Reviews

Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019 by John Joseph Adams

wanderlustlover's review against another edition

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3.0

Hugo 2020 Nominations (Best Novelette);
"The Archronology of Love"

My favorite part was, undoubtedly, the quotations at the top of each new section, where the aliens were talking. I felt so engrossed by the compassion and older-mind being displayed. I, also, really loved the idea of the technology that would let you go back in time and space to specific places, and, then, dangerously, to touch the future, too.

I felt more distant from the main character than I wanted to be in this. Our main character is deeply professional during the day, and imbedded in her grief at night. The reunion was poignant but unexpected, and I like that even then there was a deep divide between the then-and-now, even in the far-future of neither. One second where they could almost touch, and say goodbye.

titusfortner's review

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3.0

I only read _Archronology of Love_ by Caroline M. Yoachim. I liked it, an interesting idea.

wanderlustlover's review

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3.0

Hugo 2020 Nominations (Best Novelette);
"The Archronology of Love"

My favorite part was, undoubtedly, the quotations at the top of each new section, where the aliens were talking. I felt so engrossed by the compassion and older-mind being displayed. I, also, really loved the idea of the technology that would let you go back in time and space to specific places, and, then, dangerously, to touch the future, too.

I felt more distant from the main character than I wanted to be in this. Our main character is deeply professional during the day, and imbedded in her grief at night. The reunion was poignant but unexpected, and I like that even then there was a deep divide between the then-and-now, even in the far-future of neither. One second where they could almost touch, and say goodbye.

bookaneer's review

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3.0

Reviews and ratings for two stories:

Gundark Island, or, Tars Tarkas Needs Your Help by Matthew Corradi
Hmm, I am getting tired of pop culture references getting in stories.

The Archronology of Love by Caroline Yoachim
Almost plotless, too sentimental. The BDO aspect and failed colonization were somewhat intriguing but remained hazy.

nataliya_x's review

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4.0

This review is for The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim, nominated for best novelette for both Hugo and Nebula.

Saki Jones was supposed to join her “lifelove” partner M.J. on the new colony on the New Mars. But the colony had suddenly collapsed prior to her arrival, and the colonists are dead — likely from an alien plague, possibly related to alien artifacts from a seemingly vanished alien civilization. To determine what exactly happened, Saki and her crew mates can access the Chronicle — holographic projections of time records, a nonhuman invention that allows you to see slices of the past — but entering the Chronicle alters and destroys parts of it across time.
“We did not create the Chronicle, we simply discovered it, as you did. Layer upon layer of time, a stratified record of the universe. When you visit the Chronicle, you alter it. Your presence muddles the temporal record as surely as an archaeological dig muddles the dirt at an excavation site.”


This is a quiet story of pain and loss and grief. It’s about how your personal experiences can’t help but bring bias to your research. It’s about misunderstandings that can make first contact a tragedy. It’s sad, with a bittersweet ending, and quiet understated power. It’s not a story of struggle or conflict, but of what comes after, of how you deal with loss, how you learn to go on.

The idea of the Chronicle is fascinating. I’d be curious to see it explored further in a longer story.
“We act out of love, but that does not erase the harm we cause. Forgive us.“

4 stars.

Read it here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-archronology-of-love/

———————

My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3295830569

villyidol's review

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4.0

***The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim***

This is a love story, the last of a series of moments when we meet.


Saki Jones arrives at New Mars after the first colony there had been wiped out by a plague.

Her "lifelove" M.J., who is amongst the dead colonists, was convinced that the spreading of the disease had something to do with some alien artifacts that had been found on New Mars and which the colonists were looking into.

Saki is leading a group of researchers that use a sort of time travel device, which they call the Chronicle, to find the source of the plague. They can enter into a holographic version of a specific point in time and space, but are somewhat limited in their movements, as they are not able to physically leave the projection chamber. Also, all the spaces in the projection that they "physically" occupy are more or less erased from the Chronicle, as they become permanently blurred. So they have to be rather careful.

