nebulas

“Sauerkraut Station,” by Ferrett Steinmetz (Giganotosaurus, November 2011): “Little House on the Prairie meets Space Stations” — in the author’s own words.

I found this Firefly-esque space opera featuring a young female protagonist very effective and affecting. The plot is carefully constructed to allow the emotional development of the YA protagonist — something that I can learn a lot from. I especially enjoyed the physics — one scene involving a dark, weightless space station in which our heroine must deal with floating specks of waste in a desperate struggle for survive is unforgettable.

The author has posted a first draft of the story with comments to indicate what has changed. This is the sort of DVD commentary track that’s of great interest to writers.

Continuing my march through the Nebula nominees.

“Kiss Me Twice,” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s Science Fiction, June 2011): a science fiction mystery in which the detective’s partner is an AI who takes on the persona of Mae West.

A fun and engaging piece. Kowal’s strength in dialogue that sparkles with wit is on ample display here. Also, the main character is a Chinese-American detective, which is pretty cool.

My favorite parts are the discussion on how the AI takes on different personae when interacting with different individuals and a digression on the rights of AIs. There’s more here than may be apparent at first glance.

“Silently and Very Fast,”, by Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld Magazine, October 2011).

I read this back when it first came out, and I wanted to re-read it again before writing this post in my series on the Nebula nominees. It is a far more ambitious work than many novels. It is the story of an “AI” named Elefsis and the family that gave birth to it (or perhaps it is the other way around). I put AI in quotes because … well, by the end of the novella you’ll question that label.

It is a story about love, growing-by-learning, having children, Otherness, Self, and the yearning for authenticity in a world inevitably succumbing to the forces of more artificiality, more created-ness. It is beautiful, moving, and alien, much like the Auden poem from which it takes its title.

Be forewarned that this is not an “easy” work. Valente’s style is justifiably famous, and much of the novella is structured as a series of recast myths and fairytales that hint at or echo events in “the real world.” I think the technique works. The way the story is told is very much part of the point.

In this post, I discuss three more Nebula nominees. I actually read two of them a while back but didn’t write down my thoughts.

“Shipbirth,” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 2011). A powerful tale that uses its “Aztecs in space” setting to examine assumptions about gender, life, compassion and empathy. What I like the most about it is its unflinching refusal to put its protagonist in a neat box. More fiction in general (and spec-fic in particular) should try to achieve this. Be sure to read the author notes, which are very enlightening.

“The Old Equations,” by Jake Kerr (Lightspeed Magazine, July 2011). An alternate history-of-science tale in which relativity isn’t discovered/confirmed until we try to send someone on an interstellar journey and notice the time dilation. The story’s premise allows us to see the device of time dilation, a staple in SF, through fresh eyes and to experience the emotional wonder anew with the characters. Amazingly, this is Jake Kerr’s first published story. You cannot debut in a better way.

“The Migratory Pattern of Dancers”, by Katherine Sparrow (Giganotosaurus, July 2011). In the future, after the extinction of migratory birds, men modified to be like birds recreate their dance. I think of this as more fantasy than scifi, but it works very well on a symbolic level. I admire this piece especially because it breaks so many rules and yet soars anyway. I wish more of us could pull this off.

“Fields of Gold”, by Rachel Swirsky, is nominated for a Nebula this year. This story gets at the heart of fantasy: nostalgia for the losses and misses of a life. Lyrical, funny, beautiful. The ending does what Swirksky does best: just when you think it’s winding down, it lifts you up and takes you somewhere wondrous.

In case you’re catching up on your 2011 short fiction reading, here’s a list of stories I thought were noteworthy.

In it, I also talk about Nebula nominees: “Movement,” by Nancy Fulda, “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, by E. Lily Yu, “Her Husband’s Hands,” by Adam-Troy Castro, and “Ray of Light”, by Brad Torgersen.