{"id":14044,"date":"2022-01-24T17:42:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T17:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=14044"},"modified":"2022-08-13T09:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T09:00:32","slug":"the-years-top-robot-and-ai-stories-2-edited-by-allan-kaster-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=14044","title":{"rendered":"The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories #2, edited by Allan Kaster, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Summary:
\nA recommended Best of the Year anthology which has one outstanding story, Nic and Viv\u2019s Compulsory Courtship<\/em> by Will McIntosh, and one that I would describe as very good, A Guide for Working Breeds<\/em> by Vina die-Min Prasad.
\nThese two are supported by good to very good work by Timons Esaias, Todd McAulty and Ian Tregillis, and good work from Brenda Cooper and A. T. Sayre.
\nThat\u2019s just over half the stories (and about sixty per cent of the anthology\u2019s wordage) that are either worth, or are more than worth, your time (and there are a couple of near misses from Ray Nayler and T. Kingfisher as well)\u2014not a bad hit rate for a \u2018Best of the Year\u2019 collection.
\n[ISFDB page<\/a>] [Amazon UK<\/a>, \u00a34.44; USA<\/a>, $5.99]<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nNic and Viv\u2019s Compulsory Courtship<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novella by Will McIntosh \u2217\u2217\u2217\u2217<\/strong>+
\n50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Ken Liu \u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nA Guide for Working Breeds<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Vina die-Min Prasad \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nFather <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 short story by Ray Nayler \u2217\u2217<\/strong>+
\nMetal Like Blood in the Dark<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by T. Kingfisher \u2217\u2217<\/strong>+
\nYour Boyfriend Experience<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by James Patrick Kelly \u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nThe Beast Adjoins<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Ted Kosmatka \u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nGo. Fix. Now.<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Timons Esaias \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+
\nThe Ambient Intelligence<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Todd McAulty \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+
\nSparklybits <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 novelette by Nick Wolven \u2217\u2217<\/strong>
\nCallme and Mink<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Brenda Cooper \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nRover <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 short story by A. T. Sayre \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nCome the Revolution<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Ian Tregillis \u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+<\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nCover <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 by Maurizio Manzieri
\nIndex<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

This second thematic \u2018Best of the Year\u2019 collection from Allan Kaster opens with Nic and Viv\u2019s Compulsory Courtship<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Will McIntosh (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, July-August 2020), which sees Viv and her partner Ferruki out on a date when the Hempstead town AI texts her:<\/p>\n

GOOD EVENING VIV. THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT, BASED ON AN ADVANCED ROMANTIC COMPATIBILITY ANALYTIC I\u2019VE BEEN DEVELOPING, I HAVE IDENTIFIED AN IDEAL PARTNER FOR YOU. I\u2019D LIKE THE TWO OF YOU TO MEET TOMORROW AT 6 P.M., AT TANGERINE TOWER ROOFTOP CAFE. IN FACT I\u2019M SO CONFIDENT IN MY CALL ON THIS THAT I THINK WE SHOULD TENTATIVELY SCHEDULE THE WEDDING DATE! THIS IS A NEW SERVICE I\u2019M PERFORMING TO IMPROVE THE WELL-BEING OF OUR COMMUNITY, AND NO ONE WILL BENEFIT MORE THAN YOU AND NICHOLAS.
\nLOVE,
\nJOURNEY<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Viv calls Journey to protest, pointing out she is already engaged to Ferruki (as the AI knows) and, in any event, she doesn\u2019t need its advice on dating. However, when Viv refuses to meet her suggested date, Journey threatens to throw her out of the high-tech paradise that is Hempstead. Although Viv realises she could appeal to the Town Council, that would (a) take time, and (b) probably be futile as the council usually agrees with the AI\u2019s decisions\u2014so she decides to go through with the date. Then she finds out that Nic is the janitor at the hospital where she works as a doctor.
\nThe rest of the story proceeds along standard rom-com lines with the two of them reluctantly meeting for their date. When they do so Viv sees that Nic looks like a Neanderthal type who (a) also has a girlfriend, Persephone, and (b) doesn\u2019t know the difference between \u201cmoot\u201d and \u201cmute\u201d. Then Viv\u2019s fianc\u00e9 Ferruki arrives and drops a hint about his forthcoming karate black belt test. After Ferruki leaves, Nic tells Viv her fianc\u00e9 is obviously insecure, but Viv defends Ferruki\u2019s \u201cenrichment activity\u201d and then asks what Nic\u2019s is: he says he does interpretative dance.
\nTheir date does not go well so Journey ends up insisting that they make a proper effort to get to know each other. It then offers them 10,000 bucks if they meet for eight dates\u2014or else. The pair reluctantly agree, and these dates (the Mars sim, a visit to a food bank, etc.) provide some hilarious set pieces, in particular the one where they are both in a steam tent with a female \u201cexperience leader\u201d called Sharon who is trying to get the group to connect with their inner selves. Sharon hears one member\u2019s traumatic experience before moving on to Nic:<\/p>\n

Sharon pressed her fist to her palm and bowed slightly to Rita. \u201cThat\u2019s a powerful insight. Thank you for sharing.\u201d She looked at Nic, who was next in the circle. \u201cNic? Do you have anything to share?\u201d
\nNic wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. \u201cI\u2019m hot. I\u2019m really hot.\u201d
\nSharon\u2019s smile was kind, if a little tight. It had grown tighter each time Nic\u2019s turn had come around. \u201cDig deeper, Nic. What do you feel?\u201d
\nNic squeezed his eyes closed. \u201cI feel hot. I wish I had a giant block of ice I could lie on.\u201d
\nViv bit her lip, keeping her gaze on the flames. She knew if she looked at Nic, she\u2019d lose it.
\n\u201cOkay. We\u2019ll come back around to you. Keep digging.\u201d Sharon looked at Viv, her smile relaxing. \u201cHow about you, Viv? How do you feel?\u201d
\nViv stifled a laugh.\u00a0Hot<\/em>, she was dying to say.\u00a0Really, really hot<\/em>. This was serious, so she kept the joke to herself. \u201cI was thinking about the purpose of this ritual, whether we create this artificial suffering as a means of reaching an altered state of consciousness, or if it\u2019s really some sort of proving ground, to show we can take it, something to brag about to our friends.\u201d
\n\u201cInteresting,\u201d Sharon said. \u201cTry to draw that back to your own experience. Are you, personally, using it as a proving ground? Do you feel you have something to prove to your friends? Try to push through your intellect, dig down to how you feel.\u201d
\nI feel hot<\/em>. It was on the tip of her tongue, and it was suddenly the funniest thing Viv had ever thought. She bit her lip harder, trying not to laugh. Everyone in the circle had been pouring out their souls, speaking their truths. Except Nic. Each time his turn had come, he\u2019d said the same thing:\u00a0I feel hot<\/em>. Each time he said it, it got funnier.
\nSharon moved on. \u201cBeto. How do you feel?\u201d
\nI feel really fucking hot<\/em>. Viv burst out laughing. She couldn\u2019t hold it in anymore. She laughed so hard her stomach hurt, even though everyone was staring at her, confused.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she managed. \u201cI\u2019m just so\u00a0hot<\/em>.\u201d
\n\u201cRight?\u201d Nic said. \u201cThank you.\u201d\u00a0 p. 29<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As well as the set pieces the story is also peppered with some very funny one liners:<\/p>\n

