Book Review Teaser :: Watermind by M. M. Buckner

New on Fantastic Reviews is Aaron's review of Watermind by M. M. Buckner. This book was published in hardcover in late 2008, and is now available in paperback.

From Aaron's book review of Watermind :
"...Watermind is Buckner's fourth novel, the first to appear in hardcover, and there is no longer any need to discuss her potential. She has arrived, a talented author fully in command of her skills. Watermind displays subtleties of characterization, description, and mood that are worlds beyond Buckner's first book."

"Watermind begins in the present day, as a new form of life spontaneously emerges from the polluted waters of the Mississippi River. It consists of a neural net embodied in a colloid or chemical solution of networked microprocessors, nano-devices, and organic waste. Buckner is quite persuasive in making the spontaneous creation of this new type of life feel plausible. Really, where better is there on earth today to find a "primordial soup" to generate life than the waters of the Louisiana delta?"

"Our heroine CJ Reilly ("CJ" for Carolyn Joan, but don't call her that to her face) first discovers this new life form in the aptly named Devil's Swamp near Baton Rouge, working on a cleanup crew at a toxic waste site owned by her high-tech employer Quimicron. CJ quickly butts heads with Quimicron CEO Roman Sacony, who wants to eliminate the colloid before he gets sued over it. Reilly wishes to preserve and study it, partly because she believes it may provide a means of cleaning polluted water--the colloid absorbs pollutants, leaving the water around it completely pure--but more because she feels a maternal bond with the strange entity, which she comes to believe is a self-aware "watermind...."

To read the entire review -> Watermind

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: Asimov's Science Fiction March 2008

The Magazine of the Week is the March 2008 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, containing "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear, this year's winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette. For the details of this story, see my recommendation of "Shoggoths in Bloom" when I came across it last year.

This is Elizabeth Bear's second Hugo; she won Best Short Story in 2008 for "Tideline." This year she swapped places with Ted Chiang, who won Best Novelette in 2008 and Best Short Story this year. I'm not going to do a separate Book of the Week for Chiang's Hugo-winning short story "Exhalation" (believe it or not I don't have a copy of the anthology it appeared in), but for more about him see my Ted Chiang 2008 Hugo post. Next week, the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2008

The Magazine of the Week is the October/November 2008 issues of Asimov's Science Fiction, which contains this year's Hugo Award winner for Best Novella, "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress. (The cover is retro, classic pulp art by Virgil Finlay.)

"The Erdmann Nexus" follows Henry Erdmann, an aging physicist in a nursing home, who is suffering strokelike incidents. He learns that others in the home are having similar episodes, and gradually comes to realize that they are all undergoing a remarkable transformation. Nancy Kress has been a regular fixture on the Hugo ballot, with eleven nominations since 1990, and "The Erdmann Nexus" is her second win (after the novella "Beggars in Spain," later expanded into a Hugo-nominated novel, about a new technology that allows folks wealthy enough to afford it to forgo sleep). She has also won four Nebulas and a host of other awards. She will be a guest of honor at MileHiCon here in Denver in October.

We'll get to the Hugo-winning novelette next, but first a science fiction novel that recently hit the big screen.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Book of the Week is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which over the weekend won the Hugo Award for best science fiction or fantasy novel of 2008. The novel had already won this year's Newbery Medal for young adult fiction, making it the first novel ever to win both prestigious awards.

The Graveyard Book follows Nobody Owens, raised from infancy by the (mostly) friendly ghosts of the local graveyard after his parents were murdered. The Graveyard Book is a wonderful showcase of Neil Gaiman's witty and charming voice, and is certain to be enjoyed by readers young and old for a great many years to come, especially if Hollywood does a good job with the film version currently in production. This is Neil Gaiman's fourth Hugo Award, his second for best novel (the first was for American Gods) and his second for a work of young adult fiction (after "Coraline," also adapted to film earlier this year).

