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Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 117, June 2016
FICTION
“And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald
“Things With Beards” by Sam J. Miller
“.identity” by E. Catherine Tobler
“The Snow of Jinyang” by Zhang Ran, translated by Ken Liu and Carmen Yiling Yan
“The Promise of God” by Michael Flynn
“Pathways” by Nancy Kress
NON-FICTION
“The Science Fiction Future of the Microbiome” by Matthew Simmons
“The 'Quarter Turn' of History: A Conversation with Guy Gavriel Kay” by Chris Urie
“Another Word: Publishing—Jump In, the Water's Fine” by Alethea Kontis
“Editor's Desk: In My Own Way” by Neil Clarke
“And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald
“Things With Beards” by Sam J. Miller
“.identity” by E. Catherine Tobler
“The Snow of Jinyang” by Zhang Ran, translated by Ken Liu and Carmen Yiling Yan
“The Promise of God” by Michael Flynn
“Pathways” by Nancy Kress
NON-FICTION
“The Science Fiction Future of the Microbiome” by Matthew Simmons
“The 'Quarter Turn' of History: A Conversation with Guy Gavriel Kay” by Chris Urie
“Another Word: Publishing—Jump In, the Water's Fine” by Alethea Kontis
“Editor's Desk: In My Own Way” by Neil Clarke
146 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2016
3 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Neil Clarke
401 books398 followersNeil Clarke is best known as the editor and publisher of the Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winning
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Launched in October 2006, the online magazine has been a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine four times (winning three times), the World Fantasy Award four times (winning once), and the British Fantasy Award once (winning once). Neil is also a ten-time finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form (winning once in 2022), three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and a recipient of the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. In the fifteen years since Clarkesworld Magazine launched, numerous stories that he has published have been nominated for or won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Locus, BSFA, Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, and Stoker Awards.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
Additionally, Neil edits Forever —a digital-only, reprint science fiction magazine he launched in 2015. His anthologies include: Upgraded, Galactic Empires, Touchable Unreality, More Human than Human, The Final Frontier, Not One of Us, The Eagle has Landed, , and the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. His next anthology, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Seven will published in early 2023.
He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 1, 2018
Rating for "Things With Beards". I read this at the right moment, or else, I would give this story as 2 star-rating. I am not a fan of a horror story, even SF horror story. I avoid SF movie titles that turns out to be a horror movie (for example, Sunshine (2007)).
This story is not about plot, but about character development. A monster character development.
I agree with the last sentence on the story. Recently, I read a philosophy article from a Tibetan Rinpoche that has similar virtue. The sentence convince me to gave it a 3 star.
This story is not about plot, but about character development. A monster character development.
I agree with the last sentence on the story. Recently, I read a philosophy article from a Tibetan Rinpoche that has similar virtue. The sentence convince me to gave it a 3 star.
November 27, 2017
Reviews for two of the stories in this issue, free online at Clarkesworld magazine. Reviews first posted at Fantasy Literature:
5 stars for "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald, which I loved. Dr. Kostia is a keynote speaker and panel participant in an academic conference. Her specialty is extra-terrestrial intelligence ― specifically, the analysis of some radio-like transmissions from an alien race called the Coronals. About thirty years before, Earth scientists received a signal from the Corona Borealis that rewrote an entire computing center, turning it into a receiver for the Coronal’s communications and, conveniently, including a translator. Interestingly, the “infospace” transmissions are a broad-based slice of Coronal life, comparable to the Internet: the transmissions include news, drama, and even personal communications. However, the nature of the Coronal transmissions recently changed, in a disturbing fashion.
Dr. Kostia’s discussions of her findings regarding the Coronal’s communications at this conference is interwoven with some personal family drama: her son Randall appears at the conference and asks her to do something about her other son Wallace, who’s joined some kind of group that’s intensely studying the Coronal transmissions. Randall’s concerns are alarming enough that Dr. Kostia agrees to leave the conference early to go visit with Wallace personally.
Margaret Ronald skillfully explores the impact of the Coronal transmissions on humanity, in both positive and negative ways. Details like semi-sapient computer code, imitation Coronal jewelry, cults, and the increase in multilingualism add color and depth to this short story. It’s a wonderful story, bittersweet but with a hopeful element.
3.5 stars for the disturbing SF story "Things With Beards", one of the 2017 Nebula short story nominees. “Things With Beards” is a sequel of sorts to John W. Campbell, Jr.’s classic novella Who Goes There?, which I reread in preparation for reading this short story, though this story is actually based much more on John Carpenter’s film version of this story, 1982’s The Thing, starring Kurt Russell, which takes a fair number of liberties with the novella’s plot.
