3/06 UPDATE: My New Year’s Resolution

Posted on April 1, 2006 by John DeNardo in Books // 0 Comments

This is the March 2006 update of my New Year’s Resolution.

QUICK STATS:
   STARTING SF-POINTS^©: 62
   SF-POINTS^© EARNED THIS MONTH: 36 (QUOTA: 31)
   YEAR-TO-DATE SF-POINTS^©: 98 (YTD QUOTA: 90)

PREVIOUS MONTHS:
Jan
Feb

DATE READ	STORY	YEAR WRITTEN	AUTHOR	SOURCE	RATING	TYPE	POINTS	YTD POINTS
03/04/06	“The Man in the Mailbag”	1959	Gordon R. Dickson	The Good Old Stuff edited by Gardner Dozois		NV	2	64
03/04/06	“Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons”	1961	Cordwainer Smith			NV	2	66
03/04/06	“A Kind of Artistry”	1962	Brian W. Aldiss			NV	2	68
03/09/06	“Gunpowder God”	1964	H. Beam Piper			NA	4	72
03/11/06	“Semley’s Necklace”	1964	Ursula K. Le Guin			SS	1	73
03/11/06	“Mother in the Sky with Diamonds”	1971	James Tiptree, Jr.			NV	2	75
03/12/06	“Genetopia”	2001	Keith Brooke	Infinity Plus		SS	1	76
03/17/06	“Sergeant Chip”	2004	Bradley Denton	Best Short Novels: 2005 edited by Jonathan Strahan		NA	4	80
03/17/06	“Under the Flag of Night”	2004	Ian McDowell			NA	4	84
03/24/06	“The Concrete Jungle”	2004	Charles Stross			NA	4	88
03/25/06	“The Gorgon in the Cupboard”	2004	Patricia A. McKillip			NA	4	92
03/25/06	“The Fear Gun”	2004	Judith Berman			NV	2	94
03/26/06	“Arabian Wine”	2004	Gregory Feeley			NA	4	98
03/26/06	“They’re Made of Meat”	1991	Terry Bisson	Bisson’s website		VI	[.25]	98

KEY:VI=Vignette (.25 points), SS=Short Story (1 point), NV=Novelette (2 points), NA=Novella (4 points)

NOTES:

Miscellaneous reviews follow

“Genetopia“ by Keith Brooke [2001 short story] (Rating: ) [Read 03/12/06]

Source: Brooke’s website, Infinity Plus
Synopsis: Henritt, a Pure human in a world routinely affected by nanotechnology that transforms plants and animals alike, falls for a impure mutt of unknown origin and follows her into the dangerous wilds between settlements.
Review: I read this as an introduction into the novel-length expansion of the story, Genetopia. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. I read the story after reading 50 pages into the book and the stories between the two differ. I like the ever-changing world of Genetopia and how the definition of human is so precarious. With the bio-engineering capabilities, both environmental and induced by tribes, the definition of humanity is very blurry. This raises some great questions about what it means to be humans, but these areas are left mostly unexplored in the story. Instead, it is a last-page realization for Henritt that the world is not black and white.
Note: This story appears as chapter 14 in the Genetopia novel.

“They’re Made of Meat“ by Terry Bisson [1991 vignette] (Rating: ) [Read 03/26/06]

Source: Bisson’s website.
Synopsis: A race of alien, meat-based beings is discovered. Should we welcome them with open arms or ignore them?
Review: Not bad, but this short vignette lacked any real impact.
Note: 1991 Nebula nominee.