novels.
Ok

SHORT STORIES
A Father's Hand - Stephanie Kraner
A nice little post-apocalyptic story of a boy and his adopted father, a robot. Explores what it means to sentient in different ways and how to determine when it's time to let go.
Ok

Dontay's Bones - Danian Darrell Jerry
Afro-Futurism Hood Life filled with stereotypes, but it's okay because the author is Black. Maybe it's intended to be a depiction of lived experiences. It wasn't something I was able to enjoy.
Blah

Goodwill Objects - Nina Kiriki Hoffman
First word is "CDY", which later is Cody. I don't know if it's particular to the digital edition, but I've been noticing considerably more obvious errors like this in recent issues. It's distracting.
A weird story about a strange relationship. This could be probably be easily repurposed as a creepypasta. A guy gets a package that has a plastic baby that talks to him.
Meh

Severed Fruit - Pan Morigan
A story about dying and being unhappy with the life that comes after death. Disillusionment for all follows. Somewhat reminiscent of a A Christmas Carol, though of a tyrant rather than a miser. I appreciate the expressed sentiments. Unfortunately this is a only a fragment concerned with making a statement.
Meh

Molly Whuppy - Corey Flintoff
A take on a Scottish fairy tale that I hadn't heard of before.
Blah

Drunkard's Walk - Jason Enge
Apparently one of several stories about a drunkard wizard not doing well in life. Seems to be a mythology inspired sword and sorcery tale.
Meh

The Plus One - Marie Vibbert
A Mars habitat is a harsh place to live. I assume it's about the homelessness crisis in the US and the unwillingness of employers to not fully exploit their employees. It's certainly about devaluation and dehumanization, especially of those with mental health concerns. Also, it's a mystery about why someone died which leads to the practical concerns of speaking truth to power.
Enjoyable

When the Water Stops - Eugen Bacon
Several connected flash fiction polemics about a world where climate change has wrecked everything. I'm sympathetic to everything stated within, but I'd rather not read absurd caricatures and pure emotional appeal.
Blah

>>17669411
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March-April 2021 (F&SF, #754)

NOVELETS
The Music of the Siphorophenes - C.L. Polk
A non-binary space pilot is starstruck by a female pop star who wants to listen to the singing of the siphorophenes, a sentient spacefaring species that are able to travel through the vacuum of space without a ship. After that's resolved, it shifts to being about emotional disclosure, which is facilitated by mind-melding.
Blah

Mannikin - Madeleine E. Robins
A mother fearing for the life of her newly born boy asks a witch to cast a permanent illusion so that she can raise her son as a daughter. This causes problems later on in their life. This is entirely a plot device and not about sexual politics, which was surprising. It's basically a fable.
Meh

In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi - Molly Tanzer
According to the author this is a fictionalized account of the time when she thought she had read a story with this title but she wasn't able to find any evidence that it had ever existed. This left her with no choice but to write a story where the character discovers that the story exists and explains why she wasn't able to find it herself. She then becomes part of the story. Ibn Ghazi is a reference to the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi which is an event card that appears in the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game Arkham Edition and was the inspiration for this story.
Meh

Jack-in-the-Box - Robin Furth
A journalist for Country Life magazine comes to Blackthorn manor. She's taken on a tour by a six-year old boy which becomes ever more macabre as she's exposed to the family's dysfunction.
Ok

SHORT STORIES
Crazy Beautiful - Cat Rambo
AIs programmed to value art above all else go rogue.
Meh

The Bletted Woman - Rebecca Campbell
A rather morbid story. "Bletting is a process of softening that certain fleshy fruits undergo, beyond ripening." It ends with zombies, which is well, whatever.
Ok

Our Peaceful Morning - Nick Wolven
The animal revolution has begun. All animals shall be made sapient. There's a lot of sociopolitical commentary involved though it's also meant to be humorous.
Ok

Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon - B. Morris Allen
A guy plays a harmonica which causes inexplicable events to occur.
Meh

Speak to the Moon - Marie Brennan
A suicidal and immortal Japanese astronaut on the Moon seeks kaguya-hime so that he may finally be allowed to die..
Meh

Character - Harry Turtledove
A self-deprecating metafictional tribute to Peter S. Beagle. The character is aware he's a character in this story but there isn't anything he can do about it.
Enjoyable

The Pizza Boy - Meg Elison
He may be the last Pizza Boy. It's an extremely arduous task to make and deliver them when seemingly everything and everyone in space is trying to kill you and every single ingredient is exceedingly difficult to acquire. His ship is in disrepair and his family is dead.
Ok

>>17669411
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March-April 2021 (F&SF, #754)

NOVELETS
The Music of the Siphorophenes - C.L. Polk
A non-binary space pilot is starstruck by a female pop star who wants to listen to the singing of the siphorophenes, a sentient spacefaring species that are able to travel through the vacuum of space without a ship. After that's resolved, it shifts to being about emotional disclosure, which is facilitated by <spoiler> mind-melding.</spoiler>
Blah

Mannikin - Madeleine E. Robins
A mother fearing for the life of her newly born boy asks a witch to cast a permanent illusion so that she can raise her son as a daughter. This causes problems later on in their life. This is entirely a plot device and not about sexual politics, which was surprising. It's basically a fable.
Meh

In the Garden of Ibn Ghazi - Molly Tanzer
According to the author this is a fictionalized account of the time when she thought she had read a story with this title but she wasn't able to find any evidence that it had ever existed. This left her with no choice but to write a story where the character discovers that the story exists and explains why she wasn't able to find it herself. She then becomes part of the story. Ibn Ghazi is a reference to the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi which is an event card that appears in the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game Arkham Edition and was the inspiration for this story.
Meh

Jack-in-the-Box - Robin Furth
A journalist for Country Life magazine comes to Blackthorn manor. She's taken on a tour by a six-year old boy which becomes ever more macabre as she's exposed to the family's dysfunction.
Ok

SHORT STORIES
Crazy Beautiful - Cat Rambo
AIs programmed to value art above all else go rogue.
Meh

The Bletted Woman - Rebecca Campbell
A rather morbid story. "Bletting is a process of softening that certain fleshy fruits undergo, beyond ripening." It ends with <spoiler>zombies</spoiler>, which is well, whatever.
Ok

Our Peaceful Morning - Nick Wolven
The animal revolution has begun. All animals shall be made sapient. There's a lot of sociopolitical commentary involved though it's also meant to be humorous.
Ok

Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon - B. Morris Allen
A guy plays a harmonica which causes inexplicable events to occur.
Meh

Speak to the Moon - Marie Brennan
A <spoiler>suicidal and immortal</spoiler> Japanese astronaut on the Moon seeks <spoiler>kaguya-hime</spoiler> so that he may finally <spoiler> be allowed to die.</spoiler>.
Meh

Character - Harry Turtledove
A self-deprecating metafictional tribute to Peter S. Beagle. The character is aware he's a character in this story but there isn't anything he can do about it.
Enjoyable

The Pizza Boy - Meg Elison
He may be the last Pizza Boy. It's an extremely arduous task to make and deliver them when seemingly everything and everyone in space is trying to kill you and every single ingredient is exceedingly difficult to acquire. His ship is in disrepair and his family is dead.
Ok

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January-February 2021 (F&SF, #753)

NOVELLAS
The Dark Ride - John Kessel
A story about Leon Czolgosz with additional material to be appropriate for inclusion.
meh

NOVELETS
Interludes with the Gunwright - Jonathan L. Howard
A story of a soldier and a Gunwright, both women, who just can't quit each other.
Ok

Bible Stories for Adults, No. 51: The Great Fish - James Morrow
A mother and son are swallowed by The Great Fish and inside are biblical prophets and a few others. There's also a demiurge.
Meh

