Any Way the Wind Blows by Seanan McGuire - A Short Story Review

I rather enjoy stories that break the fourth wall or are meta in nature.

This one is an homage to Tor’s office in the iconic Flatiron building in New York City.  The artwork for the story was excellent, with Stubby, the official logo of tor.com, hovering beside the building.

It reminded me of one of my favourite episodes of Deep Space 9, Far Beyond the Stars (S6-E13), where Sisko has visions of being a pulp science fiction author.

This story has the crew of Stubby, cartographers of the multiverse, and their experience when they arrive in our reality.


It was clever and fun - a delight to read.

Seanan McGire’s website - http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Seanan McGuire

Survival Horror by Seanan McGuire

At first I groaned when I began the story.  I am no fan of fantasy, magic and weird creatures.  I am never in the mood.  Although I like science fiction, and you can certainly see the parallels, I at least enjoy "plausible" SF.

A couple teenagers are in the basement reading comics and installing a new computer game.  Once loaded all the lights go out and the evil magic begins.  The my groaning began.

But there was always a line of humour in it that kept me reading.

I certainly enjoyed how, when the parents got involved, everything got mundane and still quite funny.

It was a good story because the twist ending worked well for me.

Seanan McGuire's website - http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Hello, Hello by Seanan McGuire

This was a charming and warm story about a mother of young children who is a computer scientist specializing in language translation AI programming.

She has a sister who is deaf and uses an AI that is programmed to translate American sign language.

Communication is done primarily over Skype and the use of avatars is commonplace.  One day she gets a call, from her sister's number, but instead of her sister's avatar there is an image of a default face which is having trouble communicating.

The kids are taken by this stranger, finding he or she funny, and they enjoy trying to talk with it.  This makes the mother very nervous.

With a bit of digging the truth is discovered which, in turn, may create a new market for translation AIs.

Like I said, charming, even though the twist was easy to figure out, I did like how the story moved beyond the telling of the mystery.

Seanan McGuire's website - http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Seanan McGuire