The Evanescent Muse

Beth has a problem.  There’s something in Lake Michigan that wants her roommate and even though she doesn’t like her roommate, Beth feels compelled to help.  And then there’s Paul, a man who seems to know all about the past Beth is trying to escape.  This story will grab you right from the start.  The writing style is haunting and engaging.  Coates recently sold her first novel to Tor and after reading this short, I will be maintaining a vigilant eye for it.

“What Makes a River”by Deborah Coates at Tor.com.

Carrie Gibbons is a house wife on a farm in the midst of trying to accomplish innumerable chores when an unexpected guest arrives at her doorstep peddling innovations in domestic science.  Her husband taught her about the dangers of the surrounding wilderness and the man who knocks on her door is no less a threat.  The storyline is not all that usual or original, but what struck me about this story is the writing itself.  Burgis does such a great job of creating a distinct voice for the narrator and making her not only very human, but unique in her thought process and experiences.  Carrie Gibbons jumps off the page (or the computer screen) at you.

“True Names” by Stephanie Burgis in Strange Horizons.

This story is in the same vein as Ted Chiang’s “Exhalation,” but while Chiang’s story was told from the perspective of robots who thought they were no different than organic lifeforms, clueless to their origins, Chapman’s story explores the first steps of the evolution of artificial intelligence. What makes this story even more interesting is that is happens in the midst of a murder mystery and the endangerment of an entire space mission. It’s very well written and Charley Eighty-Three’s attempts to comprehend its surroundings and what’s happening to it are both entertaining and tragic.

“Brief Candle” by Jason K. Chapman in Clarkesworld Magazine.

This story won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 2009. The concept and execution are fantastic. I’ve never read anything like it. I won’t give a brief synopsis because there’s no way I could do it justice and I think it’s best to discover it on your own.

“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang.
Escape Pod also has an audio podcast here if you would rather listen than read.

Continuing with the theme of time travel stories, I am passing along a link to Mary Robinette Kowal’s short story “First Flight” on Tor’s website. In this story, time travel is possible, but no one can travel past the year of their birth. This has obvious limitations on someone’s ability to affect the past, but also limits the Time Travel Society’s mission to conduct historical research. The solution is recruiting elderly people. One of those is Eleanor Louise Jackson who was born in 1905, making it possible for her to travel back to see the Wright brothers’ first extended flight of 18 minutes. Unfortunately, no one was expecting this historic event so there were no photographers to document it and her mission is to do just that.

Kowal won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer last year.  She has links to some of her other short stories online on this page if you are interested in reading more by her.

Mike Getty’s short story “When My Girlfriend Lost the Weight” was written as mainstream fiction, but the fantasy element cannot be ignored. Getty had already written much of the story before discovering that his fictional story had roots in reality with the famous “fasting girls,” a Victorian term for young women who refused food and seemed capable of surviving extended periods of time without sustenance. One such woman, Mollie Fancher, supposedly went 14 years without food, although it was never proven. Many of them also claimed special religious or magical powers, and while the young woman in this story never claims such a thing, she does manage to wither away to quite literally nothing.

I read this haunting, but intriguing story in The Best of the Web 2009, but since it’s archived online at FRiGG, I’m posting a link to it.

“When My Girlfriend Lost the Weight” by Mike Getty