Short Fiction: May 2017

It’s time for another round of short fiction favorites, this time from the batch of stories published in May 2017!  This month, there’s a story by Hugo award winner John Chu, as well as two authors I had not featured before, Caroline M. Yoachim and Tony Pi.  This month’s stories don’t have much in common, spanning science fiction, fantasy allegory, and Chinese fantasy.    

Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me by John Chu (Short Story, Uncanny Magazine):  This is the story of a man who feels deeply insecure about his body. His body dysmorphia leads him into a self-destructive spiral (which also involves some interesting paramilitary near-future stuff), while his best friend struggles to figure out how and if he can be supportive. There’s not a lot of closure, but I thought it was a very effective emotional story.

Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim (Short Story, Beneath Ceaseless Skies): This is a story about a society of wind-up toys, and also an allegory of human life from beginning to end.  The main character’s life takes several unexpected twists, and we see how different wind-up people respond to unwanted responsibility and adversity in the face of their inevitable mortality. It was a surprisingly touching story, for being about wind-up toys, and it is one that has lingered in my mind long after I finished reading.

That Lingering Sweetness by Tony Pi (Novelette, Beneath Ceaseless Skies): Tony Pi has been writing a series of short fiction about “Candyman Ao”, a man who can call the animals of the Chinese zodiac by making their likenesses in a blown-sugar confection.  This is my favorite one so far.  Ao is generally tasked with solving some sort of problem that involves the supernatural, but this time an illness has robbed him of his candy-making abilities. His weakness forces him to rely on the strengths of the people around him, and I enjoyed seeing how everyone’s humble abilities fit together to solve the problem. I don’t think not having read the previous stories would hurt anyone’s enjoyment of this clever novelette, but I will go ahead and link here to Tony Pi’s list of the series. All of the stories are available to read online.  

Read-Along: Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey, Part 1

It’s time for another read-along!  This time, I’m joining the in-progress reading of James S.A. Corey’s “The Expanse”.  I’d already read and reviewed the first three books: here, here, and here.  Now we’re going to read Cibola Burn book four of the series.  The schedule will be as follows:

Week 1: Prologue to Chapter 12, Friday 8th September, hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow
Week 2: Chapters 13 to 27, Friday 15th September, hosted by There's Always Room For One More
Week 3: Chapters 28 to 42, Friday 22nd September, hosted by The Illustrated Page
Week 4: Chapters 43 to End, Friday 29th September, hosted by Tethyan Books

As you can see, this week’s questions cover through chapter twelve, and are provided by Lisa of Over the Effing Rainbow. Beware of spoilers below! I’ve been listening by audiobook, so I’ve already read a little in advance to hedge for not being able to keep up (my commute is not that long).  I’m trying very hard to keep everything straight, so that I don’t accidentally let any extra spoilers slip.

1. Bobbie Draper is back! Though we don't get much more than a re-intro scene with her in this section ... Any thoughts on what form her role in this book might take?

It was great to see her again!  I felt a bit bad for the beggar that she humiliated (I think the specific stories are usually false, the real story is simply “I need help”), but I can see how his claiming to be a veteran hit a nerve.  I really don’t see how she’s going to be involved, since she’s apparently not going to the new planet.  I hope we get to see more of her!  

2. We also get to see Havelock again, and in a larger role than before, as we're set up with a colonisation/(another) 'evil' corporation story this time. How do you feel about those kinds of stories? Does this one grab you, and what are your thoughts on Havelock's role in particular?

Hah, I didn't remember him at all until you said that.  He was Miller's partner back in the first book, right?  I don't remember much about him except that he was an Earther.  Since Havelock’s on the ship, I don’t really see yet how he’s going to be involved.  I hope this doesn’t devolve to ships shooting at the surface.

I’m not necessarily seeing this as an evil corporation story, though I’m not averse to them. Corporations are often evil, after all--capitalism is not a particularly good moral structure.  In this case, however, it seems like the corporation was trying to do everything right and proper. They seem to have been planning to work with the illegal colonists as well, given that they hired them to build the landing platform. The security team, on the other hand...

3. We're given perspective on both sides of the battlefield here, as it were - not only with the colony vs. Murtry and his goons, but with the teams of scientists (and Elvi as a new POV character) who are there for their own reasons. What were your first impressions of Elvi, and your thoughts on the general attitude of the scientists present?

