What do you think?
Rate this book
Uncanny Magazine Issue 34: May/June 2020
The May/June 2020 issue of Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine.
Featuring all-new short fiction by Arkady Martine, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Emma Törzs, A.T. Greenblatt, Meg Elison, and Suzanne Walker; reprint fiction by Sonya Taaffe; essays by Fran Wilde, Kelly Lagor, Khairani Barokka, and Ada Palmer, and a new editorial column by Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson; poems by Valerie Valdes, Ali Trotta, Roshani Chokshi, and T.K. Lê; interviews with Emma Törzs and Meg Elison by Caroline M. Yoachim; and Julie Dillon’s Taking Flight on the cover.
Featuring all-new short fiction by Arkady Martine, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Emma Törzs, A.T. Greenblatt, Meg Elison, and Suzanne Walker; reprint fiction by Sonya Taaffe; essays by Fran Wilde, Kelly Lagor, Khairani Barokka, and Ada Palmer, and a new editorial column by Nonfiction Editor Elsa Sjunneson; poems by Valerie Valdes, Ali Trotta, Roshani Chokshi, and T.K. Lê; interviews with Emma Törzs and Meg Elison by Caroline M. Yoachim; and Julie Dillon’s Taking Flight on the cover.
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2020
About the author
Lynne M. Thomas
93 books201 followersIn 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 Nine-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.
I'm an Nine-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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 4, 2022
This review is for two stories in this issue: Arkady Martine’s “A Being Together Among Strangers” (4 stars) and A.T. Greenblatt’s “Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” (3 stars).
—————
—————
A Being Together Among Strangers by Arkady Martine:
—————
Oh, this is good. Short and good and dense with meaning and really just pitch-perfect.
And it’s the memory of the miners’ voices that propels our narrator to intervene in the everyday ugly of hatred targeted at a climate refugee from drowning parts of the country. She uses her tech and her training to project the understanding of anger that stems from desperation — and her human actions serve as a bridge for understanding and compassion.
It’s such a short story and yet so densely packed with meaning and emotion. It’s a story about empathy and understanding, and is conveyed so well, without platitudes or cheap play of overreliance on relatability of emotion. It is ultimately a story about those bits of humanity that do not change regardless of how much technology progresses — empathy, communication, channeling of desperation into hatred and taking it head on with compassion. It straddles that thin line between detached and personal, and the combined effect is powerful.
Arkady Martine is the author of my new favorite SF duology A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. Her works are very thoughtful, and this one is not an exception to that. It struck that special chord in my heart, and I simply loved it.
4.5 stars.
You can read it free here, on Uncanny Magazine site: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a... . You can hear it on their podcast (link on the site, story starts at 8 minutes, interview with Arkady Martine at 30 min).
—————
—————
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (nominated for Best Novelette for Hugo 2021 and Nebula 2020 Awards):
—————
I suppose the idea of an accountant for superpowered beings has its allure for writers (see Hench for a bloodier take on this). I mean, if you had to come up with an antithesis for all superheroic shenanigans, it would have to be accounting, right? It’s that contrast between the showy superpowers and ordered mundane world of spreadsheets and invoices that seems quite interesting to explore.
Here we have Sam Wells, an accountant who apparently has a superpower of bursting into flames — and is ostracized by the rest of the world for this perceived otherness. Naturally he struggles with self-disdain and self-hatred, and joins a team of “Supers” to help his self-image - of course, as an accountant. What follows is a quiet melancholic story of friendship, self-acceptance, fitting in, and the inherent small-minded evils of “othering”.
Yet it failed to engage me. Maybe it’s the low-key narration, or my overall “meh”-feeling about superheroes, or the too-transparent parallels to real world, or my persistent bafflement as why you would be an asshole to people who have abilities to hurt you badly. There nothing wrong with it, but it left me feeling that I’ve read something of this sort many times before, with the melancholic sadness feeling too familiar. It’s a well-trodden territory in recent fiction.
3 stars.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
——————
Recommended by: Dennis
—————
—————
A Being Together Among Strangers by Arkady Martine:
—————
Oh, this is good. Short and good and dense with meaning and really just pitch-perfect.
