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 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 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.

Review of “The Giants of the Violet Sea” by Eugenia Triantafyllou

This science fiction novelette is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Uncanny Magazine 9-10, 2021. Triantafyllou is Greek and successful as a short story writer. She has been nominated for Nebula and World Fantasy Awards. This review contains spoilers.

Themis fled from her family to Omega years ago, shuffled aside, a failure as venedolphin tamer and unwilling to be a death-tattoo apprentice to her mother. She has been working at a hospital and has a small apartment there, but how her brother Melas is dead and she needs to return home for the funeral. Melas was a successful tamer, and his death is a mystery until Themis discovers he was caught in a net and poisoned. There are aliens from Freyja colony in the village for a research project, and Themis meets her brother’s friend Pirros, plus a boy Selinos from the meat-eating Alimniot people that Melas was training as a tamer. Can Themis find who murdered her brother? And more important, can she find a place in the village after all this time?

This is an atmospheric story with elements of strong imagery, good world-building and a murder mystery plot. There are clues scattered about as Themis encounters various of the residents of the village and its area and she eventually solves the crime. There ae themes besides the mystery. Freyja has done something to destroy their world and the aliens are here to find out how the colonists have adapted to the harsh environment of this world. The settlement is dependent on the venedolphins who are sentient and responsive. One of Triantafyllou’s strong points is in presenting situations where her characters have to come to terms with old issues. In this case the child Themis, who seems to have a certain talent for taming the venedolphins, was brushed aside by her father in favor of the more talented Melas. Losing her confidence entirely, Tehmis leaves the village rather than attempt the second choice of apprenticing with her mother. This has all festered through the years, and now the sources of her anger are dead—both her father and Melas are gone, so where does that leave Themis?

On the less positive side, the venedolphins didn’t quite come across as attractive. Possibly this is because of Themis’s terror of them as a child. The child Selios and the alien character Clem turn out to feel like red herrings, elements that introduced possibilities that didn’t pan out. And last, I was concerned that it took so long to get to the funeral, considering these people have no refrigeration.

Four and a half stars.

Review of “Proof by Induction” by José Pablo Iriarte

This science fiction short story is a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Awards. It was published by Uncanny Magazine 5-6, 2021. José Pablo Iriarte is Cuban-American writer and lives in Central Florida. They are well established as a writer and were a Nebula Award Finalist in 2018. This review contains spoilers.

Paulie Gifford is a mathematician who is struggling to get tenure at the small university where he teaches. He and his father had been working on proving the Perelman Conjecture, which Paulie had hoped would provide a reputation and security for his family, but his father started to have health issues and now has died. The hospital has a Coda system that digitizes the patient’s last moments and suggests Paulie might like to spend a few moments with his father, ask about insurance, etc. Instead, Paulie wants to take possession of the Coda. Can he use it to complete his research and make peace with his father’s ghost?

This is a gentle story about a father-son relationship and all the things Paulie wishes he had heard from his father but didn’t. The Coda, of course, isn’t really his father and has no emotions, so he doesn’t get what he wants there. The tension in the story rises as Paulie is denied tenure because of lack of publications in his portfolio, and is looking at having to move to some other lower level position. There’s enough description of the setting for us to visualize it, but no real riveting imagery. The biggest impact of the story is its heart, provided by Paulie’s need to hear his father say “I love you.” Instead, he says it to his daughter.

On the less positive side, a lot of this is filled with math rather than conversations and description that could lead to stronger characterization. Paulie’s character develops well enough, but the others remain fairly dim. Although there is tension, there’s really nothing in the way of drama and no perceptible climax.

Four and a half stars.

Congrats to the 2022 Nebula Finalists!

I’ll start reviews on these books and stories shortly.

