Welcome to Litsy!

I created the routine of reading a short story a day from this collection as a way to stay grounded in routine despite the chaos that is 2020. It was so helpful to have something to look forward to each day. Also - because I decided to post about each story the day AFTER I read it, it pushed me to reflect longer on each story and I seem to remember each story better for having done so. ⤵️

“Dr. Saki Jones arrives at the colony planet New Mars to find that a mysterious plague has destroyed everyone who lived there—including her lifelove, M.J. To find out what happened, Saki must dig through layers of time, slowly revealing the past.” (Publisher‘s summary.) A Hugo nominee, this is a 1st contact story both terrible and hopeful. It was a strong ending to a fantastic anthology.

Our main character (along w/ many others) uses an online dating prep AI to create a fake gf to get his parents off his back. I‘m usually not a fan of satire but this was an exception. Reading much like a reddit post (complete with TL;DR and UPDATE:), this story felt very much like something I could stumble across on reddit today. An entertaining look at the challenges with trying to get human emotional needs met via technology.

(CW: childhood sexual abuse, incest; no graphic depictions) Set in a future world trying to recover from the climate Catastrophe of the 2020s-2060s, a woman returns to the community of her childhood to attend the funeral of her father; here, she must face the remnants of a trauma that forever changed the course of her life. ⤵️⤵️⤵️

A woman and her new husband win a 5-day trip to a base on the moon, but they (and the researchers at the base) suddenly lose contact with Earth. This is the story of one woman‘s last desperate chance to get her (and her infant daughter) back home to Earth. If you can handle a somewhat ambiguous ending, it‘s well worth the read. Still, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and I can see it leaving a lot of readers dissatisfied.

Perucho works for the World Encyclopedia under the rule of a global totalitarian regime; his job, along w/ millions of others, is to gather & classify verifiable data. Given that fiction is now prohibited, what will happen to Perucho if it is discovered that he has been creating false records of 15th century literature? This story is about the terrifying power of a shared narrative. Not a favorite from this collection, but still an enjoyable read.

In a grim future extrapolated from current climate change & political discourse, a wealthy couple (of the 1%) who pride themselves on their “humanitarian efforts” show their ignorance & lack of empathy as they plan a perfect wedding, not noticing the suffering happening just around them. Not a favorite in terms of writing style or storytelling, but the author succeeded in reinforcing my anger that 2020 has already brought into the open.

(TW for suicide in this story) Set in post-climate disaster India, a woman who has been a leader in the movement to return to living in harmony with the Earth reminisces about her life and about an old friend that disappeared decades ago- as a journalist travels to bring her news of her friend. There‘s no way to summarize this story in a few words and do it any justice. ⤵️

Wanted to share the artwork that accompanied the original publication of the short story “At the Fall” by Alec Nevala-Lee in Analog magazine. This one is free to read online (on analogsf.com).

An AI robot cephalopod (Eunice) and her robot companion (Wagner) travel thousands of miles along the ocean floor on an epic journey home. The conceit of this story was super interesting, and though I saw the gist of the ending coming fairly early in the story, the last line still gutted me. This explores climate change and the interconnectedness of all life (and robots?) on Earth. One of my favorites of the collection. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

From the story “Thoughts and Prayers” by Ken Liu.

In a world where technology is omnipresent and trolls are worse than ever, a family navigates the loss of their daughter/sister in a mass shooting. Told through shifting perspectives of the family members, we see how grief can divide and also how damaging a public spotlight can be to a grieving family. Ken Liu‘s stories never fail to be well-written, thought provoking, and heartbreaking.

An agent is sent back to Earth to gather a resource needed to support the small colony of posthuman descendants of the “Founders” - a group of wealthy humans who left Earth behind as her resources became unsustainably depleted and human life could no longer be supported. The agent is expecting a wasteland but begins to question everything they‘ve been told once they arrive. ⤵️

A conservationist is needed to help with a murder investigation when she finds a body washed ashore in a preservation area. She has previously been unjustly accused of a crime and spent several months in jail - so she‘s understandably reluctant to help. This story suffered a bit from the author having a clear message to convey (our justice system is broken) without strong characterization or plotting to back it up; at least it was only 10 pages.

An Enhanced Intelligence (EI) search-and-rescue dog tries to navigate improving his relationship with his handler (who prefers non-enhanced dogs & recently lost one) while also managing a deadly mission. Told from the dog‘s perspective, this long-ish (~50 pgs) short story has fantastic character development. It was also creepy and unsettling, verging almost into horror towards the end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“A young girl [Nata] must negotiate her own path out of a strict community in a post-disaster desertland.” Description by Levar Burton since I actually listened to him read this one. This one has an ending that could be read as heartbreaking or hopeful or both. Either way, you can‘t not root for Nata.

