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richardleis's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favorite short stories of all time. With this story, Miller, like Charlie Jane Anders and other writers I have read recently, surprised me with what was possible in a short story. It's a mistake to dismiss this story as fan fiction. Not that there is anything wrong with fan fiction either, but the source material here is a starting point for what becomes a fresh perspective that leads to some chilling and revolutionary truths. The final lines of the story really resonated with me; they represent an expansion of what it means to be a monster or other, and also human. Miller is doing great work in this story (as in all his stories and in his first novel, The Art of Starving, which I'm reading now) that is more than just appreciation for a great horror film from the 1980s.
This was the first story I read by Miller, and led me to track down more of them. Every single one has been fantastic. Needless to say, Miller is one of my absolute favorite writers writing today, and of all time.
Merged review:
Brief descriptions I read about "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald and "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller convinced me to subscribe right then to a year of Clarkesworld Magazine, and I'm so glad I did. Ronald's story finds the melancholy, family drama, and distance in first contact. Miller's story is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing and it finds the monsters and hidden selves already beneath our skin even before invasion. I was also surprised to find a reprint of Nancy Kress's amazing "Pathways" and happily read it a second time. Because of this strange and often awful American election cycle, the background politics in "Pathways" resonated even more with this reading.
I enjoyed the transcendence of beings in ".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler and the beautiful and sad horror of "The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn. I struggled with the lengthy "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran but its twists and turns near the end and unexpected appearance of and explanation for the internet were worth the effort. A helpful introduction provided context without which the story would have been even more difficult to read. The way history asserts itself makes for a compellingly ending.
The nonfiction essay about the microbiome by Matthew Simmons, interview with Guy Gabriel Kay by Chris Urie, and inspiration from Alethea Kontis were wonderful. In the issue's "Editor's Desk", Neil Clarke sold me on his anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year. I have read a few of these stories and if they are reflective of the overall quality of the anthology, then I am eager to read the rest of them.
One of the disadvantages of reading magazines on a Kindle is how the cover art is too small and missing color. There are other ways, though, to view cover art in detail, and Vincent LAÏK's exquisitely beautiful artwork is available to view on his website:
https://vincent_laik.artstation.com/portfolio/xtc
There is so much activity occurring in the artwork set against a spacescape of planets almost too close for comfort. Meanwhile, the silhouette of a character and mount is almost lost in the foreground, adding amazing juxtapositions between enormous and small, active and still, detailed and obscured.
This was the first story I read by Miller, and led me to track down more of them. Every single one has been fantastic. Needless to say, Miller is one of my absolute favorite writers writing today, and of all time.
Merged review:
Brief descriptions I read about "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald and "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller convinced me to subscribe right then to a year of Clarkesworld Magazine, and I'm so glad I did. Ronald's story finds the melancholy, family drama, and distance in first contact. Miller's story is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing and it finds the monsters and hidden selves already beneath our skin even before invasion. I was also surprised to find a reprint of Nancy Kress's amazing "Pathways" and happily read it a second time. Because of this strange and often awful American election cycle, the background politics in "Pathways" resonated even more with this reading.
I enjoyed the transcendence of beings in ".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler and the beautiful and sad horror of "The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn. I struggled with the lengthy "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran but its twists and turns near the end and unexpected appearance of and explanation for the internet were worth the effort. A helpful introduction provided context without which the story would have been even more difficult to read. The way history asserts itself makes for a compellingly ending.
The nonfiction essay about the microbiome by Matthew Simmons, interview with Guy Gabriel Kay by Chris Urie, and inspiration from Alethea Kontis were wonderful. In the issue's "Editor's Desk", Neil Clarke sold me on his anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year. I have read a few of these stories and if they are reflective of the overall quality of the anthology, then I am eager to read the rest of them.
One of the disadvantages of reading magazines on a Kindle is how the cover art is too small and missing color. There are other ways, though, to view cover art in detail, and Vincent LAÏK's exquisitely beautiful artwork is available to view on his website:
https://vincent_laik.artstation.com/portfolio/xtc
There is so much activity occurring in the artwork set against a spacescape of planets almost too close for comfort. Meanwhile, the silhouette of a character and mount is almost lost in the foreground, adding amazing juxtapositions between enormous and small, active and still, detailed and obscured.
ninj's review against another edition
3.0
It wasn't bad, there were certainly some quite interesting elements around the things inside, and the context of the story, but it's not a strong 3...
jbaltsar's review against another edition
3.0
Margaret Ronald - And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices *** 1/2
SETI empfängt einen Code, der es der Menschheit erlaubt, über viele Jahre die komplette Kommunikation einer fernen Spezies mitzuhören. Doch plötzlich verstummt die Kommunikation ...
