Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 43, December 2013

by John Joseph Adams (Editor), Ken Liu (Translator), Hao Jingfang (Contributor)

Lightspeed Magazine, December 2013 #43
Edited by John Joseph Adams
Cover Art (and Artist Spotlight) Halil Ural

Novella (eBook exclusive)
"The Ballad of Bowsprit Bear's Stead" by Damien Broderick

Short Stories - Science Fiction
"Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang (reprint)
"Power Armor: A Love Story" by David Barr Kirtley (reprint)
"Dead Fads" by Maureen F. McHugh (reprint)
"Leaving Night" by Gregory Benford

Short Stories - Fantasy
"Yard Sale" by Kit Reed (reprint)
"Miss Nobody Never Was" by James Patrick Kelly
"The Correspondence between the Governess and the Attic" by Siobhan Carroll
"The Foster Child" by William Browning Spencer (reprint)

Novel Excerpts (eBook exclusives)
"Twinmaker" by Sean Williams
"Alien Honor" by Vaughn Heppner

Horror (eBook bonus from Nightmare Magazine)
"57 Reasons for the Slate Quarry Suicide" by Sam J. Miller


Interview (from Geeks Guide to the Galaxy podcast)
Margaret Atwood

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

253 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2013

About the author

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as ROBOT UPRISINGS, DEAD MAN'S HAND, BRAVE NEW WORLDS,WASTELANDS, and THE LIVING DEAD. Recent and forthcoming books include WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?, OPERATION ARCANA, PRESS START TO PLAY, LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, and THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH (consisting of THE END IS NIGH, THE END IS NOW, and THE END HAS COME). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is a producer for Wired's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. You can find him online at www.johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

An homage to Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities." Much like the original, the text describes different cultures and interactions to illuminate the vagaries of human nature, each supposedly illustrative of a different planet. The anecdotes are intercut with dialogue between the storyteller and the listener, commenting on the nature and meaning of narrative. It's well-done: both imaginative and thoughtful - but it's not the first time I've seen it done.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of “Invisible Planets” by Hao Jingfang (《看不见的星球》 - 郝景芳).

I read this story twice, first in the original Chinese and then in English via Ken Liu’s translation. It’s hard to comment on the quality of the translation—my Chinese is not good enough to do literary analysis—but certainly Liu produced an accurate and lyrical English version which has evoked strong reader responses. At the same time, there are significant differences between Chinese and English, often lost in translation, and those differences unavoidably colored my reading of the English version. Long run-on sentences, long rambling paragraphs in the original story were turned in a series of short, almost abrupt thoughts. Transition words were added, implicit relations were made explicit, turns of phrases were reordered in accordance with the conventions of English prose. A few references were changed. Subtle things, perhaps, but I couldn’t help but notice them; and which on the whole made me like the Chinese version better. Though if I had read the English version first and the Chinese second, perhaps it’d be the other way around.

As for the story itself: very strong, very imaginative, wonderfully thought-provoking. In the Lightspeed Author Spotlight, Hao Jingfang explains that, “For me, there are at least two ways to read “Invisible Planets.” First, I tried to imagine many planets, each different from the world we live in. Second, all of these worlds can be said to be Beijing—just like in Calvino’s Invisible Cities, all the cities described by Marco Polo can be said to be his home in Venice. Beijing is a city with many faces.” Those faces include 希希拉加, a planet where everyone lies as a matter of social custom; 皮姆亚奇, a planet of immigrants pretending to be the original natives; and 延延尼, a planet where nobody ever stops growing, and the oldest person needs to live in a pagoda. My favorite planets are 秦卡托，a planet of blind people that never stop speaking to each other (Hao compares this phenomenon to the Internet) and 鲁那其, a planet where all the people travel everywhere seeking the secrets of their origins, only to discover the secrets are actually in themselves.

Each of the planets is described just carefully enough, with just enough of the right details. It doesn’t really matter that these places don’t exist. They COULD exist, somewhere out there in the universe. Very fitting, then, that “Invisible Planets” is structured as a told story, told in the first person from a narrator to a little girl during the course of an afternoon on what appears to be Earth. There are little interludes where the narrator and the little girl discuss the different planets. The little girl is skeptical of the narrator’s veracity, but the narrator counters that storytelling can be its own truth, that stories are constructed collectively between speaker and listener, and that this moment where two people touch each other is a value in and of itself. It’s a sort of meta-commentary on the way that “Invisible Planets” is itself constructed—how readers will see and interpret each planet through the lens of his or her own experiences. Unfortunately, Hao Jingfang goes a bit overboard with this idea towards the end of the story. In fact, she veers into what be might best described as melodrama, purple prose quite different from anything that’s come before. In my view, the story would have been better served by keeping the meta-commentary implicit—the planets are much more interesting.

[Emily Brunelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Invisible Cities, you'll like this book. Overall though, the focus on imagery over plot became boring and tedious after a few planets had been talked about. It's an imaginative collection of descriptions, but I feel like it takes much more imagination to write well about something that is normally viewed as mundane.

I kept hoping for a thread connecting all of the planets but was disappointed because there wasn't much of one. The book "feels" profound when you first start reading it, but I think it's mostly because it's random, plotless and list-like and I was desperately searching for something that would make sense out of what I was reading.

[Astrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Invisible Planets

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Dead Fads by Maureen F. McHugh and Invisible Planets by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid issue. 4.5 stars.

Original science fiction:
"Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu) - not a conventional narrative but little descriptions of a bunch of different planets, that the narrator may or may not be making up. All strange and cool places. Loved it.
"Dead Fads" by Maureen F. McHugh - Art student lives in a world where the dead can be resurrected and go on with their lives, though they aren't quite the same. Creepy and sad.
"Leaving Night" by Gregory Benford - Kind of an SF take on the Rapture. All those with deeply held religious beliefs disappear. Those left behind somehow go on. Ha! (Also loved this one)

Original fantasy:
"Miss Nobody Never Was" by James Patrick Kelly - Harrowing tale of living with alcoholism with a supernatural twist. Even if, like me, you don't have experience with this kind of thing, this story will stick with you.
"The Correspondence Between the Governess and the Attic" by Siobhan Carroll - a little retelling of Jane Eyre with fae running through it. I haven't read JE (could never force myself to as a kid) but I've seen a few movie versions. Quite clever.

Also great interviews this month, with authors Jay Lake and Margaret Atwood. I read a few of Lake's stories. Sadly, he has terminal cancer. It will be a big loss for the field. I've never read Atwood's works. Interesting to hear her ideas on the genre.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Using the December issue as a placeholder for the selection of 2013 stories listed in the Hugos pack. Dipping in and out of the collection, rather than reading it in one sitting. Some interesting stories so far, including a Fey version of Jane Eyre.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites included Invisible Planets and Power Armor.

Enjoyed Dead Fads, Leaving Night, Miss Nobody Never Was.

Definitely a clever issue this time around,