“It does take blood, to make a city. That’s part of the problem. We haven’t figured out how not to feed ourselves on ourselves.”Narrated by a 22nd century New York subway commuter who works in conflict resolution using the tech implanted in her head - in the time of climate refugees and scarcity and kids who have never even eaten an apple - this starts with a poignant look at the cave-in during the 1903 building of a section of New York Subway, a disaster taking lives of many miners, some of whose names remain unknown to us. The bloody disaster is imagined as an enormous horrific sacrifice to the city. An extra dynamite blast is fired during the construction of the tunnel - two blasts are considered safe, third may not be, “but cities have demands, and so do subcontractors” — and so among blood and mangled limbs and dying cries that carried to the surface some 180 feet above them, dying in the dark, the miners sacrifice to the growing city added to the terrible symbiosis.
“Breathing creatures are hungry ones, and the city took the miners twice: once with joy, into its pubs and brothels and theaters, into its rooming-houses in Spuyten Duyvil—and once with blood.”
And it’s the memory of the miners’ voices that propels our narrator to intervene in the everyday ugly of hatred targeted at a climate refugee from drowning parts of the country. She uses her tech and her training to project the understanding of anger that stems from desperation — and her human actions serve as a bridge for understanding and compassion.
“[…] but if I keep talking to her, the rest of the people in this car will rotate around, they’ll make a human space where they recognize this woman as a person. We’re New Yorkers, and one of the other laws of the subway is when someone fucks up we all shout them down.”
It’s such a short story and yet so densely packed with meaning and emotion. It’s a story about empathy and understanding, and is conveyed so well, without platitudes or cheap play of overreliance on relatability of emotion. It is ultimately a story about those bits of humanity that do not change regardless of how much technology progresses — empathy, communication, channeling of desperation into hatred and taking it head on with compassion. It straddles that thin line between detached and personal, and the combined effect is powerful.
‘Thomas Lynch on his knees’, I tell myself, and ‘they heard the screaming from the surface’, and I breathe in and out and think about holding back the sea a little longer, with my own hands if I have to. With my own voice.
Arkady Martine is the author of my new favorite SF duology A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. Her works are very thoughtful, and this one is not an exception to that. It struck that special chord in my heart, and I simply loved it.
4.5 stars.
“But I know they’re still here. With us in the dark. Sometimes I am sure they bought us the city, the vast machine of it that still runs despite everything we’ve done to the world. Sometimes I think that if we’d never sacrificed them, we’d never have had to have despite. Cities work by old magic, though, and there’s only so much you can plan for. They make demands. They grow and they die, and they make us, too, we small vicious brilliant things, and we grow and we die too, under their care, and we murder and nurture them the same.”
You can read it free here, on Uncanny Magazine site: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a... . You can hear it on their podcast (link on the site, story starts at 8 minutes, interview with Arkady Martine at 30 min).
—————
—————
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (nominated for Best Novelette for Hugo 2021 and Nebula 2020 Awards):
—————
I suppose the idea of an accountant for superpowered beings has its allure for writers (see Hench for a bloodier take on this). I mean, if you had to come up with an antithesis for all superheroic shenanigans, it would have to be accounting, right? It’s that contrast between the showy superpowers and ordered mundane world of spreadsheets and invoices that seems quite interesting to explore.
“The time-space continuum might be back to normal, but what about the paper trail?”
Here we have Sam Wells, an accountant who apparently has a superpower of bursting into flames — and is ostracized by the rest of the world for this perceived otherness. Naturally he struggles with self-disdain and self-hatred, and joins a team of “Supers” to help his self-image - of course, as an accountant. What follows is a quiet melancholic story of friendship, self-acceptance, fitting in, and the inherent small-minded evils of “othering”.
Yet it failed to engage me. Maybe it’s the low-key narration, or my overall “meh”-feeling about superheroes, or the too-transparent parallels to real world, or my persistent bafflement as why you would be an asshole to people who have abilities to hurt you badly. There nothing wrong with it, but it left me feeling that I’ve read something of this sort many times before, with the melancholic sadness feeling too familiar. It’s a well-trodden territory in recent fiction.
3 stars.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
——————
Recommended by: Dennis
Read
December 19, 2021Review only for two stories in this issue.
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine
(science-fiction / read February 26, 2021)
That’s a great one.
In a 22nd century New York City a woman is on her commute. While she’s on the subway she thinks about the miners that lost their lives in the 1903 Fort George Subway Tunnel Disaster. How they had been sacrificed for the city. Taken by the city.
