Sean WallaceBesprekingen

So far only read:

-- The Crying Bridge by Carrie Laben - 2.5*
The MC is talking to her niece, being interviewed by her. She is passing on some family lore. By the end we know all the answers to the big questions. "Who was the "crying bride" in the photo?", "Why is there a stone with a name under the apple tree?", "Why is she so successful in comparison to the rest of the family?", "Where did all these apple trees come from?"

A bit of supernatural elements to the tale or perhaps that is just the imagination of a young child.

You get a pretty massive amount of stories here, but they weren't what I expected. I hoped for more like [b:The Sisters of Saint Nicola of The Almost Perpetual Motion vs the Lurch|61484969|The Sisters of Saint Nicola of The Almost Perpetual Motion vs the Lurch|Garth Nix|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658336090l/61484969._SY75_.jpg|97070422] . These stories were all much more... Bland. Mundane. Alt historical fans would probably like it.

Could have been

Could have been a 4 star good book, if the quality had continued. The first sixty percent was good to very good, though nothing earthshaking (LOL), but the rest was...
Painful. It was like there weren't enough professional submissions so the eds filled the rest out with their kid's creative writing homework.

Special Mention:
Perfect Lies - Gwendolyn Clare
Laying the Ghost - Eric Brown
The Architect of Heaven - Jason K Chapman
Whose Face this Is I Do Not Know - Cat Rambo
On the Banks of the River Lex - N.K. Jemisin
The Cartographer Wasps & the Anarchist Bees - E. Lily Yu

So far only read:

~~ The Things by Peter Watts - DNF
Yeah, no. I'll have to put a pin in this one. I hear it's a retelling of John Carpenter's, The Thing from the alien's point of view. And maybe just knowing that is enough for some but I couldn't get into it. I saw the movie back in the day and I know it is well liked so if I ever get around to watching it again (unlikely) I hope I remember this story.

So far only read:

-- The Many Murders of the Self by H. Pueyo - DNF
There are CW: Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence.
I think there is only one victim, and the rest are realistic "robots" put in place by a supernatural "executioner". I think it's a metaphor though. The abused victim becomes a "robot" and re-invents itself each time it starts to act "abnormal". It's not a straightforward story and I decided to quit at about 60% I found it confusing and the subject matter, though off screen, horrifying.

Sometimes, lately, horror stories seem to be "horrible" stories. Not horribly written but horrible things happening to people and I'm not here for that. :(
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I do like this author quite a bit so I'm working through their catalog.

I bought it for the H. Pueyo story and that's the only one I plan to read for now:

-- We’re Always the Ones Who Leave BY H. PUEYO - 5*
That is an incredibly told story. Probably not horror really, more so a non-fiction story.
A community being displaced right in front of our eyes until the very end, when the title of the story is used. Very powerful. I didn't know what the story was going to be about. It truly made me feel an example of gentrification and displacement, "horror story" style.

Others in this issue:
-- The Thing With Chains BY ROB COSTELLO
-- The Catcher in the Eye BY AI JIANG
-- Dance, Macabre BY PHOENIX ALEXANDER

I played some catch-up on new pieces added to Valente's list in Goodreads. Two of them already read, and a handful with new links to where the pieces are online, in their online magazines. I love falling on more and more pieces of hers to read.

This was not a favorite story of -- this retelling of the universe, of birth and death, in parallel, between the universe and the science fiction writer -- but I still absolutely, madly adore her entire usage of the english language and I would read her works talking to me about a phone book for years, if only for her usage.

The usual 4 original story in the first issue of the year

"Thermophile” by Jack Klausner: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/thermophile/

A man suddenly start spending a lot of time in the bathroom - long showers, long baths. His roommate (who really wants to be more than that) is worried about the bills - she thinks she knows what he is doing there. Except nothing is as easy and things escalate... I wish the author had gone one step further an provided some kind of an explanation of what really happened - and how - I am rarely a fan of stories which only deal with the end results (and even for that, it needs some more data and less hand-waving).

"Intrusions” by Margot McGovern: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/intrusions/

When you sleep in other people's houses without permissions, you sometimes need to deal with surprises - even if you don't believe in ghosts. The story is just spooky enough to make one wonder if there are ghosts or if someone is playing a trick (I vote for the ghost... or something else supernatural).

