Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: By Bargain And By Blood by Aliette de Bodard

My story recommendation for the week is By Bargain and by Blood by Aliette de Bodard, a short story from the January 3, 2010 issue of British e-zine Hub Magazine. This makes Aliette de Bodard only the third author to receive two different story recommendations on this blog, joining Paolo Bacigalupi and Catherynne M. Valente. (Rumor has it this exclusive club will soon offer membership to Leah Bobet.)

Since 2007, Hub Magazine has been posting fiction, reviews and features on nearly a weekly basis. It only publishes one piece of fiction per issue, but it has topped one hundred issues already, so that adds up. In 2009 alone Hub published such notable authors as Colin Harvey, Mari Ness, Philip Palmer, Sarah Pinborough, Andy Remic, and Ian Whates, among many others.

Set in what seems to be a future or alternate version of India, "By Bargain and by Blood" is the compelling story of Daya, a woman who has given up everything to raise her niece from infancy, since Daya's sister Aname died in childbirth eight years earlier. The girl's stone-faced father, a mysterious "blood empath," suddenly appears and demands the girl, who is his by bargain and by blood. Daya knows she should have foreseen his arrival:

When Aname told me about her child to come, she spoke of a bargain struck. And thus I should have known someone would come to honour it--that someone would walk through the rice paddies and the forests until he reached our jati, our small community isolated from the affairs of the world.

But, just as you know about death but do not think about it, so I did not think about him.

Daya resolves to defy the blood empath, believing she acts out of protective instincts toward the child. The girl has been tormented all her life as "fatherless" by their jati, and finds it difficult even to accept a small gift from her father, for fear someone will take it from her. But ultimately it is Daya who cannot bear the thought of a gift being taken away.

In the past few months I have read four stories by Aliette de Bodard, all of which are beautifully written. De Bodard clearly has a marvelous writing career ahead of her, and I am greatly looking forward to her first novel Servant of the Underworld, recently published in the UK and forthcoming in the US from Angry Robot Books. But the oddity to me is that of her four stories I have read recently, the two I found most powerful were published in small e-zines, "By Bargain and by Blood" in Hub and "Blighted Heart" in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The two stories that appeared in major print magazines, "The Wind-Blown Man" from Asimov's and "Mélanie" from Realms of Fantasy were also well-written but to me carried less impact.

I do not know if de Bodard offered "By Bargain and by Blood" and "Blighted Heart" to the major print magazines (they would be too heavily weighted to fantasy for Asimov's, and it's possible she wrote them while Realms of Fantasy was out of commission), but it seems odd that two such superb stories did not find a higher profile home, and I suspect it may be because they are more understated in their use of genre tropes than Mélanie and The Wind-Blown Man. I am beginning to wonder if the major SF/F print magazines have become too concerned with finding fiction that fits a certain marketing niche, rather than just printing the best stories they can.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Marya and the Pirate by Geoffrey A. Landis

This week's story recommendation is "Marya and the Pirate" by Geoffrey A. Landis, a novelette from the January 2010 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.

Some readers complain that nobody publishes the kind of fun space adventure that was the bread and butter of science fiction in the 1950's. The trouble is that all those stories were published in the 1950's, and it is awfully difficult to write a story like that today that doesn't feel stale.

Geoffrey Landis pulls it off in "Mary and the Pirate." Like a Murray Leinster story of old, it begins with a space pirate closing in on a transport ship carrying a very valuable cargo into Earth orbit. Later, the pirate and his captive face a problem of inexorable celestial mechanics, reminiscent of Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations." But Landis manages to add enough new twists and details and modern sensibility to keep it all fresh, and not just a pastiche of old-style skiffy.

Among his many awards, Geoffrey A. Landis has garnered two Hugos and a Nebula. His output has declined in quantity the past few years, but not at all in quality.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Advertising at the End of the World by Keffy R.M. Kehrli

I am back to reading short fiction, and my story recommendation for this week is Advertising at the End of the World by Keffy R.M. Kehrli, from the September 2009 issue of Apex Magazine.

"Advertising at the End of the World" begins with perhaps the best opening line I have seen this year:

Five years after her husband died, two years after she moved to a cabin in Montana, and six months after the world ended, Marie opened her curtains to discover her front garden overrun with roving, stumbling advertisements.

The "advertisements" are programmed humanoids, determined to keep pitching the products of vendors long since wiped out by plague. The initial image of walking advertisements mindlessly tromping through survivor Marie's flower garden has a whimsical feel, but Kehrli soon turns the story in a wistful direction, as the advertisements remind Marie of everything she has lost.

Keffy Kehrli only began selling fiction in early 2009, but he has already published stories in Apex, Talebones, and Sybil's Garage, with more forthcoming in Electric Velocipede and Fantasy. Apex, a print magazine turned top-notch e-zine, is notable for publishing up-and-coming authors like Ekaterina Sedia, Theodora Goss, Lavie Tidhar, Eugie Foster, Jennifer Pelland, and Aliette de Bodard. If "Advertising at the End of the World" is any indication, Keffy Kehrli belongs among such company.

