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narflet's review against another edition
4.0
I read 'The Heartsmith's Daughters' today on the bus home and it almost made me cry. Great story.
scamp1234's review against another edition
4.0
A stellar collection of folk tales populate this issue. My favorites included Rus Wornom's In the Mountain of Frozen Fire and almost all the others. This has to be my favorite issue this year.
cathepsut's review against another edition
3.0
Oh Give Me a Home By Adam Rakunas | 7651 words, ★★★★½
“I HAD JUST PUT THE HERD into their evening pasture when Leggo came over the rise. He was huffing and puffing on his old mountain bike, pushing his enormous bulk up the brown Sierra foothills. "Dude," he said, leaning his bike against my Chevy, "you're getting sued."“
A story about family, genetics, and bison. Little, little bison. And a company that does sound a bit like Monsanto. The little, little bison were the inspiration for Daryl Gregory‘s teeny 3-inch bison in Afterparty and that‘s how I ended reading this...
Creepy, because this is the battle farmers are actually fighting today, with big companies trying to patent genomes of common livestock, so they can charge for the use. Which is just ridiculously insane. Don‘t even get me started on special fertilizer for GMO crops.
Great ending, I liked that!
Author‘s website: http://www.giro.org
———
The Year of the Rat By Chen Qiufan, translated by Ken Liu | 8812 words, ★★★☆☆
“We've been in this hellhole for two days but we haven't even seen a single rat's hair.“
We are hunting genetically engineered rats that have escaped. Very odd, slightly disturbing. Also a tale about young college graduates in China and how they fit.
Interview: Chen Qiufan on “The Year of the Rat”
———
Kormak the Lucky By Eleanor Arnason | 15643 words, ★★☆☆☆
“It was Seneca the Younger who remarked that luck never made a man wise. We'll leave it as an exercise for readers to decide how well that comment applies to Kormak.“
Well, he was lucky enough. Good thing, as he wasn‘t too smart. We meet light elf, dark elf, fey, travel around a bit, ... The world building was not bad and the plot had its moments, but it was all spooled off without emotion. The characters were unreflected and without depth. I couldn‘t have cared less what happens to them. And the storytelling lacked excitement.
Interview: Eleanor Arnason on “Kormak the Lucky”
“I HAD JUST PUT THE HERD into their evening pasture when Leggo came over the rise. He was huffing and puffing on his old mountain bike, pushing his enormous bulk up the brown Sierra foothills. "Dude," he said, leaning his bike against my Chevy, "you're getting sued."“
A story about family, genetics, and bison. Little, little bison. And a company that does sound a bit like Monsanto. The little, little bison were the inspiration for Daryl Gregory‘s teeny 3-inch bison in Afterparty and that‘s how I ended reading this...
Creepy, because this is the battle farmers are actually fighting today, with big companies trying to patent genomes of common livestock, so they can charge for the use. Which is just ridiculously insane. Don‘t even get me started on special fertilizer for GMO crops.
Great ending, I liked that!
Author‘s website: http://www.giro.org
———
The Year of the Rat By Chen Qiufan, translated by Ken Liu | 8812 words, ★★★☆☆
“We've been in this hellhole for two days but we haven't even seen a single rat's hair.“
We are hunting genetically engineered rats that have escaped. Very odd, slightly disturbing. Also a tale about young college graduates in China and how they fit.
Interview: Chen Qiufan on “The Year of the Rat”
———
Kormak the Lucky By Eleanor Arnason | 15643 words, ★★☆☆☆
“It was Seneca the Younger who remarked that luck never made a man wise. We'll leave it as an exercise for readers to decide how well that comment applies to Kormak.“
Well, he was lucky enough. Good thing, as he wasn‘t too smart. We meet light elf, dark elf, fey, travel around a bit, ... The world building was not bad and the plot had its moments, but it was all spooled off without emotion. The characters were unreflected and without depth. I couldn‘t have cared less what happens to them. And the storytelling lacked excitement.
Interview: Eleanor Arnason on “Kormak the Lucky”
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