Nancy Kress' "Exegesis" (flash fiction, humor, free): How language evolves...

Best single piece I've seen from author so far.

Story summary.

A harmless sentence - "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.", from Margaret
Mitchell's novel Gone With the Wind, looked at every 100 years from 1950 to 2850.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (eds)' "Year's Best SF 15" (2010).

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, April/May 2009.
Download full text.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2009" list.
Related: Stories of Nancy Kress; fiction about language & communications.

Nancy Kress' "The Erdmann Nexus" (novella, mysticism, free): Next stage in human evolution is the last one

Whether it is seen as a mystic story probably depends on where you grew up. Indian readers will see unmistakable mysticism here.

Concept is very similar to later parts of Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End"; & both stories are essentially the same as a major religious doctrine of Hinduism. Let's compare the three:

1. One of the major beliefs of Hinduism is: there exists some sort of omnipotent universal consciousness, & the ultimate purpose of life is for our existence to merge into this universal entity.
   
   Universal entity goes by many names depending on sect & locale, but brahm is a not uncommon name. The process of the merger of ... shall we say soul ... of a being with brahm is called moksha.
   
   Different sects preach their own ideas of good conduct that will let you achieve moksha. Sinners keep getting reincarnated - usually in a non-human body - till they ultimately attain moksha. Depending on sect, moksha can only be achieved from human body, or from incarnation as any animal.
   
   I've another note on the subject at the end of my "Childhood's End" post too, including a further link.
2. Clarke's story renames brahm as "Overmind". And eligibility for merger with Overmind is not righteous conduct but a fast-spreading mutation that makes small human children eligible.
3. Kress' story renames brahm as "the ship". Longer life spans have swelled the number of old people the world over. One fine day, the count of people over 80 years of age exceeds a critical limit, & a telepathic gestalt of these oldies is born. They're the ones whose consciousness is eligible for merger with "the ship"'s consciousness.

Title comes from the name of a central character - Henry Erdmann, one of the old people affected & among the first to recognize the birth of gestalt.

Collected in.

1. Gardner Dozois (Ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection" (2009).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Asimov's, October/November 2008.
Rating: A.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Winner of Hugo Award 2009 in novella category.
Related: Stories of Nancy Kress; religious science fiction.

Rich Horton names a couple of Sturgeon stories Erdmann Nexus seems to be based on

Nancy Kress' "The Erdmann Nexus" is on this year's Hugo Novella ballot. It's not yet online, & I haven't read it.

Horton thinks there is a lot of similarity with Theodore Sturgeon's "To Marry Medusa" & "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff". I haven't read any of these either.

This post is really a note to self to check the references when/if Kress' stories comes up online.

Nebula Awards 2007 - novellas: Brief summaries & my rankings

List below is based on the results of preliminary ballot, final ballot, & the official winners announcement. Some remarks on peculiar Nebula conventions are in the opening paras of my post of Nebula 2007 short stories.

My rating in brackets (ABC: A = worth your time; C = don't bother). Where I have posted a separate review of the entry, link on story title takes you there.

Story list (5 stories, best first).

While I don't find any of these exceptional, I prefer Kiosk to all others. I don't really have specific preferences among next three entries & could have ordered them differently. Hughes' entry is more package than content. Last one - the jury nominee - is hopeless.

1. [final, prelim] Bruce Sterling's "Kiosk" (B); download; F&SF, January 2007; science fiction: Consumers win a fight to get material copying machines legalized - after a violent revolution.
2. [final, prelim] Gene Wolfe's "Memorare" (B); download; F&SF, April 2007; science fiction: Kind-of please-everyone novella about raiders of human tombs in space, & their makers who don't want the tombs of their dear ones raided.
3. [winner, final, prelim] Nancy Kress' "Fountain of Age" (B); download; Asimov's, July 2007; science fiction: An old man cannot get over love of his youth.
4. [final, prelim] Lucius Shepard's "Stars Seen Through Stone" (B); download; F&SF, July 2007; fantasy: A cocktail of - a small music label owner nurtures a talented but maladjusted musician, a romance, & evil waves that harvest human creativity. It's a good story, except for incomprehensible waves part.
5. [final, prelim] Matt Hughes' "The Helper and His Hero" (C); download; F&SF, February/March 2007; fantasy: The great no-content story. Great language, beautiful imagery, epic scope - only weak point is the story. It has evil aliens that can survive imprisonment in a "gravitational cyst(?)" through geological ages to come bug humans again, medieval society, chants that summon magical powers, mystical places called "Commons", ... Summarizing this story is not easy. If you prefer package to content, you may like this story.
6. [final] Judith Berman's "Awakening" (C); download; Black Gate, #10 (Spring 2007); fantasy: Ghosts, sorcery, swords, etc. Note that this was not on the list of preliminary ballot (I think they call it jury nominee).

Related.

1. 2007 Nebula Awards short stories, novelettes.
2. 2008 Hugo Awards novellas.
   

Nebula Awards 2007 - novelette nominees & winners: Brief summaries & my rankings

List below is based on the results of preliminary ballot, final ballot, & the official winners announcement. Some remarks on peculiar Nebula conventions are in the opening paras of my post of Nebula 2007 short stories.

My rating in brackets (ABC: A = worth your time; C = don't bother). Where I have posted a separate review of the entry, link on story title takes you there.

Story list (14 stories, best first).

An observation: novelette nominees this year seem to be a lot less gamed than short story nominees. Several good stories here, unlike the short story list. While first 3 entries stand in a class of their own, I found each of the first 6 interesting.

I wonder if Resnick's entry is removed from final ballot on technical grounds? There was some talk that stories published in 2008 are not eligible.

1. [winner, final, prelim] Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (A); download as text, as MP3; as a short book by Subterranean Press, July 2007; fantasy: Four time travel folktales - told in the style of (I think) Arabian Nights. Added to my best of the year 2007 list.
2. [final, prelim] Kij Johnson's "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" (A); download; Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Ed)'s "Coyote Road, Trickster Tales", July 2007: What if animals could speak? Very moving accounts of man/dog relations - told from the perspective of dogs. Added to my best of the year 2007 list.
3. [prelim] Mike Resnick's "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" (A); download; Asimov's, January 2008; fantasy: An enigma is described. Added to my best of the year 2008 list.
   
4. [final, prelim] Nancy Kress' "Safeguard" (B); download; Asimov's, January 2007; science fiction: An earthquake has forced 4 little children, genetically modified to have a poisonous breath & kept in quarantine, to get out of quarantine. Plot is a variation of classic Indian story of "vish kanya".
5. [final, prelim] Geoff Ryman's "Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" (B); download; F&SF, November 2006; non-genre: A love story, in the backdrop of a political story - a girl comes to terms with the ghosts of her dictator dad's victims.
6. [prelim] Peg Robinson's "Tonino & the Incubus" (B); download; Helix #2 (Fall 2006); fantasy: A male prostitute takes his job very seriously.
7. [prelim] Beth Bernobich's "A Flight of Numbers Fantastique Strange" (B); download; Asimov's, June 2006; science fiction: A serial killer is on the lose on a university campus. I found the science fictional ending rather incomprehensible
8. [prelim] William Shunn's "Not of this Fold" (B); download; An Alternate History of the 21st Century, Spilt Milk Press, September 2007; science fiction: A priest on duty aboard a big space habitat to convert locals to his faith becomes a hero when he becomes the main human contact with aliens due to a misunderstanding.
9. [final, prelim] Robin Wayne Bailey's "The Children's Crusade"; Martin H Greenberg and Jim C Hines (Ed)'s Heroes in Training, September 2007 : not read.
10. [prelim] Michael A Burstein and Robert Greenberger's "Things That Aren't"; Analog, April 2007: not read.
11. [prelim] Jim C Hines' "Sister of the Hedge"; Realms of Fantasy, June 2006: not read.
12. [prelim] Andrea Kail's "The Sun God at Down, Rising from a Lotus Blossom"; Algis Budrys (Ed)'s Writers of the Future Volume 23, September 2007: not read.
13. [final, prelim] Delia Sherman's "The Fiddler of Bayou Teche"; Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Ed)'s "Coyote Road, Trickster Tales", July 2007: not read.
14. [final] Terry Bramlett's "Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone"; download; Jim Baen's Universe, #7 (June 2007): Not read. This was not on preliminary ballet (is probably a jury nominee).
    

Related.

1. 2007 Nebula Awards short stories, novellas.
2. 2008 Hugo Awards novelettes.
   

Nancy Kress' "Safeguard" (novelette, science fiction): A variant of Indian tale of "vish kanya"

Good plot development in this variant of classic Indian story, often called "vish kanya" ("Poisonous Girl") in Hindi. I am aware of at least one other western adaptation of "vish kanya" - Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter".

Most variants I know are love stories: A maiden is poisonous. How she got poisonous varies - a witch did it magically, accidentally happened, she is not a girl but something else, an alchemist did it when experimenting, ... How her poison transmits also varies, usually not by breathing - & most often by kissing, since that aids love story. Endings vary too - sometimes her prince charming or a wise alchemist will come up with an antidote, at other times both lovers will die (later is rare, since Indians tend to prefer stories with happy endings).