Amy's bookshelf :: Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

The featured book is Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock. This post is a tribute to Holdstock who died recently at the age of 61 after battling a severe E. coli infection.

Holdstock was a British fantasy writer. He is best known as the author of the Mythago Cycle or Ryhope Wood series, the first published book of which is Mythago Wood (1984).

Mythago Wood features an ancient Celtic wood in England where archetypal characters from myths and legends become flesh and blood. These denizens of the wood of called mythagos. Ryhope wood appears to cover only a small area, but is vast inside. Time runs slower in the wood as compared to the outside world.

Mythago Wood won the BSFA Award for Best Novel in 1984, and the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1985.

Of Robert Holdstock's works, I've only read Mythago Wood and its indirect sequel, Lavondyss. I found both books, which are different in tone, to be memorable and impressive. Other books in Mythago Cycle, in order of publication but not necessarily in order of events, are The Bone Forest; The Hollowing; Merlin's Wood; Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn; and Avilion.

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

Amy's bookshelf :: Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover

This week's featured book is Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover, book one of The Black Sun's Daughter series. The paperback's cover, showing a leather-clad woman with a tattoo on her back and a sharp weapon in her hand, proclaims that this is another urban fantasy. But what makes this book different, and what grabbed my attention (in addition to Denver being mentioned in the back cover blurb) is that Unclean Spirits was written by Daniel Abraham, author of the excellent fantasy The Long Price Quartet: A Shadow in Summer, A Betrayal in Winter, An Autumn War, and The Price of Spring. (You can see Aaron's positive review of A Shadow in Summer on Fantastic Reviews ).

I bought Unclean Spirits a couple weeks ago at MileHiCon. Daniel Abraham was one of the authors attending the SF convention this year and I asked him to autograph the book. Apparently this copy of Unclean Spirits was already signed by "M.L.N. Hanover", but Daniel Abraham kindly added his signature below that of his pseudonym.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight by Cat Rambo

My story recommendation for this week is "Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" by Cat Rambo, the (almost) title story of Rambo's new collection Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, from small publisher Paper Golem, with gorgeous cover art by Carrie Ann Baade.

"Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" is a beautifully constructed story, telling in hindsight of the battles for control of a war-torn kingdom, as glimpsed from the point of view of a young (at first) woman whose family's inn is an occasional meeting place of a group of rebels. The rebels include the enigmatic sorceress whose haunting eyes lend the story its poetic title.

The rebels' struggle defines our narrator's life, even though she sees almost none of the action take place. The danger in such a story is the reader may feel disappointed that the most interesting events are occurring offstage, but Rambo tells it in a way that suggests this is the real story, that the battles of great kings and warriors and wizards are important only for how they affect the lives of common folk.

"Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" is quite short, like most of Cat Rambo's work -- only a few of the stories in Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight are over ten pages and none over twenty. Usually it is difficult to create a compelling tale in so few words, but Rambo is superb at providing a sense of depth, making you feel there is more to the story and characters, that you could fill in much of the rest of the story yourself from the hints she drops.

I'll try to get a review of the whole book up at Fantastic Reviews before too long, but for now I'll just say that Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight is an excellent collection by a most elegant writer.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Acacia by David Anthony Durham

The Book of the Week is Acacia by David Anthony Durham, which won Mr. Durham this year's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Acacia is the first volume is an epic fantasy series, the second of which, The Other Lands, was just released. This is the 2007 first edition, with cover art by Paul A. Romano.

It is a bit odd for David Anthony Durham to receive an award as a "new writer," since he is already an accomplished author, with three very well-received historical novels to his credit, Gabriel's Story, Walk through Darkness, and Pride of Carthage. But he was eligible for the award because Acacia was his first foray into science fiction and fantasy, and presenting Durham the Campbell Award certainly accomplishes one of the award's purposes, to introduce SF/F readers to excellent writers with whom they may not yet be familiar. I believe that Durham is only the second African-American to win the Campbell Award, after Nalo Hopkinson -- coincidentally, both Durham and Hopkinson are of Caribbean descent. (The Campbell Award wasn't around when Samuel Delany broke into the field, and I don't know how Octavia Butler was overlooked.) David Anthony Durham is a very welcome addition to the SF/F field.

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 Story Recommendation of the Week :: Placa del Fuego by Tobias S. Buckell

Inspired by Lev Grossman's controversial article denouncing plot-free modernist fiction, the story recommendation for the week is a very entertaining planetary adventure, Placa del Fuego by Tobias S. Buckell, from the July 2009 issue of Clarkesworld.

Set on the same harsh world as Buckell's novel Sly Mongoose, "Placa del Fuego" follows young pickpocket Tiago as he confronts in quick succession a powerful android, a resourceful female crime overlord, and a vicious alien beast. Typical of Buckell's fiction, the story is fast-paced and high-octane, yet also slips in some food for thought. In particular, "Placa del Fuego" raises the question whether the idea of free will has any meaning to someone as downtrodden as Tiago.

Tobias S. Buckell's related novels Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose were all well received, but "Placa del Fuego" demonstrates that his style also works well at shorter lengths. You can find most of his short fiction to date in Tides from the New Worlds from Wyrm Publishing.