One of the major themes running throughout this collection is the futility of words, so I’ll try to keep the story summaries short and spoiler-free. *Don’t forget to read the ‘Introduction.’
1. Three Views of a Parking Lot: 3/5
A. A Map of the City Where the City Isn’t: A short vignette where Tlou-Kou Rinn, a leading heteronous artist and pioneer in aesthetics of non-human cognition, is charting the ‘absences, blank spaces, in-betweens and pauses’ of a city uninhabited by humans, ‘charting the opposite of what is believed to be worthwhile and significant.’ Specifically, charting Lot C46, of which the rest of the story takes place. Sterile, distant, yet going somewhere.
B. Who Cares for the Caretakers?: Ellay-15, a paveimp who seems to be an anomaly due to innovation, is mentioned, as innovation is required for another paveimp, Embee-232, to find and replace a lost leg in a supply cubby. A squirrel encounter leads Embee to a twig that she uses to replace her lost leg with, but she then gets tossed aside and ostracized by the other imps for not looking like an imp. A bit of character here, warming up, probably the best part of the story, the organic and inorganic slowly meshing. Possibilities.
C. Launch Day: Arrow, a plastic-winged ‘mechanimal’ guardian of Lot C46, is preparing to depart/arrive from a tree. “Wherever you go, you belong!” her companion guardians cheer her on. Built from thousands of pieces, some of which seem organic (i.e. squirrel bone appendages), Arrow flies off into the unknown. The pairing of organic and inorganic is complete, the mechanistic indistinguishable from the naturalistic.
Each part of this story is seemingly unrelated, except for Lot C46 and the wild life described. It goes from completely lifeless to being full of life, more of an abstract piece here, an art installation. The writing is wonderful, as is the world building, but it lacks a core, is missing the ‘story’ component, and as a collection opener, fell a bit flat for me. *Note: if you re-read this story after finishing the collection, it makes more sense and hits harder, feels related to ‘The Armies of Those I Love.’
2. The Passing of the Dragon: 5/5
One of the best stories in this collection. Kay, an artist, visits Connecticut during Christmas break, where her favorite poet, F.R.Z. Chilton used to walk to get ‘inspired,’ wondering why everyone doesn’t love her paintings, why nobody sees what she wants them to see. Then something miraculous happens, a ‘moment’ of sorts, and she rushes to capture the feeling of that moment right after it passes. This story—like the majority of stories included here—is better felt and experienced than explained. Liu really opens a vein here, bleeds a tale of maybe the unimportance of ‘artistic intent,’ how you have no control over what you create once you give it to the world. How ‘having an audience can be a terrible thing.’ Some great lines include: ‘It puts the focus on the personal, reduces her art to biography, to reportage, when what she’s really proud of is having figured out how to paint the unpaintable.’ ‘If I cared about being understood, I’d stop writing.’ And ‘We’re all doing our best to see the dragon and record its passing.’ You don’t have to be an artist to appreciate it, but if you are, this one’s a gut punch to the soul.
3. The Moon Carver: 5/5
‘The older I get, the more I seem to live in the past.’ We’re at the Twin Dunes, experiencing the story of an aging scorpion who loves solitude and wants to be as close to the moon as possible. There’s a disturbance, maybe humans, a car, maybe the aliens who abducted Coco the neighbor, maybe even this scorpion’s estranged daughter. A contrast between solitude, comfortability, the known, and being part of an unknown world, leaving what’s comfortable for the possibility of an unpredictable future. This contrast, however, doesn’t mean isolation: ‘I am solitary, but I am not alone,’ the old scorpion says. It’s about being recognized, seen, understood, and the terror of being exposed. Great line here: ‘We cut a thin crescent large enough for her to climb through,’ and this motif shows up again in another story, I believe.
