Lightspeed #172, September 2024
“The Terrible Secret of the Immortal Bards” by Adam-Troy Castro
“Reconstructing ‘The Goldenrod Conspiracy,’ Edina Room, Saturday 2:30-3:30” by Gabriela Santiago
“We the People Excluding I” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu
“Gaas” by Meg Elison
“A Superior Knot” by Ash Huang
“Two Motes in the Zeugma Dark” by Sagan Yee
“The Ex Hex” by Jae Steinbacher
“The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space” by Jon Lasser
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
The first story up in the September issue of Lightspeed is “The Terrible Secret o the Immortal Bards” by Adam-Troy Castro is about an unnamed author who has lived many years longer than a normal lifespan. When asked, he advises a younger author to write his final story first. But there is a catch. This is more a philosophical exercise than a story per se that depends on the idea revealed in the last paragraph. I didn’t find it as tragic as it was meant to be.
I always like new types of story structures, and “Reconstructing ‘The Goldenrod Conspiracy,’ Edina Room, Saturday 2:30-3:30” is fascinating. On the surface, Gabriela Santiago presents a lecture about a lost TV show, “The Goldenrod Conspiracy,” but the lecture paints an alternative society where government censorship is the rule. The story makes its points around the edges, as the lecturer talks about what has been reconstructed and how it assumes that the audience understands the situation, but which drops hints to the reader as to what may have been going on. A tour de force of worldbuilding without looking like worldbuilding.
Osahon Ize-Iyamu’s “We the People Excluding I” gives the protagonist a duty. The world is falling apart (literally) and the leader tells them that the way to save it is for him to vanish completely — hide so no one can find them. They run, but they can’t escape a mysterious fox until they figure out how to outwit him. The story didn’t really make sense to me and leaves too much of the why and how unclear.
“Gaas” by Meg Elison is about relationship software. Lana and her boyfriend Darius both use it, but their goals are different. She wants marriage; he wants a new girl every week. Lana asks her friend Erica for help. Minor bit of flash fiction, but competently done.
Ash Huang’s “A Superior Knot” tells about a society where a woman tapes a ribbon around her neck, which removes her ability to speak. The protagonist sees one of the women and has a brief affair with her. I confess I had a hard time following the thread and was unclear about the point.
Sagan Yee contributes “Two Motes in the Zeugma Dark” where Jules Mercer pilots a giant robot rocket used to fight alien invaders that keep attacking Earth. He uses his position to seduce young men, in this case, Elliot Scarpe, who has reservations about the need for the fight. While plugged into the controls, the aliens attack and Mercer is forced to bring Scarpe along to the fight. Most of it entails a battle scene where the two men learn about each other. A decent story, but battle scenes are not really my cup of tea.
“The Ex Hex” is a delightful story by Jae Steinbacher about Talis, a witch who had accidentally messed up a spell she cast in revenge on her ex that put him in a coma. It was more than she had wanted, and she goes to a coven with help on removing it. Talis is a charming character, as are the other women in the story. My only objection is that she achieves her goal too easily, but the story has a lot going for it.
The last of this month’s stories is Jon Lasser’s “The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space,” a piece of flash fiction that features a narrator who has been running a ship for years and is getting sick of the boredom and the monotonous food, who discovers a way to get provisions—but there is a catch. The story is a delight for its black humor. Be sure to reread the title when you get to the end.
Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate are available from Fantastic Books.