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<\/a><\/p>\nSummary: These are the six short story finalists for the 36th<\/sup> Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em> Magazine Readers\u2019 Awards (for stories published in 2021). They are a mixed bag, and not as good a selection as last year. That said, three of them are worth a look, especially T. J. Berry\u2019s My Heart is at Capacity<\/em>. _____________________<\/p>\n Editor, Sheila Williams<\/p>\n Bread and Circuits<\/strong><\/em> \u2022 short story by Misha Lenau \u2217<\/strong> _____________________<\/p>\n Every year Asimov’s SF<\/em> magazine runs a poll so readers can vote for their favourite stories, covers, etc. from the previous year. The magazine also makes (most of) the material freely available online1<\/sup> for a short period so, even if (unlike me) you aren’t a subscriber, you can have a look at the kind of work they run. Bread and Circuits<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Misha Lenau (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, November-December 2021) begins with a sentient toaster (also described as a \u201ctoaster oven slash bread machine\u201d) turning up on the doorstep of the Nadia, who runs an orphanage for abandoned, self-aware appliances (which she calls \u201cquirks\u201d). \u2022<\/p>\n Flowers Like Needles<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Derek K\u00fcnsken (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, March-April 2021) introduces us to Bek, a needle-like alien that lives in a strange and exotic environment:<\/p>\n Bek scuttled over the needle field on the Waste of Mosses, far from Roktown and the monastery in Horn Valley. Turbulent winds scattered the neat rows of falling iron carbonyl snows. The steely needles here grew jagged, making the magnetic fields on the waste feel unsettled, haunted. Deep beneath the waste, the iron carbonyl ocean surged, pushing erratic breezes between the spines, whistling ghostly, wordless songs. Only two swarmers, Dux and Jed, accompanied him, humming a tune about Bek\u2019s brave travels. In some ways, they looked like him. Fine iron and nickel needles burst radially from the centers of their bodies to absorb microwaves from the pulsar and catch falling gray snowflakes. Strong magnetic fields moved eight legs of sliding metal rods. Small pincers capped each of their limbs, tough enough to hold tight to the upthrusting fields of spines, delicate enough to read histories recorded in the crimpings in archival needles or to preen Bek\u2019s needles.\u00a0 p. 138<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Bek is on a quest to find Master Mok, the former head of his order, and he eventually arrives at Mount Ceg. There he finds another of his kind, Lod, guarding a mountain tunnel which leads to Master Mok. Lod tells Bek he will have to get past him to see Master Mok, and indicates the bodies of other fallen warriors around him. \u2022<\/p>\n Muallim\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>by Ray Nayler (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, November-December 2021) begins with Irada, the blacksmith of an Azerbaijani village, repairing Muallim, the robot schoolteacher:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to have to remove your whole chest plate, Muallim. It will take some work to repair. In the meantime, I can trade it out for your spare chest plate. I still have it here in the shop. But I haven\u2019t had time to fix it. That one is more battered than this one is.\u201d This opening passage contains a number of hints about various happenings that occur in the story that follows, which alternates between the point of view of Irada the blacksmith, Muallim the robot, and Maarja, an NGO worker who is writing a report on the educational efficacy of the robot in this remote location. In the ensuing narrative we learn that Muallim is being used inappropriately (the wood chopping referenced above, which is causing undue wear and tear); that Muallim is stoned by the village children when it goes to cajole them to go to school; and that the village is generally quite a dysfunctional place where the robot (when it isn\u2019t being attacked by an aggressive rooster) is seemingly making little progress. We also see various aspects of village life, mostly centred on Irada and her widowed and one-armed Mayor father. \u2022<\/p>\n Alien Ball<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, July-August 2021) opens with the narrator watching three-armed alien Ashtenga play basketball. After this we find out that the narrator has been brought in to report on whether the Ashtenga should be admitted into the professional leagues on Earth (there are conflicting views on the matter). I\u2019m older now, and I\u2019ve come to realize that some of the things I love are not things that others love. I know\u2014I have always known\u2014that none of us are exactly alike, that our tastes vary, that our opinions differ. There is a caricature in that passage for sure, but it isn\u2019t the one suggested. Transgender players were able to play professionally once the professional players were no longer segregated by gender. It didn\u2019t matter how much (or little) testosterone a player had; all that mattered was that the player was exceptional.\u00a0 p. 42<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Mmm, goodbye women\u2019s sports then. I\u2019m not sure that these matters are going to be resolved in such a straightforward manner\u2014see the recent troubles in American swimming and British cycling. Am I really moved by the Ashtenga\u2019s performance? Or am I trying to understand a change that is beyond me, one that is as inevitable as African-Americans joining the National Basketball Association in 1950, something that most open-minded people had seen as necessary in 1939, but others managed to ignore for more than a decade after?\u00a0 p. 45<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the end, it doesn\u2019t matter what I think. Just like it didn\u2019t matter what James Naismith thought about teaching \u201chis\u201d game to women and people of color. I particularly dislike sports stories, and \u201cmessage\u201d stories even more, so this piece was a double fail for me. I\u2019d also add that what makes most message stories so irritating is that (like this one) the complexities of the issues raised are never addressed (and in this case we have the bonus of people who have concerns about trans inclusion in women\u2019s sport being likened to racists). \u2022<\/p>\n My Heart is at Capacity<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by T. J. Berry (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, May-June 2021) is narrated by Paul, the android partner of a young woman called Rebecca:<\/p>\n My heart is at capacity. I\u2019m scheduled for an upgrade tomorrow. I don\u2019t have the power to love Rebecca any more than I already do, and it is not enough for her. Of course (spoiler) that latter conclusion (his being more useful will make her love him more) is obviously erroneous, and this becomes apparent during the rest of the story, where their interactions become increasingly suboptimal:<\/p>\n Rebecca kisses me on her way out in the morning, tight-lipped and perfunctory. Not the warm, open-mouthed kisses of our middle days together. I don\u2019t push for more. Nor do I mention the lunch that\u2019s in her satchel. In my experience, explicitly telling a partner what you\u2019ve done for them elicits a negative reaction. Better to work silently and unnoticed than to demand praise that will only be offered resentfully.\u00a0 p. 133<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Paul\u2019s solitary reflections, and his analysis of their interactions\u2014which are acutely observed alternating with entertainingly wonky\u2014occur during the same period he meets and interacts with Ashira, a more basic android partner (\u201cDo you want some feedback?\u201d he asks her after a limp handshake). Through these exchanges we learn more about the androids\u2019 history and their use as human partners. \u2022<\/p>\n Sentient Being Blues<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0by Christopher Mark Rose (Asimov\u2019s SF<\/em>, March-April 2021) opens with \u201cAsimov was a Bigot\u201d graffiti, as seen by an A&R man called Thom on his way to see a blues-playing mining robot in deepest Siberia. We learn that the robot, XJB, was involved in an underground mining incident:<\/p>\n There are robots that sing and play instruments. There are robots that dance, paint, sculpt. They do it because they were programmed to. What made XJB special, maybe even unique, is that it made its art spontaneously, as a consolation for dying men. It\u2019d never been taught; it taught itself, out of desperation, to give the last moments of those men\u2019s lives some scrap of kindness. It knew that it couldn\u2019t dig an escape before their time ran out. \u00a0p. 152<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One wonders why, if robots can do all those things, there is still a requirement for human miners. If there were a residue of human decency left, wraithlike, drifting in the oily substance of the U.S. legal system, it never caressed the aghast faces of the robots drowned in it. Apart from wraiths drifting in oil, and the personal comments (\u201cscrofulous\u201d), what we have here is more story illogic. If XJB has killed a human then how are human lives more important than those of robots? The three laws obviously don\u2019t apply here or, perhaps, as anyone who has any familiarity with Asimov\u2019s Laws of Robotics might suspect, they have metamorphosed to the point where robots now consider themselves \u201chuman\u201d. (The goalposts were always moving in Asimov\u2019s robot stories\u2014didn\u2019t\u00a0The Bicentennial Man<\/em>\u00a0become human?) \u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n A mixed bag of finalists2<\/sup>\u2014I\u2019m not that impressed with the standard of short stories in Asimov\u2019s<\/em> generally, and I think I\u2019m rapidly coming to the same conclusion about their readers\u2019 choices. That said, three of them are worth a look (the Nayler, K\u00fcnsken, and especially T. J. Berry\u2019s My Heart is at Capacity<\/em>, which I suspect will show up in the Year\u2019s Bests).\u00a0 \u25cf<\/p>\n _____________________<\/p>\n 1. K\u00fcnsken\u2019s Flowers Like Needles<\/em> reminded of the old TV show Kung Fu<\/em> to the point that I ordered the DVD boxset.<\/p>\n 2. We did these stories as part of a Group Read in one of my Facebook groups. Here are the results of the poll we did at the end of the short stories:<\/p>\n And at the end of the reading all three lengths (\u201cNovelette\u201d is a typo):<\/p>\n \u25cf<\/p>\n Summary: These are the six short story finalists for the 36th Asimov\u2019s SF Magazine Readers\u2019 Awards (for stories published in 2021). They are a mixed bag, and not as good a selection as last year. That said, three of them are worth a look, especially T. J. Berry\u2019s My Heart is at Capacity. 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\n[Story links<\/a>]<\/p>\n
\nFlowers like Needles<\/strong><\/em> \u2022 short story by Derek K\u00fcnsken \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nMuallim<\/strong> <\/em>\u2022 short story by Ray Nayler \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>
\nAlien Ball<\/strong> <\/em>\u2022 short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch –
\nMy Heart Is at Capacity<\/strong> <\/em>\u2022 short story by T. J. Berry \u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+
\nSentient Being Blues<\/strong><\/em> \u2022 short story by Christopher Mark Rose \u2217<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHere are my reviews of the short story finalists:<\/p>\n
\nAfter trying to communicate with the toaster, Nadia eventually takes it to the basement where she keeps the other quirks. There are then a few more scrambled conversations before the toaster asks Nadia to reset it (essentially commit suicide, as its self-awareness will vanish if it goes back to the default software).
