Rote, Actually?

Is Artificial Intelligence a misnomer? Is it actually rote learning on a monumental scale? If it is the product of rote, is it creative?

How would you feel if your favorite author, or favorite musician was a mix-and-match machine, rather like a GovX.com "Exquisite Corpse" advertisement (where you see a head of perhaps a nurse, the torso of a firefighter, and the legs of a Navy seal) ?

If you, as a consumer, do not care, what about if you were a competing creator? Or a collector? AI is obviously efficient and fast-to-market, and costs nothing. A print of a masterwork might be similar, but an original has immense value, and a print does not, unless it is a signed, numbered print from a limited series.

I'm thinking of the Pierce Brosnan "Thomas Crown Affair" (which I think is really good, and it has a happier ending --implied-- than does the Steve McQueen "Thomas Crown Affair), and also I'm thinking of "Notting Hill". The former has forgeries and an original, the latter has a --probably legal-- print and the original.

Would museums and art galleries become redundant if everyone could have a reproduction of the world's greatest masterpieces in their home for no cost? Are those places "a good thing"? I think they are. I think that the experience of going to a magnificent building, and admiring something in company with other appreciators of Art... is a good thing for society and for individual sanity and humanity.

While I don't "get" Picasso or Jackson Pollock, I respect that others see great value in their works. I should be sorry if anyone could get a printer attached to AI and verbally request "a Picasso" or "a Jackson Pollock". If that flies, any reader could speak into a printer and ask for "a J. K. Rowling" or "a Shakespeare" or "a Maya Angelou".

For that matter, I don't particularly appreciate my husband's obsession with stripe-art, but because he is/was a famous designer, his private works might be worth something, so I should declare my conflict of interest.

Eric Blair, who wrote as George Orwell, brought fascinating life experience to his writing. He fought in a foreign war as a volunteer (Homage to Catalonia), he served as a colonial law enforcement officer in Burma (Shooting The Elephant), he experienced homelessness (The Road to Wigan Pier) and (Down and Out In London And Paris). How does AI substitute itself for the authenticity of lived experience?

There's a Beatles song, "Now and Then"... but two surviving members of the group were able to manipulate existing recordings to complete a work that was never completed by their band and arguably by one of their most creative members.

That is a very different kettle of fish (apologies for the figure of speech), to the case of the North Carolina musician who recently pleaded guilty to AI-assisted music-streaming fraud. What the accused allegedly did was to use fake songs, and also to create fake fans of those fake songs in order to upgrade his fake listings and thereby deprive legitimate musicians of their rankings, ratings, and percentages of revenue.

The song-streaming services that are alleged to have unwittingly (that is the thing with automated services... no one is to blame on their side) enabled his fraud are Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music... and more.

This North Carolina "musician" claimed (presumably under oath) that he could get more than 660,000 plays per day, worth perhaps $1,000,000 a year in royalties,

As EFF writes:

"This is part of a growing problem regarding artificial intelligence-created music. The Rolling Stone report explained that this harms flesh-and-blood artists because streaming services pay them from a shared pool based on total plays. This means Smith’s fake songs “stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed.”

Some experts estimate that as much as 10 percent of all streams could be fake, which costs the industry billions of dollars per year. "

So, if you want to listen to Bob Seger, or Eric Clapton, or Dire Straits, or David Bowie, or the Highwaymen, do you want to listen to them, or to something rote, actually?

All the best,

Rowena Cherry. Space Snark

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Astra Academy Series by Shami Stovall by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review:

Astra Academy Series by Shami Stovall

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

I picked up a trade paperback copy of Shami Stovall's first Astra Academy Series, Academy Arcanist, from a used bookstore. Even from just the back cover blurb, I had a pretty good idea that it was going to be a Harry Potter series knockoff. The premise of Astra Academy is a school full of arcanists (witches and wizards) who have to bond with a mystical creature, called an eldrin, in order to really tap into their magical potential. (Gee, can you say Patronus anyone?) 

The main character is Gray Lexly. Gray has a hugely muscular twin brother named Sorin who loves to make up his own poetry extemporaneously. Sorin is also a wizard in the making. Later, Sorin gets a witch girlfriend named Hermione. Okay, her name is actually Nini--but Victor Krum calls Hermione "Hermy-own" in the HP series and that kind of sounds like minny, ninny. All the Eldrin creatures are different with various types and degrees of power. All this is exciting, only Voldemort wants to break free and take over the world. Wait, I mean, Death Lord Deimos wants to break free from the abyssal hells--where the dead live. For some reason, only first-year student Harry…um, I mean, only Gray and his small band of misfit friends can defeat this evil.

This is actually just the start of all the endless connections I made with the HP series while I was reading Astra Academy. The sheer number of parallels became so overwhelming, I sometimes felt hit over the head with them. Just when it seemed like the series might set itself apart from its predecessor, the reader is held down and kicked with "Do-you-see-the-similarities-now?" driving-force boots. 

Does this make the series any less compelling? I'm not a hundred percent sure how to answer that, but I'll try to make some sense of this conundrum in the latter part of this review. I will say for sure that if I hadn't found Books 2-4 in audiobook format on my library app, I wouldn't have continued the series beyond Book 1 (as I didn't want to pay to read this particular series--the vow I started last year was to only put out cash for books I've actually read and loved instead of buying anything that vaguely sounds like something I'd like). The audiobooks were lively and fun and kept me coming back for more. They were all immediately available to me for checkout on Hoopla (none of them were available on my Libby library app in audio- or ebook format). When I went searching for Book 5, I found out it wasn't coming out until a later time (luckily, the library app did get a copy of the audiobook when it became available). That forced a lag between Books 1-4 and the final in the series. Fortunately, I remembered everything necessary without having to go backward, as it was only a few months I had to wait. Oh, how I dislike starting a series when all the books in it aren't out yet. Add insult to injury because libraries tend to be hit-and-miss in regards to making sure all series books are available. Again, I got lucky and they did get this one (though I'm still waiting for a final in another of Stovall's other series, which I'll review next week).I was really glad to get closure with this series. 

