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In no particular order because I've forgotten what order they were in.
12. Jasper Fforde "The Big Over Easy"
This was the first time I've re-read "The Big Over Easy" in a long time and I'd forgotten how fun it was. Fforde plays with the reader, sometimes dropping obvious clues with a thunk like and elbow to the ribs saying "hey, this might come in later". But he pulls out all these crazy little details in the end and everything fits together like a mystery should. He put an insane number of reference to mythology and fairytaleology in. Overall, I'm so glad I picked it up again because it was just joy and crack and crack and joy.
13. Asimov's March/Apr 2023
14. Samuel R. Delany "Babel-17"
I first read this book when I was in high school. I think I got more out of it this time. It really is Delany's homage to language, which is like saying a particular experiment is Newton's homage to science. The base plotline moves right along and I'm sure I enjoyed them as a teenager, but the thinky bits about the nature of language ring more true to the older me who has seen language change and thought change with language.
I love the fact that a story written in the 1960's features a non-white strong female lead going about her business. That she happens to be female and non-white aren't relevant, they just are. Oh, and count on Delany to stick in bits of culture which are not based on diads and are not hetero-normative.
15. Theodore L. Thomas "The Fatal Third"
This is an old pulp sci-fi story from Project Gutenberg. The plot was extrapolated from one tiny bit of science. A good lesson for aspiring writers of how to dress a one sentence idea with characters and scenes to make it into a short story.
16. Asimov's May/Jun 2023
17. Terry Pratchett "Pyramids"
"Pyramids" is where Pratchett decided Discworld would be a good platform for diversions from fantasy into other cultures and history. He has his feel for the world by this point and lets it play the background. AM feels pretty much how it will feel for the rest of the series. Would he write it today? Of course he wouldn't write it today. I doubt he has a pen and it's too damn dark to see what he's writing. He was riffing on a culture, which is treacherous ground these days. I don't think he's mocking the culture. Perhaps he was mocking the culture of the kingdom next door a bit, but they tended to take themselves too seriously anyway. What he does show is people, good and bad, rich and poor, alive and dead, mostly just trying to get through life or death. And he tells a fun story.
18. Asimov's July/Aug 2023
Once again, the shorter works shone brighter than the longer fiction in this issue. Only one story in particular I want to mention here. I imagine Garth Nix's "Showdown on Planetoid Pencrux" will delight fans of Firefly. I think it was built better than the show, but the setting feels similar. Well done and fun.
12. Jasper Fforde "The Big Over Easy"
This was the first time I've re-read "The Big Over Easy" in a long time and I'd forgotten how fun it was. Fforde plays with the reader, sometimes dropping obvious clues with a thunk like and elbow to the ribs saying "hey, this might come in later". But he pulls out all these crazy little details in the end and everything fits together like a mystery should. He put an insane number of reference to mythology and fairytaleology in. Overall, I'm so glad I picked it up again because it was just joy and crack and crack and joy.
13. Asimov's March/Apr 2023
14. Samuel R. Delany "Babel-17"
I first read this book when I was in high school. I think I got more out of it this time. It really is Delany's homage to language, which is like saying a particular experiment is Newton's homage to science. The base plotline moves right along and I'm sure I enjoyed them as a teenager, but the thinky bits about the nature of language ring more true to the older me who has seen language change and thought change with language.
I love the fact that a story written in the 1960's features a non-white strong female lead going about her business. That she happens to be female and non-white aren't relevant, they just are. Oh, and count on Delany to stick in bits of culture which are not based on diads and are not hetero-normative.
15. Theodore L. Thomas "The Fatal Third"
This is an old pulp sci-fi story from Project Gutenberg. The plot was extrapolated from one tiny bit of science. A good lesson for aspiring writers of how to dress a one sentence idea with characters and scenes to make it into a short story.
16. Asimov's May/Jun 2023
17. Terry Pratchett "Pyramids"
"Pyramids" is where Pratchett decided Discworld would be a good platform for diversions from fantasy into other cultures and history. He has his feel for the world by this point and lets it play the background. AM feels pretty much how it will feel for the rest of the series. Would he write it today? Of course he wouldn't write it today. I doubt he has a pen and it's too damn dark to see what he's writing. He was riffing on a culture, which is treacherous ground these days. I don't think he's mocking the culture. Perhaps he was mocking the culture of the kingdom next door a bit, but they tended to take themselves too seriously anyway. What he does show is people, good and bad, rich and poor, alive and dead, mostly just trying to get through life or death. And he tells a fun story.
18. Asimov's July/Aug 2023
Once again, the shorter works shone brighter than the longer fiction in this issue. Only one story in particular I want to mention here. I imagine Garth Nix's "Showdown on Planetoid Pencrux" will delight fans of Firefly. I think it was built better than the show, but the setting feels similar. Well done and fun.