The Book of the Week is a stated first edition (library binding) -- note the absence of the Newbery seal which appears on later copies of the book. I believe this is the true first edition, slightly preceding the British edition and the Subterranean Press limited edition. The cover and interior illustrations are by famed comics illustrator Dave McKean, who often worked with Neil Gaiman earlier in his career, when Gaiman was primarily known for his graphic novels, particularly the popular Sandman series. While it's not worth a fortune just yet, I am expecting the BOTW to appreciate significantly in value over time, as copies are snatched up both by science fiction collectors, who like to have firsts of Hugo winners, and by YA fiction collectors, who covet firsts of Newbery books.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World by Catherynne M. Valente

Sometimes when I'm reading, a passage is so elegantly written that I feel the need to stop and reread it out loud. Tolkien makes me do this occasionally. Ursula LeGuin often does. I just came across a story by Catherynne M. Valente, "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World", which I felt compelled to read out loud the entire way through.

That makes for an automatic and immediate story recommendation of the week, even if I've already done one this week. (I need to make up for a couple weeks I missed with flu and strep anyway.) Catherynne Valente thus becomes the second author to garner two different story recommendations, joining Paolo Bacigalupi.

"The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" originally appeared in Spectra Pulse, a promotional magazine issued by Bantam, which it supposedly gives away at conventions, although I've never seen a copy. Thankfully, "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" is now available through Valente's web site.

"The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" illustrates the strengths of Valente's writing, particularly her amazing use of language and her wonderful knack for the story-within-story framework, which she successfully employs here in only a couple thousand words. The framing story tells of a remote archipelago where women inscribe a story on their bellies during pregnancy. The story-within-a-story is that ritual tale, about a woman harpooner "who had known both of the sorrows which are deepest" -- which Valente never identifies -- who travels to the upside-down archipelago at the bottom of the world, where "the dead and the unborn dance together in the blue and black shadows, hand in hand."

Read "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World," fall in love with it, and then go buy Valente's new novel Palimpsest.

Amy's music :: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Counting up, as opposed to a countdown, NME's #4 album of 2008 is Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weeekend. Rolling Stone magazine rated this as the 10th best album of 2008. It was released little over a year ago.

Vampire Weekend are from New York. They met at Columbia University and produced this, their debut album, after graduation. The band members are Ezra Koenig (lead vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboard, guitar, vocal harmonies), Chris Tomson (drums) and Chris Baio (bass guitar).

The New York Times in a review called Vampire Weekend "Preppie Afro-pop". The band label their own style as "Upper West Side Soweto". To me music seems a mix of genres including Afrobeat, ska-punk, and calypso.

In their music there are repeated sequences of notes on guitar, pulsing keyboards, and racing drums. Various songs feature harpsichord, violin, cello, mellotron, and hand drums.

Notable songs off the album are "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma", "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Mansard Roof".

"A-Punk" is a catchy tune, clocking in at a mere 2:17. Musically it's like ai!-ai!-ai! punk, but lyrically it's from a different world. Here are the first two verses:

Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on his honor's finger
oh-oh-oh
A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lilywhite hand
Showed no fear - she'd seen the thing
In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering

"Oxford Comma" begins with these lyrics:

Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?
I've seen those English dramas too
They're cruel
So if there's any other way
To spell the word
It's fine with me, with me

Other song lyrics mention such things as Pueblo huts, Louis Vuitton, the Khyber Pass, Darjeeling tea and Peter Gabriel. There is nothing about vampires.

It's difficult to dislike Vampire Weekend. Their music is upbeat and listenable. Yet I wasn't truly hooked by their mixed-genre music or their quirky college-boy lyrics. Nonetheless, I'll admit it's a likable album.

Book Review Teaser :: Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

New on Fantastic Reviews is Aaron's review of Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card.

From Aaron's Review of Ender in Exile :
"Ender in Exile is a good but not great book by a great, not just good, author. It is the latest entry in the saga of Ender Wiggin, a series that began in the mid-1980's with Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Those two novels managed the unprecedented and still unduplicated feat of sweeping the Hugo and Nebula Awards in consecutive years, and together they form one of the major landmarks in the history of science fiction."