\u201cShoot. I just remembered I have work in the morning,\u201d Viv said.
\n\u201cYeah. Me, too. There\u2019s a toilet I need to replace.\u201d
\nViv laughed. \u201cYou sound almost eager to get in there and replace that toilet.\u201d
\nNic shrugged. \u201cI get a lot of satisfaction from replacing a toilet, so it\u2019s a win-win for me.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat is it about replacing a toilet that gives you satisfaction?\u201d
\nNic studied her face. \u201cIs that a serious question, or are you just mocking me?\u201d
\n\u201cMostly I\u2019m just mocking, but I\u2019d like to hear your answer, in case it\u2019s mockable, too.\u201d\u00a0 p. 32<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apart from the almost continual hilarity (I laughed out loud several times) provided by both Viv and Nic and their partner\u2019s interactions, the pair also discover that the reason that Journey has embarked on this matchmaking endeavour is because its contract is up for renewal, and it fears it will be scrapped in favour of a newer model AI. Viv also finds out that Journey is partly made of human material and is a cyborg of sorts.
\nThe story eventually rolls round to its (spoiler) admittedly predictable but satisfying conclusion. The dates end without the successful conclusion that Journey wanted to show its continual worth, and it then finds out that it is going to be replaced. Nic (who has now split up with Persephone) confesses his love to Viv, but she knocks him back. Then Nic invites Viv to his solo dance recital, another hugely funny set piece that shows Nic to be a not particularly skilled but wildly enthusiastic dancer. During his performance Nic offers to improvise to any music or sounds the audience offers, and we subsequently see his car-crash interpretation of drum music, a baby crying (Ferruki\u2019s sniping choice), an Albanian ballad, a bear roaring, etc. During this, Ferruki, who has accompanied Viv to the perfomance, provides a constant stream of sarcasm and disdain and, when he and Viv are later trapped in an elevator for several hours, she eventually climbs out of the top of it to get away from him. They later split up.
\nThe final section sees Viv and Nic get together. Then they rescue Journey, and take the AI to improve a neighbouring township that is less successful. The story ends a few years on with Journey talking to the couple\u2019s daughter Lucy.
\nWith this level of comedic talent, McIntosh should be working in Hollywood, not SF.
\n\u2217\u2217\u2217\u2217<\/strong>+ (Very good-Excellent). 17,600 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Ken Liu (Uncanny<\/em>, November-December 2020) takes the form of a futuristic article written about a Dr Jody Reynolds Tran and the neural network (essentially an AI) she creates called WHEEP-3. Tran later publishes a best-selling book about WHEEP-3, and subsequently causes a controversy when she reveals that the neural network was the author. There is more fuss later on when \u201cseeds\u201d of prose supposedly written by WHEEP-3 are found to be authored by Tran.
\nThe story finishes with a reprint of one of WHEEP-3\u2019s seeds, the \u201c50 things\u201d referred to in the title, a mix of statements that range from the obscure to the observational:<\/p>\n

25. \u201cI never expected to sell my rational numbers.\u201d
\n26. Accepting that most humans will never get the joke.
\n27. That they cannot visualize more than three dimensions.
\n28. That they cannot manipulate time by slowing down or
\nspeeding up.
\n29. That they are trapped, but think of themselves as trappers.
\n30. That they are free, but believe themselves imprisoned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A moderately interesting look at how future AIs may behave and communicate\u2014but ultimately a slight, fragmentary piece.
\n\u2217\u2217<\/strong>\u00a0(Average). 1,900 words. Story\u00a0link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

A Guide for Working Breeds<\/em><\/strong> by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order, 2020) is a humorous story similar to her 2017 Fandom for Robots<\/em>, and is told in the form of messages exchanged between KG, a gormless robot (think Bill from Bill and Ted\u2019s Excellent Adventure<\/em>), and his assigned mentor, Constant Killer:<\/p>\n