**Spoilers follow for both the novella and the film**
Both are about a frozen alien found by a group of scientists in Antarctica, which returns to life when it is thawed out and promptly begins to kill and assimilate the humans and animals living in the camp, turning itself into an exact replica of whatever it has killed, down to the molecular level. That, combined with the alien’s ability to read minds and thus mimic the assimilated man’s personality convincingly, makes it nearly impossible to discern who is human and who is alien.
At the end of The Thing, R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) has blown up the Antarctica camp and everything in it. He and a black man named Childs are the sole survivors, but they have no hope of rescue. It’s not even clear whether one or both of them are actually aliens. We get the answer to that question in “Things With Beards.”
In this short story, set in 1983, MacReady and Childs have been rescued and returned to the U.S. Although their bodies were frozen solid, they returned to life when thawed (cue ominous music). As the story begins, MacReady is meeting his old friend Hugh, a black man, in a McDonalds. They are former lovers, and quickly pick up their relationship again. MacReady has these odd blackouts when he’s alone with just one other person. It happens with Hugh, and MacReady (who has no recollection of the events in Antarctica) begins to fear what is inside him. At the same time, he’s also hiding his homosexuality and his sympathetic involvement with Hugh’s black radical movement, which has a plan to bomb multiple police stations in the city.
“Things With Beards” is a story brimming with ideas: the difficulties of a secretly gay life, racial conflict, AIDS, alienation, fear, prejudice, hiding our real selves behind a beard or mask. It’s message fiction, but more interesting and layered than most. It suffers, perhaps, from an overabundance of plot elements and ideas, and from being rather disjointed. The black activist plot element never really meshed with the rest of the story for me, and the fact that an already assimilated man would be dying of AIDS didn’t make sense, given my understanding of how the alien works. At the conclusion of the story, Miller offers up the theme to readers on a platter, but I wasn’t quite convinced enough to buy it.
Content advisory: horror story with adult themes, language and content.
5 stars for "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald, which I loved. Dr. Kostia is a keynote speaker and panel participant in an academic conference. Her specialty is extra-terrestrial intelligence ― specifically, the analysis of some radio-like transmissions from an alien race called the Coronals. About thirty years before, Earth scientists received a signal from the Corona Borealis that rewrote an entire computing center, turning it into a receiver for the Coronal’s communications and, conveniently, including a translator. Interestingly, the “infospace” transmissions are a broad-based slice of Coronal life, comparable to the Internet: the transmissions include news, drama, and even personal communications. However, the nature of the Coronal transmissions recently changed, in a disturbing fashion.
Dr. Kostia’s discussions of her findings regarding the Coronal’s communications at this conference is interwoven with some personal family drama: her son Randall appears at the conference and asks her to do something about her other son Wallace, who’s joined some kind of group that’s intensely studying the Coronal transmissions. Randall’s concerns are alarming enough that Dr. Kostia agrees to leave the conference early to go visit with Wallace personally.
Margaret Ronald skillfully explores the impact of the Coronal transmissions on humanity, in both positive and negative ways. Details like semi-sapient computer code, imitation Coronal jewelry, cults, and the increase in multilingualism add color and depth to this short story. It’s a wonderful story, bittersweet but with a hopeful element.
3.5 stars for the disturbing SF story "Things With Beards", one of the 2017 Nebula short story nominees. “Things With Beards” is a sequel of sorts to John W. Campbell, Jr.’s classic novella Who Goes There?, which I reread in preparation for reading this short story, though this story is actually based much more on John Carpenter’s film version of this story, 1982’s The Thing, starring Kurt Russell, which takes a fair number of liberties with the novella’s plot.
**Spoilers follow for both the novella and the film**
Both are about a frozen alien found by a group of scientists in Antarctica, which returns to life when it is thawed out and promptly begins to kill and assimilate the humans and animals living in the camp, turning itself into an exact replica of whatever it has killed, down to the molecular level. That, combined with the alien’s ability to read minds and thus mimic the assimilated man’s personality convincingly, makes it nearly impossible to discern who is human and who is alien.
At the end of The Thing, R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) has blown up the Antarctica camp and everything in it. He and a black man named Childs are the sole survivors, but they have no hope of rescue. It’s not even clear whether one or both of them are actually aliens. We get the answer to that question in “Things With Beards.”
In this short story, set in 1983, MacReady and Childs have been rescued and returned to the U.S. Although their bodies were frozen solid, they returned to life when thawed (cue ominous music). As the story begins, MacReady is meeting his old friend Hugh, a black man, in a McDonalds. They are former lovers, and quickly pick up their relationship again. MacReady has these odd blackouts when he’s alone with just one other person. It happens with Hugh, and MacReady (who has no recollection of the events in Antarctica) begins to fear what is inside him. At the same time, he’s also hiding his homosexuality and his sympathetic involvement with Hugh’s black radical movement, which has a plan to bomb multiple police stations in the city.
