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foomple's review
I plan to flesh out this review a little later, but for now let me say that I found Y.M. Pang's story, Little Inn On the Jianghu, charming and hilarious in the best way.
About the story, the author says "I've always felt sorry for innkeepers in wuxia stories. The heroes and villains constantly select inns as their battlegrounds, leaving smashed tables and cowering patrons in their wake. I wonder how half those inns manage to stay in business. So I decided to write an affectionate parody of wuxia from an innkeeper's point of view."
About the story, the author says "I've always felt sorry for innkeepers in wuxia stories. The heroes and villains constantly select inns as their battlegrounds, leaving smashed tables and cowering patrons in their wake. I wonder how half those inns manage to stay in business. So I decided to write an affectionate parody of wuxia from an innkeeper's point of view."
cerv's review
The Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy Sep/Oct 2019 - 70th annniversary issue.
BLAH
The White Cat's Divorce - Kelly Link
Immortality obsessed billionaire and children and their shenanigans.
Erase, Erase, Erase - Elizabeth Bear
The protagonist wants to erase their existence because life is too painful and can they ever be forgiven for what they've done?
Ghost Ships - Michael Swanwick
I like a lot of Swanwick's short stories but I also dislike a lot of them, so I never know what to expect. I don't have anything to say about this other than I didn't like it and it's a contemporary "ghost story" set in the US.
MEH
Kabul - Michael Moorcock
Ragtag military company wanders aimlessly in a peri-apocalytpic Afghanistan.
Madness Afoot - Amanda Hollander
A Cinderella parody. Protagonist is the sister of the Prince.
Homecoming - Gardner Dozois
Dozois is a truly great editor and anthologist. As an author, not so much for me. This is the final story he wrote before he died. It's quite possible that I simply didn't understand the story at all, especially the ending. I have no idea what that was about. I could guess, but that's all it'd be.
OK
American Gold Mine - Paolo Bacigalupi
Disappointed by comparison to his other short stories, almost of which I really enjoy. It takes place at Not-Fox News with the protagonist being the top female anchor there. Basically about how fearmongering and outrage culture is destroying the country and media is the accelerant.
Little Inn On the Jianghu - Y.M. Pang
A Wuxia parody. Rather silly. Protagonist is an innkeeper whose inn destroyed by "heroes" and decides to do something about it.
Under The Hill - Maureen McHugh
This college has a secret, but if you would rather remain ignorant then you'll forever be. Some of the students are from the Seelie Court.
The Light on Eldoreth - Nick Wolven
I've enjoyed every Wolven story in F&SF, but this one was merely okay. It's entirely a marriage negotiation that takes place on Eldoreth, a planet barely within the galaxy, and so far in the future that they've become so "enlightened" that they are oblivious to their amorality.
The Wrong Badger
EnglandLand amusement park in the US has a reckoning with Woke Capitalism. A rival attacks them in the name of social justice to increase their market share.
GOOD
Booksavr - Ken Liu
Booksavr is an app that adjusts whatever you are reading to maximize your enjoyment based on what you define as "problematic content". Author reactions on the self-publishing web serial site are mixed. Are the characters not diverse enough for you? There's a setting for that. Does the author mishandle consent? No problem. No one should ever be offended by what they read.
Protagonist is an author against Booksavr. The story is mostly is "user reactions" on his site.
The ending is a real stinger.
Rather amusing.
OTHER
Three Score and Ten - Robert Silverberg
A truly great author reminisces about 70 years of S&SF.
BLAH
The White Cat's Divorce - Kelly Link
Immortality obsessed billionaire and children and their shenanigans.
Erase, Erase, Erase - Elizabeth Bear
The protagonist wants to erase their existence because life is too painful and can they ever be forgiven for what they've done?
Ghost Ships - Michael Swanwick
I like a lot of Swanwick's short stories but I also dislike a lot of them, so I never know what to expect. I don't have anything to say about this other than I didn't like it and it's a contemporary "ghost story" set in the US.
MEH
Kabul - Michael Moorcock
Ragtag military company wanders aimlessly in a peri-apocalytpic Afghanistan.
Madness Afoot - Amanda Hollander
A Cinderella parody. Protagonist is the sister of the Prince.
Homecoming - Gardner Dozois
Dozois is a truly great editor and anthologist. As an author, not so much for me. This is the final story he wrote before he died. It's quite possible that I simply didn't understand the story at all, especially the ending. I have no idea what that was about. I could guess, but that's all it'd be.
OK
American Gold Mine - Paolo Bacigalupi
Disappointed by comparison to his other short stories, almost of which I really enjoy. It takes place at Not-Fox News with the protagonist being the top female anchor there. Basically about how fearmongering and outrage culture is destroying the country and media is the accelerant.
Little Inn On the Jianghu - Y.M. Pang
A Wuxia parody. Rather silly. Protagonist is an innkeeper whose inn destroyed by "heroes" and decides to do something about it.
