Ian Creasey

2 novellas, 3 novelettes and 6 stories open the year for Asimov's (plus 4 poems and the usual complement of non-fiction articles).

"Snowflake" by Nick Wolven (novella) takes awhile to make you realize that it is actually a science fiction story. The narrator is Sam, the best friend of a singer, Coco, and the story Sam tells is the story of Coco - an almost washed out star who is trying to keep her career afloat, through addiction and new technology if needed. It is this new technology and throwaway references to other things which make that a SF story but at the heart of it is really a story of choices and deciding if pain is worth being removed from one's life. It's a chilling tale (and one that is way too believable).

"Goldie" by Sean Monaghan (novella) takes us to another living world where Earth scientists are trying to observe but not intrude. But can you do that for decades and not get attached? I loved the description of the biosphere of the world and I liked how the author handled the feelings of everyone - from curiosity to love (and everything in between).

"River of Stars, Bridge of Shadows" by A. A. Attanasio (novelette) takes a place on a ship traveling between the stars. Something went horribly wrong and the ship is slowly slipping towards its destruction. Deri, a young human, still in a bio-form unlike a lot of humanity and still really young in a world where people live a very long time, is on their first trip among the stars and now needs to deal with a talking snake (an artificial valet that presents as a snake for some reason), an ancient human, an entity who can see the future and a ship which may not make it (and in a time where noone really dies completely - with ultimate death). The background of the story is fascinating and the story itself works but something in its language just did not work for me - I don't mind authors getting inventive with their language but it felt a bit too much here.

"October's Feast" by Michèle Laframboise (novelette) is a story of survival. A ship goes across the stars looking for a new planet for its passengers. But they need to make sure they can survive there even if they lose everything they brought, even if Earth vegetation cannot work in that place. Thus the surveys - send a team of 2 people to find 3 local things that are edible and can provide nutrition. The story is one of those surveys - together with dealing with stories of old surveys, the history of what happened before, personal relationships and just being able to survive. It is a well done story, without really shining.

"Fasterpiece" by Ian Creasey (novelette) takes us to the future where a new technology allows people to enter fast time - a speeding of their internal clock so they can finish long tasks in very short actual time - while they actually live through the whole time. And of course it is the old arts and crafts that get their revival from that - a portrait that needs weeks to be done now feels like an hour or 3 for the model (while the artist can have the weeks they need to work on it); a carving that can take months can be produced in days (or hours) in the real world. Of course these new technologies did not come without a price - Birmingham got destroyed by nano-bots at some point and even if we do not hear about others, that was not the only disaster. And yet, humanity embraces technology and that includes artists such as Barnaby. But when everyone can take as long as they need and produce a huge amount of work for the real work, how do you get ahead? By making a masterpiece of course - and that's where Barnaby goes - which turns out to be a bit more complicated than one expects. Who would think that the love for plums and raspberries may end up the salvation from oblivion? It is a nice tale even if it feels like the "you live 10 years in hours" repercussions felt a little under-explored.

"Welcome Home" by Jendayi Brooks-Flemister (short story) is a cautionary tale about accepting things that are too good to be true. Theresa is on the verge of homelessness and losing her daughter because of it when she finds a place to live, costing a lot less than she would ever hoped for, in one of the modern complexes which have AI to control the home and to assist you. But when does assistance turn into dominance? I really liked the pacing in this story.

"The Roots of Our Memories" by Joel Armstrong (short story) takes us to a future where people don't just get buried - it had been discovered that the root system of hemlock can sustain thoughts and serve as a neuro-bridge so people get planted when they die - in cemeteries shadowed by the hemlocks whose root systems connect the death to computers so people can almost talk to the death. But the hemlocks are still biological entities and as such a disease can harm them and thus kill the death. And as usual, funding is hard. It is a nice story but I am not sure that it went anywhere - it resolved one character's problem but it feels unfinished. Or maybe I just wish that it had been a bit less about that one person and more about the world.

"Unmasking Black Bart" by Joel Richards (short story) takes the pandemic and runs with it. COVID-19 is in everyone's rear-view mirror. The only thing that survived were the masks - now used by everyone for all kinds of purposes - usually holo-mask that make you look like someone else - a younger version of yourself, someone famous (and dead - the only restriction - you cannot have a mask that makes you look as someone else who is still alive) or anything in between. So when Noah's high school reunion rolls in, it is not unexpected that they decide that the first night, as an ice-breaker, they will wear masks of themselves as they were at graduation. Meanwhile, someone robs a bank. The two stories connect in weird ways - and even at the end, you are not sure if you really know what happened. A nice light-hearted story of a future that may just happen.

"The Beast of Tara" by Michael Swanwick (short story) is a time traveling story on steroids - just when you think you know what s really happening and things get turned around again by yet another time traveler. It explores the usual problem of "can we change the past if we can go back" but puts a nice spin on it. Enjoyable read.

"Long-Term Emergencies" by Tom Purdom (short story) gets us to space in a far future where humans are being humans and there are still people who would get themselves in the middle of minor disagreements just so they can make a bigger fracas out of it. And just as is the case in our times, there is no real way to deal with these people rationally. It is depressing to think that we may be able to progress and live across the stars and still not lose that part of humanity. Depressing but not surprising or unexpected.

"The Boyfriend Trap" by Stephanie Feldman (short story) is a weird story which can be read either as a parallel worlds one or as something more on the fantasy side. A woman and her boyfriend go on a trip to a mountain hut so they can discuss their plans - she wants to move to Denver for a job (with him in tow), he wants for them to stay in Philadelphia. The whole thing gets into a bit of a weird stage when he seems to change abruptly. I really did not care about this story - the ending was good but...

The four poems were readable with "Robot Valentine" by Peter Tacy being my favorite (the rest are "Word Soup" by Anatoly Belilovsky, "Speech Lesson" by Robert Frazier and "Messaging the Dead" by Betsy Aoki.

Robert Silverberg talks about copyright and how it developed historically in his Reflections (under the title "Fifty Million Monkey Selfies"), James Patrick Kelly talks about bots and robots in science fiction in his and in the real world in his "On the Net" column (worth reading for the references to sites and mentioned books as usual), Sheila Williams uses her editorial to talk about last year's stories (because it is time for the Thirty-Sixth Annual Readers’ Award Ballot of course) and Peter Heck's reviews land a lot of books on my TBR pile. The reviews books:
"Rabbits" by Terry Miles (based on the podcast by the same name which had been on my "To listen" pile for awhile)
"Holdout" by Jeffrey Kluger
"Version Zero" by David Yoon
"The Minders" by John Marrs
"The Rain Heron" by Robert Arnott
"Hooting Grange" by Jeffrey E. Barlough
"The Saints of Salvation" by Peter F. Hamilton
"The Future Is Yours" by Dan Frey
"The Unfinished Land" by Greg Bear
"Hollow" by B. Catling
"Living Forever & Other Terrible Ideas" by Emily C. Skaftun
"The Last Robot and Other Science Fiction Poems" by Jane Yolen

A good start of the year for the magazine even if I am not sure that there was any story that really stood out.… (plus d'informations)

In The Shapes of Strangers, Ian Creasey's brilliant new collection of short stories from NewCon Press, the author examines people through a science-fictional lens. Creasey seems to be principally concerned with interactions between people, and he effectively demonstrates the complexity and confusion of interpersonal relationships in his stories. Characters consistently confront, conceptualize, and try to understand the Other, in its many shapes: alien, digital entity, clone, or simply another human with an opposite point of view. The fabric of reality and the creatures found within are not always what they seem to be at first glance.

Reading The Shapes of Strangers, 3 strong qualities emerge: the fascinating and thoughtful extrapolation of common science-fictional tropes and ideas; the nuanced development of memorable and mostly sympathetic characters; and the strong sense of place that grounds the stories, giving them a distinct texture and influencing the characters and plots.

Creasey is adept at taking numerous science-fictional tropes—everything from matter duplication to alien contact to alternate universes—and extending them to their logical extremes, exploring how those "what if" scenarios would change the world in which his characters exist. What if you could don glasses that eliminate bias of every kind? What if you could meet your unborn child, or travel the universes to find a surrogate for your dead mother? What if social media becomes so pervasive and ingrained in quotidian existence that there are literally "no strangers anymore"?

