2011 Nebula Award Short Stories

I am still working my way through the Nebula nominees.  I went looking through my iPad apps and discovered that at some point in the past year, I had downloaded both God's War and Mechanique, so I should be able to get through most of the nominees for best novel.  Actually, I'd only need to track down Firebird to get all of them.  Nice.

A while back, Jesse, Tamahome, and I discussed the Nebula-nominated short stories that were available on audio, on an SFF Audio podcast.  I don't want to rehash everything I said on the podcast, but I will say that I hope the E. Lily Yu story "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" wins the prize.  I had read that one in print previously to listening to the audio.  It is gorgeous.

A few useful links:

• The compiled audio listings of anything Nebula nominated that exists in audio (5/7 short stories, one novella, one novelette)
• The SFF Audio podcast readalong discussion of the short stories
• The Sword and Laser Bookclub "What Are You Reading" discussion board in GoodReads, which includes several ongoing discussions on Nebula nominees (thanks to Nick for posting those).
• The complete Nebula 2011 nomination list

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

 

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Around the World: 16 of 52 (Russia)

This book has not been on my radar for long, but when something is considered to be "the best single work of science fiction yet written" (Ursula K. Le Guin) and the precursor of 1984 and Brave New World, not to mention the majority of current science fiction (Bruce Sterling introduction), I knew I couldn't put it off.

An interesting historical note - it was published in England (1921) long before it was published in Russia (1988), and Orwell read it before writing 1984.

For such a significant work, you might expect it to be difficult, or long, but We is around 200 pages and written as a journal. D-503 is a mathematician working on "The Integral," a rocketship of sorts that grows in importance throughout the story. The culture is completely mapped out, and everyone lives (literally) in step. Individuality is the most shameful trait.

I enjoyed the characters, and all the little details, such as the idea that the desire to dance proves that humans desire non-freedom.

A few quotations:
"I love - we love - skies like this, sterile and flawless!"

And since I'm such a great lover of Russian classical music, particularly Scriabin, the parts about creativity and music really capture me:
"They could create only if they drove themselves to fits of 'inspiration,' a strange form of epilepsy. And here is an amusing illustration of their results: the music of Scriabin, twentieth century..."

"...Epilepsy is a psychic sickness- a pain... a slow, sweet pain - a sting - and you wish it would go deeper, hurt more... Then slowly - sunshine emerges. Not our kind of sunshine, the pale-bluish-crystalline kind, which disperses evenly through our glass bricks- no: it was a wild, rushing, burning sun, expelling itself, shedding itself in little tufts."

"'WE' is divine, and 'I' is satanic."

"Individual consciousness is just sickness."

"Revolutions are infinite."

"[People] have wanted someone, anyone, to tell them once and for all what happiness is - and then to attach them to this happiness with a chain."

For even more information on the context of We, consult Eric Rabkin's article in Foundation no. 65.

Embassytown by China Miéville

Embassytown by China Miéville
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided to read Embassytown after it had been nominated for practically every science fiction award in 2011-2012. I have only read The City and the City prior to this book, although I've always meant to go back and read some of his earlier books.

I kept getting distracted by other books (mostly poetry), so reading this took longer than most books do, but that shouldn't be interpreted as a lack of recommendation.

Embassytown is about language. I kept hearing that, and assumed it was code for "China Mieville uses big words." And while that is true, including several he makes up on his own (like 'floaking'), there is so much more. Embassytown is the name of a civilization on an alien planet on the edge of the 'immer,' the explored part of the universe. It is still populated by the natives, Ariekei, who for a long time were unable to communicate with their visitors, a language barrier of sorts.

Among the solutions is that some of the visitors are turned into living similes. Avice Benner Cho, who narrates the story, is a simile the Ariekei know as "The girl who was hurt in darkness and ate what was given her."

Avice has recently come back to Embassytown with her newest husband, and that is when there is a problem with one of the Ambassadors. I can't say much else; it would give the story away. But it is innovative and I enjoyed reading it.

A few little bits:

"As I've grown older I've become conscious of how unsurprising I am."

"Look instead at a map of the immer. Such a big and tidal quiddity. Pull it up, rotate it, check its projections. Examine that light phantom every way you can, and even allowing that it's a flat or trid rendering of a topos that rebels against our accounting, the situation is visibly different."

"I couldn't tell if I was perpicacious or paranoid."

"How do lying and similes intersect?"

Sakura Park: Poems by Rachel Wetzsteon

Sakura Park: Poems by Rachel Wetzsteon
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Cramming more poems down my throat for poetry month!

Umbrella Weather was probably my favorite.
"...I’m foreign, I’m freakish, I’m out of the loop
until a storm comes and I’m in it again
only deeper now, with a smile no news can ruin."

The other highlights to me were the haiku form poems. Flaneur Haiku is about walking around "her city," NYC, a theme she returns to often, but I think she shines in this more limited format of an extended form haiku.

I also loved Blue Octavo Haiku, which starts with:
"In fat armchairs sat
indolence and impatience,
plotting my downfall."

Genius.

"Happiness? Finding
your indestructible core;
leaving it alone."

Come On All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder

Come on All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tired of poetry yet? I am a great skimmer of poems. First I skim, to see if I'm interested in the concept or the feeling, and if I think I might be, then I bother to read it, and usually at least twice. Zapruder caught me on almost every page, which is rare. Some of the poems are a little too random but others make complete sense in their randomness.

"Come On All You Ghosts," the last poem in the volume (and the title poem) is great, a must-read, a little bit of a tribute to the current reader of the poem.

Zapruder also writes about less serious things, like White Castle.

Here is a little clip from "Never Before"

"...Come home
those who love a librarian aspect. I am one,
for give her time and she will answer any question
no matter how spiral, no matter how glass,
so slow to judgment you can sit among her
like a reading room and read and think..."

And one from the poem called "Poem"

"...I admire
and fear you, to me you are an abyss
I cross towards you. Just look
directly into my face you said and I felt
everything stop trying to fit. And
the marching band took a deep collective
breath and plunged back into its song."

Really, any poet that can squeeze librarians and marching bands into poems deserves some attention!

Passing Through: The Later Poems by Stanley Kunitz

Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected by Stanley Kunitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Part of the ongoing poetry binge of April 2012!

I was introduced to this volume by the National Book Award Poetry Blog, where this volume was reviewed last year during last year's past-winners retrospective. Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected won the NBA for poetry in 1995.

The poet was 90 when these were published, and he went on to live to be 100 years old! Many of the poems look back- at childhood, at life, but my absolute favorite is The Layers, which ends with the line "I am not done with my changes.". You can listen to the poet read it; to me, hearing the words in such an aging voice makes it even more meaningful, as much as it resonates with me at 1/3 of his age at the time.

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times

Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times by Neil Astley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first saw this anthology mentioned on thebrowser.com, in the segment that I follow religiously where experts recommend five books on a particular topic.  I wanted to intentionally read poetry this month (National Poetry Month!).

There is a lot of great stuff here. The poems are divided by category, and the anthologist has done a great job in selection - poets are largely from the UK and USA, but there are also quite a few translated poems, even one from Gaelic! My only complaint would be that some of the poems are not included in their entirety, for instance he often chose some segments of longer poems. I think it would have been better to be more selective, and include the entirety of everything selected.

While some of the themes aren't my favorite (I tend to skim through nature-poems, child-poems, and death-poems), the organization of the anthology made it easy to enjoy.

I wish I could just copy everything I loved into this review, but it would simultaneously fill pages and violate copyright. I will include the titles of my favorites, and leave you to discover them for yourself, linking to them if I can find them online. A few of my favorites were already familiar to me, but I couldn't stand to leave them off my list.

One more thing - these are intended to be uplifting and life-affirming, but that shouldn't scare you away. They aren't sugar-coated or unrealistic, or even always upbeat. Just full of honesty.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver (link is to video of Oliver reading)
Happiness by Raymond Carver (my favorite bit is the last stanza)
Entirely by Louis MacNeice
History by Maura Dooley (read by poet)
The Journey by Mary Oliver (fast forward to 1:10)
Yes by Muriel Rukeyser
And the Days are Not Full Enough by Ezra Pound
Last Night by Sharon Olds
In Defense of Adultery by Julia Copus
And They Were Both Right by Kapka Kassabova
Lightness by Meg Bateman
Inscription by Sophia de Mello Breyner
Places We Love by Ivan V. Lalic
Eating Poetry by Mark Strand (link is video of Strand reading)
Late Fragment by Raymond Carter