Author: 5t4n5
The Blue Zones Kitchen: One Pot Meals — Dan Buettner
Life Beyond Us — Anthology
All copyright 2023.
Standalones
Hemlock on Mars — Eric Choi
Essay: Planetary Protection — Giovanni Poggiali
The Dog Star Killer — Renan Bernardo
Essay: That Cold Black Cloud — Stefano Sandrelli
Titan of Chaos — G. David Nordley
Essay: Flying Instead of Diving — Fabian Klenner
Cloudskimmer — Geoffrey A. Landis
Essay: Earth’s Sister Planet — Dennis Höning
The Lament of Kivu Lacus — B. Zelkovich
Essay: Robots in Space are Great — Ania Losiak
Heavy Lies — Rich Larson
Essay: Major Transitions — Stephen Francis Mann
The World of Silver — Tomáš Petrásek
Essay: Wet Wet Wet — William Bains
Spider Plant — Tessa Fisher
Essay: Signs of Life (and How to Find Them) — Tessa Fisher
This is How We Save Them — Deji Bryce Olukotun
Essay: Valuing Life — Erik Persson
The Far Side of the Door — Premee Mohamed
Essay: Space Agriculture — Raymond M. Wheeler
Ranya’s Crash — Lisa Jenny Krieg (translated by Simone Heller)
Essay: You are not Alone! — Jacques Arnould
Spiral — Arula Ratnakar
Essay: Spiraling into the Unknown — Tomáš Petrásek
The Last Cathedral of Earth, in Flight — Tobias S. Buckell
Essay: The Latest Black Hole Planet, in Formation — Amedeo Romagnolo
The Secret History of the Greatest Discovery — Valentin D. Ivanov
Essay: Cooperation without Communication — Valentin D. Ivanov
Human Beans — Eugen Bacon
Essay: Microbial Life and Belonging — Tony Milligan
The Mirrored Symphony — D.A. Xiaolin Spires
Essay: Mirror Images — Dimitra Demertzi
Lumenfabulator — Liu Yang (translated by Ladon Gao)
Essay: Crystal Green Persuasion — Nina Kopacz
Cyclic Amplification, Meaning Family — Bogi Takács
Essay: The Science of Xenolinguistics — Sheri Wells-Jensen
The Diaphanous — Gregory Benford
Essay: Life 2.0 — Geoffrey A. Landis
The Sphinx of Adzhimushkaj — Brian Rappatta
Essay: Finding Common Ground — Philippe Nauny
Defective — Peter Watts
Essay: How did They Know it was Agni? — Joanna Piotrowska
The Dangers We Choose — Malka Older
Essay: The Habitability of Water Worlds — Floris van der Tak
Third Life — Julie E. Czerneda
Essay: The Unveiled Possibilities of Biomaterials in Space — Martina Dimoska
Forever the Forest — Simone Heller
Essay: Astra Narrans — Connor Martini
Still as Bright — Mary Robinette Kowal
Essay: —And the Moon be Still as Bright — José A. Caballero
Devil in the Deep — Lucie Lukačovičová
Essay: Some Like It Hot — Natuschka Lee & Julie Nováková
Deep Blue Neon — Jana Bianchi
Essay: Destined for Symbiosis — Jan Toman
#scifi #gregorybenford #maryrobinettekowal
Grimdark Magazine Issue #38 — Periodical
All stories copyright 2024 unless stated.
Standalones
The Limits of My Language — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
Redstarts In the Last Summer — Vajra Chandrasekera
The Legacy of the Fantastique, a Defunct Genre Not So Dead — Alex Valdiers
The List — Gautam Bhatia
Djinn in the Woodpecker’s Eye — Gourav Mohanty
Animating a Grimdark World — Aaron S. Jones
Reed Lions—A Story from the Principalities — R.R. Virdi
#fantasy #yudhanjayawijeratne
Earth on the Galactic Tunnel Network — E. M. Foner
The Good Apocalypse — E. M. Foner
Consider Phlebas — Iain M. Banks
I finally dived into The Culture series, and what, you ask, did i think of the first book?
Well, to be honest, it was rather a long, long winded affair that seemed to sprawl on and on while bringing nothing much to the story.
We also had a huge pacing issue. Why, oh why, do writers suddenly get all descriptive and feel the need to waffle on about every nut and bolt holding doors on and stuff during fight/action/battle scenes? This is the sort of thing an editor should pull up and throw the manuscript back at the writer for. What should have been a great, final battle between our protagonists and the Idirans, flies by on the passages that would take ages in the real world while finding ourselves wading through pages of completely unnecessary waffle when all the action starts kicking off, taking ages to read through scenes that would last a minute or two, at most, in the real world.
Annoyingly, there does appear to be a very good story behind all the poor writing, and . . .
. . . so, having trudged through all that, i feel i’m losing myself to a sunk cost fallacy as i’ve started to read The Player of Games in the hope that it’ll somehow be much better written — we shall see.
Iain’s Page
#scifi #iainmbanks
In the Shadow of the Ship — Aliette de Bodard
A magistrate from the Empire returns to the old, worn-out mind-ship she grew up on for a funeral.
We slowly get to know why she left and what she’s going to do about it now that she’s back as a magistrate. Also at large is another mind-ship that the Empire has sent to fix things, can they work together, will things be fixed?
Another good Xuya novella for all you Xuya fans to get into.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
First Presentation — Aliette de Bodard
Another little Xuya story about one of the people who have access to the virtual overlays of all those on board one of the mind-stations. Imagine if you could look where you shouldn’t, but you wouldn’t, unless you let your guard down.
You can find this in the anthology, Chasing Shadows.
Aliette’s Page
#scifi #aliettedebodard
A Game of Three Generals — Aliette de Bodard
What if everyone else gets killed and the habitat mind on the planet decides it’s going to keep you there and never let you go?
Another interesting little Xuya short for those of us who are totally into the universe. You can find it in the anthology, Extrasolar.