That’s when a fight is about to break out on the train. A couple of teenagers verbally attack a woman who is apparently a climate refugee, of which New York has taken on a lot, as many cities are drowning.
Everyone is minding their own business, but the first-person narrator is working in conflict resolution and decides to step in, even though outside of work she is not allowed to use the tech that had been installed in her head for that exact purpose. Her job is to become “a vessel for hurt”, to understand the anger of people and where it is coming from. And then take it and translate it into the respective language that both parties can understand.
There’s a lot going on in this story. I like the integration of the real-life tragedy of the miners that Martine has done here. Her story is also about what it means to be a New Yorker and what it is that makes a city and the city’s people in general, and in which way those belong together. But mainly it is a story about empathy. I shelved it as sci-fi, but it isn’t really about the tech, or even the environmental problems in this imagined future. It’s more about understanding the different ways that people use to communicate and how hate often springs from hurt.
4.5 stars
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a...
I listened to it as part of the Uncanny Magazine Podcast #34A. The story starts at 8:00 and is roughly 19 minutes long. It was narrated by Joy Piedmont.
I recommend to also listen to the interview with the author, which follows after this story and a short poem. I had not heard Martine speak before. But I think I quite like her.
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt
(fantasy / read March 04, 2021 to March 05, 2021)
Sam loses his job as an accountant, because he has a tendency to spontaneously combust. No, seriously. So, what does Sam do? He auditions for a role on a team of Supers. However, setting himself on fire isn't the most useful super power. Therefore they hire him as their new accountant.
This started out exactly as it sounds — very amusing. However it loses a bit of steam midway through and actually becomes rather downtrodden.
Ultimately this is another story about being different and trying to fit in, and the superhero thing is just mirroring real-life otherness. Look, I get the message and it's nice and all. But to me it felt more like a missed opportunity to write something weird and funny instead of something that I read every two weeks or so.*
3 stars
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/b...
I listened to the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, episode #34B. The story starts at 7:31 and is roughly 64 minutes long. It was narrated by Erika Ensign. And this time I can't recommend the audio version. First of all, it's not one of Ensign's best. But more importantly, the text gets a little annoying at some point. There's one expression that gets repeated throughout the story. Watch Sam burn. Watch Sam not burn. Watch Sam run. Watch Sam do this and that. You get the idea. Listening to her saying this over and over again was exhausting.
Now that I think about it, listening to this instead of reading it might actually have contributed to my getting tired of the story midway through.
*But apparently it wasn't a missed opportunity to get nominated for an award (or two).
Best Novel
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
Best Novella
• Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
• Finna by Nino Cipri
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
• The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Best Novelette
• Stepsister by Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Shadow Prisons by Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as The Shadow Prison Experiment, Shadow Prisons of the Mind and The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• The Eight-Thousanders by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
• My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
• A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese
• Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
Best Novel
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
Best Novella
• Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
• Finna by Nino Cipri
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
Best Novelette
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine Issue 34: May/June 2020)
• I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter by Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine Issue 35: July/August 2020)
• Monster by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (from Big Girl)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine Issue 32: January/February 2020)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer (Tor. com)
• The Mermaid Astronaut by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
Best Series
• The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Interdependency by John Scalzi
• The Lady Astronaut Universe by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Best Graphic Story or Comic
• Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
• Ghost-Spider, Vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, written by Seanan McGuire, art by Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe
• Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything, written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Christian Ward
• Monstress, Vol. 5: Warchild, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine
(science-fiction / read February 26, 2021)
That’s a great one.
In a 22nd century New York City a woman is on her commute. While she’s on the subway she thinks about the miners that lost their lives in the 1903 Fort George Subway Tunnel Disaster. How they had been sacrificed for the city. Taken by the city.
Already it was the city, and already it was a breathing creature, even if its bloodstream was still being dynamited out of the rock. Breathing creatures are hungry ones, and the city took the miners twice: once with joy, into its pubs and brothels and theaters, into its rooming-houses in Spuyten Duyvil—and once with blood.
That’s when a fight is about to break out on the train. A couple of teenagers verbally attack a woman who is apparently a climate refugee, of which New York has taken on a lot, as many cities are drowning.
