Carmen Maria Machado, “Observations About Eggs from the Man Sitting Next to Me on a Flight from Chicago, Illinois to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.” Lightspeed, April 2014.
It’s interesting to see a writer like Carmen Maria Machado represented here with two stories, one from Lightspeed Magazine, part of the new breed of sf online zines and one from Granta, the long running literary UK magazine. It’s perhaps an example of the increasing integration of SFF into the wider literary world, something you might appreciate or not.
Machado’s writing reminds me of old school New Wave, some experimenting with genre and ways of storytelling as here, by presenting a numbered list of egg facts and then slowly letting the strangeness creep out. Effectively done, though one of those stories that may seem more experimental than they are.
Carmen Maria Machado, “The Husband Stitch.” Granta, October 28, 2014.
This has been nominated for a Nebula and I can see why. Told in the first person and with instructions for those who are perhaps reading it out loud to their guests, this is again a story where the creepiness well, creeps up on you. A very meta sort of story, constantly refering to non-existing fairy tales, to build up dread and expectation that pays off in the final scene.
This is also a fantasy story which has nothing supernatural save for one, seemingly minor detail, a fantasy story where that detail is clearly allegorical. One that keeps you thinking after having read it. It reminds me in places of Jo Walton’s My Real Children, which I’m currently also reading, in its concerns. This is a deeply feminist story.
Usman T. Malik, “Resurrection Points.” Strange Horizons, August 4, 2014.
This is a more straightforward fantasy story, about a father and son healer somewhere in Karachi Pakistan where religious tensions are flaring up and it might not be entirely sensible to show off your ressurrection talents. The story starts well but feels unfinished, more an excerpt than a full story. It also has that ripped from the headlines feel to it, but done by somebody who has some inkling of what life in Karachi might actually be like for the people he writes about, supernatural powers or not.
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