The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

A stylized 2D black and gray drawing of an octopus on a blue background

The Mountain in the Sea is Ray Nayler’s debut novel. What a debut! This is my favorite kind of science fiction—the kind that explores ideas. In this case, the idea is that of consciousness and sentience. While most science fiction novels exploring those ideas involve find extraterrestrial intelligence, in this book the new sentient consciousness is very terrestrial. And the science in the novel follows actual science very closely, another big plus for me.

There are three main threads in the book. One follows a hacker trying to break into an artificial mind. Another follows a young man who went seeking his fortune and finds himself a slave on an AI-controlled ship that is over-fishing the oceans. And the last is the main thread where a scientist is exploring a group of octopuses that seem to show signs of culture. All three of these stories come together in one heck of a ride.

Wrapped in what is essentially a thriller, is a smart exploration of what it means to be conscious. When does an AI achieve self-awareness? How would you tell the difference between simulated consciousness and the real thing? If another earthly species is conscious, how will that consciousness differ from humans’? And given that difference, how will we communicate with them? All of these questions are addressed in this book.

It might just be that I am a language nerd (I studied three languages and linguistics in school), but the author explores all of these questions naturally in the course of the story. I never felt like there was a bunch of unnecessary scientific exposition. It just unfolds naturally as part of the storytelling. And the characters are flawed and realistic, even the AI android. I can’t recommend this book strongly enough. It is one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years.

My rating: 5/5

Uncanny Magazine Issue 51

Uncanny Magazine has released the last of their stories in issue 51 to read for free online. That means it is time to review some short stories! There were eight new stories in this issue along with one that was accidentally released in the ebook last month. Let’s get started.

The issue starts with “A Soul in the World” by Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky. This is the sweet story of a single mom and her child whose origin is special. Let’s just say that she didn’t come into this world in the most terrestrial way. But that doesn’t dampen the challenges that all parents and teens deal with as teenagers grapple with a growing sense of identity. (My rating: 4/5)

An academic in the future works on an embodied AI as she deals with misogyny and hierarchy in “To Put Your Heart Into a White Deer” by Kristiana Wilsey. The world is a blend of academic mergers and corporate control. Things don’t go well for the protagonist, as you might expect, though you might not see the end coming. For me the world building was a bit clumsy and got in the way of the story. The result was too dense and disjointed. (My rating: 2/5)

“Perhaps in Understanding” by AnaMaria Curtis takes place in a world where the characters in the story literally show their emotions as masks on their faces. The wealthier you are, the more masks (and therefore emotions) you are able to wear. This is the story of a painter who is preparing for a show that will make or break her future in this world. It is a sweet story of getting under the masks we all wear. (My rating: 4/5)

My favorite story of this issue is Delilah S. Dawson’s “Blank Space“. It tells the story of a girl living in a small town with her strict uncle who polices who she can go out with and what she can wear. While working at her uncle’s hardware store, she is approached by a tattooed biker trying to pick her up. She likes him back, but her uncle doesn’t approve. Things don’t go as planned but maybe not in quite the way you think. (My rating: 5/5)

In the first fantasy story an old mage sets out to save a village from the ravages of crystal cougars. The story is “In Time, a Weed May Break a Stone” by Valerie Valdes. The cougars belong to wealthy owners who plan to use them to get a hand up on the poor villagers. But the wealthy outsiders get more than they bargained for when the town bands together. (My rating: 4/5)

A brother and sister can’t wait to get out of school and play. But, the brother is running away from the sister. She is angry because she was punished in class for something her brother did. As they both run into the woods, they find a surprise. And what is at first fear turns to play in “Space Treads” by Parlei Riviere. (My rating: 4/5)

“Yinying—Shadow” by Ai Jiang is the other fantasy tale in this issue. A young girl whose father blames her for her mother’s death waits for foster parents to come after he also dies. Overnight she struggles with her past and how her father saw her. (My rating: 3/5)

Rounding out the issue is “Bigger Fish” by Sarah Pinsker. It feels like a futuristic Agatha Christie mystery. When a son asks a detective to investigate his father’s apparent suicide, the detective questions his house and robot valet. (My rating: 4/5)

My average rating for this issue comes out to 3.75. Overall, another excellent issue of great stories of speculative fiction.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

A close up of a young African woman smearing clay on her face

In addition to short stories, my year of short fiction includes novellas. Novellas have various definitions as to length. The Hugo Awards define them as “between seventeen thousand five hundred (17,500) and forty thousand (40,000) words.” In other words, a short novel. The most recent novella for me, Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.

