Lightspeed #163, December 2023
“Carbon Zero” by D. Thomas Minton
“Whispers From the Sea” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees
“Dandelions” by Martin Cahill
“We’ll Never Die in the Woods” by Carlie St. George
“Seed” by Adam-Troy Castro
“To the Waters and the Wild” by Izzy Wasserstein
“Do the Right Thing and Ride the Bomb the Roundabout Way to Hell” by Andrea Kriz
“Mindfulness and the Machine” by A. T. Greenblatt
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Eight new works of imaginative fiction, many quite short, appear in this issue.
The narrator of “Carbon Zero” by D. Thomas Minton is one of a pair of environmental law enforcement agents. Their job is to track down people who fail to adjust their bodies in ways that ensure they break down all the carbon dioxide they produce. What they discover while searching the home of one such lawbreaker leads to a crisis of conscience.
The speculative biotechnology at the heart of this story is portrayed in a convincing way. The author vividly creates a grim future of extreme climate change, leading to desperate measures to survive. The story could have easily become a one-sided invective or satire, but instead it makes both the enforcement agents and the lawbreaker sympathetic characters.
“Whispers From the Sea” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees is a brief tale of two selkie siblings who flee hunters and a polluted ocean for lives on land. Written in a highly poetic style, with a large number of metaphors, this is more of a mood piece than a fully developed story.
“Dandelions” by Martin Cahill is another very short story. Aliens who produce pheromones that cause almost all humans to want to kill them arrive on Earth. The mass slaughter of the extraterrestrials leads to an unexpected effect.
The premise is unique, if gruesome. This tiny science fiction chiller, in contrast to the previous tale, is all plot. That may be enough to satisfy readers looking for a quick thrill.
“We’ll Never Die in the Woods” by Carlie St. George is a variation on the fairy tale “Diamonds and Toads” by the seventeenth century French writer Charles Perrault. As in the original, one sister is rewarded for an act of kindness by having jewels and flowers fall from her mouth when she speaks. The other sister, as punishment for lack of kindness, has snakes and toads appear in the same way.
This version of the old tale turns things upside down by having the kind sister’s marriage to a prince be horrible rather than a happy ending. She runs away from her murderous, sadistic husband and finds her sister living as a hermit. Despite many years of bitterness between them, they eventually work together for the benefit of both.
The author casts a wry eye upon the original tale, pointing out that having flowers and gems fall out of one’s mouth isn’t really a good thing, and making it clear that the unkind sister’s punishment is a far more horrible fate than a minor bit of discourtesy deserves. The sisters are fully developed characters, but the prince is a one-dimensional figure of evil.
The narrator of “Seed” by Adam-Troy Castro has her memory erased and her body altered in extreme ways as the only way to escape being tortured and killed by pursuing criminals. In exchange for sanctuary, she will have to spend the rest of her life wandering, unable to sleep or eat, observing people and waiting for orders from her nonhuman masters.
The text mostly consists of conversation between the narrator and the alien who is explaining her new life and duties to her. This technique, combined with the narrator’s lack of connection with her former life, leads to a very cold, almost emotionless story, despite the fact that it has some of the aspects of a tale of horror. The premise is intriguing, and the work can be read as a meditation on guilt, but readers are likely to find difficulty connecting with it.
“To the Waters and the Wild” by Izzy Wasserstein offers a new look at the sirens of Greek mythology. More of a prose poem than a story, this brief work creates a dreamy mood.
One narrative quirk is that all possessive words, such as “your” and “theirs,” appear between slash marks. The intent is to point out that the sirens have no concept of possession, but the technique is distracting.
“Do the Right Thing and Ride the Bomb the Roundabout Way to Hell” by Andrea Kriz is a very difficult story to describe. To greatly oversimplify things, it features a narrator who transforms into a living weapon over many years, meanwhile becoming a social media influencer.
The author mentions a very large number of events of the twenty-first century in a brief space, and goes on to add others of the near future. The pace of the story is dizzying, and the inclusion of multiple references results in a blurred mosaic of modern culture. It reminds me of J. G. Ballard’s so-called condensed novels (actually short stories). This strange little work is equally enigmatic, if not quite as disjointed. It is likely to appeal best to fans of New Wave experimental fiction.
In “Mindfulness and the Machine” by A. T. Greenblatt, the protagonist leaves a secure, sensible life in order to join the crew of a magical mechanical dragon. The workers struggle to prevent the device, which cannot be stopped, from killing people during its endless flight.
The premise can be seen as an allegory for casting caution to the winds and following one’s heart. It can also be interpreted as doing good for others, regardless of the risk to one’s self.
The author makes use of second person narrative, as well as numbered lists. As is often true, these popular techniques add little to the story. Although the work is not a farce, the protagonist is named Melody Misadventure. This emphasizes the theme, but is likely to strike many readers as too silly.
Victoria Silverwolf made a lot of phone calls recently.