"Funny Faces” by Seán Padraic Birnie: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/funny-faces/

Did a little girl dream of monsters (and still dream of them occasionally) or did she see monsters in the supermarket? The story is almost claustrophobic but it was meant to be.

"The Lending Library of Final Lines” by Octavia Cade: https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/the-lending-library-of-final-lines/

The crabs are coming for everyone - sooner or later everyone will die and they will take them - usually still alive. And if they do not want to feel the claws, they can get a piece of paper - the final lines of a book which when eaten allow people to live the lives in those pages - usually while dying a gruesome death. A new spin on "books make you live someone else's life" which actually works. The rest of the details of that world make the fate of the children in the Dickens novel look like paradise. My favorite story from this issue - by far.

So far only read/listened to:

-- Nobody Lives Here by H. Pueyo, narrated by Kate Baker - 2*
It's been a couple weeks so my memory of the story is lacking but iirc I thought the story was too ambiguous for my reading preferences. A girl who grew up traumatized by living with hoarder parents starts protecting herself by repeating familiar patterns. Her sense of reality is very skewed.

So far only read/listened:

-- Crooked House by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, read by Veronica Giguere - 1*
I have no idea what the point of that story was. I am a fan of NKH so I read anything of hers I come across but this story actually pissed me off.

Making it have horrible events doesn't make it a horror story.

Triggers: child molestation, suicide

So far only read/listened to:

-- An Open Coffin by H. Pueyo, narrated by Kate Baker - 2*
A woman is hired by a boss that will never talk to her, to care for a corpse that is being held in high regard in a home. She must always let the visitors in and they act odd. One day they act too odd and she doesn't let them in. I have no idea who the visitors are, why they act weird and what are their plans for our MC

So far only read/listened to:

-- The Spindly Man by Stephen Graham Jones, narrated by Kate Baker - 2*
- A book club started by a man whose son is still recovering from a serious accident where he (the man) was the driver. He says talking about books is his gift and if he doesn't share his gift his karma payback will be devastating. *eye roll* So every week he meets with some people, book club style. This week they are talking about Stephen King's short story THE MAN IN THE BLACK SUIT.

The story was engaging until maybe the last quarter when it became confusing to me. There was an uninvited "man in a black suit" who for some reason was making people talk about experiences where they witnessed, or thought they did and dismissed, a supernatural event. It was confusing because it met the "guest's" purpose for showing up and the MC had a self discovery about the accident where his son was hurt.

I didn't get it. I assume it's because I never read the SK story.

So far only listened to:

- Non-Zero Probabilities by N.K. Jemisin - 2.5*
Not really my reading preference so ymmv.
Some event has made an area in NY unlucky. The citizens have adapted, the crazies are making it fit their agenda and tourists with ailments visit in hopes of being cured.

So far only read:

- Gift of the Kites by Jim C. Hines - 2.5*
A lot is fit into the story but not my particular preferences. A boy with a kite battles another kite that has supernatural powers to help ease a person over to the other side (death). The boy misunderstands what his battling with the kite means.

So far only read:

~ Worm Within by Cat Rambo - 1* (read by author)
I don't really understand the story. I found this summary online: "The story takes place in a world where humans have been replaced by robots pretending to be humans. But among them, one human remains or is it just a robots imagination?" To know me, is to know I hate unreliable narrators.

So far only listened to:

~ When the Gentlemen Go By by Margaret Ronald - 3*
A mother passes down the tradition of giving up something of value to keep things as is. The daughter mixes it up.

So far only listened to:

~ Clockwork Chickadee by Mary Robinette Kowal - 2* (read by the author)
iirc: Clockwork characters in a workshop barter over parts and are judgie of each other. The Sparrow flies up high when wound up and the Chickadee has a crap view when he/she winds down. I'm sure there is some meaning to the story that is over my head.

So far only read:

~ Spar by Kij Johnson



2*

With an opening line like this "In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly." how could I pass it by?

Ultimately it made me feels stupid and frustrated because I'm sure it "means" something but I can't unravel it.

