It's about games, or, to be precise, about a world where all the Universe's games are mined from, and access to which is guarded by a tower and its warden (or is it the other way round?), who you have to pass to go and mine a game. Which can, and usually does, mean a challenge, and a game, and potentially consequences of losing said game.
I will not spill (and spoil) more of the story - go and ready it for yourself, it's available for free on Lightspeed Magazine. Yes, it has echoes of Ian M. Banks' Player of Games, but in a good and, in my opinion, non-derivative way.
It's also eligible for the 2014 Hugos, and has been recommended for such by Aliette de Bodard - I can heartily second that endorsement. Good stuff!
Clarkesworld #88 contains, among works by Ken Liu, Cheng Jingbo, Yoo Ha Lee, and Robert Charles Wilson (and doesn't that line-up just make you want to buy it), a story by Aliette de Bodard called Ship's Brother.
What's more, all of those are accessible for you to read online (thanks!), and you can find them either via the links below, or by moving on from Aliette's story once you have read it (yes, I have to insist).
The story plays in a society which has FTL ships - which require a human, or human-born post-human at their centre; and it's the duty of a women to birth one of those after their 'normal' child. And it can be the end of the mother, at lest mentally. (any flashbacks to Sucharitkul's Inquestor series are entirely mine, I know). We witness the birth of such a shipmind, and the impact this has on her family, and especially her brother. On the one hand a classic family tale; and on the other heart-wrenchingly heavy and sad, but also full of beauty.
But enough hyping already - go and ready it. And I guess, having birth and family relations on her mind a while back would have been rather close to home for Aliette, which might explain some of the emotional impact in the story...
In keeping with the topic of the previous review, here is a short story by Douglas Lain (a 'postmodernist' writer, whatever that is), titled The Last Apollo Mission, and originally published in 2011 in Rudy Rucker's magnificent (and magnificently weird) Flurb Magazine.
What does it deal with, you ask? A failed writer working as a bookseller, hired by Stanley Kubrik to write the script to a film, in a way which was never done before; and ending up on the moon together with her boyfriend. Or is it a stage set in the basement of the collapsed World Trade Centre? I guess, in many way, the story deals with the permeability of reality, to rather startling effect. Ah, just go read it already, ok?
The picture is a photoshop from a moon-landing-denier website, which I shall not link...
If you feel like reading something during the Holiday Season to intersperse the relentless celebrating, eating, drinking, and opening of presents with some culture then I have a suggestion for you...
You might consider The Ghosts of Christmas, a short story with a rather Dickensian title by Paul Cornell, which has been made available on Tor. com for all our enjoyment, with an illustration by Scott Bakal.
Although I'm sure that you can also read this after Christmas, it just won't be as topical/timely anymore, I guess...
Either way - enjoy the story, enjoy your Christmas (or you days off should you not celebrate), and thanks for reading along!
Pádraig Ó Méalóid has very kindly been given permission by Alan Moore to post online an essay/article which for various reasons never made it to print: “Fossil Angels was written by Alan Moore in December 2002, and was to appear in KAOS #15. KAOS #15 never actually appeared, and the piece has been without a home since then. I was lucky enough to be given a number of Alan Moore’s scripts by Alan himself a few years ago, and this was amongst them. I asked if I could publish it and, when another publication which it was slated to appear in folded, Alan told me I was free to go ahead. So, I am very proud to be allowed to present this piece on Glycon for its first publication anywhere.”
