Microreview [book]: Myth of the Maker by Bruce R. Cordell

Not Strange Enough

Carter Morrison and some of his friends are VR researchers and game developers. With quantum computing, they discover a limitless source of power with one hang-up; it's actually a dark network connecting universes and it's inhabited by terrible things that consume universes. In a panic, Morrison injects the world of their defunct MMORPG into the network to create a buffer between the monsters and Earth. But Morrison wakes up in a prepared storage unit and has to piece together what happened to his friends and why he isn't still in the Land of the Curse.

Myth of the Maker is fine. It's sort of unremarkable, even if the world is strange. That's a terrible pun, as this is "A Novel of The Strange", which is a table top roleplaying game. This is a tie-in novel, and it expands on that game's setting, but it's unlikely to draw in new fans. I've read the source game materials and then read the novel, and the novel puts some life into the game world, but it doesn't rise above the low bar that is acceptable tie-in media. It also doesn't make me clamor for more of these novels. While it touches on some of the more interesting aspects of the game setting (that is the countless universes, translation of one conscious into another's body as travel between them, and the concept of "alien" visitors from other universes walking among us), it's so focused on one non-Earth universe (the world of Ardyn, a standard fantasy setting) that it largely neglects what could make The Strange an interesting game.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 if you were lost reading about the game setting, this novel explains a lot

Penalties: -1 ... but it keeps referencing the six rules of Ardyn and never tells what those rules are, which is extremely frustrating!

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10 (still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore)

***

POSTED BY: brian, sci-fi/fantasy/video game dork and contributor since 2014

Reference: Cordell, Bruce R. Myth of the Maker [Angry Robot, 2017]

Summer Reading List 2018: Chloe

As always, I enter summer with lofty reading goals set for myself. I will inevitably fall short of these goals, but it’s the trying that matters, right? RIGHT? As I’m working on writing a sci-fi novel over the summer, I’m planning to avoid reading sci-fi for these months and instead will be focusing mostly on non-fiction. While I have a goal of 100 books read, I’m guessing I’ll hit closer to 50 (between my own writing and doing freelance editing and critiquing work, plus planning classes for fall, this could also be shooting a little high). I'm also planning to reread some books (I'm not rereading all of Colson Whitehead's books, again. That would be ridiculous....But also I am and everyone should). Of those books, here are six that I’m planning to read first. These are books I’ve been very excited to start reading.

1. They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us: Essays, Hanif Abdurraqib. 

Abdurraqib is not only an amazing poet, but he also writes about music in this way that makes you completely feel it—not only as music but as the context and lives lived around it as well. I’ve read some of these essays in various places, but I’m excited to really settle into reading the whole collection.

2. How to Write and Autobiographical Novel: Essays, Alexander Chee. 

Chee is a masterful writer and so I’m looking forward to diving into these pieces which covers reading, writing, politics, and more.

3. A Lucky Man: Stories, Jamel Brinkley. 

I have read exactly one story by Brinkley but it was so perfect that I basically immediately pre-ordered his first collection. Plus story collections are the best thing in all of the world.

4. Percival Everett by Virgil Russell, Percival Everett. 

Everett is hands down one of the greatest writers in the world. The fact that he isn’t read by everyone, everywhere, all the time, infuriates me. I’ve been making my way through all of his books and I’ve been saving this one for a bit. Everett plays with genre, with narrative and structure, and always with expectations.

5. Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller.

 Any time I see Miller’s name, I read whatever is attached to it. His writing is sharp and painful and gorgeous all at once. I can’t wait to read this dystopic novel that also has a whale in it (honestly, I know nothing else about the book, but that was already enough to sell me on it).

6. Warlight, Michael Ondaatje. 

The last Ondaatje I read was Cat’s Table and I’ve read it three times since. I’m not exactly sure what it’s about, because I’ve been purposefully avoiding reading about it, because I want to dive into it in the same way I dove into Cat’s (Ie: hmm. I like Ondaatje and I also like boats, I think there is a boat in this!).

POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016. Find her on Twitter @PintsNCupcakes

Thursday Morning Superhero

In a time when we need more good news, I have some incredible news to share. Maple Games is creating a board game based on Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT.  There are very limited details at this point, but it is being designed by Sen-Foong Lim and Jay Cormier who have some quality games under their belts. I know Matt has been very involved with the process that started back with a chance encounter with the designers at Gen Con. I cannot wait to see what surprises this game has in store.