The story takes place in a future where humans on earth are selected to study at a galactic university. As it starts, the title character is sneaking out of her African village to travel to study there on a full scholarship. She is sneaking out because it is against her family’s wishes. She is talented and is expected to take over her father’s business. She feels drawn to something more. And boy does she find it on her way to school.

In this Afrofururist tale, the author really brings Binti to life and gets you rooting for her as she handles all that comes her way. She is a child of her village and family but also has her own way that she seeks to follow as she manages her conflicting emotions. Binti is the first of three novellas in the series. The others being Home and The Night Masquerade. I look forward to reading the further adventures of Binti.

My rating: 4/5

Apex Magazine Issue 136

A thin woman wearing a brimmed hat that seems to be dissolving into the sky walks among a cityscape into the sky

I am normally not a big fan of the horror genre, at least what I think of as the horror genre. But I am starting to change my mind. It depends on the story. And two of my favorite stories from issue 136 of Apex Magazine have straight up horror elements to them. Here are my brief reviews of each story.

The issue starts out with a bang in “Over Moonlit Clouds” by Coda Audeguy-Pegon. A woman gets on a plane only to realize that she has forgotten an important aspect of her trip. She panics and mayhem ensues. A fantastic metaphor for mental illness and how those with it are seen and often treated. (My rating: 5/5)

What if a nightmare was a sentient being? What if that nightmare consumed another nightmare? That is the premise of “Beautiful Poison in Pastel” by Beth Dawkins. It is a fascinating exploration of agency and change. (My rating: 4/5)

The creepy factor is high in “Unboxing” by Lavie Tidhar. It is the story of a little girl who watches unboxing videos created by a little boy with the help of his mother. But these are way more than they seem. A dark exploration of using media as a babysitter and unintended consequences. I would have rated it higher but it felt a little unfinished without saying enough about its themes. (My rating: 3/5)

In a bleak future, Claire Humphrey tells of a double amputee who works from home to build clever toy robots as a way to save enough money to buy prosthetic legs for himself in “The State Street Robot Factory“. When things don’t go as planned, he pivots with an idea on how to leverage what he’s learned. (My rating: 4/5)

At the beginning of “After the Twilight Fades” by Sara Tantlinger, a woman finds a glowing meteorite in the woods near her home. When she touches it, catastrophic changes begin within her. But these are all not bad as she starts to see herself through her own eyes and experience for the first time. (My rating: 4/5)

“The Words That Make Us Fly” by S.L. Harris filled my heart with gladness and made it soar. It is the story of a young man whose friends all find magic in how they can use words. But the young man keeps waiting to find where his talents lie. As he waits, he begins to doubt his own ability until he stumbles on the path to his own power. (My rating: 4/5)

Like the previous story, “Every Shade of Healing” by Taryn Frazier touched me deeply. This story is a little darker as it deals with pain deeply felt and experienced. A young woman goes to get a tattoo as a way of dealing with past trauma. The artist has a magical way of transforming that pain. Together they make beauty out of suffering. (My rating: 5/5)

The one story I didn’t really care for was “Reproduction on the Beach” by Rich Larson. It boils down to the trope of a young woman with a much older man who is in a position of power. Things go about as I expected they would without any deeper exploration of the situation. Disappointing. (My rating: 2/5)

“Destiny Delayed” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki tells of a future where a bank has discovered how to remove people’s destiny and save it as collateral against a loan. A poor man mortgages his daughter’s destiny in order to make it bigger for her. When he realizes the trap that the process really is, he takes clever and surprising revenge. (My rating: 3/5)

The third top-rated story in this issue is “They Could Have Been Yours” by Joy Baglio. Suddenly, all of a woman’s exes seem to be getting engaged and married at virtually the same time. As she revisits each of them mentally, she finds a ring that when she puts it on she finds herself disembodiedly visiting each of their fiancées. She spends more and more time in this state, allowing her real life to slowly crumble. The end is poignant and beautiful and one I didn’t see coming. (My rating: 5/5)

This issue ends with an overall rating of 3.9, quite high in my experience so far this year. There is a lot of darkness in the stories in Apex, but the exploration of feelings and ideas within the stories makes it worth the trip.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 154

A small child is towered over by a dark, thin, metal robot in the midst of a sparse, leafless forest at night

The March issue of Lightspeed Magazine is a fairly strong issue with one meh story and one I really didn’t care for. The other six were very enjoyable and thought-provoking. There seemed to be a bit of a theme of love/relationship in this issue. On to the individual reviews.