Under The Hill - Maureen McHugh
This college has a secret, but if you would rather remain ignorant then you'll forever be. Some of the students are from the Seelie Court.
The Light on Eldoreth - Nick Wolven
I've enjoyed every Wolven story in F&SF, but this one was merely okay. It's entirely a marriage negotiation that takes place on Eldoreth, a planet barely within the galaxy, and so far in the future that they've become so "enlightened" that they are oblivious to their amorality.
The Wrong Badger
EnglandLand amusement park in the US has a reckoning with Woke Capitalism. A rival attacks them in the name of social justice to increase their market share.
GOOD
Booksavr - Ken Liu
Booksavr is an app that adjusts whatever you are reading to maximize your enjoyment based on what you define as "problematic content". Author reactions on the self-publishing web serial site are mixed. Are the characters not diverse enough for you? There's a setting for that. Does the author mishandle consent? No problem. No one should ever be offended by what they read.
Protagonist is an author against Booksavr. The story is mostly is "user reactions" on his site.
The ending is a real stinger.
Rather amusing.
OTHER
Three Score and Ten - Robert Silverberg
A truly great author reminisces about 70 years of S&SF.
standback's review
5.0
Really nice issue for F&SF's big 70th anniversary!
I'm always a little skeptical of big star-studded issues of a magazine; too often, they wind up a disappointing collection of minor works from exciting names. This issue doesn't disappoint, though. It's a great and satisfying set of stories. What's more, each author's offering feels to me very much within their personal style.
The standout story, for me, was "Erase, Erase, Erase," by Elizabeth Bear. It's a wrenching portrayal of self-erasure -- of wanting to get rid of your flaws, your failures, your traumas. And how that erasure has incredible allure, and immeasurable cost.
It is so easy to identify with the protagonist's desire to cut, cut, cut away from herself; it's expertly constructed and made absolutely real. But the story begins with the narrator not being able to afford oblivion any more; we see her oh-so-slowly pulling herself back together, as painful as that may be.
Other notable stories:
"The White Cat's Divorce," by Kelly Link. Fantastic tone here, as you'd expect from Link -- this one is a thoroughly modernized fairy-tale, which does a fantastic job combining modern cynicism with storybook logic. I was startled to realize this is based on a real fairy tale (although that does explain at least some of the weirder elements).
"American Gold Mine," by Paolo Bacigalupi. Entertaining; ripping into outrage-stirring media. Of course, he's villainizing them, making them cynical, ruthless and 100% deliberate and cognizant of all the harm they do. But I really like the story's point about having (or not having...) an exit strategy for the endgame.
"Under The Hill," by Maureen McHugh. This one gets my undying love for it BRILLIANT "second initiation" scene, explaining the unique nature of this particular university campus. (With Powerpoint slides!)
The rest of the story feels almost secondary beside that, but that's OK; it's such a great core, the entire piece is a delight.
Mary Soon Lee continues to be a gift to the magazine. Her poems, every time, start out deceptively simple, and elegantly, effortlessly build up to a rousing, evocative image. Jeff Crandall's poem in this issue is likewise excellent.
---
Other stories:
"Little Inn on the Jianghu," by Y.M. Pang. A genre-savvy wuxia pastiche. Silly and fun (and utterly different from Pang's previous F&SF story, which I also enjoyed!).
"Kabul," by Michael Moorcock, doesn't lack for gravity or tone, but didn't work for me at all. In a future crushed into the dust by military conflict, a surviving hodgepodge of soldiers make their way through Afghanistan, committing mass murder as they go. Our protagonist is 100% a party to this; eventually, he meets a fellow survivor and reminisces about their romantic and sexual history. I think the piece is meant to be tragic and elegiac; to me, though, it was mostly meandering through a crapsack future, weirdly capstoned by random sex-focused nostalgia.
"Madness Afoot," by Amanda Hollander. A mocking retelling of Cinderella. Quick and sharp.
"The Light on Eldoreth," by Nick Wolven. This satire of capitalist excess and asymmetric power manages to be both dark and light. This story, of two grand oligarchs haggling over a marriage match, is exaggerated to utter absurdity, but its core is dark and hits home.
"BookSavr," by Ken Liu, and "Ghost Ships," by Michael Swanwick, both struck me as somewhat filler-ish. The first imagines a don't-read-the-comments argument about an app that rewrites books to take out the offensive bits; the second doesn't really rise much above "this guy I know told me a ghost story once." Nothing wrong with them, but they're slight and forgettable.
"The Wrong Badger," by Esther Freisner, is very much Freisner's typical can-you-believe-this-is-happening romp, which is always fun. This one has a few bits that feel off-key -- the "wrong badger" note is really entirely inconsequential; the one that really bothered me, though, is making a big deal over an all-white England being inauthentic, but then revealing that actually the only reason England cares is because they're losing tourism money. That being said, "Englandland" is a very funny creation.
