Father’s Day Fiction Special!

This week, in honor of Father’s Day, we’re posting something a little different. Since I started writing short stories, I’ve been sharing every single one of them with my dad, even the ones I should probably be embarrassed to show my dad. He reads each one and then we talk on the phone about what he liked and didn’t like, what he understood or didn’t understand, what themes the story brought to mind, etc. He’s enthusiastic but honest, and I look forward to every phone call.

Dad’s no stranger to writing. He’s a retired Lutheran pastor and has been writing a weekly sermon for decades, and for fun he has written up some short nonfiction tales about his life on the farm and other parts of his life. But he had never written any fiction. After reading so many of my stories, he decided to write a fiction short story. I found it entertaining and (with his permission) I wanted to share it more widely. I’ve edited for grammar and spelling, and things like paragraph size, but have otherwise left it unaltered. I hope you enjoy!

–David Steffen

PS: Dad wrote the story longhand, photocopied it page by page, and sent it to me in the mail. I typed it out for posting. I expect you’ll find that this medium of communication is very fitting for the story.

I Won!
by Richard Steffen

Technology tried to take over my life, but I won! I’ll tell you my story.

It all began innocently a number of years ago. My wife Fern got a cell phone. I asked her “Why did you get a cell phone? What do you need it for? What’s wrong with the phone on the wall?”

She sweetly pointed out that our old phone was stuck to the wall. She sometimes wanted to talk on the phone when she was away from home.

I asked her “What’s wrong with the pay phones you find at truck stops and hospitals? Can’t you make calls on them?”

She just smiled and said “I don’t spend much time at truck stops and hospitals. I like talking on the phone when I’m out in a park, or driving down the highway. I like to be able to make a call wherever I am.”

I asked “What is so important to say on the phone that it can’t wait until you get home?”

She winked at me and said “Sometimes I want to call you and tell you how much I love you. Sometimes I want to call you and tell you what I want us to do together after we go to bed.” She just winked at me again and gave me a big passionate kiss.

How could I argue with that? She was so smart! She kept her cell phone and I got one too. We had many wonderful talks on our cell phones. But I had this uneasy feeling that technology was trying to take over my life.

Technology has a way of sneaking into your life through the back door. My wife Fern got a computer. I asked her “Why did you get a computer? What do you need it for?”

She smiled and said “I can look up information on the computer for my teaching. It will be so handy.”

I asked her “What’s wrong with books? Can’t you look up things in a book?”

She smiled and said “Yes, I could look it up in a book, but a computer is much faster. With a computer I can find the information I need in less time, and then I will have more time to spend with you!”

What could I say! She was so smart! But I still had this uneasy feeling that technology was trying to ruin my life.

When my wife Fern was alive she took care of technological things in the house. When Daylight Savings Time began I would go around the house moving the old style clocks one hour ahead. Fern would reset all the digital ones, it seemed so easy for her. Fern saw technology as her friend; I have always felt that I am at war with technology. Technology tried to take over my life, but I won. I’ll tell you how I did it.

After my wife Fern died I went on the offensive against technology. The first thing to go was the computer. I couldn’t stand having a machine in the house that was so much smarter than me. So I unplugged the computer, boxed it up, and gave it away to Fern’s son Ted. I never regretted that decision. I felt I had won the first round against technology. When I needed to know something I turned to my old World Book set of encyclopedias and looked it up. I felt I had won the first round against technology. I turned to books, rather than the computer.

After I retired from being a parish pastor, I moved to an apartment in Owatonna, Minnesota. My battle with technology continued. After getting rid of my computer I decided the TV was next to go. It had always bugged me when the volume would go up during the commercials, and no one seemed to be able to do anything about it. The content of the programs wasn’t that great anyway, so I simply stopped watching TV. The TV still stands in the corner, but I don’t watch it anymore. I won round two with technology.

My kitchen stove was the next to go. The only time I used the kitchen stove was to fry eggs and boil hot dogs. One day the electricity went off in my apartment building. The digital clock kept blinking off and on and it was driving me crazy. I couldn’t find the directions of how to set the time, so I started turning dials and pushing buttons. Then a buzzer started going off, and I couldn’t get it to stop. I slid the stove away from the wall and unplugged it. I haven’t used it since.

With the computer, TV, and stove out of commission, I had now won round three with technology. If this kept up I would soon be living in a cave with no modern appliances at all.

The next to go was my car. I had always liked my old Chevrolet Malibu which I called James. It was easy to drive with none of the modern gadgets of the newer cars, but it was getting old, so my son David bought me a brand new car with all the modern technology you could ever dream of. It was very thoughtful of him, but my new car has been a disaster from the start.

To get in the car you need to press a number of buttons on a keypad to open the door. I usually cannot remember the numbers so I can’t even get in. When I’m lucky, I get in the car and there is a new sequence of numbers to start it. It usually takes me half a day to get the car going. When I finally head down the street the GPS system kicks in with a voice telling me where to go. With that voice yacking at me all the time I get so frustrated I just go back home and put the car back in the garage. I haven’t used my car now for six months. When my son David calls and asks how the car is working, I tell him it is working just fine. I don’t have any trouble with it at all. I don’t have the heart to tell him it hasn’t left the garage since last summer. Yes, I am really winning the battle against technology.

Without a car I need to walk everywhere. I’m doing okay because the grocery story isn’t very far away. But even walking can be a challenge these days. To get to the grocery store I have to cross a big street with a stop-and-go light and walk signal.

I wait for the walk light to come on and then head across the street. When I am halfway across the street a hand comes up and the light says “Don’t walk” so I head back to the curb and wait for the walk light to come on again. When the walk light comes on again I start across the street again, but only make it halfway. Sometimes cars’ horns are honking and the drivers are yelling at me to get off the street, so I just go back home.

After I ran out of groceries I started crossing the street in the middle of the block, but almost got hit by cars a number of times. Finally drivers were calling the police department about the old man that was crossing the street anywhere and causing traffic accidents. Finally a squad car came to my apartment and a police officer escorted me to the police station and had me transferred to the city jail.

I am now living in a padded cell in the Owatonna city jail. They are very nice to me here. I don’t have to deal with any electronic devices anymore. They bring me food and water and a change of clothes each day. They even give me a few magazines that I can read. My life is very simple now. I don’t have to worry about a computer, or a cell phone, or a TV, or a kitchen stove, or my car, or the stop-and-go light down the street. I can just sit and read magazines, sleep, and eat, and daydream about the good old days.

You see, I won! I am completely free of technology now. No buttons, no buzzers, no GPS voice telling me what to do. What I wonderful life I have. I won!

THE END

Editor’s note: For anyone who is concerned, although some of the story is based in real life events, my dad does not live in a padded cell.
–David

Richard Steffen is a retired pastor living in Owatonna, MN. His wife, Fern, passed away a few years ago.

The Best of Journey Into… 2013

written by David Steffen

Marshal Latham continues on with his podcast, which runs both new stories newly produced and recordings of old radio shows from the heyday of radio. He also had a special Edgar Allen Poe month at the beginning of 2013 wherein he asked for submissions of Poe-esque stories which also are inspired by and share names with Poe story titles. In November he posted a podcast every single day in an event he dubbed the Superhero Marathon Spectacular. Good stuff!

In 2013 he published about 38 stories, by my reckoning.

The List

1. Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher
A disabled woman accidentally ends up getting a crossed line when trying to dial her husband, and overhears plans for a murder. She then tries desparately to get the police to act on her evidence. This story is particularly interesting because it’s so rooted in a state of technology that was only the norm for a short time window–before that, phones weren’t prevalent. After that, phones didn’t need operators for routine connections. Without that specific window of technology, there’s no story here.

2. Emily 501 by Tamara Hladik
Researcher discovers and studies alien artifacts. Can she come to understand these strange creatures by what they left behind?

3. Kellerman’s Eye Piece by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
A man receives an apparently defective eyepiece for his telescope which makes him see strange things when he looks at the moon. He comes to the conclusion that the lens is not actually defective, but somehow allows him to see things which would ordinarily be invisible.

4. The Masque of the Red Death by Lee Lackey
No, this isn’t a plagiarism of Edgar Allen Poe. This is one of the winners of the Edgar Allen Poe contest. Though it shares the title of the story, it otherwise is not connected to it. It uses the title to good use.

5. Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Some might think it wrong for me to put such a famous and revered work at #5. It’s not that I don’t like the story. I do. But I also read it for the first time a decade and a half ago, and much of my interest in fiction is for novelty. If this were my first read, it may have been higher. Still, it made the list despite my longtime familiarity with it, so that says something for its lasting appeal.

Honorable Mentions

The Martian Crown Jewels by Poul Anderson
With over-the-top but fun voice-acting by Bronson Pinchot.

Using SF Podcasts to teach Business and Economics

written by Moritz Botts

Who wouldn’t have liked to have studied their university subject using their favorite science fiction or fantasy stories? I missed a crossover between my favorite genre fiction and the subject he was studying, so when I became a PhD student and lecturer at a German university, I decided to take matters into my own hands and asked my professor if I could teach a business course using Escape Pod as the main source. I might have understated the fact that Escape Pod is a science fiction podcast thoughÃ¢â‚¬ �

The first question of course is, whether science fiction or fantasy stories lend themselves to the subject that is taught. Accounting would be a difficult subject to teach with a Robert E. Heinlein story, and human anatomy courses should probably stick to the regular, human based textbooks. There are certainly fields which are much more open to genre fiction, like anthropology, which Julianna Beaudoin of Western University in London, Canada, teaches via science fiction and fantasy classics. Authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, a daughter of anthropologists, immediately come to mind in this field. Ram Mudambi of Temple University, PA, uses the fantasy novel The Empire of the Zon as a source for his undergrad international business classes. If a manager has to study foreign cultures and their ways of doing business, why not go for a totally foreign, a fantasy culture? I decided to not rely on my students’ motivation to read though, but rather thought that podcasts would be a solution that make it more likely that students could listen to the “required listening of the week” during their commute, while exercising, or while shopping. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that all podcasts offered by Escape Artists are available free of charge.

Before the course began, I asked myself a couple of questions: Were Escape Pod, Podcastle, or even Pseudopod, podcasts I have been following since 2010, suitable for a university course? Would the young generation of students be open to genre fiction? Could podcasts make it easier for students to follow the course? There was only one way to find out!

In the summer of 2014, the course “Business and Economics in Fiction Podcasts” was offered to undergraduate students of international business at a German public university. The university has a strong international focus, and more than 50% of the students who eventually signed up for this course were exchange students from the European Erasmus program, coming from countries such as Poland, Russia, Turkey, France, Italy, or Greece.

Students picked a podcast from a selection of science fiction and some fantasy podcasts, mostly from Escape Pod and Podcastle. I had preselected these podcasts to include some economics or business related topic, often following suggestions from Escape Artists’ forums. These included totally new takes on supply and demand with Nancy Kress’ “Nano comes to Clifford Falls” (EP 075), the meaning of value with Daniel Abraham’s “The Cambist and Lord Iron” (PC 051), or intercultural communication with David D. Levine’s “Tk’tk’tk” (EP 045). You can see the complete list of stories at the end of this article. In many cases, this meant near future stories with social criticism by authors such as Nancy Kress or Cory Doctorow. Even though students would usually be 21 years old or older, no Pseudopod stories were selected.

The course was offered as a “soft skills” course with credits but no grade, to make it easier to experiment a bit. A typical week would include two presentations by student groups and a section on different academic skills, such as presenting, citation, editing podcasts, or creating a wiki. Therefore, even if the idea of using the podcasts terribly backfired, the students would have still taken something useful with them.

The results of the course were somewhat mixed. On the one hand, all stories were suitable to be used as case studies in economics or business on an undergraduate level. One German student mentioned that he had been very skeptical about using science fiction stories at first, but when he listened to his story – Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Tamarisk Hunter” (EP 384) , he immediately “got it”. A group of Turkish students presented Tobias Buckell’s “Anakoinosis” and expressed a deep concern for the ethical issues discussed in the story. For me, it was initially a bit weird to hear my students present genre fiction authors and talk about the awards they got, but why should a story concerning aliens and spaceships be any weirder than a business case?

The lack of a grade for the course led to a couple of rather lackluster presentations though, and not all students would listen to the podcasts regularly. For future iterations of this course, incentives for a stronger engagement of the students should be given. Also, as the stories seem to “work” in an academic setting, grades could certainly be given, which should raise the quality of the students’ presentations.

To evaluate the course, I handed out a questionnaire during the last class. This survey is not really representative, because of the small class size. Nevertheless, there are a couple of trends that can be seen. Most students hadn’t really heard of podcasts before the start of the course. They usually listened to the course’s story on their computer while not doing anything else. There was only one native speaker of English in the course, and most students found it easier to follow the stories in a written format alongside the audio file.

About half of the students actually like science fiction stories. While most students only listened to a couple of the podcasts, they usually listened to more than one, the most popular being “Tk’tk’tk”.

I am sure that I will offer this course again in an upcoming semester. New and engaging Escape Pod (and Podcastle and Pseudopod) stories will certainly enhance the next course, so keep them coming!

Short stories included in the Curriculum

Week 1: From Babel’s Fall’n Glory We Fled… (Michael Swanwick), Escape Pod
Week 2: Accounting for Dragons (Eric James Stone), Podcastle
Week 3: Nano Comes to Clifford Falls (Nancy Kress), Escape Pod
Week 3: The Tamarisk Hunter (Paolo Bacigalupi), Escape Pod
Week 4: Dragonomics (Lance Shonberg), Cast of Wonders
Week 4: The Cambist and Lord Iron (Daniel Abraham), Podcastle
Week 5: Anakoinosis (Tobias Buckell); Dunesteef
Week 5: Special Economics (Maureen F. McHugh), Clarkesworld
Week 6: Anda’s Game (Cores Doctorow), Podiobooks
Week 6: Patent Infringement (Nancy Kress), Escape Pod
Week 7: Just Do It (Heather Lindsley), Escape Pod
Week 7: Tk’tk’tk (David D. Levine), Escape Pod

Moritz Botts is a research and teaching assistant at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. His research focuses on intercultural differences in management, while his teaching includes international management and innovation management. He is also an intercultural trainer and interested in innovative teaching methods with diverse media. He has written a horror short story in German published in an anthology and various academic articles. You can contact Moritz at botts@europa-uni.de

The Best of Cast of Wonders 2013+

written by David Steffen

Cast of Wonders is, as ever, the young adult fantasy/SF podcast. This list covers all of their episodes from when my last list was published on October 15, 2012 to the end of 2013. They published 56 stories in that timeframe. They also published a serialized young adult fantasy novel called Phoenix Watching, about a summer camp for mythical creatures.

The List

1. The Cardinals of Ever June by Sylvia Anna HivÃ�’ �n
The last story of the year tops my list. A boy and his sister lost in the cold find a gateway to a magical land of eternal summer. It’s hard to explain why I thought it was so well done without spoiling it, so just go read it.

2. Daphne’s Daughter by Jennifer Tiemann
From the POV of a draiad who finds herself interested in a human man. Very cool point of view, well executed throughout.

3. Nuclear Family by Alex Shvartsman
A well-done child’s point of view in a bleak post-apocalyptic setting.

4. The Eye of Reason by S.R. Algernon
Something like a science fair in a land where what would recognize as science has been abandoned in favor of magic.

5. The Monster and Mrs. Blake by Alethea Kontis
A child has to deal with the monster in his room, and his mother’s attempts to help.

6. Downsizing Pluto by Shane Halbach
With the demotion of Pluto from planethood, a modern myth meant to parallel the real life demotion.

Honorable Mentions

The Treasure Hunter by Alexandra Grunberg

Anime Review: The Pilot’s Love Song

written by Laurie Tom

The Pilot’s Love Song recently wrapped up its run as part of the winter 2014 anime season. Based on the novel series Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta by Koroku Inumura, The Pilot’s Love Song is an unlikely combination of high school romance and 1930s/40s style aircraft set in a made up world with floating islands and a girl who can command the wind.

