Paula Guran Reviews Uncanny and Tor.com
Uncanny 1-2/23
Tor.com 2/1/23, 2/8/23, 2/22/23
The year is off to an awesome start with an abundant amount of admirable fiction! I have a few quibbles here and there, but still find everything mentioned here to be worthwhile reading.
Issue 50 of Uncanny is double-sized and probably the best one yet. Lead-off “Collaboration?” by Ken Liu & Caroline M. Yoachim is a creative collaborative effort that explores creative collaboration. Interesting and complex.
Cold Relations” by Mary Robinette Kowal is one of my favorites. Claudette helpfully rids clients of ghosts. It’s a source of income, but she also needs the life force of the ghosts to power her spells. Better them than the living. Despite the injustices visited by their kind on generations of magic users – including their parents and himself – her older brother Rupert has become a government wizard. They take their energy from the living. Living murderers, but still the living. Despite their differences and being on different sides, the estranged siblings need each other. A wonderful story about family.
Trevor Hemley, a denizen of a Victorian era that includes a race of Mermen, sets out to “to give life to one of the most magnificent creatures ever to roam this glorious earth” in “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” by P. Djèlí Clark. A greatly entertaining tale that promises (yay!) to lead to more.
Siblings, twins this time, are also featured in A.T. Greenblatt’s “Waystation City”. Daphne and Claude want to escape the titular city. Its citizens come from many different places and times. Everyone is eventually returned to their own time and place, but many don’t want to wait. The twins, originally from 1970s Britain, feel they are changing and want to return to the activist life they were living before they were mysteriously taken to The Waystation. But leaving the city is dangerous, so they turn to Gerty, who writes about those who leave, for help. Super story, and very original.
In “Horsewoman” by A.M. Dellamonica, Payne manages to survive in a richly portrayed world ruled by megacorporations that have taken over since pandemics killed half its population. Nothing works completely and much has run amok. The supernatural seems to be entering the picture as well. A poignant tale of survival despite loneliness and hard times.
A mother explains to her daughter, in Eugenia Triantafyllou’s lovely “Flower, Daughter, Soil, Seed”, that the women of their family have, for generations, been flowers. Each a different variety. Each grown in a different environment.
The wealthy possess so much magic they can toss it away in “One Man’s Treasure” by Sarah Pinsker. Magical refuse can inadvertently put a sleep spell on a worker who picks it up. Tired of a gardener? Hex him into stone and set the “statue” on the curb. There’s nothing anyone can do about the injustice, but a trio of refuse collectors resolve to try. Another fascinating world and winning scenario.
The scientist-priests of a Jesuit lunar colony keep running afoul of the Curia in E. Lily Yu’s “The Father Provincial of Mare Imbrium”. When a frustrated brother insults the New Inquisitor back on Earth, Alphonsus, the Father Provincial, has more to solve than the immediate budget cut imposed. Another truly original – dare I say inspired? – tale.
“Silver Necklace, Golden Ring” by Marie Brennan is a rewarding and well-written fairy tale. Nievre takes one young woman a month as a servant, and none ever return. But one clever young woman sets out to alter the ancient tale and does.
The deceased magic worker Miz Boudreaux needs Davion and Tommy’s help in “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride” by Christopher Caldwell. If they keep her goddaughter safe through some bad juju, she’ll give them back the fifteen years of life they once paid for her assistance. A fine tall tale with a dollop of Acadian spice.
Emma awakes – in “The Counterworld” by James Bradley (Tor.com, 2/1/23) to find all traces of her deceased son, Lukas, have disappeared. His room is gone. Her husband, Andrew, has no knowledge of a son. Nor does anyone else. Has her grief distorted reality? Is she delusional? The story is well-written and disturbing, but its lack of any resolution whatsoever left me somewhat unsatisfied.
No dissatisfaction with “Even If Such Ways Are Bad” by Rich Larson (Tor.com, 2/8/23). If you are looking for great science fiction, you can always count on Rich Larson, and this story is a prime example. Larson presents a valid future socioeconomic system, cool organic technology, and amazingly well-portrayed characters in less than 8500 words. Chimezie and Mola, the two-person crew of the wormship Naglfar, are on a deep-space mission to survey a satellite with zinc-mining potential. They have been specifically chosen by the machine-mind company that has set them on the mission based, to great extent, on their backgrounds. Mola’s remembrances are not all positive, but Chimezie’s are so brutal he uses a device, a moska, to “eat” unwanted memories. We learn just how specifically they, especially Chimezie, are suited to serve the company’s goals as the story spins out. Provocative and superbly written.
A.C. Wise gives us a terrific haunted house story with “The Dark House” (Tor.com, 3/15/23). A couple investigate a mysterious house they had first seen in an exhibit of photographs. The story shifts back and forth between the present exploration and the past when the photographer used the house as a gallery and darkroom. A chiller that keeps you reading.
Recommended Stories
“Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride,” Christopher Caldwell (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub”, P. Djèlí Clark (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“Horsewoman”, A.M. Dellamonica (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“Waystation City”, A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“Cold Relations,” Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“Even If Such Ways Are Bad,” Rich Larson (Tor.com 2/8/23)
“One Man’s Treasure,” Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 1-2/23)
“The Dark House”, A.C. Wise (Tor.com 3/15/23)
Paula Guran has edited more than 40 science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than 50 novels and collections featuring the same. She’s reviewed and written articles for dozens of publications. She lives in Akron OH, near enough to her grandchildren to frequently be indulgent.
This review and more like it in the April 2023 issue of Locus.
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