"Homecoming," by Gardner Dozios, is intimate and touching; the story of a quiet titan nearing his end. Hard not to see it as a fitting farewell to Dozios, inarguably a titan in his own right, although he couldn't possibly have intended that to be so on-the-nose.
---
The big anniversary is further marked with a fond reminiscence from Robert Silverberg, who's been a reader from the very start. I felt a few words from Charles Finlay, the magazine's intrepid editor, were sorely missing -- but, happily, I see they've written a note, quite perfectly, on the F&SF blog. "You have an issue that is both like every other issue of F&SF and also something special." An excellent and apt description.
Kudos, F&SF. Here's to 70 more.
I'm always a little skeptical of big star-studded issues of a magazine; too often, they wind up a disappointing collection of minor works from exciting names. This issue doesn't disappoint, though. It's a great and satisfying set of stories. What's more, each author's offering feels to me very much within their personal style.
The standout story, for me, was "Erase, Erase, Erase," by Elizabeth Bear. It's a wrenching portrayal of self-erasure -- of wanting to get rid of your flaws, your failures, your traumas. And how that erasure has incredible allure, and immeasurable cost.
It is so easy to identify with the protagonist's desire to cut, cut, cut away from herself; it's expertly constructed and made absolutely real. But the story begins with the narrator not being able to afford oblivion any more; we see her oh-so-slowly pulling herself back together, as painful as that may be.
I don’t have any control over what memories I get, when I get them. Except every single one of them is something I would have rather forgotten.------
Other notable stories:
"The White Cat's Divorce," by Kelly Link. Fantastic tone here, as you'd expect from Link -- this one is a thoroughly modernized fairy-tale, which does a fantastic job combining modern cynicism with storybook logic. I was startled to realize this is based on a real fairy tale (although that does explain at least some of the weirder elements).
"American Gold Mine," by Paolo Bacigalupi. Entertaining; ripping into outrage-stirring media. Of course, he's villainizing them, making them cynical, ruthless and 100% deliberate and cognizant of all the harm they do. But I really like the story's point about having (or not having...) an exit strategy for the endgame.
"Under The Hill," by Maureen McHugh. This one gets my undying love for it BRILLIANT "second initiation" scene, explaining the unique nature of this particular university campus. (With Powerpoint slides!)
The rest of the story feels almost secondary beside that, but that's OK; it's such a great core, the entire piece is a delight.
Mary Soon Lee continues to be a gift to the magazine. Her poems, every time, start out deceptively simple, and elegantly, effortlessly build up to a rousing, evocative image. Jeff Crandall's poem in this issue is likewise excellent.
---
Other stories:
"Little Inn on the Jianghu," by Y.M. Pang. A genre-savvy wuxia pastiche. Silly and fun (and utterly different from Pang's previous F&SF story, which I also enjoyed!).
"Kabul," by Michael Moorcock, doesn't lack for gravity or tone, but didn't work for me at all. In a future crushed into the dust by military conflict, a surviving hodgepodge of soldiers make their way through Afghanistan, committing mass murder as they go. Our protagonist is 100% a party to this; eventually, he meets a fellow survivor and reminisces about their romantic and sexual history. I think the piece is meant to be tragic and elegiac; to me, though, it was mostly meandering through a crapsack future, weirdly capstoned by random sex-focused nostalgia.
"Madness Afoot," by Amanda Hollander. A mocking retelling of Cinderella. Quick and sharp.
"The Light on Eldoreth," by Nick Wolven. This satire of capitalist excess and asymmetric power manages to be both dark and light. This story, of two grand oligarchs haggling over a marriage match, is exaggerated to utter absurdity, but its core is dark and hits home.
"BookSavr," by Ken Liu, and "Ghost Ships," by Michael Swanwick, both struck me as somewhat filler-ish. The first imagines a don't-read-the-comments argument about an app that rewrites books to take out the offensive bits; the second doesn't really rise much above "this guy I know told me a ghost story once." Nothing wrong with them, but they're slight and forgettable.
"The Wrong Badger," by Esther Freisner, is very much Freisner's typical can-you-believe-this-is-happening romp, which is always fun. This one has a few bits that feel off-key -- the "wrong badger" note is really entirely inconsequential; the one that really bothered me, though, is making a big deal over an all-white England being inauthentic, but then revealing that actually the only reason England cares is because they're losing tourism money. That being said, "Englandland" is a very funny creation.
"Homecoming," by Gardner Dozios, is intimate and touching; the story of a quiet titan nearing his end. Hard not to see it as a fitting farewell to Dozios, inarguably a titan in his own right, although he couldn't possibly have intended that to be so on-the-nose.
---
The big anniversary is further marked with a fond reminiscence from Robert Silverberg, who's been a reader from the very start. I felt a few words from Charles Finlay, the magazine's intrepid editor, were sorely missing -- but, happily, I see they've written a note, quite perfectly, on the F&SF blog. "You have an issue that is both like every other issue of F&SF and also something special." An excellent and apt description.
Kudos, F&SF. Here's to 70 more.
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