Review of Machinehood by S.B. Divya

This science fiction novel is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Saga in March of 2021, and runs 415 pages. Divya is established as a writer and editor and has previously been nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards for Runtime. This review contains spoilers.

Olga Ramirez and her partner Connor Troit have left government service and are working as shields for a funder. This is mostly show for the media cams and involves looking great while functioning as bodyguards so you can keep a full tip jar from social media. This is also a full time job, which is way better than most people do. Because of competition from AI and robots, the best jobs most people can find is short gigs, where you have to compete with tools like mech suits and nanotech pills that provide skills and stronger bodies, at least until you burn out. The great shield job is disrupted by a real attack by what looks to be a cyborg for a new terrorist organization called Machinehood. The Machinehood is advocating for equality for machines, and at first officials blame the Muwahhidun Empire in Maghreb. The cyborg attacks on funders continue, and eventually the Machinehood attacks the very basis of society. Who’s really to blame?

The best part of this is projection of current trends into the late 21^st century. Olga’s society is dominated by a connected social media web and everything she does is tracked by the media drone swarms. She has has been using zip pills to give her heightened physical abilities but she has reached her tolerance and now she is facing physical damage from the constant use. Connor wants to retire to a Buddhist run space station that emphasizes natural living. So, the one theme is how far we want to go with modifying natural human life. There also mention of how humans treat animals, who might also rate equality, along with the machines. There’s a discussion of whether violence is justified if the intentions are good. Olga sends her sister-in-law abortion pills, so abortion appears, but there’s not much discussion. The pharmaceutical industry is corrupt, marketing poorly tested pills. And what might be the man theme is what Ogla calls the “delusional path of grandiose revolution” that will destroy society to impose a particular philosophy. Besides good world building and lots of theme, there’s plenty of diversity here, a mixture of names and ethnicities, and somehow Europe and Russia have disappeared. The US, China and India appear to be the world powers. There are a couple of plot twists that keep things moving and a peaceful, everything-is-fine resolution.

On the less positive side, this doesn’t flow well. There’s an action line, but it doesn’t rise and ends in something of an anticlimax when the head of the Machinehood just steps up to take responsibility for the damage to society and take some possible consequences. Mea culpa. Then somehow everyone has learned from the attack on the world’s infrastructure and has a new appreciation for machines, animals and natural living so everything is good. The characters are also a bit flat, and feel unreal, especially the monks on the space station and the Caliph (who never appears at all). In all, this is a good discussion of issues, but it doesn’t quite come together as a solid, believable whole.

Four stars.

Review of Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard

This fantasy novella is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Tor.com in February 2021 and runs 98 pages. Aliette de Bodard lives and works in Paris. She has won three Nebula Awards, a Locus Award, a British Fantasy Award and four British Science Fiction Association Awards. She was a double Hugo finalist in 2019. This review contains spoilers.

Thanh is the queen’s youngest daughter. All her older sisters are accomplished adults, but it seems Thanh can never please her mother. For years she served as a hostage in Yosolis. When the palace burnt down and she barely escaped, her mother brought her home, and now the queen expects her to help negotiate with the delegation from Yosolis. They are a powerful kingdom, and Binh Hai is not. When the delegation arrives, Thanh sees that the princess Eldris has come with it. Thanh interprets the delegations requests as a military occupation and tries to head it off, but Eldris makes an offer of marriage. Meanwhile, the small fires around the castle turn out to be a fire elemental that Thanh accidently brought from Yosolis. Can she deal with the demands and find a path forward for Binh Hai?

This is very well done. The chess moves of the negotiations make for a strong plot, and on the side, Thanh tries to deal with the romance of Eldris’ courtship. Themes include domestic violence and coming of age. The characters are strong, and the imagery is strongly sensual. There are symbols: Thanh’s chess game with her mother, the choice between the fiery elemental and the cold climate of Yosolis, the tiger quality of the elmental and the little fires burning around the palace. Interestingly, there is only one male character, the queen’s eunuch Long.

On the less positive side, I don’t know how these people reproduce. Normally courtship is about creating an heir to the throne, but they don’t seem concerned. Maybe the queen has a harem of men somewhere?

Five stars.

Review of And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed

This fantasy/science fiction novella is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Neon Hemlock in July of 2021 and runs 80 pages. Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist who lives in Canada and has published several novels and novellas. This review contains spoilers.

Jewel is a high-class courtesan who lives and works at the luxurious House of Bicchieri. She and the other courtesans who work there plan a secret funeral for Winfield, one of the women who was found dead in her room, apparently killed by a client. At the funeral, Winfield wakes and accuses the wealthy and powerful Pederssen as her murderer. She announces that she will take revenge and leaves the funeral in the beautiful silken gown they intended to bury her in. Jewel sees her again now and then as her flesh and her gown begin to deteriorate, but Winfield’s resolve does not falter. Missing an appointment for a foray with Winfield reminds Jewel how much control the House has over her life, and now the management thinks she is plotting with Winfield to kill Pederssen. Will Winfield ever be able to carry out her revenge?

