Socialism and Tapirs
Becoming Terran by Mark Roth, Fusion Fragment Issue 19
Review: Becoming Terran by Mark Roth-Whitworth
Special disclaimer: Mark is a friend. He sent me an ARC and I promise this review is still honest!
Becoming Terran is an attempt to show the road to Fully Automated Luxury Communism and does a pretty good job at it.
It’s also a heist and spy book. The primary protagonist, Amelie, is “rescued” from Africa along with her older sister by a rich white guy who had plans for her. Yeah, she’s basically a slave. And what happens to her sister is worse…
This is a world ruled by the 400, that is to say the 400 richest men and women (mostly men) on the planet. It is a world ravaged by climate change.
Then the rich get eaten. In the meme sense, although there’s definitely some assassinating going on too. The U.N. becomes the Terran Confederation, but not all of the 400 have been dealt with.
The book is highly political, and clearly in favor of socialism as a solution to our problems, but it’s a socialism that is more like Star Trek. UBI becomes standard and everyone is guaranteed housing…and the author suggests separating the two, which is intriguing. But if you aren’t inclined towards this kind of politics, you might find it a bit preachy.
That said, it isn’t a message novel…there’s far too much action for that, and plenty of interesting characters, with the most significant ones being women. My favorite is the artist with the speech defect who…well…look, having been bullied for being “stupid” myself, I kind of relate to her.
Recommended for people who ask “How do we get there from here” regarding true post scarcity. Fully Automated Luxury Communism it is!
Review: Fusion Fragment Issue 19
This is such a good issue, with really no weak stories.
My favorite is “Tapir,” which talks about a post-AI world and human speciation. And tapirs. Sort of. My least favorite is the closing story, “A Robot, A Physicist, and a Monk Walk Into a Bar,” which might be the best story in some other collections.
These stories tend towards the philosophical, and may be a little strange for most, but I have to recommend the issue as a whole. Even the vampire story, and I don’t like vampire stories. I particularly don’t like vampires in space outside bad movies, but S.J. Powell tells a good one in “The Companion.”
“Morpho” is also very interesting…a rich man who can’t father a child abducts one. (He later tries to use somebody for stud duty). He collects the butterflies and he collects the child.
An excellent issue and worth checking out.
Review: The Many Different Kinds of Love by Geoff Ryman and David Jeffrey (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
A really long novella to have been published in any magazine, but I can see why. An AI is exploring Enceladus, looking for life and resources, in concert with a Sample…an uploaded cluster of memories that speaks for the people who uploaded them. Can’t have Ais making decisions without human input, after all.
What follows is a complex mesh of a story, a story about conflicting desires, identity (the AI uses we pronouns and Samples are me’all, which is also rather plural), hope, and the end of the world.
I’m not surprised Thomas devoted so much valuable real estate to this, it’s long enough to be a standalone book, but very, very good. It feels like more of an Analog story (Maybe Quachri didn’t want to devote this much real estate to it), and I recommend it with that in mind.
Short Fiction
Portrait of a Dragon as a Young Man by J.A. Pak (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
A young dragon loses a hazing fight and almost dies. He’s nursed back to health by a woman who may not be entirely human…and learns to live among humans.
This is cute and sweet, softly romantic in a way that makes it clear you can, indeed, have more than one love of your life. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Fools and Their Money by Meghan Hogate (Fantasy & Science Fiction)
The protagonist is some kind of intelligent bird who has absolutely no care for human life…or pretty much anything but money. He’ll happily take your money to act as a guide, then cheerfully robs the group who ignore his warnings and get killed by a swarm.
An enjoyable take on D&D style fantasy…yeah, the protagonist is totally a murderhobo…but also on power. (Maybe he’s a crow? It’s never quite specified what kind of creature he is).
The Dead Letter Office by David Erik Nelson (Asimov’s Science Fiction)
This story is almost a joke story, because central to the conceit is letters to Satan. Because kids can’t spell Santa.
But it’s a story about revenge porn…and revenge in general. About how awful most men are…which is surprising as the author appears to be a man. I have to give him kudos for that.
It gets awfully dark, though.
We Are All Goblins by A.J. Van Belle (Dark Horses Magazine)
An extremely cynical story about a psychic who sees everyone as ugly goblins because people are ugly. Including herself. I didn’t much care for it, and the murder mystery side wasn’t fantastic either. Sorry…but it will probably touch something in people who feel surrounded by goblins.
No Ghosts Here by A.J. Van Belle (Sand Salt Blood)
A woman gets engaged to a guy who jokes about being a fairy. Turns out he wasn’t joking. I’d call this story a tragedy, it’s very much about how women are exploited…and also, fairies in their true, dark sense. I liked this one quite a bit.
We Grew Tall and Strong by the Water by Leah Andelsmith (FIYAH)
An exploration of the Black towns of Oklahoma, which I admit I know little about. Magic and ghosts here are a metaphor for freedom and reconstruction. I recommend this one if you want to peek into a part of Black history most white people don’t know much about. Some of these towns are still here today…