Through Saki's struggle with the loss of her partner, Yoachim's story shows how biases influence perception and even scientific research.

There is no objective record of the moments in your past—you filter reality through your thoughts and perceptions. Over time, you create a memory of the memory, compounding bias upon bias, layers of self-serving rationalizations, or denial, or nostalgia. Everything becomes a story.


The author also explores first contact with an alien life form from different points of view, through some interspersed parts in the narration.

It's a quiet, almost tender story. There's no action and very little tension. But it was very nice to read and I liked how it ended. The time travel device could have been explained a little better, though. It was difficult to get a feeling for how it all works.

3.5 stars, rounded up. It's nowhere near as good as the other story by Yoachim that I read as part of my anual Nebula/Hugo reading maybe two or three years ago. But it is still one of the better stories that I've read of this year's nominees, and I can now say that I generally like the author's writing.

You can read this story for free here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-archronology-of-love/

A Nebula 2019 and Hugo 2020 nominee for Best Novelette.

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_________________
2019 Nebula Award Finalists

Best Novel
• [b: Marque of Caine|42201629|Marque of Caine (Tales of the Terran Republic, #5)|Charles E. Gannon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547943199l/42201629._SY75_.jpg|65814152] by Charles E. Gannon
• [b: The Ten Thousand Doors of January|43521657|The Ten Thousand Doors of January|Alix E. Harrow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548174710l/43521657._SY75_.jpg|63516505] by Alix E. Harrow
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• [b: Gods of Jade and Shadow|36510722|Gods of Jade and Shadow|Silvia Moreno-Garcia|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543268579l/36510722._SY75_.jpg|58230232] by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• [b: Gideon the Ninth|42036538|Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538._SY75_.jpg|60943229] by Tamsyn Muir
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

Best Novella
• Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang ([b: Exhalation|41160292|Exhalation Stories|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534388394l/41160292._SX50_.jpg|64336454])
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
[b: This Is How You Lose the Time War|43352954|This Is How You Lose the Time War|Amal El-Mohtar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545755487l/43352954._SX50_.jpg|58237743] by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• [b: Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water|40939044|Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water|Vylar Kaftan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548256640l/40939044._SY75_.jpg|63832458] by Vylar Kaftan
• [b: The Deep|42201962|The Deep|Rivers Solomon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549411869l/42201962._SY75_.jpg|64281827] by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
• [b: Catfish Lullaby|45454304|Catfish Lullaby|A.C. Wise|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557003095l/45454304._SX50_.jpg|70223668] by A.C. Wise

Best Novelette
• A Strange Uncertain Light by G.V. Anderson ([b: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2019|51205594|The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2019 (F&SF, #744)|C.C. Finlay|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561674223l/51205594._SX50_SY75_.jpg|71657053])
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
• [b: His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light|43565763|His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light|Mimi Mondal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548761606l/43565763._SY75_.jpg|67781447] by Mimi Mondal
• The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker ([b: Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019|52228003|Uncanny Magazine Issue 29 July/August 2019|Lynne M. Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562183674l/52228003._SX50_SY75_.jpg|71772498])
[b: Carpe Glitter|52579998|Carpe Glitter|Cat Rambo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1570634877l/52579998._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73519447] by Cat Rambo
• The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019)

Best Short Story
Give the Family My Love by A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 149, February 2019)
• The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power by Karen Osborne (Uncanny Magazine Issue 27: March/April 2019)
• And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9 September 2019)
• Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 80)
• A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January-February 2019)
• How the Trick Is Done by A.C. Wise (Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019)

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
• [b: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe|36595887|Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Sal and Gabi, #1)|Carlos Hernandez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536087897l/36595887._SY75_.jpg|58346652] by Carlos Hernandez
• [b: Catfishing on CatNet|41556068|Catfishing on CatNet (CatNet #1)|Naomi Kritzer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568119890l/41556068._SY75_.jpg|64836558] by Naomi Kritzer
• [b: Dragon Pearl|34966859|Dragon Pearl|Yoon Ha Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1517413544l/34966859._SX50_.jpg|56241840] by Yoon Ha Lee
• [b: Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions|36320150|Peasprout Chen Battle of Champions|Henry Lien|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1547747935l/36320150._SX50_.jpg|57994958] by Henry Lien
• [b: Cog|43453676|Cog|Greg Van Eekhout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562027659l/43453676._SY75_.jpg|64712441] by Greg van Eekhout
[b: Riverland|41070150|Riverland|Fran Wilde|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533879692l/41070150._SY75_.jpg|64154930] by Fran Wilde

____________________________
2020 Hugo Award Finalists

Best Novel
• [b: The City in the Middle of the Night|37534907|The City in the Middle of the Night|Charlie Jane Anders|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532447389l/37534907._SY75_.jpg|64654648] by Charlie Jane Anders
• [b: Gideon the Ninth|42036538|Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538._SY75_.jpg|60943229] by Tamsyn Muir
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
• [b: Middlegame|35965482|Middlegame (Middlegame, #1)|Seanan McGuire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1537297437l/35965482._SX50_.jpg|57524946] by Seanan McGuire
• [b: The Ten Thousand Doors of January|43521657|The Ten Thousand Doors of January|Alix E. Harrow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1548174710l/43521657._SY75_.jpg|63516505] by Alix E. Harrow

Best Novella
• Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom by Ted Chiang ([b: Exhalation|41160292|Exhalation Stories|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534388394l/41160292._SX50_.jpg|64336454])
• [b: The Deep|42201962|The Deep|Rivers Solomon|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1549411869l/42201962._SY75_.jpg|64281827] by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
• [b: In an Absent Dream|38244358|In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children, #4)|Seanan McGuire|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525436165l/38244358._SY75_.jpg|59926216] by Seanan McGuire
[b: This Is How You Lose the Time War|43352954|This Is How You Lose the Time War|Amal El-Mohtar|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1545755487l/43352954._SX50_.jpg|58237743] by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Best Novelette
• The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, April 2019)
• Away With the Wolves by Sarah Gailey ([b: Uncanny Magazine Issue 30: Disabled People Destroy Fanatsy! Special Issue|49245882|Uncanny Magazine Issue 30 Disabled People Destroy Fantasy! Special Issue|Lynne M. Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566875115l/49245882._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73105010])
• The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye by Sarah Pinsker ([b: Uncanny Magazine Issue 29: July/August 2019|52228003|Uncanny Magazine Issue 29 July/August 2019|Lynne M. Thomas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562183674l/52228003._SX50_SY75_.jpg|71772498])
Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
• [b: Omphalos|41160292|Exhalation Stories|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534388394l/41160292._SX50_.jpg|64336454] by Ted Chiang

Best Short Story
• And Now His Lordship Is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9 September 2019)
As the Last I May Know by S.L. Huang
Blood Is Another Word for Hunger by Rivers Solomon
• A Catalog of Storms by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 26, January-February 2019)
• Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #270)
• Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, Issue 80)

Best Series
The Expanse by [a: James S. A. Corey|4192148|James S.A. Corey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573162332p2/4192148.jpg]
• InCryptid by [a: Seanan McGuire|2860219|Seanan McGuire|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1245623198p2/2860219.jpg]
• Luna by [a: Ian McDonald|25376|Ian McDonald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1372533252p2/25376.jpg]
• Planetfall series by [a: Emma Newman|3329042|Emma Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1425124402p2/3329042.jpg]
• Winternight Trilogy by [a: Katherine Arden|13922215|Katherine Arden|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1510754830p2/13922215.jpg]
• The Wormwood Trilogy by [a: Tade Thompson|5782077|Tade Thompson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1593796763p2/5782077.jpg]