Everyone is minding their own business, but the first-person narrator is working in conflict resolution and decides to step in, even though outside of work she is not allowed to use the tech that had been installed in her head for that exact purpose. Her job is to become “a vessel for hurt”, to understand the anger of people and where it is coming from. And then take it and translate it into the respective language that both parties can understand.
There’s a lot going on in this story. I like the integration of the real-life tragedy of the miners that Martine has done here. Her story is also about what it means to be a New Yorker and what it is that makes a city and the city’s people in general, and in which way those belong together. But mainly it is a story about empathy. I shelved it as sci-fi, but it isn’t really about the tech, or even the environmental problems in this imagined future. It’s more about understanding the different ways that people use to communicate and how hate often springs from hurt.
4.5 stars
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/a...
I listened to it as part of the Uncanny Magazine Podcast #34A. The story starts at 8:00 and is roughly 19 minutes long. It was narrated by Joy Piedmont.
I recommend to also listen to the interview with the author, which follows after this story and a short poem. I had not heard Martine speak before. But I think I quite like her.
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt
(fantasy / read March 04, 2021 to March 05, 2021)
Sam loses his job as an accountant, because he has a tendency to spontaneously combust. No, seriously. So, what does Sam do? He auditions for a role on a team of Supers. However, setting himself on fire isn't the most useful super power. Therefore they hire him as their new accountant.
This started out exactly as it sounds — very amusing. However it loses a bit of steam midway through and actually becomes rather downtrodden.
Ultimately this is another story about being different and trying to fit in, and the superhero thing is just mirroring real-life otherness. Look, I get the message and it's nice and all. But to me it felt more like a missed opportunity to write something weird and funny instead of something that I read every two weeks or so.*
3 stars
Can be read for free here: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/b...
I listened to the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, episode #34B. The story starts at 7:31 and is roughly 64 minutes long. It was narrated by Erika Ensign. And this time I can't recommend the audio version. First of all, it's not one of Ensign's best. But more importantly, the text gets a little annoying at some point. There's one expression that gets repeated throughout the story. Watch Sam burn. Watch Sam not burn. Watch Sam run. Watch Sam do this and that. You get the idea. Listening to her saying this over and over again was exhausting.
Now that I think about it, listening to this instead of reading it might actually have contributed to my getting tired of the story midway through.
*But apparently it wasn't a missed opportunity to get nominated for an award (or two).
_________________
2020 Nebula Award Finalists
Best Novel
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
Best Novella
• Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
• Finna by Nino Cipri
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
• The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
Best Novelette
• Stepsister by Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
• Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Shadow Prisons by Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as The Shadow Prison Experiment, Shadow Prisons of the Mind and The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• The Eight-Thousanders by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
• My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
• Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
• Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
• A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
• A Game of Fox and Squirrels by Jenn Reese
• Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
________________
2021 Hugo Award Finalists
Best Novel
• Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Network Effect by Martha Wells
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
Best Novella
• Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
• Finna by Nino Cipri
• Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
• Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
Best Novelette
• Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine Issue 34: May/June 2020)
• I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter by Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine Issue 35: July/August 2020)
• Monster by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 160)
• The Pill by Meg Elison (from Big Girl)
• Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)
Best Short Story
• Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine Issue 32: January/February 2020)
• A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
• Little Free Library by Naomi Kritzer (Tor. com)
• The Mermaid Astronaut by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• Metal Like Blood in the Dark by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
Best Series
• The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Interdependency by John Scalzi
• The Lady Astronaut Universe by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Best Graphic Story or Comic
• Die, Vol. 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles
• Ghost-Spider, Vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, written by Seanan McGuire, art by Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe
• Invisible Kingdom, Vol. 2: Edge of Everything, written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Christian Ward
• Monstress, Vol. 5: Warchild, written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda
• Once & Future, Vol. 1: The King is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings
Currently reading
November 9, 2020Sonya Taaffe's "Where the Sky is Silver" is a story for the last night of Hanukkah. 4.5 stars
Previously published in Machinations and Mesmerism: Tales Inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/w...
"I lived where I was born, like all of us, between your dreams and your nightmares, in the land where the sky is silver and the earth is brass and all windows are mirrors, all mirrors are doors. It turned to broken glass, like yours did."
Previously published in Machinations and Mesmerism: Tales Inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann
https://uncannymagazine.com/article/w...