Sam J. Miller - Things With Beards ** 1/2
Sie kommen aus der Antarktis zurück; aber sind sie noch sie selbst?
E. Catherine Tobler - .identity ****
Die Systeme eines Generationenschiffes spielen verrückt. Ist der KI des Schiffes noch zu trauen, oder ist auch sie kompromittiert?
Zhang Ran - The Snow of Jinyang *
abgebrochen, zu chinesisch für mich
Michael Flynn - The Promise of God **** 1/2
Kinder mit magischen Fähigkeiten werden zu willenlosen Werkzeugen konditioniert und mit einem Mentor verheiratet. Wie endet solch eine Beziehung? Intensiv und erschreckend
Nancy Kress - Pathways*** 1/2
Eine junge Frau leidet, wie viele ihrer (dysfunktionalen) Familie, an einer Hirnerkrankung, die zu Wahnsinn und Tod führt. Eine neue Behandlungsmethode eröffnet ihr die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben
SETI empfängt einen Code, der es der Menschheit erlaubt, über viele Jahre die komplette Kommunikation einer fernen Spezies mitzuhören. Doch plötzlich verstummt die Kommunikation ...
Sam J. Miller - Things With Beards ** 1/2
Sie kommen aus der Antarktis zurück; aber sind sie noch sie selbst?
E. Catherine Tobler - .identity ****
Die Systeme eines Generationenschiffes spielen verrückt. Ist der KI des Schiffes noch zu trauen, oder ist auch sie kompromittiert?
Zhang Ran - The Snow of Jinyang *
abgebrochen, zu chinesisch für mich
Michael Flynn - The Promise of God **** 1/2
Kinder mit magischen Fähigkeiten werden zu willenlosen Werkzeugen konditioniert und mit einem Mentor verheiratet. Wie endet solch eine Beziehung? Intensiv und erschreckend
Nancy Kress - Pathways*** 1/2
Eine junge Frau leidet, wie viele ihrer (dysfunktionalen) Familie, an einer Hirnerkrankung, die zu Wahnsinn und Tod führt. Eine neue Behandlungsmethode eröffnet ihr die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben
jokoloyo's review against another edition
3.0
Rating for "Things With Beards". I read this at the right moment, or else, I would give this story as 2 star-rating. I am not a fan of a horror story, even SF horror story. I avoid SF movie titles that turns out to be a horror movie (for example, Sunshine (2007)).
This story is not about plot, but about character development. A monster character development.
I agree with the last sentence on the story. Recently, I read a philosophy article from a Tibetan Rinpoche that has similar virtue. The sentence convince me to gave it a 3 star.
This story is not about plot, but about character development. A monster character development.
I agree with the last sentence on the story. Recently, I read a philosophy article from a Tibetan Rinpoche that has similar virtue. The sentence convince me to gave it a 3 star.
thesffreader's review
3.0
3.5
Review originally published here : https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/short-fiction-sunday-clarkesworld-117/
Content
Original Fiction
And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald 5*
Great story, it really started the issue with a bang. It’s hard to talk about this story without spoiling it but basically it’s the story of a scientist who discovered an alien transmission and managed to understand them. However, after a while, she realized that she was witnessing the end of the alien and that the whole scientific community was helpless because the alien were more than 400 light years away.
Thsi story was a great reflexion on how hearing and witnessing the death of a new civilization could affect the whole humanity on both a global and personal level. It was extremely well-written, it was heartbreacking but it still managed to have a really optimistic ending.
Things with Beard by Sam J. Miller 5*
I am a huge fan of Sam Miller. So far, I read four of his stories and they all were incredible and I can’t wait for his debut-novel, The Art of Starving coming out in 2017 from HarperCollins. Needless to say, when I saw that one of his stories was in this issue, I was pumped.
And it did not disappoint. This story is set in the eighties in the midst of the AIDS pendemic. Our main character, MacReady is possessed by an hungry alien which forces him to have sexual relationship with men. Here the alien could be seen as a metaphor of people who are afraid of assuming their sexual preferences and feel like monsters. Not only this story was incredibly touching, it was thought-provocking and had some really interesting lines about racism whichnow remind me a lot of The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson that I read yesterday.