"Twenty years ago, on the strength of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead as well as the Alvin Maker series and outstanding short fiction such as "Unaccompanied Sonata" and "Lost Boys", Orson Scott Card was very widely regarded as one of the leading authors in the SF/F genre. Today his books still sell well but he does not garner the same sort of acclaim and awards, and a surprising number of critics and fellow authors are dismissive not only of his recent efforts, which even a devoted fan must admit are not as consistently powerful as his earlier work, but of his entire body of fiction."

"Sadly, I suspect much of this disdain is politically motivated....."

To read the entire review -> Ender in Exile

In addition, to sort out where Ender in Exile fits in the Ender series, we've set up this Ender Chronology diagram.

Amy's music :: Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Continuing my count-up, as opposed to a countdown, of NME's top albums of 2008, at #3 is Glasvegas.

I bought this album soon after its September release because NME was calling Glasvegas the best new band in Britain.

Glasvegas are a Scottish alternative rock band from Glasgow. The band consists of James Allan (vocals and songwriter), Rab Allan (guitar), Paul Donoghue (bass) and Caroline McKay (drums). All the photos I've seen of Glasvegas show them wearing black. Even their album cover is black.

Glasvegas is their eponymous debut album. They released several songs earlier as limited edition singles. In 2007 Glasvegas received critical acclaim from NME for their single "Daddy's Gone".

Glasvegas play guitar based music. There are shimmering and reverberating guitars, bass, pulsing drums and tambourine. Backing vocals feature oohs and aahs. Their music is melodic and atmospheric.

The vocals are distinctive. James Allen sings in a Scottish accent which at times is difficult to decipher. Yet he uses his voice as an instrument to add poignancy and emotion to the songs. The lyrics often tell stories from working-class lives.

Notable tracks off the album are "Geraldine", "Daddy's Gone", "Go Square Go" and "Flowers & Football Tops".

"Geraldine", the first single off the album and NME's #2 track of the year, starts with these lyrics:

When your sparkle evades your soul
I'll be at your side to console
When you're standing on the window ledge
I'll talk you back, back from the edge

There are explicit lyrics, something I usually frown at. In "Go Square Go" the line "Here we fucking go!" is rousingly repeated.

This is an excellent album, in my opinion and NME’s, definitely one of the best of 2008.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Night of the Living POTUS by Adam-Troy Castro

The story recommendation for the week is "Night of the Living POTUS" by Adam-Troy Castro, a short story first published on-line in the Winter 2008 issue of Helix.

"Night of the Living POTUS" is the perfect story for this week of Inauguration Day. It is a very funny yet thought-provoking account of a newly-elected president's first night in the White House. He is confronted by apparitions of his predecessors, who take rather a more hostile attitude toward the new occupant than one might expect.

Unfortunately, for now you will have to take my word for it that "Night of the Living POTUS" is a terrific story. Helix has ceased operations and wiped its archives, which is a shame, since it was one of the most reliable places to find good fiction on-line, notwithstanding its senior editor occasionally making an ass of himself. The mostly-defunct Helix site still has links to some of the stories published there, and others are available at Transcriptase, but for now you won't find "Night of the Living POTUS" either place. Let us hope that the author elects to post the story at his own site.

Adam-Troy Castro has been writing successful short fiction for years, garnering two Hugo nominations and five Nebula nominations. Last year saw the appearance of Emissaries from the Dead, his first full-length original novel (he has previously written media tie-in books). It is a murder mystery set far in the future in a somewhat horrific artificial ecosystem. The sequel, The Third Claw of God, is due out next month, and both novels look well worth checking out.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Labyrinth by Joyce Carol Oates

The story recommendation of the week is for "Labyrinth" by Joyce Carol Oates, a neat little piece of flash fiction you can find on the rear endpapers of McSweeney's 29. The story is printed in a blocky spiral, circling in toward the center of the page. I am usually not one for flash fiction, especially when it proceeds from such a gimmick, but Oates uses the odd format very effectively.

