Sue Burke's Blog, page 22

Goodreads review: “Obviously, Aliens”

Obviously, Aliens by Jennie Goloboy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A young woman wants to meet with a customer, and instead she winds up with a stranger living inside her, fleeing gunfire with the stranger’s boyfriend by means of an alien form of transit.

That’s just the first chapter, and it’s funnier than it sounds.

Full disclosure: This is my literary agent’s debut novel, and if you know Jennie, you understand where all the humor comes from. It’s a wild road trip, as the book’s blurb says, with a thief, car chases, spies, a libertarian-owned cruise ship, and a very suspicious talking corgi. The thief is one of the good guys, by the way.

A lot of science fiction tropes and clichés get subverted, gently or hilariously. Much of Jennie’s job involves reading the best and worst of the genre, so she knows them well.

In the end, the book is humane. It’s filled with people and entities generally trying to help each other, although some are more competent and rational than others.

Fast action, fun dialogue, and uncommon characters. Recommended for anyone looking for humorous science fiction. There’s never enough of it.



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Where to find me at DisCon III

I plan to be at DisCon III, the World Science Fiction Convention, December 15 to 19 in Washington, DC. I’m scheduled for two panels and one activity:

Stroll with the Stars, 9 a.m. Friday, Hotel Lobby. Meet up with facilitator Debra Nickelson for the now-traditional morning stroll. (I may not be a star, but I’ll get to hang out with people who are. I may have a fangirl moment.)

Translation Slam, 4 p.m. Friday in the Cabinet Room. Many of us enjoy reading speculative fiction in translation, but we might not appreciate the nuanced work that goes into creating it. In this translation slam, each panelist has translated a piece from its original language into English. They will share their translations with the audience and discuss their decision-making process and the nuances that went into their choices. I will discuss adapting beautiful Spanish prose to beautiful English prose. What makes something beautiful in one language makes it ugly in the other.

2020 Ruined My Novel! 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Forum Room. The year 2020 was a giant curveball for the entire world. Everyone was affected in one way or another. What about authors? Our panelists will discuss what changes they had to make to their 2020 work-in-progress to accommodate all the weird things that were happening in the real world. In my case, I had a novel come out, Immunity Index, which I wrote before 2020, and it happened to feature a coronavirus epidemic.

In all, about 500 activities are scheduled for the convention, a little fewer than usual, but these are unusual times, and the convention committee has had to struggle mightily with forces beyond its control. I’m looking forward to meeting old friends, making new friends, and having fun with thousands of fellow fans of speculative fiction.

My votes for the 2021 Hugo Best Novelette Award

Six fine novelettes made it to the final ballot for this year’s Hugo Awards. Any one of them deserves to win, so how do I decide? Literary merit can be measured in many ways, such as technical excellence or imaginative leaps. I’ll rank them according to my opinion of their daring. Which one took the biggest risks?

6. “Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super” by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020) Superheros are feared and hated — by themselves and by the public at large — for their poorly controlled powers. Emotions in the story are carefully depicted. This novelette excels in technical excellence.

5. “The Inaccessibility of Heaven” by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020) What happens after Paradise Lost by Milton? The fallen angels become prey in a fast-moving murder mystery. An impressive imaginative leap.

4. “Two Truths and a Lie” by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com) A woman finds herself caught in a web of her own lies. Genuinely creepy horror. Both technical excellence and an imaginative leap are at work here.

3. “Monster” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020) A medical researcher looks for a friend, and the search takes a terrible turn. People are not who they seem to be in this powerful story of betrayal. Technical excellence and a daring plot twist.

2. “The Pill” by Meg Elison (from Big Girl, PM Press) A pill can cure obesity, and people rush to take it despite its “acceptable” casualties. A daring story that dissects our current society with a pitiless scalpel, exposing how deep our prejudices reach and how much pain they cause. This story might change the way you think.

1. “Helicopter Story” by Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020) Without a doubt, given the intense negative reaction to the story on many fronts at its initial publication, this story took the most risks. “To be yourself well is the wholest and best feeling that anything has ever felt,” the story says, but, “We are propelled by disaster.”

My votes for the 2021 Hugo Best Short Story Award

The Hugo Awards will be presented at Discon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, in Washington, DC, from December 15 to 19. I plan to be there. As a Worldcon member, I get to vote on the Hugos.

Here’s my ballot for the short stories. Every single one of these stories is worth reading, and choosing the winner is tough. Is a six-way tie possible? I guess not. I have to rank them for voting, and I know other voters have made very different choices, and I can’t fault them.

Note that, at least in my opinion, most of the short stories this year have a bit of a gentle, sweet tone. I suspect that’s just coincidence, but I don’t mind. Lately real life has been rough and bitter for all of us.

6. “Metal Like Blood in the Dark” by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020). An naive pair of life forms made of metal encounter a stronger, evil metal life form in a story that evokes the fairy-tale style of “Hansel and Gretel” and updates its substance.

5. “Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse” by Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020) A woman gives birth in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Well-paced and vivid.

