Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" (novelette, auxiliary memory, free): On the fallibility of human memory

Just how reliable is our memory? How much of it is fabricated to make us feel good about ourselves? These & implications of confronting the documentation that contradicts our feel-good memories are the topic of this beautiful story.

It looks at two documentation technologies - written word because we understand it well, & "Remem", an imaginary video search engine of the lifelogs created by the equivalents of Google Glass. In two different settings - European colonization of imaginary(?) Tivland, & a modern man reacting to Remem.

Fact sheet.

First published: Subterranean, Fall 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Added to my "best of 2013" list.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang's "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (novella, free): Training AIs takes a lot of time & commitment

Two things here that I'd not noticed in Chiang's fiction so far:

1. Bits of it, I think somewhere near the middle, made me smile. Humor is something I don't normally associate with Chiang's work.
2. Telling style is so much like those supremely annoying serials Star One shows at prime time: mostly characters talking to themselves & thinking things out loud. Some people have called the style of this story "descriptive" or "concept driven". May be I'd not noticed it in his fiction so far; may be I've seen too much bad TV recently. I won't call it boring - in fact, it quite interesting at many places; but it took me over a dozen sittings to finish.

Also, the story idea is a familiar one, though more detailed than versions I've seen before. See, e.g., Eando Binder's "I, Robot" (view comic book or TV adaptations) or Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God" (download comic book adaptation).

Story summary.

A company called Blue Gamma has invented potentially super-intelligent software AIs ("digients"). They're like human babies living in Data Earth, a virtual world (eventually, their alien cousins will also exist on Data Mars).

They're like souls; they need to wear a body to interact with their environment. Normally as an avatar in Data Earth; can also move to a physical robot.

This is the story of deep attachment Ana Alvarado & Derek Brooks develop for these digitants; Ana is a former zoo keeper hired to train digitants, Derek builds their digital avatars. They'll keep caring for their pet digitants over many years, long after Blue Gamma has folded up & their original software platform is obsolete.

Fact sheet.

First published: as an independent book by Subterranean Press in 2010.
Download full text from Subterranean Online.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang on his writing technique, sf vs fantasy, & some other things

In an interview with Avi Solomon at Boing Boing:

1. How does he write a story?
   Write a para near end, then the beginning, then scenes at random places, then connect these scenes backward & forward.
   
2. A practical way to differentiate between science fiction & fantasy: In the universe of the story, are some people special to the Universe? E.g., only they can turn "lead into gold", & no one else. That's fantasy. If, on the other hand, the Universe is impersonal - doesn't grant special privileges to a few people, where anyone, even an industrial process could turn "lead into gold", now that's science fiction.
3. Training an AI is a separate problem than creating it, & is likely to be as complex.
4. For engineers involved in the development of human interfaces of things: "a kind of emotional relationship with software can be very appealing to people."
5. An AI not located inside a physical body is likely to have cognition so different from us that it might as well be an alien.

Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

New story from Ted Chiang

"The Lifecycle of Software Objects", a novella to be published "this Summer" by Subterranean, apparently as a small independent book.

Not likely to be online till next year's Hugos, though - so may be worth buying. But I'll wait for a few reviews first - even the great Chiang has given a few duds in the past.

Question: When does summer arrive at Subterranean? It's been summer for a month now where I live, though it will get much worse during April & May. Does summer arrive later in more northern latitudes? I'm 18 degrees north of equator.

Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Isaac Asimov's "thiotimoline" vs Ted Chiang's "What's Expected on Us"

In his reminiscences about Asimov, Frederik Pohl tells us of an imaginary substance called "thiotimoline" invented by Asimov for "a non-fact article" in Astounding: it "had the curious property of beginning to dissolve before it was added to a solvent."

Makes me wonder if the central idea of Ted Chiang's philosophical story "What's Expected of Us" (download) came from here. This story features a gadget with a button & a light. Light lights up a set time before the button is pressed!

Parting thoughts on Hartwell/Cramer's "Year's Best SF 14" (2009)

I've now read most of the stories from this book.

Of the 3 good stories here - Chiang's "Exhalation", Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Arkfall", & Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder's "Mitigation" - two are online: "Exhalation" (download text/MP3) & "Arkfall" (read online).

Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others" (collection): Annotated table of contents & review

While this collection probably covers all published stories of Chiang till 2002, he has published more since. Here is the full list of his stories I've read so far (probably all published ones to date).

In the list below: Links on story title go to my post on the story, if any. Links on publisher, editor, or year fetch more stuff from the source. Where I'm aware of an online copy, I link that.

