'Hello' Said the Stick, by Michael Swanwick

'Hello' Said the Stick is a fine example of a short story form I would call the Hint--there's a much bigger game afoot, and you get a little glimpse of it.  Swanwick is a master of such stories, he has a number of them on The Infinite Matrix, a site no longer maintained but still around.  Our protagonist is a mercenary in Renaissance Italy--but really it's the Stick.  This comes out relatively gradually, and gracefully.  It got a Hugo nomination for 2003, which was deserved.  Go read it for a little fun. 3 stars, strong.

The Empire of Ice Cream, by Jeffrey Ford

Today I read a very fine story called The Empire of Ice Cream, a story from the Star Ship Sofa anthology. The vehicle for this story is synesthesia, a condition in which a person's senses are cross-linked. The protagonist's condition goes as far as figurative synesthesia, in which the cross-sensations form concrete hallucinations. When he tastes coffee, he enters the life of another synesthete. But which one is the illusion?

The story also speaks well to the social isolation of those who perceive the world differently. We all get the feeling of being misunderstood, but for most of us it's not constant and permanent. One in that position might think oneself mad, even if it wasn't true.

The story was nominated for several awards, and won the World Fantasy Award in 2004. I give it three stars

Oceanic, by Greg Egan

For my most recent read I went back to Greg Egan, a favorite author of mine. Oceanic is a Hugo award winning novella from 1999. It presents a study of Christianity lightly translated through a space colony, and takes on the difficult topic of whether religious faith can survive scientific discovery of its roots.

Spoiler Alert

I'll go ahead and give a spoiler here to make a point--go read it and come back if it is important. In Oceanic, the colonist's faith turns out to be biochemically induced. When the story was written this was purely speculative, but many scientific reductionists have believed all along that something like this was the case. Recent evidence is starting to lead in the direction that religious experiences can be stimulated from outside (see this Wired article for a skeptical view). If this turns out to go somewhere, whither faith? It will be interesting to see.

3 stars for the story itself.

Favorites: Shadow Christ, by Martin Cowap

Shadow Christ is an awfully tough story to explain. It's sort of about playing with time, and religion, and deeper cultural commentary. The allegory is very subtle. I enjoyed it thoroughly and looked for more by Mr. Cowap.

Couldn't find a thing. Or any details about him at all. It's very odd, he has promise, but the only trace of him is this one story in a very mixed quality and now-defunct but still available SF website. Read it to enjoy a hidden gem, perhaps not sufficiently encouraged.

Read of the Day

Today I finished Poga, a story by John Barnes. This one is a nicely wrapped fantasy tale, but mostly in the real world. It's a good character study about a person coming to grips with herself. I can almost recommend it--but not quite. Read Shadow Christ if you are choosing between the two. Two stars for this one.

That Sweet Little Old Lady, by Randall Garrett

For the past few days I went back to Project Gutenberg to read an award-nominated story, That Sweet Little Old Lady by Randall Garrett. Free SF Online also gives a coauthor credit to Laurence Janifer, but Gutenberg doesn't mention him.

The MacGuffin here is ESP as a known and studied phenomenon. An FBI agent who figures he just gets lucky is assigned to find the telepathic spy. ESP doesn't get much play in SF these days, but was much more common as a theme in mid 20th century SF. Possibly because life is imitating art--brain research and progress in MRI study is making it possible to get a rough idea of what people are thinking about from the outside.

As for the story, it gets off to a somewhat slow start but picks up nicely. By the end I was amused enough to recommend it. 3 stars

Oracle, by Greg Egan

Oracle is a very well-told story roughly following the life of Alan Turing, with SF elements added to explicate the story. Richard Stoney is being persecuted for his homosexuality, and is rescued by a mysterious protagonist. The highlight is a very rigorous intellectual debate between him and a well-known fantasist, John Hamilton. I give it 3 stars

Egan is right up there with Ted Chiang as the best hard SF writer currently active. He includes thorough explanations of seriously abstract mathematical and logical topics, much like in the Golden Age but with far more art to them. You feel like you could pass an upper division logic course after reading one of his books or stories. That might mean they are not for everyone, but they are for enough that he's won a Hugo and gotten eight other nominations. My favorite of his so far is Dark Integers, where mathematical proofs are used as a communication device. That one has the "could really happen" feel to it that the above story lacks in order to be really good.