Posted by Nicky Drayden on Oct 3, 2014 in
Writer's Life Strange Horizons, February 2014
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2014/20140210/Lysistrata-f.shtml
Author Website: http://www.toryhoke.com/
Short Women in Space, Review #3
Okay, Tory Hoke. Who are you and how did you get into my brain? Seriously, this piece was practically written for me. The aliens are amazing. The writing is charmingly snarky. The depth of the message is spot on. Okay, let’s back up for a minute before I hyperventilate.
Kay has just arrived on the Martian colony of New Plymouth, broke but not completely broken, trying to forget her crappy life back on Earth. She’s looking for a fresh start, but rent’s overdue, and she’s about to be homeless. Then salvation comes in the form of an ad for a strip joint:
Club Combustion seeks dancers. Vertebrates only.
It’s a respectable gig, especially compared to the alternatives, so Kay auditions and gets the job, based on her nice waist, natural teeth, and her “cold but not stuck-up” attitude. In any case, Kay ends up inadvertently performing a sex-act on a pushy, shark-finned, patron and when she denies him for a second time, the whole of the colony suffers the repercussions.
This is a great story about personal boundaries–not just setting them, which sometimes can be a feat in and of itself–but also sticking to them, fortifying them as necessary when others try to tear them down. It speaks directly to women, but can be broadened to a human lesson in general.
It could be said that in this story, Kay lacks agency, and is more reactionary than solving problems for herself. But the act of saying “no,” while it happened early on in the story, it continues to echo as she stands (or sometimes cowers) behind her words. This is the driving force of the plot. The story’s message is heavy, but it’s depth does not burden the sheer entertainment value in any way. I think this is what impresses me the most. Give it a read, and watch for more great things from this author.
REAL Women in Space
Anousheh Ansari
First female space tourist
First Iranian in space
Soyuz TMA-9/8 (Sep. 18, 2006)
Creative Commons
Tags: Aliens, Martian Colony, Nicky's Pick, Short Story, Short Women in Space, Strange Horizons
Posted by Nicky Drayden on Oct 2, 2014 in
Reviews Lightspeed, June 2014 (Women Destroy Science Fiction Issue)
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/salvage/
Author Website: carrievaughn.com
Short Women in Space, Review #2
No one knows what went wrong with Radigund, a small survey ship–dead and adrift between stars, but curiosity and unspoken fears lead a small away crew to discover the truths aboard. Interpersonal relations weigh heavily in this piece, keeping the reader emotionally tethered while the characters are literally adrift in a husk of a ship, that itself is adrift in the vast nothingness of space. Whether or not they find what they are looking for, the nature of the salvage mission promises to be a haunting one.
This seems like an emotional story with a simple plot, set against the backdrop of space. It could just as easily been set on Earth aboard a couple of frigates. That isn’t to say that the science fiction elements are not well-written, or that the atmosphere (or lack there of) doesn’t draw me in, but if you can take the science fiction out of a story and it still works, is it really science fiction?
According to Christie Yant, Guest Editor of Women Destroy Science Fiction (of which this story was a part):
These are different strokes from the same brush: the belief that only one kind of science fiction—rocket ships, robots, extra-planetary adventures—is the “real” kind. Lightspeed has always rejected the narrow definition. Science fiction, like everything else, has changed over time. It has expanded and altered, just as those reading and writing it have.
So perhaps this is a science fiction story, set against the universal backdrop of grief and fear of the unknown, and the stresses it puts upon those that find themselves forced to face it head on. There is no glamor to this story. This is the grit of space. This is a story of what happens when going boldly goes wrong, and the wounds and healing that take place in its wake.
REAL Women in Space
Eileen Collins
First female shuttle pilot
STS-63 (Feb. 3, 1995)
First female shuttle commander
STS-93 (Jul. 23, 1999)
Creative Commons
Tags: Lightspeed Magazine, Short Story, Short Women in Space, Space Travel, Women Destroy Science Fiction
