Uncanny Magazine Issue 16: May/June 2017

Uncanny Magazine #16

by Lynne M. Thomas (Editor), Michael Damian Thomas (Editor), Ursula Vernon (Contributor)

The May/June 2017 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine.

Featuring new fiction by Ursula Vernon, John Chu, Chinelo Onwualu, Naomi Kritzer, Hiromi Goto, and K.M. Szpara, reprinted fiction by Carlos Hernandez, essays by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Sarah Gailey, Sam J. Miller, Sarah Pinsker, Mimi Mondal, David J. Schwartz, Kelly McCullough, LaShawn M. Wanak, Yamile Saied Méndez, and DongWon Song, poetry by Roshani Chokshi, Sonya Taaffe, Betsy Aoki, and Theodora Goss, interviews with John Chu and Hiromi Goto by Julia Rios, a cover by Galen Dara, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, LGBT, Science Fiction Fantasy

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2017

About the author

In my day job, I am the Head of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book and Manuscript Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the largest public university rare book collections in the country. I used to manage pop culture special collections that include the papers of over 70 SF/F authors at Northern Illinois University. I also teach a Special Collections course as an adjunct in the iSchool at Illinois, and used to do so at SJSU.

I'm an eleven-time Hugo Award winner, the Co-Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine with my husband Michael Damian Thomas. The former Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013), I co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas, and Chicks Dig Comics. I moderated the Hugo-Award winning SF Squeecast and contribute to the Verity! Podcast. You can learn more about my shenanigans at lynnemthomas.com.

Reviews

[Sr3yas · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Cool short story alert*

I loved Ursula Vernon's Jackalope Wives and The Tomato Thief, and Sun, Moon, Dust ones again proves that she got the spark for telling a good story in a grand way.

Sun, Moon, Dust is got a fairytale setting, with Allpa, a young farmer inheriting his Grandma's sword: a sword that holds the soul of three warriors whose job is to protect and teach him the art of war.

But Allpa just wants to be a farmer and maybe own a llama one day.



Vernon's writing is unique and hilarious, and I just love the way she tells the story. The story itself strays away from the usual "It's better to be a Warrior in a Garden than a Gardener in a War" to something new, and I dig it.

Read It here ------> https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...

Recommended.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun, Moon, Dust by URSULA VERNON

Another Hugo nom for '18 in Short Stories.

This was a rather fun fantasy of a more traditional bent including the interactions between a *traditional* hero and the trapped souls inside a sword. What makes this stand out is the interactions.

How many sword-in-stone-stories would have been cut short if characters like this were more common? lol

At least it makes me think. Pretty fun.

Merged review:


Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. SZPARA

'18 Hugo nom for short story.

Very vivid writing and a mostly standard vampire-turning story except for one small detail: transgender. For the most part, I thought it was pretty fine. I've read much worse vampire stories. The transgender part wasn't particularly overpowering, but it did manage to pull off a pretty good mirroring between the law, marginalization, and MAKING something of yourself.

Not bad.

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

*** Sun, Moon, Dust by Ursula Vernon ***

A farmer inherits a magic sword from his grandmother.
But he's got no desire to fight. He'd much rather take care of his land and live in peace.
Can't say much more for spoilery reasons. But watch out for that goat.

A nice and easy read. Good humor.

HUGO 2018 short story finalist.

3.5 stars

Read it here.

____________________________

2018 Hugo Awards Finalists

Best Novel
• The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (Tor)
• New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
• Provenance by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
• Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Orbit)
• The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

Best Novella
• All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
• And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
• Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
• The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
• River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

Best Novelette
• Children of Thorns, Children of Water by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny, July-August 2017)
• Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 15, 2017)
• The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)
• A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)
• Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny, May/June 2017)
• Wind Will Rove by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, September/October 2017)

Best Short Story
• Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2017)
• Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand by Fran Wilde (Uncanny, September 2017)
• Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny, September/October 2017)
• The Martian Obelisk by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 19, 2017)
• Sun, Moon, Dust by Ursula Vernon, (Uncanny, May/June 2017) by Ursula Vernon, (Uncanny, May/June 2017)
• Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017)