This narrative is slightly surreal, as it takes the zombie girl for granted and Nero, one of the residents, keeps getting implants and modifications that make him look like Satan. There are science fictional elements, like the modifications and Jewel’s hydraulic bra, which holds her upright when she’s tired and wants to slump. The themes stand out most strongly. One of these is the notion that the courtesans’ lives are worth very little to the evil, wealthy Pederssen and the House’s management apparently just covers up the murders to keep their reputation pristine and the money coming in. The other important theme is the element of social and financial control that the House has over Jewel. When she misses an appointment, they say nice things, but they attach her assets so that she has to borrow money for essentials. She has to put in extra shifts at her courtesan work in order to gain back enough income to ward off hunger. This is sex slavery that Mohamed is showing, and possibly the ideas and details have been sparked by current events.

On the less positive side, nothing much happens in the 80 pages. The narrative is mostly about establishing imagery and mood, so the action line develops very slowly. Because of the surreal quality, the characters and setting fail to take on sharp edges, and we never get Jewel’s feelings about working in the sex trade or about being trafficked. Pederssen does get his comeuppance, which makes for a satisfying climax, but then the denouncement is pretty vague. I gather that Jewel and Nero somehow take over management of the House and turn it into a garden? How does that work? Who are the real owners? Won’t they object to losing all that revenue? And why the Satan imagery? Is that just for fun?

Four stars.

Review of Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden

This science fiction novella is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. Ogden has worked as science teacher and software tester and she is the co-editor of Translunar Travelers Lounge. This is her debut novella. It was published by Tor.com in February of 2021 and runs 112 pages. This review contains spoilers.

Atuale is the daughter of a Sea-Clan lord and has had her body altered so she can live on land with her husband and true love Saareval. However, a plague is killing the people of the clan and now her husband is deathly ill. Atuale has one hope left, a black market mercenary known as the World Witch, who is also her old friend and lover Yanja. She needs to use Yanja’s starship to travel off planet and find a cure for the plague, but their world is locked down because of the sickness. Can the two of them succeed in finding a cure?

This is an exotic, well-imagined setting where the various worlds are connected by jump gates and the occupants are adapted by gene-editing in order to live in particular environments. Most of the narrative is related to the quest plot and the interactions between Atuale and Yanja, who has had their body altered from female to male since they last saw one another. Yanja has something of an attitude about being jilted for Saareval, but they work it out. There’s a certain amount of imagery in the descriptions, and all ends well as Atuale returns with the cure for the plague. It gets extra points for attempting a romantic quets/adventure plot and a science fiction setting.

On the less positive side, I got the feeling I was missing a lot of the backstory here. I ended up with a lot of questions. Maybe these are characters Ogden has developed in other stories? There’s very little description of the living conditions on Atuale’s home world, which seems to be fairly primitive. This brings up the question of why the back market space-going mercenary Yanja is living there. The characterizations don’t feel quite right, as these are highly exotic people, but they interact like ordinary humans–there is no difference it culture. The community of worlds through the jump gates seems to function like a local community in the pandemic when I would expect a little more distance. Atuale violates all the rules, but there are no real consequences—she is just rescued by someone who rewards her persistence with the cure. And, where did Atuale get her body mods done? On her world? Then why don’t they have the technology to find a cure? There are also a couple of elements to this story that seem tailored to what must be publishing requirements at Tor. The first is Yanja’s trans sexuality, and the other is a comment out of nowhere that Saareval’s clan practices equity. Then why is Atuale still so proud of her heritage as the Sea lord’s daughter? Is she on board with the equity or not?

Three and a half stars.

Review of A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

This science fiction novella is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Tor.com and runs 161 pages. Chambers is a perineal in the awards cycles and is best known for her Wayfarer series, This review contains spoilers.

Sibling Dex is a monk on the moon Panga, where they work in landscaping, but they yearn for something more. They decide their real calling is to be a tea monk who travels from city to city offering tea and comfort. The enclave’s monks are supportive and build Dex a tea wagon. They find the work difficult at first, but eventually they tire of it, too, and decide their real calling is to go into the wilderness, where they hope to hear the song of a cricket. In the wilderness, they encounter a wild-built robot. Mosscap is not one of the original robots who gained self-awareness and left human society centuries ago, but one assembled from various parts from worn out machines. The robot has been elected to contact human society and wants to accompany Dex to find out what humans really want. Can they create a relationship?

Panga seems to be a very friendly place. Chambers creates a number of background characters while investing most of the effort into Dex and Mosscap. She also creates a society and history for Panga where the story plays out. As far a themes go, there’s discussion of self-awareness in machines and animals and whether this should give them status in the human world. Chambers makes an interesting point that fear is what controls interactions, and that humans are unchecked because they are missing a natural predator. From Mosscap’s question, the main theme is presumably “What do humans want?”

On the less positive side, nothing much happens here. There are no threats and no rising action line, just discussion. Dex changes jobs and is still dissatisfied. Mosscap is curious but slightly comical and completely friendly. There seem to be no natural predators in the forest. Also, the world building presents a bucolic society where everyone seems to be friendly and prosperous and has plenty of resources, but no explanation of where these come from or how the economy works. Presumably the enclave supports Dex while they work as a gardener and people pay for the tea service, but how does Dex think they are going to exist in the forest? They don’t seem to have even rudimentary gathering skills and the water needs to be filtered to be potable?  There are no survival issues in this world? It doesn’t quite make sense.

Three and a half stars.