"I lived where I was born, like all of us, between your dreams and your nightmares, in the land where the sky is silver and the earth is brass and all windows are mirrors, all mirrors are doors. It turned to broken glass, like yours did."
September 26, 2021
Rating for two stories:
Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by AT Greenblatt
Delightful little story. Might be my fave from all Hugo nominated shorts this year.
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs.
A wonderful addition to the adult female friendship stories in SFF. It took a while for me to finish it maybe because I'd like to savor it. If there's a longer work, gimme now please.
Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by AT Greenblatt
Delightful little story. Might be my fave from all Hugo nominated shorts this year.
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs.
A wonderful addition to the adult female friendship stories in SFF. It took a while for me to finish it maybe because I'd like to savor it. If there's a longer work, gimme now please.
June 1, 2020
"Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" is on my list of the Best Short SFF of May 2020: https://1000yearplan.com/2020/06/01/t...
Read
September 20, 2021Girl, you best stop setting yourself on fire,
you may be the phoenix,
but these bones aren’t kindling
to keep others warm—
Started with Ali Trotta's 'Athena Holds Up a Mirror to Strength'. Sooo good; here. Looking forward to the rest.
My name is too hard
for you to pronounce
so I changed it.
My hair is too wild so I
tamed it.
Valerie Valdes's 'Assimilation' was fantastic. Read it here.
you may be the phoenix,
but these bones aren’t kindling
to keep others warm—
Started with Ali Trotta's 'Athena Holds Up a Mirror to Strength'. Sooo good; here. Looking forward to the rest.
My name is too hard
for you to pronounce
so I changed it.
My hair is too wild so I
tamed it.
Valerie Valdes's 'Assimilation' was fantastic. Read it here.
July 29, 2020
I really liked:
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs
Dresses Like White Elephants by Meg Elison
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs
Dresses Like White Elephants by Meg Elison
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt
May 19, 2021
The review is for Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super only.
This is a gritty and unidealistic take on a typical superhero story. What would be everyday people's realistic reaction to the world in which completely random people started displaying superpowers? How would the society change? How would the individuals thrown into having a power they never wanted deal with the new normal?
I enjoyed the structure of the novelette - a series of vignettes that show struggles, emotional turmoil and the journey to acceptance of a protagonist who is completely unremarkable - your usual Everyman. I also enjoyed the melancholic tone of the story. I could feel both the sadness, frustration and hope radiating from it.
This is a gritty and unidealistic take on a typical superhero story. What would be everyday people's realistic reaction to the world in which completely random people started displaying superpowers? How would the society change? How would the individuals thrown into having a power they never wanted deal with the new normal?
I enjoyed the structure of the novelette - a series of vignettes that show struggles, emotional turmoil and the journey to acceptance of a protagonist who is completely unremarkable - your usual Everyman. I also enjoyed the melancholic tone of the story. I could feel both the sadness, frustration and hope radiating from it.
December 10, 2020
rating for Arkady Martine's "A Being Together Amongst Strangers."
April 25, 2021
This is, just like it says on the tin, an episodic account of the life of a new Super, Sam Wells. His superpower is pretty marginal. He can create fire, and while it burns his hair, and his clothes, it doesn't burn his flesh. He's perfectly safe from fire.
But it's not a superpower that has a lot of practical use, in the superhero sense.
We follow Sam through getting accepted into the Super club, learning that since is superpower isn't one that especially useful on Main Team, the ones that go out and save people's lives and interfere with disasters trying to happen, his new job will be the same as his old job--accountant.
He's a really good accountant.
He finds out why being on Main Team is really, really no fun, and faces a major "life choices" crisis.
It's fun, and painful, and really good. Recommended.
This is available as a free read on the Uncanny Magazine website, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
But it's not a superpower that has a lot of practical use, in the superhero sense.
We follow Sam through getting accepted into the Super club, learning that since is superpower isn't one that especially useful on Main Team, the ones that go out and save people's lives and interfere with disasters trying to happen, his new job will be the same as his old job--accountant.
He's a really good accountant.
He finds out why being on Main Team is really, really no fun, and faces a major "life choices" crisis.
It's fun, and painful, and really good. Recommended.
This is available as a free read on the Uncanny Magazine website, and I am reviewing it voluntarily.