Beards were camouflage. A costume. Only Blair and Garry lacked one, both being too old to need to appear as anything other than what they were, and Childs, who never wanted to.In Sam J. Miller’s version of this world, people who have been assimilated by the Thing are not consciously aware of it; when the Thing emerges, they have a blackout. (Apparently this is a hotly debated plot point in Thing fandom, per Miller’s blog.) I was intrigued by that aspect of the plot, which had never occurred to me when reading the original story, and it lent itself well to Miller’s story.
He shivered. Remembering. The tough-guy act, the cowboy he became in uncertain situations. Same way in juvie; in lock-up. Same way in Vietnam. Hard, mean, masculine. Hard drinking; woman hating. Queer? Psssh. He hid so many things, buried them deep, because if men knew what he really was, he’d be in danger. When they learned he wasn’t one of them, they would want to destroy him.
“Things With Beards” is a story brimming with ideas: the difficulties of a secretly gay life, racial conflict, AIDS, alienation, fear, prejudice, hiding our real selves behind a beard or mask. It’s message fiction, but more interesting and layered than most. It suffers, perhaps, from an overabundance of plot elements and ideas, and from being rather disjointed. The black activist plot element never really meshed with the rest of the story for me, and the fact that an already assimilated man would be dying of AIDS didn’t make sense, given my understanding of how the alien works. At the conclusion of the story, Miller offers up the theme to readers on a platter, but I wasn’t quite convinced enough to buy it.
Content advisory: horror story with adult themes, language and content.
October 20, 2017
After a stint working on a research station in Antarctica - a job that ended badly, with a mysterious but fatal disaster - a man is back in New York. he's ready to meet up with his old friends and lovers, a social scene which overlaps the Black Power movement and the 1970's gay scene. But he's experiencing strange blackouts, blanks in his memory where evidence hints that something strange may have happened. And he still can't remember exactly what happened in Antarctica. He doesn't want to say it; even think it - but did he bring back something with him?
I liked this far more than I expected to, from the blurb I'd read beforehand. Issues of race and gender identity are smoothly woven into an effective horror tale.
Worth noting: this is apparently a direct sequel, featuring characters introduced in the movie, "The Thing" which, although I know it's a classic, I have not seen. So I cannot judge how it compares...
Merged review:
**** And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald
The theme of how humanity would react upon first receiving transmissions from an alien culture has been well-trod, but Margaret Ronald revisits this idea with a thoughtful gaze. The story focuses on a mother-son relationship. The mother is a researcher specializing in the scientific study of the communications from the aliens. Her son, she fears, may have joined a far less rational UFO suicide cult. Her worry leads her to abruptly leave a conference to confront him - but what she discovers isn't quite what she expected.
Ronald is a new author to me; after reading this poignant story I'll be keeping an eye out for her name.
** The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran (trans. Ken Liu)
The introductory notes make an effort to give the necessary historical background for this story of a time traveler visiting a crucial moment in 10th-century China - but it didn't work for me. I'm not sure if it's due to missing cultural touchstones; but I just didn't get into it.
**** Things With Beards - Steve Berman
After a stint working on a research station in Antarctica - a job that ended badly, with a mysterious but fatal disaster - a man is back in New York. he's ready to meet up with his old friends and lovers, a social scene which overlaps the Black Power movement and the 1970's gay scene. But he's experiencing strange blackouts, blanks in his memory where evidence hints that something strange may have happened. And he still can't remember exactly what happened in Antarctica. He doesn't want to say it; even think it - but did he bring back something with him?
I liked this far more than I expected to, from the blurb I'd read beforehand. Issues of race and gender identity are smoothly woven into an effective horror tale.
Worth noting: this is apparently a direct sequel, featuring characters introduced in the movie, "The Thing" which, although I know it's a classic, I have not seen. So I cannot judge how it compares...
I liked this far more than I expected to, from the blurb I'd read beforehand. Issues of race and gender identity are smoothly woven into an effective horror tale.
Worth noting: this is apparently a direct sequel, featuring characters introduced in the movie, "The Thing" which, although I know it's a classic, I have not seen. So I cannot judge how it compares...
Merged review:
**** And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald
The theme of how humanity would react upon first receiving transmissions from an alien culture has been well-trod, but Margaret Ronald revisits this idea with a thoughtful gaze. The story focuses on a mother-son relationship. The mother is a researcher specializing in the scientific study of the communications from the aliens. Her son, she fears, may have joined a far less rational UFO suicide cult. Her worry leads her to abruptly leave a conference to confront him - but what she discovers isn't quite what she expected.
Ronald is a new author to me; after reading this poignant story I'll be keeping an eye out for her name.