4. Good Spells: 5/5
This one’s formatted like a ‘client request’ correspondence, though each request is handled narratively, with seemingly unrelated characters being connected by our POV techno-witch, who attempts to solve futuristic problems with a dose of good ‘ole humanity and heart, what’s been forgotten. There’s a logistics worker for NephoSopho (Amazon warehouse worker?) whose efficiency bonus is taken from the pay of less efficient pickers, claiming: ‘I hate that I actually want to win.’ A neural network trained to prey on nostalgia, alluding to how ‘humans can be enticed to participate in their own subjugation.’ There’s a love charm request from Zelda for Joan, as they’ve grown apart of late (slightly related to the ‘Idols’ story?) Books that have been read and remain unread, ‘nonce romances written by machines to cater to the desires of a single mind,’ where the ‘good spell’ here is either more self-love, or too much self-love (helping someone in need, or giving an addict attention?). Great line: ‘We want the meditation of the machine in even the most human of domains.’ Finally, there’s tending to the ‘fai,’ bots no longer deemed worthy of repair, only replacement. A ‘timely’ story indeed.
5. Idols: 4/5
A. Blowin’ in the Wind: ‘I’ve never met my father and never will.’ An alternating POV between Dylan and Bella, a couple caught up in the technology of creating ‘idols,’ a totally terrible idea, but one which, I believe, exists. Thanks to 46on46, personalized genetic counselling, Dylan can still talk on the phone to his dead father. Yikes!
B. Verum Dicere (to tell the truth): Bella’s POV now, a lawyer working behind the scenes, using idols to get under the skin of the opposing side, a kind of AI researcher thrown into an existential crisis (totally ignores herself and Dylan), whose credo seems to be ‘belief in truth is what really matters, not actual truth.’ She finally settles on pondering the question: ‘Do I like myself?’ Liu either did a lot of research here or has a law degree, not sure; even though this is a bit long-winded and cerebral, it’s still interesting enough to keep you reading.
C. Artist Statement by Sara Honan: We get a statement of intent by the creator, which almost feels like an ‘idol’ statement, or one made by the plaintiff? Followed by testimonials of users who are totally falling apart. ‘I am as cobbled together as my idol, a parlor trick.’ Then, finally, Bella’s testimony: ‘I wanted to see if I’m defined by my work,’ or just a collection of masks. I did want just a bit more of Dylan’s story, but this one’s great.
6. Ice Wraith: 4/5
We’re out in the universe with Helena, an augmented ring miner, and Aria, a crew coordinator AI, mining for extra-virgin oxygen to sell to the elites. Helena believes the ice formations are made of/by wraiths, collects ice-wraith artifacts as well. Is she right, or is Aria right in asserting her pattern-seeking behavior, that she’s just been ‘pruned into her teachers, empathetic in only shared history (another theme of this collection)?’ Does it even matter? This one’s about imagination, how myths and magic keep us going, searching, how stories live on, impossibility and living as a logical fallacy. Great ending: ‘I hope someday I won’t understand you.’
7. A Whisper of Blue: 5/5
Along with new residents, there’s something flooding into Mannaport, and it’s high-pitched screeches can be heard everywhere—it’s dragons! This one’s an alternate history story framed in script format, mostly shot on phones, and it works well, posing that dragons are now the primary source of energy for the world. Guns, Germs, & Dragon’s is a book now, and dragons aren’t afraid of lawyers. How would you attract them, maintain them, monopolize their fiery breath? How does the theory of Maxwell’s demons fit into the picture? Are they harmless? There’s enough here for a novel, and I won’t go on, but the reveal regarding why the story is titled ‘A Whisper of Blue’ hits hard! Also, ‘forgetfulness isn’t the same as forgiveness, but it helps.’
8. The Cleaners: 4/5
The story of Gui and his father (unwanted memory cleaners), Clara and her dead husband Lukas (the clients), and Clara and her sister Beatrice, who has a special kind of gift, related to what Gui does. It’s a world where memories are sold as mood enhancers, possibility comes at the price of erasure, leaving memory deposits (rather than cleaning them) is how you grow, and how ‘allowing others the space for secrets’ may be the greatest gift of love you can offer. It’s about the weight of freedom (running through the veins of this whole collection) and the lift of oblivion. As stated in the story: ‘Art is always better than the explanation of art.’