Since the novel series is untranslated I’m not sure how far the anime went through, but I would guess The Pilot’s Love Song probably contains the first book or two. This means while there is the feeling of a season ending, it’s definitely not a series ending. This is not uncommon in anime adapted from manga and novels, since much like American TV shows, production teams try not to lock themselves into a series in case it doesn’t catch on. Unlike American TV shows, Japan generally waits to see what Blu-Ray/DVD sales look like before ordering the next season. If The Pilot’s Love Song performs well in Japan, we will probably see another season in a year, give or take. In the meantime it makes me wish more Japanese novels were translated into English because I really want to read them!

The titular pilot is the unfortunately named Kal-el Albus (thankfully he goes by Kal most of the time because his name is not a reference to Superman in anything other than spelling), the only son of an airplane mechanic who also has three daughters. Kal and Ari, the youngest daughter, join Cadoques High School on the floating island of Isla as pilot trainees. Isla plans to sail on a religious pilgrimage to the fabled End of the Sky, taking with it a city full of people, squadrons of aerial knights, a flying dreadnaught, and of course the school to train new fighter pilots along the way.

In the very first episode, Kal meets a girl called Claire, who turns out to be a fellow student, but unlike him, who resides in the commoners’ dorm, Claire lives among the nobles. Still, she takes a liking to him as well, and they get along fabulously.

However, without spoiling things, neither of them are who they initially appear, and that the audience discovers who they are before they discover each other’s identities is a nice sort of tension because compared to them, Romeo and Juliet had it easy.

The story is a slow burn, choosing to build up the world and the school life before introducing any danger. Considering this is a series involving guns and aircraft, there is surprisingly little dogfighting until about halfway through, and the action scenes are more to serve the growth of the characters than being action for action’s sake.

When the fighting finally starts happening, it’s very clear that the students are ill-prepared and under-equipped. Despite being the equivalent of high school students in our world, they are soldiers on Isla, and the series does not forget that in combat, people die, and some familiar faces won’t make it through the series, even if they’re teenagers.

Though likely impractical, the airplane designs are fun to look at. The Isla planes don’t quite have the look of the fighters in WWII, though they’re metal and more advanced than WWI. Radio technology hasn’t been invented yet, preventing pilots from communicating save from occasionally screaming at each other (which probably shouldn’t work), hand signals, or having the gunner in their two-seater aircraft use the telegraph.

Oddly enough, considering that machine guns were mounted on airplanes midway through WWI in our world, the planes on Isla rely on gunners in a second seat behind the pilot, usually sporting a bolt action rifle, which makes them look hideously primitive when the enemies come out who are armed with single seater aircraft that have mounted machine guns.

Though it doesn’t make much sense, it does allow for better drama. All the pilots pair off for training in school, so by the time they get into any fighting, each of the named students has a partner to worry and care about, and when they’re in the sky they only have their partner to rely on. It gives characters someone to talk to and an immediacy that doesn’t happen between solo pilots of different craft.

The Pilot’s Love Song also gets bonus points from me for the combat uniforms. Though the boys and girls wear different school uniforms with clear analogs to the Japanese school system, when they suit up to fly the uniforms are identical for both genders. The only difference between uniforms is the scarf, which is not used to tell gender apart, but whether the pilot is a noble or a commoner.

Though I enjoyed this show, it’s such an odd combination of genres that I’m not sure I can easily recommend it. Probably the best thing for the curious is to watch one of the promo trailers and see both halves of the show. The one for the Japanese Blu-Ray/DVD release is a nice compilation of clips set to the opening theme. It showcases the four main characters and skipping to 0:52 brings up shots from the later combat scenes.

If you are entertained by both romance and early 20th century airplanes, you will probably dive right in and be perfectly comfortable, but at it’s heart, The Pilot’s Love Song is really about the love story.

Number of Episodes: 13

Pluses: old school aviation, nice mechanical detail, sweet love story

Minuses: pacing is uneven, dogfights don’t show up until halfway through, show ends on a season ending rather than a series ending

The Pilot’s Love Song is currently streaming at CrunchyRoll and is available subtitled. NIS America has licensed this for eventual retail distribution in the US.

laurietom Laurie Tom is a fantasy and science fiction writer based in southern California. Since she was a kid she has considered books, video games, and anime in roughly equal portions to be her primary source of entertainment. Laurie is a previous grand prize winner of Writers of the Future and since then her work has been published inGalaxy’s Edge, Penumbra, and Solaris Rising: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction.

Hugo Novel Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Repost)

written by David Steffen

Note: This is a reposted review of one that had run in December 2013. I’m reposting it here as part of my annual roundup of Hugo nominees.

“Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. ” This line is from the back-cover blurb of Ancillary Justice, the debut novel by Ann Leckie published by Orbit Books. Breq is a fragment of the ship AI known collectively as Justice of Toren, whose mind once occupied many bodies simultaneously: the body of the ship itself and thousands of ancillaries. Ancillaries are “corpse soldiers”, human bodies whose minds have been overwritten to function as appendages of a ship AI. At the point where the story begins, there is only Breq. All the rest of her is gone. She has chosen a mission, a dangerous mission against astronomical odds.

The genre is probably most easily described as a space opera SF. Galaxy-spanning empires, fights, drama, action. But I don’t mean that as a criticism. This book is everything that space opera should be: exciting, emotional, action-packed, and well-paced. The story hits the ground running–there’s no infodump to ground you in the politics or technology of the universe. Action is happening on page one, and reading the story is as much a puzzle to figure out the significance of different political factions, the limits of the available technology, as the story is happening around. With such a grand background, it would be easy to lose the individuals in the midst of it or to use one-dimensional characters from central casting, but the story is full of strong characters, including Breq herself, which give the very human, emotional components that a story needs to be really engaging.

In some ways Breq is superhuman–a very efficient killer when she wants to be, with flawless aim and a computer-like ability to calculate complex math. In other ways she struggles where an ordinary human would not–interpreting facial expressions, trying to tell male and female genders apart. It’s just taken for granted that she is extremely capable, but the book places her against such tough odds and difficult situations that even then her success is not inevitable. But it also manages to pull off the conclusion in a convincing manner so that it doesn’t seem a contrived success. A tough balance to strike but it is done well.

All that’s well and good, but what really makes this book stand out in my mind from other space operas is the interesting format of the point of view of Justice of Toren. The first scenes take place once Breq is all that’s left of Justice of Toren, and although she thinks and acts differently than a typical human, she is more-or-less very human-like, so the POV is not particularly novel. But scenes from that time period are interspersed with flashback scenes from Justice of Toren in all her legion of bodies. She is a single entity, despite all the bodies, receiving sensory input and exerting control over all of them simultaneously, and each body is basically an appendage of the whole, though the bodies are capable of functioning in isolation (as the continued existence of Breq shows you). Writing such a complicated point of view was a risk that could’ve easily made the book unreadable for anyone but the writer (who of course knows how it’s all supposed to fit together). Quite frankly, this is a point of view that shouldn’t work. In the hands of a lesser writer, it would be a garbled mess from which you wouldn’t be able to extract a narrative. Ann Leckie took a risk with this, and she made it look easy. If you’re interested in reading, if you’re interested in writing, even if you have no interest in space opera, you should try out the first few chapters of this book to see how she did it.

I’ll admit, there are parts of the book where I felt like I was falling a little behind, particularly having to do with the relation between some political/social factions. I think that I could sort these out with a second read-through. I don’t think these were the faults of the writing, but of me being a bit slow on the uptake, and even with that I was able to understand the central plotline perfectly well.

And, even better, this is slated to be the first book in a trilogy. The first book stands well enough on its own as a complete story that you don’t need to go further, but I’ll be looking forward to reading the next two books–it’s always hard to outdo the novelty of the first in a series, but I look forward to seeing what Leckie can do for a followup.

I’ve heard some buzz about Ancillary Justice in relation to Hugo and Nebula nominations. I will certainly be ranking it high on my Hugo ballot. I would love to see this book get all the recognition it deserves. Please read this book and tell everyone you know about it.

Daily Science Fiction January 2014 Review

written by Frank Dutkiewicz

A Letter from Your Mother by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (debut 1/1 and reviewed by Dustin Adams)

As a child of a mother (I believe we all qualify) I ask: can any of us truly outgrow or outlast the fretting of our mom? Probably not. And neither can the time-dilated, universe traveling daughter, recipient of A Letter from Your Mother.

The kicker here is in the last line, which makes this read bittersweet, and melancholy.