"Labyrinth" is a low-key horror story about a young man obsessed with the fear of being buried alive. And of course, since the days of Poe, such an absurd phobia can come to only one end. Because the tale is printed in an inward-falling spiral, the story forces the reader to turn the book over ever more quickly, cleverly reinforcing a sense of dread and claustrophobia.

While many mainstream authors dabble in science fiction, Joyce Carol Oates is one of the few writers with mainstream cachet who likes to slum in the horror field. (Similarly, McSweeney's is less biased against SF/F/H than most mainstream mags, as we know from their genre-oriented anthologies edited by Michael Chabon, McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales and McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories.) Horror readers who haven't read Oates should check out "Labyrinth," and if you like that then try some of Oates' other works with horror elements, such as Zombie and many of the stories in The Collector of Hearts. Conversely, you Joyce Carol Oates fans out there who don't mind when she moves into spooky territory really ought to try some of today's other literary horror authors like Dan Simmons and Tom Piccirilli and Glen Hirshberg.

Amy's music :: TV on the Radio - Dear Science

Counting up, as opposed to a countdown, NME's #2 album of 2008 is Dear Science by TV on the Radio.

I'd heard mention of TV on the Radio, but hadn't actually heard them until recently. Given the critical acclaim they are getting from not only NME but from Rolling Stone, Spin, and Entertainment Weekly, I decided to give them a try.

This album falls in the alternative genre, but I'd call it experimental rock funk.

TV on the Radio are a band from Brooklyn, New York composed of Tunde Adebimpe, David Andrew Sitek, Kyp Malone, Jaleel Bunton and Gerard Smith. Dear Science is their fourth release. TV on the Radio released an EP in 2003, followed by albums in 2004 and 2006.

Notable tracks on Dear Science include "Golden Age" and "Dancing Choose" (not Dancing Shoes).

The optimistic chorus of "Golden Age" was memorable from first listen:

The age of miracles
The age of sound
Well there's a Golden Age
Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round

The chorus of "Dancing Choose" includes these interesting lyrics:

I've seen my palette blown
to monochrome
Hollow heart
clicks hollowtone

This album has synths, rhythms, bass, funky vocals and often horns and strings. There are diverse sounds and lots of production. Songs have pop bits, experimental bits, and extensive lyrics I couldn't always catch. Vocals on songs such as "Golden Age" reminded me in a good way of Prince.

Do I like the album Dear Science? Maybe. I will say that it's challenging stuff, worthy of a listen.

As a side note, according to NME, the album title Dear Science is "a name taken from a note left in the studio saying "Dear Science, please start solving problems and helping people or shut the fuck up"." Not sure I care for that attitude.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Crystal Nights by Greg Egan

My story recommendation of the week is "Crystal Nights" by Greg Egan, a novelette from the April 2008 issue of Interzone.

From what I have read recently, I am not sure that Interzone is quite as strong overall as it was a few years back. Still, the occasional presence of Greg Egan, the leading hard science fiction author of this age, is more than enough reason to keep an eye on the magazine.

"Crystal Nights" is a modern updating of Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God." A very wealthy man corners the market on an advanced form of crystallized processor, which allows computations at such tremendous speeds that he believes he can use it to evolve artificial intelligence through an electronic version of natural selection. Hopefully it is not too much of a spoiler to say that after some false starts the system succeeds, but the resulting digital beings are not as deferential to their creator as he might wish.

"Crystal Nights" examines moral issues surrounding the creation of artificial intelligence -- for example, is it all right to alter or erase a computer program that is showing signs of becoming self-aware? -- issues that may not be so far in the future as you think. By drawing his title from the terrible persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, Egan lets us know that he does not regard these as trivial concerns.

Amy's music :: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Time for me (Amy) to post some miscellanea, namely, here's a music review. For a tangential SF/F reference, I bought this CD in August during Worldcon here in Denver.