SHORT STORIES
Integral Nothings - Robert Reed
Stories of those living through the "Blessings", which is an external force ostensibly developing Earth into Paradise. This may be message fiction, but I'm not quite sure who the message is for. Somewhat humorous in terms of schadenfreude.
Ok

The Diamond Family Glitters - H. Pueyo
A Portuguese Jewish family living in Brazil have "brilliance", mostly assorted psionic powers, but some are more abstract. They've gathered to observe the passing of a relative, and perhaps their gifts as well.
Meh

A Little Knife Music - Jenn Reese
Moderately similar to Ken Liu's The Hidden Girl. It differs in that the protagonist is a teen assassin who has sex with his male partner and wonders if maybe the Princess would be better.
Ok

N-raptured - Justin C. Key
A hilarious satire about saying the N-word. Woke Aliens, as the text says, carve the numbers of times a white person has said the n-word into their forehead. Seven strikes and that person becomes a rat. Yes, a certain "rat with orange tufts of fur over its eyes" makes an appearance.
Highly Enjoyable.

Hard! - Van Aaron Hughes
A father doesn't want his son to think he's a "weeb", maybe a mistype for dweeb because there's no indication that's what's actually meant, so he takes him to a curling game to meet his son's friends who he only knows from online games. Then it goes silly in a way that I wasn't amused by at all. Not my kind of humor in the least.
Blah

Litter Witch - Susan Palwick
I usually don't like allegories. This wasn't an an exception. An abused teenager runs away into the woods and becomes a witch and recluse, but eventually wonders if there's more to life after a fateful meeting.
Blah

Wild Geese - Lavie Tidhar
In this "post-post-cyberpunk", as its described, two friends and a sentient wise-cracking van go on a wild goose chase in the Gobi desert, but this goose isn't an animal.
Ok

The Piper - Karen Joy Fowler
A charismatic military recruiter, the piper, tricks young men into joining his army of probably Danes to invade probably England. The unnamed male protagonist is expected to marry the prettiest and nicest girl, but he plans to marry the disabled girl because he'd be useful to her. He really wants to marry his friend Henry though, because he has such big thoughts.
Ok

You Make the Best of What's Still Around - Paul di Filippo
A satirical exposé of Best-of-the-Year anthologies.
Enjoyable

>>16770714
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2020
This Halloween edition really went in on the horror.

NOVELETS
The Bahrain Underground Bazaar - Nadia Afifi
An old woman is constantly experiencing in VR the memories of those who committed suicide in preparation from her own death from cancer. One of the dead fascinates her and she becomes obsessed. In the end she decides that, life is worth living despite suffering and she wants to live it to fullest and to the very last moment with her family.
Ok

La Regina Ratto - Nick DiChario
Three rats begin talking to the unbelieving protagonist and give him their terms of cohabitation. They become great friends. He then becomes involved with a Queen Rat and the story takes a turn for the strange to where I don't know if it was metaphorical or literal.
Meh

How to Burn Down the Hinterlands - Lyndsie Manusos
A female blacksmith is very angry and for valid reasons. I felt like I was reading fanfiction of the concept of generic fantasy.
Blah

The Glooms - Matthew Hughes
The seventh Baldemar story. He had thought his adventuring days were all behind him, but the past and wizards have a way of catching up in ways unsuspected.