** The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran (trans. Ken Liu)
The introductory notes make an effort to give the necessary historical background for this story of a time traveler visiting a crucial moment in 10th-century China - but it didn't work for me. I'm not sure if it's due to missing cultural touchstones; but I just didn't get into it.
**** Things With Beards - Steve Berman
After a stint working on a research station in Antarctica - a job that ended badly, with a mysterious but fatal disaster - a man is back in New York. he's ready to meet up with his old friends and lovers, a social scene which overlaps the Black Power movement and the 1970's gay scene. But he's experiencing strange blackouts, blanks in his memory where evidence hints that something strange may have happened. And he still can't remember exactly what happened in Antarctica. He doesn't want to say it; even think it - but did he bring back something with him?
I liked this far more than I expected to, from the blurb I'd read beforehand. Issues of race and gender identity are smoothly woven into an effective horror tale.
Worth noting: this is apparently a direct sequel, featuring characters introduced in the movie, "The Thing" which, although I know it's a classic, I have not seen. So I cannot judge how it compares...
January 1, 2024
"Things With Beards" is apparently a direct sequel to the best horror film ever made, at least in my mind: John Carpenter's classic "The Thing." I've watched the movie countless times, and I hate that the ending ended where it did. I wanted to know what happened next.
Thank the gods for Sam J. Miller providing a sequel, even if more traditional readers might find this take slightly heretical. I found it emotional and satisfying, somewhat.
Thank the gods for Sam J. Miller providing a sequel, even if more traditional readers might find this take slightly heretical. I found it emotional and satisfying, somewhat.
October 25, 2017
An alien story (?) with a man who misses time and finds himself in some pretty weird situations.
July 10, 2016
3.5
Review originally published here : https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress...
Content
Original Fiction
And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald 5*
Great story, it really started the issue with a bang. It’s hard to talk about this story without spoiling it but basically it’s the story of a scientist who discovered an alien transmission and managed to understand them. However, after a while, she realized that she was witnessing the end of the alien and that the whole scientific community was helpless because the alien were more than 400 light years away.
Thsi story was a great reflexion on how hearing and witnessing the death of a new civilization could affect the whole humanity on both a global and personal level. It was extremely well-written, it was heartbreacking but it still managed to have a really optimistic ending.
Things with Beard by Sam J. Miller 5*
I am a huge fan of Sam Miller. So far, I read four of his stories and they all were incredible and I can’t wait for his debut-novel, The Art of Starving coming out in 2017 from HarperCollins. Needless to say, when I saw that one of his stories was in this issue, I was pumped.
And it did not disappoint. This story is set in the eighties in the midst of the AIDS pendemic. Our main character, MacReady is possessed by an hungry alien which forces him to have sexual relationship with men. Here the alien could be seen as a metaphor of people who are afraid of assuming their sexual preferences and feel like monsters. Not only this story was incredibly touching, it was thought-provocking and had some really interesting lines about racism whichnow remind me a lot of The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson that I read yesterday.
I especially liked how the story ended and as always with Miller’s fiction, I don’t really have anything bad to say about it.
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler 1*
This story is about an AI that is attacked by a virus and loose some pieces of memory.
I don’t have much to say about this story, it was very meh. For me, it didn’t have a plot or any new ideas to add to science fiction. I completely skimmed the second half because of how boring but oh well, it’s extremely rare to enjoy every story in a magazine or an athology so that’s okay.
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran DNF
I usually like the chineses translated featured in Clarkesworld but the translation felt too obvious and really made it hard to focus on this story because the whole thing sounded almost cartoonish. Also, this story was based on Chinese history and it was hard too understand for a Chinese history noob like me so I just decided to DNF it.
Reprints
The Promise of God by Michael Flynn 2,5*
This story wasn’t terrible but it’s a fairly forgettable one. The premise is interesting, the main character is a person without morale which means that he has no concept of either good or bad and needs a guardian to check on him. The ending was powerful but otherwise, I didn’t especially cared about the story.
Pathways by Nancy Kress 4.5*
This story follows a character that suffers from a really rare syndrom that will make her crazy. Her only way to escape from this fate is to participate to a new research. It was really short but it was full of ideas and the pacing was perfect. At first, the writing style was a bit hard to get into but after two or three pages, I was completely hooked!
It’s hard to pick a favorite story out of the three I really loved but, if you had to read only one story in this whole issue, I would probably recommend And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald. You can read (or listen to) it for free on the Clarkesworld Magazine website.
Review originally published here : https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress...
Content
Original Fiction
And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald 5*
Great story, it really started the issue with a bang. It’s hard to talk about this story without spoiling it but basically it’s the story of a scientist who discovered an alien transmission and managed to understand them. However, after a while, she realized that she was witnessing the end of the alien and that the whole scientific community was helpless because the alien were more than 400 light years away.
