Showing posts with label Gillman; 2 stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gillman; 2 stars. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Arkfall, by Carolyn Ives Gillman

My read of the day is Arkfall, by Carolyn Ives Gillman. This is a Nebula award nominee for 2009. It is a competent story, exploring themes of interdependence and its limits. The protagonist learns about these limits while caring for her increasingly debilitated aunt, who is afflicted with Alzheimer's syndrome.

It's a reasonably good story, with current scientific interest and social relevance. Just not too much of each. It just doesn't have a lot of flavor, particularly for an award nominee. It reminds me of far too many stories, most of the ones in my 2-star category, which this will join. So it goes.

Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor

I think I'm going to agree with others and say that this isn't a science fiction book. But it's getting a lot of SF award nomina...