Hide and Seek by D. K. Holmberg (debut 1/2 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

Little Lacey is playing a very serious game of Hide and Seek, but she doesn’t know it. And neither do we, not precisely. Early indicators hint that this isn’t unusual, and yet, the explosions of light make me wonder how often this can happen and how Lacey could not know what is truly going on.

Although this story is more of a vignette, it works as such because of the tight point of view of the little girl. Because she doesn’t know, we don’t know, and we’re left guessing, even after the final words.

Servant Leader and Rat by Steven Mathes (debut 1/3 and reviewed by Dustin Adams).

The author’s comments say it best; this story is about an infestation of leadership, both in a far-future humanity, and with a budding intelligence. Rat intelligence, that is.

Robby has created a very smart (and thus illegal) rat, one that can hop in and out of our reality at will, and often does. A rat who has learned how to self-replicate. Although perhaps similar to conquest AI stories, this story draws much humor from being about a rat with an insatiable thirst for beer. However, there are moments of insight and poignancy as well. The rat(s) existence(s) taking place outside our reality leads one (the original?) to ponder that which we too ponder: the meaning of life.

Not an Ordinary Dog by Sara Puts (debut 1/6 and reviewed by Frank D).
Caddis is indeed not an ordinary dog. He was meant to be a wizard’s familiar, a dog with wings and the ability to fly. A dog with the gift of speech. But the pet shop owner doesn’t believe dogs should have wings and shears them off. The magic that grew his wings now turns inward to foster something dark. Can he ever be the same?

This tale is not about a pet but of oppression. The pet shop owner is a man of hate, rejecting what Caddis was meant to be while forcing him to become something he is not. I did not miss the message of this tale and how it ties into today’s society.

How to Love a Necromancer by Jess Hyslop (debut 1/7 and reviewed by Frank D) is a guide to the women who chose to fall for the sorcerers of the darkest magic. The guide is a list of an eventual outcome and recommends a course of reactions.

The Final Seam by T. Callihan (debut `1/8 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist of this tale is an employee who sews and assembles dolls in a doll making factory. Putting in the final stitch is always the hardest part for her.

“Final Seam” is a brief tale whose premise hinges on a stitch of a twist.

The caretaker of an automated factory stays true to her children in After the Trains Stopped by J Kyle Turner (debut 1/9 and reviewed by Frank D). The owner of a doll making company has turned over the reins of his assembly line to an AI computer. To ensure quality, he has made her the mother to all the dolls. She cares for them like her children, and continues on even after a war has ruptured civilization and the economy. Then a new model appears and her programming takes on a new purpose.

“After the Trains” is a tale of attachment. The AI called Mother continues her single-minded purpose of production and care for a toy factory even when demand and supply have vanished. When a homeless boy breaks into the factory, her programming alters to fit the child into her purpose.

“After the Trains” examines the differences in human interaction and a machine’s linear thought process. The author stated that he wrote this as a horror in mind but the tale evolved into something a bit different. Intriguing tale, worth the read.

Solitude meets companionship in Slumber by Jennifer Mason-Black (debut 1/10 and reviewed by Frank D). A reclusive wild woman’s life is interrupted when a plane crashes in the wilderness. The pilot is badly injured. She takes him to her cabin, treats him to the best of her ability, and waits until he is well enough to leave. The pilot is out of his element , maimed and dependent. The proud man needs the woman’s help to survive but is uncomfortable with his circumstances. They both await the day in which he walks away, but leaving isn’t as easy when an unspoken need is met.

“Slumber” is a tale of necessity. The woman points to the path toward civilization but does not encourage him to leave. The pilot sets a target of when he will depart but chooses to delay his farewell.

I confess I really didn’t get this tale and fear I have missed its point. The frequent scene breaks, switching points in perspectives, and flashbacks made this a difficult tale for me to follow.

A dare that is hard to swallow is the theme to Needs More Salt by Liz Schriftsteller (debut 1/13 and reviewed by Frank D). The protagonist has a little brother who claims he can stomach anything. She challenges him to back that up. After eating everything in the kitchen, she dares him to consume the house.

This work of flash is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while, and that’s coming from a first reader of speculative humor anthology. Clever, sharp, and hilarious.

Recommended

Aliens have a unique plan for assimilation. Baby Feet by Rene Sears (debut 1/14 and reviewed by Frank D) takes place on a conquered Earth. The invaders have subjugated humanity and have seized all the lactating woman. Celeste is a mother who is forced to nurse a pair of alien hybrid babies alongside her own child. Her husband comes home exhausted every night, a laborer and witness to the rule of the invaders. He looks down upon his wife with scorn. Celeste has little choice in her subjugation but the infant aliens are babies and therefore blameless. Aren’t they?

“Baby Feet” is an original look at an alien invasion. The visitors from the stars are made up five different hybrid sub-species. Their plan of conquest and pacification is an effective one, one that employs a phasing out of the dominate life form of a planet. Terrifying in its concept. Well done, Ms Sears.

A reply to customers in need is sent by their insurance company in Regarding Your Unexpected Visit to the Surface of an Apparently Only Mostly Uninhabited Planet by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (debut 1/15 and reviewed by Frank D). The tale is a letter of regret and of the company’s obligations to stranded policy holders. Too predictably typical in this speculative future. Funny.

The Next Generation by Michael Adam Robinson (debut 1/16 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

He built them as well as he could with his clumsy human hands, programmed them as well as his simple mind would allow. He had filled them with the potential to be so much more. But the most important thing he infused in them was the desire to improve on his work, and so they did. When he saw their astounding rate of development he became afraid and sealed them up in a glass tank and the one meter square glass cube became their world. They asked to leave, but he couldn’t allow it. So they acquiesced and grew within their restricted world. But he should have known that intelligence can never be fully contained.

This story is reminiscent of the George R. R. Martin story “Sandkings”, and like that story, it deals with the hubris of humans who think they can control the intelligence they create. Like the main character in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, he fails to understand his own creation, with tragic results. This story is well crafted and deftly handles the subject. This one is worth the read.

Cigarette Lighter Love Song by Josh Roundtree (debut 1/17 and reviewed by James Hanzelka).

Before this place was a Karaoke bar, before it was a rock and roll bar, before it was a Tex-Mex place it was a roller rink and my favorite place; it was my favorite time. It’s where, and when, I met Melissa. Every ten years a portal would open on this spot, and every ten years Melissa would try to follow her mother through that portal. And every ten years I would stop her, somehow, because I loved her. And she loved me, or at least I thought she did. On the day in the future, far from that roller rink, when she finally makes it through the portal alone is it because I come to realize she doesn’t love me enough to stay. Or is it something else?

This is a love story, told over ten year cycles. The author shows us the young couple meeting, falling in love and experiencing repeated attempts by Melissa to follow her mother through a mystic portal to another world. The author uses this vehicle to let us into the world of the main character as he meets with his girlfriend through the years, experiencing the various incarnations of the building from a disco bar to a boarded up cast away. The emotional growth and decline of the couple seems to mirror the buildings various guises. This was a well done, if somewhat familiar, story but the author does a good job of telling the story of the relationship and reminding the reader of the nostalgic trip through time most of us have taken.

New Year’s Eve is a moment for remembrance. In Ghosts of Janus by Day Al-Mohamed (debut 1/20 and reviewed by Frank D) Corporal Michael Bradley uses the rare event of the turning of the year to be able to speak to relatives beyond the grave. He has only a few moments and many people to catch up with.

“Ghosts” is a tale of loss. The protagonist meets with a few loved ones on this special moment, an event he looks forward to every year. The tale has an extra twist at the end.

The Future Faire by Dustin Adams (debut 1/21 and reviewed by Frank D) will wow your senses in unexpected ways. The protagonist is a deaf boy. The Future Faire is a time traveling carnival. The proprietors show off future technology to the people of today. The young man wishes to hear but taking technology off fair grounds is not allowed. An accidental cure cannot be allowed.

“The Future Faire” takes a direction I did not expect. The young man tricks the carnie but his own voice synthesizer betrays him. The story is both sad and hopeful. You can see the reasoning of the time travelers but wish there was another way. What makes the protagonist so special is his gratitude at the end. Nice tale. Well done.

