Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2023
“The Many Different Kinds of Love” by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey
“Karantha Fish” by Amal Singh
“Longevity” by Anya Ow
“All That We Leave Behind” by Charlie Hughes
“Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man” by J. A. Pak
“Twelve Aspects of the Dragon” by Rachael K. Jones
“Meeting in Greenwood” by R. K. Duncan
“The Pigeon Wife” by Samantha E. Chung
“Los Pajaritos” by Sam W. Pisciotta
“Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door” by Brooke Brannon
“Indigena” by Jennifer Maloney
“New Stars” by Christopher Crews
“High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge” by Kedrick Brown
“Prisoner 121 is Guilty” by Renee Pillai
“Fools and Their Money” by Meighan Hogate
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
Anchored by a new novella from an award-winning author and a collaborator, this issue offers fifteen original works of imaginative fiction.
“The Many Different Kinds of Love” by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey takes place on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. Deep in the ocean that lies under thick ice, an artificial intelligence communicates with a submarine containing a different kind of sentience, made up of a huge number of memories taken from human beings. They come into conflict when the need to mine iridium from the moon becomes a higher priority than looking for life.
This is an oversimplification of a complex story that does not contain any living human characters. It is narrated partly by the AI and partly by the synthetic mind formed by the multiple memories.
In addition to at least two kinds of sentience, the narrative also offers a guided tour of the exotic realm within Enceladus. It contains enough technological and biological speculation to satisfy fans of hard science fiction, but parts of the story require careful reading to appreciate fully.
There are also many descriptions of the various memories that make up the sentience running the submarine. This unusual form of intelligence requires the use of invented pronouns, such as yo’all and I’all. Some readers may consider this technique to be an affectation.
The protagonist of “Karantha Fish” by Amal Singh uses magical mind control to obtain the title creature, which is forbidden to people of her religion but is the only thing that can cure her uncle’s terminal disease. She must pay a penalty for using magic in this way and for violating the tenets of her faith.
The fantasy world created in this story is a unique and interesting one. The plot is pleasant and heartwarming, if simple.
“Longevity” by Anya Ow takes place in a future world in which people considered to be valuable to society have greatly extended lifespans, while ordinary people do not. The text consists of a few scenes, many years apart, in which the centuries-old narrator meets a rebellious young woman. They each learn something from the other.
Best appreciated as a study of two very different characters, this story also contains a great deal of futuristic technology. It serves as a thoughtful meditation on the effect that a very long life might have on one’s ability to do short-term planning. (An analogy with the way society deals with climate change is made explicit.) Some readers might question the characters’ decisions at the end.
In “All That We Leave Behind” by Charlie Hughes, the members of a book club meet to discuss a strange and disturbing volume. The situation changes when the author arrives.
This horror story creates an uneasy mood right away, and sustains it throughout the text. The author manages to make the terrifying aspects of the plot both subtle and gruesome. This chilling tale is sure to satisfy those readers seeking the darkest kind of fantasy.
The narrator of “Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man” by J. A. Pak relates how he was wounded in a battle with other dragons and healed by a human woman. He changes shape into a young man and lives with the woman for a time, learning human ways and defending people from attack by another of his own kind.
The story ends with a few paragraphs describing what happened to the narrator after he no longer lived with the woman. This section of the narrative seems out of place, almost like the start of another story. Other than that quibble, this gentle fantasy makes for pleasant reading.
“Twelve Aspects of the Dragon” by Rachael K. Jones is a very different look at this mythical creature. Written in the currently popular techniques of a list and second person narration, this very brief work consists of a dozen tiny sections that tell you what to expect when you encounter a dragon. It offers some vivid sensory detail in what is essentially a prose poem.
The narrator of “Meeting in Greenwood” by R. K. Duncan is an agent of a secret government organization that battles spirits of the dead who try to overthrow the progress made in civil rights since the War Between the States. He travels back in time and to the land of the dead on a railroad to the site of an infamous massacre of African Americans by white supremacists.