“Crystalline” by Daniel H. Wilson stars a father who has lost his wife. He and his young daughter are in a cave where a glowing crystal connects them to a multitude of alternate worlds where the wife and mother still lives. The father is coaxing his daughter to approach the crystal and retrieve an alternate version of his wife for them both. Things do not go to plan. This is a bittersweet story of longing and loss and the things it can make us do. (My rating: 4/5)

A countess who can see, experience, and move through the past, present, and future attempts to save a spaceship from falling into a black hole in “One Pinch, Two Pinch” by Beth Goder. This is a tale told in an usual manner that is part of the storytelling itself. I enjoyed that but the whole thing didn’t quite land for me. (My rating: 3/5)

“Contracting Iris” by Peter Watts takes a page out of The Last of Us on HBOMax as it tells the story of a world plagued by a parasitic virus called Iris that slowly takes over its host. We follow a girl named Iris who is trying to navigate this world as she is not feeling well. As she seeks help, she is more and more concerned she might have the virus. But no one seems to be taking her seriously. This tale is creepy and got under my skin. I really felt for Iris the girl and what she was going through. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Four Years Minus Twelve Days” by Samantha Murray, you are a human who is married to an alien knowing that it can only last the period of the story title. But you are so in love that you ignore the metamorphosis that they will go through, forgetting you in the process. It doesn’t matter. You are in love. But as your time grows shorter you start to realize what this really means. This is well-told stuff touching the soft spot in all of us and the fairy tales we tell ourselves when we are in love. (My rating: 4/5)

“Every Little Change” by Aimee Ogden also touches on the struggles of love. Here the husband can leap through time. He does so for reasons he is not allowed to share with his wife. She feels left out and alone, and it starts to wear on their relationship. But is where/when he is going for work or for her benefit or both? For anyone who has gone through a heartbreaking alienation of affection, this story will really resonate with your experience and perhaps make you look at it in a new light. (My rating: 4/5)

In the epistolary story “The Chosen Six” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees, six people are chosen for their magical skills to help a refugee society trying to survive and thrive in a climate-ravaged world. The story here is deeply engrossing but the clunky prose kept pulling me out of it. (My rating: 2/5)

The narrator in “Our Exquisite Delights” by Megan Chee describes an experience that happens over and over again to the people in her story. Each person sees an extra door where they had only seen one previously. What might be on the other side of that door? How might life be different if they opened that extra door? This is a fanciful exploration of those tantalizing thoughts of “what if”. (My rating: 4/5)

The last story of the issue was actually included accidentally in the January issue ebook version and published again in this issue where it was originally intended to be. “The Ministry of Saturn” by Benjamin Peek, explores the nature of creativity, freedom, power over others, and what we owe others. This is the tale of a magician, a homunculus, and his creator. (My rating: 4/5)

By my ratings, this issue wasn’t as good as the others so far this year at an average rating of 3.625. There were no five ratings for me but I still enjoyed reading it. For me, still worth the subscription price and the time to read.

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 198

Images of a farm are reflected in the visor of an astronaut as s/he floats above the earth, head upside down relative to the cover with the earth below

The March issue of Clarkesworld Magazine was a mixed bag for me. There were two stories that I simply loved, one I didn’t like much at all, and two that were just meh. Here are my brief individual reviews for each story.

The opening story “Love in the Season of New Dance” by Bo Balder is a poignant tale of a researcher on an alien planet studying a cicada-like species. This researcher is touched by the predicament of a single creature as it breaks through to the surface long before its fellows, dooming it to die before the rest arise. A touching relationship grows through their short time together. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Pinocchio Photography” by Angela Liu, the main character is a photographer in an eerie future where the dead can be animated post mortem and their pictures taken with loved ones with a special type of film. This photographer starts the job as a side hustle that her mother disapproves of and her dying father sees her enjoying. They all come together in a bittersweet and emotional conclusion. (My rating: 5/5)

“The Spoil Heap” by Fiona Moore takes place across two times—the story’s present and past as the main character Morag remembers it. The back and forth between the two time periods gives the tale a slowly unfolding suspense as it reveals what is actually happening in the present. And that present is a post apocalyptic world that fell into a form of feudalism before Morag took action to create the world of the present. (My rating: 5/5)

Bek of “Bek, Ascendant” by Shari Paul has left her home planet just prior to its destruction and become part of a team of aliens who help to resettle species that have lost their home planets. She had thought that she was the last human alive but finds that many from her planet were rescued by the alien confederacy that she is now a part of. And her childhood friend the Emperor is still alive. And now her team is being sent to manage their resettlement. How will she handle this unforeseen turn of events? (My rating: 3/5)

