In January 2020 Clarkesworld Magazine published a story by Isabel Fall (a new writer, writing under a pseudonym) named I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter.
In my eyes it's a clever and well-executed piece of near-future fiction, set in a oddly broken US, where the military have shaped and used sexual identity to forge a closer bond between the weapon and its pilot - so much in the vein of a Peter Watts story that some people assumed it was actually written by him (no, it was not).
But it clearly also takes up the anti-trans meme in the title, and re-claims it for the trans community (Isabel Fall herself is trans). But somewhere between the unknown, anonymous author, the provocative title, and the modern-day tendency to be outraged just in case and on behalf this led to a shitstorm of abuse that ended in Fall asking Clarkesworld to take down the story, and check herself into a clinic due to suicidal ideation given the attacks on her.
So far so good (the story) and so bad (the unwarranted over-reaction to it). The story was, under the shortened moniker Helicopter Story, nominated for a Hugo Award in 2021 (it didn't win it), but is still only available on the Archive (the Wayback Machine has purges it's copy) and on private uploads. The space it took up on the Clarkesworld page is taken up by a statement by Neil Clarke, the editor. This is worth a read, too.
If you haven't read it then I would, now you know the above, invite you to read it yourself, links are below. And, both in this case as well as in general - please be respectful with other human beings, even if you disagree with them. Things are frequently more complex than they seem at first glance.
I still recall where I first came across the name Ben Bova – it was in a short story (which impressed me hugely) called Stars, Won't You Hide Me, which was included in one of these door-stop sized collections of short SF stories. I also know where I was when I learned of his death from COVID-related pneumonia/stroke – exactly where I am now, in my study, at my desk, in lockdown.
Ben's introduction to the collection at hand points at that he's published more than 1000 works of short fiction, nearly 150 novels, anthologies, plus books of non-fiction. I don't think he expected this selection, called My Favorites, to be his final book, not from how he sounds. But he points out that his stories are like his children, and that these are his favourite ones.
The book contains 14 stories, each with a short introduction by the author, and all published before. The introductions add something to most of the stories I felt, even if I'd have loved to get more background, more extra info. One piece of information that I would have found helpful would have been when these were originally written and/or published, it would definitely have helped to place them better, and appreciate them as products of the time, of where the world and he was at the time.
Still, this is an interesting and much varied selection, and I shall forgive him for not including Stars, Won't You Hide Me. He had a lot to choose from, and he knew them better than you or me.
Is this an essential book? No, not in my opinion. It is interesting, entertaining, but also something aimed at fans and completists I feel. Recommended within these caveats.
Here's a recommendation from our friends over at the Translated SF Wiki (you should check them out if you have an interest in non-UK/US SF!)
Anton Stark's short story Silkstrand, A Minute Of is a fascinating little fragment, set in Chinese-style high culture, and following one of the characters responsible for maintaining the universal clock that keeps the Empire ticking, and time flowing correctly. But who, by chance, finds out that - no, I'm not telling. Go read it, it's short, it's clever, and it's charming.
The story was published, both as text and as a Podcast on Cast of Wonders - links below.
The picture on the right is a wooden Triangle Mandala - it felt somewhat appropriate given the subject matter!
Neal Asher is an English author I've been reading for ages – and whilst his output varies both in approach, quality, and in enjoyability (now there's a relative and personal scale) I have overall rather appreciated the larger-than life escapism his books provided; including a good part of the stuff written in his Polity universe (far-future Space Opera with AIs in charge of humanity, various properly powerful aliens, huge spaceships and stations, and even bigger battles). Given that his output amounts to 24 novels plus a number of collections, novellas, short stories etc this is good going, in my book. On the other hand he is one of these authors you watch with a wary eye in case some of their potentially less palatable mindsets or political leanings start coming to the fore in their writing (do I mention JKR at this point? Maybe better not...).
Still, The Warship, as middle part of a trilogy (first book The Soldier, next book – just out – The Human) is classic larger-than-life SF entertainment. It is deeply rooted in his Polity universe, is decidedly not a jumping-on point, despite the Cast of Characters & Glossary of key terms that precede the story; these mainly serve in re-acquainting the cognoscenti to the subject matter at hand! Also, the story is really not a stand-alone, but directly follows on from the events set out in The Soldier, we are straight back into the thick of the action, and the exposition and ruminations on the value of being human. See also the title of the final book in the trilogy for more thought on the matter. On a note – the trilogy is named Rise of the Jain, and it's worth noting that this has nothing to do with the religion of the name, but is (a maybe unfortunate) name of an extinct (?) historic race. “Then we had better prepare, because we're just about to end up in a fire fight with aliens whose f'ing archaeological remains have been destroying civilisations”
And now for something distinctly different, to mangle the Monty Python quote... How to Astronaut (An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth) is a non-fiction book. Yes, I occasionally read these, too! The author, Terry Virts, is a former jet pilot, test pilot, Space Shuttle pilot, and ISS Commander, who retired from his Astronaut career at NASA in 2016.
Like many former astronauts he has capitalised on his experiences by publishing books – in his case this is (so far) a coffee table book with spaceflight and Earth view pictures, a luxury replica of the Apollo 11 flight plan, and now this book, which circles around memories and lessons learned as part of his career in aeronautics and astronautics.
The book consists of an Introduction, 51 chapters split into 6 sections, an Afterword (written a bit later than the rest – it deals with Coronavirus, and the respective virtues of isolating in space vs on Earth), and Acknowledgments, Index, Credits.
The sections for the main part, the 'meat' of the book, are roughly grouped chronologically – Training, Launch, Orbit, Spacewalking, Deep Space (a bit of a more theoretical departure there), and Re-Entry. It covers all the usual topics, of course, including a fairly detailed description of the always-present topic of going to the toiled in space (no, it's done quite tastefully, no need to worry).
Elana Gomel came to my attention first with her magnificent story Going East in Rachel Swirsky & Sean Wallace 's collection People Of The Book: A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy.
She has since published 3 novels, a collection, and loads of short fiction - expect a few pointers to short stories to come your way here, or maybe even a full review as and when I get to do one!
Here's Where the Streets Have No Name - a story, based on a quite standard trope, but with a rather unusual, claustrophobic treatment as we follow the crew of a commercial start-up desperately trying to make contact with the inhabitants of Gliese 512, who have roundly ignored their presence so far. But, as you could have guessed, there is more to this than meets the eye (and remote drones deployed), of course.
Read it all at the link below - the image on the right is by the digital artist Alex Andreev, and is not connected to the story except in my head. Go check out his site, I think his work rather impressive!