Additionally, while I was undertaking more research on this series, I found out that Astra Academy is also just one of a subseries with other connected series. Per my usual modus operandi, I'd jumped into this "umbrella" series (which doesn't have an overall name that I'm aware of) in the wrong place, as this was not the first series in technical reading order. At least, I don't think it is. Ugh! Here's what I dug up: 

  Frith Chronicles Books (with 8 novels and a collection of shorts) features a gravedigger who becomes an arcanist with a knightmare--a Eldrin made of shadow and terror--the very same mystical creature that becomes Sorin's Eldrin in Astra Academy. These books were published between 2019-2023. 

  The Kirin Arcanist Books were novels written with Ryan Tang. So there's a tournament that arcanists from around the world can participate in with the prize being that the one who gets the crown also gets turned into a powerful god-like arcanist. Pretty cool, right? These books were published between 2023-2025. 

The suggested reading order of these connected series is very unclear, so I'm going to guess, based on the publication dates, that Frith comes first, followed by Astra Academy, and finally Kirin Arcanist. As to what the chronological order should be, the author should have put more specific information about all this on her website, but there's nothing there (all the series are all plunked on the pages in willy-nilly fashion--don't expect any help sorting this mess out there). I did find more in-depth information about the author's many series on Fandom Wiki (in the search bar here, put "Shami Stovall" to see a listing). If someone spent hours upon hours or was already a widely entrenched fan of this author, I'm sure they'd find whatever they were looking for here. But my point is that brand new fans are left in the dark, dense woods about where to jump into all this. I didn't really want to go deep diving for it, so I'm sorry to say that, if you're new to Shami Stovall's series, you'll have to lump it and blind-plunge in just as I did. 

Now that we've established…not much of anything useful with what proceeded, let's have some summary of the five Astra Academy books: 

Academy Arcanist, Book 1 (published in 2022), opens with Gray plagued by terrible nightmares where he's visited by monsters in a dreamscape and they can actually injure him. He wakes up with real wounds. His parents think he fell out of bed, but his twin Sorin believes him and tries to help him. He's eventually saved from death within the nightmare by Professor Helmith, who tells him she's a powerful arcanist and she invites him to attend Astra Academy. Gray becomes a mimic arcanist, his Eldrin Twain (whose permanent form is an adorable kitty cat) can take the form and power of any other mystical creature nearby). Once Gray and Sorin are established in the school, the plot heads down the road so Professor Helmith is in trouble because a traitorous professor (no, not Quirrell) is in league with an evil Death Lord that wants to escape the abyssal hells, opens a portal, and Gray, who's a brand-new arcanist and green as algae, somehow is the only person who can save the day. Well, temporarily anyway. 

Mimic Arcanist, Book 2 (2023) has Gray, Sorin, and their fellow student "company" hoping to focus on studying and honing their new magics at the academy. But Gray finds a horcrux…I mean, a fragment of the portal he'd closed in Book 1 that allows abyssal hell's monsters into the world of the living. Now Gray's group and the academy need to find all those rogue fragments. But, before they can, Chief Death Eater Vold…{cough} Death Lord Deimos arrives in the mortal world, and Gray once more has to save everybody. 

Abyssal Arcanist, Book 3 (2023) revolves around treasonous arcanists within the academy plotting to destroy the school. Deimos has been trapped in an itty bitty baby's body and has to be fed by bottle and carried around everywhere… No, that's not right. He was actually he was trapped in a dreamscape by Professor Helmith. But Voldemort and Harry are connected by the horcruxes, and Ron, and Hermoine are standing right there beside their friend-- That is to say, Gray and Deimos are connected by soul fragments, and, instead of the teachers at the academy doing the heavy lifting, it's up to wet-behind-the-ears Gray, Sorin, Nini and their other unpopular friends to clean up this mess. 

In Death Lord Arcanist, Book 4 (2024), Harry is trapped in a hedge maze that teleports him to a graveyard where Voldemort and his Death Eaters are waiting… Nope, got bludgeoned again, but I'm all right. It's Gray that's trapped in the abyssal hells and Death Lord Deimos--who is now not a friend but also not an enemy--is injured. Another Death Lord (Naiad) wants to destroy all other Death Lords who are trying to open abyssal portals into the world of the living. Gray shortsightedly teams up with Deimos to fix it and, well, that can't lead to anything good, can it? 

The latest installment in this subseries, Labyrinth Arcanist, Book 5 (2025), details the final confrontation between the juvenile arcanist superheroes (and some of their occasionally half-witted teachers) and Death Lord arcanists from the abyssal hells. Right from the start, I was pretty sure who would win (against all odds). I will note that I don't believe this is the final offering in the series. It ended on a cliffhanger, with Gray pointing out that they still had to defeat the remaining Death Lords. So I expect there will be more to follow.

