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standback's review
3.0
I had a funny experience with this issue. While ordering stories in an issue or magazine is often something of a dark art, this issue split almost perfectly in the middle. The first half just didn't grab me; the second half was one hit after another.
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"To The Beautiful Shining Twilight," by Carrie Vaughn.
Kids who once journeyed to fairyland are summoned once more -- but they're all grown up now. A solid story, but I don't feel it really offers much beside that basic premise -- and it's a premise I've seen often.
"The Province of Saints," Robert Reed.
The story starts out intriguingly, promising murder by empathy. The set-up includes Mary Sue, who used to be the one good kid in a family of rich bastards, and the implication that she's the one who's just killed them all off -- that's some great tension, right off the bat.
The conclusion didn't work for me, though. I thought I was looking for a story about a kind person who reaches the point of murder. Or maybe about a kind person who isn't kind at all. Instead, the story wound up being all about the means of murder, and there, it kind of squares the circle bycreating an empathy-drug, whose effects are indistinguishable from melodramatic insanity . I don't feel that lives up to the story's initial promise; it really takes the sting out.
"Joe Diabo's Farewell," Andy Duncan.
Beautifully written, strong characters. The story itself, of indigenous Americans portraying racist stereotypes of themselves, is powerful. For me personally, though, this story felt overly familiar --
it reads very, very similarly to previous stories I've read, particularly [b:"Nanabojou at the World's Fair,"|24426457|Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2014|Gordon Van Gelder|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432433766s/24426457.jpg|43010447] and [b:"Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience(tm)."|43438321|Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience|Rebecca Roanhorse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1551718422s/43438321.jpg|60722033]
I'm assuming this synchronicity has some very real and painful roots, and I've found [b:at least one pointer|15797509|The Inconvenient Indian A Curious Account of Native People in North America|Thomas King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357136064s/15797509.jpg|21520410] to learn more about this. I think it's a really excellent story -- but having read the other two definitely made it feel repetitive to me, which was a shame.
"The City of Lost Desire," Phyllis Eisenstein.
Pulpy bard adventure, about a city addled by bliss-granting drugs.
Sadly, I found this one very poorly structured -- I could never tell what the focus was meant to be; what was important. The story jumped from a weird tower in the desert, to drug-laced city politics, to a late-showing romance-ish thread, without ever feeling that one is building into the next. I didn't get any sense of stakes, nor of resolution.
This was particularly a shame because I felt the previous story in the series was excellent, and particularly built up great adventures without being dull for an instant. This one wound up as a weird letdown.
"The Right Number of Cats," Jenn Reese.
A great, extremely vivid short piece about grief and, well, cats.
"Survey," by Adam-Troy Castro.
A psychological study turns very, very dark. Unsubtle, unsettling, and extremely effective.Most of the story describes the horror of suddenly being tasked with impossible, horrible responsibilities that you never asked for. Responsibility for harm about to be done -- with nothing you can do to mitigate the harm; only direct it. Part of the horror is the dangling promise that maybe you're capable of, at least, minimizing the suffering within constraints -- but it's not clear if opting out would stop the harm, or just leave it to somebody with far fewer compunctions.
The final twist of the knife is how easy it is to disassociate from the responsibility entirely; to accept "well, awful stuff happens" as simply the inevitable way of the world.
"Blue as Blood," by Leah Cypess.
At first the story seems like a fairly simple creation of an imaginary cultural difference for bigotry and microaggressions to play out upon. This expectation is not disappointed, but the world and characters the story builds stand solid and much wider than trivial allegory. The vivid characters and captivating situations stand fully in their own right.
"The Washer At The Ford," by Sean McMullen.
I loved this one; an urban fantasy piece whose protagonist meets the fairy who washes the clothes of the dead. It strikes the perfect tone, the otherworldly sense of both power and peril, that I really love in fairy stories.
"Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees," by Marie Vibbert.
A decrepit military robot begins, at long last to question its mission. A story like this is all about voice, about letting us recognize a critical moment that's relatable and unusual, both at once; Vibbert succeeds beautifully and with great charm.
"The Fall From Griffin's Peak," by Pip Coen.
A caper story that goes in a different direction -- while it's full of twists and turns by scoundrels trying to one-up each other, its tone is mournful, tragic. "Did they tell you what happened, or were you watching?" the story opens. "Perhaps you don't have all the facts. Perhaps you'll be more ashamed when you do."
Excellent; memorable and affecting.
----
All in all: Lot of great stories in this one, but just bouncing off about half the magazine was a real disappointment. I suppose that's a lot of the risk with novellas -- they take up so much of the magazine, that one novella you don't connect with colors the entire issue.
