Critic - a Book, part five

 "So Much Cooking" by Naomi Kritzer

Just as I was all set to quit this anthology, along came 'So Much Cooking'.  A wonderful story that the narrator just had to put some life into reading.  Another pandemic story before our own pandemic experience.  These science fiction authors sure can predict the future.

In this case, humans have caught H1N1 - bird flu - and a high percentage of the population is getting sick and dying.  Supermarkets are only delivering to existing customers, toilet paper is running out, chemists don't have enough pain medication.  There's social distancing and staying home to stay safe.

The story is told via the blog of a food writer.  As the story progresses, she starts to run out of food and has to make do with what's in the cupboards or what finally gets delivered once she is able to order online.  She is also looking after her children, some of her relatives' children and children of friends.  She has a house full. Things are so desperate, food-wise, that by the end of the story she has trapped and killed a rabbit.  I'm glad my lockdown experience didn't involve skinning and gutting the wildlife!

One of her relatives dies of bird flu, and one of the children gets sick with a mysterious illness.  The child recovers and the story does end on a happier note, but they are all still stuck in their bird flu lockdown.

I will be checking out novels by this author, and I'm glad there was at least one more story in this anthology that I enjoyed listening to. 

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

"Another Word for World" by Ann Leckie

I have read 'Ancillary Justice' by Ann Leckie, and I didn't enjoy it, so I went into this short story a bit biased.

Despite my preconceptions I enjoyed this story.  It is one of the longer stories in the anthology, which gives more time for world-building, something that the shorter stories often suffer from, and which helped draw me into this story.

Two alien species are attempting to share a planet and mostly communicate via translating software.  A representative from each species is on their way to a conference to debate some of the issues these two peoples are having with the planet-share.  The flyer they are in is shot down by unknown enemies and they have to run for their lives.

During their flight through marshy scrubland, they lose their only translator.  They now have to get by with the few words they know of each other's languages and gestures.  They come to realise that the translating tech isn't as accurate as everyone assumed it was.  It may have helped over the last century, but it has also caused long-term misunderstandings between these species.

The two characters discover that they were shot down by a coalition from both sides who wanted to split the two species apart.  They decide to start healing the rifts by learning each other's language and encouraging others to do so.

The story is available on Kindle for free in another anthology "Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft".  Yes, this story is about Translate going wrong!

🌟🌟🌟🌟

"The Cold Inequalities" by Yonn Ha Lee

A ship full of downloaded minds or "flowers".  Rather than go to all the expense of keeping bodies alive until they reach a new planet, humanity has chosen to send just the minds.  When the destination is reached, the minds will be uploaded into new bodies that will be printed "atom by atom".

As well as their minds, the people have brought personal possessions with them that will also be recreated once they make planet fall.  The main character is the Guardian of this archive.  It suggests that there are quite a few copies of her to guard all the flowers.  She won't be recreated on arrival, and she has no possessions of her own.

She discovers a Stowaway onboard, an unknown mind, which she attempts to evict.  Eventually she discovers that it is one of her own copies.

Too much time was spent on wordy descriptions and the ending was too sudden.  There was no real clue as to the outcome of the situation, whether she was able to evict one of her parts or whether this Stowaway took over as Guardian.  Unfortunately, I didn't care enough about the character to be bothered by the ending.

🌟🌟.5

I've decided that I will do one more more post on this book and then I'm done.  Otherwise all my posts will be Critic - Book!