Best Related Work
• Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate by Zoe Quinn (PublicAffairs)
• Iain M. Banks (Modern Masters of Science Fiction) by Paul Kincaid (University of Illinois Press)
• A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison by Nat Segaloff (NESFA Press)
• Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal (Twelfth Planet Press)
• No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy by Liz Bourke (Aqueduct Press)

Best Graphic Story
• Black Bolt, Volume 1: Hard Time written by Saladin Ahmed, illustrated by Christian Ward, lettered by Clayton Cowles (Marvel)
• Bitch Planet, Volume 2: President Bitch written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro and Taki Soma, colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick, lettered by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
• Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood written by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters written and illustrated by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
• Paper Girls, Volume 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image Comics)
• Saga, Volume 7 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Best Series
• The Books of the Raksura, by Martha Wells (Night Shade)
• The Divine Cities, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway)
• InCryptid, by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by Marie Brennan (Tor US / Titan UK)
• The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson (Tor US / Gollancz UK)
• World of the Five Gods, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Harper Voyager / Spectrum Literary Agency)

[Bogi Takács]

Really liked this novelette; it explored the nonconsensual elements of the vampire theme carefully, while also being very much an #ownvoices portrayal of trans masculinity. It reminded me of Nevada in the sense that it was not necessarily written for a cis audience, and a cis audience might not even get some key moments. Though I did feel that some parts were very carefully calibrated to get readers to connect the dots, which is excellent.

I'd read more in this continuity.

Content notices for dysphoria, body changes causing dysphoria, lots of blood, nonconsensual vampirism, anti-trans sentiments from a cis gay man, fairly explicit sex, medical service denial, death (I mean it is a vampire story!)... I might have missed more content notices, because this is very much not a fluffy read.

Review here too: http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/two-...

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sun, Moon, Dust" by Ursula Vernon is a cute short story about a contented farmer who inherits an unwanted magical sword from his grandmother.

Sparza's “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time” won a Nebula. Interesting concepts, prose not anything special.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun, Moon, Dust by URSULA VERNON
A farmer inherits a magical sword from his dying grandmother. But he doesn‘t want to become a warrior

HUGO 2018 short story finalist.

Very poetic, from an author with a love for potatoes, apparently. Satisfying ending. I wouldn‘t mind to come back to these two and their budding romance. Will the Earth get to know her new inhabitant? And will the goat do something mischievous?

Story can be found here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...
————
Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. SZPARA
“I am trying to piss against a wall when the vampire bites me.“
As first sentences go, this is a pretty good one!

Not bad. An alternative world, where vampires are a known part of society, combined with a trans character. Unusual, thought provoking, slightly sexy. I am curious to know, what those small changes could turn out to be. I have ideas, obviously.

Hugo Awards 2018 Novelette Nominee

Story can be found here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...
————
What to expect from the Hadron Collider as a college roommate
BY BETSY AOKI | 201 WORDS, poetry

It will probably not be home for supper anytime soon.
Things will get broken and not put back together again.
…

Pretty amusing poem. I liked it!

Can be read here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/e...

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review & rating solely for "Sun, Moon Dust" by Ursula Vernon
Online at https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...
2018 Hugo nominee for best short story

Allpa's grandmother has left him a magic. sword, but he has no interest in becoming a warrior. "As legacies went, he had heard of better."

Three great warriors' spirits live in the sword. Allpa really just wants to be a farmer. "... the warrior was not interested in the details of goat husbandry."

Another fine Ursula Vernon tale. It's a Hugo-worthy tale, I think.

More of Ursula Vernon's/T. Kingfisher's stories may be found at
http://www.redwombatstudio.com/portfo...
And my favorite (so far) is "The Tomato Thief"
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Mitticus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just for:

Sun, Moon, Dust by Ursula Vernon

Short and sweet story about a farmer who inherit a magical sword.

“I don’t need to be a warrior, grandma,” said Allpa. “There are no wars right now. I’m growing potatoes. The little red ones you like. I’ll bring you the first harvest so you can taste them.”

Ursula Vernon is one of my favorites authors, and this tale show her humor and skill :) ---Here online

[Shira Glassman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harsh, raw, honest, and awesome. I applaud the author's creativity for pointing out some of the unique difficulties that might arise in the intersection of medical transition and vampire transformation. It's a difficult read because the protagonist has a lot of jarring and dysphoric things happen to him, but it's also sexy, hopeful, and determined.

