Edited by Sheree Renée Thomas
258 pages
Published 2023
Read from December 5 to December 7
Rating: 4 out of 5
Even as it becomes ever more difficult to find on newsstands, I’ve kept up with reading each new issue of F&SF while it’s still current, a habit I began with the March/April 2023 issue. I also went back and read the January/February 2023 issue, making 2023 the first year I’ve read every issue of F&SF.
It’s been a terrific year for stories, absolutely unprecedented for quality and breadth of fiction in the magazine, but it’s been an abysmal year for the short genre fiction profession as a whole. Hopefully F&SF (and all the other markets in financial straits) can continue this golden age of creativity and diverse, astonishing fiction. If you love short speculative fiction, support your favorite publications!
How does the final issue of 2023 rate against the others?
“The Many Different Kinds of Love” by Geoff Ryman with David Jeffrey. A vast and magnificent hard science fiction novella, “Love” follows the abiotic viewpoint of a survey station under the surface of Enceladus, as well as the postbiotic encoded memories of five billion people, downloaded and updated to give the AI flexibility and decision-making abilities. And then Earth goes silent, and the updates cease. Like so many excellent stories before it, “Love” explores humanity in all of its petty, beautiful, irrational, violent, tender, selfish, loving, contradictory, bewildering grandeur, constructing a posthumanist vision of fully human (and humane) optimism. Absolutely blew me away.
“Karantha Fish” by Amal Singh. Sharp description and efficient worldbuilding are highlights of this richly atmospheric, space opera-ish tale of religious hangups and misunderstandings. Quite good.
“Longevity” by Anya Ow. In an all-too-near future where teenagers’ bodies are permanently tapped to siphon plasma for the rich, and each human life is worth only what corporations can extract from it, Ruhe is a Forever, her lifespan extended indefinitely so that her Company doesn’t need to train a replacement. Shaken out of the torpor of years by the death of her cat, Ruhe on a whim meets with teenage Kasey, who compares society to the bygone practice of chicken farming: “The useful ones get to stay and grow old forever, laying eggs for the greater cause. The not-so-useful ones get ground out sooner or later.” Chilling, haunting, with a touch of optimism. One of the best near-future pieces I’ve read in some time.
“All That We Leave Behind” by Charlie Hughes. This one feels like a throwback to the 1980s, both in style and in content. A book club finds itself, without quite remembering why, reading a book called All That We Leave Behind. When they meet to discuss it, each of them has been changed — each of them has prepared, whether they remember it clearly or not. Not my genre, but this story succeeds at what it’s trying to do.
The first in a block of poems, Lisa M. Bradley’s “Through the Keyhole” is a werewolf tale full of gristle and beauty. Wonderful stuff.
Next, a pleasant surprise: Geoffrey A. Landis’ “No One Now Remembers—” is a lovely poem about dinosaurs. Perhaps it’s a stretch to add the dinosaur fiction tag to this issue, but hell, this poem deserves it.
Landis also contributes a poem about “Titan.” It’s fine enough, but lacks dinosaurs.
Marissa Lingen’s “Like Other Girls” is the last poem in this block. It is a powerful reinterpretation of Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
“Portrait of a Dragon as a Young Man” by J.A. Pak. A sweet, wistful recollection of a dragon’s first love, and his first experience of learning to be human. Features a comfortable, lived-in world, and crisp prose. Excellent.
A couple on-theme poems by Mary Soon Lee follow: “Orchid Dragon” and “Phoenix Dragon.” Both are exquisite.
“Twelve Aspects of the Dragon” by Rachel K. Jones. Sumptuous sensory list that also tells a story. Creative and evocative, unexpectedly sexy.
“Meeting in Greenwood” by R. K. Duncan. Yet another all-time classic in an issue freighted with them. Timothy Jackson is a fed who rides the trains of the dead to make contact with spirits who help fight against the Lost Cause of slavery. “Greenwood” is a staggering feat of imagination and a resounding fuck-you to the white supremacist machinations that have led from Appomattox to our present moment.
“The Pigeon Wife” by Samantha H. Chung. Another stunner, flawlessly mixing folklore and the struggles of modern Late Capitalism. Our narrator snags a pigeon husband to stabilize her finances — but then he unionizes.
“Los Pajaritos” by Sam W. Pisciotta. Sharp and efficient examination of loss — personal and ecological — after the disappearance of sparrows. Heartbreaking and gorgeous.
Chet Weise gives us “Science Fiction Novel in Four to Seven Words,” a poem which takes Hemingway’s famous six word story and adds “A.I.” and a line break.
“Pluto and Tavis D Work the Door” by Brooke Brannon. A strange and atmospheric tale of appropriation and cultural parasitism, and learning how to communicate your feelings.
Two poems by Brian U. Garrison follow: “The Music of Neptune” and “Lesser Realities.”
“Indigena” by Jennifer Maloney. Brief but vivid depiction of how an alien ecology might deal with an invasive species: humanity. Solid.
A poem by Roger Dutcher, “The Canceled Sky,” has some good imagery.
“New Stars” by Christopher Crew. Another story that feels like an ’80s (or perhaps ’70s) throwback, a fairly straightforward tale of a father and son watching a spaceship race burn past their planet, rooting for the ship piloted by the memory patterns of the boy’s grandfather. Enjoyable.
“High Tide at Olduvai Gorge” by Kedrick Brown. After Earth was conquered and colonized by the humans from Elucida, a people who promise equality but instead value financial “respectability” above all else, former Olympic athlete Ayo happens to win the lottery, finally gaining the “respectability” needed to compete again. But even then, the playing field is far from level. A sardonic, trenchant allegory.
“Prisoner 121 Is Guilty” by Renee Pillai. A tragic tale of life and punishment under a deeply hierarchical culture. I think it’s a bit too compressed for the story to fully bloom; some extra space for character and worldbuilding would be nice.
“Fools and Their Money” by Meighan Hogate. Pheena is a venal bird who likes coin, and doesn’t mind whether he gets it for his services as a guide or by guiding his charges into a bog to get killed by a swarm. One such traveler happens to bring a cursed amulet his way. It more or less amounts to a chaotic evil rogue’s backstory, but it’s told creatively. Enjoyable.
We wrap up this issue with a poem from Marisca Pichette: “triple knot.” It is, as expected, utterly enrapturing.
And that’s it! A stunning issue, among the very best I’ve ever read. May Sheree Renée Thomas’ time as editor continue long, and brilliantly!
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