At the end of the year, we see many best of the year lists. NME (New Musical Express), a music weekly magazine from the UK, lists their Top 50 Albums of the Year. NME is arguably on the cutting edge of new, alternative music.

NME's 2008 Album of the Year was Oracular Spectacular by MGMT. It's a debut album made by a couple of guys, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, who started out making tunes for themselves at Wesleyan University. MGMT make catchy, hippy, pop music.

Noteworthy songs off Oracular Spectacular include “Kids”, “Time to Pretend” and the disco-ish “Electric Feel”.

“Kids”, which was in addition dubbed NME's The Track of the Year, contains for a chorus these interesting lyrics:

control yourself
take only what you need from it
a family of trees wanted
to be haunted

“Time to Pretend” begins with these lyrics:

I'm feelin rough I'm feelin raw
I'm in the prime of my life
Let's make some music make some money
find some models for wives

I'd recommend MGMT’s album Oracular Spectacular, despite it being more electronic dance than what I usually listen to. The music won me over, and I was pleased to see that it wowed the critics over at NME.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid by Leah Bobet

The story recommendation of the week is "Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid" by Leah Bobet, a short story published on-line at Strange Horizons on September 29, 2008.

In the debate over what rights to afford the LGBT community, one issue that often comes up is to what extent people choose their sexual preferences. To some folks, it is easier to justify discrimination against gays if being gay was a matter of choice, and not something one was born with like skin color. (Why anyone should wish to justify discrimination against gays I am unable to explain.)

But what if skin color were a matter of choice as well? In "Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid," the technology exists to transform people physically so as to change their apparent racial identity. The eponymous protagonist works at the Bruce Clinic, which performs this controversial procedure. Until now, she has been "pro-choice," believing that making skin color alterable enables society to put racial conflict behind it. But she is beginning to doubt her own views, and as someone in an interracial marriage, the issue troubles her deeply.

Bobet portrays this internal conflict with subtlety. "Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid" does not dance around the underlying questions, however. It addresses race issues head-on, and does so in a thought-provoking way. It effectively shows that embracing diversity means something more than being color blind.

Canadian author Leah Bobet has published some three dozen short stories and nearly as many poems. She has appeared many times at Strange Horizons, and has also sold stories to such top-notch print publications as Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, and Clockwork Phoenix. Let us keep an eye out for more of her work.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear

My story recommendation for this week is "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear, a novelette first published in the March 2008 issue of Asimov's, and now available on-line here.

In the past five years, Elizabeth Bear has published fourteen novels and closing on fifty short stories. That would be impressive if she were writing crap, but to be able to write her award-caliber fiction at that pace is simply absurd. I only started reading her stuff last year, and I despair of ever catching up.

As Cthulhu fans will know from the title, "Shoggoths in Bloom" is an homage to H.P. Lovecraft. An earnest professor in the late 1930's studies great, amoeba-like shoggoths found off the coast of Maine and finds more than he bargained for. I know it's sacrilegious, but to my reckoning there is far more of this sort of thing around than we really need. Yes, Lovecraft was ahead of his time, and still worth reading today despite his obvious flaws as a writer. But if you are interested in his work, you can find it pretty easily; there is little need for today's authors to continue adding to the Cthulhu Mythos.

I will forgive Elizabeth Bear in this case, however, for two reasons. First, "Shoggoths in Bloom" is such a beautifully crafted story that it would make for excellent reading even if you never heard of H.P. Lovecraft. Second, Bear tells the story convincingly through the eyes of an educated African-American in the 1930's, who must silently endure being called "boy" by the ignorant locals, even as he reads with horror of the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Germany. Bear manages to relate the Cthulhu background to this context, a most fitting reworking of the Cthulhu Mythos, since Lovecraft himself was an intolerable racist and anti-Semite. (Don't bother arguing the point -- the man had a cat named "Nigger-Man," for heaven's sake.) Bear handles her social message very adeptly without ever lecturing her reader.

I'll have another story involving race relations to recommend next week.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Willpower by Jason Stoddard

After a week off for Thanksgiving, we have a very fun story recommendation for the week: "Willpower" by Jason Stoddard, from Paul Raven's Futurismic web site.

