Strange Horizons, March 2008

“All Talk” by Will Ludwigsen, the first story for March in Strange Horizons, is a brief scene between two people who possess mind-control powers. Sitting in a café, Valerie and Colin amuse themselves by making strangers around them say inappropriate things, such as the girl who tells her mother, “Elmo strangles hookers!” After a little of this, Valerie goads Colin into admitting his feelings for her. This turn to the serious lacks emotional depth, making Valerie’s end statement more like a lacklustre punchline rather than a serious reflection on their relationship and powers. Though amusing in places, “All Talk” does not particularly satisfy.

In “Kip, Running” by Genevieve Williams, a group of adolescents stages a race across the trains and streets of a future city, running or freeriding to a designated finish point. Kip is one of the best. On the day of the story, she’s running not only to win the race, but to win the affections of Lily, girlfriend of another runner.

As a fun, fast-paced story, “Kip, Running” succeeds. I enjoyed finding out how Kip overcame each setback and seeing her train-top view of the city. Williams manages to slip in flashbacks and reflections without ruining the flow, giving Kip some depth. However, the ending was rather obvious; having seen it coming, I found the story’s emotional impact dampened.

Will McIntosh’s two-parter, “Linkworlds,” is one of my favourites of the short stories I’ve read recently. Set in an alternate universe, where worlds “whiz around, and they bounce off the edges of the [spherical] universe and whiz back toward the middle, or they bounce off other worlds,” it tells the story of an autistic youth, Tweel, whose test results lead him to be taken on as an Assistant Navigator on another world, Cyan, when it joins with his home world. On Cyan, he comes up with the idea of joining more than just two worlds at a time, to more quickly spread new ideas. Unfortunately, this idea is picked up by Salyn, the conquest-hungry leader of another world.

Tweel is an excellent narrator. His thought-patterns felt convincingly different to my own, non-autistic ones, while being accessible enough to understand his motivations and sympathise with him. Towards the end, his internal conflict—over whether to express his plan for escaping Salyn despite what he fears it would cost him, or to let something happen that he thinks would give him happiness—makes him particularly interesting. His actions drive the plot, in ways that he cannot always predict. Because of this, “Linkworlds” is a more real and dynamic story. And because of the nature of his mind, the solution he arrives at for escaping Salyn is out of the ordinary. Though it follows naturally from some of his earlier thoughts, it flouts predictability. Between Tweel, his story, and the fabulously imaginative setting in which it takes place, McIntosh provides a real treat in “Linkworlds.” Recommended.

Sarah Thomas rounds off the month with another interesting and strong story, “Ki Do (The Way of the Trees),” in which a bonsai tree contemplates its vocation, the writing of poetry, and the impact of Kaelyn—who tended the bonsai trees in the Arnold Arboretum Bonsai Pavilion for a short time—upon itself and the other bonsai. In its fixation on stillness and refusal (of growth, of being like other trees), the bonsai is a compellingly nonhuman narrator. Like humans, though, it is capable of grief. Kaelyn’s thoughtful positioning of the bonsai in the pavilion inspired one of their number too call her “[not] entirely unacceptable;” her departure affected them all. The narrating bonsai’s eventual reaction to this makes for a powerful ending, particularly when juxtaposed with the final poem that encapsulates the tenets of Ki Do. Recommended.