The story is full of political content, which goes beyond obvious outrage at the violent incident noted above. Certain American politicians are mentioned by name in a way that may cause controversy. The author’s passion is evident, and the narrative has intensity and imagination, if a certain lack of clarity in its fantasy concepts.
“The Pigeon Wife” by Samantha H. Chung takes place in a fantasy version of the modern world in which it is not uncommon for women facing financial difficulty to purchase or capture pigeons that turn into men, who then go out and earn a living at high-paying jobs. The narrator enters such a marriage of convenience, only to find out that her avian husband has a plan of his own.
The premise may be intended as a satiric metaphor for women being financially dependent on men, although the tone of the story is so light that it is hard to take this seriously. As far as plot logic goes, one has to wonder why the husbands, who have a difficult time acting like human beings and some of whom never even learn to speak, are able to immediately find lucrative positions in the business world. I may be asking too much of such a whimsical tale.
The narrator of “Los Pajaritos” by Sam W. Pisciotta loses a loved one to a terminal illness. At a future time when sparrows are extinct, he uses advanced technology to build an artificial bird and sets it free.
This is the entire plot of a very short story. The flight of the robotic sparrow seems to be a symbol of mourning and healing. As such, this brief tearjerker appeals to the reader’s emotions.
The title characters in “Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door” by Brooke Brannon are both the sons of mothers who left abusive husbands. Their shirts contain homemade embroidery that symbolizes their struggle and escape. They confront a strange, supernatural woman who covets the shirts’ patterns for her own evil reasons.
The characters and a great deal of local color are the most interesting aspects of this urban fantasy. The mysterious woman is more of a one-dimensional stereotype of wickedness. The way in which the two protagonists overcome the villain is inspiring.
“Indigena” by Jennifer Maloney is a very brief story in which a strange cloud of mist envelops humans on an alien planet, causing a bizarre transformation. This tiny tale, although it contains the trappings of science fiction, feels more like a fantasy poem. The author’s frequent use of italics, dashes, and ellipses adds to this feeling.
In “New Stars” by Christopher Crews, a young boy watches a spaceship operated by a simulation of his dead grandfather race through the sky. Not much longer than the previous story, this is a slice-of-life of the future, more sentimental than convincing.
In “High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge” by Kedrick Brown, a wormhole in space that opened up fifty thousand years ago carried some humans to another habitable planet. Over the millennia, they developed highly advanced technology. In the near future, they return to Earth as conquerors. Against this background, the plot deals with an athlete who has to watch the people from the other planet take over his sport.
The premise is intriguing, and the unusual way in which it is used adds interest. The concept requires a fair amount of exposition in what is a fairly short story, and may not be very plausible.
“Prisoner 121 is Guilty” by Renee Pillai takes place in a world in which the elite live in a tower above ground and workers dwell below the Earth’s surface. The protagonist is a young upper-class woman who is imprisoned for refusing a forced marriage and for attempting to help her only friend, a lower-class servant, escape punishment. During interrogation, she declares herself guilty, but for a different reason.
The society depicted in this grim tale is one of extreme repression, using torture and death to punish offenses against the rulers. The story is effectively disturbing, even if the brutal setting seems exaggerated
In “Fools and Their Money” by Meighan Hogate, a vulture-like being takes advantage of humans, stealing their wealth when they die. It leads a group of adventurers on a typical fantasy quest through a deadly swamp, although it warns them that they are unlikely to survive. Naturally, they are killed by the creatures living in the swamp. The scavenger takes what it can from their bodies, almost falling victim to the swamp beings. That’s not the end of its struggles, as it meets a relative of one of the dead adventurers, intent on revenge.
The story is full of dark humor and a gruesomely satiric look at fantasy clichés. The protagonist is both appealing and revolting, a delicate balancing act indeed. One interesting part of the plot is that the scavenger has a hard time telling the present from the past, which gets it into trouble. Readers who appreciate grim wit will enjoy this sardonic tale.
Victoria Silverwolf owns every issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published in the twentieth century (but not the twenty-first century).