Along with a lot of interesting columns and blog posts, Futurismic publishes one piece of original fiction per month. Under the direction of fiction editor Christopher East, Futurismic's stories this year have included some nice, quirky work by the likes of Douglas Lain and Eliot Fintushel.

Jason Stoddard is Californian, but is perhaps most familiar to British SF fans, as much of his best work first appeared in Interzone -- although he has also had stories in places like SciFiction, Strange Horizons, and The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Stoddard has recently been an advocate for "positive" or "optimistic" science fiction, the kind to be featured in the anthology Shine now being assembled by Jetse de Vries.

"Willpower" is a great example of positive science fiction, set in a "post-scarcity" future. One thing that is scarce is a full-time job, since so little actually needs doing. Our protagonist Michael is one of the great many unemployed who rely on the government's "willfare" system to find short-term work. He stumbles on a willfare listing placed by an astronaut who wants someone to take his place on an upcoming trip to Mars. This is appealing to Michael, who has long been hooked on a role-playing game set in a Mars reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom.

The light-hearted story of "Willpower" centers on how Michael tries to beat the system to wrangle his way onto a mission to Mars for which he is completely unqualified. This makes for fun reading, but Stoddard also weaves in a little message. At its core, "Willpower" is about how someone can become so enthralled by a fantastic story that he will do whatever it takes to make the story come true. That is a moral that should resonate with any SF/F reader.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Glass by Daryl Gregory

My story recommendation of the week is for "Glass" by Daryl Gregory, from the Technology Review, published by MIT (illustration for the story by Owen Smith). (Free registration is required to read the story.)

Daryl Gregory is one of science fiction's rising stars. For a lot more about him, you can read my interview with him, or my review of Pandemonium, his excellent new novel.

Like much of Gregory's work, "Glass" addresses issues of psychology and neurology. Recent research suggests that certain "mirror neurons," activated on observing actions of someone else, are strongly linked to empathy. In "Glass," scientists have developed a drug to stimulate these neurons and are testing it on sociopathic prisoners sorely lacking in emphathy. "Glass" is quite short and tightly written, yet manages to raise interesting practical and ethical issues about the effects of such a drug. Ending on a nice twist that I did not see coming, the story gives the reader its own little jolt of empathy.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Nymph's Child by Carrie Vaughn

My story recommendation for this week goes to "The Nymph's Child," a short story by Carrie Vaughn.

You can find "The Nymph's Child" in Fast Ships, Black Sails, an original anthology of pirate stories from Night Shade Books, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Fast Ships, Black Sails boasts a very impressive array of authors, such as Michael Moorcock, Howard Waldrop, Naomi Novik, Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette, Kage Baker, Garth Nix, Steve Aylett, Conrad Williams, David Freer & Eric Flint, and Rachel Swirsky. Note that some of these authors are better known for their work outside the pirate genre.

Carrie Vaughn has found great success in the past three years with her series, beginning with Kitty and the Midnight Hour, about a werewolf talk radio host. Even if you have wearied of werewolves and vampires, "The Nymph's Child" demonstrates that Vaughn is too good a writer to disregard.

"The Nymph's Child" is the bittersweet story of Grace Lark, who disguised herself as a man in order to sail, and became first mate and lover of the legendary pirate Captain Alan. But when their ship was captured and her officers executed, Captain Alan ordered Grace to live. It is fitting that the seafaring adventure is all told in flashbacks, for as we see, Grace's greatest acts of heroism come after the adventures are over.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor

My story recommendation for this week is "Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor, a short story in the original anthology Seeds of Change edited by John Joseph Adams. ("Spider the Artist" appears under the name Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, but the author has recently divorced and now prefers to go by her maiden name.)

Seeds of Change is an original anthology of socially-oriented science fiction. Most of the nine stories are by familiar authors, including Ken MacLeod, Jay Lake, Tobias S. Buckell, Mark Budz, and K.D. Wentworth. But some of the strongest pieces in the book are by authors whom you may not know, but I suspect soon will: Nnedi Okorafor, Ted Kosmatka, Blake Charlton, and Jeremiah Tolbert.

