Critic Badge - A Book, part 2

 Before I start on the next batch of short stories I am just going to make a note to self about the Good Habits badge.  For the Fitness Habit I had chosen to get into the habit of doing the physio for my knees.  Last night I managed to injure my knee again and I know from experience that I won't be doing exercises for weeks.  I've decided to change the Habit into Closing my Rings, which I can back date as I have the information recorded.

I have also used my monthly Audible credit to purchase The Power of Habit, so I can complete that Clause. 

"The Smog Society" by Chen Qiufan (translated by Ken Liu & Carmen Yiling)

Following the link to Lightspeed Magazine is helpful as it makes the characters names cleaer, has an illustration, highlights the sections where the protagonist, Lao Sun, is talking to his (deceased? disappeared?) wife, and shows the breaks in the story. The story was written in 2015, but here in 2022 we have personal experience of only seeing eyes behind facemasks.

We are never told exactly what caused the smog.  There is a suggestion that it might be sentient, affecting the mood of the people who breathe it in.  Perhaps it is deliberate, caused by those in charge to affect the mood of the populace.  It defiitely changes your mood, no matter the cause.  The smog clears if you're happier.

Lao Sun ends up juggling and entertaining the children outside the Sunflower Day Nursey.  It appears that their cheerfulness is making the smog lift.  Ending on a positive note?

The narrator sounds depressed, even when the author is attempting a positive tone.  This affects quite a lot of these short stories, as if he's been told to make everything sound miserable, even when it isn't.

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"In Blue Lily's Wake" by Aliette de Bodard

Pandemic fun in Space!

"They knew they would contaminate people.  Stubborn. Taking long journeys in cramped vehicles and congregating in droves."  Science fiction knew what was coming.

 Plot concerns a young girl with early stage Blue Lily infecting the people on board a sentient spaceship. A mindship named The Stone and Bronze Shadow.  The girl has infected, and ultimately killed, the mindship.

As with previous short stories in this anthology, some of the details are lost in the depressing narration.  This one is narrated by the woman, but she's just as monotone as the man.  Following the link to Uncanny Magazine makes this story much easier to follow.

Having said that, the story doesn't lend itself to narration.  So many "temporal, spatial and virtual shifts", to quote a Goodreads review, that it's hard to know what is really happening.  Perhaps this is one that needs to be read physically, the names are confusing, but I realise that this is a language barrier I could work to overcome. For example, 'Thich Tim Nghe' pronounced 'Tick Tim Nwhee'.

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