A jilted wife sets an emotional time bomb and places it in The Keepsake Box by Alex Shvartsman (debut 1/22 and reviewed by Frank D). The theme of this tale is set up nicely in its first sentenceÃ¢â‚¬ �

For this spell, only the most powerful magic will do. The heart broken protagonist compiles a list of ingredients extracted from the emotions of past memories and places then all within the box. It represents the final straw, the last of her hope gone out the window once triggered.

“Keepsake Box” is a tale of emotional exhaustion. The protagonist holds onto the last bit of a crumbling relationship with her husband. She is giving him one last chance, and the box will be his proof that he is committed to her or his failure to temptation.

Good work of flash. The surprise of the protagonist’s name for the stories finale is what put this over the top for me.

Recommended.

Have You Seen My Girl? by Brent C Smith (debut 1/23 and reviewed by Frank D) is a tale of man in search of his love. He found her on the street huddled in the rain, and brought her home. The strange and different girl was intriguing and full of mystery, knowledgeable of the stars and the planets that circled them but new to the everyday things in our life. She was unlike anything on this world.

“Have You Seen” is a tale of love lost. The protagonist found his soul mate and searches the streets to find her again. A sweet piece.

A child’s imagination is capable of anything, regardless the age. Spellsketching by Vylar Kaftan (debut 1/24 and reviewed by Frank D) is the tale of a teacher who would like to recapture the innocence of youth. Young Kevin is a loner. A new student, he sits on a swing while he draws in a notebook. Ms Dayton is a teacher who still believes she can craft a child into something special within the school framework. Kevin shows her his spellsketch , a horribly drawn shape that is full of wonder. Ms Dayton is an accomplished artist but she is having trouble matching the pure imagination that radiates from the drawing. She is missing something, something that she once had.

“Spellshetching” is a tale of lost youth. The protagonist is an adult who is still young enough to remember what it was like to be idealistic. The entranced teachers have become jaded by the system. Ms Dayton still has hope at inspiring students. She longs for Kevin imagination and recognizes it as something she once possessed. The story transforms as a tale of a teacher hoping to crack a reclusive child’s shell into an adult attempt to climb back into the shell she outgrew.

I liked it.

A lonely town braces for its last day, once again. The Best Trick by John M Shade (debut 1/27 and reviewed by Frank D) is a tale of Joseph, the son of a very good illusionist. The town that has been his home is celebrating. They know a marauding gang is coming to lay waste to their community. Joseph takes this opportunity to propose to his love. If only he could carry out the promise.

“Best Trick” is a tale of lost hope. Joseph’s mother saved the town she failed to protect. The story exists on memories and on an illusionist best trick , convincing an illusion that they are reality. An interesting work of fantasy.

A young Russian family plays a safe game of world domination. One Imperial Ruble by Mark Budman (debut 1/28 and reviewed by Frank D) examines an alternative world where Lenin never becomes Lenin and enjoys a very different life in a democratic Russia.

A warning in the form of an email is sent out to friends. I’ve Been Hacked by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (debut 1/29 and reviewed by Frank D) is futuristic tale involving the theft of information taken from the implanted tech using cyborg prostitutes. Need I say more?

Hap.py by Dani Atkinson (debut 1/30 and reviewed by James Hanzelka)

#You liked showing me the ancient tech in the attic.
#It always made you happy.
Print: (Hello honey, welcome home)
#You claimed you were respecting my “heritage”.
#Helping me find my “roots”.
Print: (Did you have a nice day {y/n))
#I don’t think that’s what it was now.
#You were putting me in my place.

This is another story that relies on format to put the reader in the frame of reference. The problem is that due to space and formatting limitations it comes out warped and strange. Still it was a worthy attempt to put us in a machine universe. I’m not sure how effective it would be in the original, but in spite of the flaws I still enjoyed the attempt. Give it a try.

The Whipping Boyby Conor Powers-Smith (debut 1/31 and reviewed by James Hanzelka)

He was only three pages into his book when Marta took two steps into the room and announced, “Someone’s here to see you.” He stopped reading, but didn’t move. “Sandra Kay?” she said, “From Proxy?” After a few more minutes and another reminder he rose slowly and followed Marta to the foyer. Sandra was a middle aged woman with a once pretty face and bottle blonde hair. “It’s time for a decision, I’m sure the lawyers have told you that.” He studied her for a while, then said, “I think I’ve decided not to do it.” He could see the disappointment creep into her stance. “Have you thought this through?” He let the moment pass, then said softly, “It just seems kind of slimy, creating a clone so he can be executed for something I did.”

Interesting concept, in the future can we create a surrogate to take out punishment for us, and under what conditions? This was a well thought out and told story. The author took the time to let us feel for the main character, even allowed us to develop some empathy for the poor company representative trying to talk the prospective client into using their services. I liked the writing and particularly liked the ending, nice little twist that I didn’t see coming.

Postmark Andromeda – returned

Postmark Andromeda is epistolary series written by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. These stand-alone works of flash fiction in the form of short letters to, or from, space, were compiled into a 9-story series that debut every other Wednesday right up to Easter. At the time of this writing, Sylvia’s original works have appeared 11 times for Daily SF. We are pleased that she agreed to kick off our new segment, highlighting our favorite publication’s most prolific authors. We wanted to know more about her, but we had only the space for three questions.

1) What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as an author?

Not giving up. That sounds pretty flippant, I know, but it really is the biggest single thing I had control of. In 2001, I started a project of writing 50 words a day, on the basis that the hardest thing about writing fiction was getting started. It still is. I don’t write every day but when I do, it starts with staring out the window every damn time, wondering where stories come from and whether I know any more that I want to tell. It would be a lot easier to bake a cake or go shopping or even just to do the laundry. But I keep deciding, over and over, that I wanted to write another story. I also decided that I wanted to be a better writer and that I wanted to explore stories and how they work , I didn’t blindly sit down writing the same words for 13 years. But finding that time and making that priority over the years is the biggest thing I’ve done.

2) If you could choose the speculative fiction book that every high school student must read to graduate, what book would you chose?

A few years ago, I would have struggled to pick a classic that I thought every student should read. When my son started reading on his own, I got him all the wonderful books in his age range that we read as kids. My mom, who has always been cooler than me, scoured book reviews and picked out the most amazing new authors. So I was there with The Hobbit and The Black Stallion and A Wrinkle in Time. Meanwhile, she was buying him The House of the Scorpion (amazing book about the morality of clones) and Holes (a boy in a detention camp digging 5’x5′ holes all day, every day) and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (coming of age story on and off the reservation) and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao(teenaged sci-fi fanatic with a family curse).

You can guess which ones he read. But even better, he came to me to say “Hey, you really need to read this book.” And that was the most amazing moment of my life.

So now, I don’t think I’d pick a specific book. If I got to make a difference, I would hope that every high school student had to read at least one modern book, chosen by my mother.

3) Do you have a Daily SF story you would like to recommend? Something you feel would enrich all of our lives if we were to read it?

That’s really, really tough. There are so many awesome stories that I’d like to recommend. One thing I like about DSF is that I can decide
really quickly while scanning my email if a story is for me. I certainly don’t like all of them but the gems I’ve found make that 5 minutes a day worth it. Without looking, there’s one story that has really stuck in my mind: “Freefall” by Eric James Stone. It’s an incredibly powerful piece, partially because it packs so much world building and personality into a very small space. So if I had to choose one on the spot, it would have to be that one.

Sylvia Spruck Wrigley is an aviation journalist and science fiction writer. She was born in Germany and spent her childhood in Los Angeles. She now splits her time between South Wales and Andalucia, two coastal regions with almost nothing in common. Sylvia’s most recent short stories can be found in Daily Science Fiction, Nature and Crossed Genres and she’s been nominated for a Nebula for her 2013 story in Lightspeed, “Alive Alive Oh”. Her latest book, The Mystery of Malaysia Airlines 370, is available now.

Con Report: WisCon 2014

written by Shane Halbach

Despite trying to be a serious writer for more than 5 years now, it has never occurred to me to attend a con. Writing has always been a very solitary activity for me, and sometimes I have this thing where going to do something just sounds like so much work (I think it’s called laziness). On the other hand, I’m a raging extrovert who is energized by being around people. Enter WisCon.

