The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2023

by Charlie Hughes

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949, is the award-winning SF magazine which is the original publisher of SF classics like Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, and Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz. Each double-sized bimonthly issue offers:

compelling short fiction by writers such as Kelly Link, Mary Robinette Kowal, Michael Moorcock, and many others;
the science fiction field’s most respected and outspoken opinions on Books, Films, and Science;
humor from our cartoonists and writers.
For more information and to sample some of our articles, Please visit our web site.

NOVELLAS
THE MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE
Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey
NOVELETS
PORTRAIT OF THE DRAGON AS A YOUNG MAN
J.A. Pak
FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY
Meighan Hogate
SHORT STORIES
KARANTHA FISH
Amal Singh
LONGEVITY
Anya Ow
ALL THAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
Charlie Hughes
TWELVE ASPECTS OF THE DRAGON
Rachael Jones
MEETING IN GREENWOOD
R. K. Duncan
THE PIGEON WIFE
Samantha E. Chung
LOS PAJARITOS
Sam W. Pisciotta
PLUTO AND TAVIS D WORK THE DOOR
Brooke Brannon
INDIGENA
Jennifer Maloney
NEW STARS
Christopher Crews
HIGH TIDE AT THE OLDUVAI GORGE
Kedrick Brown
PRISONER 121 IS GUILTY
Renee Pillai
POEMS
THROUGH THE KEYHOLE
Lisa M. Bradley
NO ONE NOW REMEMBERS
Geoffrey A. Landis
TITAN
Geoffrey A. Landis
LIKE OTHER GIRLS
Marissa Lingen
ORCHID DRAGON
Mary Soon Lee
PHOENIX DRAGON
Mary Soon Lee
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL IN FOUR TO SEVEN WORDS
Chet Weise
THE MUSIC OF NEPTUNE
Brian U. Garrison
LESSER REALITIES
Brian U. Garrison
THE CANCELED SKY
Roger Dutcher
TRIPLE KNOT
Marisca Pichette
DEPARTMENTS
EDITORIAL: AT THE END OF DAYBREAK
Sheree Renée Thomas
BOOKS TO LOOK FOR
Charles de Lint
BOOKS
Elizabeth Hand
SCIENCE: SPACE DUST
Jerry Oltion
BY THE NUMBERS 9
Arley Sorg
COMING ATTRACTIONS

INDEX TO VOLUMES 144 & 145

CURIOSITIES
Rich Horton
CARTOONS: Arthur Masear, Lynn Hsu, Nick Downes, S. Harris, Mark Heath.

COVER BY ALAN M. CLARK FOR “THE MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE”

Genres: Fantasy

258 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2023

Reviews

[Michael Frasca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheree Renée Thomas did a masterful job assembling this issue. The stories and poems rhythmically flow, segueing seamlessly like a well-crafted setlist.

The Many Different Kinds of Love by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey
The Greek people had six words for different types of love. Would they have added a seventh for the love and affection between an AI planetary probe and the mega-multi-human memories it carries?
Sure to be short-listed for many awards next year. Intimacy on Enceladus—a story that merits a close re-read.

Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man by J. A. Pak
A fish out of water—or rather—a dragon out of air story in which said dragon learns much about humans and himself.
A prequel of a sorts to last year’s touching “The Gentle Dragon Tells His Tale of Love” in the Jan/Feb 2022 F&SF.

Fools and Their Money by Meighan Hogate
He is a smelly, bug-infested carrion eater, but has a successful business plan which he executes (mostly) flawlessly. Now if only he could get a seat on his memory train…
Pairs well with the 1964 film Onibaba.

Karantha Fish by Amal Singh
“Pitch, curl, snatch.” Making a person with a rigid, fixed belief do something for their own good—an allegory for our times. The immoral act in this case is not quite what you think it is.

Longevity by Anya Ow
There may be unique and valuable aspects to NOT being immortal.
A fascinating new take on living Forever™.
Only the ultra-rich and those useful to our Corporate Overlords™ need apply.

All That We Leave Behind by Charlie Hughes
Did you read your book club’s most recent selection? Be sure that you do.
MUCH scarier than “In the Mouth of Madness.”