May 6, 2020
Fiction
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine: 4/5
Through the Veil by Jennifer Marie Brissett: 2/5
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs: 4/5
Burn, or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A. T. Greenblatt: 4.5/5
Dresses Like White Elephants by Meg Elison: 4/5
We Chased the Sirens by Suzanne Walker: 3/5
Where the Sky Is Silver and the Earth Is Brass by Sonya Taaffe: 3/5
Non-fiction
It Is Not That The Spoon Must Bend or: Cypher's Steak and Our Online Lives by Fran Wilde: 4.5/5
Cons, Crud, and Coronavirus by Kelly Lagor: 4/5
Prayer Room Science Fiction by Khairani Barokka: 4/5
Censorship and Genre Fiction - Let's Broaden our Broader Reality by Ada Palmer: 4.5/5
Poetry
Disclaimer: I refuse to rate poetry because I feel like I'm not qualified to and on a whole I don't understand nor enjoy most of it, but the poetry in this issue by Ali Trotta, Valerie Valdes, T.K. Lê, and Roshani Chokshi were all enjoyable to me.
Average rating: 3.77/5, rounded to 3.75/5
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine: 4/5
Through the Veil by Jennifer Marie Brissett: 2/5
High in the Clean Blue Air by Emma Törzs: 4/5
Burn, or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A. T. Greenblatt: 4.5/5
Dresses Like White Elephants by Meg Elison: 4/5
We Chased the Sirens by Suzanne Walker: 3/5
Where the Sky Is Silver and the Earth Is Brass by Sonya Taaffe: 3/5
Non-fiction
It Is Not That The Spoon Must Bend or: Cypher's Steak and Our Online Lives by Fran Wilde: 4.5/5
Cons, Crud, and Coronavirus by Kelly Lagor: 4/5
Prayer Room Science Fiction by Khairani Barokka: 4/5
Censorship and Genre Fiction - Let's Broaden our Broader Reality by Ada Palmer: 4.5/5
Poetry
Disclaimer: I refuse to rate poetry because I feel like I'm not qualified to and on a whole I don't understand nor enjoy most of it, but the poetry in this issue by Ali Trotta, Valerie Valdes, T.K. Lê, and Roshani Chokshi were all enjoyable to me.
Average rating: 3.77/5, rounded to 3.75/5
April 1, 2021
A Being Together Amongst Strangers - Arkady Martine ***
A conflict resolution specialist who has their employer's tech embedded in their head to absorb aggression and reflect it back outward remembers a mining accident from the construction of the New York subway, then intervenes in an attack on a refugee while commuting. Some really nice images and phrases and a 22nd century that feels very close, just a little loose.
Through The Veil - Jennifer Marie Brissett **
A coming-to-awareness story where a scientist steals their equipment after their project is cancelled and finds a way to cross to another dimension, where they... sort of feel better about themselves now they can see things differently? Too vague to really hit emotionally.
High In The Clean Blue Air - Emma Törzs ****
Alice, a shapeshifter able to take a bird form but preferring life as a human, deals with her past in the form of an old friend she visits and the return of an old shapeshifter boyfriend she betrayed. Great portrayal of a long-lasting and deep friendship, as well as the guilt and possibility of forgiveness surrounding the old relationship.
Burn Or The Episodic Life Of Sam Wells As A Super - AT Greenblatt ***
n unsung mutant story, as Sam - an accountant who can catch fire without being burned - joins and tries to fit in with a team of more established Supers, doing their paperwork and admin. A light tone to begin with that gradually turns darker, but reigns both in for a fine story of acceptance and friendship.
Dresses Like White Elephants - Meg Elison ***
Beni browses a wedding dress sale/expo, looking for a piece for his drag show. The dresses all have a story and a range of prices - the true prices and what Beni does for the sellers is a nice conclusion.
We Chased The Sirens - Suzanne Walker **
A group of women sailors all escaping their dangerous pasts chase the sirens - some nice images and lines but the poetic style here didn't quite work for me; neither one thing nor the other.
A conflict resolution specialist who has their employer's tech embedded in their head to absorb aggression and reflect it back outward remembers a mining accident from the construction of the New York subway, then intervenes in an attack on a refugee while commuting. Some really nice images and phrases and a 22nd century that feels very close, just a little loose.