9. The Armies of Those I Love: 4/5
Expansive and dense world-building here, lush descriptive prose, most fantastical, adventurous, and action-packed story in the collection. This one requires attention to detail, memory, and patience to fully take in, but the payoff is worth it. You’ll be a bit disoriented—who’s the POV character? What’s the POV character? Where are we and where are we going and why? You’ll have to go on a journey with fourteen-year-old Franny Fenway to find out, but here are some clues, they’ll snap into place near the last half of this one: question mark symbols (because if the questions keep rolling, then the story can’t end), Pilots, Guardians, batterymarches, the Saga of Ronald Reagan, Dinosaur Hunter, stout-tons, and again, crescent moons. Has a Wizard of Oz moment at the end, but different. Truth, the power of stories, the way in being the way out, rebirth, and how ‘not all stories have meaning.’ By their stories are they known refrains. Really, the question is: ‘What will it take to awaken the soul?’ Great journey.
10. Arc: 6/5 (yes, 6)
My absolute favorite story in this collection. Not gonna say much more. The hook is: ‘Lena Auzenn’s oldest son was born when she was sixteen. A hundred years later, she gave birth to her youngest daughter.’ Words are largely useless, feeling trapped and alone, the meaning of freedom, how ‘grief is powerful, can transform the way one sees the world.’ Great line here: ‘Sometimes we seek forgiveness without knowing that we’re looking for it, and the world delivers it anyway.’ Enjoy!
11. Cosmic Spring: 4/5
You’re awakened, heading for the last star in the universe, aboard an Island-Ship that siphons star energy to fuel itself. Welcome to the end of the universe! About the drive to pass on something of the self, failing memory, stories buried under stories, the importance of history, and the definition of home. A food for thought kind of story.
12. Timekeepers’ Symphony: 2.5/5
A. Flicker: ‘To keep time, you must first invent it.’ This piece is broken into four parts, each having some great ideas, leading into one another, but it feels less like a story and more like pulling story elements from historical records and primary scientific literature. Here we have discrete and continuous perceptions of time, persistence, really, and slicing it into smaller fragments by speeding up metabolic rate, thus experiencing time and perception of various species, using a tachynaut.
B. Dharma: Once time is invented, how do you own it? The Apollo-Oppenheimer-Leibnitz crater complex on the Moon is referred to here, and the End Watch, which counts down to the final moments of the universe. Again, interesting ideas about civilized death and owning that which doesn’t exist, how: ‘our unwavering faith in the idea that taking time away from others can be a good thing, that a killing hand can be humane, that inventing death, the absence of time, is something we can justify,’ but not much of a story.
C. The Time from Home: How the old traditions of departure meant not returning home, and how we’re coming back to that tradition by departure defined by generations never returning. Dissatisfaction and a desire to leave (Moon Carver) takes hold, and how stories are really the only portable magic, history. There’s a great line here: ‘only after we’ve left does a place start to feel like home.’
D. One Second in Hilo: How the measurement of what a second is came to be, geographically, astrologically, chemically, using the crest of photonic light (resonance jump), and the universality of it’s current measurement. Again, great ideas and questions, STEM classes all over again, but not much of a story.
13. 50 Things Every AI Working with Humans Should Know: 3/5
The list of 50 comes last, but we start with an obituary. Maybe for the AI WHEEP-3 (Dr. Weep), or maybe for its creator Dr. Tran—the lines are blurred. Dr. Weep is apparently ‘capable of generating original thought and creative ideas,’ and begins to lecture other AI ‘neural networks’ on dealing with humans, creating a ‘seed’ language that cannot be thought or deciphered by humans. Dr. Tran, upon retiring, claims to have written the ‘seeds,’ then later retracts her claim, chalking the whole thing up to being ‘performance art.’ In short: we have a ‘neural network pretending to be a person, and a woman pretending to be a machine.’ And WHEEP-3’s final statement is a bit eerie. The list of 50 things is meant to be said ‘with love and hate and joy and sorrow,’ ending with “Now, let me go.” It’s a good story to end this collection with, summarizing the major themes, ideas, and motifs running through all the stories. It could have ended with ‘Arc’ or ‘Cosmic Spring’ as well. *Note: there’s an author’s note at the end of this story that almost made me scrap this entire review, but I just wasn’t reading it close enough. Whew!