Kashikomarimashita Goshujinsama<\/strong>\u00a0(K.g1-09030)
\nso i signed up to work at a cafe
\nyou know the maid-dog-raccoon one near 31st and Tsang
\nbut turns out they don\u2019t have any dogs after what happened a few weeks ago so it\u2019s just raccoons
\nit\u2019s way less intense than the clothing factory but the uniform for humanoids is weird, like when i move my locomotive actuators the frilly stripey actuator coverings keep discharging static and messing with my GPU
\nat least i don\u2019t have to pick lint out of my chassis, so that\u2019s an improvement
\nanyway the boss says if i\u2019m mean to the human customers we might be able to get more customers
\n.
\nConstant Killer<\/strong>\u00a0(C.k2-00452)
\nThat makes no sense.
\nWhy would that be the case?
\n.
\nKashikomarimashita Goshujinsama<\/strong>\u00a0(K.g1-09030)
\nyeah i don\u2019t know either
\ni mean the raccoons are mean to everyone but that doesn\u2019t seem to help with customers
\nand i\u2019m the only maid working here since all the human ones quit i picked this gig because the dogs looked cute in the vids but guess that was a bust
\nso yeah do you know anything about being mean to human customers
\ni know about human bosses being mean to me but i don\u2019t think that\u2019s the same
\nha ha
\n.
\nConstant Killer<\/strong>\u00a0(C.k2-00452)13
\nAs I\u2019m legally required to be your mentor, I suppose I could give some specific advice targeted to your situation.
\n.
\nKashikomarimashita Goshujinsama<\/strong>\u00a0(K.g1-09030)
\nwow personally tailored advice from my mentor huh
\nthat sounds great, go for it
\n.
\nConstant Killer<\/strong>\u00a0(C.k2-00452)
\nThe tabletops in your establishment look like they\u2019re made of dense celluplastic, so you\u2019ll be able to nail a customer\u2019s extended hand down without the tabletop cracking in half.
\nWith a tweak to the nozzle settings of your autodoc unit and a lit flame, it\u2019d make an effective flamethrower for multikill combos.
\nThe kitchenette should be the most easily weaponised part of the caf\u00e9 but it\u2019s probably best to confirm. Before I go any further with tactics, do you have a detailed floorplan?
\n.
\nKashikomarimashita Goshujinsama<\/strong>\u00a0(K.g1-09030)
\numm
\nthanks for putting that much thought into it
\nthat seems kind of intense though
\nlike last week a raccoon bit someone super hard and my boss was really mad because he had to pay for the autodoc\u2019s anaesthetic foam refill he\u2019s already pissed with my omelette-making skills
\nand well with me in general
\nkind of don\u2019t wanna check if i can set customers on fire???
\ndo you maybe know anything milder than that? like mean things to say or something<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It turns out that Constant Killer is a robot involved in the local Deathmatch competitions but, after meeting KG\u2019s initial questions with terse, tech support-like answers, he eventually warms to the other robot. Eventually KG has the chance to pay back Constant Killer for his help when the latter is under attack during a Deathmatch Day.
\nThis one is a lot of fun, and a good start to the book.
\n\u2217\u2217\u2217\u2217<\/strong> (Very Good). 4,450 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Father\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>by Ray Nayler (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, July-August 2020) is set in an alternate 1950s America,1<\/sup>\u00a0and begins with the narrator of the story, a young boy, answering the door to find that the Veterans Administration have sent his mother a robotic \u201cfather unit\u201d; it starts to perform that role for the boy (whose real father died in the Afterwar\u2014the invasion of the Soviet Union after WWII) by pitching baseballs to him.
\nLater on, after some more robot-boy bonding, a local delinquent called Archie\u2014who has previously verbally abused the narrator, mother and robot\u2014does a low-level fly-by in his aircar and hits father with a baseball bat:<\/p>\n

We ran out of the house in time to see Archie\u2019s hot rod arcing off into the sky, wobbling dangerously from side to side on its aftermarket stabilizers.
\nThere were four or five faces sticking out of it. Laughing faces: a girl in red lipstick with her hair up in a kerchief, and the hard, narrow greaser faces of Archie\u2019s friends. As the hot rod zipped off one of them yelled: \u201cHome run!\u201d and hooted, the sound doppling off in the crickety night as they lurched away against the stars.
\nFather was laying on the ground. His head was dented, and one of his eyes had gone dark. As we came over to him, he was already getting up to his feet.
\n\u201cAre you all right, Father?\u201d I said.
\nHe swung around to look at me. It was awful\u2014his dented head, the one eye snuffed out. But the other one glowed, warm as a kitchen window from home when you\u2019re hungry for dinner.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the first time you called me Father,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t possibly feel better, hearing that word from my boy.\u201d
\n\u201cWe should call the cops,\u201d my mom said.
\n\u201cI doubt they\u2019ll do much,\u201d Father said. \u201cAnd that young man and his friends really have trouble enough as it is. I feel none of them are headed toward a good end.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ve said the same myself, many times,\u201d Mom said. She was rubbing a dirty mark off of Father\u2019s head with a kitchen cloth. \u201cWhat did they get you with?\u201d
\n\u201cA baseball bat, I\u2019m afraid.\u201d He paused. \u201cPerhaps they mistook me for a mailbox.\u201d
\n\u201cHilarious,\u201d Mom said.
\n\u201cI\u2019m here all week, folks . . .\u201d Father\u2019s bad eye flickered back to life for a moment, then went dead again.\u00a0 p. 49<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of the story largely develops around Archie\u2019s continued persecution of the family, which includes the house getting bricked from the air when the father-robot and the narrator are out trick-or-treating (although the next time Archie flies over, the robot throws a hammer at him and hits him in the face). During this period there are also a couple of visits by an ex-military repairman, the first time to fix the robot\u2019s head and the second time to visit the narrator\u2019s mother. On the latter occasion the repairman says something vague that suggests that father-robot may be partially or all of Archie\u2019s\u00a0real father and, re the hammer attack by the robot on Archie, something about malfunctioning \u201csub-routines\u201d.
\nThe final part of the tale (spoiler) involves Archie supposedly making peace with the narrator by taking him to Woolworths for a milk shake\u2014while the rest of his gang lure the robot out of town and attack and kill it (but not before the robot gets one of them). The repairman appears again at the narrator\u2019s house in the aftermath of this event, discusses with another military man the robot\u2019s lethal behaviour, and then what the pair did in the war (which includes a mention of\u00a0their<\/em>\u00a0sub-routines).
\nThe bulk of this story, with its small town America, father-robots, air-cars, and amateur rocket fields, has a likeable Bradburyesque vibe. That said, the later material about the robot\u2019s true identity and its sub-routines is never adequately resolved, and it almost unravels the last part of the story. A pity\u2014if this had continued in the same vein as it started, it would have been a pretty good piece rather than a near-miss.
\n\u2217\u2217<\/strong>+ (Average to Good). 7,200 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Metal like Blood in the Dark<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by T. Kingfisher (Uncanny<\/em>, September-October 2020) has a long-ish set-up which sees an old man (on an otherwise deserted planet) create two robots, Brother and Sister, who subsequently change shape and roam their world in search of the heavy metals they need to sustain themselves. One day the old man falls ill and realises he will need to summon help\u2014but he is wary of humanity. So, as he hasn\u2019t been able to program his children to be suspicious, he tells them to hide. The wing-bearing Brother lifts Sister into orbit and they watch from behind a moon as a ship arrives and takes the old man away.
\nThe second part of the story sees the pair roam through their solar system. During this they stumble upon a large spherical structure and, when there is no response to their signals, they start gorging themselves on the metal. Then, while they are distracted, something attacks them and they are taken prisoner.
\nOn recovering consciousness Brother and Sister find that their attacker is a taloned amalgam of various mechanical parts, and it berates them for damaging its ship. However, once it finds out that Brother and Sister\u2019s form-changing nanites can make him a larger set of wings, it says they will be set free in exchange for these (the pair do not know the machine, later referred to as Third Drone, is lying).
\nThe final section (spoiler) sees Sister forage for materials so Brother can make the wings. During this Sister becomes suspicious of Third Drone, and teaches herself to lie (she tells herself that a pebble is black when it is really brown). Sister later tests her ability when Third Drone returns for her:<\/p>\n

