Week eight (of thirteen) in the episodic release of the novel The Human Division puts paid to John Scalzi’s assertion after last week’s dog-sitting episode that “things get rather more serious again next week”. There are no cute fluffy puppies here.
Heather Lee is a Lieutenant on the CDF ship Tubingen. After quelling a small rebellion on the Colonial Union colony on Zhong Guo she and her compatriots are given shore leave. The last thing she recalls is stumbling out of a bar, lightly intoxicated. Awakened with a slap she finds herself blindfolded, naked and tied to a chair.
Not exactly a good way to end shore leave.
For those not wishing to be spoiled I bid you adieu until next week’s episode, “The Observers”.
For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station’s artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.
But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s resources. As deprivations cause the station’s ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance…
I don’t often post a book’s copy as the means of beginning a review but in the case of “On a Red Station, Drifting” I believe the quote sets the stage far more succinctly than I ever could, for Aliette de Bodard’s novella is one that invites incoherent fannish babbling while at the same time inspiring one to write a review worthy of her story. I will make a valiant attempt, and I will fail, but in the effort I hope to convey some of what I took away from this unique work of fiction.
“Night creeps over the forest and the frogs begin their mating calls in earnest. The croaking rises to a din, and the kids pause and listen. The glorious stars emerge, and I’m not sure if it’s my imagination, but the frogs seem to plead to them, over and over again, “Save us, save us, save us!”
In Matthew Kressel’s “The Sounds of Old Earth” we are introduced to Abner, one of the remaining holdouts on a decayed and dying Earth. Abner lives in a small wooded area behind a protective screen of his devising in an ancestral home listening to the frogs croak on the nearby pond, reliving memories from when Earth was a vibrant place. Most of Earth’s inhabitants have been transferred to New Earth, while some of the less fortunate live on corporate-owned orbital platforms. Abner wants nothing to do with New Earth and aches as he sees his children and grandchildren so easily abandon the home of mankind. Matthew Kressel’s short story visits the small tragedies and triumphs that make up a life and in the process presents a touching narrative on what it is that makes a home.
If you haven’t taken the time to do so, please read “The Sounds of Old Earth“, and then come along after the jump for a more detailed discussion of the story.
(Cover image for Nebula Awards Showcase 2013 by Julie Dillon)
For this week’s Short Fiction Friday post over at SF Signal I review the seven short stories that were recently announced as nominees for this year’s Nebula Award for Short Story.
All seven stories have something to offer the reader. They are a strong list of nominees with many stories that are accessible and will speak to non-genre readers and genre readers alike. There are stories that address aging, the struggles of being a working parent, cultural identity, the importance of books, the price of true love and other pertinent life issues and they do so in imaginative and fantastical settings.
Each story is available free online, some in audio as well as written format, and can be found in the links provided in my post. I do hope you’ll consider reading one or more of them. My two favorites, noted by my 5/5 star ratings, are “Robot” by Helena Bell and “Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard.
Please join me over there as we look at what current short SFF fiction has to offer.
I wrote in my review of “The Back Channel” that it was roughly the mid-point of Scalzi’s novel and that I felt like he was giving the reader a bit of a breather. After reading “The Dog King” I can clearly see how wrong I was. The Human Division is being released episodically with each of thirteen chapters released individually, one every Tuesday. This being the seventh episode it sits poised with six stories preceding it and six to come after and though this story continues the alternating theme and returns us back to the crew of the Clarke, it is a light, comical story that I suspect is meant to act as a break, that brief moment of peace as the roller coaster crests the hill before it goes screaming back down the other side. Given that John Scalzi is by all appearances a writer who has a specific plan in mind I am curious about the direction the episodes will be taking from here on out.
All that I can say sans spoilers about “The Dog King” is that in this episode the reader is treated to Harry Wilson acting as a dog-sitter while the diplomatic team meets with an alien race willing to allow a negotiator to help them end a two-hundred-year-long civil war.
For those of you who have read the story or don’t care about being spoiled, please follow on.