Nnedi Okorafor has generated an impressive body of work in the last five years, yet has flown under the radar of many genre readers because both of her novels were targeted at young adults. Okorafor is American, but her parents immigrated from Nigeria, and her work strongly reflects that heritage.

"Spider the Artist" is set in near-future Nigeria, where eight-legged mechanical "Zombies" roam the country's oil pipelines. The Zombies are designed to protect the flow of oil from thieves and terrorists, but they will just as gleefully kill civilians who wander too close to a pipeline -- a great metaphor for how Nigeria's substantial oil wealth has only been a curse for most of its people.

In despair from her abusive husband, our first-person protagonist goes to the pipeline to play her guitar, and comes to form a bizarre bond with one of the Zombies, which she nicknames Udide Okwanka (Spider the Artist). As Udide's interest in music exemplifies, the Zombies are growing independent, a development that may be encouraging or dangerous.

"Spider the Artist" is a beautifully told story by an author who clearly has much to say.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Gambler by Paolo Bacigalupi

My story recommendation for this week is "The Gambler," a novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi. Paolo is the first author to garner two of my weekly story recommendations, which is fitting, since in my view no one today is writing better short fiction. (I suspect the two novels he has been working on are great as well, but he hasn't shared them yet.)

You can find "The Gambler" in Fast Forward 2, edited by Lou Anders (cover art by John Picacio). Just out from Pyr Books, Fast Forward 2 contains fourteen tales by some of the leading names in science fiction today, including Ian McDonald, Cory Doctorow, Mike Resnick, and Nancy Kress. As I wrote in my review of Fast Forward 1, the resurgence of the unthemed original anthology series is very encouraging for the SF/F field, in light of the major magazines' declining circulations. In addition to the Fast Forward series, there is strong work in the Eclipse anthologies edited by Jonathan Strahan and in the ongoing The Solaris Book(s) of New Science Fiction edited by George Mann. But Fast Forward is the best of the lot, in no small part because it has Paolo Bacigalupi.

Paolo's work is often praised for taking an unblinking look at important social and political issues. This is true, but it understates what he achieves in his fiction. First and foremost, Paolo writes beautifully crafted stories. He gets you to care about his characters and what happens to them. That is why his stories' messages are effective.

"The Gambler" is set in a near-future newsroom, when reporting is dominated by the ever-present need to draw net traffic, depicted in a great graphic representation called the "maelstrom." Our main character Ong, a political refugee from Laos, wants to investigate serious issues, but there is little room for such stories alongside the latest celebrity sex scandal. This is meaningful social commentary cleverly presented, but what makes the story work is that Bacigalupi gets you into Ong's skin early on:

Sometimes, when I wake in the night to the swish and honk of Los Angeles traffic, the confusing polyglot of dozens of countries and cultures all pressed together, in the American melting pot, I stand at my window and look down a boulevard full of red lights, where it is not safe to walk alone at night, and yet everyone obeys the traffic signals. I look down on the brash and noisy Americans in their many hues, and remember my parents: my father who cared too much to let me live under the self-declared monarchy, and my mother who would not let me die as a consequence. I lean against the window and cry with relief and loss.

Every week I go to temple and pray for them, light incense and make a triple bow to Buddha, Damma, and Sangha, and pray that they may have a good rebirth, and then I step into the light and noise and vibrancy of America.

It is not Ong's parents who need a good rebirth. Soon Ong will receive a huge career break. Whether he can take advantage of it makes for a terrific story, because you care about his fate.

All of which is not meant to minimize the importance of the issues Bacigalupi addresses in his fiction. Indeed, one reading of "The Gambler" is that Ong is a stand-in for Paolo himself, who no doubt has also been told that "no one wants to read about how the world's going to shit." Paolo writes about the world going to shit, but believe me, you want to read it.