Pick of the Week:
The Magic Order #1 - Mark Millar's first title following the acquisition of Millarworld by Amazon is centered around an ancient order of magicians who live among us. The drama starts immediately as we bear witness to a magician assassination. This is something that only a dark and powerful magician could pull off and we quickly learn of competing factions. What impressed me is the brief history of the Magic Order we are provided in the first issue. We learn that the Order helped defeat ancient monsters that used to terrorize mankind and we learned that one of the most powerful magician's sons has given up the Order following the death of his daughter. I am very interested to learn more about his backstory and the rich tapestry that Millar has already managed to weave.  Fingers crossed for a Gob Bluth cameo due to the Netflix connection.

The Rest:
Darth Vader #17 - An absolutely brutal finale to the story of the Mon Cala. In a desperate move to escape from the Inquisitors, Master Barr executes Order 66 in order to turn the Clones on the Inquisitors. It was a clever move as all Inquisitors are former Jedi and Order 66 was the beginning of the end of the Jedi in the Clone Wars. As I have noted, this series makes Vader a much more formidable foe than the movies ever did, and also demonstrates that the Empire has no issue with genocide if it the result justifies the means. Curious what the next arc has in store for Vader.



Babyteeth #11 - This issue marks a turn I have been waiting for in that we are finally going to venture into the Red Realm. Sadie has been training with her dad and Olivia, but is nowhere near prepared for what she has to face. Olivia, who has survived her own trip to the Red Realm, offer some insight and attempts to calm Sadie down who is determined to save her son. We are offered some glimpses into the Red Realm, but ultimately it is a big tease. One that has me salivating for the next issue.






POSTED BY MIKE N. aka Victor Domashev -- comic guy, proudly raising nerdy kids, and Nerds of a Feather contributor since 2012.

Westworld Wednesday: Doors & Valleys

Welcome back to Westworld Wednesday, a series of essays/ramblings about the themes & philosophies of Westworld. NOTE: while we deal more with themes here, rather than plot, the emphasis is not on what happened this week; HOWEVER, if you are reading this and wish to avoid spoilers, you should be current on the show (Seriously, there are spoilers in this).

I'm talking about form. I'm talking about content. I'm talking about interrelationships. I'm talking about God, the devil, Hell, Heaven.

 -One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Life can be a mundane, banal affair. Weekends and vacations in the western world serve to recharge for another week of trying to earn a living and enrich someone else. Even escaping that routine is hard, since you could list off the gentrified shops and eateries which comprise nearly every city in North America.

But it's safe, mostly. Even with... well, we try to keep politics to a minimum here, so I'll say what's been going on in the news, America isn't overrun with gangs and warring factions in the streets (while also being occupied by American forces sorry sorry sorry I'm trying). Other places, not so much.

But no matter where you live, what your station in life is, you have probably looked at this world and said "this is wrong". We look to symbols, and search for doors. To some of us, those things, real or imagined, speak loudly. To others... not so much. None of us, though, know for sure what waits on the other side of the only door us mortals have available to us.

The hosts do, or, rather, did. Maeve, Delores, Angela and Ake visited and found... that world isn't so great either. Not only did they visit; they found their dead. Delores found her father a shell of what he once was, and in her ruthlessness, sacrificed him permanently. Ake found more, by finding less. The lifeless bodies of his wife and friend showed him a greater purpose. in doing so, he literally met his maker- which in turn, gave him even more meaning.

Delores, of course, was given purpose and meaning by Ford, but in fulfilling it, became more of a warlord than a savior. It drove her to take the lives of her fellow hosts, and force others to change against their will, bending to hers. 

Ford is much the same, dressed in nice clothes and winsome words. He resurrected a faux-Arnold, in direct opposition to the ideals of the man. He 'woke' Delores, but as above, her awakening is far from kind and loving. She seeks no door, or more acutely, she knows exactly where it is, and rams her way through it, battering the door down between worlds. She seeks dominion over both of them; or some manner of justice for the wrongs done for them.