Nebula Award for Novel

The Unbroken, C.L. Clark (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
A Master of Djinn, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom; Orbit UK)
Machinehood, S.B. Divya (Saga)
A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK)
Plague Birds, Jason Sanford (Apex)

Nebula Award for Novella

A Psalm for the Wild-Built, Becky Chambers (Tordotcom)
Fireheart Tiger, Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
And What Can We Offer You Tonight, Premee Mohamed (Neon Hemlock)
Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, Aimee Ogden (Tordotcom)
Flowers for the Sea, Zin E. Rocklyn (Tordotcom)
The Necessity of Stars, E. Catherine Tobler (Neon Hemlock)
“The Giants of the Violet Sea”, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 9–10/21)

Nebula Award for Novelette

“O2 Arena”, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Galaxy’s Edge 11/21)
“Just Enough Rain”, PH Lee (Giganotosaurus 5/21)
“(emet)”, Lauren Ring (F&SF 7–8/21)
“That Story Isn’t the Story”, John Wiswell (Uncanny 11–12/21)
“Colors of the Immortal Palette”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Uncanny 3–4/21)

Nebula Award for Short Story

“Mr. Death”, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/21)
“Proof by Induction”, José Pablo Iriarte (Uncanny 5–6/21)
“Let All the Children Boogie”, Sam J. Miller (Tor.com 1/6/21)
“Laughter Among the Trees”, Suzan Palumbo (The Dark 2/21)
“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3–4/21)
“For Lack of a Bed”, John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 4/21) 

Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

Victories Greater Than Death, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Teen; Titan)
Thornwood, Leah Cypess (Delacorte)
Redemptor, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet; Hot Key)
A Snake Falls to Earth, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
Root Magic, Eden Royce (Walden Pond)
Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao (Penguin Teen; Rock the Boat)

Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Encanto, Charise Castro Smith, Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Jason Hand, Nancy Kruse, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures)
The Green Knight, David Lowery (Sailor Bear, BRON Studios, A24)
Loki: Season 1, Bisha K. Ali, Elissa Karasik, Eric Martin, Michael Waldron, Tom Kauffman, Jess Dweck (Marvel Studios)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham (Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios)
Space Sweepers, Jo Sung-hee 조성희 (Bidangil Pictures)
WandaVision: Season 1, Peter Cameron, Mackenzie Dohr, Laura Donney, Bobak Esfarjani, Megan McDonnell, Jac Schaeffer, Cameron Squires, Gretchen Enders, Chuck Hayward (Marvel Studios)
What We Do in the Shadows: Season 3, Jake Bender, Zach Dunn, Shana Gohd, Sam Johnson, Chris Marcil, William Meny, Sarah Naftalis, Stefani Robinson, Marika Sawyer, Paul Simms, Lauren Wells (FX Productions, Two Canoes Pictures, 343 Incorporated, FX Network)

Nebula Award for Game Writing

Coyote & Crow, Connor Alexander, William McKay, Weyodi Oldbear, Derek Pounds, Nico Albert, Riana Elliott, Diogo Nogueira, William Thompson (Coyote & Crow, LLC.)
Granma’s Hand, Balogun Ojetade (Balogun Ojetade, Roaring Lion Productions)
Thirsty Sword Lesbians, April Kit Walsh, Whitney Delagio, Dominique Dickey, Jonaya Kemper, Alexis Sara, Rae Nedjadi (Evil Hat Games)
Wanderhome, Jay Dragon (Possum Creek Games)
Wildermyth, Nate Austin, Anne Austin, Douglas Austin (Worldwalker Games, LLC)

Review of “Kernels of Resistance” by Mary Alexandra Agner

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Mary Alexandera Agner is an established writer and poet with a number of titles available. She describes this as a conspiracy theory about BigAg. The story runs 924 words, and this review contains spoilers.

Narrator starts her day in line at the farm stand to buy corn. The proprietor tries to give her the wrong ears, but she insists on the right ones. Once she’s home, she runs them through the gene sequencer to read the hidden message about a farmer who might be unknowingly growing FoodCo’s latest seed. There’s another message, too, about danger. Narrator grabs her emergency bag and flees. She goes over the data she might release to the media about her time working for FoodCo. Would the company executives take a bite of their own corn?

This story is written in the second person as Narrator addresses (apparently) an agent of the company and (possibly) hopes to make a deal of some kind to protect herself and force withdrawal of the company products which have (presumably) unknown genetically engineered properties. The narrative is mostly suggestion without any clear description of events in the present, future or past. It has the feel of a spy thriller crossed with a farmer’s delight in new corn, and features strong imagery but little in the way of details.

This is apparently social commentary about the marketing of poorly tested and genetically engineered products that might have unknown side effects. For a real life example, I saw a suggestion last year that the COVID-19 vaccine might be inserted into food products to make sure it reached everyone. There’s a good story here that could be expanded into a longer work.