TW's: menstruation, misgendering, and all the usual stuff you'd expect in a vampire story

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gentle tale about taking care of land and growing food, rather than running off for quests and adventure.

Merged review:

So a vampire bites a person. What makes this notable is that the person is transgender man. The changes that occur post-decision to become a vamp are complicated by the physical and mental changes that the individual has already gone through and what vampirism does.

[Silvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating for two stories:

Ursula Vernon's Sun, Moon, Dust
3.5 stars. Not as enticing as Vernon's last Hugo nominated stories (The Tomato Thief was excellent!) but I still really liked the main character and the idea of subverting the usual farmboy-cum-warrior trope.

KM Szpara's Small Changes over a Long Period of Time
3 stars. Representation of marginalized voices are crucial and I am glad I read this very interesting version of a vampire story. What would happen if a gay trans man was turned into a vampire? Fantastic sex aside (I am still confused about the physiological mechanics, since they're undead), apparently our main character still faces discrimination and biases over his nature. I wish there would be more plot involved, but it is still sufficiently intriguing and mind-opening.

[Silvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read "small changes over long periods of time" by K.M. Szpara

The most honest story about vampirism I've ever read. Don't read if you don't want uncomfortable details about what it even means to be turned. It's also, most of all, a very honest and raw story about being gay and trans, with so many details that I'm sure my trans friends will recognize and see themselves in.

[Amy Cousins]

This story is excellent. Fascinating. Powerful. And hot. :) I came across it when the author tweeted a link saying, "I wrote a story about a gay trans guy who's bitten by a vampire. It's angry & intimate & I feel a bit naked, now." I'll be keeping an eye out for more by KM Szpara.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this issue of Uncanny Magazine, stories shift between talking swords, vampires, and body enhancements, but all focus on self-identity and how others perceive us. I especially enjoyed Hiromi Goto's "Notes from Liminal Spaces," which is liminal in many ways. Extra nonfiction essays appear in this issue--10 total! They range from political advice to SFF commentary. My favorite of these was the very last--“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Eat the Damn Eyeball” by DongWon Song, about food and colonization in SFF. Of the poems, Theodora Goss once again writes a lovely, perfect poem about the magical bargains we make, and how often life moves in such a way that we may forget them. I highly recommend these 3 in particular.

Fiction:

Ursula Vernon- “Sun, Moon, Dust”: A farmer inherits a sword from his grandmother, a sword with magic beings trapped inside to help train him to be a master swordsman. But....he just wants to be a farmer. Nice story. 4/5

John Chu- “Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me”: A man joins a company that will enhance his body, ashamed of his small frame, but the work he does for the company is dangerous, and may or may not be strictly ethical. His best friend disapproves, but is his love enough? 3.5/5

Chinelo Onwualu- “Read Before Use”: A professor outcast in a domed city thinks she knows how to save the city, if she can find the right book. But betrayal may make her change her mind about saving the city at all. 3/5

Naomi Kritzer- “Paradox”: A time traveler ruminates on how things keep getting worse. 4/5

Hiromi Goto- “Notes from Liminal Spaces”: A hybrid piece, mixing essay with fiction illustrating the essay's message. I quite loved the essay part, how it identified speculative fiction with queerness. Here's a quote: "Before the term queer was reclaimed by the gay community, before queer was used as a pejorative toward gay persons to other and dehumanize, its uncertain origins include a possible Scottish source via low German with a denotation of “strange/peculiar” and maybe this is one of the permutations of the term¹ that nestles into my appreciation of writing and reading from literature of the fantastic. That it can inspire and inhabit a liminal place—a site of uneasiness and destabilization that can have the reader engage in unexpected and uncomfortable ways." This is one of the reasons I love speculative fiction, that it destabilizes the normative, so I really loved the points she made in the essay. The fiction part would not be as effective stand alone, but worked well with the essay. 4.5/5

K.M. Szpara – “Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time”: A trans man encounters a vampire, who turns him into a vampire. But then, his body starts changing back to female. So, I definitely need more trans stories in my life. This had a lot of graphic sex, and the protagonist ends up having consensual sex multiple times with the vampire that turned him without consent. So, I had some consent issues with the sex. And it was all just so much to take in. 2/5