I especially liked how the story ended and as always with Miller’s fiction, I don’t really have anything bad to say about it.
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler 1*
This story is about an AI that is attacked by a virus and loose some pieces of memory.
I don’t have much to say about this story, it was very meh. For me, it didn’t have a plot or any new ideas to add to science fiction. I completely skimmed the second half because of how boring but oh well, it’s extremely rare to enjoy every story in a magazine or an athology so that’s okay.
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran DNF
I usually like the chineses translated featured in Clarkesworld but the translation felt too obvious and really made it hard to focus on this story because the whole thing sounded almost cartoonish. Also, this story was based on Chinese history and it was hard too understand for a Chinese history noob like me so I just decided to DNF it.
Reprints
The Promise of God by Michael Flynn 2,5*
This story wasn’t terrible but it’s a fairly forgettable one. The premise is interesting, the main character is a person without morale which means that he has no concept of either good or bad and needs a guardian to check on him. The ending was powerful but otherwise, I didn’t especially cared about the story.
Pathways by Nancy Kress 4.5*
This story follows a character that suffers from a really rare syndrom that will make her crazy. Her only way to escape from this fate is to participate to a new research. It was really short but it was full of ideas and the pacing was perfect. At first, the writing style was a bit hard to get into but after two or three pages, I was completely hooked!
It’s hard to pick a favorite story out of the three I really loved but, if you had to read only one story in this whole issue, I would probably recommend And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald. You can read (or listen to) it for free on the Clarkesworld Magazine website.
Review originally published here : https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/short-fiction-sunday-clarkesworld-117/
Content
Original Fiction
And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald 5*
Great story, it really started the issue with a bang. It’s hard to talk about this story without spoiling it but basically it’s the story of a scientist who discovered an alien transmission and managed to understand them. However, after a while, she realized that she was witnessing the end of the alien and that the whole scientific community was helpless because the alien were more than 400 light years away.
Thsi story was a great reflexion on how hearing and witnessing the death of a new civilization could affect the whole humanity on both a global and personal level. It was extremely well-written, it was heartbreacking but it still managed to have a really optimistic ending.
Things with Beard by Sam J. Miller 5*
I am a huge fan of Sam Miller. So far, I read four of his stories and they all were incredible and I can’t wait for his debut-novel, The Art of Starving coming out in 2017 from HarperCollins. Needless to say, when I saw that one of his stories was in this issue, I was pumped.
And it did not disappoint. This story is set in the eighties in the midst of the AIDS pendemic. Our main character, MacReady is possessed by an hungry alien which forces him to have sexual relationship with men. Here the alien could be seen as a metaphor of people who are afraid of assuming their sexual preferences and feel like monsters. Not only this story was incredibly touching, it was thought-provocking and had some really interesting lines about racism whichnow remind me a lot of The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson that I read yesterday.
I especially liked how the story ended and as always with Miller’s fiction, I don’t really have anything bad to say about it.
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler 1*
This story is about an AI that is attacked by a virus and loose some pieces of memory.
I don’t have much to say about this story, it was very meh. For me, it didn’t have a plot or any new ideas to add to science fiction. I completely skimmed the second half because of how boring but oh well, it’s extremely rare to enjoy every story in a magazine or an athology so that’s okay.
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran DNF
I usually like the chineses translated featured in Clarkesworld but the translation felt too obvious and really made it hard to focus on this story because the whole thing sounded almost cartoonish. Also, this story was based on Chinese history and it was hard too understand for a Chinese history noob like me so I just decided to DNF it.
Reprints
The Promise of God by Michael Flynn 2,5*
This story wasn’t terrible but it’s a fairly forgettable one. The premise is interesting, the main character is a person without morale which means that he has no concept of either good or bad and needs a guardian to check on him. The ending was powerful but otherwise, I didn’t especially cared about the story.
Pathways by Nancy Kress 4.5*
This story follows a character that suffers from a really rare syndrom that will make her crazy. Her only way to escape from this fate is to participate to a new research. It was really short but it was full of ideas and the pacing was perfect. At first, the writing style was a bit hard to get into but after two or three pages, I was completely hooked!
It’s hard to pick a favorite story out of the three I really loved but, if you had to read only one story in this whole issue, I would probably recommend And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald. You can read (or listen to) it for free on the Clarkesworld Magazine website.
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