I love novellas in general, and I love F&SF for publishing them. But I do think maybe I'd rather the novella choices steer away from sword-and-sorcery; I feel like good stories from this genre work just as well at shorter length, while the poor ones just feel formless and sprawling until the heroes have had enough adventures to say "OK, this one's done now."
----
"To The Beautiful Shining Twilight," by Carrie Vaughn.
Kids who once journeyed to fairyland are summoned once more -- but they're all grown up now. A solid story, but I don't feel it really offers much beside that basic premise -- and it's a premise I've seen often.
"The Province of Saints," Robert Reed.
The story starts out intriguingly, promising murder by empathy. The set-up includes Mary Sue, who used to be the one good kid in a family of rich bastards, and the implication that she's the one who's just killed them all off -- that's some great tension, right off the bat.
The conclusion didn't work for me, though. I thought I was looking for a story about a kind person who reaches the point of murder. Or maybe about a kind person who isn't kind at all. Instead, the story wound up being all about the means of murder, and there, it kind of squares the circle by
"Joe Diabo's Farewell," Andy Duncan.
Beautifully written, strong characters. The story itself, of indigenous Americans portraying racist stereotypes of themselves, is powerful. For me personally, though, this story felt overly familiar --
it reads very, very similarly to previous stories I've read, particularly [b:"Nanabojou at the World's Fair,"|24426457|Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2014|Gordon Van Gelder|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432433766s/24426457.jpg|43010447] and [b:"Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience(tm)."|43438321|Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience|Rebecca Roanhorse|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1551718422s/43438321.jpg|60722033]
I'm assuming this synchronicity has some very real and painful roots, and I've found [b:at least one pointer|15797509|The Inconvenient Indian A Curious Account of Native People in North America|Thomas King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357136064s/15797509.jpg|21520410] to learn more about this. I think it's a really excellent story -- but having read the other two definitely made it feel repetitive to me, which was a shame.
"The City of Lost Desire," Phyllis Eisenstein.
Pulpy bard adventure, about a city addled by bliss-granting drugs.
Sadly, I found this one very poorly structured -- I could never tell what the focus was meant to be; what was important. The story jumped from a weird tower in the desert, to drug-laced city politics, to a late-showing romance-ish thread, without ever feeling that one is building into the next. I didn't get any sense of stakes, nor of resolution.
This was particularly a shame because I felt the previous story in the series was excellent, and particularly built up great adventures without being dull for an instant. This one wound up as a weird letdown.
"The Right Number of Cats," Jenn Reese.
A great, extremely vivid short piece about grief and, well, cats.
"Survey," by Adam-Troy Castro.
A psychological study turns very, very dark. Unsubtle, unsettling, and extremely effective.
The final twist of the knife is how easy it is to disassociate from the responsibility entirely; to accept "well, awful stuff happens" as simply the inevitable way of the world.
"Blue as Blood," by Leah Cypess.
At first the story seems like a fairly simple creation of an imaginary cultural difference for bigotry and microaggressions to play out upon. This expectation is not disappointed, but the world and characters the story builds stand solid and much wider than trivial allegory. The vivid characters and captivating situations stand fully in their own right.
"The Washer At The Ford," by Sean McMullen.
I loved this one; an urban fantasy piece whose protagonist meets the fairy who washes the clothes of the dead. It strikes the perfect tone, the otherworldly sense of both power and peril, that I really love in fairy stories.
"Tactical Infantry Bot 37 Dreams of Trochees," by Marie Vibbert.
A decrepit military robot begins, at long last to question its mission. A story like this is all about voice, about letting us recognize a critical moment that's relatable and unusual, both at once; Vibbert succeeds beautifully and with great charm.
"The Fall From Griffin's Peak," by Pip Coen.
A caper story that goes in a different direction -- while it's full of twists and turns by scoundrels trying to one-up each other, its tone is mournful, tragic. "Did they tell you what happened, or were you watching?" the story opens. "Perhaps you don't have all the facts. Perhaps you'll be more ashamed when you do."
Excellent; memorable and affecting.
----
All in all: Lot of great stories in this one, but just bouncing off about half the magazine was a real disappointment. I suppose that's a lot of the risk with novellas -- they take up so much of the magazine, that one novella you don't connect with colors the entire issue.
I love novellas in general, and I love F&SF for publishing them. But I do think maybe I'd rather the novella choices steer away from sword-and-sorcery; I feel like good stories from this genre work just as well at shorter length, while the poor ones just feel formless and sprawling until the heroes have had enough adventures to say "OK, this one's done now."
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