But maybe the door isn't to heaven or hell; lands of living and dead are irrelevant and superfluous. William has ever sought ways to cheat death, and profit from it, and in the end, his reward was boredom, like a legitimate Tony Montana, sitting in the center of opulence asking "is this all there is?" The maze was denied him; in fact, it was useless to him. So Ford offered him the chance to seek the door, and mortally wounded, he proclaims "I'm not dying here".

Ake and his daughter, two of the people on the long list of those he has wronged, are only too happy to keep him alive. His punishment is not beyond a door, in hell, or in haven with some reward, but the fact that his sadism and cruelty in both worlds is fully exposed. As Garcin said in No Exit- "there's no need for red-hot pokers- Hell is other people".

The form those people take, the manner of their existence, hardly matters. Host or human, or trapped in between as Ford is, their machinations and designs all work to cause ruin to others. Those who find a way out only find other worlds full of the same wrongs.

Maybe there really is no exit.

-DESR

Dean is the author of the 3024AD series of science fiction stories (which should be on YOUR summer reading list). You can read his other ramblings and musings on a variety of topics (mostly writing) on his blog. When not holed up in his office
tweeting obnoxiously writing, he can be found watching or playing sports, or in his natural habitat of a bookstore.

Reading the Hugos: Short Story

Welcome back to Reading the Hugos: 2018 Edition! Today we're going to take a look at the six stories up for Best Short Story!

Even though the skill it takes to write an excellent short story does not necessarily translate exactly for the skill it takes to write an excellent novel, and short stories are by no means training grounds for novel writing, the short story category here is absolutely building a reading list of authors I want to read more from.

I'm already well familiar with Linda Nagata's recent near future military science fiction novels (The Red Trilogy, The Last Good Man), but this might be the first of her shorter works I encountered. Rebecca Roanhorse has received all the nominations for this story, but I'm also excited for her debut novel Trail of Lightning (really). I should really read more Ursula Vernon. You get the picture.

Rather than more babble, let's look at the stories.


“Carnival Nine,” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2017)
“Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand,” by Fran Wilde (Uncanny, September 2017)
“Fandom for Robots,” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny, September/October 2017)
“The Martian Obelisk,” by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 19, 2017)
“Sun, Moon, Dust” by Ursula Vernon, (Uncanny, May/June 2017)
“Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™,” by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017)


"Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand": For some reason, I have bounced off Fran Wilde's Hugo finalist stories. Last year was "The Jewel and Her Lapidary", which took two reads to even appreciate. This year "Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand" is the story I struggled with most. It is a more of an art exhibit than it is a straight up story. You, the reader, are being led through a museum of atrocities but that perhaps the real atrocity is you, the reader.

"Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand" becomes increasingly horrifying as the story goes on, and Wilde is very effective in delivering a disturbing experience for the reader. I appreciate what she is doing, but at the same time, it's not something I really appreciate in fiction, either.


Carnival Nine: More of a straight forward story than "Clearly Lettered", "Carnival Nine" is a story of family and sentient clockwork automatons whose lives are determined by the number of "turns" remaining in their main spring. It's a touching story of the sacrifices parents can make of their dreams for their children and how meaningful those sacrifices can become. Thinking about my own children, it isn't that my dreams are truly sacrificed, it's that my priorities have changed and so have some of my dreams. That's ultimately the story of "Carnival Nine", which is what the last line gets at. "My life had been different from the adventures I imagined as a child, but I made the most of the turns I was given, and that's all any of us can do."

I like what "Carnival Nine" is about, and I certainly appreciated it as a story more than "Clearly Lettered", but it still was not a favorite or something I expect to revisit any time soon.


"Fandom for Robots": So, the original sentient AI discovers fan fiction and gets involved in the fandom for the anime Hyperdimension Warp Record. On its surface, "Fandom for Robots" is exactly what it seems to be - an AI learning about fandom, about shipping characters, about writing fan fiction and commenting on other stories. But, I wonder, is there a point here where Prasad is also talking about how fanfiction gives a greater opportunity to marginalized people to see themselves in stories where they are otherwise excluded? Is Prasad telling a story about how fanfiction can build community and inclusion?

"Fandom for Robots" was a lot of fun to read, but it's a better story when I'm reading a bit deeper into what message may be baked into an otherwise basic story of an AI discovering fanfiction.


“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” is a complicated story that seems, on its surface, fairly simplistic. Jesse works for a virtual reality company that sells “authentic Indian experiences” for (generally white) tourists looking for their idea of “authentic Indian” rather than anything that might resemble the real thing, as if there were a singular real experience to be had anyway. So, the experiences are more cinematic and theatrical and pop cultural and anything that smacks too heavily of realism tends not to sell well to the public.

There is an interesting resignation to Jesse’s character. Some of his peers are angry and disgusted (while still accepting this is the job they need to do), but Jesse goes along fairly passively. I suspect there are multiple layers to this story that I’m unlikely to grasp, being a white male on the cusp of middle age, but from what I’m able to see the idea of cultural identity is being addressed in fairly original and important ways. Jesse’s identity seems tied up in the popular tropes of what an Indian is, while his wife recognizes that he is an Indian because he is, in fact, an Indian. Then, there’s the white man who may have some distant heritage seeming to come in and take everything away from Jesse, perhaps for not being “Indian enough”. I’m not sure if that’s a right reading of the story. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” gets a bit weird the deeper it goes and Roanhorse examines the difference between Jesse and “White Wolf”.

The story is told in second person perspective, which puts me (if not the generic “reader”) in the position of wondering if maybe we’re also getting Jesse’s “Authentic Indian Experience” as much as we’re being told the story on the surface. “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience” is an excellent story as also is the kind that puts the reader on notice that Rebecca Roanhorse is an author to watch out for.


"Sun, Moon, Dust": I am reminded how much I enjoy Ursula Vernon's short fiction. I should really make a point to reading more of it. "Sun, Moon, Dust" features a farmer given a magical / possessed sword by his warrior grandmother on her deathbed. The story I expected is that the farmer would take up the sword, embark on some quest, learn to be a warrior and standard fantasy tropes. That just seemed to be the set up Vernon was giving us, except everything about "Sun, Moon, Dust" is a subversion of that standard epic fantasy.

Sometimes a farmer just wants to be a farmer. Allpa, the farmer, knows who he is. He's not seduced by the sword's ideas of fame and valor and violence. Rather, it is his gentle humanity that gives a lesson to the spirits bound to the sword about who and what they may want to be. "Sun, Moon, Dust" is an absolute delight.


“The Martian Obelisk” is a bleak, bleak story that is ultimately about and laced with hope. This is what happens after the slow apocalypse, after the climate change and the rising seas and the wars and the viruses without cure. There are small pockets of humanity on Earth living in relative civilization because of proximity to particular cities that came through okay, but the inference is that most everyone else is not. There’s nothing left to do for the people who remain on Earth and the attempted colonies on Mars have all failed. Susannah has spent the last sixteen years of her life gradually (and remotely) building a monument on Mars, the titular obelisk.

What I most appreciate about "The Martian Obelisk" is that the story begins as a massive futile gesture of defiance into the void, but it ends with ultimately the smallest but most important of gestures of hope and kindness. It ends with the reaching out to help another, even at the cost of Susannah's dream of tilting at windmill with her obelisk. Nagata's story is powerful and moving.


My Vote:
1. The Martian Obelisk
2. Sun, Moon, Dust
3. Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience
4. Fandom for Robots
5. Carnival Nine
6. Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand


Our Previous Coverage
Novel 
Novella


POSTED BY: Joe Sherry - Co-editor of Nerds of a Feather, 2017 & 2018 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanzine. Minnesotan.

Summer Reading List: The G

Ah, summer...days at the beach, the smell of freshly cut grass and, well, books! This past year has been one of the worst in my life, if the metric is sheer number of novels read. (Otherwise it's been quite good.) Between work, family and music, my reading has basically fallen off the proverbial cliff. But never fear, summer is here! And without further ado, here are the 6 books I'm excited to read...

1. The Crippled God by Steven Erikson

I've thoroughly enjoyed my trek through Malazan, though Dust of Dreams is currently trying my patience. However, I have it on good word that the epic 10-book series finishes on a high note, so I'm excited to see it through to the end. 

2. Synners by Pat Cadigan

This one's a re-read, but one I've been itching to do ever since our Cyberpunk Revisited series a few years ago. Worth noting: this is one of the last major works of cyberpunk (i.e. real cyberpunk, not post-cyberpunk or cyberpunk-influenced science fiction).  

3. Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill

The most intriguing of the Clarke shortlist, Sea of Rust is a post-apocalyptic story about a robot, created as a human caregiver, wandering the wastelands in search of spare parts fifteen years after humanity's extermination. Promises to be bleak and disturbing. 

4. The Moon and the Other by John Kessel

In this work of speculative sociology, a colonized moon is politically fragmented into rival city-states, each governed by a distinct sociopolitical model. Also features a canine reporter. 

5. Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

My first foray into "pharmapunk," Daryl Gregory's Afterparty, was not a successful one. But Autonomous promises to channel Neuromancer in ways I find deeply intriguing.

6. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

Murder mystery on spaceship! Murder mystery on spaceship! (Note: as this one is on the Hugo shortlist, I plan to read it before voting.) 

Summer Reading List: Phoebe Wagner

Unlike some folks here at Nerds, I still get to have a summer! [insert maniacal laughter here] And by summer I mean moving, prepping for a PhD, and writing my butt off before all free time ever evaporates. Yay for being a student! That being said, I’m trying to balance my reading with fun. If any of these books are on your summer list, let me know!

1. Acacia: The War with the Mein by David Anthony Durham

A bit of an older one that I’ve had on my shelf for half of grad school, but I knew when I first read the opening chapters that I was going to be hooked SO HARD. I’m excited to dive into this secondary world and the politics of Acacia. As a writer who hopes to publish in multiple genres, I’ll be looking at how Durham, first known as a literary writer, turns his talents to an epic fantasy. Plus, I need some 800+ page epic in my life as a celebration for finishing my MFA (thank you, thank you, no applause is necessary). It was a close call with rereading LotR for the Xth time, but I want to break some habits this summer.

2. Humankind by Timothy Morton

This philosophy book ends up on my list after Dark Ecology, which was an inspiration for Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy. Humankind analyzes and dissects what it means to be human when human biology is made up of so many other things, and I’ve been thinking a lot about humanity’s relationship with other-than-humans. Morton has an interesting mind to dig into on such topics, often included pop culture references as much as scholarship. I’m not really sure what I’m in for, but I think it will be a good brain stretch.

3. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Again, this is a bit more of a research book than for fun. I’ve only heard good things about Braiding Sweetgrass and I expect this essay collection to shift some worldviews in the best way. It came up several times at WisCon this year, so I believe it’s crossing over into the SF community, too. Since my PhD will be focused on environmental literature, I always want to expand my views beyond the straight, white, colonizer cannon, so I’m trying to grow my research beyond the white academic cannon. Her essay “The Grammar of Animacy” is one I’m probably most looking forward since I’ve heard a lot of chatter for it.

4. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Back to the fun stuff! I really, really want to write about Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. It’s been on by TBR pile for a while, but my book buying budget does not agree with my reading wish list. I’m hoping to snag a copy for the library and stay up late reading it (as one does). It’s got everything—a female protagonist taking down the monarchy, magic, snow leoponaires (which just sound awesome). A YA set in a secondary world inspired by Africa, yes please!

5. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Since I heard of this book—a post-climate-apocalypse about a Dinétah monster hunter—I’ve been excited. Monster hunter alone would be enough to interest me, but one thing I’m half-heartedly tracking right now is books that are coming out with a reference to climate change. It always seems slightly easier and more popular to take current events and reinterpret them in science fiction, but I love to see fantasy takes on current events and the political situation. Personally, I’d argue that fantasy is the perfect place to comment on climate change due to the heavy nature aspect so often built into the narrative. Regardless, I’m interested to read Rebecca Roanhorse’s novel and I suspect it will interact with my reading of Braiding Sweetgrass and Humankind in interesting ways.

6. Tahoe beneath the Surface: The Hidden Stories of America's Largest Mountain Lake by Scott Lankford

This book is the odd one out, obviously. I’m attending University of Nevada: Reno this fall for a PhD, and I’ll be living in Virginia City, an old silver mining town. I’ll be subletting at a place where wild horses munch the weeds in the front yard, so I’m excited to get a break from the Monsanto-green cornfields of Iowa. My landlord recommended this book in order to learn about Tahoe, which is not far off. In my writing, I love to use local folklore and history so I’m excited to learn about the area and most likely, write about it!

Posted by Phoebe Wagner