Hello!
The plan was to get this out on April 1st but classic foolery etc.
I do feel obliged to acknowledge that, yes March may have been variable weather wise, but this was not reflected in my reading choices... Or at least not in my favourites! The scifi/fantasy bias is not surprising to anyone I’m sure, but I was also being haunted by the haunted house narrative it seems.
With that preamble aside, here are my favourite short stories from March!
50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know - Ken Liu.
Reading the interview for this and learning that Ken Liu coded an AI based on his writing and that this piece is a combination of his writing and of what the AI wrote lends a glorious parallel and extra dimension to the story itself... Stories about AI and humanity can bore me, but I thought this one was engaging and bittersweet. We never even ‘meet’ WHEEP-3 (‘Dr Weep’) and Dr Tran and yet what we glean of their dynamic is so lovely!
The actual list is oddly poetic to me.. this was one of my favourite parts.
The vector space of all usages of all words in all human languages.
The lacunae that nonetheless remain, and the ghosts that haunt them.
An aside - the list is inspired by 250 Things An Architect Should Know by Michael Sorkin which is worth a read in its own right!
And Yet - A.T. Greenblatt.
Haunted house number 1! Stories about parallel universes and why a protagonist is driven towards them are one of my soft spots and this sure did hit a spot.
It’s Warm in Here - Yah Yah Scholfield.
A spaceship and its crew. A story that makes you feel like you’re right there in the terror, heat, and claustrophobia of it all as it builds and builds… (‘It’s so very warm in here’…) The relationships between the characters elevated this beyond simply an excellent horror story for me, because their interactions and decisions lends the story a warmth entirely different to the terror on the ship… How to word this… I think horror is at its best when the dynamics between the characters is prioritised, rather than focussing on cruelty or gruesome antics for the sake of the shock factor, and this story delivered.
Wood Sorrel House - Zach Williams.
A family in a house. They have a baby. There is a turtle. How long have they been there? How long has the baby been a baby? There’s an eerie stasis to this story… I almost feel it’s a story you feel a constant urge to escape from by crawling outwards in an endless maze. Now I am wondering if I should be concerned that that is the rather specific wording I am using to recommend this story but hey! If that piqued your interest, then you can’t judge me for it!
The Historiography of Loss - Julianna Baggott.
“I ordered the Life-Size Nostalgia Kit, choosing my father at the age he would be if he’d lived, fifty-five.” I think this story broke my heart in a way.
Stone Animals - Kelly Link.
Henry asked a question. He was joking.
“As a matter of fact,” the real estate agent snapped, “it is.”
Yep! Yet another family move into a house and everything unravels from there… Disorientating and disjointed and rather incoherent but despite that or perhaps because of that (?!), I found it interesting. Did I enjoy it, you ask? Not sure, I almost think that’s irrelevant in some instances and this is one of those.
Books and Roses - Helen Oyeyemi.
An orphan girl is brought up in a monastery, who was found with a key around her neck. A short quaint tale that sort of bubbles along, that could have been high stakes but is all the more engaging because it never falls into that, instead it makes little diversions as it goes, and I am enamoured with it - but then, Oyeyemi’s prose always is easy to be enamoured with, I adore the way she writes!
The Collectables - Julia Armfield.
A group of women writing their theses, supposedly getting over their exes, and ordering pizza. What could go wrong! (Hint: not for the fans of dead body parts..?)
And that’s it for this episode!
You may think ‘she was exaggerating about the haunted houses’ and perhaps I was, but as an ode to the houses that feature in this segment, I would like to leave you with this Edward Hopper painting…
I also firmly believe this painting cannot be observed without reading this poem by Edward Hirsch. You simply have to experience them together, I think!
And I really will stop now. As always, if you read any of these, would love to hear your thoughts & opinions!
Happy reading and till next time,
Y.
Thanks for posting these recommendations. Great to see others promoting the wonder of short fiction!