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standback's review
4.0
Standouts in this issue are:
"The White Piano," by David Gerrold - a tender ghost story with great characters and settings; a lovely read.
"Braid of Days and Wake of Nights," by E. Lily Yu - a melancholy urban fantasy of unicorn-hunting and grief.
"Touch Me All Over" by Betsy James - a folk-tale-ish story, with the intriguing premise of a weaver come under the curse that anything she touches falls apart. I really enjoyed this one.
"Smooth Stones And Empty Bones," by Bennett North, an excellent story about that old favorite: undoing death. Helena's girlfriend's little brother is missing. Helena has a secret that can help - one that doesn't depend on him being found alive. The story begins astonishingly light, and gradually grows heavy with weight.
Lighter fare, but excellent and very entertaining, are:
"Number Nine Moon," by Alex Irvine - some ne'er-do-wells need every ounce of ingenuity not to be left behind on an evacuation from Mars.
"Telltale," by Matthew Hughes - Raffalon the rogue is trapped in a cottage, playing Scheherazade, recounting every story he's ever heard. (The justification is ridiculous, but that's entirely beside the point.)
---
Finlay's done something very cool with the issue, and gotten in three different Mars stories, based on the issue's cover art. Irvine's "Number Nine Moon" is one of them. The other two are Gregory Benford's "Vortex," and Mary Robinette Kowal's "Rockets Red."
"Vortex" revolves around a sprawling microbial life form; "Rockets Red" is a sentimental little prequel to Kowal's "The Lady Astronaut of Mars." I found both of them very slight; neither one got me interested. But having three Mars stories of such different styles and focus was a lot of fun, and made me enjoy the combination more than merely the sum of its stories.
---
"Casper D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going To Do?," by Nick Wolven, addresses a topical subject - constant, urgent calls to action on online media, that no person can really answer. It's topical, but doesn't really go any further than "exaggerated portrayal of online media nuisance," kind of like an extended piece of net humor. I wish he'd go a little further afield, particularly as this story feels so very, very similar to his "We're So Very Sorry For Your Recent Tragic Loss" a few issues back.
"Robot From The Future," by Terry Bisson, is fun, but I can't get past the feeling that I've read this story a dozen times before, most of them also by Terry Bisson. It's basically "kid finds robot from the future; robot is weird and threatening in a silly way, the end."
"The Visionaries," by Albert E. Cowdrey, is a paranormal investigation story that's sillier than it is funny, although it's solid enough.
"Squidtown," by Leo Vladimirsky, has a weary son returning to his old hometown; it's well-written, focused mostly on character and reaction, without much plot.
All in all: An issue with a lot of solid entertainment, and several stories that stuck strong in my memory, and really grew on me. I particularly like how my favorite stories were from authors I've never heard of before!
Getting three stories with a common premise added interest for me.
"The White Piano," by David Gerrold - a tender ghost story with great characters and settings; a lovely read.
"Braid of Days and Wake of Nights," by E. Lily Yu - a melancholy urban fantasy of unicorn-hunting and grief.
"Touch Me All Over" by Betsy James - a folk-tale-ish story, with the intriguing premise of a weaver come under the curse that anything she touches falls apart. I really enjoyed this one.
"Smooth Stones And Empty Bones," by Bennett North, an excellent story about that old favorite: undoing death. Helena's girlfriend's little brother is missing. Helena has a secret that can help - one that doesn't depend on him being found alive. The story begins astonishingly light, and gradually grows heavy with weight.
Lighter fare, but excellent and very entertaining, are:
"Number Nine Moon," by Alex Irvine - some ne'er-do-wells need every ounce of ingenuity not to be left behind on an evacuation from Mars.
"Telltale," by Matthew Hughes - Raffalon the rogue is trapped in a cottage, playing Scheherazade, recounting every story he's ever heard. (The justification is ridiculous, but that's entirely beside the point.)
---
Finlay's done something very cool with the issue, and gotten in three different Mars stories, based on the issue's cover art. Irvine's "Number Nine Moon" is one of them. The other two are Gregory Benford's "Vortex," and Mary Robinette Kowal's "Rockets Red."
"Vortex" revolves around a sprawling microbial life form; "Rockets Red" is a sentimental little prequel to Kowal's "The Lady Astronaut of Mars." I found both of them very slight; neither one got me interested. But having three Mars stories of such different styles and focus was a lot of fun, and made me enjoy the combination more than merely the sum of its stories.
---
"Casper D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going To Do?," by Nick Wolven, addresses a topical subject - constant, urgent calls to action on online media, that no person can really answer. It's topical, but doesn't really go any further than "exaggerated portrayal of online media nuisance," kind of like an extended piece of net humor. I wish he'd go a little further afield, particularly as this story feels so very, very similar to his "We're So Very Sorry For Your Recent Tragic Loss" a few issues back.
"Robot From The Future," by Terry Bisson, is fun, but I can't get past the feeling that I've read this story a dozen times before, most of them also by Terry Bisson. It's basically "kid finds robot from the future; robot is weird and threatening in a silly way, the end."
"The Visionaries," by Albert E. Cowdrey, is a paranormal investigation story that's sillier than it is funny, although it's solid enough.
"Squidtown," by Leo Vladimirsky, has a weary son returning to his old hometown; it's well-written, focused mostly on character and reaction, without much plot.
All in all: An issue with a lot of solid entertainment, and several stories that stuck strong in my memory, and really grew on me. I particularly like how my favorite stories were from authors I've never heard of before!
Getting three stories with a common premise added interest for me.
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