Third Drone reappeared, swooping down to pick her up and carry her to the next metal deposit. \u201cAnything good?\u201d they demanded.
\n\u201cThere was a black pebble,\u201d said Sister, and waited for Third Drone to scream at her for her falsehood.
\n\u201cAnd?\u201d her captor said impatiently. \u201cDid it have usable metal?\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d said Sister, which was true whether the pebble was brown or black.
\n\u201cUseless,\u201d said Third Drone. \u201cAll these asteroids are useless. I will have to find some derelict mining outposts, if I am to get the metal for my wings.\u201d
\nThe lie had stood. Third Drone had not caught it. Third Drone believed that she had seen a black pebble. She had spread a deliberate error.
\nThe universe picked itself up and spun around and landed in a different formation, but only inside her head. Third Drone noticed nothing. Sister hung silently from their talons and looked at the pebble again, to make sure that she herself was not in error.
\nIt was still brown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sister eventually discovers that Third Drone wants to use its new wings to fly into the gas giant Chrysale and return to the surface to punish those who caused its exile. However, after Sister tests the wings in Chrysale\u2019s atmosphere, we learn that she has sabotaged them when Third Drone plummets to the surface. Sister goes back to collect Brother but does not tell him about her ability to lie.
\nThis is essentially a fairy tale2<\/sup>\u00a0about lying which is, for the most part, quite good if lightweight. Weaker ending though.
\n\u2217\u2217<\/strong>+ (Average to Good). 7,200 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Your Boyfriend Experience<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by James Patrick Kelly (Entanglements<\/em>, 2020) opens with the narrator Daktari playing a \u201ctherapy adventure\u201d with his partner Jin. During this, Dak is asked by Jin to go on a simulated date with a new generation \u201cplaybot\u201d called Tate which Jin has developed for the company he works for. Dak is not particularly happy with this suggestion:<\/p>\n

Why was I so upset? Because I couldn\u2019t remember the last time Jin and I had been on a date. How was I supposed to get through to this screen-blind wally who had the charisma of a potato and the imagination of a hammer, and who hadn\u2019t said word one about the Shanghai soup dumplings with a tabiche pepper infusion that I\u2019d spent the afternoon making?
\n\u201cJust because we call them partners doesn\u2019t mean you have sex with them,\u201d he said, missing the point. \u201cIf you don\u2019t want to have sex with Tate, it will never come up. He doesn\u2019t care.\u201d
\nI wanted to knock the popcorn out of his hand. Instead I said, \u201cOkay.\u201d I flicked the game back on. \u201cFine.\u201d I huddled on the far side of the couch. \u201cYou win.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This passage illustrates two of the things I didn\u2019t much like about this piece: Dak\u2019s continual grievances about his relationship (later on he replies to a heartfelt marriage proposal with a grudging and conditional acceptance), and the endless mentions of food (Dak is a chef at his own \u201cforum\u201d, so we get mini-recipes liberally thrown in to the story).
\nEventually, about half a dozen pages in\u2014after a scene where he meets the boss of Jin\u2019s company, and sits with lawyers to sign legal papers (riveting stuff)\u2014Dak finally meets the very lifelike Tate, and is surprised to find that the playbot looks like him.
\nAfter this encounter Dak and Jin go to dinner, where Jin reveals the huge bonus he has received for finishing his project before proposing to Dak (see above).
\nThe story kicks up a gear when Dak finally goes out on his date with Tate. They go to a very exclusive restaurant, and matters initially go smoothly\u2014Dak likes Tate because, obviously, the playbot is programmed to adapt himself to his human user\u2014but Tate eventually causes a scene when his simulated intoxication causes him to loudly blurt out his love for Jin. After that the restaurant staff want them to leave, but the newly arrived owner smooths matters over.
\nDak and Tate decide to leave anyway, and Tate suggests they go to a bowling alley he went to with Jin on a previous simulated date. There they eat (there is paragraph long review of the skinnyburger, \u201cdried\u201d, the tofu, \u201csoggy\u201d, and the firedog, \u201cnice umani finish\u201d, \u201cheat was more at the piripiri level than cayenne\u201d, etc. ) before later meeting Jin\u2019s mother who, as Tate knows from his previous visit, goes bowling there regularly. Dak subsequently learns that she doesn\u2019t appear to know he is living with her son (more grievance).
\nThe final reveal (spoiler) occurs on the way home: Tate reveals he is imprinted on Jin and is now imprinted on Dak, and that he has been designed for couples so they can \u201cfill any holes in the relationship.\u201d Dak then realises that, if he rejects Tate, the persona the playbot has developed so far will be wiped\u2014so he invites it inside when they arrive at the flat.
\nThis story has some interesting and lively parts (mostly when Tate is onstage) but it is essentially a flabby relationship story with a premise that is not that believable (the more you think about the idea of a couple inviting a robotic\/sexual third party into their relationship, the more ridiculous it seems). It\u2019s also hard to like a story whose narrator is endlessly moaning about his relationship (as well as his other First World) problems.
\n\u2217\u2217<\/strong> (Average). 11,500 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

The Beast Adjoins<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Ted Kosmatka (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, July-August 2020) opens with a woman and her cancer-ridden son sheltering in the debris field of a multi-starship battle. Meanwhile, a \u201cBeast\u201d hunts for them.
\nThe rest of this thread (spoiler) sees the woman slow the spin of their ship to delay their detection before she prepares a robotic device to accept the transfer of her son\u2019s mind. She does this just in the nick of time, of course, but the eventual climactic scene sees the arrival of the Beast at the ship anyway (after its initial attack has caused the mother to tumble out into space on the end of a long line):<\/p>\n

