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For the past three weeks, my work schedule has meant no gym. No gym means no reading. No reading means scrambling for something to post for Friday Reviews. So I’m going back to some of the fiction podcasts I’ve listened to recently for some very very brief impressions.
#402 Opals and Clay by Nino Cipri (read by The Word Whore)
Magical engineering, cultures in conflict with colonialist themes, questions of the morality of exploiting (and of loving) magico-mechanically created beings. The tragedy of trying to save loved ones when you have no power to save yourself. The world-building is beautiful and striking. The story is the sort of sharply tragic fantasy that makes me wonder whether I’m hopelessly out of step with the times. Like several others in this set of reviews, nice writing, but I can’t exactly say I “enjoyed” it.
#403 Send in the Ninjas by Michelle Ann King (read by Christiana Ellis)
Reading the first couple of paragraphs on the website, I recognize having listened to this, but don’t remember anything else about it. Sorry, I guess that’s my review.
#404 Territory by Julie Steinbacher (read by Maura McHugh and Kim Rogers)
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Two young women in love try a desperate magic to be together in the face of hostile society and uncomprehending family. They fail…maybe. Or… The reader gets jerked around emotionally quite a bit. Content warning for themes (although not necessarily the substance) of suicide and queer tragedy. It may be a good story, but I didn’t enjoy it.
#405 Beat Softly , My Wings of Steel by Beth Cato (ready by Elizabeth Green)
I want to come up with some subgenre label ending in “punk” to describe this setting, but I’m not sure the right one exists. Bio-mechanical horses with transferrable souls linked psychically to rider-warriors in a massive Classical-age-ish feeling conflict. A mechanic caught within a doomed city desperately tries to revive one steed so that she and her loved ones can escape. The problem is the nature of the soul she’s installed in the waiting body. I was caught up in the what-happens-next although I spent most of the story dreading impending tragedy. (It…um…well, that would be a spoiler.) Intriguing concepts, though not the flavor of story I generally enjoy.
(#406 was covered by itself two weeks ago)
#407 The Cellar Dweller by Maria Dahvana Headley (read by Tina Connolly)
A spooky story that relies very strongly on painting with the sound of language, both phonologically and with deliberately repetitive formulas. This is a story that should only be listened to, not read, even if you have to read it aloud to yourself. The theme evokes “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, in implying the maintenance of an abnormally and artificially pretty/pleasant world by means of the required sacrifice of innocent imperfect beings. But what looks like sacrifice can be seen differently from within. The story has a bit of a circular structure, setting up contexts that are understood differently when we return to them and return again. Whether the ending is horror or triumph depends on where your sympathies lie. The story originally appeared in print in Nightmare in 2015, and if I’d listened to it a bit earlier, it might have been among my Hugo nominations.
#408 Tumbleweeds and Little Girls by Jeff Bowles (read by Julie Hoverson)
A whimsical Western fantasy about war between sentient tumbleweeds and other prairie creatures, with an army of little girls supplying the martial talent. I liked the whimsy, although from an ecological point of view, I thought the little girls were fighting on the wrong side. The narration was utterly delightful. Not a very deep story and I don’t know that I would have read it in print form.
#402 Opals and Clay by Nino Cipri (read by The Word Whore)
Magical engineering, cultures in conflict with colonialist themes, questions of the morality of exploiting (and of loving) magico-mechanically created beings. The tragedy of trying to save loved ones when you have no power to save yourself. The world-building is beautiful and striking. The story is the sort of sharply tragic fantasy that makes me wonder whether I’m hopelessly out of step with the times. Like several others in this set of reviews, nice writing, but I can’t exactly say I “enjoyed” it.
#403 Send in the Ninjas by Michelle Ann King (read by Christiana Ellis)
Reading the first couple of paragraphs on the website, I recognize having listened to this, but don’t remember anything else about it. Sorry, I guess that’s my review.
#404 Territory by Julie Steinbacher (read by Maura McHugh and Kim Rogers)
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one. Two young women in love try a desperate magic to be together in the face of hostile society and uncomprehending family. They fail…maybe. Or… The reader gets jerked around emotionally quite a bit. Content warning for themes (although not necessarily the substance) of suicide and queer tragedy. It may be a good story, but I didn’t enjoy it.
#405 Beat Softly , My Wings of Steel by Beth Cato (ready by Elizabeth Green)
I want to come up with some subgenre label ending in “punk” to describe this setting, but I’m not sure the right one exists. Bio-mechanical horses with transferrable souls linked psychically to rider-warriors in a massive Classical-age-ish feeling conflict. A mechanic caught within a doomed city desperately tries to revive one steed so that she and her loved ones can escape. The problem is the nature of the soul she’s installed in the waiting body. I was caught up in the what-happens-next although I spent most of the story dreading impending tragedy. (It…um…well, that would be a spoiler.) Intriguing concepts, though not the flavor of story I generally enjoy.
(#406 was covered by itself two weeks ago)
#407 The Cellar Dweller by Maria Dahvana Headley (read by Tina Connolly)
A spooky story that relies very strongly on painting with the sound of language, both phonologically and with deliberately repetitive formulas. This is a story that should only be listened to, not read, even if you have to read it aloud to yourself. The theme evokes “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, in implying the maintenance of an abnormally and artificially pretty/pleasant world by means of the required sacrifice of innocent imperfect beings. But what looks like sacrifice can be seen differently from within. The story has a bit of a circular structure, setting up contexts that are understood differently when we return to them and return again. Whether the ending is horror or triumph depends on where your sympathies lie. The story originally appeared in print in Nightmare in 2015, and if I’d listened to it a bit earlier, it might have been among my Hugo nominations.
#408 Tumbleweeds and Little Girls by Jeff Bowles (read by Julie Hoverson)
A whimsical Western fantasy about war between sentient tumbleweeds and other prairie creatures, with an army of little girls supplying the martial talent. I liked the whimsy, although from an ecological point of view, I thought the little girls were fighting on the wrong side. The narration was utterly delightful. Not a very deep story and I don’t know that I would have read it in print form.
