Aeon #14

The fourteenth issue of Aeon kicks off with “The March Wind” by Davin Ireland. In this story, the Earth is at war with nameless, hostile aliens who have forced the human population into a continuous curfew. In the destroyed shambles of the modern world, suicide has become a fact of everyday life. Vic lives in the Mash House, once a backpacker’s hotel and part-time brothel—now a pitiful shelter for him and his sick girlfriend Penny. When he finds an alien artefact, though, he has no idea how much it will change his life. Ireland describes the new Earth and its changed atmosphere wonderfully, mixing what is a tragic situation with the indomitable human survival instinct. The people grouping to watch the war overhead, as if it were a mere spectacle, is a particularly nifty touch. I like that Ireland didn’t shy from the consequences of Vic’s choice, but the ending did not sit quite right with me. The alien artefact seemed a little too convenient. I had a hard time believing it would do what humanity needed most, especially in light of its being manufactured by hostile aliens.

“The Diesel Mnemonic” by Ryan Neil Myers features a Buyer who pays good money in exchange for people’s painful memories. Sonny Boy once sold one such memory to the Buyer, but now that he strongly feels the lack of it, he has come to buy it back.

The language in this is beautiful, and the story comes to a satisfying close. I liked the depiction of the Buyer as a creepy character, a scavenger preying on mankind’s pain and deceiving his clients. However, while the story is enjoyable, I wasn’t enthralled by it—I guess because the idea of getting rid of painful memories has been around for a while (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for instance); and Myers ultimately has very little new to say about this, either in the depiction of the Buyer or in the portrayal of Sonny Boy.

“Sweet Rocket” by Jay Lake reads like a campfire tale for a generation of children who have grown up on a space station. Hosehead, a troublemaking child on Haven station, has found himself manning the boards, which mostly consists of staring up into space and waiting for an improbable transmission on the emergency band. However, when Hosehead does hear a signal, his only trouble is that he can’t see any vessel from which it might have originated from….

This was a fun little tale that did a good job of extrapolating on current tales for children and taking them into space. The mythology and mindset that Lake imagines are very believable for a space station and combine to form a good read.

In “Wild Among Hares” by Sarah L. Edwards, nature and society clash in subtle yet striking personifications of mother and midwife. Both characters are the embodiments of nature’s greatest gift, life. With stilted speech, the midwife struggles to communicate her intentions to those around her and, at the same time, hide her special talent—a talent that cost her dearly in the past but that she will not forsake. The midwife introduces the reader to her special gift early on, told from her first-person perspective:

As a girl I went where they led, seeking out hares, whiskered and mustached, and there I guarded their secrets and knew their pains. I strayed from the ways of people as long as I pleased. But wild things die young. Long ago I’d learned to wear the garb of mankind—when I needed it.

The midwife knocks upon the door of a shabby house in search of work and food. She is wild, carefree, and in tune with nature around her but unable to feed herself adequately, so she offers her services to the couple of the house. The mother-to-be has a secret of her own, and the midwife must choose the safety of solitude or hazard the risk involved.

This tale highlights themes of choice and honor. The heroine’s path is perilous, muddled between hazard and vicissitude. This piece’s strengths, its language and cadence, paint a rural, pastoral setting suited to the plot and structure. However, the main conflict is a bit slow in unfurling. Given the lengthy narrative and interior monologues, which work quite well, a punchier foreshadowing of the conflict would have created a bit more tension earlier in the story. Still, overall, this piece is masterfully crafted, lyrical in tone, and even whimsical at times, a magical place which I will enjoy revisiting.

In “Hard Rain at the Fortean Cafe” by Lavie Tidhar, the narrator, Amelia Hart, is sent by the FBI to investigate what looks like a standard killing spree in a diner—except that one of the victims looks suspiciously like Marilyn Monroe…

Set in a mythical America where copies of Marilyn are being targeted by a serial killer, and where alien abductees exchange information about the Fortean Press, Tidhar’s story is classic noir, but with its tongue firmly in its cheek from beginning to end. A very enjoyable read.

In “The Diadem” by Mikal Trimm, Julia has turned sixteen—an age when she no longer believes the princess tales her parents have been spinning for her. Yet her birthday present is a diadem, and a very special one at that: what if her parents had been right from the start, and Julia was really a princess?

For all its brevity, this was the most moving story of the issue. It’s short and believable, and the revelation of the diadem was very well done. I’m usually not in favour of ambiguity, but here it was just right for the story: Trimm skillfully leaves readers asking themselves the unanswered questions at the end of the narration, throwing into sharp relief the fact that Julia herself has stopped believing in anything but her everyday life. Recommended.

[Reviewed by Aliette de Bodard except for “Wild Among Hares” by Sarah L. Edwards which was reviewed by Rae Bryant.]