★★★☆☆ Two not-bad Hugo finalists

How to raise a Kraken in your bathtub

P. Djèlí Clark

One Man's Treasure

Sarah Pinsker.

In this issue of Uncanny Magazine I read only two stories: "How to raise a Kraken in your bathtub". by P. Djèlí Clark and "One Man's Treasure" by Sarah Pinsker. These are 2024 Hugo finalists: "Kraken" for Best Short Story and "Treasure" for Best Novelette. They were just OK, not great, and neither would receive my vote for the award. (My votes would be "The Sound of Children Screaming" by Rachael K. Jones for Short Story and "On the Fox Roads" by Nghi Vo for novelette.)

"Kraken" was a disappointment. From the title alone you will guess at the subject and plot of the story. This didn't bother me, because sometimes the best stories in speculative fiction are those that start out obvious, but then break. Well, "Kraken" doesn't break. It was pretty much exactly the story I imagined when I read the title.

"Treasure" was better. It's a story about trash collectors in a world where rich folks have access to magic and magical devices. If you're thinking, "Collecting magical trash sounds hazardous," have yourself a lollipop. It's a fun and imaginative little story, not, in my opinion, Hugo-worthy, but worth the little time to read it.

Amazon review

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Comments

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★★★☆☆ Peggy Carter sans Steve Rogers

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★★★☆☆ Minimal surreal magic school story

Midnight for Charlie Bone Jenny Nimmo Charlie Bone has one friend, who has a dog. Charlie lives with his mother and two grandmothers, one who is kind (Maisie) and one, Grandma Bone, who is severe. Charlie discovers unexpectedly that he has a gift -- he is "endowed", as Grandma Bone says. When he looks at a photograph, he can hear the conversation that took place when it was taken. Grandma Bone tells him that, because he is endowed, he must go to a special private school, Bloor's Academy. Charlie accordingly goes to Bloor's Academy, meets other endowed children, and has adventures. Although this sounds like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson , the feeling is completely different. Jenny Nimmo 's style is spare to the point of minimalism. Nothing is described in more than the barest outline. I don't have a mental image of any of the characters. The story is told in the third person from Charlie's point of view. His inner dialog is minimal. I don't have a f

★★★☆☆ Informative but annoyingly tendentious

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues Jonathan Kennedy There is a book that everyone who is interested in biology and history should read: William H. McNeill 's Plagues and Peoples , published in 1976. I suppose that is long enough ago that we are allowed to call it a classic. Plagues and Peoples is an example of what I call a "I have a new hammer -- look at all these nails!" book. McNeill 's new hammer was consideration of the effects of infectious disease on history. He argued that infectious disease was an important force in history, persuasively in my opinion. Jonathan Kennedy 's Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues intends to update McNeill . Kennedy points out quite correctly that the advances in technology since 1976 enable us to see more deeply and clearly into the past of infectious disease than McNeill possibly could and thus to replace much of McNeill 's speculation with clearer and more solid answers. H

★★★★★ Cornelia Funke still gots it

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★★★★☆ Worst possible time to become a physician

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★★★★☆ If Virginia Hall was fictional, she would not be believable

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★★★★☆ A broken mindship and lost children

In the Shadow of the Ship Aliette de Bodard Aliette de Bodard 's In the Shadow of the Ship is a novella set in her Xuya Universe . Like many Xuya stories, this one takes place aboard a mindship. This particular mindship is called Nightjar and was damaged escaping from the collapsing Empire. (Exactly which Empire this was I am not sure -- there is more than one in the Xuya Universe .) At any rate, Nightjar is not a healthy place. She escaped carrying some of her family. They still live aboard and afford her the loyalty she expects, mostly. Nightjar demands tribute in the form of children whom she lures into her dead zones, from which they never emerge. When Khuyên was a child she was invited to the dead zones by her cousin Anh, but she refused. Later she did the unthinkable: she left Nightjar for the broken Empire, where she rose to the post of Magistrate. Now Khuyên has returned to Nightjar for her grandmother's funeral, where she is met with a complex mixture of disdain

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