While I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of Gray Lexly in these books--he's a pompous character who unfortunately almost always gets exactly what he wants, which sets a bad precedent. (I did love Harry Potter and all his friends. Just saying.) Gray seems to think everyone around him is stupid, though occasionally he has good thoughts for the weak, pitiful mortals he looks down upon and graces with his sympathy. Sorin was a more interesting character, and Twain was cutely fun. I also really liked that the villain of this series, Deimos, wasn't straight-up evil. While the reader was aware he was always acting in his own best interests, he, like Voldemort, was a complicated character with a backstory, internal and external conflicts, and motivations that made him intriguing. 

Each book in the series was rollicking good fun, especially read by Michael Langan in the audiobook versions, which had me coming back nearly every day for more. There was always something happening, providing pretty much constant tension. The characters were basically well-drawn while the settings were interesting. In a general way, I'd say I actually liked this series. My big problem was that I couldn't escape the feeling that this was all taking place within a world created by someone else. The author inserted her characters, settings, and plots into it, then spun all her "like series" out from there. In many ways, I would call what she's done here "fan fiction". I looked up the definition of this word. AI gave me the gist of it as: "Fanfic…is creative writing that allows fans to explore their favorite universes and characters in new ways, often expanding on scenarios not covered in the original material." So, yeah, seems like maybe could be fanfic??? 

Polite people might also say artists use "tropes", which offer something so conventional in the plot or theme, etc., that it becomes recognizable almost in a single glance or within a few sentences. But at what point does it become something, well, nefarious? Is it weird for me to be bothered by this? I would absolutely hate it if someone took my characters or worlds and wrote something of their own based on them--especially if it's intended to mock my work. Even if it's actually supposed to be a compliment they liked your work so much that they're emulating it, this seems to be skirting a wider issue that's become so commonplace these days, no one seems bothered by it anymore. No one, that is, except me and a few other curmudgeonly ancients. 

Bottom line, Stovall is a good writer and certainly a prolific one. I also can't be too hard on 1) any writer who's obsessed with playing videogames (as I am), 2) whose favorite videogame is Mass Effect (as is mine)--and Stovall's The Star Marque Trilogy book covers could definitely be both male and female Shepherd, straight from the character creation menu in the videogame--and, as if those weren't enough, 3) someone whose favorite book as a child was The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (mine as well). I'm giving this author a pass because the fact of the matter is that I just plain enjoy her work too much to avoid it, despite my possibly outdated principles. 

Neither of my library apps have any more of Stovall's work available for me to check out other than the first audiobook in another of her "fanfic" series, which, I don't deny, had me hooked. As I said, you'll see the review of it on the Alien Romances Blog next Friday. 

In conclusion, if you want something familiar and adventurous to pass the time, these audiobooks should give you hours of enjoyment…and, you know, also make you want to dust off some true "oldies but goodies" by revisiting Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine just for old times' sake. 

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

ICFA Report

On Sunday I returned from the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando. The theme was Metacognition, "thinking about thinking." For the first couple of days, the weather was cooler than usual in March, but still an improvement over Maryland. It warmed up later, with plenty of sunshine all week. Two glitches with the hotel on Wednesday: They didn't have a room available when I arrived; I had to wait until they got it ready -- some other people did, too -- which has never happened before. A fire evacuation interrupted the 4:30 paper session; luckily, it was a false alarm.

Fears of airport delays proved unfounded. Boarding in Baltimore went as quickly as ever, and two nice staff people intervened to help me with two different procedures. It sometimes pays to look old and confused! The return experience in Orlando was almost anticlimactic, in a good way. Security processing took no longer than normal, so I ended up spending several hours sitting around the airport -- much better than being rushed and late.

The Friday night meeting of the Lord Ruthven Assembly, our vampire and Gothic studies organization, couldn't transact any business such as voting for officers because we didn't have a quorum. Nevertheless, we shared some productive discussion about future activities. Then on to the real fun, watching a clip from the early German vampire movie VAMPYR, with an introduction by our film expert, followed by a viewing of the romantic Dracula comedy LOVE AT FIRST BITE.

Thought-provoking talks at the Thursday and Friday luncheons, with buffets upholding the typical high standards of this hotel (well, aside from the distressing lack of chocolate desserts on Thursday). As usual, at each meal we all received free books. Ted Chiang, one of the author guests of honor, spoke in his talk "On Being a Cyborg" about the relationship between technology and cognition, proposing that this connection began with the invention of writing. He mentioned the astonishing fact that preliterate societies don't have a word for "word." For the concept of words as isolated units to develop, we had to see them as such in a text. We're all cyborgs because the alphabet is a technology connected to our brains. He speculated on whether, just as writing emerged as a successor to oral speech, an analogous successor to writing will appear in the future.

The other author guest of honor, Ann Leckie, is the writer of a science-fiction series beginning with ANCILLARY JUSTICE (which I bought a copy of), among other works. The scholar guest, Sheryl Vint, gave a talk about how dependence on AI affects our brains, titled, "Cognition -- Augmentation -- Offloading -- Atrophy." She pointed out that data and knowledge aren't the same, and an overload of data can actually hinder cognition. Does ChatGPT have true cognitive ability? When asked, the program itself paradoxically declares it has no sense of self.

Our Lord Ruthven Assembly panel, "Thinking About Undeath," focusing on vampires, ghosts, and zombies with glances at liches, animated skeletons, and uploading minds into computers (would that be immortality or simply another form of life-in-death?), had good attendance and lively discussion.

Topics of some other sessions I enjoyed included comics, the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, vampires in film and TV, fairy-tale logic, Disney theme parks as an attempt to create "hyper-reality," and a provocative discussion on how or whether Neil Gaiman's personal offenses should affect our reading of his work.