On the less positive side, I don’t understand how the coded gene messages are inserted into the corn ears without evidence of tampering. Maybe by hypodermic? Corn takes a while to grow, and any subversive organization wouldn’t want to wait that long to grow their messages. I’m also a little doubtful that FoodCo will be concerned about the release of data. They can just withdraw this product and issue something else. If they have ties to government officials, the media will probably suppress the story anyway. I think the subversives here are in trouble.

Four and a half stars.

Review of “Fermi’s Answer” by Daniel Scott White & E.E. King

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. E.E. King is an artist and established short story writer, and Daniel Scott is a writer and publisher of magazines including Unfit and Unreal, Longshot Island, and Mythaxis Review. The story runs 304 words, and this review contains spoilers.    

Here are Notes from SETI Meeting #894: The members finally have an answer to the Fermi Question. It is a dying scream. It turns out that radio waves from Earth are deadly and the message lets us know that, but it’s postmortem and too late to do anything to help. We are left alone.

This is a brief story written in the notes format that provides info to the members on what was featured at the meeting. On the positive side, this is a creative format addressing a scientific question. The group has received a message from an advanced technology, and the story addresses it in emotional terms. If you’re following along with the emotional line, then you feel deflated and lonely at the end.

Om the less positive side, it seems unlikely that radio waves that don’t kill Earth fauna would damage or kill all other intelligent live in the galaxy, especially highly technological civilizations that could presumably come up with a solution for shielding. This perception kept me from being hooked by the emotional line, which mean’s I didn’t get much out of the story.

Three stars.

Review of “The Cube” by Jonathan Worlde

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Jonathan Worlde is the pen name of attorney Paul Grussendorf who writes both fiction and nonfiction and also plays and records country blues under the stage name Paul the Resonator. He says this story started out to be about H.G. Wells, but somehow got sidetracked to Ernő Rubik. The story runs 526 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

On the outskirts of town, the Narrator finds the Palace of Green Porcelain where an old museum is having a going out of business sale. He looks around but the only interesting item is labeled as a time machine. He asks if it works and the liquidator tells him he’s tried it out and taken a couple of trips backward and forward in time. Narrator likes it, but what can he offer in trade. He has a Rubik’s cube in his pocket. Will that do?

This does look like the story meandered a bit in its construction. Because Worlde says it was about Wells and the Palace of Green Porcelain is borrowed from The Time Machine, I gather the Narrator is Wells and the liquidator is Ernő Rubik who trades him the time machine for the cube. There’s some excellent imagery and atmosphere at the beginning of the story; the liquidator provides some social commentary in describing his trips through time, and there’s a certain amount of characterization as Wells and Rubik come to life during the negotiations.

On the less positive side, the clever device of Wells and Rubik trading inventions completely dominates the story. The imagery and atmosphere stop with the first paragraphs and the social commentary is generic and feels added just to increase the publication chances for the story. I would prefer to see more imagery and less of meeting publication check boxes, but I know how it goes.

Three and a half stars.

Review of “Turning the Tide” by Dawn Vogel

This is a flash fiction piece from Daily Science Fiction, which posts short fiction online and also sends it out by email for busy people through a subscription service. Vogel lives in Seattle, is a busy historian and publisher, and has written the Brass and Glass series. The story runs 236 words, and this review contains spoilers. 

Another batch of clones comes out of the goop, blank and naked, and goes off to get outfitted with uniforms and weapons. Nobody remembers what started the war, but we keep making them because they protect our loved ones. Today there are different specifications and the clones look odd. A group of suits has gathered to watch. What’s happening?

Vogel says this story was an effort to create a complete story under 250 words that will capture the reader’s imagination. The story seems to be fairly successful at that. We gather there has been a long war fought by clones, and R&D continually tries to make them faster and stronger. This different batch seems designed to infiltrate the enemy’s population, though, and the story ends there. There is an emotional touch with the mention of loved ones, and the fact that no one ever gets to know the clones. It’s a good set up for a longer piece.

On the less positive side, there’s very little of world building, characterization or imagery. We don’t get to know anybody, and that little touch of resonance about loved ones and lonely clones is all we get. It feels incomplete, and maybe another 20 words might have been used to make the ending stronger and more dramatic. Will the enemy have this same idea, maybe?

Three stars.