Table of contents (8 stories, best first).

Last 4 didn't really work for me. Rest are pretty good.

1. [novella] "Liking What You See: A Documentary" (A); first published in this collection: What if we could switch off perception of beauty of a human face?
   
2. [novella] "Story of Your Life" (A); download; Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Ed)'s "Starlight 2" (1998): An alternate design of cognition & language.
   
3. [novelette] "Tower of Babylon" (A); Omni, November 1990: Knocking at the doors of God's abode!
4. [novelette] "Hell is the Absence of God" (A); download text/MP3: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Ed)'s "Starlight 3" (2001): What if Biblical Heaven/Hell/angels/souls were literally perceptible to humans?
5. [novella] "Seventy-Two Letters" (B); download; Ellen Datlow (Ed)'s "Vanishing Acts" (2000): Talking about current issues using a mystical plot device.
6. [novelette] "Understand" (B); download; Asimov's, August 1991: Clash of two supermen.
7. [ff] "The Evolution of Human Science" aka "Catching Crumbs from the Table" (B); Nature, 1 June 2000: Humans live an uncomfortable existence in a mixed society with superhumans.
8. [ss] "Division by Zero" (C); download; Lou Aronica, Amy Stout & Betsy Mitchell (Eds)' "Full Spectrum 3", 1991: Tale of an extreme obsession.
   

Fact sheet.

First published: 2002.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.
Legend: ss = short story; ff = flash fiction.

Ted Chiang's "Liking What You See: A Documentary" (novella, thought experiment): What if we could switch off perception of beauty of a human face?

Among the best of Chiang; perhaps of the genre too. And with a bit of philosophical bend.

There is a certain amount of notoriety associated with this story. It was withdrawn from Hugo nominations on author's request because he didn't think it was good enough.

Story summary.

Calliagnosia (aka "calli") is a painless, non-invasive, fast, cheap, & reversible medical procedure to switch off your brain's emotional reactions to 3 attributes of a human face:

1. Clear unblemished skin.
2. Symmetry ("any environmental stressor - like poor nutrition, disease, parasites - tends to result in asymmetry during growth. Symmetry implies resistance to such stressors.").
3. "Facial proportions" that represent racial mean.
   
   Note: The idea of "racial mean" of certain defining human attributes also appears in a different context in William Tenn's satirical "Null-P"; but I'll talk of that some other time.

You aren't reduced in any mental faculty except that you no longer notice or prefer a beautiful face!

Story is in the form of a documentary - recording a huge variety of conflicting opinions by a variety of actors on the desirability or otherwise of the technology. In the context of an impending student referendum at Pembleton University that proposes to make calliagnosia compulsory for all students while they are enrolled at the university.

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life & Others" (collection, 2002).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang; stories that deal with (or bend) the notion of "beauty"; philosophical fiction.

Why fiction uses time travel?

SF Signal has a panel session on the subject.

See, in particular, Ted Chiang's very well thought out 3 paragraphs; his philosophical-exploration idea is the basis of his flash fiction piece "What's Expected of Us" (download) .

BSFA Awards 2008: Winners announced

BSFA official site doesn't yet have anything, but the winners' list is all over the net. Here is one, at Torque Control.

Short fiction winner: Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (download text/MP3).
Related: All short fiction nominees, including download links (all are online).

PS: This award is about fiction originally published in UK during 2008.

Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (short story, entropy, free)

I've a feeling this is going to get listed among the all-time best of science fiction.

Story summary.

In an unusual universe, a curious "man", who's also the narrator & an "anatomist", builds a contraption to dissect his own brain! One thing leads to another, & he learns not only how his brain works but that his universe is dying. And that every universe must eventually die.

Explaining the title will spoil some fun; so I refrain from doing it.

Notes.

1. Couple of paragraphs in later parts of the story reminded me of Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves".
2. Hal Clement's "Answer": A man's efforts to understand how his brain works result in more success than is healthy!
   This story has been on my "to post" list for a while; might do one of these days.

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 14".
2. Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3".

Fact sheet.

First published: Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Eclipse Two: New Science Fiction and Fantasy".
Rating: A.
Download full text in multiple formats from Night Shade Books; or MP3 audio from StarShipSofa.
Added to my "best of the year 2008" picks.
Winner of Hugo Award 2009 in short story category.
Nominated for BSFA Award 2009 in short fiction category.
Related: Stories of Ted Chiang; Apocalypse fiction.

