Showing posts with label Novelette+2018. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novelette+2018. Show all posts
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Quality Time, by Ken Liu
★★★★☆ Remarkably accurate and interesting on several levels
(SF Robot) The narrator joins a big Silicon Valley company to work on home robots, and she’s excited when her ideas seem to work out—at first. (8,360 words; Time: 27m)
Recommended By: 📙JStrahan+2 👍RSR+1 (Q&A)
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Escape From Caring Seasons, by Sarah Pinsker
★★★★★ Who Knew a Slow-Motion Chase Could Be So Exciting?
(SF Thriller) Zora and Anya hoped to spend their golden years in an assisted living facility they helped design. But now it’s under new management, which is keeping Anya in the hospital, so Zora decides to break her out. (8,299 words; Time: 27m)
Okay, Glory, by Elizabeth Bear
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(SF Hacking) Brian wakes up in his mountain retreat to find his home AI system has been hacked and he can’t escape the house without paying a huge ransom. He’s an engineer, so he’s not ready to pay up without a fight. (9,723 words; Time: 32m)
Recommended By: 📙JStrahan+2 (Q&A)
The Woman Who Destroyed Us, by S.L. Huang
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(Medical SF) A mother feels that a brain implant meant to treat her neuro-atypical son has turned him into a completely different person, so she goes after the doctor who put them up to it. (10,291 words; Time: 34m)
Recommended By: 📙JStrahan+2 (Q&A)
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Bloom, by Kate Elliott
★★★★★ A Rich Setting, A Complex Plot, and Sympathetic Characters
(Alternate History Fantasy; Spiritwalker Trilogy) Autumn House is failing for lack of new magisters, so Titus grudgingly accepts the aid of a young diviner, even if she is a woman. (16,441 words; Time: 54m)
The Devil's Whatever, by Andy Duncan
★★★☆☆ Average
(Folktale) This is the story of how Petey was cursed to travel among all the places in America named for the Devil and reenact the tales of how they got their names and how Perleen tried to save him. (12,352 words; Time: 41m)
Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 (Q&A)
The Wolf and the Manticore, by Greg van Eekhout
★★★★★ A Slipstream Thriller in a Dog-Eat-Dog World
(Alternate Reality Dark Fantasy) Agnes works at the La Brea Tar Pits helping the Kingdom of Southern California make magical munitions, but she’s secretly spying for the Northern Californians. Unfortunately, someone has figured this out. (10,430 words; Time: 34m)
Widow Maker, by Lavie Tidhar
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(Fantasy Adventure; Gorel of Goliris) Gorel takes a job escorting an expedition to the top of a mountain in search of the legendary “Widow Maker” weapon, which destroyed two advanced civilizations thousands of years ago. (10,442 words; Time: 34m)
Although this is part of a long-running series, there’s no need to read earlier ones first, but if you want to avoid spoilers for the series, you might want to start with “Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God.”
No Work of Mine, by Elizabeth Bear
★★★☆☆ Average
(Fantasy Adventure; The Eternal Sky) Bijou the Artificer hunts for whoever is making poor-quality animations and passing them off as her work. (7,907 words; Time: 26m)
Although there are several novels and at least one other short story in the series, there’s no need to read any of them to enjoy this story, and it’s unlikely that reading this story first will spoil the rest
The Staff in the Stone, by Garth Nix
★★★★☆ Nice characters, fun plot
(Fantasy Thriller) The villagers find a wizard’s staff sticking out of an ancient stone obelisk, but only Colrean knows just how dangerous it is and what sort of dangers it may attract. (11,314 words; Time: 37m)
Recommended By: 📙JStrahan+2 👍RHorton.r+2 👍RSR+1 (Q&A)
Sungrazer, by Liz Williams
★★☆☆☆ Not Recommended
(Modern Fantasy) Professor Fallow, retired astronomer and magician, tries to figure out why a ghost seems to be trying to contact him. (9,802 words; Time: 32m)
Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+2 (Q&A)
The Governor, by Tim Powers
★★★★☆ Chilling, with Just the Right Twist
(Modern Fantasy Horror) When the old wizard dies in a car accident, his family gets together in his old house to try to find his talisman so they can have control over him before he reincarnates himself. (8,617 words; Time: 28m)
The Lovecraft book in the story is “The Outsiders and Others,” a 500-page collection of Lovecraft’s stories. It has been called “the beginning of serious specialist publishing of fantastic fiction in America.”
Loft the Sorcerer, by Eleanor Arnason
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(Icelandic Folktale Horror) A poor young student at the bishop’s school decides to learn black magic to improve his fortunes. (10,487 words; Time: 34m)
Recommended By: 👍RHorton.r+1 (Q&A)
Song of Fire, by Rachel Pollack
★★★☆☆ Honorable Mention
(Modern Fantasy Adventure; Jack Shade) In our world, only Travelers are aware of the supernatural world that exists all around us. Jack Shade is a sort of private investigator for Travelers, and in this story he takes a case for a Djinn, whose people are being starved to death. (14,158 words; Time: 47m)
This story makes reference to previous Jack Shade stories (there are lots of them), but there’s no real need to read any of them first. If you like this story and want to read more about Jack, all of the previous ones have been collected into “The Fissure King: A Novel in Five Stories”
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