A Tale of Two Witches - Albert E. Cowdrey
Well, this was dark. It would have been a lot darker if the events were described rather than having been said to have happened. This story was a content warning overload which I thought about listing but I'd rather not. Protagonist is an older woman with a sixth sense investigating a missing children case.
Ok

A Civilized and Orderly Zombie Apocalypse per School Regulations
Exactly what it sounds like for this 6th grade class. In this world zombie attacks seem to be a regular occurrence. Ending Spoiler: No one survives (probably). Much cannibalism ensued.
Ok

SHORT STORIES
The Homestake Project - Cylin Busby
Beware what lurks deep within the Earth. Parasitized by creature miles below the surface.
Blah

On Vapor, Which the Night Condenses - Gregor Hartmann
The latest in a series of interconnected stories. Once again a murder in the far future must be solved, this time involving an atmospheric fragrance artist.
Enjoyable

The Silent Partner - Theodore McCombs
An antique dealer finds more than he bargained for in an elderly woman's house.
Blah

Skipping Stones in the Dark - Amman Sabet
An AI on a generation ship decides the fate of its passengers and those who want to be individuals who aren't devoted to the collective are dealt with.
Meh

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF) September/October 2020

NOVELLAS
Of Them All – Leah Cypess
This is the 3rd cynical fairy tale from this author. Upon her birth, Princess Margarete was visited by a fairy who stated, "You will be beautiful only to those who wish you harm." Would Margarete ever find someone who would love her without thinking she's beautiful? I continue to find myself surprisingly pleased by these stories, though less surprised now that this is the third time. Margarete also has a tendency to cultivate hatred so that others will think she's ever more beautiful.
Enjoyable

NOVELETS
The Shadows of Alexandrium – David Gerrold
In the Alexandrium everything that exists, could have existed, and never could have existed are available for viewing by tourists. All possibilities exist, they only wait for you to create them from your imagination. However, be careful what you imagine, because the consequences may be all too real.
Ok

My Name Was Tom – Tim Powers
In a superstructure ship where people don't remember that they don't remember, a man explores hoping to find both his lost love and the legendary bridge where the captain resides. An intriguing story whose sense of hiraeth I was inadequately able to empathize with, but I enjoyed anyway. It reminded me of a few other moderately similar stories of exploring a mysterious location. It may be self-referential, Tom is only a letter away from Tim. Ending sentence: I hope to at least not go forward.
Enjoyable

The Fairy Egg – R.S. Benedict
The story alternates between the narratives of the wife and husband. The wife is trying to do everything she can to make their lives better and displays quite a bit of ingenuity. However, the husband posts in the relationships section of symposia (reddit) about his woes to an unsympathetic audience. One user tells him to come a different section where he will be with like-minded fellows of the manosphere. Thus begins his decline into madness, which is exacerbated by being obsessed with videos from a guy who seems to be a mix of Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones, and various other similar figures. He begins spending almost every waking hour watching videos and discussing with others who affirm his ideals. This could have been just as easily been about the current state of 4chan. I looked for reactions to this story and found two. One said it was "nasty" and "something I didn't need to read" and the other said "the parallels between New Age and male 'empowerment' madness make the story stand out." Maybe it was just me, but the magical realism in this story seemed superfluous and unnecessary and probably would have done better if played straight, but without these concessions it couldn't have appeared in the magazine I suppose. While it's moderately provocative, I don't think it's going to garner much reaction by those who would be offended by it, if only due to lack of exposure.
Enjoyable

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF) July/August 2020

Knock, Knock Said the Ship - Rati Mehrotra
A Lunarian refugee and a spaceship AI who tells jokes may be the only chance they have when their spaceship is boarded.
Enjoyable

Last Night at the Fair - M. Rickert
An aged woman laments her loss of innocence and childlike wonder, but perhaps there's a way to regain it one last time.
Blah

Bible Stories for Adults No.37: The Jawbone - James Morrow
Biblical fanfiction more or less.
Blah

Spirit Level - John Kessel
Guy sees the ghost of his ex-wife even though she's alive and other supernatural happenings as well as various interpersonal problems.
Blah

All Hail the Pizza King and Bless His Reign Eternal - David Erik Nelson
See post image/magazine cover. A pizza oven is possessed by a demon and they have to fight it. Includes uxoricide, cannibalism, mental illness, Seinfeld, Bitcoin, and other stuff.
Ok