The strength of many of these stories, though, lies not in the ideas and thought experiments but, rather, in their finely drawn characters. Indeed, one of the most interesting philosophical premises in this book ("An Exercise in Motivation") loses steam precisely because the story that contains it is notably one of the only ones in this collection without a fully fleshed-out protagonist. Fortunately, most of Creasey's characters are fully realized, with strengths and weaknesses and the capacity for self-reflection. When faced with uncomfortable possible truths or external struggles, they question their beliefs and attitudes and consider how to best handle the situation. That doesn't always lead to a neat resolution, but the uncertain yet determined hopefulness that ensues offers verisimilitude that is more satisfying than a sealed story arc.

Perhaps because of the strength of the other stories, the last one, "Erosion," felt flat, because the tidy conclusion feels unearned: I got the sense that the protagonist is smugly satisfied that he got away with doing something stupid, without having really learned much about himself in the process. It reads like a certain kind of Analog story (even though it appeared in its sister publication, Asimov's): engaging, fast paced, and examining an interesting use of science or technology … but with little (or sometimes unconvincing) characterization and with overt explanations of metaphors. There was nothing "wrong" with the story in terms of plot, narrative arc, etc, but the protagonist seemed to lack the emotional depth that infuses so many of Creasey's characters. Though more structured than "An Exercise in Motivation," this story also felt more like a sketch, its potential unfulfilled as the ending peters out. In the author's note, Creasey explains his inspiration for the story and how he built it around an image, which may help to explain the aloofness and emotional distance of the protagonist.

But these are minor quibbles (and apologizes to Trevor Quachri, who is doing a fine job and published a good number of the best stories in this collection); even the stories that didn't fully "work" for me are still entertaining and/or thought provoking, and hitting on over 80% of stories in any kind of collection or anthology is a pretty damn good success rate.

One aspect of this collection that should also be mentioned, and that I found strangely satisfying, was the author's strong sense of place: most of the stories are grounded in the British Isles and occasionally feature local issues and/or politics that the unfamiliar reader has to figure out from context. For example, "Shooting Grouse," "The Language of Flowers," and "And Then They Were Gone" are all very English and/or British (this American reviewer doesn't know what the acceptable terms would be), but the setting infuses both the plot and the characters to the point where the reader feels totally immersed in the world Creasey has built: you don't have to be from Cornwall to get what the characters are talking about or to draw satisfaction from the events that take place, but the details add a naturalness and rich texture to the overall effect of the narrative. And, if you do happen to be from one of the areas depicted in the tales, then you receive an added thrill of appreciation from the recognition.

The inclusion of brief Author's Notes after each story was a bold choice, at least if you've ever participated in a spirited discussion of authorial intent. For those readers who aren't lit nerds, however, these notes are occasionally captivating and often insightful, and they make explicit the conversation with previous authors and stories in the field that is hinted at in the texts (see, for example, "After the Atrocity" and "Pincushion Pete"). For anyone wondering how the author derived a story idea or why certain choices were made, the notes are invaluable.

Conclusion
Creasey often begins a story with a well-known, easily recognizable science-fictional trope and extrapolates it, but the stories work because they're character studies and not solely about an idea or "what if" line of reasoning: the tropes are the vehicles to examine his characters' lives and how they react to change. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and often hopeful, the stories in this collection are poignant and worth your while.

Standout Stories Not to Be Missed
"The Equalisers," "No Strangers Anymore," "The Dunschemin Retirement Home for Repentant Supervillains," (terrific title!) "And Then They Were Gone"… (plus d'informations)

[Disclaimer: I got this book via LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program]
In this collection of short stories by Ian Creasey there is a common ground: all of them start from a "what if?" thought. Creasey even explains this in the author's comment at the end of each of these. What I like most is that the "if" which is "whatted" is something I never would have thought of. This is really important: I got bored to read variation on the standard SF themes, and from this point of view this collection is really refreshing. Of course some stories are better than other ones: I personally really appreciated After the Atrocity, The Equalisers, No Strangers Any More (even if it is way too British :-) ), The Dunschemin Retirement Home for Repentant Supervillains; The Shapes of Wrath and And Then They Were Gone would instead have won the prize for a good idea which did not go as hoped; An Exercise in Motivation and Shouting Grouse told me absolutely nothing. After all, a nice and well crafted and written book for lovers of short stories.… (plus d'informations)