Articles with the Tag Usman T. Malik

Short SF Marathon Day 18: Usman T. Malik,Tim Maughan, Sandra McDonald

science fiction, Short Fiction
Published on Leave a comment on Short SF Marathon Day 18: Usman T. Malik,Tim Maughan, Sandra McDonald

Usman T. Malik, “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family.” Medium, October 22, 2014 (originally in Michael Bailey (ed.), Qualia Nous, Written Backwards, 2014).

This shares the same handicap as the previous Malik story, in that it feels like more of an excerpt rather than a complete story. Malik here uses the gimmick of starting each chapter of this story with an abstract about the various stages of matter, mimicking what’s happening to the protagonist in it. Again like the previous story, it’s set in Pakistan and revolves around the intersection of religion and modernity. It’s very now, which may date it in a decade, but that has gotten it nominated for the Nebula, not undeservedly.

Tim Maughan, “Four Days of Christmas.” Vice, December 24, 2014.

Inspired by an article appearing in the same month as Maughan wrote this story, about the intricaties of the Chinese manufacturing process that feeds the world its cheap plastic crap. This is a great old-fashioned anti-capitalist story taking that process to its logical conclusion a decade or so in the future, through four vignettes, the last one set somewhat later. Quick writing to get it out so fast.

This is the first and only story on the list published in Motherboard, the guys who launched a new sf imprint because nobody else was doing good science fiction online. To be honest, it is the sort of Sterlingesque story they were looking to publish, so good on them. Considering Ken Liu’s “The Long Haul, From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009”, which this resembles somewhat in its approach was published in tired old Clarkesworld you wonder how necessary it really was to set this up…

Sandra McDonald, “Selfie.” Lightspeed, May 2014.

I wanted to like this more than I could. There was an interesting idea here, of having a robot double that could take an implant of your memories then go off to do something independently you couldn’t or wouldn’t do yourself, then come back to reintegrate its memories in yours. Not necessarily all that new an idea, but naming it a selfie is brilliantly obvious. The problem was that the plot was too predictable as well as saddled up with all sorts of cruft (time travel) not really needed to tell it. A disappointment.

Short SF Marathon Day 17: Carmen Maria Machado, Usman T. Malik

Fantasy, Short Fiction
Published on Leave a comment on Short SF Marathon Day 17: Carmen Maria Machado, Usman T. Malik

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.