Forgiveness

Stories Read:
"Betrayals" by Ursula K. Le Guin
“Robot” by Helena Bell
“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard
“Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes” by Tom Crosshill
“Nanny’s Day” by Leah Cypess
“Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream” by Maria Dahvana Headley
“The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” by Ken Liu
“Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain” by Cat Rambo

Eight stories this week: one novella from Ursula K. Le Guin, and the seven Nebula nominees for Best Short Story this year. Jenny and I will discuss those seven short stories in a podcast, so I won't talk about them here, except to say that Le Guin's novella is the best story I read this week.

"Betrayals" is the first of four novellas in a collection called Four Ways to Forgiveness. The other three are "Forgiveness Day", "A Man of the People", and "A Woman's Liberation".

"Betrayals" is a top shelf story about two older people named Yoss and Abberkam. At the opening, Yoss is reading a book that tells her that on a different planet there hasn't been a war for over five thousand years, and on still another, there has never been a war. She wonders what that would be like, and why she and the others on her planet spend so much time in conflict.

That thought sets into motion a beautiful story that brings Yoss and Abberkam together, despite their differences. Like the title of the collection suggests, it requires some forgiveness.

Next up: "Death in the Nile" by Connie Willis

This eight stories did a lot in getting me caught up to Jenny, but I'm still behind. And she tells me that April is poetry month! Which month is "fat fantasy" month?