Reprint:

Carlos Hernandez- “Origins”: Ephemeral creatures from another planet are condemned to earth when they eat one another. One such creature journeys to the moon with humans, and finds a better way to live by watching one human being on the moon. 3/5

Essays:

Javier Grillo-Marxuach- “In Praise of Deus (Ex Machina)”: An explanation of why using Deus Ex Machina in stories is underrated, using Indiana Jones and Time Bandits as examples. Why have I not watched Time Bandits? I've seen almost every other Gilliam. 3/5

Sarah Gailey – “City of Villains: Why I Don’t Trust Batman”: Seems more like fiction, but a working class man ruminates on the economic injustice of Batman and Bruce Wayne. 3/5

Sam J. Miller- “Resistance 101: Basics of Community Organizing for SF/F Creators & Consumers; Volume Two: Deepening Your Engagement”: Title says content. 3/5

Sarah Pinsker- “Meeting with Your Legislators 101 and 201”: Detailed how-to, that I may end up referring to later. 4/5

Mimi Mondal- “Missive from a Woman in a Room in a City in a Country in a World Not Her Own”: An essay about intersectionality, and what happens when you have so many ways you qualify as intersectional. 3.5/5

David J. Schwartz- “How Deep Space Nine Almost Didn’t Fail Me”: As a star trek lover, I still completely agree with David's premise--that Star Trek fails at being progressive in terms of gender, particularly with trans and non-cis gender relations. Dr. Who has the same problem, another one of my sci-fi obsessions. Let's hope both franchises will do better in the future. 4/5

Kelly McCullough- “The Resistance—Becoming A Local Politician”: One sci-fi author on how he became a local politician, and what it's like. 3/5

LaShawn Wanak – “Learning to Turn Your Lips Sideways”: The importance of having stories from various perspectives. 3/5

Yamile Saied Méndez- “Nunca Más”: Of growing up in Argentina in the 80s and 90s. Very interesting; I need to read more about Argentina's history. 4/5

DongWon Song- “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Eat the Damn Eyeball”: Colonization, food, and sci-fi, particularly Star Trek, from the perspective of a Korean-American. This is a great essay, and made me think of food in a different way. I'd never thought about how TNG propagates colonization through its portrayal of food, and I completely agree. 4.5/5

Poetry:

Roshani Chokshi- “Dancing Princesses”: A fairytale prose poem. Liked the language; kind of reminded me of Catherynne Valente's language. 4/5

Sonya Taaffe- “Twenty Seventy-One”: A commentary on contemporary events. Good rhythm. 3/5

Betsy Aoki- “What to expect from the Hadron Collider as a college roommate”: As the title says. 3/5

Theodora Goss- “Seven Shoes”: A girl makes a deal with a witch to wear out 7 shoes, though by the time she does so, she's forgotten the bargain. Lovely as always with Goss. 4.5/5

Interviews:

Interview with John Chu: Wish I could go to musical theater more often! (Or ever, really.) 4/5
Interview with Hiromi Goto: 4/5

[Athena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another little slice of life, this time a farmer's, served with kindness and good cheer by Ursula Vernon. It's a delightful, quick read with particular insight into the minds of goats, about whom she is absolutely right.

Read for free at Uncanny Magazine: Sun, Moon, Dust

[Rhode PVD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: my review is specifically for ‘Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by KM Szpara

Wordless with delight. It's beautiful, snarky, angry, painful, triumphant. All that plus it's got the best opening line of any vampire story ever.

[Rebecca Crunden]

⚜ poetry review ⚜

Orwell drinking tonight in a Boston sports bar
watches the news, watches nothing new.

I started with 'Twenty Seventy-One' by Sonya Taaffe. I absolutely loved this one. So, so wow. Read it here.

[anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

rep: trans gay mc, gay characters

love the concept for the vampires in society but was lowkey hoping for more death

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update: this text contains two reviews of Hugo and Nebula nominates works in this issue, not the whole issue.

