Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2023

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Rating: 3/5 Stars

An average issue, with interesting stories by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey, Amal Singh, Samantha E. Chung and Meighan Hogate.

• “The Many Different Kinds of Love” by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey: a long, interesting story about a sentient exploration rig on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. It is buried in the water under the ice on the moon. The rig houses the memories and experiences of a group of selected people, who are tasked with giving permission to the rig to execute decisions. When communications with Earth are lost, the rig, with permission, decides to organize an expedition to explore the rest of the moon. When the expedition discovers would change the world that they know. But it may be threatened, for when the expedition returns to the rig, they discover that its priorities have been changed under its new masters.
• “Karantha Fish” by Amal Singh: a girl’s uncle is dying, but a cure is possible. But it would involve eating an ‘unclean’ food. But the girl’s desire to save her uncle, and her ability to influence people through sorcery, may work. The outcome would leave to priests demanding penitence from her, but it may be for the better.
• “Longevity” by Anya Ow: in a future Singapore grappling with climate change, a worker, modified to deal with the weather and can live longer, deals with a case of an unmodified and troublesome person. A request for a meeting would change their futures, and perhaps the future of people who are leaving to have both long and short term goals for solving the climate crisis.
• “All That We Leave Behind” by Charlie Hughes: an understated story that starts with a book club gathering to read an unusual book. As the story progresses, we learn that the book contains some unsaid horrible actions by the main character, which may have truly happened. The arrival of the author of the story would lead to a terrifying conclusion over what the readers did upon finishing the book.
• “Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man” by J.A. Pak: a prequel story about a young dragon who is injured, and is healed by a woman. During the healing process, the dragon transforms into a human and is accepted in the woman’s village as an unusual human. As time passes, the former dragon finds itself forming a close and intimate relationship with her.
• “Twelve Aspects of the Dragon” by Rachael Jones: a short short story about what the title says.
• “Meeting in Greenwood” by R. K. Duncan: an unusual agent of a secretive agency goes on a mission to get information on a political rival. Only, the meeting is with the dead, and he may have to deal with rivals, both living and dead, to bring back the information to the living.
• “The Pigeon Wife” by Samantha E. Chung: an interesting story based on a Korean folktale, it tells the story of a woman who captures a pigeon who has transformed into a human. Such transformed pigeons are apparently useful for work, which he does, bringing in much-needed money for her. But it comes to an end when the pigeon shows that it has the agency to break the bonds of work.
• “Los Pajaritos” by Sam W. Pisciotta: in a future where birds are gone, one person manufactures one in memory of his wife and lets it go.
• “Pluto And Tavis D Work the Door” by Brooke Brannon: two people who grew up with abusive fathers confronts a chilling ‘auntie’ who wants the knitted clothes one of them wears. For the history of their life after running away from their fathers is knitted on them, and the last thing they want is for her to possess it.
• “Indigena” by Jennifer Maloney: on a strange world, some human colonists are suddenly enveloped by a mist. What develops from that would show the planet knows what to do with colonists.
• “New Stars” by Christopher Crews: a father and son watch as a space race re-enactment, where one of the ships was the son’s grandfather.
• “High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge” by Kedrick Brown: a look at a future that is both dystopic and utopic, when Earth has been reformed by other humans who lived on another world for thousands of years and have returned.
• “Prisoner 121 is Guilty” by Renee Pillai: in a highly stratified society, a high caste youth is on trial for a crime. But in her eyes, the crime was her relationship to a lower caste friend.
• “Fools and Their Money” by Meighan Hogate: in this fantasy world, a large, sentient bird reminisces over current events, while preparing to pick over the remains of a party of people that wandered in a swamp, possibly tricked into using that way by the bird. Later on, another trick gets the bird into trouble with a relative of the party. But perhaps the bird will get the last laugh, as long as it takes care to separate reality from its vivid reliving of past events.

Magazine read from 2023/11/07 to 2023/11/22