Through The Veil - Jennifer Marie Brissett **
A coming-to-awareness story where a scientist steals their equipment after their project is cancelled and finds a way to cross to another dimension, where they... sort of feel better about themselves now they can see things differently? Too vague to really hit emotionally.
High In The Clean Blue Air - Emma Törzs ****
Alice, a shapeshifter able to take a bird form but preferring life as a human, deals with her past in the form of an old friend she visits and the return of an old shapeshifter boyfriend she betrayed. Great portrayal of a long-lasting and deep friendship, as well as the guilt and possibility of forgiveness surrounding the old relationship.
Burn Or The Episodic Life Of Sam Wells As A Super - AT Greenblatt ***
n unsung mutant story, as Sam - an accountant who can catch fire without being burned - joins and tries to fit in with a team of more established Supers, doing their paperwork and admin. A light tone to begin with that gradually turns darker, but reigns both in for a fine story of acceptance and friendship.
Dresses Like White Elephants - Meg Elison ***
Beni browses a wedding dress sale/expo, looking for a piece for his drag show. The dresses all have a story and a range of prices - the true prices and what Beni does for the sellers is a nice conclusion.
We Chased The Sirens - Suzanne Walker **
A group of women sailors all escaping their dangerous pasts chase the sirens - some nice images and lines but the poetic style here didn't quite work for me; neither one thing nor the other.
May 13, 2021
This review is for Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt.
Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I have not read any work by this author before, and I was eager to discover a new author.
This is the story of Sam, an accountant that has discovered a super ability: he can set himself on fire. This happened by accident in a bar, and led to loss of his friends and boyfriend. The incident makes the news, and Sam receives an application to the local Super organization. After a humiliating interview, he is accepted... to work as an accountant.
With his ability to set himself on fire, it doesn’t look like he'll be doing a lot of rescuing people, even though that's what he dreams of. More accurately, he dreams of impressing the people who dumped him when they learned he had a super power.
This is a story about accepting us for what we are, that evokes coming out stories in the real world.
This novellette is very well written, intriguing, and very enjoyable; definitely a strong contender for the award.
Every year I read all the finalists of the most prestigious science fiction awards (at least in the English speaking world): the Hugo awards. This story is a finalist in the Novelette category. I have not read any work by this author before, and I was eager to discover a new author.
This is the story of Sam, an accountant that has discovered a super ability: he can set himself on fire. This happened by accident in a bar, and led to loss of his friends and boyfriend. The incident makes the news, and Sam receives an application to the local Super organization. After a humiliating interview, he is accepted... to work as an accountant.
With his ability to set himself on fire, it doesn’t look like he'll be doing a lot of rescuing people, even though that's what he dreams of. More accurately, he dreams of impressing the people who dumped him when they learned he had a super power.
This is a story about accepting us for what we are, that evokes coming out stories in the real world.
This novellette is very well written, intriguing, and very enjoyable; definitely a strong contender for the award.
June 15, 2021
"Burn, or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" by A. T. Greenblatt (approx. 39 pages)
2021 Hugo Award Finalist - Best Novelette
This could, with minor modifications, have been an entry in George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series. A man discovers he has a superpower and tries out to join a superhero team. What he finds is the mundaneness of being a low-level hero, with his aptitude as an accountant more valuable than his ability to set himself on fire. The story pointedly shows how most people's jobs suck, even when doing something that benefits society. The supers in this world are victims of prejudice and scorn, making the job that much harder. There is no real backstory as to how or why people are suddenly developing powers or why some do but most do not. A lot of these themes have been extensively covered in Wild Cards, so a story like this needs to have something more to make it memorable.
I did not read any other portions of this magazine.
2021 Hugo Award Finalist - Best Novelette
This could, with minor modifications, have been an entry in George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series. A man discovers he has a superpower and tries out to join a superhero team. What he finds is the mundaneness of being a low-level hero, with his aptitude as an accountant more valuable than his ability to set himself on fire. The story pointedly shows how most people's jobs suck, even when doing something that benefits society. The supers in this world are victims of prejudice and scorn, making the job that much harder. There is no real backstory as to how or why people are suddenly developing powers or why some do but most do not. A lot of these themes have been extensively covered in Wild Cards, so a story like this needs to have something more to make it memorable.
I did not read any other portions of this magazine.
