Most of my short story reading lately has focused on the value pack of Asimov’s magazines I got for Christmas and my old favourite, Daily Science Fiction. So, not surprisingly, April’s recommendations are all from those two magazines. I hope you’ll enjoy the stories as much as I did.
The End of the War by Django Wexler (Asimov’s): If you don’t have access to the 2015 issue of Asimov’s where the story was first published, you can find the audio version here, at StarShipSofa.
The opening for this one was somewhat rough to get through, to be honest. The author dropped us right into the action with no background information, which I would usually consider a great way of opening a story, but combined with a very distinct narrative voice which includes a lot of techno babble, it made for a steep learning curve. Luckily, the techno babble became far less pronounces after a few pages, and the story really jumped into gear.
Opening aside, this was a great read with some really cool speculative elements. The characters were soldiers, fighting one-on-one battles as they were sent to wrecks of ancient space ships, stripping them for usable ressources and fighting one another with larger and larger robots made from the reusable metals and batteries from the ships. It was great premise for an action story, which it was, but the story added layers to that as well.
Despite depicting the brutallities of war, the loneliness the deep space soldiers were suffering, and the cold-bloodedness of the higher-up commanders, the story managed to carry a pretty optimistic tone throughout. Mainly this was because of the constant hope for peace the soldiers shared and the friendly banter the enemies in between as they were trying to force each other off the scrap ships.
I’ve read through most of the eight editions of Asimov’s I got through my value pack, and The End of the War has so far been one of the best stories I’ve read in the magazine.
The Bewilderness of Lions by Ted Kosmatka (Asimov’s): This was a fast paced thriller mystery carried by an interesting speculative idea (the MC being able to, somewhat, predict the future through data analysis) and the mystery of the outsiders stalking her.
Personally, I found the story interesting, because it was always very obvious what the author was doing to keep me reading, how they kept the scenes short, ended each one with a hook, and made sure there was always a mystery, yet it all worked so well. This is a great example of why well-written thrillers and mysteries generally sell so well.
The ending felt a bit flat and rushed, though, not really providing an instering answer to the main mysteries. Still, I was more than well entertained throughout and wanted to share this story with you.
The First of Many Lies You’ll Tell Her by Kelly Sandoval (DSF): Recently having become a parent myself, I may be biased, but I loved this story because of its great descriptions of what it’s like to be a parent. And the idea of pairing the fears of parenthood with spacefaring made both these ideas feel fresh and original.
The story faltered a bit, in my opinion, because it tried to encompass too many conflicts: motherhood problems, environemntal issues, space travel, and generational blame. It resulted in a weaker core conflict and a muddled plot. However, the fear of not being there for your kid, of not being able to protect them and raise them to make the right choices, is handled so, so well that story still had a strong emotional impact on me.
Changing by Shoshana Edwards (DSF): This story was about a woman gradually turning into a monster, soon unable to control herself. The writing was beautiful, and the plot started out strong, hinting at a speculative element and conflict without dumping them obtrusively on the reader. The plot finished of strong as well, revealing what’s going on in as satisfying manner and what consequences it will have for the characters.
It meandered somewhat in the middle, as the MC and her relationship wasn’t really fleshed out as much as I felt they should be, and thus the impact of the MC’s change and what she might do to her husband in the end wasn’t as strong at it could be, either.
Still, it was a more than decent story in nearly every way.
That’s it for me. See you around in May.
Toby Backman 