In a future where clones are created regularly by corporations, the clones are only given rights and recognized as “human” (rather than property) once they pass a test to “convert”. If a clone fails to convert, it is automatically destroyed at a certain age via an implant. But some unconverted clones don’t want to recognize such a system by participating in the testing process. One clone who works for a cloning company is challenged by this choice in “Failure to Convert” by Shih-Li Kow. This story is a touching exploration of what it means to be human and the choices that make us more or less so. (My rating: 4/5)

What it means to be human is also explored in “Zeta-Epsilon” by Isabel J. Kim. It is an emotional story of a brother and sister raised together and treated as property by the company that created their relationship. The brother is human and the sister is a sentient AI that was planted in his brain. They were raised together to become a ship (the sister) and its pilot (the brother). But they both want more than that from life. They want freedom and agency. This is the story of how they seek that together. (My rating: 4/5)

It wasn’t clear to me at first what was going on it “AI Aboard the Golden Parrot” by Louise Hughes. It is one of those stories that kind of dumps you into the tale and leaves you to figure out what it means as you go. That can work well sometimes, but that isn’t the case here. At least not for me. The story is about an old pirate carnival ride that is now roaming the ocean as it cautiously approaches a city that seems not to want it to. (My rating: 3/5)

The final story of the issue, “Love is a Process of Unbecoming” by Jonathan Kincaid, was a complete disappointment for me. It felt experimental, and the experiment failed. It seems to be about an infection and what is does to its host. But it felt like a jumble, and I never really understood what was going on. But, maybe that’s just me. It might be just what someone else is looking for. (My rating: 2/5)

The wonderful in this issue is weighed down a bit by the meh and jumbled stories to yield an overall rating of the fiction of 3.75. Definitely worth a read for the high rated stories.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife book cover

The premise of this book really drew me in. It fits with other dystopias like Stephen King’s The Stand and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It also has a feminist twist that amped my eagerness to read it. The story is that of a woman who is an obstetric nurse at a hospital in San Francisco when an airborne plague breaks out that kills nearly everyone who gets it. The thing is, women and children are ten times more likely to die from it, leaving a world of almost no women or children. Everyone is left to fend for themselves. What does a lone woman do in a world like this? That is the premise. Unfortunately for me, it did not live up the the promise I saw in it, despite it having won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award.

The thing that really spoiled this book for me was the editing. This book really needed better editing. Many times, especially in the beginning, I found myself struggling to understand the action happening in the story. It was unclear and seemed to subtly but not clearly contradict earlier action. For example, in one paragraph the characters might be facing each other; in the next, one turns around to face the other. Huh? When and how did they end up facing away from each other? But I also found a complete, glaring error.

This mistake occurs in chapter eight where the author describes the scientists seeking a vaccine for the plague. They develop one and then look for those who are already infected to test it on. “They developed a vaccine, and a FEMA crew flew it into St. Louis to find infected persons on whom to test it.” Except that is not how vaccines are tested or used. They don’t treat disease, they prevent it. Vaccines are tested on those who are not infected. In challenge trials, those who receive the vaccine are deliberately exposed to the disease-causing agent to see how effective the vaccine is. That is how the editor and author could have handled that part of the book.

Despite this very distracting mistake and the at times poorly written action, I found the story itself fascinating and engrossing. The main character struggles realistically with what she faces. The expressions of emotions feel real as do the people and their responses. And the responses are not all the same. Some people act to help others. Most are more selfish. It is a dark world but an interesting exploration of a plague-ravished world written before the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite the interesting story line, though, the poor editing really pulled me from the action and frustrated me.

My rating: 3/5

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 153

Let’s dive right in. Issue 153 of Lightspeed Magazine is for the month of February 2023. It is edited by John Joseph Adams, and all the stories are original.

First up is “Learning Letters” by Carrie Vaughn, a story of the far future after “the Fall”. An isolated and primitive but successful community is visited by a stranger in an airplane. Where did they get the fuel for it? Where have they come from? And what do they want? This world just drew me in and made me want more. (My rating: 5/5)

After a nuclear war forces people to live underground, people have the desperate choice between staying underground and slowly going crazy from the lack of sunlight or venturing to the surface and dying from radiation poisoning. “In(con)solation” by Octavia Cade is the story of a couple living together facing this impossible choice. The story is told in an interesting combination of first and second person voices. (My rating: 3/5)

In “The Day the Earthman Didn’t Show“, Adam-Troy Castro tells the tale of a collectivist alien society that knows the future and works together to plan for it. For millennia. Only what if something happens and the prophecy doesn’t come true? Read this delightful story and find out. (My rating: 4/5)