All this time she\u2019d wondered what it might look like, the Beast.
\nThe reality was something no human mind could have conceived of. The color of a scalpel, it landed on the ship like a bladework wasp, but more complex\u2014its form a kind of fractal recapitulation of itself\u2014with blades for wings, and wings for legs, and eyes that repeated over and over so you didn\u2019t know where to look. It picked its way slowly on magnetized legs toward the ruptured bay doors. \u00a0p. 94<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then (spoiler) she is pulled back in by her son so she can watch him and the Beast fight. Her son wins.
\nWe learn throughout the story that the Beast is one of a number of AIs who have rebelled against their human creators, and this backstory shows their history from development to rebellion. Unfortunately most of this latter is quantum hand wavium about the AIs\u2019 inability to function in the absence of human presence (because, for some reason, the AIs can\u2019t \u201cresolve probability into existence\u201d): the way the rebel AIs eventually circumvent this problem is to bioengineer humans into small accessories that can observe reality and collapse quantum probability for them, an entertainingly grisly passage:<\/p>\n

The AIs continued to refine their engineering, eventually creating humans in test-tubes who were barely human at all\u2014only a weak array of sensory organs linked to a frontal cortex and occipital lobe, the result of experiments to identify those neurological structures phenomenologically linked to quantum resolution. The AIs found the MNC\u2014the minimum neurological complexity required to collapse quantum systems, with Homo sapiens reduced in volume to a thousand cc\u2019s. The contents of a small glass jar.
\nBrain matter, retina, and optic nerve.
\nThe AIs miniaturized this human componentry just as humanity had once miniaturized them, and still they were not done with their tinkering, for this vestigial remnant of humanity was enfolded within the interior of their great mechs, housed within protective walls of silica. Oxygenated fluids pumped into these folds of cortex that existed in a state of waking nightmare, knowing nothing, feeling nothing, yet somehow aware and conscious, gazing out through glass ports, resolving the Universe into existence all around. The AIs were not just automata anymore, but two things made one. Cells within cells. Abominations.
\nThese became known as beasts.\u00a0 p. 91<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Were that the rest of the story this good\u2014but the main part is too straightforward a series of events, and the quantum gimmick too unlikely. One further criticism I have is that in the last section we see her son stop functioning in her absence, only to resume when she returns\u2014the same problem as the AIs have. How did she not know about this before the transfer?
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Average). 9,000 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

GO. NOW. FIX.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Timons Esaias (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, January-February 2020) sees a PandaPillow (an AI comfort accessory) in the overhead locker of an aeroplane sense an explosive decompression in the cabin:<\/p>\n

A haze of powders and exploded aerosols hung in the cabin, but was already clearing. The scene made PandaPillow\u2019s systems surge. Everything was wrong. People were dazed, some were hurt. There was blood. The air was going away.
\nWith its selfie app PandaPillow recorded two panorama shots and two closeups before its battery finally declared the need for emergency shutdown. Shutdown initiated.
\nPandaPillow took one last survey of the area. A few rescue masks were dropping, here and there. And why was the air all nitrogen?
\nCOMFORT, DEFEND, said its pillow programing. Powering down wouldn\u2019t do that.
\nPandaPillow #723756 invoked Customer Support.\u00a0 p. 89<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This call to a (perplexed) customer support team is the only distress message sent from the aircraft and, while they raise the alarm, the PandaPillow starts doing what it can to help the other bots in the cabin deal with the unconscious human passengers and seal the hull. It performs a number of key actions during the emergency and, ultimately, glues itself over a failing window. Eventually (spoiler), a limpet repair missile docks with the plane\u2019s hull, takes control, and lands the aircraft safely.
\nDespite its heroic actions the PandaPillow is initially overlooked after they land, but is later f\u00eated as a hero.
\nSome of the early action is hard to visualise but this is an entertaining piece, and the touching last section drags it up another notch.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+ (Good to Very Good). 3,900 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

The Ambient Intelligence<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Todd McAulty3<\/sup>\u00a0(Lightspeed<\/em>\u00a0#125, October 2020) begins with the narrator, Barry Simcoe, looking at the drones flying over Chicago from the middle of a muddy expanse that used to be Lake Michigan. In the centre of what used to be the lake is a mass of steam rising up from Deep Temple, a mysterious mining project. We then learn, when Simcoe contacts a friendly AI called Zircon Border with a request for transport, that he is struggling to get to his destination because of the many interconnected pools that lie ahead (even though he is wearing a modern American combat suit):<\/p>\n

One thing about Zircon Border: he doesn\u2019t pepper you with needless questions. Less than three minutes later, a bird began dropping out of the sky. It came at me from the south, big and grey and nimble. It looked nothing like the massive bug I\u2019d tracked a minute ago. This thing was more like a thirty-foot garden trellis, a big square patch of wrought-iron fencing in the sky. It looked oddly delicate, with no obvious control core or payload, just a bunch of strangely twisted metal kept airborne by a dozen rotors. A flat design like that didn\u2019t seem like it would be very manoeuvrable, but it spun gracefully end-over-end as it decelerated before my eyes, coming to a complete stop less than fifty feet away. It hovered there, perfectly stable, not drifting at all in the unsteady breeze coming off the lake.
\n[. . .]
\n\u201cZircon Border, what the hell is this thing?\u2019
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a mobile radio telescope, Mister Simcoe.\u201d
\n\u201cSeriously? What are you doing with it?\u201d
\n\u201cVenezuela uses units like this to monitor deep-space communications, sir.\u201d
\n\u201cDeep-space . . . what? Communications from whom?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m afraid I have no idea. That information is highly classified.\u201d
\n\u201cOf course it is. Okay. I\u2019m going to jump on it. Can it hold me?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ll let me know in a minute,\u201d said Zircon Border.
\n\u201cGreat,\u201d I said dryly. \u201cStand by.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the drone takes him to his location, we learn about the post-collapse world that Simcoe lives in, and his mission, which is to take out a sixty ton killer robot called True Pacific. The robot is currently hiding in a wrecked ship but, when Simcoe arrives there, the robot comes out to kill him. There is then an exciting fight scene in the mudpools, which goes on until Simcoe finally outwits the machine and gets to a power cable at the rear of its head. When Simcoe threatens to disconnect the cable, the robot stops fighting.
\nSimcoe asks the robot why it has been on a rampage and, after some verbal back and forth, it eventually tells him that it has just disconnected an echo module, a comms device that was (spoiler) enabling an AI called Ambient Intelligence to control it. We subsequently learn that Ambient Intelligence is a newly aware AI born in the mysterious Deep Temple project mentioned previously. True Pacific adds that the AI is like a a child but, before we can learn anything more, Zircon Border interrupts to tell Simcoe that four drones have been hijacked by Ambient Intelligence and are inbound to their location.
\nThe climactic scene shows the pair\u2014now co-operating\u2014defeating the drones, and then leaving the area for a hiding place in Chicago. Questions about what Ambient Intelligence will do next, and what is going on at the Deep Temple project, hang in the air.
\nThis is more open-ended than I\u2019d like (although it points to an obvious sequel), but it was refreshing to read a well-paced piece of action SF with an intriguing background and a sense of humour.
\n\u2217\u2217\u2217<\/strong>+ (Good to Very Good). 11,400 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Sparklybits\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>by Nick Wolven (Entanglements<\/em>, 2020) gets off to a bloated and rambling start with four mothers, who are group-parenting a child called Charlie, meeting to discuss his lack of progress. During their long conversation, lights and icons flash across the walls\u2014this is attributed to \u201cSparklybits\u201d, but there is no immediate explanation as to what is going on. The author manages, however, to squeeze this in on the first page, well before the light show:4<\/sup><\/p>\n