I like Elvi.  She seems naive, but well-meaning and competent at the same time.  I felt bad for her when she was trying to get the colonists to limit their impact on the planet.  She was not a politician, but she stepped into a political problem.  I’m generally positively biased towards scientist characters, though, as long as they don’t fall into the old “mad scientist” trope.

4. Once again, Holden appears to have the crappy end of the stick, trying to mediate between these two sides. Do you think Avasarala is setting him up, expecting failure, or is there some way he can actually make this work...?

I’m not sure anyone knows what will happen out there.  I think Fred and Avasarala wanted him because he’s famous, so it would be hard for either side to kill him, and because he’s known for being super transparent.  I’m not sure if they expect him to succeed, or if they just need him to buy time while they push forward some more devious plans.

On a final note, I feel like I should mention our other viewpoint character, Basia.  I feel a little bad for him, because he’s in way over his head.  I’m glad we have his perspective, because we can know for sure that he genuinely never intended to hurt anyone.  He just sorely misjudged his comrades, and now I can’t see a way this will go well for him in the end.  I hope he at least chills out enough to let Felcia go to college.

Review: Borderline by Mishell Baker

Borderline by Mishell Baker

Published: Saga Press, 2016

Series: Book 1 of the Arcadia Project

Awards Nominated: Nebula, Tiptree, and World Fantasy Awards

The Book:

“A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she's sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales.

For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she'll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble's disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds.” ~WWEnd.com

This is the first book I’ve read by Mishell Baker, and I actually got this copy at the Michigan ConFusion Convention, where I even got to see her in some panels!  She seems like an interesting person.

My Thoughts:

In broad strokes, Borderline hits a lot of tropes I associate with the fairy-based urban fantasies, but there are also some things that cause it to stand apart.  The general premise seems quite familiar, following a young human heroine who sparks the interest of the fey, and who is recruited by a secret organization to work sort of like a detective.  The heroine, Millie, breaks the usual mold, though.  Rather than being especially appealing to the fey, the metal in her body has made her an embodiment of their childhood boogeyman.  Millie suffers from borderline personality disorder, and her failed suicide attempt has destroyed her career as a director and left her with two leg prostheses. I thought that her voice seemed very human (disclaimer: I have no experience with BPD or leg prostheses), and I appreciated her frankness about the difficulties her injuries and mental illness cause in her daily life. I think that seeing the world from her perspective--and seeing her awareness of how BPD affects her responses--makes it easy to empathize with her.    

Despite the presence of magic, a parallel world, and fairies, this is not the kind of story where anything can be wished better.  Choices have real, and sometimes permanent, consequences, and there’s no guarantee that everything will work out in the end. Millie, her colleagues at the Arcadia Project, and the even the showfolk and fairies all have flaws or weaknesses that can be exploited. Luckily, the people at the Arcadia Project are also quite competent, and Millie is a highly intelligent protagonist.  This combination makes for an unpredictable and tense story. I genuinely didn’t know whether Millie would solve the case successfully, and whether or not everyone would make it through alive.  In case it is not clear, I loved that about the book, and I loved that the decisions the characters made carried real weight.

Millie starts with what should be a routine assignment, but which turns into a progressively more complicated and dangerous case.  It was a satisfyingly twisty mystery, and I enjoyed watching from behind Millie’s eyes as she worked to unravel the many threads. The supernatural parts of the world were revealed and explained fairly slowly, and I think there’s still plenty to learn about how things work in the sequels.  This first novel does tell a complete story, but it’s also clear that this is the start of a series. While novel establishes the premise of the Arcadia Project and its work with respect to the local fairies, I get the sense that this series is going to be more serial than episodic. Thus, it’s probably a series that should be read in order.  I think I’ll probably continue with this story, and see what’s next in store for Millie.  

 

My Rating: 4.5 / 5

Borderline is the highly entertaining first novel of an urban fantasy series, which features fairies from a parallel world and the realities of Hollywood in this one.  The main character, Millie, is a talented and driven young woman with a fascinating personality, who is recruited by a secret organization that manages relations between the parallel world and ours.  She begins the novel in a pretty dark place, and soon throws herself into a dangerous case that becomes increasingly complex.  The story was pretty suspenseful, and I liked that the characters were allowed to fail in meaningful ways.  The next book in the series, Phantom Pains, is already out, and I’m planning to get to it at some point!