Best Related Work
• [b: Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood|40651648|Becoming Superman My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood|J. Michael Straczynski|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552089537l/40651648._SY75_.jpg|63175235] by J. Michael Straczynski
• [b: Joanna Russ|44803864|Joanna Russ|Gwyneth Jones|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556682415l/44803864._SY75_.jpg|69488169] by Gwyneth Jones
• [b: The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick|40165912|The Lady from the Black Lagoon Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick|Mallory O'Meara|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1539883807l/40165912._SY75_.jpg|56266883] by Mallory O’Meara
• [b: The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein|42632383|The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein|Farah Mendlesohn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541399334l/42632383._SY75_.jpg|66365024] by Farah Mendlesohn
2019 John W. Campbell Award Acceptance Speech by Jeannette Ng
• Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, produced and directed by Arwen Curry

Best Graphic Story or Comic
• [b: Die, Volume 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker|48729961|SDCC DIE Volume 1 Fantasy Heartbreaker|Kieron Gillen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573174207l/48729961._SY75_.jpg|65274583] by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
[b: LaGuardia|42762071|LaGuardia|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542046220l/42762071._SY75_.jpg|66506690], written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin
• [b: Monstress, Volume 4: The Chosen|45899240|Monstress, Vol. 4 The Chosen|Marjorie M. Liu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559570414l/45899240._SX50_.jpg|70742623], written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• [b: Mooncakes|44774415|Mooncakes|Suzanne Walker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1565183719l/44774415._SY75_.jpg|57982519] by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil
Paper Girls, Volume 6, written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Jared K. Fletcher
• [b: The Wicked + The Divine, Volume 9: "Okay"|46223693|The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 9 "Okay"|Kieron Gillen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560094188l/46223693._SY75_.jpg|66594104] by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, colours by Matt Wilson, letters by Clayton Cowles

trish204's review

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4.0

This review is for the short story The Archronology of Love by Caroline M. Yoachim

This is a love story, the last of a series of moments when we meet.

Sometimes, being broke can save lives.
Dr. Saki Jones lost her lifelove, M.J., (apparently, in this future you have a number of partners but only one lifelove) to a mysterious plague on New Mars. If they had had the money to go together, the entire family (including a number of children) would have died.
Now, Saki is arriving at the planet where the human colony got wiped out to find out what's happened and if there is indeed an alien civilisation involved in the demise of so many human lives. Because New Mars has ruins of an alien civilisation but no remains. The humans just thought they had left for some reason and settled on the planet.
Saki's research therefore is not only historical, (xeno-)anthropological / (xeno-)archaeological and biological/chemical, it's also the examination of a past life, of memories and emotions and what it means to be (to have a family, to settle, to live, to explore).
Then there is The Chronicle, a data base that enables you to meet lost loved ones (amongst other things) since you can travel in time (like with a recorded movie).
There is no objective record of the moments in your past—you filter reality through your thoughts and perceptions.

The Chronicle is not a human-built machine, they simply discovered it. It's a record of the entire universe and thus stores different time layers. When you enter The Chronicle, you automatically alter it via your presence, wiping out parts of the recordings. And yes, that is a problem. But in order to understand that, humans need to actually understand The Chronicle, instead of just using it. Just like they need to understand this alien planet and the civilisation that lived there once.
So this is a love letter as well as a whodunnit and all of it in space!
This is a love story, but it does not end with happily ever after. It doesn’t end at all. Your stories are always so rigidly shaped—beginning, middle, end. There are strands of love in your narratives, all neat and tidy in the chaos of reality. Our love is scattered across time and space, without order, without endings.


I really loved the atmosphere and yes, I cried in the end. Very nice writing that transports the reader instantly (which is very important the shorter a story is).

Read the story for free here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-archronology-of-love/

rhodered's review

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4.0

Beautiful short story with thoughtful world building, including a kind of a time machine I hadn’t seen before. I enjoyed the thoughts on inevitable bias in memory, and the way the heroine encouraged her whole team’s input before making a key decision that she could have just made on her own. Also, it’s a society where polyamory and queer people are unremarkable.

ortija's review

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4.0

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