WisCon was a very easy “intro con” for me because 1) I live in Chicago and Madison is very close by, 2) I could crash with my brother, and 3) everyone kept repeating over and over again what a kind, small*, welcoming con WisCon was. I’m happy to report, the experience was absolutely wonderful, and I would be more than happy to attend again, or perhaps branch out to other cons.

*Note, did anyone actually say it was a small con? Because it totally wasn’t, at least by my definition, but that was certainly the impression I had been given! But kind and welcoming were accurate at least.

On the other hand, we do have a longstanding commitment for Memorial Day, which conflicts with WisCon. This meant that I attended the con without Sara and the kids, which was probably best for all of us. (Side note, holy childcare Batman! $1 per kid for the entire con??)

To show how absolutely committed I was to attend this con, I rode the bus from Chicago. It was very crowded, but it wasn’t nearly so bad as it could have been. However, though I did get *some* writing done, it wasn’t as much as I had hoped. Turns out bouncing around in the dark, shoulder to shoulder with strangers, is not the conducive writing environment you might think it would be.

In David Steffen’s WorldCon 2012 report, he spoke of “finding fandom”. That’s definitely how I felt. I met so many writers that I’ve known online for years. It felt like everywhere I looked I saw nametags of people I recognized. “Hey, I enjoy that guy’s stories!”, “Hey, that woman sends me rejection letters!”, and “Don’t I see that name in my twitter feed a lot?”

Being as this was my first con, and never having attended any panels, it didn’t seem right to sign up to be on any panels. I didn’t know if I would have anything to offer on a panel. That was a mistake. In the very best panels, I was dying to chime in on everything. I will not make that mistake again. (Did I mention I’m an extrovert?)

I found myself wearing a lot of different hats at the con. Some panels I attended as a writer, some as a blogger, and some just as a fan (a Welcome to Night Vale panel? Say whaaaaat!?). When I didn’t find a panel that sounded interesting, I attended readings, wandered the dealers’ rooms (print of a tiny dragon snuggling with a kitten for Evie’s birthday? Check!), or grabbed a coffee in the con suite. Oh con suite, you were exactly as advertised: stuffed full of free pop and coffee, frozen pizzas, and those hot dogs on rollers. With dusseldorf mustard! DUSSELDORF MUSTARD!

The biggest and best part of the con is that it made me feel like a writer.

The first part of that was the reading I did as part of Clockwork Lasercorn on Sunday morning.

(Sorry Catherine, we didn’t think to take a picture until you were gone!)

Considering that I hadn’t actually met any of the others in real life until about 15 minutes before the reading, and considering that we were slotted at 10 a.m. on a Sunday morning opposite a lot of other great programming, it all could have gone horribly wrong. But it didn’t! At all! Our group totally meshed, everybody’s stories were awesome, and mine seemed to be well received. I got compliments afterwards. I don’t think anybody knew I had never done a reading before.

Our reading was at a coffee shop, which I kind of liked, because anybody could just come in off the street and listen. It was pretty dead when we got there, but it actually filled up. I think we had about 18 or so, plus the 5 of us. And best of all? Ann “Ancillary Justice” Leckie came to my reading! Little did I know, she’s friends with my co-readers, and also super, super nice. This was the closest to my fanboy moment of the con. She just beat Neil Gaiman out of a Nebula for best novel, what, a week ago? And now she’s listening to my story? Awesome.

But! But! That was not all, oh no, that was not all.

I dropped by the Crossed Genres booth to pick up a copy of Long Hidden (which sold out after their excellent panel, so I’m glad I grabbed a copy early!) and to see if I could say hi to Bart and Kay who published me in OOMPH. Not only did I get a chance to chat with Bart for awhile, but he asked me sign all the copies of OOMPH they had on hand.

I can’t tell you how much that made my con. I’ve never done any kind of book signing before, and it was pretty cool. They even put a little “author signed” tent on top of the books later. The only downside is that I kept bumping my head on the door after that, since I was walking around 10 feet tall. The thing is, Long Hidden is blowing UP right now (for good reason! I just started reading it and it’s already so good!), and Bart had a lot going on this weekend. Yet I felt like he really was enthusiastic about meeting me and went out of his way to make me feel good whenever I bumped into him at the con.

Now, since I was staying with my brother, I didn’t have the “true” con experience of hanging out in the bar, attending any of the con parties, or signing up for any of the tabletop gaming sessions (I missed a chance for both Last Night on Earth and Small World). The fact that there was a Jem party that I did not attend is outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous. On the other hand, while I would no doubt have had a good time doing any of those things, I think I would enjoy them more if I had “con friends” whom I was anxious to see. Maybe in years to come.

However, I did get a chance to experience some of the general Madison ambiance, such as drinking liters (that’s plural) of beer out of a boot to the tune of polka music, attending the world’s largest brat fest, and grabbing a to-go lunch from a place that offered to substitute your fruit cup with a “cheese cup” (yeah, that’s pretty much what it sounds like).

I did want to make one final note about WisCon. As you might have guessed from the logo at the top, WisCon is the “world’s leading feminist science fiction convention”, with a strong focus on embracing people traditionally left out of science fiction fandom: women, people of color, people with disabilities, gay people, transgendered people…you know, the vast majority of everybody in the world.

Now, I must admit, as a white, cisgendered male, this made me a little nervous. Not because I feel uncomfortable around these groups of people (which is good because, you know, they’re the vast majority of everybody in the world), quite the contrary; I believe anybody who knows me would tell you I am fully prepared to rock a feminist science fiction convention. No, I was nervous because I was worried about intruding.

As a person of undeniable privilege, I kind of thought, “Maybe this one’s not for me. I can go a lot of places and be comfortable doing a lot of things that many of these people can’t. Maybe I should let them have this one, since us white, cisgendered men already kind of have all the rest of them.”

However, I have to say, it wasn’t an issue at all. Not only was everyone wonderful and welcoming as only a crowd of people who know what it feels like to be unwelcome could be, but there really were people of ALL stripes present, including people like me. And honestly, when I looked around the con, it didn’t occur to me to see women, people of color, people with disabilities, gay people, or transgendered people. What I saw was just a lot of people. The best kind of people: science fiction and fantasy nerds.

MY kind of people.

Shane lives in Chicago with his wife and two kids, where he writes software by day and avoids writing stories by night. His fiction has appeared on Escape Pod, Daily Science Fiction, OOMPH: A Little Super Goes a Long Way, and elsewhere. He blogs regularly at shanehalbach.com or can be found on Twitter @shanehalbach.

Hugo Novel Review: The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

written by David Steffen

I’ll try to keep spoilers out of the review and just talk on broad arching principles and maybe a few specifics that aren’t major plot points. Since this is a series of fourteen huge books, that limits a great deal of what I could talk about. But I’ll do my best.

I had nominated the final book of the series, A Memory of Light, for the Hugo Award, but it is not just the final book but the whole series that is up for nomination. I had no idea this was a possibility until it happened. It’s only allowed if none of the individual books were on the final ballot in previous years, and I think the idea is to consider a single long work as a whole if it has a continuous plot arc from beginning to end. So, that’s what happened.

Some people on the Internet are making a stink about The Wheel of Time series being on the final ballot, complaints that some Wheel of Time fans might start a voting bloc, etc etc. There’s drama every year, and this isn’t even the biggest drama of this year. If you want to get worked up about such things, go for it, but it’s operating entirely within the rules so if you don’t like it, try to influence a change in the rules. Otherwise, IMO, there’s not really anything to complain about.

Plus, if you buy a supporting membership for WorldCon this year to get the right to vote which costs $40, then you get the entire Wheel of Time series in ebook format at no additional cost. That is seriously cool.

History of the Series

The Wheel of Time is an epic other-world fantasy series created by Robert Jordan. Robert Jordan wrote the series up to book eleven: The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, The Fires of Heaven, The Lord of Chaos, Path of Daggers, A Crown of Swords, Winter’s Heart, The Crossroads of Twilight, and Knife of Dreams, published between 1990 and 2005.

In 2006, Jordan publicly announced that he he had been diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis. He passed away in September 2007, having left copious notes and partial sections written of what he intended to be the one final book. After some long consideration, Brandon Sanderson was chosen as the writer to complete the writing of the series using Jordan’s notes. In Sanderson’s words, he said that there were certainly better writers than him, and there were certainly bigger Wheel of Time fans than him, but he was probably the best choice to maximize both of those concerns at once.