Twelve Aspects of the Dragon by Rachel Jones
Lovely prose-poem that the mis-programmed poetry center in my brain was actually able to appreciate.
Homework assignment--how many additional aspects can you come up with?

Meeting in Greenwood by R. K. Duncan
Recontructionists fight against Lost Cause revanchists and revenants up and down the timeline with the underworld as the battlefield.
Pairs well atmosphere-wise with Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film “Dead Man.”

The Pigeon Wife by Samantha E. Chung
A take on the Korean/Chinese folktale Ureongi Gaksi (The Snail Bride),
gently poking fun at modern marriage/companion roles and expectations.
This sly story will have you thinking about it for days after reading.

Los Pajaritos by Sam W. Pisciotta
Creating a memorial to a loved one in the post-apocalyptic world. A sad, sweet story.

Pluto and Tavis D by Brooke Bannon
Two nightclub bouncers who love each other as brothers have to use all their physical and mental skills to manage a very dangerous entity. “Work the Door!”
A wonderfully woven scary story.

New Stars by Christopher Crews
Who will be our children’s heroes when AI eclipses human ability?

Indigenia by Jennifer Maloney
The ultimate in assimilation…with a side of terraforming irony.

High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge by Kedrick Brown
A wormhole intermittently opens in the Great Rift, and a long-lost branch of humanity return after living in a another star system for 50K years.
And boy, do they have some surprises for us!
Respectable-ness for everyone…if you can afford it.

Prisoner 121 is Guilty by Renee Pillai
Patriarchy -> fundamentalism -> Others are not people.
A depressing paradigm and a cautionary tale.

[Yev]

SHORT STORIES
Karantha Fish - Amal Singh
What is the value of religion and tradition if it prevents us from helping those we love? Perhaps the consequences of transgression shall be enlightening.
Ok

Longevity - Anya Ow
If a person's life doesn't have freedom or meaning, then why continue living? Quality of life is more important than quantity. Changes in the short term are possible and must be balanced against the long term.
Ok

All That We Leave Behind - Charlie Hughes
A book club meets to go over their latest read, which none of them remember suggesting, let alone how they got the book. They read it, mournfully, but now none of them want to discuss it, but they must. They must.
Meh

Twelve Aspects of the Dragon - Rachael K. Jones
Teases a relationship with a fantastic creature.
Blah

Meeting in Greenwood - R. K. Duncan
A secret British agency composed of mystics travels through time and location using mythological means in order to stop the opposition. For this story it's American Lost Cause Goldwater Republicans who want to use Nixon to advance their hatred.
Blah

The Pigeon Wife - Samantha H. Chung
My first thought about this was whether it had any relation to the videogame Hatoful Boyfriend. Apparently it's based off of a Korean folktale. I don't dislike it, but I really don't understand the metaphor that is their social arrangement. Specifically, a woman buys/captures a pigeon that turns into a man that resentfully provides for her, often receiving nothing in return. Assumedly that has something to say about modern Korean relationships, but apparently the other Korean media I've seen didn't have anything I can relate to this to. When I tried to look up the original folktale, which seems to be the Snail Bride, I came across the concept of Gireogi Appa (goose dad), which was something I didn't know happened and was interesting.
Meh

Los Pajaritos - Sam W. Pisciotta
The Little Birds is about the protagonist creating an artificial sparrow, which are extinct, between remembering the decline and death of the love of their life, whose spirit animal was a sparrow, in a collapsed world.
Meh

Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door - Brooke Brannon
Yet another story where I don't know whether I understand what I'm reading or not. I assume this is meant to be magical realism with horror elements. Two young Hispanic males in Miami are accosted by a white woman in what they believed to be a safe space who wants to appropriate their life story. I don't know whether I understand the relevance of the ending or what it's meant to represent. I'm just left confused and unable to enjoy.
Blah

Indigena - Jennifer Maloney
A body horror story about humans and alien plant life.
Blah