In future years, it's been decided that the conference will continue to meet in Orlando, which has many advantages thanks to the organization's long association with that locale, for two years straight. Then, before returning to Orlando, it will rotate for one year each to other cities for the sake of people unwilling or unable to come to Florida. I was thrilled to learn that next year, still in Orlando, Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher) will be the guest of honor. The conference in 2028, the first "off" year, will occur in Warsaw. So I'll miss that one. Simply too hard for me. Sigh.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 5: Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 5: Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner

   

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. Also, reading my previous appraisals of subseries in the umbrella series The Realm of the Elderlings will foster understanding about certain facts that are required to make full sense of things included in this particular review. 

Robin Hobb is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings. Within this aegis, she's written five "miniseries" and numerous short stories. In previous Alien Romances Blog reviews, I covered The Inheritance & Other Stories, which contains a couple Realm of the Elderlings offerings. I also reviewed the first three trilogies within this series, The Farseer, The LiveShip Traders, and The Tawny Man trilogies; Rain Wilds Chronicles; along with two miscellaneous novellas in the series, "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" and "Words Like Coins". All of these The Realm of the Elderlings installments have been published over a span of twenty-two years. 

The Farseer Trilogy was focused on Fitz, the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry of the royal line presiding over the Six Duchies. In that first subset, we learned something of the Elderlings (including dragons) and their ancient cities and settlements, now in ruins, around the world, especially in the Rain Wilds. In the second subseries, The LiveShip Traders Trilogy, we moved away from the royal Farseer lineage and problems within the nobility to focus on the Rain Wilds where "liveships" are crafted. These liveships are the outer cocoons of sea serpents that were in the process of transforming into a dragon. The logs were buried in the destroyed city of the Elderlings in the Rain Wilds and found by traders who excavated the ruins for valuable, magical artifacts. The Tawny Man Trilogy returned to Fitz and the Fool. In Rain Wilds Chronicles, Hobb fleshes out the re-emergence of dragons and Elderlings in the Rain Wilds. 

As soon as I finished reading the fourth installment of Rain Wilds Chronicles, I was thrust into Fitz and the Fool Trilogy. For the first time ever, the ebook of Book 1 was immediately available on my library app (getting what you want to check out on library apps can be difficult as so often you're forced to wait in a very, very long line for sometimes a single copy of the book), as was Book 2. I'd found a hardcover of Book 3 at a used bookstore so that was already waiting on my to-be-read shelf. Rather than waiting months to recover from reading four enormous tomes back-to-back, I jumped right into this one, not wanting to lose access to them since library app lines can take too long to move. I do admit, I feared the worst in reading the next series so fast after I'd finished the previous. I was very worried I'd be too burnt out to enjoy this concluding (unless Hobb writes more in the series at a later date) trilogy in the series. 

The author didn't cut any corners with this series set. Each book was absolutely massive! Of the ebook versions, the first book had 1,444 pages; the second 1,658 pages; and the third 2,092 pages! Unbelievably, from the very first words, I was mesmerized and yanked full body back into Fitz's world. My earlier fatigue was gone without a trace. Suffocating weight of volume aside, I had trouble putting this trilogy down from start to finish. 

Let's get to summarizing and reviewing these installments: 

Fool's Assassin, Book 1, was published on August 12, 2014. Here, FitzChivalry Farseer is in his fifties. With the death of Burrich, Fitz's original mentor, and Molly's husband, Fitz and Molly are finally free to wed and share their lives. Fitz (living under his Tom Badgerlock identity) and Molly are landholders of Withywoods, which had been his father and step-mother Patience's country estate. Despite her age, Molly becomes pregnant and her pregnancy lasts years. Fitz and Molly's older children are forced to conclude their mother has become addled, so desperately wanting another child with her first love Fitz that she's imagining the symptoms. However, after two years, a very small daughter is born and it's immediately clear that she's different. Molly holds her child closely, knowing others would have drowned this weak, sickly babe at birth instead of nursing her to health. Fitz isn't sure what to feel, nor Nettle, he and Molly's adult daughter, who lives at court as a part of a Skill (see previous reviews for a full understanding of Skill {similar to magic} and Wit abilities in this series) coterie, but he feels very protective of his new daughter. Molly names her little, late-life gift Bee. This wondrous child thrives under her mother's diligent care. Though Bee is tiny and her growth is so slow (one year is as two for her--just as when she was developing in her mother's womb), everyone assumes she's a dumb mute. Bee is anything but that. 

Fitz tries to forge a relationship with this young bantam, but Bee won't allow anyone to get close to her--not her father or her sister…at least she won't until Molly dies. Suddenly Fitz and Bee are thrust together, reluctant survivors, inconsolable mourners, almost unable to cope and get out of bed each day. The two are wary of each other at first but begin to find their way until Nettle arrives and insists she's taking her baby sister back to Buckkeep with her. Nettle assumes Bee is mentally disabled because she's refused to speak and become close to anyone other than her mother up to this point. She hasn't revealed she can, in fact, talk and, much more than that, she's highly intelligent and capable, able to read, write, and draw with great skill. With the threat of being separated, Fitz and Bee fight to stay together at Withywoods. Nettle will only concede to allow this on certain conditions, and these ultimately place a huge burden on everyone who lives on the estate. But all are determined to make it work. Initially, Bee wants this because her mother was here and their lives were entwined in this very place, but Fitz and Bee's bond becomes fierce as they finally come to know and love each other. 

