Aliette de Bodard. In Everlasting Wisdom. (Infinity Wars ed Strahan)
An interesting conceit, but the story whizzes through quickly.
Reviewing short SF since 2000
An interesting conceit, but the story whizzes through quickly.
A little polished nugget of a story.
A story that does indeed ‘hit the spot’ nicely, with the accustomed oriental mannerisms, familial devotions and structures that clearly mark it out as a Xuya story.
In de Bodard’s Xuya series, and this includes recurrent themes of familial relationships, honour alongside big spaceships and galaxy spanning action.
Set in the Xuya sequence, young Quynh Ha finds herself given a task by the Dust Queen – a living legend whose Martian dust dances she has long admired.
Part of de Bodard’s ‘Xuya’ series of stories and nice to have a story with purely female characters, thus avoiding any need to have plot driven by hairy-arsed testosterone!
Well-written short-short in which a young refugee realises that in embracing her new life she must leave behind the ways of the past.
Part of AdB’s ongoing ‘Xuya’ sequence in which we take a peek into the mind of a ship, as echoes and dreams from the past show us steps made on its journey in a previous life.
Another excellent installment in the future Xuya sequence.
Third in the future Xuya sequence, an effective story, as the others, gradually building up layers to create a more complicated setting.
The Xuya timeline gets into space, and colour me impressed.
welcoming non-western/eurocentric, non-male perspective
The Gods of the Aztecs have fallen, replaced by an altogether more earthbound regime of metal and cogs.
A bit of a curate’s egg of an issue.
Well constructed and well handled story in the author’s ‘Xuya’ sequence.
A strong contribution from Powell and de Bodard.
A strong issue, with stories from authors well-established and authors on the way up : Aliette de Bodard, Bruce McAllister, Caroline M. Yoachim, Damien Broderick, David Erik Nelson, Stephen Baxter.
Good to see another author being given a chance in Asimovs, and certainly the best of the few of her stories that I’ve read. I look forward to seeing more – hopefully with her moving on to even more alien landscapes,
Kim Lakin-Smith. Johnny and Emmie-Lou Get Married. Steam-driven 1950s Rebel Without a Cause type-punks. After
A good, but not great, issue, with Sanford being the pick of the youthful crop.
Chris Roberson. Metal Dragon. Another in Roberson’s ‘Celestial Empire’ series, in which China is a
A special Michael Moorcock issue 60 issues since the last issue of that ilk). Moorcock
Stories by : Alastair Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard, Charles Coleman Finlay, Daryl Gregory, Dominic Green, Elizabeth Bear, Garth Nix, Geoff Ryman, Gord Sellar, Greg Egan, Gwyneth Jones, Hannu Rajaniemi, Ian McDonald, James Alan Garner, James. L. Cambias, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary Rosenblum, Maureen F. McHugh, Michael Swanwick, Nancy Kress, Paolo Bacigalupi, Paul McAuley, Robert Reed, Stephen Baxter, Ted Kosmatka