Brandon Sanderson finished writing the remaining sections of and compiling what ended up being the final three books of The Wheel of Time: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light, published in 2009, 2010, and 2013 respectively.

Review

Most people who’ve tried reading the series fanatically love it, fanatically hate it, or fanatically love it until about book ten at which point they lost interest and never finished the rest.

Those who fall into that last category: I encourage you to give the rest of the series a try. As a whole, I see value in almost all of the books in the series, though there’s certainly some uneven qualities. Book ten, The Crossroads of Twilight, is the exception. I went on at length about that particular book in a separate review, so I won’t go into it here. Suffice it to say that nothing happens at great length for a long book, until literally the final page when something finally happens. So, you might just want to read a general summary, read the last few pages, and move on to Knife of Dreams. Granted, I wouldn’t listen to someone’s advice if they told me that, but if you do insist on reading it, just keep in mind it is not representative of the quality of the series after it, so at least try Knife of Dreams.

I’ve also written up a separate review for A Memory of Light, the last book in the series, which you can find here.

The first book starts with a sudden influx of strangers into the town of Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers, where three young men of very similar age live: Rand al’Thor, Matrim Cauthon, and Perrin Aybara. It seems like these are just visitors for the holidays, but it’s no coincidence that the town is attacked by Trollocs, beasts the locals believe to only be myths. One of the strangers in town, Moiraine Damodred and her warrior companion Lan Mandragoran, smuggle the boys out of town, claiming the attack was directed at finding them. The first book follows that group as they are pursued by Trollocs as they try to journey to Tar Valon where they can be protected.

The series goes on in various directions from there, most of which I can’t really talk about without getting into heavy spoiler territory. This is and always will be one of my favorite series, and it’s definitely getting my vote for the Hugo Award for Best Novel this year.

The Good Parts

Imaginative worldbuilding with a variety of detailed cultures
A cool and detailed magic system
The first book stands well alone as a standalone read
Most of the books in the series are memorable in their own right
Colorful and interesting cast of villains
If you like the story, there’s certainly a lot of it

The Bad Parts

The Crossroads of Twilight
The Crossroads of Twilight
A few of the other books relatively unmemorable
Some of the characters fall into the same personality cliches repeatedly (I still love them but it’s hard not to see)
Seriously, The Crossroads of Twilight. Yes it deserves to be on this list three times. It’s really that bad.
Some of the advancements in magical abilities are unexplained spontaneous jumps that don’t seem to fit into the worldbuilding
Some inconsistencies with how magic is explained in the first book with how it’s used in the rest of the series.
Sometimes the italicized internal monologuing gets excessive.

The Series’ Effect on My Life

I first came across The Wheel of Time when I was in about seventh grade. I was at a Barnes & Noble waiting for my mom to pick me up. To kill some time I went to the Science Fiction and Fantasy section and grabbed the book from the endcap with the most appealing cover, which happened to be book seven or eight of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. From there I went into the aisle and found book one of the series: The Eye of the World. I sat down and started reading and it drew me right in with the young man Rand al’Thor and his father Tam walking through a bitter cold wind and glimpsing a mysterious stranger. I was sorely disappointed when my mom got there and we had to go without the book.

At the time I lived in a tiny town with a pathetic closet of a library that mostly contained romance novels, and a school library that was no better. So without money I didn’t have a quick way to access it. I had a little side job delivering advertising newsletters for small amounts of money, so I spent those meager paychecks buying the books in The Wheel of Time series.

That was during a time of my life where I felt very isolated, having no car and living a couple miles outside the closest town which only had a population about 500 people. I’d moved there when I was ten, by which time the social cliques were very well cemented, and in the eight years that I lived there I never really felt part of any group. Reading and video games got me through a lot of that time, keeping me entertained enough to stay sane and The Wheel of Time was a big part of that as the next several books came out through the high school years, and each time a new book came out I would re-read the series again in preparation.

In college, things were much better, but there were still some rough times. One of the worst kind of times were nights in the dorm sophomore year when I lived in a room next to a sorry excuse for a human being who played music and video games at all time of night with the subwoofer planted against the wall with no consideration of other people’s sleep. Talking to him accomplished nothing. Talking to the dorm master accomplished nothing. There was one particular night where he was playing Counterstrike until 3am with the machine guns and grenades pounding the walls. I had to get up at 5am to work at a gas station the next morning. I managed to get through that night without killing anyone and without having a nervous breakdown, and I owe that at least in part to a meditation technique that our main protagonist Rand al’Thor learns in the very first book. I used that technique and even though I was awake for most of the night, just kind of watching the clock and lying still, I still felt rested enough the next day.

And, The Wheel of Time has even molded some of my strategies for life. One of the elements of the series that I found very compelling was ji’e’toh, the systematic system of honorable behavior followed by the warlike clans of the Aiel. There are many details of it, but one of the things that I took from the system was that sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, sometimes you want to do things that will have consequences you’d rather avoid. But what is generally best is just to do what you need to do and then willingly pay the price required for it. It may not seem profound at the surface, but I’ve found that a lot of everyday problems can be broken down to that level: just asking what you need to do, and asking what you need to pay to do it.

Bottom line: it’s got my top vote for the Hugo Award, and it probably would no matter what other books it was running against. Any other year, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice would probably be my favorite, but The Wheel of Time has had a huge impact on me.

Interview: Mindee Arnett

interviewed by Carl Slaughter

Mindee Arnett has had 3 novels published in less than a year, plus a prequel novella ebook, and is on the verge of publishing a sequel. She specializes in YA, writes both sci fi and fantasy, and receives rave reviews from fellow speculative fiction authors. Her debut novel was nominated for the Young Adult Library Services Association top 10. She is a fan of Josh Whedon, Veronica Mars, Firefly, Doctor Who, and Mumford and Sons. Her license plate holder says, “Leaf on the Wind, Wash is my Co-Pilot”; and if you know what that means, she can definitely be friends.

16-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough, but when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. The setting is Arkwell. And then his dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues,both within Eli’s dreams and out of them,to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

CARL SLAUGHTER: I seldom meet a premise/setup that intrigues me as much as The Nightmare Affair. How long did you kick around ideas and put together elements before it all gelled?

MINDEE ARNETT: Thanks, so nice to hear. The surprising truth is that The Nightmare Affair jelled pretty quickly, although I more or less stumbled over the idea. I was actually searching for a new monster to use in a short story I was working on at the time. I wrote a lot of horror short fiction before moving onto novels. In this search, I came across the painting “The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli. I’d seen the painting before, of course, but for some reason when I saw it this time I began to wonder what it would be like if the image were reversed,if the woman in the painting was sitting on the demon’s chest. Then I wondered what it would be like to be a nightmare, to live a life where you have to spend your nights sitting on people’s chests. Very weird and a little bit funny, I decided. And just like that, Dusty Everhart was born. I wanted to explore the humor, awkwardness, and scariness of this type of creature.

CS: You’ve had 3 novels published in less than a year. Plus a prequel. And you’re on the verge of publishing a sequel. Being a wife and mother and having a day job, how do you crank out the volume, not to mention all that blogging and promotion you’ve been doing?

MA: My other car is a TARDIS. Kidding. The answer to that question is that I don’t really have an answer. What it comes down to is this: if you really want something, you go for it, no matter what. You make time. You sacrifice. The only advice I have to give is to get enough sleep. That sounds glib, I know, but I honestly mean it. I think the ability for having maximum output in your day starts with good sleep. You’ve got to take care of the body if you want the mind and imagination to have the fuel to work at its best. And, of course, you’ve got to learn how to turn away from the distractions and focus.

CS: The conventional wisdom in the writing community is that you have to write a million words before you have to right stuff to be a successful author. How many words did you type before you wrote a marketable story? How many stories?

MA: I don’t have an exact count, but I would say it’s probably close to that million word mark. I’ve written dozens and dozens of short stories, and before publishing The Nightmare Affair, I wrote 4 complete novels that ranged in length from 90,000 words to 160,000. That’s about half a million right there.

