#ReadShortStories about philosophical concepts in science fictional contexts (136 to 140)

A couple of stories from Uncanny Issue 22 in this batch, followed by three from Mother of Invention, an anthology edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts. I'm now halfway through Mother of Invention and still enjoying the stories. Huzzah.

My favourite story in this batch is the John Chu, which is not a huge surprise. I look forward to the day when he has enough stories to warrant his own collection...

Sucks (to Be You) by Katharine Duckett — A succubus tells us about her life and how much easier it is for her to feed off people’s thoughts of her in the modern world of social media. My favourite thing about this story was how textual the subtext got. I liked it. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/sucks-to-be-you/

Discard the Sun, for It Has Failed Us by Marina J. Lostetter — While this isn’t what I would normally think of as my kind of story, I quite liked it. It was a short story about worshipping the sun and keeping it alive before it’s time. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/discard-the-sun-for-it-has-failed-us/

Fata Morgana by Cat Sparks — Post-apocalyptic/war-torn Australia with fighting mechs wandering around, at least one of which is intelligent. In rough conditions the mech protects the old lady that was its creator and helps a poor settlement. I enjoyed it. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Quantifying Trust by John Chu — A robot engineering grad student works on her design and ponders the question of trust for AI. And meets a postdoc who may or may not be an advanced AI sent from the future. I really liked this story. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Bright Shores by Rosaleen Love — A fantastical story about robots (and one woman) living in a nuclear exclusion zone. Clearly taking cues from the Fukushima tsunami disaster, I liked the premise of the robots left behind (because they are too contaminated from dealing with radioactive material), but it lost me a bit with some of the less scientific ideas. Source: Mother of Invention edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts

Secret Lives of Books by Rosaleen Love

Secret Lives of Books by Rosaleen Love is the latest volume in Twelfth Planet Press's Twelve Planets series of collections. With this one, I wasn't sure what to expect going in — other than feminism — since I'm not familiar with any of Love's other work. And it was about feminism, although that was mainly the last story, which I suspect is the one to stick in people's minds.

Secret lives, replete with possibilities. Elsewhere exists as a better place, in a better time, for a better life. The trick is how to get there from here. These stories give the answers. Share in the secret lives of books. Fly to Mars, the first stage, perhaps, in the onward journey to elsewhere. Hear the music of the heavenly spheres and be forever changed, providing the bad guys don’t hear it first. Discover Gaia may not be quite what we think she is. Discover the universe is a rather big place. Embrace Utopia for women too, if only …

It's called Secret Lives of Books, but I think what it's really about is the secret lives of stories. All five stories within grapple with the story of stories on some level. "The Secret Lives of Books" is literally about the secret story of a particular collection of books, "Kiddofspeed" is about a story that developed around some photos, "Qasida" is about the mysteries of Mars and the plausibility of fantastical stories, "The slut and the universe" (which has a couple of long subtitles which I'll leave for you to discover yourselves) is about the stories of feminism and misogyny. Fitting least into this patter, "The Kairos Moment" is a story about music, muisic itself being a type of story, albeit not necessarily in the narrative sense. There is, of course, the expected feminism in this collection, but I found it mostly manifested through the existence of female characters, apart from in "The slut and the universe".

My favourite story was "Qasida", which I decided would probably be my favourite when I was still halfway through it and had two more stories left to go. It's sort of a surreal story about Mars and magic (for lack of a better term) travel and aliens, except it's not all that surreal. It's told rather sensibly, which I think is part of the appeal.

I highly recommend this collection to all SFF fans. The stories were all equally good and almost equally unusual. I'd tentatively say this is probably in my top four of the Twelve Planets. Which might not sound like much, but you have to remember there's some very stiff competition.

~

Secret Lives of Books — This was a strange story that didn’t go the way it initially seemed it would. The main character is a recently deceased writer, trying desperately to get a living person’s attention. And then there’s his extensive book collection, which he has always been very attached to. I’d call this soft horror, as we incrementally — creeping — learn more about the books.

Kiddofspeed — Another unusual story, sort of chronicling the adventures of a girl taking photos of Pripyat (near Chernobyl, and based on real events) and sort of talking about the nature of story.

Qasida — Probably my favourite story so far. It’s another story of stories, this time about Mars and strange happenings. Visits to Mars, objects from Mars and the

The Kairos Moment — An odd story about the uplifting feeling people experience when listening to good music. And a researcher trying to study the phenomenon. And some strange happenings. I was entertained and quite amused. (And in case it isn't obvious, this story is certainly represented on the gorgeous cover.)

The slut and the universe — I seem to have noted that all the stories in this collection are unusual and this is no exception. It's a post-apocalyptic fairytale about feminism. Despite the post-apocalyptic setting not much seems to have changed and there is discussion (literally) on such feminist topics as the meaning of the word "slut" an why feminism is the root of all evil. It was also a rather entertaining read.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: June 2014, Twelfth Planet Press
Series: Twelve Planets (but these are not connected volumes in any way; different stories by different authors which do not have to be read in any particular order)
Format read: Paper, shockingly
Source: Twelfth Planet Press stall at LonCon3
Disclaimer: The publisher is a friend but, as always, I have endeavoured to be impartial
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge