{"id":2694,"date":"2017-03-31T14:52:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T14:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2017-04-11T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T21:42:21","slug":"the-magazine-of-fantasy-science-fiction-729-january-february-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #729, January-February 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Galactic Central link
\nISFDB link<\/a><\/p>\n

Other reviews:
\nKevin P. Hallett, Tangent Online<\/a>
\nGreg Hullender\u00a0and Eric Wong,\u00a0Rocket Stack Rank<\/a>
\nJohn\u00a0Loyd,\u00a0There Ain\u2019t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch<\/a>
\nSam Tomaino, SF Revu<\/a>
\nVarious, Goodreads<\/a><\/p>\n

Fiction:
\nVinegar and Cinnamon<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman \u2665\u2665
\nThe Regression Test<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Wole Talabi \u2665\u2665
\nA Gathering on Gravity\u2019s Shore<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Gregor Hartmann \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nHomecoming<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novella by Rachel Pollack \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nOne Way<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Rick Norwood \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nOn the Problem of Replacement Children: Prevention, Coping, and Other Practical Strategies<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Debbie Urbanski \u2665\u2665\u2665+
\nDunnage for the Soul<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Robert Reed \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nAlexandria<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Monica Byrne \u2665\u2665\u2665
\nWetherfell\u2019s Reef Runics<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 short story by Marc Laidlaw \u2665\u2665
\nThere Used to Be Olive Trees<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 novelette by Rich Larson \u2665\u2665\u2665<\/p>\n

Non-fiction:
\nVinegar and Cinnamon<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 cover by Charles Vess
\nCartoons<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by Bill Long, Arthur Masear
\nBooks to Look For <\/em><\/strong>\u2022 by Charles de Lint
\nBooks<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 by James Sallis
\nBrainless Robots Stroll the Beach<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 science essay by Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty
\nStranger (Yet Oddly Familiar) Things<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 TV review by Tim Pratt
\nKingship<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 poem by Mary Soon Lee
\nComing Attractions<\/em><\/strong>
\nCuriosities: A Voyage to Purilia, by Elmer Rice (1930)<\/em><\/strong> \u2022 essay by David Langford<\/p>\n

Editor<\/em><\/strong>, C. C. Finlay<\/p>\n

Vinegar and Cinnamon<\/em><\/strong> by Nina Kiriki Hoffman gets off to a good start:<\/p>\n

The summer my little sister Maura was twelve and I was fourteen, she got fed up with me sniping at her for getting all the attention because she was a wizard and I wasn\u2019t. She added Master of Transformation to her list of skills. It was market day, so Ma and Pa took the flatbed truck loaded with our farm\u2019s wizard supplies into town. I finished my regular morning chores in the wereweed field and the dragon-brain barn and decided to head for an irrigation ditch. It had filled with the roots of an especially pernicious stingweed that had spread into a field of spellstarter. If I trimmed the roots in the ditch, it might kill the whole stingweed plant, and if it didn\u2019t, I\u2019d at least have cleared the ditch so water could get to the curse mustard downstream.<\/em> p. 7<\/p>\n

Maura is stung by a plant they are trying to clear from a ditch and in her rage turns the brother into a rat. The rest of the story is an interesting account of his new life as a rodent. The ending is rather too straightforward, and it reads like the first part of a longer work or series.
\nThe Regression Test<\/em><\/strong> by Wole Talabi has an old woman doing a regression test on an AI to ensure it is still a reasonable copy of her mother. This is fine as far as it goes but the ending, which involves family shennanigans (the AI has authorised a grandson\u2019s project), is\u00a0a little unconvincing.
\nA Gathering on Gravity\u2019s Shore<\/em><\/strong> by Gregor Hartmann is the third of a series of stories1<\/sup> about a man called Franden, and this one\u00a0is a future slice of life that has him go to an Upheld (elite) soir\u00e9e on Zephyr. He is initially snubbed by the partygoers:<\/p>\n

Eager to join the fun, Franden positioned himself on a path where a Fragrant Gate affinity would pass. Duvant was Fragrant Gate; maybe others in that domain would accept him. He selected a woman about his age who looked approachable and made eye contact. She checked him out visually, then pinged him with her oMo. When she looked at the screen, her face hardened. She must have signaled the others; despite his eye-catching uniform, the group promenaded past Franden as if he were a post holding a street sign.<\/em>
\nHe tried affinities in other domains. Deep Circle, Bright Rock\u2014same result. Anyone who pinged him saw the profile in his oMo and placed him in a flash. An ordinary citizen? A nobody, to the lords of Zephyr.
\nRattled, he sat on a bench near a tangle of twitching blue vines that dripped aromatic mucus.
\nHe was irritated with himself for being vulnerable to snubs. After all, he was still the same person he\u2019d been before he was invited to the party, right? But that and other rationalizations failed to cheer him up. He felt like crawling away with his tail between his legs. He couldn\u2019t bail, though. He had a mission to complete. p. 39-40<\/em><\/p>\n

Later on he meets an intriguing woman who he can\u2019t identify (the cloud has subsequently been blocked by the party organisers due to a possible security problem) and their social and political banter form the rest of the narrative, with the woman turning out to be more significant than she appears.
\nThere is no particular plot here, and it is obviously a part of a series, but the author does quite a good job ameliorating this in a number of ways: first, and most importantly, it is an engaging and vivid read and, as above, entertainingly reflects aspects of today\u2019s society through a distorting lens; second, the backstory is skilfully inserted into the narrative making it a stand-alone piece; third, it ends in a way that closes a minor narrative arc. I\u2019ll be digging out the first two stories.1<\/sup>
\nHomecoming<\/em><\/strong> by Rachel Pollack is another series story and the fourth story in her \u2018Jack Shade\u2019 series\u2014Shade is a private investigator, occultist and shaman. In this tale he is approached by a woman called Carol Acker who feels that she is missing something but she can\u2019t explain what. Shade subsequently decides to perform a soul retrival. . .
\nThis process involves Shade appearing in three dream-scenes: the first is at a gay leather bar, the second at a chamber dance, and the third at a Jewish prayer meeting. In each he tries to fight his way through to a woman who is being held captive: the guards tell him in each instance that he doesn\u2019t know what he is doing and that he should desist. He eventually succeeds in freeing her at the prayer meeting after an exchange with the \u2018White Master.\u2019
\nWhen Acker is reunited with what Shade believes is the missing part of her soul, she immobilises Jack and then leaves. There follows the brutal murder of the Acker\u2019s cousin and his wife in which their bodies are ripped apart. Shades\u2019 sometime girlfriend Carolien explains to him that he has released a primal being that has previously been responsible for a massacre in Holland in 1132. He then attempts to enlist the aid of various people and organisations to help him recapture what he has a freed.
\nThe story of his attempts to do this are quite straightforward, as is the conclusion, but the reality that Jack inhabits is endlessly and inventively expanded as we go along. It all makes for a very detailed and entertaining description of a spirit world that encapsulates but goes far beyond our own. This section is from when he opens a flask he has obtained from a friend at Suleiman International, a supplier of djinns:<\/p>\n