“Alistor‘s company hires a sub to explore the deep ocean floor for resources, but the world is falling apart, & the pilot resents him.” (Descrip from rocketstackrank.com). I had a hard time caring about this one. Chalk it up to election anxiety, that it was more “hard sci-fi” than I usually read, or that the author comes across as narcissistic on his website author profile & blog which triggers insta-rage in me. (It‘s been a hard 4 years ya‘ll).

A woman is stuck in a time loop - repeating the same week (with a #metoo news cycle) again & again; the story is told through the perspective of her roommate (who is unaware of the time loop) week after week. Interesting read - especially watching the slow change of a woman brought about by (essentially) repeated trauma and efforts to reclaim her power. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story follows a group of “post-humans” as they navigate what should be an emotionally complex life event (divorce), but their Enhanced brains regulate neurotransmitters to avoid emotional pain; their daughter (age 8), however, isn‘t fully Enhanced - and they struggle to have empathy with her emotional world. ⤵️

In a world where weather patterns/storms are actively malicious, some people begin to fight back - but become very changed themselves in the process. If read literally, this story makes no sense. I read it, took a few minutes to consider what it might be a metaphor, and read it again - and while my theory seems plausible, I still have no idea what the author intended. ⤵️

The Order follows long-held laws of placing the code to detonate weapons of mass destruction into the body of a living child - a “carrier” who will live alongside the nation‘s president & attempt to humanize herself; the only way the president can detonate these weapons is by killing her himself to retrieve the code. In a war-torn country, 10 yr old Nyma (a poetess) awaits her fate bravely & the president struggles with an impossible choice.⤵️

A curious adolescent observes a submarine community of migrant workers as they congregate on the Yangtze River, and he wonders at the difference between his community and theirs - and why their fates don‘t seem to be intertwined. This was an eerie but emotionally distant story - which perhaps made it that much more eerie. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The 1st story in this collection that I‘d classify as horror. Very Shirley Jackson (as in “The Lottery,” this story takes place during a disturbing annual tradition) meets modern sci-fi. A few rich families survive the apocalypse with the help of bioengineering and a dangerous shared narrative. Atmospheric, super creepy. Loved it - but was a little confused by the ending. Anyone else read this one yet?

I want to like Chiang‘s stories. But - just like in this story - his writing keeps an emotional distance. Written like a persuasive essay that I would have submitted in my social work courses, this story makes an important point (it‘s not lack of intelligence that keep poor people down; it‘s the way our society functions), but w/ 0 emotional engagement. There are 0 characters in this story. I‘m glad he‘s found his audience; it‘s just not me.

It‘s hard to describe this one without spoilers, but it begins with marine behavioral researcher and an octopus. What if we could see the world through the eyes of another intelligent creature? I had a client cancel yesterday, so I read this one between sessions on the sofa used by my clients & I cried so much just halfway through this 12 page story. It was a pretty therapeutic moment for myself. Beautiful, haunting, and memorable. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⤵️

Saga works as a maintenance-woman on a living, transdimensional space ship. As the creature/ship begins to age, the captain wants to sell “it” as scrap. This one is super short, but I haven‘t been able to stop thinking of this one since I read it last night. I‘d love to read more of this author. It‘s free to read on tor.com

A group of human terraformers encounter an intelligent species on their mission to colonize a planet, but the humans can‘t let that get in the way of forward progress. A sad retelling of so many histories. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW: suicide.
Teenage Aya & her family are devastated by the loss of her older brother, Ziad, to suicide. When Ziad begins coming to Aya in her dreams and the world begins to ... shift (or perhaps she‘s becoming unraveled), she learns that things may not be as they seem. I love a good ‘is she an unreliable narrator?‘ story & this one is exceptional. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In future India, a major tech company releases an AI goddess which you can visit using VR. They didn‘t expect droves of (internet) trolls to descend on her - & they had no idea how that would shape her. After reading this, I felt compelled to learn a bit more about the Hindu goddesses Devi and Kali - & that was a super interesting rabbit hole. The writing in this story is top-notch, if a bit hard sci-fi-ish for my usual taste. Loved it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the future, the only way to make money on earth is to work in the tourist industry - which caters to advanced & wealthy alien civilizations, where they come for primitive thrills and to experience “authentic” human food and shopping. This, I believe, is a satirical take on our own current tourism industry. I‘ve never been drawn to satire, and this story was no exception. But it‘s definitely a case of “it‘s not you, it‘s me.” Sorry, story.

Like much speculative fiction I‘ve read lately, the 1st story in this anthology seems eerily prescient. A bookstore sits on the border of America and California and tries to survive a world sundered by divisive beliefs, propaganda, and power struggles - while around it, the threat of war over the remaining scarcity of water is an ever-looming presence. This feels like a reminder of the old warning: united we stand, divided we fall. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ahhhh, if your TBR pile is toppling, maybe skip the intro to this anthology. So many books, so little time 😭😭

“Science fiction has been moving steadily, with a few bumps along the way, to a more inclusive, more diverse kind of fiction, one that doesn‘t preference specific voices over others, and one that is open to telling stories from a wide range of perspectives.“