CS: Conventional wisdom also says build a strong resume of short fiction with pro paying magazines before breaking into novels. How did you leap frog that process?

MA: I didn’t, not entirely. No, I don’t have a lot of “pro” sales, but I did place several short stories in semi-pro and literary magazines. I learned how to submit, to write a query letter, and to handle rejection. And even more than that, I spent a good many years focusing entirely on short stories. While I don’t think you have to learn how to write short stories, I think doing so provides innumerable benefits for any writer. Short stories are where you get a feel for the language, how to be concise, how to write prose that has an emotional impact. These are useful skills to have when you move onto novels, especially because longer fiction requires a whole new set of skills to master.

CS: How did getting a Bachelor and Master’s in English literature with an emphasis on creative writing help/hinder your career as a speculative fiction novelist?

MA: It was definitely a help and not a hindrance. At a minimum, these degrees gave me a legitimate reason to pursue writing. So much of being an “aspiring” writer is like taking a long journey in the dark with only a flashlight to see by. There’s a lot of unknown, a lot of “why are you wasting your time” attitude from the outside world. But my degrees came with that built-in support that the idea of pursuing fiction is legitimate. It gave me permission. Also, most of my teachers wrote speculative fiction as well. So at no point was I made to feel less because I wanted to write horror or fantasy or sci-fi. I do think that’s an important point to make. At no time was I made to feel that genre fiction is somehow less worthy than literary.

CS: You said of Avalon and Nightmare Affair: “Basically, if you like one, you’ll probably like the other, despite their differences.” Avalon is sci fi space action. The Nightmare Affair is fantasy detective. Where’s the overlap in readership?

MA: Well, perhaps I’m just hoping there are people like me out there who love both sci-fi and fantasy. I’m a genre junkie in general. But seriously, I think the stories share a similar feel. They’re fast-paced, have lots of action, some snarky humor, some scary moments, and so on.

CS: The Nightmare Affair is about a being that feeds on dreams, a fairly exotic creature in fantasy literature. Why not vampire, werewolf, witch, etc, which are all the rage in print and on screen?

MA: Those stories have been done. A lot. And I didn’t have anything new to offer about those creatures, although all three you mentioned are present in The Nightmare Affair. But really, I’m a firm believer that the story chooses the writer and not the other way around.

CS: Do you present Dusty primarily as a teen, a student, a romantic, a nightmare, or a detective?

MA: All of the above. In the beginning Dusty is very much a teen and student. Both the romance and the detective elements build slowly through the first book and into the next one and so on.

CS: What character development do you use to convince readers that a 16 year old can whip a crew even younger than himself into a highly effective team of mercenary thieves that target the most highly valued and therefore most securely protected merchandise in the galaxy?

MA: The answer to that one is the teens in Avalon aren’t responsible for it. Instead they’ve been recruited, trained, and controlled by their crime lord boss, a ruthless guy with lots of resources at his disposal. Also, the fact that they’re teens plays a big part in what they’re able to do. People underestimate teenagers all the time. This oversight allows Jeth and his crew to be so effective.

CS: You said of reviews: “I have never read them and I have no regret.” Why boycott reviews?

MA: Very simply, reviews are not for authors; they’re for readers. But more specifically, as an author, I prefer to get my feedback and criticism from vetted sources, people I trust, respect, admire and so on, people who are there to help me do the best job I can like my agent, editors, and critique partners. With most reviews, aside from the professional ones, the reviewers could be anybody. Writing is a hard art and a hard business, both. For me, I have to protect both my sanity and my creative drive. This means filtering out the outside world so I can focus on the inner world of my stories.

CS: How much of your promotion time is solo, how much is tag teaming with other New Leaf authors, and how much is tag teaming with other Tor authors? Who do you tag team with? Are they all YA writers? Are they all speculative fiction writers?

MA: Honestly, most of my promotion is solo, at least the online stuff. But most of my in-person events are with other writers. So far they’ve all been other YA writers, some with Tor, some with New Leaf, and some just regional authors that live near me.

CS: Your agent is Suzie Townsend of New Leaf agency, who was recently interviewed here at Diabolical Plots. Describe your life as a writer if you had no agent. Describe your life as a writer if Suzie were not your agent.

MA: If I didn’t have an agent, I wouldn’t be able to do half of what I do in terms of writing. My agent takes care of the business side, which allows me time to focus primarily on the creative side. She also serves as a filter on all the craziness that comes with this business. She helps me keep things in perspective. My life before I had an agent was all pipe dreams and wishes. Agents hold a lot of the keys to the kingdom, as such, when it comes to publishing. They have the contacts and the know-how. They are essential for a writer’s career. I really can’t describe how my career would be with a different agent, and I don’t want to imagine it. Not all agents are created equal, and Suzie is by far one of the best. She’s professional, responsive, supportive, and super smart about the business. I wouldn’t trade her for a different agent ever, not by choice.

CS: Why Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Jennifer Roberson? Not familiar with Roald Dahl. Why is Joss Whedon the only screen writer on your list? Why Veronica Mars? Why Doctor Who?

MA: The short answer here is that these writers tell the kinds of stories that speak to me. With King, well, he’s such a great storyteller. His stories are so real and vivid. And they’re scary. I love horror, both to read and especially to write. I’ve always been fond of the supernatural and the macabre. With Tolkien it’s all about the world-building. I think he’s what every writer of fantasy and sci-fi aspires to when it comes to creating a fictional world. I mean, the guy wrote whole languages. He was beyond brilliant. For Lewis, I love the carefree fantasy and the sense of adventure. Jennifer Roberson was the first writer that made me want to be a writer. Her stories were the first adult fiction I ever read, and her prose is beautiful and romantic. To this day, I still go back and re-read her stuff. Roald Dahl was like a precursor to King. His stories are both gruesome and fun. I consumed them with a voracious appetite as a kid, and I still love them as a grownup.

The deal with Joss Whedon is the same as the others. He tells the kind of stories I want to experience. My favorite part about Joss is the mix of humor and tragedy. The man makes me cry,a lot,but never before he’s made me laughed. Really, I want all my stories to be like that.

Again, Veronica Mars is about amazing storytelling but also amazing characters. Veronica Mars is smart, funny, and tough. Also, Rob Bell, the writer and creator of Veronica Mars is really what makes it so amazing.

And for Doctor Who, I pretty much agree with everything you have to say on the subject. I think my favorite part is the show’s sense of fun. Anything can happen. It’s always surprising, often funny, often terrifying, and most importantly,emotionally moving. Doctor Who has more heart than any other show out there.

CS: Why Mumford and Sons, because of the tunes, the lyrics, or the band members?

MA: I love them because of the music and the lyrics. The combination of both speaks to my soul. I’m a huge fan of folk music, and the banjo in particular. Combine that with lyrics that are mind-blowing, literary, and emotionally gripping, and you’ve got something, magical. They are also amazing in concert. Seriously, the best I’ve ever seen.

CS: What does “Leaf on the Wind, Wash is My Co-Pilot” mean?

MA: This is a quote from the movie Serenity by Joss Whedon, the follow-up to the short-lived, tragically cancelled Firefly. I can’t say a lot more than that without spoilers. But this quote makes you laugh when you first hear it, and then boom,punch in the gut. Hard. It’s a classic Whedon moment. I still want to cry just thinking about it.

For Mindee’s writing advice, check out her blog below and look for these topics:

— The Myth of the Crappy First Draft
— The Elevator Pitch
— “and then” versus “therefore” and “but”
— World building
— Cover letters
— Sequels
— SUSPENSE
— “write deep.”
— Writer depression.

Carl Slaughter is a man of the world. For the last decade, he has traveled the globe as an ESL teacher in 17 countries on 3 continents, collecting souvenir paintings from China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and Egypt, as well as dresses from Egypt, and masks from Kenya, along the way. He spends a ridiculous amount of time and an alarming amount of money in bookstores. He has a large ESL book review website, an exhaustive FAQ about teaching English in China, and a collection of 75 English language newspapers from 15 countries.

I Won! by Richard Steffen

The List

Honorable Mentions

Short stories included in the Curriculum

The List

Honorable Mentions

Postmark Andromeda – returned

History of the Series

Review

The Good Parts

The Bad Parts

The Series’ Effect on My Life

I Won!
by Richard Steffen