In my last post, I shared links to audio short stories by authors that are panelists at LOSCON this year (two days from now). I listened to most of these short stories and I wanted to say a few things about the ones I enjoyed.
I listened to David Brin’s “Aficionado”. I decided to pick one of the three short stories I linked to in the previous post and the blurb for “Aficionado” appealed to me. This was story about billionaires, hobbies, rockets, and dolphins that didn’t follow a predictable narrative structure. I liked it a lot.
Jean-Paul Garnier’s “Phrogger” was a weird one. I don’t usually have much taste for weird in my sci-fi but this wasn’t the kind of weird-for-weird’s-sake you sometimes find in sci-fi that really turns me off. It was the kind that fit the subject matter and bothered me a bit afterwards for reasons I can’t explain. Somehow, that was a good thing. Worth a listen and well performed in front of a live audience, a novelty for audibooks.
Larry Niven’s “Bird in the Hand” was the kind of fun, not too serious but still very credible sci-fi that I’ve come to love from the Grandmaster. It was great fun and made me laugh and cringe for and with the characters. I’m sure the science in it was well researched at the time (the biology bits, not the time travel), but I wonder if it still holds up today (I’d love to hear from anyone who knows the answer).
“War, Ice, Egg, Universe” by G. David Nordley reminded me of “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang in its exploration of an alien environment from the perspective of the inhabitants. It was very well done in that regard and it also did a great job of portraying military characters without being a military sci-fi story.
“Midnight Patron” by Mike Robinson was a very interesting story about a crow artist (an actual bird, not a member of the American Indian tribe, which would be a capitalized ‘Crow’). I enjoyed the story, but I don’t understand the title. Titles are hard, so I wouldn’t knock off any points for that. Give it a listen and explain the title to me if you figure it out.
“The Memory-Setter’s Apprentice” by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro was a very good story with a nice twist and likeable characters.
Arthur P. Dutton 