Thsi story was a great reflexion on how hearing and witnessing the death of a new civilization could affect the whole humanity on both a global and personal level. It was extremely well-written, it was heartbreacking but it still managed to have a really optimistic ending.
Things with Beard by Sam J. Miller 5*
I am a huge fan of Sam Miller. So far, I read four of his stories and they all were incredible and I can’t wait for his debut-novel, The Art of Starving coming out in 2017 from HarperCollins. Needless to say, when I saw that one of his stories was in this issue, I was pumped.
And it did not disappoint. This story is set in the eighties in the midst of the AIDS pendemic. Our main character, MacReady is possessed by an hungry alien which forces him to have sexual relationship with men. Here the alien could be seen as a metaphor of people who are afraid of assuming their sexual preferences and feel like monsters. Not only this story was incredibly touching, it was thought-provocking and had some really interesting lines about racism whichnow remind me a lot of The Devil In America by Kai Ashante Wilson that I read yesterday.
I especially liked how the story ended and as always with Miller’s fiction, I don’t really have anything bad to say about it.
.identity by E. Catherine Tobler 1*
This story is about an AI that is attacked by a virus and loose some pieces of memory.
I don’t have much to say about this story, it was very meh. For me, it didn’t have a plot or any new ideas to add to science fiction. I completely skimmed the second half because of how boring but oh well, it’s extremely rare to enjoy every story in a magazine or an athology so that’s okay.
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran DNF
I usually like the chineses translated featured in Clarkesworld but the translation felt too obvious and really made it hard to focus on this story because the whole thing sounded almost cartoonish. Also, this story was based on Chinese history and it was hard too understand for a Chinese history noob like me so I just decided to DNF it.
Reprints
The Promise of God by Michael Flynn 2,5*
This story wasn’t terrible but it’s a fairly forgettable one. The premise is interesting, the main character is a person without morale which means that he has no concept of either good or bad and needs a guardian to check on him. The ending was powerful but otherwise, I didn’t especially cared about the story.
Pathways by Nancy Kress 4.5*
This story follows a character that suffers from a really rare syndrom that will make her crazy. Her only way to escape from this fate is to participate to a new research. It was really short but it was full of ideas and the pacing was perfect. At first, the writing style was a bit hard to get into but after two or three pages, I was completely hooked!
It’s hard to pick a favorite story out of the three I really loved but, if you had to read only one story in this whole issue, I would probably recommend And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices by Margaret Ronald. You can read (or listen to) it for free on the Clarkesworld Magazine website.
April 2, 2017
An interesting take on a kind of "sequel" to the 1982 film "The Thing", in which we follow in the life post-film of Kurt Russell's character. It is an interesting study of the concept of "otherness", mixing race and gender relations in 1980's America with the "other" thing that lurks inside McReady's body. Where the story falls a bit flat is in the terrorist subplot. Not an easy subject, and treated here with not enough depth, which makes the ending fall a bit flat.
May 2, 2018
Wow.
This was great. Clever and fascinating. Simple but approaching so many complex matters. Every words right on point and then, strangely poetic at the same time.
I really liked it.
This was great. Clever and fascinating. Simple but approaching so many complex matters. Every words right on point and then, strangely poetic at the same time.
I really liked it.
September 2, 2018
Rating only for "Things With Beards".
I read this online. A terrific mix of lovecraftian horror and social critique. The style is a bit fragmentary but it makes total sense within the story.
It deals with some difficult topics that I have listed below. Some might spoil part of the story so I encourage you not to read them unless necessary.
List of content warnings (MIGHT BE CONSIDERED SPOILER):
Suicide, homophobia, racism, police brutality
I read this online. A terrific mix of lovecraftian horror and social critique. The style is a bit fragmentary but it makes total sense within the story.
It deals with some difficult topics that I have listed below. Some might spoil part of the story so I encourage you not to read them unless necessary.
List of content warnings (MIGHT BE CONSIDERED SPOILER):
Suicide, homophobia, racism, police brutality
May 15, 2017
Breve relato/secuela de "The Thing" de Carpenter con un "Kurt Russell" de vuelta en Nueva York tras lo ocurrido en La Antartida y de lo que no recuerda nada tras despertar después de ser dado por muerto y congelado.
Bien, pero esta tan metido a presión con la trama gay ochentera, el sida, la violencia racial en Nueva York y demás, que al final tanta alegoría con el monstruo interior queda un poco difuminada.
Bien, pero esta tan metido a presión con la trama gay ochentera, el sida, la violencia racial en Nueva York y demás, que al final tanta alegoría con el monstruo interior queda un poco difuminada.
