Short Story Sunday 29: R. Garcia y Robertson and Thomas Ligotti

Another year another doomed-to-fail attempt at blogging regularly here at Shared Universe Reviews. Join me in the hopes of being present when I post the site’s last entry of 2022 sometime later this month.

As is routine, I’m going back to Year’s Best Fantasy 2 to read a couple of stories and write reviews. Let’s get on with it.

“Firebird” by R. Garcia y Robertson
Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)
Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 2001), edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Short Story Sunday 26: Fritz Leiber and Tanith Lee

I’ve spent more time reading and writing about short stories this month than I had reading novel-length prose. That’s a little unusual for me as I tend to read comic and novels much more frequently than I read short stories. Upon further reflection, that surprises me as I tend to be like a variety in my fiction. More so variety of authors and moods than in variety of genres, but there is some variety there as well.
 
This week’s selection of stories offers some nice variety. The first author, Fritz Leiber, I’m already familiar with form his work in fantasy. I’ve read a couple of collections of his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. I enjoy them, but I’m not quite swept away like some of his fans or, in general, fans of sword of sorcery. His “A Pail of Air” is a science fiction story and it was fun following him over into another mode of writing. The second author, Tanith Lee, is new to me. I first heard of her upon her passing in 2015. Reading appreciations of her body of work and her contributions to literature in the wake of her death made an impression on me and I’ve been keeping my eye out for her work ever since. I remember searching for her work at my local bookstore, but I couldn’t find any volumes that started a series or any short story collection that wasn’t part of a larger series. I didn’t buy anything. Finally, I got my chance this week and I was not disappointed.

Short Story Sunday 25: Robert Reed and N. K. Jemisin

The year’s first week back to work is done and I’m trying to keep the ball rolling here on the blog. I have specific reading and blogging goals for the year that I’m intentionally not making public on the site. I tend to get fired up each January about making Shared Universe Reviews a place full of content and I inevitably fail to meet any of those goals. So, for now, all I’ll be sharing is that I will try and post new reviews regularly in the hopes of striking up interesting conversation with others who enjoy a good book. This week, I went back to the well that is Year’s Best SF 16 and I also had a wonderful time listening to LeVar Burton’s podcast while shovelling the driveway.

“The Good Hand” by Robert Reed
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction (January 2010), edited by Sheila Williams

Short Story Sunday 24: Brenda Cooper and Gregory Benford

Let's try to start the New Year with reviews of stories originally published in 2010. The key to making this little blog a popular place to hangout online is keeping it relevant to the times. What better way to do that than to continue my review, one story at a time, of Year's Best SF 16?

“The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned” by Brenda Cooper
Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Originally published in Analog (December 2010), edited by Stanley Schmidt

As is usually the case when reviewing stories in either of Hartwell and Cramer's long running Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies, Brenda Cooper is an author I was not familiar with until picking up this book. Discovering new authors is one of the pleasures of reading these annual anthologies. Cooper's "The Hebras and the Demons and the Damned" has made it very clear to me that I need to seek out more of her work as it's topic is right up my alley: colonization of alien planets.

Short Story Sunday 21: Jo Walton and Ted Chiang

I’ve been reading stories in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 for three weeks. I’m starting to get a bit tired of them, not because of the content necessarily as I’ve enjoyed these last six stories, but of their length. The very short length of these stories has limited their scope and depth. That changes today as one of the stories is technically the length of a novelette and it has the kind of deep storytelling that I was looking for and it’s tremendous. 

“On the Wall” by Jo Walton

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Strange Horizons (September 2001), edited by Mary Anne Mohanraj

This is my first time reading something by Walton but I’m already a big fan of her through her various non-fiction writing at Tor.com. I’ve been meaning to explore her body of work, but I simply seem to never get around to it. Because of that I welcomed the opportunity to get my first taste with this anthology.

Short Story Sunday 20: Gene Wolfe and Patrick O’Leary

I had a good time reading short stories last weekend so I decided to do the same again this week. I was hoping for some better stories. One of these confused me and I’m still not sure what to think of it. The other certainly delivered the goods.

“Queen” by Gene Wolfe

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Realms of Fantasy (December 2001), edited by Shawna McCarthy

I haven’t read much by Wolfe, but what I have read has blown me away. The Fifth Head of Cerberus and Peace are worth your time and will certainly stay with you for weeks after finishing them. That’s the effect they had on me. I’ve read a handful of his short stories and all of them read like they’ important and worth reading, even if they often leave me questioning what actually happened. That’s standard fare for a Wolfe story.