Free fiction: Text version of Ted Chiang's "Exhalation"

Text available in multiple formats at Night Shade Books' download page. [via SF Signal]

Audio of this story has already been online.

Download link added to relevant lists:

1. Hugo Awards 2009: Short story nominees.
2. BSFA Awards 2008: Short fiction nominees.
3. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 14".
   
4. Jonathan Strahan (Ed)'s "Best SF and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3".

Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Free fiction: Ted Chiang's "Exhalation" (audio)

Podcast at StarShipSofa. Only MP3. [via Boing Boing]
PS: Podcast page seems to be hanging right now! Nothing came in nearly 2 minutes. May be will be ok a few hours from now.

This was one of the only 3 Chiang stories not online, as far as I know. But it came out very recently - original publication in December 2008 in one of the Strahan's anthologies of original fiction.

Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Update 28 March 2009: Text of the story; story summary.

Ted Chiang on the genesis of 2 of his stories

In this interview dated 23 December 2008 with Al Robertson, now available at The Nebula Awards.

Stories covered: "Merchant & the Alchemist's Gate", & "What's Expected of Us?".

Also includes an interesting quote: "I do think that science fiction is a product of the scientific age in a way that fantasy is not, and that the most useful way to characterize science fiction is not through adherence to known scientific fact, but through adherence to the scientific worldview."

[via Bibliophile Stalker]

Related: Stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God" (novelette, religion, free): What if Biblical Heaven/Hell/angels/souls were literally perceptible to humans?

Among the better stories of Chiang. And quite accessible to even those with a very minimal exposure to Christianity, even though its motifs are from Bible (I think).

It was tempting to compare this story with Roger Zelazny's famous "Lord of Light", the other story I know of on a generally similar theme, but the two are really very different. Zelazny's, based on Hindu motifs, has conmen & powerful posing as gods to the gullible & weak. Also Zelazny's story is from the point of view of gods - their in-fighting. Chiang's is a human story - Biblical magic from the perspective of humans, & a somewhat rational exploration of the idea of "devotion". Or rather, "Biblical devotion"; "devotion" or its equivalents tend to be seen differently among different religions.

Story summary.

Imagine a world where angels routinely visit earth. Where/when an angelical visit commences/terminates is unpredictable. Which angel visits when is unpredictable. Humans can experience the entire visit, & also see & identify the angel. Each visitation results in a few "miracles" - some people getting cured of a deformity or disease or something. But more importantly, each visit brings with it a major catastrophe - lots of people die or lose limbs during a visit. Some damage is due to earthquakes & fires the visitation creates, other due to traffic accidents when an angels suddenly manifests near a driver.

For a short moment, during commencement & termination of an angelical visit, "Heaven's light" penetrates down to earth. Seeing it nearly always destroys your eyes & visual apparatus, brainwashes you to eternal unquestioning devotion to god, & is believed to ensure that you will go to Heaven after death. It's the last part that makes a lot of people chase visiting angels around for a glimpse of this light at termination of angelical visit - even though it's more likely to kill you than give salvation. At the end of the story, we will see a case of access denied to Heaven even after seeing this light; that's the context in which my quote above appears: "God is not just, God is not kind, God is not merciful, and understanding that is essential to true devotion."

At the time someone dies, if you happen to be nearby, you can actually see with your own eyes the "soul" ascending upward to Heaven, or descending down to Hell.

Hell also makes itself manifest sometimes. Ground in your neighborhood becomes transparent, & you can see the Hell-dwellers down below. As far as anyone can see, Hell-dwellers are no worse than those on the "mortal plane".

We don't meet God throughout the story; He's described only indirectly. And He's not "aware" of the Hell (or is it just Hell's inhabitants?); that seems to be the only drawback to hell compared to Heaven - reason many people don't really care about need to avoid Hell.

This is the story of Neil Fisk, a man with a physical deformity in a leg since birth. Neil doesn't much care about God. His beloved wife Sarah died as part of collateral damage during one of the angelical visitations. And her soul went to Heaven. That is the motivation for Neil to now care about Heaven - to be ultimately united with her.

Much of the story is about his meeting various people & trying to find a reason "to love God". He hasn't really found a rational reason till end. Eventually, he decides to chase the heavenly light in the wake of an angel's visitation. He will die in the venture, but see the light before dying. In spite of seeing it, he will be denied admission to Heaven & end up in Hell - so he's forever separated from his wife.

See also.