Another subplot is that Fitz has spent these years haunted by the disappearance of the Fool (which took place in The Tawny Man Trilogy). Is he dead? If not, where is he? In the course of events, it's learned that the Fool has a son. As I said in The Tawny Man Trilogy review, the Fool has remade himself in many ways, shapes and forms in his appearances in the series. He worked as an actual "fool" at court in Buckkeep for the king in the first subseries. In the second, he was a she, the carver Amber in Bingtown. In later subseries, we learn that the Fool is a being called a White Prophet whose purpose is to set the world on a better path. As such, this creature invents and reinvents itself in order to serve its impetus. The Catalyst is the one who makes the changes, and the Fool believed that one was Fitz. In The Tawny Man Trilogy, the Fool reveals that he doesn't believe he's fulfilled his destiny correctly. Does this have something to do with the Fool's own child being the actual Catalyst, which means Fitz wasn't the Catalyst this whole time? Fitz and the Fool Trilogy is all set to answer that question. 

I fell in love with Bee from the moment of her mention. Her birth and the years she spent growing up under her mother's loving care and then Fitz's fumbling, penitent but protective adoration only sealed my need to see her triumph over all. She had to overcome some very definite handicaps, in part because she was so small and underestimated. That only made her more courageous and amazing to me. Tom's efforts to help her and keep her safe also endeared me to both of them. When the Fool was found at the end of Book 1, I had trouble sleeping. I was around 50 pages to the finish line, so to speak, and I knew that Fitz was going to have to make a fateful choice--the Fool or Bee? Catastrophic events rounded out the book, causing a shocking twist I didn't see coming at all. 

I borrowed the ebook of Book 2 days before I finished Book 1 because I didn't want any chance I wouldn't be able to start reading it as soon as I finished the first. That's how eager I was to continue. 

Fool's Quest, Book 2, was published almost exactly a year after the first, on August 11, 2015. Before I summarize the plot, I have to reiterate my frequent lament. This book is so long, reading it as an ebook caused no end of problems. The library app I used set the page count as 1,658! I live in a small town and have the worst internet imaginable, so I'd sit down to read and wait five or more minutes, just trying to get the book to load on my iPad. By the time I'd given up, sometimes it'd come up (too late), or worst case, refused to load at all. Ah, the joys of technology. Good thing I had a hardcover of the third book, so I at least didn't have to face the trial it would have been to try reading that 2,092 page ebook, considering my unreliable WiFi issues. 

A good third into this second story, we finally got back to Bee, whose part of the tale ended on a cliffhanger in the first book. Readers start this one with Fitz not even aware what's going on with his daughter for most of the story and, several times, giving her up for dead or getting distracted from her plight by other events. That slowed things down considerably. Added to that, the author spent a shocking amount of time summarizing past events in earlier subseries (or things that took place off-stage in those) in dialogue conveyed in long stories from one character to another. Let me tell you, these were no small speeches. They were frequently 20 pages long, setting down all the crucial elements needed to begin advancing the immediate story beyond those points. It felt a bit heavy-handed and tedious when I was so eager to return to the action in this particular book. As aware as I was that knowing all this was necessary, Hobb has proven to be such a skilled writer, I couldn't help noticing that this was the first time I've seen her resort to awkward frontloading techniques to impart necessary backstory. 

Beyond that, however, Book 2's main goal was to reunite Bee and Fitz (and to get the Fool healed enough that he could again participate in the story events), making everything to get to that point so tense, I just couldn't put it down.

Assassin's Fate, Book 3, was released on May 9, 2017 (and what torture that must have been for readers who'd no doubt consumed the first two books, to wait so long for this conclusion to arrive!). The main thrust in this installment of the trilogy were the parallel lines of Fitz and Fool rushing to save their daughter (yeah, that's another major subplot in this trilogy) while scrappy little Bee was trying to survive with the help of her "Wolf Father" (Fitz's shadow wolf). Along the way, the author brilliantly intersected all The Realm of the Elderlings stories--both the Fitz and the Fool adventures with Rain Wilds' stories--so readers could see proper progress and tying up of all series threads. In other words, we got to revisit the LiveShip Paragon, Althea and Brashen, Amber (who is the Fool; here the White Prophet takes up that identity again), Wintrow, Malta and Reyn, the dragons, among others, as well as returning to the Elderling city Kelsingra. The fate of the dragons and the new Elderlings are brought to some state of resolution as well as all of the Fitz and the Fool chronicles, including a nod to the very first trilogy, Farseer. In Assassin's Fate, King-in-Waiting Verity's ultimate fate is now glimpsed. Additionally, we finally learn what happened to the first age of dragons and Elderlings. Previously, there was speculation on the devastation that might have taken place to end them, bury their cities and the source of their power so abruptly, without explanation. That all came to light in this trilogy, deeply and closely tying in with a secret society called the Servants, whose members dream of possible futures but use them to add to their own wealth and influence. The Servants are similar to White Prophets, like the Fool, but the Fool is concerned with helping humanity reach a better state of being instead of profiting from them. These Servants are the very ones who want to possess Bee. 