December 18, 2017
Brief comment for “And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices” by Margaret Ronald. I expected to like this, based on previous reviews. Well, I didn't, not very much. Confusing and sort of depressing story. Might just be me.
December 30, 2017
It wasn't bad, there were certainly some quite interesting elements around the things inside, and the context of the story, but it's not a strong 3...
March 17, 2017
This story was so amazingly good, so gutting and painful and burning, it's SO MUCH all at once and I loved every word. It's about monsters that get inside us, how we make our peace with them...and omg it's just a really good story. Read it. Now.
March 12, 2017
A very interesting piece, touching very interesting topics like race relations, queerness, and otherness in America. The writing is quite good, the plot entertaining and interesting to read. I particularly enjoy how the two types of otherness, the one created by centuries of social discrimination, and the fictional blend and reinforce each other in the story. What I found troubling was MacReady's participation to a terrorist attack, and the fact that the author does not seem to see that act in a bad light. This stained what would have been otherwise an amazing short story.
December 27, 2022
The ending is underwhelming, with some loose ends, or at least they seemed loose to me.
Otherwise, this is a great example of time-travel literature. World building is impressive, as is character building. We get to see the time traveler mostly through the eyes of the natives. There is a sad moment where we realize how the traveler's methods and ambitions are 100% egotistical, he does not care what will happen with the rest of the people. No illusions can survive! :-) I still felt I could sympathize with all the characters, a nice piece of work
Otherwise, this is a great example of time-travel literature. World building is impressive, as is character building. We get to see the time traveler mostly through the eyes of the natives. There is a sad moment where we realize how the traveler's methods and ambitions are 100% egotistical, he does not care what will happen with the rest of the people. No illusions can survive! :-) I still felt I could sympathize with all the characters, a nice piece of work
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2016
Really lovely edition. Lots of great stories - Margaret Ronald's being my favourite - and also really interesting non-fiction articles. I found the one about microbiomes in the gut particularly fascinating.
Perfect for me
Enjoyable, worked for me
* "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald - Exquisite story about studying an alien race which we know has already died.
"Things with Beards" - Creepy story about what is found under the ice and in our own identities.
".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler - One of the intelligences controlling an intergenerational ship discovers it may have a virus.
"The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn - The use of magic erodes the user's conscience and so they must be paired with someone to control them.
"Pathways" by Nancy Kress - Just because science offers the chance of healing doesn't mean we trust it. This story had a beautiful and engaging voice. [reprint]
Fine, but didn't speak to me
"The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran - An alternate history of China with a misplaced time traveler. Interesting but I think I may have missed a lot of the nuance.
Not my cup of tea
Perfect for me
Enjoyable, worked for me
* "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald - Exquisite story about studying an alien race which we know has already died.
"Things with Beards" - Creepy story about what is found under the ice and in our own identities.
".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler - One of the intelligences controlling an intergenerational ship discovers it may have a virus.
"The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn - The use of magic erodes the user's conscience and so they must be paired with someone to control them.
"Pathways" by Nancy Kress - Just because science offers the chance of healing doesn't mean we trust it. This story had a beautiful and engaging voice. [reprint]
Fine, but didn't speak to me
"The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran - An alternate history of China with a misplaced time traveler. Interesting but I think I may have missed a lot of the nuance.
Not my cup of tea
February 1, 2017
Margaret Ronald - And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices *** 1/2
SETI empfängt einen Code, der es der Menschheit erlaubt, über viele Jahre die komplette Kommunikation einer fernen Spezies mitzuhören. Doch plötzlich verstummt die Kommunikation ...
Sam J. Miller - Things With Beards ** 1/2
Sie kommen aus der Antarktis zurück; aber sind sie noch sie selbst?
E. Catherine Tobler - .identity ****
Die Systeme eines Generationenschiffes spielen verrückt. Ist der KI des Schiffes noch zu trauen, oder ist auch sie kompromittiert?
Zhang Ran - The Snow of Jinyang *
abgebrochen, zu chinesisch für mich
Michael Flynn - The Promise of God **** 1/2
Kinder mit magischen Fähigkeiten werden zu willenlosen Werkzeugen konditioniert und mit einem Mentor verheiratet. Wie endet solch eine Beziehung? Intensiv und erschreckend
Nancy Kress - Pathways*** 1/2
Eine junge Frau leidet, wie viele ihrer (dysfunktionalen) Familie, an einer Hirnerkrankung, die zu Wahnsinn und Tod führt. Eine neue Behandlungsmethode eröffnet ihr die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben
SETI empfängt einen Code, der es der Menschheit erlaubt, über viele Jahre die komplette Kommunikation einer fernen Spezies mitzuhören. Doch plötzlich verstummt die Kommunikation ...