Short Story Sunday 19: Ashok Banker, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson

I’m making a serious effort to return to blogging this year. I’ve shared a couple of projects designed to help me work through my pile of unread books and encourage me to write more at SUR. I have no specific projects outside of those which is a good thing since they’re plenty ambitious as they are. Year’s Best Fantasy 2 is included on my Currently Reading list at Goodreads which ties into one of my 2020 blogging projects. I figured a good way to break that down into bite size pieces is to revive Short Story Sunday. This originally started with a Science Fiction anthology by David G. Hartwell and I thought it would be a nice little call back to revive the series by reading a couple stories in another Hartwell anthology.

“In the Shadow of Her Wings” by Ashok Banker

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Interzone (April 2001), edited by David Pringle

Short Story Sunday 15: Catherynne M. Valente and Rick Cook

No introduction this post, we're heading straight into the reviews.

“How to Become a Mars Overlord” by Catherynne M. Valente

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published in Lightspeed issue 3 (2010), edited by John Joseph Adams.

“How to Become a Mars Overlord” is written as a seminar intended on providing guidance to people interested in conquering the prized planet, Mars. Valente is more interesting in recreating a sense of wonder and yearning for the red planet than she is in telling a story. All of her examples of Mars overlords are pastiche or echoes of pulp stories featuring the titular planet. If they’re not recognizable as a creation of another author, then they’re created by Valente with that same spirit in mind. The whole thing is very inventive and full of energy but it’s done in a style that doesn’t work for me.  

Short Story Sunday 14: Andy Duncan, Charles de Lint, and David G. Hartwell Tribute

This series originally began with a focus on science fiction short stories. I think it’s a genre that works really well with this particular form of writing and it’s given me the opportunity to read more short stories and more science fiction, two things I feel I don’t do often enough. However, Short Story Sunday is the home of all short stories and I’m pleased to say that we’re diving head first into the fantasy genre. I’ve reviewed some of Robert E. Howard’s original Conan the Barbarian stories here too, but that’s just not enough! Short Story Sunday needs more fantasy and can’t limit itself to muscular barbarians and squishy monsters. There is plenty of room for other fantasy stories such as those of politically minded Hobbits and Travelling Littles.

“Senator Bilbo” by Andy Duncan

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy 2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)

Originally published in Starlight 3 (2001), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden

This story is based on a simple idea. What if the infamous white supremacist senator Theodore G. Bilbo was a descendant of Bilbo Baggins? Well, we’d end up with a filibustering, speech spewing, and racist hobbit. There isn’t much more to this story than playing out that idea, but it’s very well done and quite enjoyable.  

Short Story Sunday 13: Alastair Reynolds, David Langford, and Michael Swanwick

Short Story Sunday, thirteenth edition, brings you rock ‘n’ roll dinosaurs, first contact with an alien civilization, and murderous house. Let’s get started.

“At Budokan” by Alastair Reynolds

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published in Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic SF (2010), edited by Jetse de Vries

One of the tricky things about reviewing short stories is that your enjoyment of some of them depends on a twist or reveal toward the end of the story. It makes it difficult to write about it in a critical way because part of your review is simply dancing around the plot reveal. “At Budokan” is one of those stories. It’s good enough that it will still be a good read upon rereading and that’s due to the fact that the overall story and thematic elements are more important than the plot twist. That’s something that lesser writers struggle with but Reynolds has a firm grasp on his story from the very first page.

Short Story Sunday 12: Damien Broderick and Cat Sparks

By sheer coincidence that they were listed back to back in the short story collection I was reading yesterday, today’s authors are both Australian. I occasionally bump into online articles or a review focusing on Australian genre authors. Apparently it’s a niche in genre publishing, a specific look at the writers from down under. It’s nice to see praise thrown as a group of writers like that. It helps with your perspective. Not all English language writers are from the US or the UK. Overall, the Year’s Best SF 16 has been pretty good for its diversity in writers. On to the reviews!

“Under the Moons of Venus” by Damien Broderick

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published in Subterranean (Spring2010), edited by Jonathan Strahan (guest editor)

Broderick has been writing science fiction stories since the 1960s but this is the first time I read one. It’s not a simple read, there is a lot of information thrown at the reader and you have to be active in putting things together in order to properly understand the story. I’m not sure I understood it completely, to be honest. Who can blame me when the story uses advanced mathematics and geomorphology to try and solve the mystery of the Moon’s disappearance? The characters, all four of them, are straddling the line between insanity and genius. One of them happens to be an intelligent talking dog (he was surgically altered).