Sun, Moon, Dust

This short story is short listed for Hugo Awards. For me, it is good, but not the best in the list. This is fantasy with a twist: a farmer inherits a magic sword to which the mightiest warriors of the past are bound. However, unlike the cliche start of a quest, the protagonist has no desire for sword&sorcery adventure


Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time

This novelette was nominated for Nebula in 2018
This is a vampire story with a twist: the victim is a transgender gay person, which, I guess is based on actual experience (the transgender part, not vampire bite part) of the author. While it could have been an interesting story, with vampires legalized and allowed to live among humans (this was already done in Blindsight as well as in scores of YA vampire romances), but it is unknown how turning into vampire affects transgenders. Add some sex scenes and that’s it. The story is not very interesting for me and I doubt it is because of the transgender stuff – in my mind I can replay the story with a cis person and it doesn’t either improves or worsens it for me.

[Jon Papai · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story is available online here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...

Finley Hall is a transsexual dude. He is bitten by a vampire against his will, and must choose to either die or turn into a vampire. Vampirism is legal and regulated by the government, but illegal for trans people to become.

I read the story of a transition to vampirism as an allegory for the kind of journey a trans person must make. If you have hang-ups about that kind of thing, this story is not for you.

[Avery (Book Deviant) · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting story, i liked it!

[Bridget Mckinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb issue full of great fiction and even greater non-fiction. Literally all of it is worth a read, but I suggest paying particular attention to Sarah Gailey's "City of Villains: Why I Don't Trust Batman," which has already gone a bit viral, and Mimi Mondal's perfectly gorgeous essay, "Missive from a Woman in a Room in a City in a Country in a World Not Her Own."

I'm not usually hugely into the poetry Uncanny publishes, but "Dancing Princesses" by Roshani Chokshi and "Seven Shoes" by Theodora Goss were both lovely.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sun, Moon, Dust" - Ursula Vernon - Good

"Origins" - Carlos Hernandez - Nope

"Read Before Use" - Chinelo Onwualu - Good

"Making the Magic Lightning Strike Me" - John Chu - Great

"Paradox" - Naomi Kritzer - Meh

"Notes from Liminal Spaces" - Hiromi Goto - Nope

"Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" - K.M. Szpara - OK

The Mimi Mondel essay was amazing.

[Crowinator · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" by K.M. Szpara - Hugo 2018 novelette nomination

[Acqua · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main character is a trans, gay vampire. That alone is a good reason to read this.

And that last line.

[Carina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casually working my way through this issue, but thus far pretty well gripped so it may turn into another two day short story binge! In case you don't know, all content from Uncanny Magazine is available for free on their website. If you have a few spare quid, do consider showing them some support if you love what they're doing.

Reviews by story under the cut, almost certainly not spoilery in the details, but ymmv so click at your own risk if you haven't read yet.



Sun, Moon, Dust - Ursula Vernon: Oh this is so cute. SO CUTE. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the granny was charmingly sharp, the farmer so earnestly committed to Goodness and his plants, the spirits all three full of well defined character. Not at all what you'd expect from the concept, very very sweet (but not trite). The pacing and the length were spot on.

Origins - Carlos Hernandez: This is very good. Kind of a futuristic hagiography, it's suffused with the concept of divinity, even as the story explains away the divinity of most human myths (in a novel way and more importantly not a pompously condescending atheist diatribe). I would say the take away, or the central concept, is earthly (or moonly i guess) compassion and empathy being the source of divinity, rather than hypocritical judgement and strictures (the narrator's people embrace the latter, which only serve to shroud it in fear, which is later overcome by the example of selflessness in Agnethe). I generally adore the entire concept behind the rise and decline of the age of miracles in this story, as well as the unspoken potential for another to come. A very smart story that doesn't need to wrap itself in confusing twists and turns to convey its cleverness.

(can you tell we were both raised catholic)

Read Before Use - Chinelo Onwualu: Also very clever, I really like the ending and the way it highlights the thread that runs through the story. It's not really to my taste, I'm not much for 'action/adventure' books and I generally prefer to weight more heavily in character than plot, but it is very good at what it does.

Making Magic Lightning Strike - John Chu: Kind of a gritty realism Captain America with body dysmorphia. It didn't click with me and I found it a bit tedious to get through, but it's not bad. It just meandered a bit, started of with the genuinely interesting Bedex idea and then floated away from that into body horror and dysmorphia.