\nIt later becomes clear, after Nadia makes further efforts to talk with the toaster, that it has lost its friends. We then learn that, because of a debilitating illness that restricts her movements, so has Nadia: she resolves to make friends with the quirks.
\nThere isn\u2019t much to this really, but I suspect it will appeal to those who are fond of stories about sad and\/or lonely narrators which have a sentimental ending.
\n\u2217<\/strong> (Mediocre). 5,800 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nThe pair fight, and Bek wins but yields to Lod (which then releases Lod from an oath put on him by a monster which lives under the mountain and which also guards Mok). After some back and forth (mostly Bek\u2019s zen-like teachings about accepting help) they both go to seek Master Mok.
\nThe two then meet the monster TokTok in a mountain tunnel that leads to Master Mok, and learn that he is actually a huge warrior who crossed the ocean to avenge Cis the Master of Tides. After some backstory about how TokTok came instead to become Master Mok\u2019s guard, he agrees to accompany them to find Master Mok.
\nThe threesome (spoiler) eventually find Master Mok, who tells them he will not teach them anything unless they defeat him in battle. The three reflect on what they have learned on their journey and (I think) conclude that they need to find their own path and not follow someone else\u2019s.
\nThe alien description is well done, as is the Eastern spiritual journey-like material,1<\/sup>\u00a0but the story\u2019s payoff isn\u2019t as obvious or profound as it should be. Still, apart from a weak, somewhat anti-climactic ending, this is quite good.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 6,100 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHow long will it take to fix these dents. An hour?\u201d Muallim asked.
\n\u201cNo. More like an afternoon. I can\u2019t do it now. Can you come back after school? You can wait in the house. You can help my father with his Ketshmits grammar. You know how he loves that.\u201d
\n\u201cI am scheduled to chop wood for Mrs. Hasanova.\u201d
\n\u201cTell her you will chop wood tomorrow.\u201d
\nShe watched Muallim consider this. They must have programmed this gesture into the robot, the way it tilted its watering can of a head to the side and slightly down, just like a human.
\n\u201cYes,\u201d Muallim said, \u201cI think that will work. I will stop by Mrs. Hasanova\u2019s and tell her I will come tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0 p. 36<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nWhen Maarja finally finishes her report it becomes clear that Muallim is going to be taken from the village but, before this happens, she gets an urgent message from one of the children that something has happened to robot. She goes to a local ravine and sees it smashed to pieces two hundred meters below, presumably an act of vandalism.
\nAfter Maarja leaves (spoiler) it becomes apparent that the locals have faked Muallim\u2019s destruction using the removed chest-plate (see the passage above) and various scrap metal so they can keep the robot in the village.
\nThis has some nice local colour, but it\u2019s essentially a well done \u201cyokels put one over on the city folks\u201d piece.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong> (Good). 4,950 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nThe rest of the story is a rambling and starry-eyed description of people and aliens playing the game, its history, and all of this is intermingled with a lot of what can only be called simplistic and patronising messaging about inclusion. This latter begins with the narrator doubting his own views:<\/p>\n
\nI also realize that some of those opinions become mired in the past. I worry about my own rigid tendencies, something I wouldn\u2019t even have acknowledged twenty years ago.
\nI know those tendencies make my passage through this world difficult, as difficult as my aging face, and that moment a younger person looks at me, already judging me for things I haven\u2019t said (and might never say) before I even open my mouth.
\nI don\u2019t want to be a caricature of myself.