1. Nicholas Whyte looks at this story from perspectives I'm not qualified to comment on.
2. In this interview with Jeremy Smith, Chiang describes this story as "straight fantasy ... It's a view of the world that many people have now, except that things are explicit rather than hidden. A lot of people, right now, believe that good and bad fortune are the result of supernatural intervention, and it's often based on what you deserve. In the story this intervention is very obvious". He also gives some more perspective on this story.
3. Ted Chiang in this interview with Lou Anders: 'as far as divine intervention goes, the world in "Tower of Babylon" operates the way I see our universe operating, while the world in "Hell is the Absence of God" operates the way certain other people see our universe operating. Good and bad things happen in both universes. In the former, it's unclear whether any of them are the result of divine intervention; in the latter, it's clear that many of them are.'
4. Ted Chiang in this interview with Gavin J Grant: "In our world, religion relies on faith because definitive proof is lacking... but if a particular god were here right now, we'd have to deal with him whether we liked him or not; faith would have nothing to do with it. I thought that would be an interesting scenario to explore."

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Ed)'s "Starlight 3", July 2001.
Rating: A
Download full text.
Winner of Hugo Award 2002 in novelette category.
Winner of Nebula Award 2001 in novelette category.
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon" (novelette, science fiction): Knocking at the doors of God's abode!

Among the best of Chiang. First half is hard sf; second half is a curious mix of hard sf & a view of the universe several thousands of years old - so I guess you could call it fantasy too.

Story is set in Babylon, several thousand years ago; hence uses technology of that era.

View of the universe in the story is: Heaven is a physical structure in the sky. Heavenly bodies like moon, Sun, & stars move about the sky - each at its own level. As you go up towards heaven, you first pass the level of moon, then of Sun (at this level, Sun's "heat was enough to roast barley"), then of stars ("They were not all set at the same height, but instead occupied the next few leagues above"). Above the level of Sun, you see the Sun shining on you from below rather than above! And lower parts of the structure that is heaven has massive water reservoirs from which the rains come.

It's useful to know the ancient Tower of Babel story before reading this one. For those from non-Biblical faiths, here is how my ancient dead-tree Collier's Encyclopedia explains it: Once upon a time, men decided to erect a massive tower to physically reach out to heavens. This made God unhappy. He punished them by making them speak many tongues - thus confusing them & bringing the project to a halt. Since then, humans have been speaking many languages.

First half of the story has a feel somewhat like parts of Arthur Clarke's "The Fountains of Paradise". In Clarke's version, the tower ("space elevator") will make space travel cheaper; here you will enter the abode of Gods. In both versions, tower is huge - but definition of huge depends on times: Clarke's tower is more than perimeter of earth; in this story, "Were the tower to be laid down across the plain of Shinar, it would be two days' journey to walk from one end to the other."

Story summary.

Story is set in Shinar, Babylon, where the project of building the Tower has been going on for centuries, & is now pretty much done. What remains is cutting into the lower surface of heavens - which appears to be some kind of a stone - to physically enter heavens ("Yahweh's dwelling place").

Two teams of experts have been called for this cutting job: miners from Elam, & granite workers from Egypt. Story traces the experiences of Hillalum, one of the Elamite miners, as the teams go about riding up the tower & set about cutting into the floor of heavens. Hillalum will be the only person to actually enter heavens, to a surprising view.

We see the general upbeat mood in the town. Tower itself is described in meticulous detail - ground terminal, up & down ramps, method of construction, method of transporting supplies & food, brick making & providing for all the wood needed to cook bricks, camping places, villages that have grown up mid-way through the tower, agriculture at those mid-levels, crossing the levels of moon & more interestingly of Sun. While the tower itself is two days horizontal walk, vertical climb with load via ramps is a 4 month affair.

Later half concerns with cutting through the featureless stone floor of heaven, & precautions in case you end up cutting into the water reservoirs. There is elaborate engineering care taken to ensure world will not have to face a Deluge if they end up cutting the reservoir floor.

Eventually, many years of cutting later with elaborate multi-level tunnel-work in heaven's floor, they will really hit a reservoir. Planned systems work, saving earth from Deluge, but a lot of workers are trapped & die.

Hillalum is the only survivor among the trapped who will actually end up entering the heaven - in a badly battered state. And what does he find? Something very surprising - something that illuminates him on the nature of space.

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Omni, November 1990.
Rating: A
Winner of Nebula Award 1990 in novelette category.
Nominated for Hugo Award 1991 in novelette category.
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.
Note: Arthur Clarke's "I Remember Babylon" is completely unrelated.

