[On May 10, 2021 Strange Horizons officially expressed its political support for Palestinian solidarity. The views of Tangent Online reviewers are not necessarily those of Strange Horizons. Fiction critiqued at Tangent Online is, as much as is humanly possible, without prejudice and based solely on artistic merit.]
Strange Horizons, August 29, 2022
“Lay My Stomach On Your Scales” by Wen-yi Lee
“The Soother of Sorrows” by Cat T.
“Clockwork Bayani” by EK Gonzales
“Obsolesce” by Nadine Aurora Tabing
“Wok Hei St” by Guan Un
“Her Merciful Components” by JV Choong
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
This special Southeast Asia issue offers half a dozen new stories, as well as poems, essays, and reviews.
The protagonist of “Lay My Stomach On Your Scales” by Wen-yi Lee seems, at first, to be an ordinary student, worried about her weight and envious of a seemingly perfect schoolmate. It soon becomes clear that she is a supernatural being, able to separate her head and internal organs from the rest of her body and fly. She discovers that the girl she envies exchanged their hands while she was flying. (The girl exchanges body parts regularly with corpses, in order to make herself perfect.) In order to win her own hands back, the protagonist must perform a service for the girl.
The start of the story, in which the narrator is glad to be free of the weight of her body, seems to be an allegory of body image distortion and eating disorders. This theme weakens during the rest of the narrative, although a hint of it appears at the end. The author makes imaginative use of a being from Southeast Asian folklore. The nature of the task the protagonist must undertake in order to regain her hands may strike some readers as anticlimactic.
In “The Soother of Sorrows” by Cat T., a wandering storyteller/musician finds shelter with a man who has experienced tragedy. The story’s speculative content does not appear until late in the narrative, so I will not reveal it here. Suffice to say that the author creates an evocative setting, even if parts of the main character’s back story are not entirely clear.
“Clockwork Bayani” by EK Gonzales takes place in the Philippines at the time when rebels were fighting against Spanish rule. In this version of history, elaborate mechanical dolls are the playthings of the wealthy. A poor widow obtains such a device in exchange for cleaning the shop of one who makes and sells them. This one is so lifelike that it can think for itself. The woman thinks of it as her son. A crisis develops when the doll expresses a desire to join the revolution.
Written in a clear, quiet style, this tale draws the reader into an imagined past that seems as real as the one we know. The story has strong emotional appeal, and the doll becomes a fully developed character. (The premise may remind some of Carlo Collodi’s classic work Pinocchio or one of its countless adaptations, but the resemblance is superficial.)
In “Obsolesce” by Nadine Aurora Tabing, artificial intelligences have triumphed over humanity, replacing their communities with an ever-expanding, featureless city of their own. The protagonist ekes out a living by repairing robots who are waiting to have their minds transferred into the group consciousness of the city. During one such assignment, she shares the memories of an aging robot, and comes to an understanding with it.
This synopsis fails to capture the complex background of a sophisticated story that deals with science fiction concepts in new and creative ways. Both the main character and the robot engage the reader’s sympathy, although there is a history of enmity between human and machine. This is the author’s first published short story, and it makes for a very impressive debut.
The narrator of “Wok Hei St” by Guan Un has a pair of minor magic skills. He can locate lost things and move small objects a short distance. These talents help him recover a wok for a woman about to appear on a television cooking competition, and escape from those who want it for themselves.
This is a very light work, in which even the antagonists are far less than sinister villains. A hint of the story’s mood is offered by the title, a rather contrived visual pun on “wok heist.” It offers a bit of contrast with more serious tales in this issue, like a sorbet between heavy courses of a meal.
The setting for “Her Merciful Components” by JV Choong is a temple staffed by robots, except for the woman in charge of them. She is haunted by memories of an animated statue of a goddess that went out of control, refusing to create another out of guilt. One of the robots takes matters into its own hands.
This is a pleasant tale of faith and forgiveness, with the simple message that it is possible to make up for one’s mistakes. Some of the story’s symbolism escaped me, which may simply reveal ignorance on my part.
Victoria Silverwolf has never been to Asia.