He unscrewed the top.<\/em>
\nJack had expected to see great swirls of smoke pour out, but instead he felt a twisting inside him, as if he himself were the one changed. His eyes stung, and he blinked, and when he opened them again, an Egyptian-looking businessman in a pinstripe suit and shiny black shoes, with slicked back hair and manicured hands, stood calmly before him. Slightly taller than Jack, the Djinni raised an eyebrow. \u201cNice place you have here. Do you know that Dr. Canton brings acolytes here for what he likes to pretend is sex magic?\u201d
\nJack just stared at him.
\n\u201cWhat?\u201d the Djinni said, \u201cDid you expect a twenty-foot-tall fellow in a loin cloth with a booming laugh?\u201d
\nJack said, \u201cNah, that\u2019s a great movie, but I\u2019m no little Indian kid.\u201d They looked at each other a moment, then Jack said, \u201cSo what happens now? You say you\u2019re going to turn me inside out and set me on fire, and then I say I don\u2019t believe you could ever fit inside that tiny flask\u2014\u201d
\n\u201cNo, no, we\u2019ll just skip to the wishes. I might add, though, that we were never actually that stupid. The routine used to be part of the standard contract\u2014let the clients think they\u2019ve gotten the better of us\u2014but in recent years, I\u2019m happy to say, Suleiman International has modernized.\u201d
\n\u201cGlad to hear it,\u201d Jack said. \u201cDo you have a name?\u201d
\n\u201cOf course I do. Do you wish to know it?\u201d
\nJack laughed. \u201cNo thanks. I may not have done this before, but I know the rules. You\u2019ll know when I use up any of my wishes. Three of them, right?\u201d
\nThe Djinni pressed his palms together before his heart and bowed his head. \u201cCertainly, effendi.\u201d
\n\u201cHow about I call you Archie?\u201d
\nThe Djinni smiled. \u201cAn honorable name.\u201d p. 105-106<\/em><\/p>\n

If the Rachael Pollack story above is the kind of story that could appear in Unknown<\/em> if it was still being published, then One Way<\/em><\/strong> by Rick Norwood could equally appear in Astounding<\/em> if . . . oh, wait. This is a hard SF story that tells of a professor who comes up with a theory for a force field that only lets matter pass through in one direction, and the young man who helps him turn it into reality. Just as the pair are on the cusp of worldwide fame (spoiler) Gold tinkers with their device and creates a sphere that starts falling through the Earth. . .
\nOn the Problem of Replacement Children: Prevention, Coping, and Other Practical Strategies<\/em><\/strong> by Debbie Urbanski has an introduction that states that the author wrote this story\u00a0after her child was diagnosed with autism. It looks at that event through the distorting prism of a world where normal children sometimes disappear and have their places taken by \u2018replacement\u2019 children.<\/p>\n

The following morning, after the hair of the boy who slept in their son\u2019s bed had turned completely silver and he began to speak an unrecognizable language, Clark admitted that Amber was right, this was no longer their child, and he asked to know more about what happened the previous night.
\nIt had been Amber\u2019s turn to watch over their son, and she had been watching over him, closely, until she remembered a bowl of cold cherries in the fridge. A sudden irrational longing for these cherries overtook her. It felt like something external had placed that longing in her and there was nothing she could do about it, other than to rush downstairs and grab a handful. She was gone for no more than two minutes. When she returned, she saw the candle had been blown out.
\n<\/em>\u201cLet me guess, you didn\u2019t relight the candle right away?\u201d Clark couldn\u2019t help asking this in an accusatory tone, for every parent these days knows a child should not be left alone during a full moon, but if a child has to be left alone, at the very least the candle in the child\u2019s bedroom must not go out. Clark was correct: Amber had not re-lit the candle right away. Instead she ate the cherries, threw the pits into the garbage bin in the corner, and then she walked over to their child\u2019s bed to check on him. That was when she knew.<\/em> p. 148<\/p>\n

The rest of the piece takes the form of a Q and A leaflet for parents affected by this phenomenon. I could happily quote about a dozen of these sections but will limit myself to these two:<\/p>\n

What is the role of the extended family, such as grandparents, in all this ?
\n<\/em>The initial impulse of many grandparents may be to deny that anything has happened to their grandchild. In Case Study 292589, when Grandmother L. first saw her grandchild\u2019s replacement during an autumn visit, she said, \u201cNonsense. This is still the same boy I know and love.\u201d The child was running his fingers repeatedly over the suede fabric of the family\u2019s couch.<\/em>
\n\u201cHe refuses to take a bath,\u201d the mother pointed out. \u201cHe hates the water. Remember how Brian used to love floating in the water? And his hair is silver, Mom.\u201d
\n\u201cChildren change, dear,\u201d the grandmother said. \u201cGod knows you changed so many times, and every time you changed, I certainly did not go around suggesting that a boogeyman had snatched you up.\u201d
\n\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a boogeyman. It was something else. I don\u2019t know what it was. Something came into his room in the middle of the night. There was water around the windowsill. The window was open.\u201d
\n\u201cRain,\u201d the grandmother replied calmly. \u201cRain causes water to pool around a window.\u201d She reached to hug the replacement, who ran, screaming, out of the room.
\n\u201cWell, if that\u2019s how you want to raise him,\u201d said the grandmother.
\nGrandfather L. would not come into the house. \u201cIt\u2019s not contagious,\u201d the mother told him. \u201cWhatever is it, you can\u2019t catch it.\u201d
\nThe grandfather still would not come into the house.<\/em> p. 153-154<\/p>\n

Case Study 400021
\nFreddy W., having always been the easygoing parent oblivious to bedtimes and vegetable-intake requirements, did not become obsessed, as many parents do, about where his actual child had gone. Instead, he took it upon himself to find a shared activity that he and the replacement child could enjoy together (this is a very good idea if a parent hopes to find their happiness again). It turned out that this replacement liked being tossed into the air in their backyard, as high as Freddy could throw him, so that his silvery hair flew around his head like wings. Although the replacement\u2019s expression did not change, Freddy imagined he enjoyed it, as it was the only time the boy allowed anyone to touch him. \u201cI miss our son, sure,\u201d Freddy insisted to his wife, Dorothy, \u201cbut I\u2019m trying to move past all that.\u201d While Freddy was tossing the replacement into the air, Dorothy attended many support groups where she wrote down in a notebook any therapy that claimed to bring the original child back, assuming the original still existed.<\/em> p. 155-156<\/p>\n

This is a very affecting and perceptive piece of writing and, given that it is more a piece of the writer\u2019s soul than a story, I should probably leave it there. But (a) I think it could probably have benefited from having its slightly disorganized aspects more coherently arranged (e.g., the references to grandparents appear in a couple of different places) and (b) have been a little shorter. That said, it is an impressive piece and I will be surprised if we don\u2019t see it again in the \u2018Best Fantasy of the Year\u2019 anthologies.
\nDunnage for the Soul<\/em><\/strong> by Robert Reed is a story about a man who is tested by a researcher and finds that he has no soul or \u2018PES\u2019\u2014permanent electronic signature. Subsequently it is discovered that 6% of humanity don\u2019t have a PES. They are referred to as \u2018dunnage,\u2019 a term that currently refers to the loose disposable material used to keep a ship\u2019s cargo in place.
\nThe narrator\u2019s life takes a downward turn when after the discovery is made public and his company find out and lay him off, but he later gets a job in a kennel where PES less dogs are euthanised. The veterinarian that works there later shows him a drug that can destroy a person\u2019s PES, and the man then starts using it on people he knows. At the end (spoiler) he confronts the researcher who originally tested him\u2014and who has three PESs or souls\u2014but spares her, something I didn\u2019t really understand.
\nI\u2019m not sure this entirely works as a story but it has a dark intensity that is quite absorbing.
\nAlexandria<\/em><\/strong> by Monica Byrne is about a widow who builds a lighthouse hundreds of miles from the sea. The story of her relationship with her dead husband is interweaved with the story of its\u00a0construction, and also various\u00a0commentaries\u00a0written about it in the future. This latter aspect not only makes it SF but gives the story a fitting final image.
\nWetherfell\u2019s Reef Runics<\/em><\/strong> by Marc Laidlawb is set in Hawaii and concerns the death by drowning of a man who believes that there are inscribed slabs on the nearby seabed:<\/p>\n

This guy is a flake. Not that he didn\u2019t sometimes grab a live wire. That\u2019s what happens when you actively peel away reality\u2019s insulation. He believes (believed? is he still alive?) [. . .] in an interconnected network of pictorial [nodes] for the global mind, [. . .] basically the intersection points of ley lines, sacred hotspots that had to be activated by meditating in their presence. Claimed (on dubious evidence) that certain ancients\u00a0<\/em>predicted climate catastrophe, rising sea levels, everything we\u2019re seeing today, but unlike say Nostradamus they did something about it. The runes were somehow key to humanity\u2019s survival. Unfortunately, for him, the runes tended over the ages to have wound up in dangerous or inaccessible places. He was booted out of Tibet for trying to climb onto the roof of the Potala. Nearly died in Burma\/Myanmar\u2014first of snakebite, then at the hands of the police. Exposure and dehydration almost took him in New Mexico. I can\u2019t imagine the quality of meditation in any of those conditions could have been very good. p. 221<\/em><\/p>\n

This is told from the point of view of a bookseller (Castaway Books) who lives on the island and who ends up being involved with the drowned man by virtue of\u00a0a book that comes into his possession. This is told in with a light touch and has some good local colour as well as a spookily amusing ending. Unfortunately, none of this disguises a thin plot.
\nIt feels like the start of a series (not least because editor C. C. Finlay says \u2018After reading this story, we immediately hoped to visit Castaway again\u2019) so we\u2019ll see what future stories are like.
\nThere Used to Be Olive Trees<\/em><\/strong> by Rich Larson is about an apprentice prophet called Valentin who leaves a walled town of the future for the dangerous wastelands outside when he fails for the third time to communicate with the machine God in the town\u2019s autofab. He tells no-one of his departure and scales the wall aided by his nanoshadow, a wearable device which augments his strength and provides protection. Notwithstanding this, when he wakes for the first time on the other side of the wall he finds that a wilding has incarcerated his nanoshadow in a canvas bag. Pepe, the wilding, tells Valentin he will get it back if he comes to his village and communicates with the God in their auto fab so they\u00a0can get the supplies they so desperately need.
\nThe rest of the story sketches an intriguing and well-realised post-apocalypse scenario where machine \u2018Gods\u2019 rule the planet, as well as the developing relationship between Valentin and Pepe. The final scene advances this scenario with a major development but leaves the story quite open-ended. Yet another series starter.<\/p>\n

As to the non-fiction, I wasn\u2019t that keen on Vinegar and Cinnamon<\/em><\/strong>, the cover by Charles Vess. I didn\u2019t dislike it but thought it an odd choice for the magazine. It is also the second cover in a row that is a watercolour that features cats\u2014one too many, I think, and I say that as a cat person.
\nBooks to Look For <\/em><\/strong>by Charles de Lint has its first three reviews covering series novels (again with the mid-series novel reviews): a \u2018Sandman Slim\u2019 volume from Richard Kadrey, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One & Two<\/em> by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany and J. K. Rowling, and a \u2018Henwick\u2019s Bite Back\u2019 novel by Mark Henwick. There then follows a review of Uncollected Anthology Issue 9: Fortune<\/em>, which is apparently a novel form of anthology:<\/p>\n

Rather than having the stories collected all under one cover as has been traditional with anthologies, they\u2019ve each been simultaneously published as separate ebooks that share a collective theme.<\/em> p. 57-58<\/p>\n

Ah, not<\/u> an anthology then. de Lint concludes:<\/p>\n

All in all, it\u2019s a strong anthology, but I\u2019ll admit to having a few reservations about the delivery system. Having to order each story individually is a bit of a pain\u2014not insurmountable, but you have to work at it a little. <\/em>
\nAnother issue is the $2.99 per story price tag. It doesn\u2019t seem like much, but if you add it up, it comes to $17.94 for 206 pages of story, which isn\u2019t really a bargain.<\/em>
\nTo be honest, if I was coming to this cold, I would probably have just bought the Rusch story because I know I\u2019ll get my money\u2019s worth and passed on the\u2014to me\u2014unknowns. But then I would have missed out on some other great stories. p. 60<\/em><\/p>\n

This sounds like a rather daft publishing idea.
\nBooks<\/em><\/strong> by James Sallis is a short but interesting and informative review of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life<\/em> by Ruth Franklin, a new biography of a sometime F&SF<\/em> contributor Shirley Jackson.
\nBrainless Robots Stroll the Beach<\/em><\/strong> by Pat Murphy and Paul Doherty announces:<\/p>\n

With this column, we\u2019re changing our format. Rather than publishing long columns just twice a year, we\u2019ll be writing short columns for every issue of <\/em>Fantasy & Science Fiction. p. 187<\/p>\n

This is the first one of a series on robots, and takes an interesting look at a robot called the Strandbeest.
\nI look forward to their more frequent appearance (an essay of theirs about the application of Special and General Relativity to GPS technology is one of the best science articles I think I have ever read: a great example of how rarefied physics theories impact on everyday technology).
\nStranger (Yet Oddly Familiar) Things<\/em><\/strong> by Tim Pratt conveys his enthusiasm for the Netflix series Stranger Things<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Over the course of eight harrowing and exhilarating episodes, we\u2019re treated to monsters, mad science, alternate realities, government conspiracies, loyalty, treachery, friendship, tragedy, sacrifice, and triumph. <\/em>Stranger Things is full of great, pulpy storytelling stuff. It\u2019s also very firmly eighties stuff, and the show is absolutely steeped in references to film and TV of that era. <\/em>Stranger Things doesn\u2019t so much wear its influences on its sleeve as wear a suit woven almost entirely of influences. The subtle and overt homages to the eighties work of Stephen King, John Carpenter, James Cameron, and Steven Spielberg (among others) permeate just about every frame. Spielberg\u2019s <\/em>E.T. is a major visual touchstone, the flashbacks to Eleven\u2019s captivity in a government lab strongly reference the film version of King\u2019s <\/em>Firestarter, and the dynamic of the kids is very <\/em>Stand By Me, but that just scratches the surface\u2014<\/em> p. 192-193<\/p>\n

Since reading his review I\u2019ve watched all the episodes and I enjoyed it more than the rest of the stuff that was waiting for me on the PVR. The influences weren\u2019t quite so obvious to me (I watched the movies above a long time ago, and have forgotten most of the visual touchstones).
\nThere is also a poem by Mary Soon Lee called Kingship<\/em><\/strong>, Cartoons<\/em><\/strong> by Bill Long and Arthur Masear, Coming Attractions<\/em><\/strong> and Curiosities: A Voyage to Purilia, by Elmer Rice (1930)<\/em><\/strong> by David Langford. This issue has the annual Circulation Statement<\/em><\/strong> which gives a print circulation of approximately 12,000 copies.
\nThere is usually at least one spoof advertisement in the Classifieds<\/em><\/strong> every issue. This month\u2019s is<\/p>\n

Sought: Signed first editions of Lord Ravenscar\u2019s Revenge . Will pay. No questions asked. Castaway Books, Tauai.<\/em> p. 257<\/p>\n

This refers to a book from the Marc Laidlaw story. I\u2019m not sure I noticed whether\u00a0previous ads were story related or not\u2014I\u2019ll keep an eye out in future issues.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of solid work in this issue, and nothing I disliked. Because of its high quality and entertaining fiction, F&SF<\/em> is my favourite magazine at the moment, just a nose (or maybe two) ahead of Asimov\u2019s<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The two previous Franden stories were The Man from X<\/em> (F&SF, Jan\/Feb 2015) and Into the Fiery Planet<\/em> (F&SF, July\/Aug 2015).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This magazine is still being published!<\/strong>\u00a0Subscribe:\u00a0Kindle UK<\/a>,\u00a0Kindle USA<\/a>,\u00a0Weightless Books<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0physical copies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\"rss\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Galactic Central link ISFDB link Other reviews: Kevin P. Hallett, Tangent Online Greg Hullender\u00a0and Eric Wong,\u00a0Rocket Stack Rank John\u00a0Loyd,\u00a0There Ain\u2019t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch Sam Tomaino, SF Revu Various, Goodreads Fiction: Vinegar and Cinnamon \u2022 short story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman \u2665\u2665 The Regression Test \u2022 short story by Wole Talabi \u2665\u2665 […]<\/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":true,"_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":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy-and-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pcj7-Hs","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694","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=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2770,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfmagazines.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}