Ted Chiang's "Division by Zero" (short story, non-genre): Tale of an extreme obsession

This story is divided into 9 parts, all except last into 3 subparts (opener, a & b).

Opener is mathematical wisdom - like Godel's Theorem. It uses factual language in all nine parts, but I'm not really sure it's talking facts - I wasn't paying attention to these subparts. If they are related in any way to the story, I could not see the relation - except that the woman at the heart of the story is a mathematician.

This is the story of Renee & her husband Carl. "a" subpart are from Renee's perspective; "b" from Carl's. And it was an uninteresting story, at least to me.

Renee was a great mathematician, now past her professional prime. Her latest discovery is that arithmetic is "inconsistent" - any number can be proved to be equal to any other! Showing her proof to colleagues doesn't help; no one is able to find a flaw.

This inconsistent arithmetic discovery shatters her balance, & she ends up in a mental asylum.

Just after she gets out of asylum, Carl has discovered that he only feels a sense of duty towards her - he can no longer see the woman he married. So the marriage is headed towards breakup.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Lou Aronica, Amy Stout & Betsy Mitchell (Eds)' "Full Spectrum 3", 1991.
Rating: C
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang's "Seventy-Two Letters" (novella): Talking about current issues using a mystical plot device

I found it a bit tedious read; took me several days to finish it. But I have this love/hate relationship with Chiang's stories - I find some first rate, others not quite.

Full text of this story is available for download.

Story summary.

Story is set in London - apparently some centuries back, but some things in this world are post-modern.

At the heart of the story is the idea of using a mantra to animate both inanimate matter, & the living stuff - in controlled ways. Mantras are 72-letter "names", letters drawn from Hebrew alphabet.

Groups of researchers are engaged in "discovering" the names that animate stuff in specific ways - sort of generating permutations that work. If you've read Arthur Clarke's "Nine Billion Names of God", the idea will already be familiar.

These names are patented & closely guarded. We get an introduction to aspects of modern patent debate.

A name animates its object by coming in touch with it.

1. If it is something inanimate - like a statue (golem?) - the thing will have a little cavity set somewhere in its body. You write the name on a piece of paper, & insert it into cavity. And the statue becomes a robot - with qualities granted by name!
2. In case of living matter - like a human sperm or egg - you impress the name on a tiny needle, & touch the target with name using an elaborate lab procedure. Result will be an embryo with qualities granted by name.

Story has two main tracks.

Story summary: track 1.

Robert Stratton is an idealistic researcher who has discovered a name (or is it many names?) that give the hands of robots almost human dexterity. This is likely to enable automatic production of robots for household chores - leading to major changes in economy, & freeing the not so well off from many routine chores.

Master Willoughby is some kind of a leader of the guild of statue makers. They feel their income threatened. We get some drama, plus introduction to the modern debate of the rights of displaced workers vis-a-vis the relentless march of technology.

Story summary: track 2.

Edward Maitland aka Lord Fieldhurst is a rich & influential nobleman, & has been funding a secret project. Dr Nicholas Ashbourne is a well-known name researcher involved in this project.

Hearing about Robert's work with dexterous robots, Fieldhurst wants to recruit him to this secret project; in return, he will protect Robert from opposition to his ideal of helping the common man.

This secret project is interesting. A human sperm's mating with an egg, & resulting production of an embryo, doesn't involve genes, but names! Names of all the future human generations are already held inside each sperm; that's how subsequent generations differ from their parents.

Species go extinct when the collection of names in their sperms run out! New species come into being by high energy natural phenomena - along with all the names they will ever have, effectively determining the time of their extinction.

Someone has figured out that only 5 more names remain in human sperm. Means humanity will go extinct in 5 generations!! This information has been kept secret to avoid panic, & the object of secret project is to figure out new names & ways of perpetuating the race.

Along the project, Robert & Ashbourne will discover the secret agenda of Fieldhurst. Since the new method will require lab intervention, nobleman & others of his cast will control human breeding, & proper balance between different classes of humanity!!! And decide who can breed, & who cannot!

Of course, the two heroes will work a method out - some way of recursive name impressing on eggs & sperms (or may be it's only one kind?) that will not only allow humanity to continue living, but won't need labs for reproduction. Natural ways of breeding will just work find, denying powers to new would be masters.

Collected in.

1. Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others".
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Ellen Datlow (Ed)'s "Vanishing Acts" (2000).
Rating: B
Related: All stories of Ted Chiang.

Ted Chiang's "The Merchant & the Alchemist's Gate" now also available as podcast

Teoodle provides us this link to MP3 version of this story.

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.