One thought on “Uncanny Magazine Issue 2: January/February 2015”

1. 4.5 stars for this gem of a SF novelette, and a 2016 Hugo nominee winner It s free online at here at Uncanny Magazine My final review, first posted on Fantasy Literature Lao Dao, a humble man who works in a waste processing plant in Third Space Beijing, sorting recyclable trash, finds a bottle with a message offering what for Lao Dao is a fortune, to take a message from a man in Second Space to a woman he loves who lives in First Space Travel between the three areas is dangerous and illegal, but [...]

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2. Read as part of Invisible Planets Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation.The title says it all, as the city of Beijing is actually folding think Inception or Doctor Strange There are three spaces inhabited by three social classes that get to take turns to be above ground Needless to say, First Space gets to enjoy the fresh air the most, as they are the privileged class Second Space consists of white collars, while Third Space literally takes care of the trash.The main character come [...]

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3. Visually, the shifting skyscrapers of Folding Beijing brought to mind the film Dark City, but the mechanics of this scenario are all too human, and underlaid with a cynical observation that they would do this if they could Europe has taken one approach to the problem of automation advances making menial jobs practically obsolescent Here, Hao Jingfang theorizes what China might do This future city, a technological marvel, has a strict caste system, which the reader sees through the eyes of one wa [...]

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4. uncannymagazine article foSome interesting ideas, lifeless and dull execution.

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5. So the one good thing about being an economist and a reader is that you can usually tell when a story is being written by another economist The story grappled with some very interesting notions of class, the issues of overpopulation, and perhaps even gender The premise is fascinating, the execution interesting Perhaps the conclusion falters a bit in its tameness, as all the built up tension merely dissipates anti climatically But overall, the story is good enough to be the best novelette entry f [...]

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6. .A city built to house a population stratified by economic success I ended up quite liking Folding Beijing It is a story that grows on you as it progresses, and one that addresses a social and economic problem that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later, and is certainly not confined to China Definitely a story worth reading.Full Random Comments review

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7. Read in the original, titled .Seems to me to be a didactic story of social inequality and lack of mobility, though some of the metaphors and images were cleverly presented I didn t even realize until later that First Space could be taken as a metaphor for The First World , and the use of unclear economic terminology to justify inequality and the tacit acceptance of it by elites and the middle class.

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8. Fascinating universe I d love to read set in it.

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9. The Nalendar by Ann Leckie A short Fantasy story free online at uncannymagazine about a girl, Umri, who seeks to escape the advances of a certain slave broker called Rilhat Imk Rilhat has a crush on Umri, wants to make her his princess But it s also a story in which gods have decisive roles to play Umri encounters a skink it later turns out he s a god himself, though one who has lost much of his power , who convinces her to take him with her to the north However, he doesn t tell the whole story [...]

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10. Very imaginative story about a city that literally folds and rotates every day The city is divided into 3 parts, but only one of them stays above the surface at any point the other 2 fold up and go underground I really enjoyed most of the story, but the climax was a bit info dumpy and its message wasn t to my taste Still, it was a very striking and effective metaphor, and stayed in my mind for quite a while after I finished it.I have a bit to say but can t do so without spoilers view spoiler Th [...]

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11. The Nalendar refers to the name of the river in this story Umri, the main character agrees to take a particular skink with her on a ship This is a fantasy world full of gods, and the skink is some type of god Umri is attempting to travel away from an undesirable suitor.The skink is most likely devious, but Umri decides to help him anyway A tale of an ancient king that offended the Nalendar is told on board, and this tale has implications for the plot.A very enjoyable fantasy short story If you l [...]

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12. I read a lot of speculative short fiction, so I decided to support the market by purchasing a subscription to Uncanny Magazine year 2, and Issue 2 from their first year came as part of the purchase It was a great issue, and I m looking forward to This issue contains 1 novelette, 5 short stories, 3 poems, 5 essays, and 2 interviews.An overall theme in the issue would be finding the things that are important to us Of the short stories, my favorites are The Heat of Us Notes Toward an Oral History [...]

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13. With an undaunted view of class issues and the inequitable distribution of wealth, Jingfang builds a moving tale of honor and family love Folding Beijing offers excellent and truly fascinating world building This is the story of Lao Dao, a middle aged waste worker s story, and his desperate risk taking to earn enough money to send his adopted child to Kindergarten I m looking forward to reading by Hao Jingfang who has degrees in physics, ecomonics, and management This story is the winner of the [...]

