Status Updates From The Year's Best Science Fic...

“Sadness” by Timons Esaias - Can’t quite place my finger on why this rubbed my brain in an unsatisfying way, but trust that it was a let down of a last story. 2/5

“Aberration” by Genevieve Valentine - Very very pretty but ultimately felt like nothing was being said. Loved the prose; got lost in the swirl of it; content evaded me. Maybe I’m dumb? 2/5

“Collateral” by Peter Watts - Rumination on morality and ethics by the most ethical cyborg in the world. I fw this. 3/5

“Witch, Beast, Saint: An Erotic Fairy Tale” by C.S.E. Cooney - A story for all the monster fuckers in your life. 2.5/5

“Pernicious Romance” by Robert Reed - This was sweet in a weird DMT trip way. I enjoyed it, though, so what else really matters. 3/5

“Grand Jeté (The Great Leap)” by Rachel Swirsky - Ye-owch! Another sad story about doubles and the questions of identity or WHATEVER! Very melancholy, very Jewish, low sci-fi slay. 4/5

“Sleeper” by Jo Walton - Sometimes you’ve gotta remake history for the good of the masses or whatever. Sort of kind of a story about the power of organizing. 3/5

“The Hand is Quicker” by Elizabeth Bear - Very unsatisfying nothing ending, but the conceit of the story is interesting enough to give it a pass. I would love to read something longer in this setting. 3/5

“The Magician and Laplace’s Demon” by Tom Crosshill - The free will question finds grounds outside of theology (but also not really, because this narrator is definitely godly, although one with a creator) and I go WHOA!! I enjoyed this immensely :). 4/5

“Fift and Shria” by Benjamin Rosenbaum - Fun space biology (love a Weird Life, it’s been wired in me since the early days) but not much happened in it. I believe this is a story that’s expanded on in Rosenbaum’s new(-ish) book which leans more heavily on the gender-fuckery so! May have to check that out. 2/5

“The Instructive Tale of the Archeologist and His Wife” by Alexander Jablokov - Once again, an enjoyable story, now in an alternative future. I enjoy the speculation and the open ending. The question posed at the top of the story is ultimately unanswerable and the narrative maintained that. 3/5

“A Better Way to Die” by Paul Cornell - Okay alternative British history with dimension travel! You did not ensnare me. 1/5!

“Trademark Bugs: A Legal History” by Adam Roberts - Big pharma makes designer bugs and also the only cure to them; this story was so amazing I’m actually floored. I loved the presentation, loved the content, loved the frankness. 5/5

“The Wild and Hungry Times” by Patricia Russo - You know those history papers you read where the author gets a little sassy? That was this. I enjoyed the story as a whole and thought the presentation as a historical research paper (or what have you) was sooo silly (positive)! - 3/5

“Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts” by Cory Doctorow - Super engaging narrative style with lots of tech-bro speak that made me (a humanities-bro) very confused. Need Gail to read this and explain the nitty gritty to me, thank you! 3/5

“I Can See Right Through You” by Kelly Link - I really enjoyed Link’s narration and it felt like there was a story that I could fw simmering just under the surface, but it flopped. I usually love a story where nothing happens, but this was nothing happens (derogatory). 2/5

“Drones Don’t Kill People” by Annalee Newitz - Drones self-actualize and become anti-war. This was a really fun divergence from the usual ‘sentient AI takes over world evilly’ stuff. When we train AI on human models are they more likely to be pro- or anti-war? Do drones have an id that cultivates anti-war sentiment? 3/5!

“Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology” by Theodora Goss - I had so much fun reading this, such an interesting idea and executed in such an engaging way. I love imaginary anthropology of a fake nation. Wish we learned a bit more on HOW Cimmeria came to be Real, but c’est la vie. 3/5!!

“Someday” by James Patrick Kelly - Having sex for anthropological reasons, okay girl! Wasn’t a huge fan of this one, but would have to ruminate more on why that’s so. 2/5

“Skull and Hyssop” by Kathleen Jennings - In the whole of sci-fi/fantasy, my least favorite thing is sky pirates slash sky fantasy stuff. And what is this story all about? Sky pirates. So! Cheesy writing aside, this was never going to be for me. 1/5

“Break! Break! Break!” by Charlie Jane Anders - A really fun and quick-witted piece of prose, aided by the state of arrested development the characters are written in, but no real science fiction or fantasy to speak of! 1/5 :(

“Ghost Story” by John Grant - Funky and brain-itchy. It was a good read! 3/5

“A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i” by Alaya Dawn Johnson - I fucked heavy with this. Vampires and colonialism and a foggy-headed narrator. 4/5

“The Long Haul, From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009” by Ken Liu - I love Ken Liu, but I also hate zeppelin fantasy (no idea why, it’s just not my thing) so this was a major conflict of interest. 3/5

“The Endless Sink” by Damien Ober - Almost a dream-like content to it (in the fact that I’m pretty sure everyone has dreamed of flying and sinking into an abyss) which made it fun to read, but it didn’t do much more than that. Enjoyed it, though! 3/5

“Every Hill Ends with Sky” by Robert Reed - Non-carbon based super-god lifeforms could perhaps save me from the apocalypse. In the delicate balance of Weird Science and Apocalypse, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough of either. 2.5/5

“Wine” by Yoon Ha Lee - A compelling concept (fountain of youth, Card-esque child soldiers, queerness) but it rang a little hollow to me which sucks because I usually love Lee’s work! 2.5/5

“How to Get Back to the Forest” by Sofia Samatar - Interesting and reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale (or other dystopias, but as the conceit is directly related to sex and gender I can’t deny The classic), I finished and still expected more? IDK! 3/5

“The Manor of Lost Time” by Richard Parks - Another banger, short-and-sweet enough to pack a punch without bogging you down with too much info. Bad thing is I really enjoyed it and wish it was longer, bogged down by information and all! 4/5

“Selfie” by Sandra McDonald - oh wow…oh gosh…oh fuck…everyone’s gotta read this right now. 5/5