4. “The Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020). A mermaid wants to travel to the stars, and she does, then discovers the price. Although quiet and sweet, the narration is compelling.

3. “Little Free Library” by Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com). A woman sets up a free library, and one of the borrowers leaves strange and wonderful gifts. As so often with her stories, it’s at once gentle, sweet, and terrifying.

2. “Open House on Haunted Hill” by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen). A haunted house wants a family and will do everything it can to make those people happy. Sweet without being sentimental.

1. “A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)). Two robots with mismatched personalities find ways to help each other. This is my top choice because of its humor, the strong voices of its protagonists, the oblique but effective way it tells the story, ending on a sweet note, and because I’m a fan of Vina Jie-Min Prasad.

Two new articles on my website

I’ve posted two new articles here on my website.

The Highest Mile: In Spain, the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James, has been an important pilgrimage route since medieval times to venerate the relics of St. James. It’s not one route, but several, and pilgrims can walk directly from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela, although few do. I hiked the route in the Guadarrama Mountains up to the Fuenfría Pass between Madrid and Segovia, where I found a solitary but not spiritually quiet meadow.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel decree: As a Spanish-to-English translator, one of my specialties is historic Spanish, and a few years back, I translated a document from 1491 signed by the King and Queen of Spain for an auction house. By itself, the decree is a minor matter about ownership of a farm, but it illustrates a crucial historic moment.

I received this poem as a gift

In exchange for a couple of houseplants, a friend gave me this poem, drawn from real life.

Fartin’ ‘n Gold Pants at the Dollar Tree

by Michael Ryan Chandler

Is it a frog?Did someone step on a duck?Did someone pop a lunch sack?Fartin’ ‘n gold pants at the Dollar Tree.Did a sewer line back up?Did someone forget to wash?Did a mouse die under the cans?Fartin’ ‘n gold pants at the Dollar Tree.Was it a burrito you ate?Was it bad broccoli?Was it a sandwich full of hate?Fartin’ ‘n gold pants at the Dollar Tree.I’m sympathetic to folks with gastritiswith pants touched by Midas.But a mighty gastritis done got hold’a you.I guess I should’a known.I was feeling so alone,all alone in an empty old storewhen from across the way what did I hear?It sounded like a flock of geese.It sounded like the end of the world.At first I was confused.At first I felt fear.Then I saw your gold rumpshakin’ and quakin’calling out.People say express yourselfand I believe that to be true,but honey, please find another way.Maybe change your diet.Maybe go to France.I heard they don’t fart there.Whatever you dowhen you’re at the Dollar Treeplease don’t fart in gold pants.

Guess the movie

Here’s a game I’ve played with a few writing classes. These are the opening paragraphs to novels that were made into films. Do you recognize them?

For writers, this exercise offers the chance to study what makes these openers successful. As we write, with the very first words we make promises to the reader.

What do these first words tell you about the book? What kind of narrator is telling the story? How much do you know about the setting, characters, and likely conflict? What should the reader expect going forward?

The opening paragraphs:

1. [He] was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk. He leaned against the bar of the Old Home Sample Room, the most gilded and urbane saloon in Cato, Missouri, and requested the bartender to join him in “The Good Old Summer Time,” the waltz of the day.

2. An angry man — there is my story: the bitter rancor of the prince that brought a thousand disasters on the opposing army. Many a strong soul it sent to the underworld, and left the heroes prey to vultures and dogs, while the will of a god moved on to fulfillment.

3. Current-bourne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss. The light shines through it, and the dark enters it. Borne, flung, tugged from anywhere to anywhere, for in the deep sea there is no compass but nearer and farther, higher and lower, the jellyfish hangs and sways, pulses move slight and quick within it, as the vast diurnal pulses beat in the moondriven sea.

4. The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heel boots with pointed toes.

5. Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment of our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show; it’s after midnight. We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon; then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirty-somethings swaying back and forth in the moonlight like kids. I don’t feel the night chill at all. And then your dad says, “Do you want to make a baby?”

6. I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked. Six days into what should be the greatest two months of my life, and it’s turned into a nightmare. I don’t even know who’ll read this. I guess someone will find it eventually. Maybe a hundred years from now. For the record … I didn’t die on Sol 6. Certainly the rest of the crew thought I did, and I can’t blame them. Maybe there’ll be a day of national mourning for me, and my Wikipedia page will say, “Mark Watney is the only human being to have died on Mars.”

1. Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (1927), film in 1960. A confidence man and a female evangelist sell religion to small-town America. The opening paragraph tells us that the story takes place in the Midwest in the 1920s. It suggests a judgmental narrator and gives us a glimpse into the personality of the protagonist, an outgoing man of questionable character. The movie starred Burt Lancaster and won three Academy Awards.

2. The Illiad by Homer (8th century BCE), film Troy in 2002. Not exactly a novel, this is still a major work of fiction that defined a culture and continues to influence literature to this day. The opening words promise an exciting story about war and blood involving high-born men who must deal with divine intervention. The narrator is outside the story but actively participates in the telling.

3. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (1971), TV movies in 1980 and 2002. A man’s dreams change reality, and the novel opens in a dream, followed by a terrifying dream, and then he wakes up in an impoverished, war-torn world. The opening promises an immersive, lyrical story with a narrator who reports the story but stays out of it.

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1965), films in 1967, 1996, and 1993. Not exactly a novel, instead this is a pioneer work of creative non-fiction, using all the resources of fiction to tell a story based on fact. Specifically, it recounts the 1959 savage murder of a family in Holcomb. At the time, the nation was shocked that such senseless bloodshed could take place in such a quiet little town, and opening with a description of the place reinforces the trauma of what eventually happens.

5. “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang (1998), film Arrival in 2016. The novella, unlike the movie, focuses on a woman coming to terms with her daughter’s early death. The narrator is the mother, and she’s telling the story to her daughter as if the daughter were still alive, which becomes thematically important within the context of the story. The opening paragraph establishes the tone and frame of the narration.

6. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011), film in 2015. From the start, we know this is going to be a first-person narration, and that the narrator casually drops the F-bomb. He also maintains a pretty good sense of humor for a man who’s reasonably sure that he’s going to die. We know by the end of the opening exactly what the conflict is: man vs. nature, in this case Mark Watney vs. Mars.

The time I got beat up after school

I’ve never told anyone about this, and looking back, silence may have been the kindest response. One day, as I was walking home from junior high school, another student attacked me in a parking lot, punched me, and kept knocking me down into the frozen snowpiles, screaming at me the whole time.

I was in eighth grade, and I barely knew the girl. We moved in separate circles. She was skinny, wore cheap and unfashionable clothes, had a bad haircut, smoked cigarettes, and always seemed angry. Even at the time, I sort of knew why she jumped me. It wasn’t about me, except that as a chubby, bookish, short girl, I was an easy target. Probably, I represented something she didn’t like.

Since I wasn’t really hurt — winter wear can make good protective padding — I continued home as fast as I could, although my resentment was off the scale. I didn’t deserve what had happened. In fact, I’d never even talked to that girl. She was angry, and she just wanted to beat someone up.

I didn’t tell anyone for two reasons. First, as a general principle, I tried to keep adults out of my business because they only made things more complicated. Second, if I told adults or even merely my friends, they would make things more complicated for her. She had enough trouble. Something was wrong in her life, and I didn’t want to add to it.

Beyond angry and resentful, I felt sorry for her. She needed help, and the most helpful thing I could do was to do nothing. I simply made sure to avoid her more thoroughly from then on. She moved away not too long after that. I’ve forgotten her name. I hope she got whatever she needed, and looking back, I have some guesses about what might have been going on with her.

Then and now, adults say children should report bullying. I didn’t, and I still think I did the right thing. I forgave her, gave her what grace I could, and moved on.

Review: “A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking”

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Your inner 12-year-old wants to read this novel. That child is still there, so don’t be put off by the fact that this is a middle-grade book. The hero, Mona, is 14 years old, and she has some magical sourdough starter. She also has a brave, magical gingerbread cookie, which you can see depicted on the cover art of the book holding a sword. Then things go very wrong (long story; it’s a novel, after all), and she has to save the city where she lives.

Mona is self-aware, a little snide, and more than a little resentful that such a heavy burden falls on her young shoulders. She gets wise advice and help along the way, and she winds up a hero.

The pacing is fast. The story is sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and sometimes even a bit dark, because kids — including your own inner child — want to grapple with life’s big challenges. The vocabulary might be simple, but the story explores complex themes. One of them: Is it actually good to become a hero?

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Convocatoria: “Todos los demás planetas”

Se abre el plazo para la convocatoria “Todos los demás planetas” desde el 12:00 a.m. del 30 de septiembre a las 11:59 p.m. del 31 de octubre de 2021, (hora de España).

Las escritoras españolas Sofía Rhei y Cristina Jurado y yo buscamos ficción especulativa con perspectiva sociopolítica de género, o sea, relatos que utilicen lenguaje de una manera creativa y no conformista respecto a los roles binarios de género. Se valorarán las formas de lenguaje neutro en todas sus variantes, femeninos genéricos, expresiones lingüísticas de sociedades con más de dos géneros, géneros originales y cualquier otra opción diferente a la normatividad del masculino plural por defecto. Las narraciones que aporten términos reales de culturas nativas en las que los roles de género se entiendan de manera diversa serán extraordinariamente bien recibidas.

Entre los relatos enviados se realizará una selección que será publicada en la revista SuperSonic. Asimismo, se elegirá un relato ganador que será traducido al inglés y enviado a diversas publicaciones internacionales.

Hasta 5.000 palabras, un relato por persona, textos inéditos y escritos en español.

El resultado se anunciará en la web de la convocatoria y en las RRSS de las convocantes el 1 de febrero de 2022.

Toda la información sobre esta iniciativa se puede consultar en la web https://todoslosdemasplanetas.com.