"Clarkesworld", #45 (June 2010) (magazine, free) (ed Sean Wallace)

Two stories, neither particularly remarkable but both better reads than the last dozen 2010 stories I've read.

1. Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Futures in the Memories Market" (B); download text/audio: A recording device like in Arthur Clarke's "Patent Pending" - record your entire experience, not just audio & video; sell it in units like DVDs, so anyone can play back the experience.
   Clarke's version focuses on the device & how to sell it, including producing porn content for it. Hoffman's focuses on emotional issues - recording device not only transfers your experience to external media, but wipes out corresponding memories from your brain - leaving you less than you were.
   
   This is the story of a young woman conned into a slavery-like contract with a corporation that trades in her experiences.
   
2. Brenda Cooper's "My Father's Singularity" (B); download: A man's relationship with his father as both of them grow older, old enough where senility has set in for father.

Related: Fiction from Clarkesworld.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Trophy Wives" (short story, free): Complicated dramatization of harem culture

While I didn't get bored, there wasn't anything to engage me here either. But it's a Nebula winner.

Story summary.

Story is of the escape of Milla, a human girl sold to a rich alien by her mother. Alien is a collector of "women" of many species, including humans, whom he marries & then exhibits in "bubbles" for the pleasure of his visitors; apparantly, this enhances his status in his culture.

In her escape, Milla will be helped by a gestalt of two telepathically-linked women, one of whom is the narrator.

Fact sheet.

First published: Martin H Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes (Eds)' Fellowship Fantastic (anthology). 2008. DAW Books.
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site, or MP3 from StarShipSofa.
Nebula award 2008 winner in short story category.

Free fiction: Nina Kiriki Hoffman's "Trophy Wives" (A Nebula Awards 2008 short story nominee)

Link added to list of Nebula Awards 2008 short stories.

[via SF Signal]