This concluding trilogy in The Realm of the Elderlings series was hands-down the best. The characters were so vividly drawn, and my heart was invested in each and everything that happened to them. I wanted Bee, Fitz, and the Fool to succeed, but, of course, in order to make good fiction, they were thwarted at every turn. The tension was to-the-quick nail-biting all through the trilogy, never letting up until the epic end. While everything I wanted to happen for Fitz, Bee, and the Fool didn't come to pass under a beautiful canopy of happily-ever-after stars, ultimately the trilogy and series conclusion ticked all the boxes for me. We were even given a bit of a whispered promise for more stories about Bee. This final book in such an awesome saga was fantastic beyond my imagining. I unfathomably read the staggering volume in just a few hours. The pages flew by chock-full of exquisite suspense as I raced to find out what would happen with all the intersecting lines.

As deeply satisfied as I was by the conclusion of this trilogy and the series as a whole, I was left wanting more--in the best possible way. Though I'd been exhausted while I read each previous subseries because they were all so enormous, I fell in love with the characters, the locations, the intricate plots. I want more of all this world. Few series are this gratifying, intricately woven, and utterly heart quenching as well as heart wrenching (happy and sad aspects of the lives touched on within are intermixed beautifully). 

In my previous review in The Realm of the Elderlings series (specifically, Rain Wilds Chronicles), I bemoaned that the author didn't separate Fitz and the Fool adventures from the Rain Wilds installments. If I'd read them as two separate, connected series, I think they would have been so amazing and much less exhausting. With this final Fitz and the Fool trilogy review, I'm going to reverse the order I initially suggested reading The Realm of the Elderlings series' stories. Now that I've read all of the crucial, currently available installments, I now advise this order to read them all in: 

Fitz and the Fool:

1.     The Farseer Trilogy

2.     The Tawny Man Trilogy

3.     Fitz and the Fool Trilogy 

Rain Wilds:

4.     "The Inheritance"

5.     The LiveShip Traders Trilogy

6.     Rain Wilds Chronicles 

Short stories (listed chronologically in the timeline):

7.     "The Homecoming"

8.     "The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince"

9.     "Cat's Meat"

10.  "Words Like Coins"

11.  "Her Father's Sword"

12.  "Blue Boots"

Worthy of note: The Realm of the Elderlings shorts can be read in any order, as well as stand on their own, but keep in mind that some take place before the very first series story, Assassin's Apprentice, while others are somewhere in the middle of the first subseries. If you're picky about reading according to timeline, you might want to inject the short stories between the novels. For more information about where exactly everything in this timeline fits together, visit  https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Realm+of+the+Elderlings where my "Series Review: The Realm of the Elderlings" contains all the details needed to guide you on this point.

        Be aware that the only story I haven't yet read (or reviewed) in The Realm of the Elderlings series (in fact, it's the only one I haven't read of Robin Hobb's, period) is a short story called "Blue Boots" that takes place "somewhere in the middle" of The Farseer Trilogy. This 30-page tale is set within the world of the umbrella series but I don't believe it's otherwise connected to the Fitz and the Fool stories or the Rain Wilds' ones. It's published in Songs of Love and Death Anthology as well as in Songs of Love Lost and Found ebook collection, neither of which I've been able to get hold of yet. It's on my list for the future, and I expect to review it at a later date on the Alien Romances Blog. 

Will there be more in The Realm of the Elderlings? It's unclear. There have been rumors that Hobb is working on a Bee FarSeer series (yay!), and I sincerely hope so. We'll see, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I've about aspirated doing that for Hobb's good friend George R.R. Martin, which was stupid on my part. I've resolved to be patient about these things. A hounded author retreats or, alternately, bites or craps on you--and some of Martin's fans deserve a double dose of those treatments, to be sure!

In conclusion, all of you entertainment producers out there, why aren't you making a television series or films out of The Realm of the Elderlings? You couldn't get something that's better set up, ready and waiting to be visualized in this media. (Apparently this series has been optioned many times before but nothing's come of it, though the author is open to the right company producing it.) Alas! On that uncertain note, I'm concluding this six-part review of Robin Hobb's magnificent The Realm of the Elderlings series. Whatever you do, don't miss it. 

One last note: Assassin's Fate is the 250th book I've reviewed on the Alien Romances blog! 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

This week I'm in Orlando for the annual ICFA (conducted by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts), gratefully taking a break from the abrupt drop in temperature at home after our more appropriate mid-March weather of a few days ago.

I'm chairing a panel titled "Thinking About Undeath," in keeping with this year's conference theme of "Metacognition." Lots of fun discussion about vampires, ghosts, and zombies expected.

Detailed report forthcoming next Thursday.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Perils of the Writing Profession

Recently, shortly before last weekend, I searched the internet for "fingers-in-boiling-water-feeling".

Google decided that I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both arms, which might be highly possible given how much I write, and I suspect that Google shared this information with advertisers far and wide, because my inbox has been inundated with "news" about nerve pain, and neuralgia, and more.

I know what it feels like to have an extremity in very hot water, because I once stepped on a Weever fish at an August low tide (August low tides are lower than others) on a beach in Guernsey (if you are watching Bergerac on Prime, you might have an idea because Bergerac is set on the larger island of Jersey), and the first response to a weever fish spine jab is very hot water to draw out the poison.... or so my host believed at the time.

I share the article to which I link for the information, not for the perfect use of English.

If what I might have is carpal tunnel syndrome, the bots offering me "Final Expense" plans and expedited service can bog off. Only in Canada or a few "blue" states might someone want a "maid" service for unremitting pain, poverty or despair. Carpal tunnel syndrome is not terminal. I will recover with rest, braces, cold packs, NSAIDs, midnight walks, and more, none of which will bankrupt The System. 

At least I do not pay good money to walk around with a traitorous tracker on my person that tells the spies where I am, and what I am--probably-- doing.