Short Story Sunday 06: Vandana Singh and Malka Older

“Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra” by Vandana Singh

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published at Strange Horizons (2010)

“Somadeva” begins with the revival of a centuries-long dead writer whose magnum opus, an 18 volume compendium of stories arranged in a complex web of interlocking stories. He’s not sure if he’s come back to life or he’s the echo of his former self revived in the present or even if he’s an entirely new being created by the books of his life work so cherished by Isha, a woman travelling in space. Together, they continue to travel the stars in search of new stories. Isha gathers them together in the hopes of better understanding the origins of the alien cultures they encounter. Along the way, Somadeva, the revived writer, contemplates the essence of stories and their mysterious relationship to all things living.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve never read of this author before. I’m glad I’ve just discovered Singh because this story was masterfully told. “Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra” is nothing short of excellent. Mirroring the fictional 18 volume work of Somadeva, this short story includes stories within stories along with interlocking stories. Together, they all form an intricate web of narratives that all support and embellish each other. The story deals with primal and universal themes of being and it asks big questions. Do stories create the world or are they ways for us to understand the world around us by passing down the knowledge acquired through the ages?  Some answers might be found within the text. In fact, one of the main ideas of this story is that all stories have multiple interpretations resulting from the life and experience of the person analysing it.

Short Story Sunday 04: Terry Bisson, Spider Robinson, and David Drake

This week I’m reviewing three short stories from three different collections. Two of them will be familiar to regular readers but I’ve added a new collection to the rotation: The Tank Lords by David Drake. Half of this book is made up of short stories and the other half is a small novels. I’ll be reviewing the novel on its own but the stories will continue to be a part of Short Story Sunday. Let’s get to it.

“About It” by Terry Bisson

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published in F&SF (Sept/Oct 2010), edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Terry Bisson was unknown to me before I read this story (regular readers might have noticed a trend) and I’m sorry to say that “About It” is a poor introduction. The story is told by a janitor who works in a laboratory and brings home a Sasquatch. There ol’ Bigfoot sits around, enjoys nature and the companionship of a few neighbourhood kids. He likes watching TV with the janitor. What at first appears to be a nice retirement from the lab out in the suburbs turns out to be nothing more than a waiting room for the afterlife. The Sasquatch inexplicably fades to nothing and dies, leaving me confused and a little sad . . . but the feeling quickly faded after I closed the book and put it down.

Short Story Sunday 03: Benjamin Crowell, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, and Vernor Vinge

No introduction this time around, we’re diving right into the stories with some of the best science fiction published in 2010, as collected in Year’s Best SF 16.

“Petopia” by Benjamin Crowell

Read in Year’s Best SF 16 (2011), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction (June 2010), edited by Sheila Williams

Two young teens living on the West Coast of Africa discover a technologically advanced teddy bear in the near future. It made its way from California to Africa with a shipment of used and discarded computers which one of the teens, Aminata Diallo, disassembles as her day job. The teddy bear is a toy for rich kids, kind of like a future version of a Tamagotchi mixed with a cellphone. Aminata’s brother uses the bear (named Jelly) to become a chess hustler. The kids are put in a situation where they have to use Jelly to steal money from other people’s bank accounts in order to help their drunken father get out of a pinch.

Short Story Sunday: Joe Haldeman and Kay Kenyon

It’s time for a new project here at Shared Universe Reviews. Spurred on by the success I’ve had with The Blog Fantastic project, I wanted to do something that was related to science fiction, another genre I love but I feel I haven’t explored deeply enough. Heck, I’m well aware that I’ve only scratched the surface. As much as I’d like to give science fiction its due by discover some of the classic and contemporary works by authors new and familiar to me, I just don’t have the time. While my output has slowly gone down since I first started SUR, I’ve stabilized it to a regular schedule of one post a week. The problem is that I’m not fully satisfied with that. It doesn’t feel like enough but it might already be too much since some weeks I struggle to hit my self-imposed deadline.

All of this led to an idea. Writing smaller posts on short stories and uploading them once a week. This way I can combined my goal of posting more frequently while exploring more science fiction authors. That the goal is also for writing smaller posts, I figured short stories are perfect for this. Additionally, short story is a form of writing very closely linked to science fiction publications in the last hundred years, it makes sense to combine these ideas together. Short Story Sunday might not always be exclusively made up of science fiction reviews, but I’m pretty happy letting that be the main focus. With each post I’ll include where I found and read the story (online publication, best of anthology, magazine, etc.) and give the story one of the following rankings: