Of All Possible Worlds, by William Tenn [Richard Powers]
By OrchidReader1985
Once you realize it’s Richard Powers 😍
Reader discussion: Of All Possible Worlds
Public reader discussion about Of All Possible Worlds in the WeRead Catalog by William Tenn.
It’s pub-day for a fantastic piece of science-fantasy - The Worst of All Possible Worlds by Alex White
By WeatherSleepy
Seriously, I can’t say enough good stuff about this series. This is the last book in the trilogy and it was just such a great read. It feels like Firefly mixed with Indiana Jones—space treasure hunters who are a total mess, but in the best found-family way. The magic system is surprisingly smooth with all the tech too. The action is nonstop from the first pages and doesn’t really slow down. Definitely one of my favorite series from the last few years.
Looking for new short story masters
By AutumnJuniper
When a short story really lands, it can hit way harder than you’d expect, so I’ve come to kind of love that style. I’ve read a bunch of bigger/older names—Gene Wolfe, Ted Chiang, Ken Liu, George Saunders, Brian Evenson, Laird Barron, J. G. Ballard, Roger Zelazny, Michael Swainwick, M. John Harrison, George R. R. Martin, Karl Edward Wagner, Robert E. Howard, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, John Langan, Caitlín R. Kiernan, N. K. Jemisin, Clark Ashton Smith, T. E. D. Klein, Michael Shea, Alistair Reynolds, Michael Moorcock, R. A. Lafferty, and a few others. For more newer stuff, I’ve been enjoying Thomas Ha, Christopher Ruocchio, Graham Thomas Wilcox (though I don’t think he’s got a collection out yet), and Rich Larson. Basically I’m trying to find someone else in that same general vibe—single-author short story collections would be awesome. I know there are a ton of great magazines, but I’m more specifically hunting for books.
Bingo Review: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
By TeacupGreen39
For Bingo 2018 I was thinking about putting this in a few different squares (Hopeful Fantasy, maybe the “reviewed on a fantasy sub” one… and I honestly can’t tell if there’s enough fae vibes for that square). Anyway, I finally sat down to write this because I read it ages ago (September) and ended up really liking it, so I’m hoping it’ll nudge a few people to try it. Grace Delarua is basically a biotechnician on Cygnus Beta, and then her language skills land her a role as the cultural attaché for the new Sadiri arrivals. The Sadiri are telepathic and their planet got wiped out, so the survivors are trying to rebuild their community on Cygnus Beta. There are only a handful of them, and most are men, which makes the whole “how do we rebuild?” thing pretty tense right away. Delarua’s match is Dllenahkh, her Sadiri opposite number, and yeah… romance happens. The book also pulls from this real-world report about how communities were affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, where more women than men died. So the story is very much about moving forward, remembering, and whether rebuilding even counts if it means mixing in with the local people and risking what we’d call cultural heritage and memory. Then it gets into the ethical mess of it all too—like, who gets to decide, and can they even make that choice honestly? Later there’s a road-trip-ish expedition across Cygnus Beta where Delarua and Dllenahkh (plus a small group) look for older Sadiri immigrants and possible wives for the surviving men. It turns into a bunch of visits to different settlements, some warm, some not so much. And the romance is really slow-burn—sometimes so slow it felt a little scattered—but when it’s working it’s great. I didn’t love every side character (there were a couple that felt kind of flat), but the main crew really carries the book. They feel like an actual team on a real mission. I did appreciate that the ethics of the Sadiri plan—specifically the expectation of heterosexual couples having kids—gets discussed, even if it doesn’t get quite as deep as it probably could. There are a couple Cygnians who aren’t straight or who aren’t monogamous, but sexuality overall is only touched on lightly with the Sadiri. Delarua definitely has mixed feelings, but once she gets closer to Dllenahkh, that part doesn’t really get expanded the way I expected. Also, it doesn’t feel like there’s a super clean resolution: they fall for each other, but it’s still within the Sadiri relationship expectations, and the book kind of points that out. Karen Lord also name-drops Ray Bradbury, and you can totally see the influence—memory, displaced people, lost homeland stuff, identity. The vibe is more soft, more science-fantasy than hard sci-fi, and I’d probably call it a science fantasy romance first. It’s ambitious and it stumbles sometimes, but when it hits, it’s really excellent.
“Warm” SF
By martenreader56
I’m trying to find a sci-fi book that feels cozy or warm—like, with characters you actually like and nothing super dark. I’m not really sure comedic writing will work for me, though, so I’m hoping to find something with a more gentle vibe. Thanks!