Paradox - Naomi Kritzer: This puts me in mind of a stream of consciousness patter from a time travelling door to door salesman. Like nothing is real, they're just trying a bunch of scripts to see what works. I mean, essentially it's disconnected meta on the potential mundane realities and risks around time travel, so it can be interpreted whatever which way.

Notes on Liminal Spaces - Hiromi Goto: The format is a bit self-indulgent, but I like the intent. The idea of the story as a liminal space is excellent and the speech is very well fleshed out. The fragmentation is kind of interesting, in that it almost diagrams the points Goto makes in the speech by exploring them in the story. I don't know that it really pulls off what it's trying to do, but the attempt is admirable.

Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time - K.M. Sparza: I mean, this really isn't mine to criticise. I'm not inclined to though, it was good, got me invested quickly and kept me that way. Underneath a compelling plot (no pun intended) is an exploration of the various ways oppression is experienced beyond the big ticket items like legal status in the eyes of the government. Registers and restricted lists, limited access to care, Perfectly legal. Perfectly gross.


Poetry:


Taaffe: not my style
Chokshi: I like it.
Goss: I really liked this other than the part where she tries really hard to convey 'gypsy' without saying it, as if the image alone has no power.
Aoki: I really don't think I know enough science to fully get this, but it was whimsical and I liked the style.


I won't be reading all the Essays, because quite frankly I don't need to know how to contact american legislators and god knows if I did I've already heard about it seven hundred times from american friends who sometimes forget there is a world outside their borders. (Kudos to Uncanny for having a political voice and being informative with it though.)



Sarah Gailey on Batman: I mean, this isn't remotely original, it's been done many many times. This is a good version, but like.. anyone who's ever spent any kind of time thinking about Batman has thought this and then proceeded to tell everyone they know that they've thought this. It's eloquent and all, but it's just rehashing old ground while trying to give the impression of Genius Revelations. Which if I was to be particularly uncharitable, might lead me to suspect that the author isn't particularly interested in anyone's experience but her own, but I won't go that far since I haven't read anything else of hers and Batman is probably not the best barometer.

Mimi Mondal: This was achingly honest. I'm about the same age as her, and even though we have wildly different life experiences, I feel that sense of disconnect with the "bubble of safety" in the late 90s, where we of that age all thought progress was really happening and the worst was behind us. To find ourselves here, in this present, which this society, does not feel like the reality we were living, or any reality that it could have lead to. (Of course, a hard rebound often follows a period of change, historically speaking, but watching the first big rebound of your life hit this hard does kind of mess with you.) A really excellent essay.

Sam Miller, Resistance 101: This is obviously by an american geared towards americans, but some of the content can be applied universally with a smidge of common sense. It certainly wouldn't hurt a person who was feeling helpless in the face of injustice to have a read of it.

Javier Grillo–Marxuach: I've always been fond of a good deus ex machina despite how we're supposed to gasp in horror at the mere thought of them, so I quite enjoyed this essay. It waffles a little bit here and there and maybe hesitates from making to declarative a conclusion but the concluding opposition of deus ex tropes with the chosen one trope is very good, with the former [inviting] the rest of us to sit back, stay out of the fray, and wait for a bullwhip-wielding academic...to show up to save us. and the latter [commanding] us all to become that hero for ourselves; and then to find more like us, help them become heroes, and come together to prevent horrors that would otherwise make us pray for the coming of a savior. Timely.

Pinsker: As I said, I've no need to read this one.

Schwartz on Star Trek and Gender: Don't worry if you're not into Star Trek, or just not into DS9, you don't need to be. This is a wonderful essay. It perfectly describes the immense frustration that is growing up with traditional/mainstream sci fi/fantasy and all it's myriad possibilities, all of the hoping that this will be the one that will follow through and reflect you, only to watch them almost exactly replicate the status quo in some new weird and wonderful window dressing. Schwartz also gives an evocative, engaging and informative depiction of the perspective of the Other within so-called Utopian fiction, and more specifically of being 'too complicated' an other to make for a snappy cause or to, y'know, actually make it into their utopias.