I luckily found a good review by someone who is capable of unraveling it. Plus they had some of the author's own words regarding the story which had to help.

From the author:
Johnson: it's "a story about what can happen as the people we love turn into non-communicative aliens with whom we share a bed. And a story about sex with an alien because it's that or die of boredom. All the other things - the weird Stockholm Syndrome dynamic; the fear of leaving a familiar situation, however horrific; the cruelty that comes from familiarity - evolved in the rewrite. It's interesting to me how what I saw as the primary & very obvious theme of the story is the one people notice least.
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The Cover by Sean Donaldson is titled "Oh Shit"
haha

Like most anthologies, a mixed bag. Some of the stories were really good, and others I didn't finish due to lack of interest. I hadn't really read any steampunk before and wanted to get a taste of this genre, so it was good for that. Also for an introduction to various authors I hadn't heard of or read before, as well as some I had.

Interesting:
Jay Lake, Benedice Te
Benjanun Sriduangkaew, 599
C. S. E. Cooney, The Canary of Candletown
Tony Pi, The Curse of Chimere
Caitlin R. Kiernan, The Colliers' Venus (1893)
Samantha Henderson, Beyond Calais
Ken Liu, Good Hunting½

Like most anthologies, this one was a mixed bag for me. Some stories were very enjoyable and intriguing, some were tedious, a few were practically incomprehensible. There are some stories that I would call "military" SF, but certainly not all, as you might think from the title. On the whole, if you like hard SF at all, you'll likely find it worth your while.

I have never read any Steampunk so this seemed to be a good place to start. There are 26 different short stories in here from stars of the genre like Cherie Priest to others that I have never heard of. As with any short story collection you do get a mixed bag. There were some really good ones that captured the essence of Steampunk perfectly, with the machines, dirigibles and automata making you feel that the time machine that you had just stepped out of had bought you to a very different world. Others didn’t work for me, either because they didn’t have the right Victorian feel, or seem Steampunk enough.

Not bad overall, but not outstanding. It has give me the impetus to explore the genre further though.

This is a collection of the 24 original stories published by Clarkesworld during its 4th year. Clarkesworld stories range widely, so it's no surprise there are a few I did not enjoy, but on the whole this collection is top notch!

Individual story ratings:

- "Between Two Dragons" by Yoon Ha Lee (***)
- "The Cull" by Robert Reed (*****)
- "The Mermaids Singing Each to Each" by Cat Rambo (****)
- "Of Melei, of Ulthar" by Gord Sellar (**)
- "Night, in Dark Perfection" by Richard Parks (****)
- "The Grandmother-Granddaughter Conspiracy" by Marissa Lingen (***)
- "Brief Candle" by Jason K. Chapman (*****)
- "All the King’s Monsters" by Megan Arkenberg (***)
- "Torquing Vacuum" by Jay Lake (***)
- "The Language of the Whirlwind" by Lavie Tidhar (***)
- "A Sweet Calling" by Tony Pi (****)
- "Alone with Gandhari" by Gord Sellar (*)
- "The History Within Us" by Matthew Kressel (***)
- "January" by Becca De La Rosa (**)
- "Messenger" by J.M. Sidorova (**)
- "A Jar of Goodwill" by Tobias S. Buckell (****)
- "Futures in the Memories Market" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (***)
- "My Father’s Singularity" by Brenda Cooper (****)
- "Beach Blanket Spaceship" by Sandra McDonald (***)
- "The Association of the Dead" by Rahul Kanakia (*)
- "Spar" by Kij Johnson (*****)
- "Paper Cradle" by Stephen Gaskell (***)
- "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" by Catherynne M. Valente (***)
- "The Things" by Peter Watts (****)

A man discovers a vending machine that dispenses real body parts. A boy's father is killed in the mines daily, but keeps reporting in for work. A sacrificial virgin slays the dragon but fails to find the release she was expecting. A group of drunken revelers attracts the attention of the Wild Hunt. That last was pretty good, but most of the other stories struck me as typical, and not particularly weird by any definition. The best one is about a bear that moves into a suburban neighborhood and has an affair with another man's wife. Laugh-out-loud funny.