Sam J. Miller - Things With Beards ** 1/2
Sie kommen aus der Antarktis zurück; aber sind sie noch sie selbst?
E. Catherine Tobler - .identity ****
Die Systeme eines Generationenschiffes spielen verrückt. Ist der KI des Schiffes noch zu trauen, oder ist auch sie kompromittiert?
Zhang Ran - The Snow of Jinyang *
abgebrochen, zu chinesisch für mich
Michael Flynn - The Promise of God **** 1/2
Kinder mit magischen Fähigkeiten werden zu willenlosen Werkzeugen konditioniert und mit einem Mentor verheiratet. Wie endet solch eine Beziehung? Intensiv und erschreckend
Nancy Kress - Pathways*** 1/2
Eine junge Frau leidet, wie viele ihrer (dysfunktionalen) Familie, an einer Hirnerkrankung, die zu Wahnsinn und Tod führt. Eine neue Behandlungsmethode eröffnet ihr die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben
February 5, 2018
This review is of the story "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller
An intriguing and unsettling sequel to the movie The Thing, this is ultimately a story about identity and what we hide of ourselves and what we reveal.
Set in 1983, the story touches on bunch of interesting topics: queerness and passing, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and the black liberation struggle, and mostly does well by them all, but I think it would have been better if it had been a bit longer and had more time for the narrative to play out.
An intriguing and unsettling sequel to the movie The Thing, this is ultimately a story about identity and what we hide of ourselves and what we reveal.
Set in 1983, the story touches on bunch of interesting topics: queerness and passing, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and the black liberation struggle, and mostly does well by them all, but I think it would have been better if it had been a bit longer and had more time for the narrative to play out.
January 27, 2023
My comments for short story:
Things With Beards by Sam J. Miller
Read Dec 2020
That thing came creeping up on me again. Strange feeling to run into it accidentally. I guess I should have suspected from the title. Excellent story!
Things With Beards by Sam J. Miller
Read Dec 2020
That thing came creeping up on me again. Strange feeling to run into it accidentally. I guess I should have suspected from the title. Excellent story!
May 3, 2021
This work has been claimed to be a sequel to Campbell Jr's classic 'Who Goes There?' I found it to be drab and pointless work, playing to the agenda-oriented critics controlling SFF these days.
Not recommended.
Not recommended.
June 1, 2022
Satisfying and creepy, but ends with the majority of the threads unresolved.
October 20, 2017
One of my favorite short stories of all time. With this story, Miller, like Charlie Jane Anders and other writers I have read recently, surprised me with what was possible in a short story. It's a mistake to dismiss this story as fan fiction. Not that there is anything wrong with fan fiction either, but the source material here is a starting point for what becomes a fresh perspective that leads to some chilling and revolutionary truths. The final lines of the story really resonated with me; they represent an expansion of what it means to be a monster or other, and also human. Miller is doing great work in this story (as in all his stories and in his first novel, The Art of Starving, which I'm reading now) that is more than just appreciation for a great horror film from the 1980s.
This was the first story I read by Miller, and led me to track down more of them. Every single one has been fantastic. Needless to say, Miller is one of my absolute favorite writers writing today, and of all time.
Merged review:
Brief descriptions I read about "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald and "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller convinced me to subscribe right then to a year of Clarkesworld Magazine, and I'm so glad I did. Ronald's story finds the melancholy, family drama, and distance in first contact. Miller's story is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing and it finds the monsters and hidden selves already beneath our skin even before invasion. I was also surprised to find a reprint of Nancy Kress's amazing "Pathways" and happily read it a second time. Because of this strange and often awful American election cycle, the background politics in "Pathways" resonated even more with this reading.
I enjoyed the transcendence of beings in ".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler and the beautiful and sad horror of "The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn. I struggled with the lengthy "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran but its twists and turns near the end and unexpected appearance of and explanation for the internet were worth the effort. A helpful introduction provided context without which the story would have been even more difficult to read. The way history asserts itself makes for a compellingly ending.
The nonfiction essay about the microbiome by Matthew Simmons, interview with Guy Gabriel Kay by Chris Urie, and inspiration from Alethea Kontis were wonderful. In the issue's "Editor's Desk", Neil Clarke sold me on his anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year. I have read a few of these stories and if they are reflective of the overall quality of the anthology, then I am eager to read the rest of them.
One of the disadvantages of reading magazines on a Kindle is how the cover art is too small and missing color. There are other ways, though, to view cover art in detail, and Vincent LAÏK's exquisitely beautiful artwork is available to view on his website:
https://vincent_laik.artstation.com/p...
There is so much activity occurring in the artwork set against a spacescape of planets almost too close for comfort. Meanwhile, the silhouette of a character and mount is almost lost in the foreground, adding amazing juxtapositions between enormous and small, active and still, detailed and obscured.
