{"id":6487,"date":"2019-03-20T03:22:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T03:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=6487"},"modified":"2019-03-20T03:22:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T03:22:38","slug":"reviews-of-short-fiction-february-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=6487","title":{"rendered":"Reviews of Short Fiction: February Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each month, Daniel Haeusser reviews short works of SFT that appear both online and in print. He is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Canisius College, where he teaches microbiology and leads student research projects with bacteria and bacteriophage. He\u2019s also an associate blogger with the American Society for Microbiology\u2019s popular\u00a0Small Things Considered<\/span><\/a>. Daniel reads broadly\u00a0in English and\u00a0French, and\u00a0his\u00a0book reviews can be found at\u00a0Reading1000Lives<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or Skiffy & Fanty<\/a><\/span>. You can also connect with him on\u00a0<\/a>Goodreads<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThe Butcher of New Tasmania<\/a>\u201d<\/span> by Suo Hefu, translated from the Chinese by Andy Dudak<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clarkesworld Magazine<\/i> Issue 149, February 2019<\/p>\n

Larry Wu, biologist and medical officer of the Vitus Bering,<\/i> writes a New Confederation pardon committee a plea arguing innocence to charges of genocide for which the Confederation has detained him. Though he does not deny any of the facts in the case against him, there is more to his actions and he wishes a chance to explain. The moral issues that arise from Wu\u2019s actions bear thinking over and would make an excellent jumping off point for discussion in classroom settings. I appreciated that the story does not go in directions one would at first expect, and highly recommend it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cArt<\/a><\/span>\u201d\u00a0by Alberto Chimal, translated from the Spanish by David Bowles<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dark<\/i> Issue 43, December 2018<\/p>\n

Somehow this slipped by in the month of December (which I still haven\u2019t gotten around to writing reviews up on), so Rachel and I made note of it now for February. There have been several Chimal stories that I\u2019ve read since starting this column, and also previously seen \u2013 a testimony to his prolific output. I particularly liked the atmosphere of this short story that details the deaths of the last people alive as the world is destroyed. Per the title, the story actually serves as metaphor for creation of art and how it is, or is not, appreciated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cEveryone Sleeps at Night<\/a><\/span>\u201d by Anderson Fonseca, translated from the Portuguese by Toshiya Kamei<\/strong><\/p>\n

Idle Ink<\/i>, February 25, 2019<\/p>\n

A young girl named D\u00e9bora awakens at home and is greeted by Ian, the house AI. The reader soon becomes aware that all is not quite right with D\u00e9bora\u2019s family. Similar to the other shorter works this month, atmosphere dominates here, in this case one of unsettling loneliness. In retrospect, the ending could be easily expected, but I got caught up in the text too much to even notice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cFor Humanity Today and Tomorrow<\/a><\/span>\u201d by Sou Saito, translated from the Japanese by Toshiya Kamei<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aphelion<\/i> Issue 236, Volume 23, February 2019<\/p>\n

Another particularly short story that covers an interesting idea of resurrecting precursors to Homo sapiens<\/i> that previously thrived during climate change as a way to ensure our own genetic future. A poignant tale strengthened by staying bittersweet and brief.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cA Young Man\u2019s Fortune<\/a><\/span>\u201d by Alberto Chimal, translated from the Spanish by Toshiya Kamei<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bewildering Stories<\/i> Issue 797, February 2019<\/p>\n

A third translation by the never-sleeping Kamei, In this case a short fantasy by Chimal that addresses the human desire to know the future, but the simultaneous inability to handle such knowledge. It doesn\u2019t do much beyond serving as a parable, but Chimal\u2019s style captures the emotions of the characters very well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each month, Daniel Haeusser reviews short works of SFT that appear both online and in print. He is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Canisius College, where he teaches microbiology and leads student research projects with bacteria and bacteriophage. He\u2019s also an associate blogger with the American Society for Microbiology\u2019s popular\u00a0Small Things Considered.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[426,778,264,781,9,51,777,779,38,132,129,149,780,127,754,414,722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6487"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6492,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions\/6492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}