Full text of this story is available for download.

Story summary.

"Safeguard" is not a love story. The poisoned ones are (genetically modified) little children - 4 of them. Of course, they have no clue to their poisonous status. And they infect via their breath - get in their vicinity, & you are dead. But their poison affects only Caucasians, not others.

We are told their origin is in an enemy country of US - obviously a non-Caucasian country. They were supposedly intended for use against US, but brave US forces captured them. For years now, they have been confined to a secret closed habitat in some desert in the US with nothing for 50 miles around. And there is an ongoing debate within the US administration to kill them; they've been kept alive only because hardliners within the administration want an international image of being a kind country.

An old woman, Taney, is their main champion within the administration. She is camping at the edge of the desert, & sometimes visits them wearing a gas mask. Otherwise the kids are on their own. There is a computer interface they can use to ask for food from an automatic machine, or signal Taney when someone is hurt.

One fine day, there is an earthquake. Habitat is shattered, with splinters falling from roof. Kids panic. Food no longer comes when they want. They get out via a big crack in habitat wall, looking for Taney. And discover the unending desert.

Over the next couple of days, they will be picked up by kind hearted folks twice - and a lot of deaths will result from exposure to their breath. Eventually, Taney will find them. And will discover, after some drama, that one of them carries the antidote too.

Fact sheet.

"Safeguard", short story, review
First published: Asimov's Science Fiction, Jan 2007.
Rating: B
Passed the preliminary nominations stage of Nebula Awards 2007 in novelette category.

Nancy Kress' "Fountain of Age" (novella, science fiction): An old man cannot get over love of his youth

Quite readable story while you are at it; completely forgettable one you are through.

While every individual is different, I could not quite identify with the hero. I can understand passion, even in an old man. But I found his behavior totally contrived.

Also, there is too much techno-babble - & none of it original. Medical rejuvenation of old is common. A treatment exists to make your biological age freeze to the age you have at the time of treatment, but will guarantee you are dead 20 years down the line (title comes from this). Luna City exists (but is mentioned only in passing). There is art least one space hospital (named "Sequene") - of the kind seen in Arthur Clarke's "Islands in the Sky". Invisibility paint. Robots all over. Human tissue trading. Covered cities aka Asimov's "Caves of Steel". Invisible force-field fences. There are dozens of other pieces of technology that the story doesn't really need.

There is also something on social tension among Jews, Romanian Gypsies, & rest of Europeans. I don't quite have a background in the subject, & just ignored it.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Story summary.
Story is set about the year 2100 AD.

Max Feder, 86, is a very rich man through his ownership of Feder Group plus sundry rather shady businesses, has given up on life, & lives alone in Silver Star Retirement Home - an old age community. His son, Geoffrey runs his businesses. During an energy-packed visit of Geoffrey with his two sons & their toy robot, Max loses a ring that meant a lot to him.

Turns out, he had a passionate love affair with Daria, a prostitute in Cyprus when he was an army man in his early twenties. She ended up marrying a very rich man, she also had helped Max become the rich man he is now, but the two have never really been long together. But Max still cannot get over that love affair. The ring that has just been lost contained a strand of her hair, & her lip marks on a piece of paper!

This ring loss gives Max a purpose in life. To go back to Daria, & get back her hair etc again! And may be build a new life with her (her husband is now dead).

Thus begins the silly adventure that will see him get disillusioned that a lot of time has passed. The adventure will culminate in the death of Daria at the hands of terrorist who also happens to be an employee of US CIA. But Max still hasn't quite gotten over her! End.

In the background, we learn the sad tale of Daria. She had married a rich man, Peter Morton Cleary. She has had a tumor in brain & in spine. While in hospital, it is found that her tumors are special - they are a kind of Elixir; they freeze your age!

Thus begins a business empire that will mine Daria's tumors; & she will be made to carry them rest of her life! Many get the treatment. Then there are sudden deaths of several treated. Turns out the elixir works indefinitely only for Daria; for everyone else, you get to keep your current age for next 20 years, then you die! "D-treatment" is the name given to this very profitable elixir - D for Daria.

She will spend rest of her life a prisoner who exists primarily as a factory for producing this elixir!

Fact sheet.
"Fountain of Age", short story, review
First published: Asimov's Science Fiction, July 2007.
Rating: B
Winner of Nebula Awards 2007 in novella category.
Nominated for Hugo Awards 2008 in novella category.