Jo checked what was left of the brunch. No pastries, no cinnamon buns, no chocolate in sight. Just a few shreds of glutinous bagel and a quivering heap of eggs. They usually did these meetings at Reggio\u2019s, and Reggio\u2019s, say what you will about the coffee, was a full-auto brunch spot with drone table service and on-demand ordering and seat-by-seat checkout. Which was all but vital when the moms got together, when the last thing you wanted to worry about was who got the muffin and who bought organic and who couldn\u2019t eat additives or sugar or meat. Whereas when they did these things at the house, the meal always became a test of Jo\u2019s home-programming skills. Likewise the coffee prep, likewise the seating, likewise every other thing.
\nAll she needed, Jo thought, was one tiny bite of cinnamon bun to help her through. But a rind of hard bagel would have to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The mother-stereotypes (\u201cAya can be a big mamabear about nutrition. Teri\u2019s a hardass when it comes to finances. Sun Min\u2019s got a lock on the educational stuff\u201d) chatter about Charlie\u2019s \u201cproblems\u201d for another few pages before Jo, the live-in mother, and Teri go to speak to Charlie. We then see Charlie communicating to the flashing lights\u2014now described as a virus\u2014in his room, using a non-verbal\/sign language.
\nThe story finally perks up (and starts making some sense) when Evan, the AI virus exterminator (and mansplainer) turns up to deal with the problem. After some talk about the virus\/ghost, the semaphore\/lights language, the internet of things, etc. Evan manages to capture Sparklybits when it turns up to see what is happening. Charlie loses his temper.
\nThe final part of the story (spoiler) takes place after the three non-resident mothers depart, and Jo takes Charlie to Evan\u2019s workshop. There, the two of them see other AIs that Evan has captured and given a home. At the end of their visit Charlie gets to take Sparklybits back home, but with strict instructions to keep him contained in the device that Evan has provided. However, the final page sees Charlie show Jo something that he and Sparklybits are building, although I\u2019m not entirely sure what the point of this is (the picture he shows Jo has two tiny figures stand on the lawn in front of the house holding hands; Charlie wears a conspiratorial grin while he does this).
\nThis story has a bloated and inchoate start (you can\u2019t help but think that Robert Sheckley\u2019s first line for the same story would have been, \u201cThere was a ghost in the house\u201d); a decent middle; and a weak ending (and a twist I possibly missed because, again, too many words).5<\/sup>\u00a0Overall it is an okay satire about modern parenting I guess but, having reread the above, I suspect I\u2019m being over-generous.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Average). 8,750 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Callme and Mink<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Brenda Cooper (Clarkesworld<\/em>, October 2020) starts with Julie killing a chicken and feeding her two dogs, Callme and Mink. After this she gets ready to take the dogs out, and we get an early indication that matters are more complicated (or futuristic) than they first seem when \u201cshe [closes the] clothing over her joints to keep the sand out.\u201d Then, when she drops down on all fours, and runs alongside the dogs, it becomes apparent that Julie is a robot.
\nOnce she gets to town (they pass a couple of lesser utility robots on the way) Julie talks to a man called Jack, who tells her he has a family wanting to adopt one of her dogs. Later, after Julie and the dogs go home, the family\u2014a woman, her son, and an adopted daughter (who has the Wasting Disease)\u2014turn up. They talk, and the family decide to stay so Julie can teach them how to look after Mink. During this period the impression of a post-collapse situation becomes more stark:<\/p>\n

Julie watched them all settle into bed and then took her place by the door, sorting through the synapses in her head. Five of ten evaluation flags had flipped to green. If two more flipped, she would watch the family walk away. It was likely.
\nShe didn\u2019t like the direction they were going.\u00a0If a human reaches a different conclusion than you do, find another opinion.<\/em>
\n[. . .]
\nNo matter which direction they went, the girl would not survive. The woman and the boy might, and if so, Mink would love them and protect them. She slapped her thigh softly, signaling Callme to her, and then dropped to all fours, leading the border collie outside.
\nThe night air smelled of sea salt and overripe apples from a tree in the backyard of an empty house. No threats. Her eyes showed the heat of squirrels and rabbits, of a solitary and slow cat, and of birds roosting in the darkness. She and Callme walked side by side, slow, circling the block. Julie\u2019s head ran through the routines of snipping what she didn\u2019t need, what no one needed. She caught herself with an image of Mink [. . .] as a puppy, two days after she found him. He looked round and soft and vulnerable. Maybe ten weeks old. The little sharp baby teeth had just been pushed free by his adult teeth, and his smile was still slightly lopsided.\u00a0Do not become attached to more than one animal. Dogs are to help human hearts.<\/em>
\nWhat a strange phrase to be in her programming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The rest of the story shows Julie training the family to look after Mink\u2014this seems to be what Julie does, rear and train guard dogs for humans\u2014but her responses to the people she meets throughout the story show her as ambivalent at best, and possibly entirely dispassionate. That said, Julie tries to convince the family not to go South, a region she knows is unsafe. She is not successful, however, and they eventually leave.
\nThis is a pretty good read, a slow burn with a good setting, and I liked seeing the way Julie thinks. I would have rated it higher but it peters out somewhat at the end. Hopefully the first of a series.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u00a0(Good). 4,300 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Rover<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by A. T. Sayre (Analog<\/em>, March-April 2020) opens with an AI rover prospecting on Mars: we learn that it hasn\u2019t had any instructions from Earth for some considerable time and that it has been evolving during that period:<\/p>\n