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14. I really liked this Like many others I read it as part of my Hugo packet This is my favorite for novelette The plot itself is subtle and subdued compared to most science fiction In that regard it s like literary fiction, although the writing itself isn t fancy not that I m criticizing Liu s smooth translation Of course, the idea of the folding city is pure science fiction that serves primarily to interrogate class issues and economics The main character, Lao Dao, seems flat at first but he has [...]

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15. Found the central metaphor a little too on point, if anything, and some later passages have the air of a lecture, but overall, this is a good story grappling with some weighty issues but humanising them with an engaging lead character and some beautiful prose always hard to know, in those instances, whether to credit the writer or translator a bit of both, I hope.Very much enjoyed and recommended.

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16. The translation by Ken Liu deserves an extra star I DON T LIKE THE STORY AT ALL The characters are flat and boring The only interesting thing about this story is the folding of Beijing, but the author did not write much about how this kind of folding is achieved Seriously, at the very moment when I finished reading this story, it made me doubt the Hugo Award.

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17. I am so happy that the wonderful Tadiana helps me find awesome free online shorts to read

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18. I read this story as part of my 2016 Hugo awards finalist reading marathon.Despite being a finalist because of its inclusion in a slate, the work is not only enjoyable, but also novel and interesting I found quite interesting to read a book written by a Chinese author, to see the current and future world through the eyes of a different culture The population and economic growth of modern China, its economic inequalities, and its technological and engineering marvels are central to Folding Beijin [...]

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19. This story sneaks up on you The prose is nothing to write home about it is, after all, a translation but the story itself says a lot in a short space From the care and devotion that one good man shows to his adopted foundling daughter to a casual disregard for millions of people shown by the elite, from the question of whether one poor man can afford to buy pork on his noodles to the panorama of a huge city folding itself like origami, this story deftly weaves back and forth from the tight, inti [...]

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20. I listened to this on StarShipSofa podcast as part of their brief Hugo Award showcase series It s brilliant The world building is really imaginative and well thought out The story is interesting and really told well The narration by Katherine Inskip is stellar also Go listen right now Or buy the book.

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21. This is a beautiful little story about risk and privilege and love and sacrifice It s not too dramatic and the stakes aren t too high The SF is a little weird, but somehow believable, and the ending is just perfect.

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22. Interesting ideas a folded city where people live in the same space, just at different times but came off rather dull to me.

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23. Miller is killing it again I don t think the guy is able to write something bad The format was a bit unusual but it worked so well with the story.Just wow.

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24. Muito, muito bom uma mistura curiosa de fic o cient fica com distopia com realismo m gico com drama E, embora o conto falei de uma Beijing que literalmente dobra sobre si mesma a cada per odo de horas pra liberar espa o pra diferentes grupos sociais, o que mais pesa o drama A escrita tem aquele qu diferente que me agrada muito na prosa oriental, e a hist ria simples e precisa A motiva o do protagonista t o pura e honesta que d at uma vontadinha de chorar Leitura maravilhosa.

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25. 3,5 stars Nice and inventive I like Leckie s way of tackling religion and gods.

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26. In this book Beijing is segregated in space, time, and caste We sojourn to each Space as an anthropologist The book is short but powerful Inequality seems to be the theme of this decade.

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27. Sementara terpesona oleh kota yang ditekuk tekuk itu drama manusianya ternyata lebih mempesona dan menohok Kalo dikomikin pasti keren o o o Bisa dibaca di sini Thanks, Ken chan

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28. This issue takes what I feel is the risky strategy of using about 50% of the space for fiction in the issue on a single story and so we get a novellette translated by Ken Liu by Chinese writer Hao Jingfang I quite liked but didnt love it not really connecting with the writing style and not sure whether this is down to the writer, the translator or me and my limited knowledge of China The QA with the writer added a little depth and understanding for me and also highlighted an area of if not disa [...]

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29. Read for the 2016 HugosI m not sure what I thought of this one That seems to have happened a lot with Hugo nominated stories this year There are some interesting ideas in there The idea of folding Beijing underground so that each part of the population is only active every few days is interesting and weird I did have a number of thoughts about the story as I was reading view spoiler Most of the characters didn t have a lot of actual characterization to them I felt the same thing when I read The [...]

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30. Full disclosure I backed the Kickstarter campaign for Uncanny Magazine After a slow start to the month, I spend a few hours this afternoon devouring issue 2.As I have already come to expect from the team, everything about this issue was high quality and full of the diversity that I love As a starting point Julie Dillon s cover art is absolutely gorgeous It makes me think of Arabian Nights, Aladdin and the glorious look and feel of my old bellydance costumes, whilst still being a completely indiv [...]

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