This was the first story I read by Miller, and led me to track down more of them. Every single one has been fantastic. Needless to say, Miller is one of my absolute favorite writers writing today, and of all time.
Merged review:
Brief descriptions I read about "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald and "Things With Beards" by Sam J. Miller convinced me to subscribe right then to a year of Clarkesworld Magazine, and I'm so glad I did. Ronald's story finds the melancholy, family drama, and distance in first contact. Miller's story is a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing and it finds the monsters and hidden selves already beneath our skin even before invasion. I was also surprised to find a reprint of Nancy Kress's amazing "Pathways" and happily read it a second time. Because of this strange and often awful American election cycle, the background politics in "Pathways" resonated even more with this reading.
I enjoyed the transcendence of beings in ".identity" by E. Catherine Tobler and the beautiful and sad horror of "The Promise of God" by Michael Flynn. I struggled with the lengthy "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran but its twists and turns near the end and unexpected appearance of and explanation for the internet were worth the effort. A helpful introduction provided context without which the story would have been even more difficult to read. The way history asserts itself makes for a compellingly ending.
The nonfiction essay about the microbiome by Matthew Simmons, interview with Guy Gabriel Kay by Chris Urie, and inspiration from Alethea Kontis were wonderful. In the issue's "Editor's Desk", Neil Clarke sold me on his anthology The Best Science Fiction of the Year. I have read a few of these stories and if they are reflective of the overall quality of the anthology, then I am eager to read the rest of them.
One of the disadvantages of reading magazines on a Kindle is how the cover art is too small and missing color. There are other ways, though, to view cover art in detail, and Vincent LAÏK's exquisitely beautiful artwork is available to view on his website:
https://vincent_laik.artstation.com/p...
There is so much activity occurring in the artwork set against a spacescape of planets almost too close for comfort. Meanwhile, the silhouette of a character and mount is almost lost in the foreground, adding amazing juxtapositions between enormous and small, active and still, detailed and obscured.
April 13, 2017
This is horror in the truest sense of the word. Miller molded characters and plot from a beloved John Carpenter film into a thinly disguised satire about LGBT acceptance. (Oh, I forgot, now it's LGBTQ). There is nothing in the Carpenter film to hint that MacReady is gay or that Childs is his gay lover. So, what if they were? Okay, well, maybe Kirk and Spock were gay lovers. That would tweak the LGBTQ Trekkies because not only are they gay, but Spock is half alien, so someone is bound to relate to Spock's feelings of isolation. Suppressed emotions added to the mix, and you have a great "coming out of the closet" story for Mr. Spock. Finally, alien brother, tell us all about it!
I have gay friends. But I happen to love the film this stupid fanfic story was based on. To even INSINUATE that being gay is akin to being The Thing, is not only a groaner of a plot, but it reflects Miller's ignorance of the source material. The Thing would attack the first human it found. It might have attacked everyone in the airport or subway or out on the street all at once and infected an entire city in a single afternoon. Then there would be no stopping it.
So I have a question for Mr. Miller. I'll forgive his ignorance of the material he attempted to usurp for his own political purposes. But, Mr. Miller, are you implying, through this poorly envisioned story, that GAY PEOPLE ARE MONSTERS INSIDE? I find that very, very offensive, and surprised Clarkesworld published it. Puts to question their competence, if not their homophobia.
Miller, don't write any more thinly disguised homophobia pieces. PLEASE!
I have gay friends. But I happen to love the film this stupid fanfic story was based on. To even INSINUATE that being gay is akin to being The Thing, is not only a groaner of a plot, but it reflects Miller's ignorance of the source material. The Thing would attack the first human it found. It might have attacked everyone in the airport or subway or out on the street all at once and infected an entire city in a single afternoon. Then there would be no stopping it.
So I have a question for Mr. Miller. I'll forgive his ignorance of the material he attempted to usurp for his own political purposes. But, Mr. Miller, are you implying, through this poorly envisioned story, that GAY PEOPLE ARE MONSTERS INSIDE? I find that very, very offensive, and surprised Clarkesworld published it. Puts to question their competence, if not their homophobia.
Miller, don't write any more thinly disguised homophobia pieces. PLEASE!
Want to read
July 7, 2018The Snows of Jiyang -
I thought it was an interesting story to begin with… and then I got to the part about the Ray-Ban sunglasses and I almost fell off my chair laughing. And things continue to kick into high gear from there onward. It actually turns out to be a very dark comedy as the main character discovers how fruitless his attempts are to make things better. Even with the fact this story is a translation and I have a lack of knowledge about the greater context, I could still feel the sting of this biting satire about the present, dressed up in anachronistic historical costumes to safely shout some strong criticism.
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