\nAn older man opposing changes to his beloved Earth-based basketball\u2014that might be a clich\u00e9. I might be the caricature that I was afraid of becoming. p. 39<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nWhat the story is specifically about is eventually made explicit (although this is telegraphed pages earlier):<\/p>\n
\nFinally, after more interminable detail about the game, and a match where the Ashtenga trounce a human team, the story finally equates the idea of transgender inclusion with the desegregation of basketball in the middle of last century:<\/p>\n
\nNaismith\u2019s book,\u00a0Basketball: Its Origins And Development<\/em>, makes no mention of the World Championship played in Chicago a few months before Naismith turned in the manuscript.
\nHe didn\u2019t want to see \u201chis\u201d game transformed. He didn\u2019t like the additions and changes. He had designed the game for young white men, and for young white men it remained \u201cpure\u201d for generations.
\nI am not Naismith. I did not invent the game. I did not change any of its rules. I have just loved it forever.\u00a0 p. 46<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nI wonder why it is that some writers think their ability to string a sentence together means they are possessed of a some particular wisdom.
\nIn conclusion I\u2019d also add that, even putting the facile message of this story to one side (although that is probably the only reason it got published), this is a flabby, meandering, and tedious read.
\n\u2013 (Awful). 6,450 words.<\/p>\n
\nI spend the day before my appointment creating economic projections for a developing nation\u2019s STEM investment. Picking up an extra side gig means my upgrade won\u2019t impact our household budget. I don\u2019t want Rebecca to feel that the opening of my heart comes at her expense.
\nMy numbers reveal that this young country will recoup their STEM investment within a generation. There\u2019s a statistical certainty it will bring up their GDP by 5-7 percent in a year or two. My numbers also say that my upgrade will allow me to devote 9 percent more processing power to Rebecca\u2019s needs. We don\u2019t have a GDP-like measurement in our relationship, but my nested flowchart says that if I identify and satisfy a greater percentage of her needs, she will recognize my usefulness and love me more.\u00a0 p. 131<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nEventually, Paul goes to get his upgrade (secretly paid by himself from the odd jobs he does when Rebecca is working or asleep) and, when it is complete, he instantly realises that Rebecca has a new, human partner. After they split up (or, more accurately, Rebecca dumps him) Paul moves on to a new relationship with a male bartender. He still thinks about Rebecca, but is reluctant to delete his memories of her because of the \u201cvaluable data mixed in\u201d with them.
\nThis is a smartly observed story that provides an intriguing and witty view of human relationships.
\n\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>\u2217<\/strong>+ (Good to Very Good). 6,300 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nMoving swiftly onwards, XJB breaks out of the manager\u2019s office after talking to Thom (who has told it that a bootleg of its songs has gone viral). Soon XJB is on tour performing to mixed human and robot audiences. However, when a pair of active shooters start killing robots in the audience, XJB intervenes and kills one of them.
\nThe next part of the story is about XJB\u2019s trial and how, even though robots are sentient, they don\u2019t have the same rights as humans (more story illogic\u2014if they are only machines, why is XJB being tried in court?). Then, after XJB is sentenced to deactivation, Thom visits and we get some melodramatic and contrived bonding between the two (Thom\u2019s daughter died when he refused to have her transferred to a cyborg, \u201cWhat you do in life can be undone, but what you sing can never be unsung\u201d).
\nThe final section (spoiler) sees Thom and his boss Freddie ambush the police convoy taking XJB to be deactivated. However, just as it seems that they are on the cusp of freeing XJB, they are intercepted by police drones which cut its head off. All ends well when we find that XJB\u2019s brain isn\u2019t in its head but its hind quarters. XJB\u2019s consciousness is later hidden in a railroad engine. The music company continue to receive and promote its new music.
\nThis story is something of a kitchen-sink piece (blues-playing robot, a future where sentient robots don\u2019t have the same rights as humans, the court case, the future-tech prison break, etc.), and the internal logic of the story is non-existent in places (see above and below). I also didn\u2019t care much for the affected, musically-referenced writing style. Or the derogatory cracks made at Isaac Asimov\u2019s expense:<\/p>\n
\nXJB was a dead bot walking. It had killed a human, in a concert hall filled with witnesses, recorded by thousands of its own assaulted fans.
\nThe law had grown new limbs to reach bots, but grown them only from the diseased stumps of Asimov\u2019s original, arbitrary, uncaring three rules. More evil had been done in this century with his \u201claws of robotics\u201d that that scrofulous sci-fi writer could have ever imagined. They are explicit that robots\u2014if confronted with such a choice\u2014must sacrifice themselves, to save humans. As if human lives were somehow more important.\u00a0 p. 156<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nA complete muddle of a story, in multiple ways.
\n\u2217<\/strong> (Mediocre). 6,950 words. Story link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"