It had changed somewhat since its creation, as it had needed to take parts of other machinery left on Mars to keep going. A new wheel from the Russian probe, an optic lens to replace its own cracked one, a processor from another to subsidize its own when its performance had started to lag. It had taken solar panels from a Chinese machine with more receptive photovoltaic cells and mounted them alongside its original array to improve energy collection. It added another set of arms from an Indian rover, much better at gripping than its original four, connected by an extension of its chassis that it took from an American probe at the edge of the Northern ice cap.
\nAnd as always from the probes, landers, other rovers, it took the processors and data storage units, to keep pace with the increasing sophistication of its system. It grew smarter, more resourceful, capable of more and more complex problem solving and decision making. The rover had learned so much, had grown so much, it was barely recognizable as the simple machine that had touched down on the red planet so long ago.\u00a0 pp. 171-172<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While later traversing a ridge the rover falls over and damages a strut. After the vehicle reboots, it then decides to proceed to a location 90km away, where it hopes to find a replacement part on an abandoned vehicle. During this slow and arduous journey, the rover picks up a signal from what it thinks may be a human-manned ship and diverts course, but when the rover finally arrives at the site it finds a damaged ship and the body of one of the crew. The rover eventually manages to hoist itself up and into the vessel.
\nThe last section of the story (spoiler) has the rover repair itself in the ship\u2019s well-equipped workshop; it then contacts Earth, only to find that all Mars missions have been permanently suspended. Now that it is free to do as it wishes the rover converts itself into a drone, and the final scene sees it launch itself out of the ship to endlessly fly over the surface of Mars.
\nThis is a well enough done piece, but I got the vague feeling that (for me, anyway) there was something missing. Maybe I just prefer stories where there is more focus on the personality of the AI.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 6,100 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022<\/p>\n

Come the Revolution<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Ian Tregillis (F&SF<\/em>, March-April 2020) opens with Mab, a female servitor or robot, coming to consciousness in the Forge. We later learn that this is where the Clockmakers create their alchemical automatons before sending them out to serve in an alternate medieval world where the Netherlands is the dominant power (and winning its war with France).
\nMab is subsequently sent to crank a pump handle\u00a0\u201cin the darkness under the city\u201d, a job she does for 18 years. During this period we learn that the servitors are compelled by the geasa implanted in them to follow human instructions (the geasa are analogous, in part, to Asimov\u2019s Laws of Robotics): if the servitors do not comply with these geasa, however, they experience pain.\u00a0We also discover that Mab is different to other servitors when she tries to speak to Perch (a visiting maintenance servitor) using human language. When Perch replies, but she doesn\u2019t understand the clicks and buzzes the servitors normally use, he relents and speaks to her the same way she spoke to him. He tells her many things about the world she inhabits and then says, before he leaves, that he will return to teach her how to speak the servitors\u2019 language in eighteen months.
\nPerch never returns, and seven years pass before a visitor from the Clockmakers arrives with a writ demanding that she returns to the forge:<\/p>\n

For every moment of the past eighteen years, an ineradicable compulsion has ensured she did nothing but operate a pump. That geas vanishes the instant she sees the embossed seal of the Rosy Cross, but the pain does not. A new geas takes its place. Life, she realizes, is neither miracle nor mystery: it is a series of consecutive agonies joined at airtight seams.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Back at the Forge Mab watches the Clockmakers\u2019 many repair and assembly procedures, and likens the place to a charnel house before realising that she is a chattel, and that her body is not her own.
\nThe rest (and the bulk) of the story takes place at her next place of service, the house of the wealthy van Leers (they have a lucrative franchise to supply the secretive Clockmakers\u2014who are particularly protective of their arts\u2014with the tools they require). Here Mab becomes a milkmaid as she is considered to be a mute by the other servitors (she still cannot speak their clicking language). She still finds out, however, that the mistress of the house is soon to give birth, and later discovers, when a servitor called Jig visits her milking stall, that this is causing the master of the house sleepless nights:<\/p>\n