May 16, 2021
Spring 2021 (April);
- Specifically “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”
Another twist on a superhero story, I found this one charming. I'm always down for newer and different takes on superheroes and superhero stories, and Sam Wells, with the power to catch himself regularly on fire, is very much that. I love that this story is all about finding what you're good at and sticking to it. I love that he realizes being on the big, big "main team" isn't all its cracked up to be. That he gets to come full circle with the people in his office and the people in the bar, and most of all with himself.
- Specifically “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”
Another twist on a superhero story, I found this one charming. I'm always down for newer and different takes on superheroes and superhero stories, and Sam Wells, with the power to catch himself regularly on fire, is very much that. I love that this story is all about finding what you're good at and sticking to it. I love that he realizes being on the big, big "main team" isn't all its cracked up to be. That he gets to come full circle with the people in his office and the people in the bar, and most of all with himself.
July 26, 2021
Read for the 2021 Hugos
Story "Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" - 4 stars - This story didn't feel to me like it had a lot of official elements. All pretty standard stuff. Somehow though, this story still manages to be interesting, compelling, and cool. It's ok if stories follow the same pattern, because sometimes it's a pattern that we really like. This is one of those.
Story "Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" - 4 stars - This story didn't feel to me like it had a lot of official elements. All pretty standard stuff. Somehow though, this story still manages to be interesting, compelling, and cool. It's ok if stories follow the same pattern, because sometimes it's a pattern that we really like. This is one of those.
June 5, 2020
As always, a bit of an uneven collection. I enjoyed Ada Palmer's essay, and the short stories by Sonya Taafe, Suzanne Walker, Arkady Martine and Emma Törzs, but felt the other short stories were quite weak. Roshani Chokshi's poem was also excellent. I wish there was a way to give a rating to each individual story rather than having to log the issue as a whole.
April 20, 2021
Review of “Burn: or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super”. Highly enjoyable; shades of Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Cookie Cutter Superhero universe although maybe slightly darker? Loved Miranda in particular. Feel like I need to seek out other work by Greenblatt.
June 27, 2021
Review of "Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" by A. T. Greenblatt.
Pretty good take on "what if superheroes really", but I was disappointed because I thought there would be forensic accounting.
Pretty good take on "what if superheroes really", but I was disappointed because I thought there would be forensic accounting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2021
Esta reseña es exclusiva para el relato "Dresses Like White Elephants" que es el nominado a mejor relato por los premios Locus 2021.
¿POR QUÉ NADIE ME DIJO QUE EXISTIA LA FANTASIA DRAGQUEEN?
Solo por lo novedoso y lindo que me resultó, se merece sus 3 estrellas.
¿POR QUÉ NADIE ME DIJO QUE EXISTIA LA FANTASIA DRAGQUEEN?
Solo por lo novedoso y lindo que me resultó, se merece sus 3 estrellas.
July 2, 2020
Favorites were "High in the Clean Blue Air" by Emma Törzs and "Burn, or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super" by A. T. Greenblatt
Shelved as 'comics-and-magazines'
August 24, 2020Favorites:
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super (A. T. Greenblatt)
Through the Veil (Jennifer Marie Brissett)
High in the Clean Blue Air (Emma Törzs)
Assimilation (Valerie Valdes)
Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super (A. T. Greenblatt)
Through the Veil (Jennifer Marie Brissett)
High in the Clean Blue Air (Emma Törzs)
Assimilation (Valerie Valdes)
December 31, 2020
A Being Together Amongst Strangers by Arkady Martine
April 24, 2021
Will review at www.fantasyliterature.com.
April 29, 2021
I only listened to: Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super
Fun story, I enjoyed it.
Fun story, I enjoyed it.
Read
May 7, 2021Placeholder for "Burn or The Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super." 2 stars.
"Dresses Like White Elephants," by Meg Elison. 4 stars.
"Dresses Like White Elephants," by Meg Elison. 4 stars.
June 18, 2021
Just "Burn"
May 10, 2021
A Being Together Among Strangers by Arkady Martine 3.5/5
April 13, 2021
I think this suffers from the prevalence of the subject matter (people with "super" abilities struggling with isolation, minority struggles, depression) but the story is clear and straightforward and can double as the struggle of anyone who is different and isolated from the main of human society. And the need for human connection, friendship, and work that makes a difference.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews