Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 111, August 2019 by John Joseph Adams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This issue was one in which I enjoyed all of the stories very much.

Science Fiction

One Thousand Beetles in a Jumpsuit (Dominica Phetteplace) - a dystopian story taking place “20 Minutes in the Future” that seems to me to be even more likely now than it was 4 years ago when this story was published. That said, I really enjoyed our protagonist and the story overall. I had originally written that I wanted to see more stories in this setting, but on reading the author interview I saw that they have another one coming up in a future issues of Lightspeed.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What is this book? It’s a love-letter to science fiction nerds. It shares narrative bits with Jurassic Park. It’s a reminder of how disruptive 2020 was in every day.

I had a lot of fun with this story. I think the only criticism (which is kind of a hidden praise) is that I felt it ended too quickly. We learned the premise and the world and then the climax came and it was all over. I think it may be that, as can be the case with a short story or novella, that the house of cards would have come crashing down if the story went on too much longer. There was a lot of “don’t think about it” hand-wavy things in the setup and maybe they wouldn’t survive strict scrutiny. Scalzi said he created a pop song of a novel and he’s not wrong. He also created a bit of a time capsule of a crazy time that most of the creative world is pretending didn’t happen.

Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When we last left Laurence and Temeriare, they were in Australia, contemplating retirement. This book has them dragged back in because Napoleon continues to scheme. Thanks to the deviation from our history in which Africa has been wrested from colonialism, Napoleon makes a deal with the largest “country” on the continent to provide them with transportation to South America to try and get back/get revenge for their family and ancestors recently sold into slavery. As a bonus, this means they harass Brazil and give Napoleon the chance to take a distracted Portugal, leaving Britain without allies.

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not a horror person - I got this to listen to with my wife on a car trip. She calls the book Baby-Dexter. She’s not wrong. I think the book fits in a very interesting intersection. It’s (in my opinion) a little gruesome for YA being in John’s head and reading his sociopathic thoughts. But because it’s YA it’s also pretty tame with some of the horror elements. Also, the first twist about the nature of the killer (it’s not on the GR description, but it’s on some other descriptions - including the movie based on it) somewhat absolves John of some of his inner tension - at least that’s how my wife and I felt. That is to say, based on the nature of the killer, some of what John is debating seems moot. (And that continues with his antagonists at least through book 3, according to my wife)

Long Past Dues by James J. Butcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(a reminder that I use the star rating tooltips on the goodreads site. 3 stars = “I liked it”.)

Butcher, the son, is back with another entry in The Unorthodox Chronicles. Book 1 was a buddy-cop plot. We’re back with the same characters and, roughly, dealing with the consequences of the first book. I say roughly because JJB seems to be copying his dad in that there is a greater over-arching plot - or at the very least not every plot point from the last book or this book is resolved. It also doesn’t seem that each book will be standalone. In light of that, it was annoying, and cost the book a star - that our protagonists had backslid a bit. That might be more realistic, vs a linear progression, but with only 2 books out, it seems to waste enough of a chunk of this book getting the characters back to where they were at the end of the last book.

Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just like the Africa book, this one is a lot of just passing the time without much happening. Then in the last few chapters we get a bunch of bombshells about how the world continues to differ from ours because of the the dragons equalizing things between the colonies and colonizers (or would-be colonizers). The epilogue seems Mr. Laurence finally come a bit unmoored from society - something that has been about 2.5 books in the making. It presents a very interesting position for the protagonists of our series over the final 3 books in the series. I’m very curious to see where Novik means to take us.

Lightspeed Magazine, April 2018 by John Joseph Adams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SCIENCE FICTION

What is Eve? (Will McIntosh) - Will does a great job with the story. The reader can probably guess the general direction of the story, but it’s the details that make it shine. I think he also does a good job with the voice of a middle school kid.

Webs (Mary Anne Mohanraj) - Starts off with what seems like a metaphor for being trans and then it adds on a straight story of being trans on top of the metaphor. It’s unfortunately how perennial the issue is that this was written years ago and yet feels fresh now.
The Elephants’ Crematorium (Timothy Mudie) - we’ve seen a few movies/books/etc with a plot in which something ending the cycle of life. This one increases the stakes by considering other animals as well. I found the narrative very emotionally affecting.
Mozart on the Kalahari (Steven Barnes) - I’ve heard expressions similar to the title of this short story. The “moral”, as such, of the story is one we would do well to get more people to think about.

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this book to be a nice change of pace from book 4. It was more exciting and moved the plot along quite a bit. We’ve had the dragon suffrage plot as a Chekov’s Gun since around the first book and we finally started to get some movement on that in this book. Additionally, we see the consequences of the actions at the end of the last book. It was very interesting seeing Laurence’s actions and how they are constrained by his culture. I think a modern protagonist would have reacted very, very differently to the situation he finds himself in. In a way, it’s similar to the reason that I enjoy the Imperial Radch books - it’s a sci-fi version of an honor-bound English culture.

Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have come to the realization that what I enjoy in this series is similar to what I enjoy in Anne Leckie’s Imperial Radch series - I enjoy the formality of the systems that govern the main character’s lives. I wouldn’t want to live in such a rigid society, but I enjoy how the authors play with the difference in how we would respond to the situation vs these protagonists who are bound by their society and not as free as we are to choose their actions.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was not familiar with the original ( The Island of Doctor Moreau Illustrated), but my wife tells me the plot is fairly similar (based on her recollection of the Marlon Brando movie). What we get out of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s retelling is a recontextualization that explains a bit more about the intersection of capitalism and Dr. Moreau’s research. The doctor needs funding for what we would today call genetic engineering as well as for his living expenses since he wants to dedicate himself to his research. Moreno-Garcia places the story in the late 1800s in Mexico when Mayans were rebelling against the indentured servitude ( and in some cases outright slavery ) they had been subject to since The Conquest. So the doctor is able to get money for his hybrid research on the promise that he will provide workers that are even better than humans (for their animal traits) and which do not have any rights whatsoever for being animals. For, while the 1800s does have “science” behind the idea of the white race being superior, there is still some call for ending slavery for non-Whites still being humans (even if lesser humans).