Because the overall objection to identity politics and to an intersectional point of view, both in politics and in science fiction, seems to be that it makes everything too complicated. That those who haven’t heard the message, or haven’t watched the show, don’t want to be overwhelmed with ideas. That the message must wrap up neatly into a package that will not leave them with too many questions. That it will educate them just a little bit, without ever confronting them with their ignorance. <-- pure gold dust.

I also loved the section about certain factions of feminism (*cough* TERFS) wanting to throw the baby out with the bathwater because having to acknowledge the existence of Trans people just makes gender too complicated for them. Gender is complicated! We mostly made it up with our big dumb human brains and then smushed a billion ideologies together and tried to make it coherent, of course we're struggling with a system that tries to carve all of human experience into one of two boxes.

LaShawn M. Wanak on making your voice heard: Stays on the theme of the limitations in imagination and reach of tradition sf/f, this time with the slant of yearning to find Black Girl Magic. Includes a plethora of awesome recs, if you too would like to add some diversity to your to-read list, as well as just being excellent books as far as the ones I've already sampled go anyway.

DongWon Song on Food in Sci-fi: Again an essay on the tradition of colonisation in sci fi, this time from the perspective of a Korean American who explores his alienation from traditional sci fi through the theme of food, and the general homogeneity of food that we typically see in sci fi/fantasy (read: traditionally anglo things like roasts and boiled veggies). Confrontational, especially the section about eating live seafood, which is obviously intended to shock. I agree with the overall essay, food in particular is an oft-neglected means of world building and it's one area where even an author with the best intentions with regard to respresentation can fall down if they're not invested in the cultures they're borrowing from. Also, of course, the reason we need diversity not just in our characters, but our authors.

That said, I uh, don't agree with the ethics of live seafood, particularly cephalopods, so I could have done without the very graphic description and the implication that we should try anything before we reject it, it was a bit of a misfire in that particular point.

Kelly McCullough on running for local government: You're probably expecting me to have skipped this one, seeing as how it's unlikely that I'll ever be running for government over yonder. But! It was actually pretty interesting, and again, like Miller's, some parts could be universal with an application of common sense. Very encouraging for anyone who is considering it, though I did appreciate that he acknowledged the factor of his being an able bodied white male as far as his odds of being elected.

Yamile Saied Méndez - Nunca Más (Never Again): A powerful and engaging essay on the power of the written word as a tool of resistance, and the cyclical nature of oppression and dictatorship.


The interviews were fine, Goto's was particularly enjoyable as she delved a little into the whys of the form she chose for her piece. An altogether witty and well spoken interviewee.
To acknowledge and honour life’s beauty is also an act of resistance. In moments of despair these acknowledgements remind me that we are a small part of a larger world of life.

Overall, really impressed with my first dip into Uncanny's pool, will definitely be back.

[Darth Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy freak I looooved this! This is my shit right here. https://uncannymagazine.com/article/s...

[Veronique · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Simple, sweet, short story, on the road not taken - here someone who doesn’t want power and fame, buy is happy being ‘useful’, growing potatoes.

Hugo Awards 2018 Short Story Nominee

[Contrarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story examines interesting parallels between female-to-male transitioning and human-to-vampire transitioning -- both the cultural and physical aspects. I'm not sure it was really successful, especially given that the MC is made a vampire by force (similar to rape) rather than by biology or choice, and given that the MC is then stuck dealing with a body of the wrong gender again (I was hoping that something about the vampire magic would recognize the inner man within the female body); OTOH, given the title of the story, it may also be pointing out that the MC is so committed to gender transitioning that he's willing to stick with the process over the many years that it's now going to take to complete (because vampires have super-healing, any large injuries or surgeries tend to reverse themselves). So, not perfect, but thought-provoking. I'm giving it 4 stars because it's not a comparison I would have thought of making, though perhaps more like 3 1/2 because I do object to the "rape" (nonconsensual transition) given that the "rapist" gets no punishment and very little condemnation for his crime.

[Gregoire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Une histoire de vampire transgenre
Nouvelle nominée pour le prix Hugo 2018
free sur Uncanny à lire ici http://uncannymagazine.com/article/sm...

Je vais copier le commentaire bref mais efficace de Philip : "Not bad, just way too porny for my taste"