Lightspeed #174, November 2024
“Babywings” by Isabel Cañas
“Antyesti For a Dead Ganesa” (Parts 1 & 2) by Ashok K. Banker
“We Will Bring Siege to the Bastion of Sin That Cries Out in Your Prayer” by Hammond Diehl
“The Oracular Manifestation of Human Consciousness Offers Three Provocative Verbs Separated by Commas” by Aimee Ogden
“The Last Word” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
“Ancestor Code Error” by Ai Jiang
“The Ones Who Come at Last” by P. H. Lee
Reviewed by Seraph
“Babywings” by Isabel Cañas
This story was strangely difficult to review. A story about a mother giving birth should seem straightforward, but the animorphic quality of the crow in the story is fascinating. I find beauty in the simplicity and what feels like the honesty of this story: it is clearly the work of a mother. To many, the anxiety and apprehension expressed so clearly in its words could be horror, and in fairness the author is known in that genre. Magical realism, as the author describes it, is well within the realm of fantasy (and even science fiction, though they do tend to go about it a bit differently in terms of the causality behind it). This story was intimate, personal, almost poetic in both framing and in delivery, and it works. It defies being confined to a single category, and I do not think it would work as well any other way.
“Antyesti For a Dead Ganesa” (Parts 1 and 2) by Ashok K. Banker
This novella was presented in 2 parts, but it is reviewed as a complete, single story. It starts off at a gallop, throwing the reader quickly into the underbelly of a brave, new world. Imagined as the surface of the Earth, centered in what used to be India, as a giant megacity, or moreso a continent-spanning slum. Beings from Hindu mythology have appeared, bringing with them a fusion of myth and technology that reshapes the entire world. Up in the sky is the bright, shining city-sized mansion where the one who spoke with the Sanskriti resides, with possibly his very small family. Somewhere in between live the elites, who use the hyper-advanced technology to resurrect the minds of the dead and animate bodies for them to inhabit. There is a great deal going on in this novella, and much of it is not covering new ground. But the skill is in weaving disparate ideas together in a way that makes sense. For the most part, this is a success here. It borders on trying to do too much with too little real estate, in that really something with so many threads being woven together deserves an entire book, or two. Or three. That in and of itself should be considered praise. I found the place in which the story was split between the dates of publishing to be in an awkward place, though that is not the fault of the author. And again, there was too much going on in too small a space… it really does beg for the freedom to explore more of this world, and all of the intricacies therein.
“We Will Bring Siege to the Bastion of Sin That Cries Out in Your Prayer” by Hammond Diehl
This story had immense potential and promptly collapsed under its own weight. Elements of body horror meet strains of religious nightmare as a summoned “saint” goes about graverobbing the tombs and reliquaries of girls martyred in ages past, growing and becoming more fearsome with every recovered relic, until her halo of fire screams high into the night sky and the ground trembles with every step. It is reminiscent, at its core, of all the best parts of Constantine, and Hellboy, and so many other similar intellectual properties. But stories like this go off the rails fairly quickly. They are not meant to entertain, or to inspire… they are nothing more than vehicles to communicate the rage someone feels. All of the fantastical elements that are so intriguing simply fall away to convey that singular emotion. So the intriguing becomes the bizarre, another fever-dream fueled by rage.
“The Oracular Manifestation of Human Consciousness Offers Three Provocative Verbs Separated by Commas” by Aimee Ogden
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Revolutionize” are the (three?) four verbs separated by commas that the title refers to. It is a very biting commentary in story form, that takes the shape of a conversation from the author to the reader, though not a conversation in the sense that the recipient has anything to say. Merely that the speaker has something to say, and the reader will hear it. The anger behind the words is the same as that of the previous story, though this one never pretends to be anything else, and I can respect that honesty. But there really isn’t much story to this story, no character to follow, no plot to discern. Just you, the reader, being scolded into compliance. It reads more like an editorial, an opinion piece, and the final lines pose a question that sums up this story perfectly. “Someone is going to have to decide what is worth saving. Are you?”
“The Last Word” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe
A lily amongst the thorns, this one. She is an angel trapped in the body of a girl. No, not some overused pickup line, but truly she is a majestic being of spirit and fire, confined to flesh. There is pain in the words of this story, as she describes the injuries and intrusions thrust upon her by fearful humans. Much of humanity’s tendency towards cruelty is spoken of, but not in such an overwrought fashion. Her escape and her ultimate choice are borne out by seven Words, utterances of such power that they can alter reality itself, though uttering the final one means the end of her life. She does not, and cannot, spend her words so cheaply as humanity. For such a short story, I was amazed at how much it moved and resonated with me. I think that there is much in these words that speaks to the present state of humanity as a whole, but not in hate. Simply in sadness, and with power.
“Ancestor Code Error” by Ai Jiang
In the midst of all the angst over one current issue or another, there are concerns that humans have worried over and written of for as long as any of us can remember. Not least among those is, what will it be like when we are gone? Clearly, much of that recently has involved the climate, and certainly this story makes clear reference to that, but the grander concept was never limited to just one possible cause of our end. And beneath the talk of poisoning the Earth, there is an imagining of how our technology will shape the understanding of those who come after us. The Ancestor Code, in this case, being a technological version of Genetic Memory, and the irony of the final words is both fitting and terrifying, as technology can be so very unreliable. Not unlike those who created it, as I ponder this.
“The Ones Who Come at Last” by P. H. Lee
If you have ever had a beautiful dream that you gradually come to realize is truly a nightmare, and did not hate the experience, perhaps this story might be for you. The dream, in this case, is a beautiful city in which any and all are welcome, a magical place where scarcity of supply is unheard of and no one ever goes wanting. Does it sound too good to be true? Of course it is. There is a terrible, terrible price, the author assures us, for such a place to exist. I do confess that I find the rather vivid descriptions of atrocities done to children (mentioned in blunt detail prior to the reveal of this great cost) to overshadow the reveal of said price. I do not object to, nor am shocked by these descriptions. Perhaps it is only in my mind that I see in this story the promise of Liberty Island, the promise of the great Statue of Liberty in these written words, and to be sure, my own family’s names are inscribed on pages of those who were welcomed there. In the stories of where they fled from, such descriptions are told, and more. It does not shock me. I simply confess that I was unable to understand the real point the author was trying to make, beneath the horrific realism. Perhaps, if you can brave your way through such things, you may have more success than I.