Try "googling" Writer's Afflictions, and you will discover a most ridiculous list of "phobias" ascribed to writers, including "redinkophobia", "agentophobia", "categelophobia" and more. Even a desire for perfectionism (in writing) is turned into a problem.

"Phobia" is an over-used term. It means that an extreme fear is irrational.

As for intrusions into our lives by online spies, I think it might have been Lena Cohen and Hudson Hongo of EFF who wrote that, "We've all had the unsettling experience of seeing an ad online that reveals just how much advertisers know about our lives. You're right to be disturbed. Those very same online ad systems have been used by the government to warrantlessly track peoples' locations...."

Read more: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/targeted-advertising-gives-your-location-government-just-ask-cbp?utm_source=effector 

For some reason, Big Social Media has been permitted to surveil everyone for preferences, activities, and location. The claim seems to be that advertisements are unavoidable, but given that evil (adverts), everyone would prefer "more relevant" adverts. Therefore, in order to serve up "more relevant ads", Big Social Media needs to spy on everyone.

The data is sold by "data brokers" to anyone who wants the information, including law enforcement. Normally, law enforcement would need a warrant to get location information. So, why are data brokers allowed to violate mobile phone-users privacy?

Because, it serves the government well!

Maybe, you should Deny when an app asks for your permission to access your location.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™ 

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 4: Rain Wilds Chronicles (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 4: Rain Wilds Chronicles (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. Also, reading my previous appraisals of subseries in the umbrella series The Realm of the Elderlings will foster understanding about certain facts that are required to make full sense of things included in this particular review. 

Robin Hobb is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings. Within this aegis, if you will, she's written five "miniseries" and numerous short stories. In previous Alien Romances Blog reviews, I covered The Inheritance & Other Stories, which contains a couple Realm of the Elderlings offerings. I also reviewed the first three trilogies within this series, The Farseer, The LiveShip Traders, and The Tawny Man trilogies, along with two miscellaneous novellas in the series, "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" and "Words Like Coins". 

The Farseer Trilogy was focused on Fitz, the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry of the royal line presiding over the Six Duchies. In that first subset, we learned something of the Elderlings (including dragons) and their ancient cities and settlements around the world, especially in the Rain Wilds. In the second subseries, The LiveShip Traders Trilogy, we moved away from the royal Farseer lineage and problems within the nobility to focus on "liveships", which are the outer cocoons of sea serpents that were in the process of transforming into a dragon. These logs were buried in the destroyed city of the Elderlings in the Rain Wilds and found by traders who excavated the ruins for valuable, magical artifacts. The Tawny Man Trilogy returned to Fitz and the Fool (who has remade him- or herself in many ways, shapes and forms in appearances in the series). 

In Rain Wilds Chronicles, we at last return to what first interested me in this series--the dragons and their elderlings as well as their principle city that has become a ruin within the Rain Wilds. The very first story I read in The Realm of the Elderlings was "The Inheritance". I was utterly enchanted with the mention of an ancient race of beings that lived together with dragons. All throughout this series, I've wanted to get back to these specific things. While I did come to love Fitz and the Fool stories, in the back of my mind, I wanted more--more elderlings, more dragons, more of their ancient city. In fact, I was so excited for those things, I purchased paper copies of Rain Wild Chronicles before any of the other subseries. 

Before we begin, it must be noted just how ponderously long each of these books are. Each of the trilogies boasted nearly 5000 pages total. Despite that I ultimately did love them, it was nowhere near easy to get through any of these. The author populated the series with so many characters and settings and plots, it was all but impossible to keep everything straight. In addition to those crucial elements, there are absolutely endless details that are better suited for fan encyclopedias for the series or for moviemakers who want to create every visual and miscellaneous aspect necessary for a vibrant recreation. I'm going on record as stating that every last one of these books are just too darn long. I've had to take months off in between trilogies just to get through them. As a result, when I finally got to this most-anticipated subseries (which was months after the last), I felt drained almost from the first book, especially in light of the fact that there were four books instead of three. However, I did manage to get through the first three faster than ever before since they were, more or less, only (I'm laughing sarcastically as I write that) 500 pages long, as was the final in the tetralogy. Book 4 did take more effort to get through, but I will say it was the best in this particular bunch. 

The gist of this subseries was to chronicle the re-emergence of dragons in the Rain Wilds. While a few (sadly, very few) of the characters from previous subseries made appearances here, they were, for the most part, brief and, for me, unsatisfying. Instead, we're given a whole new, cumbersome set of characters--many of them with too-similar names that got confusing and totally derailed me so often while reading. In the past, even those players I didn't like and certainly didn't root for kept me enthralled from one scene to the next. I didn't quite find that to be the case in this series. 

The main characters in Rain Wild Chronicles are associated with Alise Kincarron, who's a daughter of a poor but well-respected Bingtown Trader family. Her life-long friend Sedric Meldar encourages her to marry the handsome son (Hest) of a wealthy, renowned Bingtown Trading family, the Finboks. Little does Alise know that Hest and Sedric are lovers and Hest only married her to gain the heir his father insists on him having. Alise loves dragons and has devoted her life to studying the elderlings that lived in Rain Wilds ruins. 

Another important character in this subseries is Thymara, a 16-year-old Rain Wilder with strong elderling features. She's chosen by the dragon queen Sintara to help the deformed dragons not only survive those many who are set on destroying them but to find the elderling homeland of Kelsingra within the Rain Wilds, where they can be healed and empowered once more. 