New Stars - Christopher Crews
A father and his sons watch racing space ships controlled by AI, one of which is based upon his father, their grandfather, the last of the human pilots. Will AI be able to become heroes and inspirations to the next generation as humans once were?
Meh

High Tide at the Olduvai Gorge - Kedrick Brown
Alien humans conqueror Earth very easily. They proclaim equality through meritocracy for anyone Respectable, which in practice only means them.
Meh

Prisoner 121 is Guilty - Renee Pillai
A forbidden romance because of social caste leads to her lover's death. She awaits her own sentencing and out of guilt immediately pleads guilty and tells her story. The ending is a punchline to a dark joke.
Ok

NOVELETS
Portrait of a Dragon as a Young Man - J. A. Pak
After losing a battle against far more experienced dragons, Faine, still in early childhood, finds himself being nursed back to health by a woman and his first love. He takes on human form and so begins the tale of his childhood, by which he means several centuries, among the local humans.
Enjoyable

Fools and Their Money - Meighan Hogate
An avian scavenger with perfect memory has severe problems with orienting himself in time. This makes for a rather fun framing device. The scavenger makes their money by guiding would-be heroes, but all often they're entirely disrespectful to him so he leads them to their demise, and loots their corpses.
Enjoyable

NOVELLAS
The Many Different Kinds of Love - Geoff Ryman with David Jeffrey
On Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, an abiotic intelligence in the form of a research station has been tasked with finding life and prospecting for minerals. On its own, it would not be able to carry out its missions, so it has a vast sample of biotic memories to give it direction and meaning. Permissions however can only be granted from the biotics on Earth. The biotic memories have an exploration vessel named dolphin that travels around the moon mapping and investigating, which creates post-biotic memories.
The story is narrated through the perspective of the research station, though biotic memories are also interspersed as well. This serves at least two purposes. One is to show how biotic and abiotic intelligences can complement and co-exist. The other is an interweaving of hard science fiction and emotional storytelling, showing that they don't have to be mutually exclusive and can co-exist within the same story. Maybe it shouldn't be, but I find this to be a great accomplishment. I don't know how well it will work for others, perhaps I was easily impressed by it, though that doesn't make it any less impressive for me.
Highly Enjoyable

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

6 • The Many Different Kinds of Love • 70 pages by Geoff Ryman, David Jeffrey
Poor. First of all I’m having trouble with the grammar. Is “you” me, some character in the story, or a pronoun for “Yo’all?” Yo'all seems to be an artificial intelligence comprised of minds of many humans. Ten pages in and it’s a slog, it seems like there’s an exploratory submarine on a moon of Saturn that has survived even though it appears that Earth has suffered an apocalypse. Another five pages and I think I’ve gleaned that the narrator (or “we”) is Station. Maybe in orbit, maybe on Enceladus. Yo’all is convinced by Station to make a copy of itself before it explores the northern hemisphere, but that copy now feels left out and also wants to explore. Yeah, I’m not invested in any of the characters and it seems like Earth is already dead. Difficult read, I'm sure I'm missing the point, but I give up. Skimmed the rest.

76 • Karantha Fish • 14 pages by Amal Singh
Good. Kalpana wants to save her uncle. Only the Karantha fish can save him and it is forbidden for them to use it. She’s prepared to use her magic to persuade her Aunty to get the fish. There will be a comeuppance, but whatever the price saving a life will be worth it.

90 • Longevity • 11 pages by Anya Ow
Good+. Ruhe is a forever doing phone support. He spends a little extra time talking with Kasey rather than shunting her over to a bot. She wants to make the world a better place within her lifetime.

101 • All that We Leave Behind • 10 pages by Charlie Hughes
OK. A book club meets to discuss this week’s book. People seem somber, except for Tony. When asked to start discussing the book Tony says he was too busy to do more than a skim, someone else should start. When they do they say the events felt real, biographical, rather than fiction, and get upset with Tony for saying it’s just a book.

117 • Portrait of the Dragon as a Young Man • 16 pages by J. A. Pak
Very Good+. Prequel to “Gentle Dragon…” when Faine is old. This begins with Faine a child of forty. Ambushed by three mature dragons Faine is left for dead, but is nursed back to health by Meena. Meena offhandedly states it would be much to care for him if he were human and coincidentally he shapeshifts into human form. When he has returned to full health he has grown accustomed to staying with Meena. Very touching.