Madre Nuestra, Que Estas en Maracaibo - Ana Hurtado
Grandmother is dying. Daughter doesn't want her to. Granddaughter says she wants to. Conflict ensues.
Blah

A Bridge from Sea to Sky - Bennett North
An orbital elevator is in disrepair and due to government malfeasance this leads to events that no one expected, perhaps least of all the protagonist who sets them into motion.
Enjoyable

Crawfather - Mel Kassel
A family has hunted a massive crawdad for many generations and it has become an annual tradition to do so, even though from time to time family members die. This year it goes differently. I couldn't help but be thinking about Crawmerax the entire time.
Ok

'Omunculus - Madeleine Robins
A wealthy nobleman hires an engineer to develop an automaton that can speak like a human and learn. He identifies it as female, because it is subservient to him. A woman's liberation story follows.
Ok

The Staircase - Stephanie Feldman
Contemporary urban legend silliness that is meant to be unsettling but falls flat for me. I didn't like her previous story at all either that was along similar lines.
Blah

The Shape of Gifts - Natalia Theodoridou
Bird researchers fall in love with each other at their remote outpost. However, one of them isn't what they seem and a tragedy unfolds. Why do so many of these "lesbian" romances end with one of them dead by the end? Maybe it's just random chance by what I've been seeing. Also, soul(?) transferal between bodies briefly occurs.
Ok

I feel like the issues, but I haven't done an actual check, are increasingly lighter on speculative content in general, let alone SFF.

Gideon The Ninth - Tamsyn Muir

BACKGROUND
I first read Muir, whose first published work was in 2011, in 2015 with her novelette The Deepwater Bride, which was published in the The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. It was a nice enough romance. When I saw that she had published her debut novel, I knew that I'd read it sooner or later. This current monthly reading brought it to the top and so I read it. Oftentimes I have been disappointed by the longer works of authors from whom I've previously only read short works. I don't know if it's simply a matter of different standards or that I'm more accepting of short works because they end so quickly. Thankfully that wasn't the case this time. Although I had many quibbles with the book, they were insignificant to my overall enjoyment.

GENRE
It wouldn't be wrong to describe it as a fantasy horror murder mystery with a science fiction background and just a bit of flirting and romance.

CONTENT/THEMES
The characters, sixteen primarily, are mostly teens and a bit older.
There is a religious undercurrent throughout the book of the nominally Christian variety, though it's unclear how much of a role it actually plays. The Emperor, who makes an exceedingly brief appearance, is both the political and religious leader. It's a bit odd really when considering the implications.
The viewpoint character, Gideon, is most definitely a lesbian and expresses her limerence freely, internally anyway, for the most part. I think someone reading specifically for that will be disappointed overall.
There are a considerable number of suicidal actions that occur and similar sorts of actions, which may be a concern for some. I didn't see it as anything out of the ordinary for the amount of pathos that was present, but I may be overly used to it.

STRUCTURE
Act One, the first 18% or so, was relatively slow going for me and not particularly that enjoyable, if it had continued like this for the entire time, I probably would have only rated it as decent, 3 stars. The action doesn't really start to pick up until the end of Act Two, 40% of the way in, which understandably may be too much for many people, but it was quite worthwhile overall for me. By the end of Act Three and the beginning of Act Four at 63%, the pace takes on a sense of urgency. In the last 10% or so the story reaches its crescendo and it is indeed quite the rapid escalation in every way. Act Five, which starts at 96%, is the resolution and lasts mere pages before fading into the Epilogue.

NOTE
In her acknowledgement she notes that "I now possess a kitchen apron embroidered with the worst deleted meme from the manuscript." Considering how much is included, I wonder what it was. She also mentions how she was writing Animorphs fanfiction at eleven years old as well as posting stories from various fandoms on fanfiction.net and elsewhere. Everyone has to start somewhere. Many seem to be dismissive and contemptuous of such activities though.