Apex “Going Endo” by Rich Larson
Reviewed by Clancy Weeks
Rich Larson is 23, and he has just made me very angry. There is just no way a man this young should be able to write this well—it just isn’t fair. Regardless of my personal problems, he has crafted a nice story in “Going Endo,” full of detailed world-building and fully three-dimensional characters. I have to admit, what with the created dialect, it was a hard slog at first, but you quickly become accustomed to it. Told from the point of view of an unnamed technician, it really is nothing more than a love story that, in the end, becomes a triad. Puck is an exo—a suit of armor designed for combat in open space and equipped with an advanced artificial intelligence. Cena is her “endo”—the human female riding inside, and together they form the best fighting unit in the squad. The tech tends to Puck’s needs, growing to love her over time, and jealous over Cena’s ability to ride and angry over her neglect of the exo. There is a nice twist at the end that is no surprise at all, but no less satisfying. Recommended.
Stories that never name the protagonist up front always feel like they are ashamed to do so, and follow it up by fulfilling that promise. “All Who Tremble” by A. A. Balaskovits is that kind of story. The Old Daughter (the only name the reader is given) is weak, manipulative, self-centered, and blind to the world around her. Not only is that probably not the picture Balaskovits intends, but worse, she never changes over the course of the story. The Daughter lives in a house with her mother, brother, and grandfather, and the family is a picture of dysfunction. The constant vibration emanating from the basement is both draw and a source of consternation for the neighbors and even the entire town. I’m sure there is a message buried in the overwrought prose, but I tired of trying to find it. It is a fantasy story with no real fantastical elements, or a horror story with no horror aspects—either way the tale went nowhere for me.
Horror? Nah. Fantasy? Other than some borrowed nomenclature for effect, not really. SF? Don’t make me laugh. While “Never Chose This Way” by Shira Lipkin technically fits the overarching style of the magazine, it doesn’t come close to being one of the core genres it purports to publish. Yet another of the “(s)he who must not be named” series of protagonists, it is a relatively well-written tale of a young woman who is not in the socially acceptable mold of “Young Woman,” and is therefore a Monster. At least in this story our protagonist grows as a character, and learns to accept herself outside of the labels and definitions society places upon her. Here’s how we knew she changed… the protagonist straight-up tells us. It is this type of ham-fisted approach to storytelling that irks me the most, and ultimately hurts what could have been a good read.
Clancy Weeks is a composer by training, with over two-dozen published works for wind ensemble and orchestra—his most recent work, “Blue Ice, Warm Seas,” was premiered in Houston on March 28, 2015—and an author only in his fevered imagination. Having read SF/F for nearly fifty years, he figured “What the hell, I can do that,” and has set out to prove that, well… maybe not so much. His first short story, “Zombie Like Me,” will appear in an upcoming issue of Stupefying Stories. He currently resides in Texas, but don’t hold that against him.