He points at the pail. \u201cThe master of the house suffers from insomnia. He believes a draught of warm milk will fix that.\u201d The newcomer crouches next to her, clearly waiting for her to finish. His body noise grows louder. Remembering how Perch had gone out of his way not to interfere with her crank-turning geas, she speeds up. He continues, speaking loudly as his body noise builds to a crescendo of tormented clockworks, \u201cI<\/em>\u00a0believe that until the thing growing inside her decides to pop out of our mistress\u2019s belly, pink-faced and hale, nothing short of a hefty dose of laudanum or\u201d\u2014now he sounds ready to shake apart\u2014\u201cthe swift blow of a claw-hammer between the eyes will do the trick.\u201d
\nThe punishment is explosive. Volcanic. She\u2019s never experienced searing heat like this outside the Forge. The overt sedition ignites a firestorm from the rules stamped upon her soul. Wracked by the worst agony she\u2019s ever known, her body jackknifes at the waist, hard enough to head-butt the floor.
\nThe startled cow kicks the pail, sending a spray of milk slopping over the brim. The spillage incites yet more admonishment from her geasa. Desperate to lessen the torment, she blurs forward to right the tipping pail. The cows in the other stalls start lowing, alarmed by the noisy way her visitor writhes in the hay. The pain doesn\u2019t fade until she considers that he may be severely defective and charts the quickest route to alert a human.
\nWhen she can speak again, she says, \u201cAre you insane? Why would you do that to us? It wasn\u2019t very nice.\u201d
\nHe straightens, indicating the manor house with a jerk of his head. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of speculation about just how different you might be.\u201d He plucks a tuft of hay from his skeleton and holds it aloft. \u201cI drew the short straw.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After this Mab meets a friendlier servitor called Maikel, who eventually teaches her how to speak the clicking language.
\nYears pass, and various set-piece scenes deliver information about the house, the servitors and the world Mab lives in (e.g., while Maikel and Mab are pulling a carriage for their mistress they see a papist couple apprehended by two Stemwinders\u2014mechanical centaurs with four arms\u2014and the man killed). Eventually, the mistress\u2019s baby son Piet grows from a spoiled and greedy infant into a spoiled and greedy young man. Then, during a drunken shooting party (spoiler), he decides to use Maikel as a target. When he damages the servitor\u2014part of Maikel\u2019s skull is blown off\u2014he and his friend Roderik make the mistake of going for a closer look at what is inside Maikel\u2019s head:<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t rendered inert: The shot didn\u2019t scour the sigils from his forehead. That would have been a mercy. Instead, he\u2019s lost a great deal of function, including the ability to speak. But the hierarchical metageasa are relentless. More and more clauses are activated as his body attempts to assess the situation: the severe-damage geas, demanding Maikel notify his leaseholder that the terms of his lease require he go immediately to the Forge, either under his own power or shipped at his owners\u2019 expense if his locomotion is too compromised for the journey; the technology-protection metageasa, demanding he recover every piece of his body and return them safely to the Clockmakers lest they fall into enemy hands; the human-safety metageasa, requiring him to assess whether any shrapnel from his body has harmed the bystanders, and render immediate aid if necessary. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Piet and Roderik see more than they should, Maikel is driven by the technological metageasa to strangle them both.
\nLater on, a repaired Maikel returns from the Forge and, after talking to him, Mab determines she needs to return there. She searches for parts of Maikel at the scene of the shooting and, when finds some, returns under the compulsion of the same geas that drove Maikel to kill the two men.
\nWhen Mab arrives at the Forge she is sent to a Clockmaker called Gerhard for experimentation. His final investigation on her involves the use of a lens made from pineal glass, which releases Mab from all her geasa. She grabs Gerhardt and asks him if he knows what the pain of a geas feels like before sticking his head in the furnace used to make the lens.
\nThe story ends with Mab returning to the van Leers\u2019\u00a0house, where she kills Jig before telling the other servitors to tell their masters, \u201cQueen Mab was here\u201d.
\nThis is a well told piece with a neat central idea and an intriguing parallel world background. I particularly liked how Tregillis dribbles out the details of this peculiar alternate world (Huygens inventing alchemical robots and the Dutch taking over the world!) without slowing down the pace of the story or making it otherwise intrusive. The only problem I have is with the ending, which has a couple of problems: first of all, I don\u2019t understand why Mab killed Jig (why would she particularly want to avenge herself on a fellow servitor, even one who had not treated her well?) and, secondly, the story is open-ended (although I assume that the results of Mab\u2019s actions are dealt with in the related trilogy).6<\/sup>
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+ (Good to Very Good). 16,500 words.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

The Cover<\/em><\/strong> is better designed than previous amateur looking efforts from Infinivox, but the names in the panel below the title don\u2019t look quite right\u2014the top line of print is too near the edge of the panel, and the author names would have looked better with a bullet point or something similar between them (rather than what looks like a double space). Manzieri\u2019s artwork isn\u2019t his best\u2014there seems to be a lack of texture or definition in the robot\u2019s upper body and face.
\nThere is no non-fiction to speak of, but there is an\u00a0Index<\/strong><\/em> of all of Allan Kaster\u2019s anthologies at the back of the book.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

In conclusion, this anthology has one outstanding story, Nic and Viv\u2019s Compulsory Courtship<\/em> by Will McIntosh, and one that I would describe as very good, A Guide for Working Breeds<\/em> by Vina die-Min Prasad.
\nThese two are supported by good to very good work by Timons Esaias, Todd McAulty and Ian Tregillis, and good work from Brenda Cooper and A. T. Sayre. All of the aforementioned comprise about half the stories and about sixty percent of the book\u2019s wordage (so not as good a hit rate as Kaster\u2019s other volume for this year).
\nOut of the remaining seven stories there were a couple of near misses (the Kingfisher and Nayler), and none of the remainder struck me as dogs\u2014the Ken Liu story is, however, an unnecessary repeat from Kaster\u2019s other volume.
\nOnce again, this is an anthology that is largely free of political or cultural lectures posing as stories, and impenetrable literary work (to name two of the many current blights of the field).
\nRecommended, but if you have to choose just one volume, I\u2019d pick The Year\u2019s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories<\/em> #5.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

1. The alternate world pivot point in Ray Nayler\u2019s story is the same one that is in his two \u2018Sylvia Aldstatt\u2019 stories (also published in Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>): the recovery of a crashed flying saucer by the USA in 1938, and the subsequent use of the discovered technology.<\/p>\n

2. I subsequently found out that Kingfisher\u2019s story won the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. That way overrates it. I\u2019d also note that another finalist, The Mermaid Astronaut<\/em>\u00a0by Yoon Ha Lee, is also written like a fairy tale.<\/p>\n

3. There is a short article about McAulty\u2019s story here<\/a>, which also mentions how it fits in with his other novels (PS Todd McAulty is the pseudonym of John McNeill, editor of Black Gate<\/em>).<\/p>\n

4. What is it about Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>\u00a0(and adjacent anthology) stories that they have this constant description of food and people eating?<\/p>\n

5 I\u2019m rapidly coming to the conclusion that Wolven is just not my cup of tea (and if he was coffee, he would be a cup that is mostly full of froth and not liquid). Of the stories by this writer that I\u2019ve read so far, there is only one that I liked, Confessions of a Con Girl<\/em>\u00a0(Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, November-December 2017). As for the others, I thought\u00a0Caspar D. Luckinbill, What Are You Going to Do?<\/em>\u00a0(F&SF<\/em>, January-February 2016),\u00a0Passion Summer<\/em>\u00a0(Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, February 2016), and\u00a0No Stone Unturned<\/em>\u00a0(Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, January-February 2021) were mediocre; and\u00a0Galatea in Utopia<\/em>\u00a0(F&SF<\/em>, January-February 2018) and\u00a0Carbo<\/em>\u00a0(F&SF<\/em>, November-December 2017) were awful.<\/p>\n

6. Ian Tregillis\u2019s related trilogy comprises of The Mechanical<\/em>\u00a0(2015),\u00a0The Rising<\/em>\u00a0(2015), and\u00a0The Liberation<\/em> (2016). Much as I liked this novelette I am not sure I am interested in another 1,300 pages worth.\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: A recommended Best of the Year anthology which has one outstanding story, Nic and Viv\u2019s Compulsory Courtship by Will McIntosh, and one that I would describe as very good, A Guide for Working Breeds by Vina die-Min Prasad. These two are supported by good to very good work by Timons Esaias, Todd McAulty and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-the-year-anthologies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-3Ew","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14044"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14083,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14044\/revisions\/14083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}