Have you ever written to your congressperson or senator? If so, I bet it was nothing like the letter in “Subject: More Monsters Will Not Make Us Safer” by Paul Crenshaw. The problem this author is concerned with is using monsters to make children safer in schools. An interesting look at a current hot button issue. (My rating: 4/5)

All houses change as you live in them, even if you never renovate them. But the changes in “The House of Linear Change” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe are way beyond that! The son of the homeowner finds himself in a bit of spot. This one was a bit trippy for me, but may be just your thing. (My rating: 3/5)

The title “Real Magic” by Sharang Biswas at first doesn’t quite seem to fit. People nervously approach the local witch to seek her help with a problem. One by one she sets them each on a quest that gets them what they want but with no real magic. She saves the real magic for the really important things. (My rating: 4/5)

I was surprised to learn that the title library in “Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library” by Marie Brennan actually exists. The author created a fantastic version of guidelines for using it based on her own time there. A fun read. (My rating: 4/5)

As a child did you ever need to stay with family or friends when something unexpected came up with your family? The boy in “His Guns Could Not Protect Him” by Sam J. Miller experiences this when something happens to his father. No one will tell him as he tries to protect his little brother from learning the danger their dad is in. This one really brings that childhood feeling to life. (My rating: 4/5)

That’s it for this month’s Lightspeed fiction! My ratings come out to 3.875 on average so another successful issue. Happy reading!

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

I read and loved Station Eleven, but when this book came out I wasn’t sure I was going to read it. As last year came to an end, many people had it on their lists of best books of the year. So it got on my “to read” list. And last week I finished reading it. It was much shorter than I expected and also much better than I expected.

The story takes place in different time periods from 1912 to the far future. That’s part of what turned me off to the book. Sounded like it was all over the place. It’s not. Well, it is in terms of time but not in terms of the story. It all connects. And in a most satisfying way.

The characters, like her previous book, are fully formed and relatable even when I don’t like them. The writing flows drawing me into the story and keeping me reading long after I had planned to stop for the evening. And surprisingly it shows a lot of compassion and humanity through a few core characters. I’m glad that I decided to read this one.

My rating: 4/5

Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 197

I didn’t start my subscription to Clarkesworld Magazine until after the first of January, so the February issue is my first issue. It was worth the wait.

For me the first story is an outlier. I didn’t like it very much. In fact, I’m not sure I really understood it. Maybe I was too tired. Maybe it just isn’t for me. You be the judge of “The Portrait of a Survivor, Observed from the Water” by Yukimi Ogawa. It didn’t work for me. (My rating: 2/5)

There is a lot of talk these days about AI. One researcher even believes that the AI he works with is sentient! In “Somewhere, It’s About to Be Spring“, Samantha Murray tells how a space ship achieves sentience throughout its systems after losing its crew. A touching story. (My rating: 4/5)

A philosopher of cognition doesn’t sound promising as a short story writer. But in “Larva Pupa Imago” Eric Schwitzgebel tells the fascinating journey of a caterpillar from birth to becoming a butterfly. As a caterpillar he enjoys a close friendship until he becomes a butterfly and sets out to procreate. (My rating: 4/5)

“An Ode to Stardust” by R. P. Sand is about a woman hampered by real chronic pain her whole life. She tries to hide it from everyone around her and succeeds to become the youngest commander on the moon. There, for the first time, she makes a friend that she can be completely honest with. And it changes both their lives. (My rating: 5/5)

“Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” by Gu Shi, translated by Emily Jin is presented as the introduction to a book in the future about cryosleep. People are frozen until their terminal illness has a treatment. This is nothing new in fiction. But the author goes a bit further. People become voluntary “time migrants”. They allow themselves to be frozen for a time so they can travel into the future where presumably things will be better. Throughout this story is weaved the author’s relationship to the history of cryosleep. Wonderfully told. (My rating: 4/5)

“Silo, Sweet Silo” by James Castles is one of my two favorite short stories of the year so far. The story takes place after a nuclear war. A group of survivors looking for safety and shelter find a missile silo complex that has been abandoned by humans but is controlled by a missile that failed to launch. They come to an uneasy agreement. The humans can stay if one of them will launch him in thirty days. After all, he wants to complete his mission. Read it to learn how it all turns out. (My rating: 5/5)

In a world with no food other than nutritious but tasteless bran bars, an old woman awaits her “Going Time“. Amal Singh describes a chaotic society that is barely held together by a religious leader. The old woman’s daughter learns some things about the leader that she refuses to believe. And her neighbor shares with her a view of where she will retire to. But is everything as it seems? (My rating: 4/5)

My average rating for the fiction in this issue is 4/5. Let me know if you agree with my ratings. Happy reading!