[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/Samovar, October 28, 2024
“Whale Ocean” by Nanpai Sanshu (translated by Xueting C. Ni)
“Because Flora Had Existed. And I Had Loved Her” Written and translated by Anna Martino
Reviewed by Geoff Houghton
“Whale Ocean” by Nanpai Sanshu (translated by Xueting C. Ni) is set in a far future universe where humanity has populated the entire Milky Way galaxy. The first person protagonist is the curator and sole human inhabitant on a water planet that has been seeded with baleen whales and other supporting lifeforms. He is one of many mutant humans with a genome that converts solitude into a pleasurable state and discourages interaction with other humans. He reluctantly accepts visiting scientists and tourists as a necessary and uncomfortable duty to advance his work but would prefer to be entirely alone.
His current guest is an astronomer who has studied the complex solar system and who brings news of a coming disaster that will destroy all life on the Whale planet. Our protagonist chooses to die with his whales rather than return to rejoin humanity.
The author admits in a footnote that this story is not really SF, but that he wishes that such a catastrophe was actually possible. That assertion is supported by the outrageously impossible physics and biology of the disaster. The author uses a few pseudo-scientific words but appears willfully ignorant of celestial mechanics, population genetics and even the dissimilar effects of gravity on differently scaled planets. If the reader can suspend all scientific criticism then they will be left with the story of an antisocial misfit who chooses to become a kamikaze.
“Because Flora Had Existed. And I Had Loved Her” written and translated by Anna Martino is set in 20th century Brazil. It is written in a complex and non-linear manner as a series of interviews and quotes from the deceased protagonist and two other individuals who knew him well for many years.
The central character becomes an author after an unlicensed experiment by a stereotypical mad doctor detaches his perception of reality from standard linear time. He pours all the apparent precognition and experience of things yet to be into his writings, but although his visions of the future become prize-winning art, they are uniformly treated as fiction. Not even his close confidants understand that he is living with the pre-knowledge of his whole life and final death and not even the protagonist is certain until close to his end that all that he sees is truly real.
This is a very complicated read on both stylistic and conceptual grounds. The reader is warned not to start unless they are willing to concentrate hard on understanding who is who and what happens when. This reviewer needed to take notes!
Geoff Houghton lives in a leafy village in rural England. He is a retired Healthcare Professional with a love of SF and a jackdaw-like appetite for gibbets of medical, scientific and historical knowledge.