137 • Twelve Aspects of the Dragon • 2 pages by Rachael Jones
Gimmick. Just a description of dragons.

155 • Meeting in Greenwood • 10 pages by R. K. Duncan
OK/Fair. Starts with a nice hook of our narrator being an agent in a secret agency that goes back in time to presumably stop disastrous outcomes. He survives an encounter on the train, gets to his destination and meets with his contact. The ending eluded me. I don’t know if he was able to complete his mission, escape with his life or what happened.

165 • The Pigeon Wife • 12 pages by Samantha H. Chung
Good+. The protagonist’s life has hit a trough. She lost her job, missed credit card payments, has school loans coming due. She has never thought about it before, but getting a pigeon husband to pay the bills could tide her through until she could find a good job. It is funny that a well dressed [were-pigeon] man could get a well paying job on the spot. We weren’t privy to that, the job market for them was just open. We focused on how this affected the protagonist.

177 • Los Pajaritos • 4 pages by Sam W. Pisciotta
Fair. A man lost his wife, is now making a bird to honor her memory.

182 • Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door • 13 pages by Brooke Brannon
Fair/OK. Pluto and Tavis D are returning home from work. Pluto sees an old woman across the street and can’t focus on her shirt. Things continue on in an inexplicable horror story type of way. Readable, but not a fan of that sub-genre.

198 • Indigena • 3 pages by Jennifer Maloney
Fair. Things are strange on the world. Time is different. Crops grow in a day, sometimes there are pauses. The narrator and another colonist or two get caught in a storm.

203 • New Stars • 5 pages by Christopher Crews
Fair+. Keve and Izak watch a ship race in which one of the ships is piloted by the memories of the father/grandfather. Keve explaining that he’s dead, it’s just autopilot, an imprint of how he used to race.

221 • High Tide at the Olbuvai Gorge • 6 pages by Kedrick Brown
OK/Good. Locals are now second class citizens since the Elucidans returned through the wormhole that [after a long interval] connects our planets. Inadvertent colonists from Earth wandered through, but due to the harsher planet developed faster than humans on Earth. When it opened again…they kind of took over. Former Olympian, Ayo, may be getting a chance to compete again.

227 • Prisoner 121 Is Guilty • 7 pages by Renee Pillai
Good. Mari lives in a very striated society. Her best, perhaps only, friend is an Under. Her defiance of cultural norms leads to the death of Flaura. No one understands her.

234 • Fools and Their Money • 18 pages by Meighan Hogate
Good/VG. Pheera takes advantage of foolish humans, not directly killing them, but nudging them into harm's way. When the [now] victims are dead, Pheera relieves them of the treasure(s) they no longer need.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just want to say a few things about this issue. The cover story The Many Different Kinds of Love by Geoff Ryamn and David Jeffery is an incredible modern SF novella, this was my first modern read after a whole bunch of Cordwainer Smith and Joanna Russ to kick off the year. I was behind reading this issue, but this cover story hits some awesome notes. Being about AI, and exploration of Enceladus - a moon that only recently became known as being one of the most interesting places in the solar system is a great example of a story being of the moment. It is a great and mind-expanding SF novella.

Some other favorites include Lovgenity by Anya Ow, a story about long-lived humans that takes great advantage of the setting of Singapore. A city that should be in more prose SF -after being seen in Westworld. Lastly the story Meeting in Greenwood by R.K. Duncan is a great example of World-Building.

[Bogi Takács]

"The Pigeon Wife" by Samantha E. Chung was one of my recommendations in my daily short story/poem recs newsletter.

(I also have more from this issue to recommend later)

[Christopher Pate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A diverting read from one of my perennial favorite periodicals. Stories, long and short, and poems the tales are good escapism even if this issue isn't particularly memorable.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice selection of stories, poetry, reviews, cartoons and a nice article about space dust. The story that resonated with me from this issue was Fools and Their Money by Meighan Hogate.