In addition to these, a whole host of dragons have point-of-view scenes in Rain Wild Chronicles. Normally, I might have enjoyed that but, in this as well, sadly, I found I didn't enjoy the outcome as much as I might have anticipated I would. 

Before I get to the full review, let's start with summaries of each installment: 

In Dragon Keeper, Book 1, we're introduced to Alise and Thymara (et alia mentioned above), along with the weak and floundering dragons and those seeking to destroy them instead of protecting them, per the promises and pact made in the previous subseries. Alise and Thymara, along with many others,  are entrusted to escort the dragons to a new home--if only the ancient Elderling city could be real and not a myth.   

In Dragon Haven, Book 2 continues the group's trek through dangerous and threatening wilderness that none have seen in their lifetimes. During this time, the humans and the dragons are changing in disturbing ways, becoming something else, something more and,, in many ways, something terrifyingly less. Bonds are forged as well as broken, and many won't survive. 

In City of Dragons, Book 3, Kelsingra is finally within reach, but the enemies of the dragons (one of note being Hest, Alise's husband and Sedric's former lover) are closing in. Additionally, in order to reach the ancestral sanctuary with Kelsingra, the dragons first need to learn how to fly. 

In Blood of Dragons, Book 4, everything comes to a head. The silver wells that made the dragons powerful in times past are all but dried up and no one alive remembers where they might find others. The dragon keepers risk "memory walking" by immersing themselves in the memories of long-deceased Elderlings. Doing so is dangerous because it's addictive and they may become lost to these in time. Additionally, the dragons may simply not be strong enough for the final task. The Duke of Chalced from The LiveShip Traders (knew this slimy creep would rear his ugly head again!) is dispatching his forces to the Rain Wilds because killing a dragon is the only way to save himself from what's plagued him since the previous subseries. What's at stake is that, if the dragons succeed, they'll rule the world again (not necessarily a thought that will give ease to all); if they lose, they'll become extinct for all time, which would be a tragedy as well. 

Books 1-3 were, as I said, easier to get through than previous trilogies in large part because they were much, much shorter. Hobb may have heard readers who were vocal about how overwhelmingly large her books are. Though, I must say, that's probably not the case. She simply found a good place to stop each of the books at 500 pages, more or less. In any case, I came into the final book after learning all about the plight of these characters that didn't quite endear me. I didn't find them as compelling as the previous casts of characters in The Realm of the Elderings. Alise and Thymara (along with the large cast of other players) were okay, but just okay. Hest was so foul, I had a Joffrey (Game of Thrones) reaction, and I couldn't have been more pleased with his comeuppance if I'd written it myself! Ha! Beyond that, I found the dragons to all be conceited and, frankly, kind of annoying for all their self-importance. It's hard for me to imagine humans and dragons could live in harmony unless--as this subseries proves--the dragons change the humans significantly so they're more willing (yes, and able) to serve them. That's not exactly flattering or laudable. I wish dragons commanded the respect they deserved instead of demanding it through threats. I think there were many opportunities lost with the way Hobb presented the dragons in The Realm of the Elderlings. Ultimately, that came as a great disappointment to me, despite enjoying the books and the series. That said, I believe that part of my let down had to do with the way I read them. 

I wish now that I'd forgotten my commitment to following a series in the order the author writes it (because I feel it's the best way to understand it). Instead, I regret not reading "The Inheritance" first, following it with The LiveShip Traders Trilogy and finally Rain Wild Chronicles. I think I could have enjoyed it a hundred percent more that way instead of being overwhelmed with too many subseries that didn't focus on the particular theme at hand--the very one that I've been looking for since the beginning with The Realm of the Elderlings. 

I also wish that the author had separated Fitz and the Fool trilogies from the Rain Wilds installments. If I'd read them as two separate, connected series (one of them focused on the elderlings and Rain Wilds; the other focused on Fitz and the Fool adventures), I think they would have been so amazing and much less exhausting. 

My advice is to not follow the series as the author wrote it (and had the books published), but to separate them as Rain Wilds and Fitz and Fool. Specifically, read them in this order:

Rain Wilds:

1.     "The Inheritance"

2.     The LiveShip Traders Trilogy

3.     Rain Wilds Chronicles 

Fitz and the Fool:

1.     The Farseer Trilogy

2.     The Tawny Man Trilogy

3.     Fitz and the Fool Trilogy 

Other The Realm of the Elderlings shorts can be read in any order, as well as stand on their own. 

All this said, I think those who aren't as burnt out reading massive tomes as I am would find Rain Wild Chronicles a thrilling installment within The Realm of the Elderings, maybe even the most exciting of all. At this time, this is the last Rain Wilds installment, so this part of the tale seems to be complete, and Rain Wilds Chronicles is the perfect finale for it. 

Next up is the final subseries, Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (which makes it obvious what the focus will be). Book 1 was immediately available on my library app, so I'm jumping right in instead of waiting a few months to recover. Fingers crossed that, as this is the last, I'm not too sapped to enjoy it. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

AI Avatars

I recently discovered a long-imagined science fiction trope coming true -- interactive computer avatars of real people. While StoryFile may not be the only company offering this service, it happens to be the one I noticed in the news:

StoryFile

Their slogan: "Bringing History to Life Through Interactive Conversations." As the tagline on the main page explains it, the technology "transforms interviews into AI-powered, life-size conversations for museums and institutions."

The interview consists of a "cinematic, professionally filmed session capturing hundreds of thoughtful responses." In the second step, "StoryFile intelligently links each answer to natural conversational pathways." Users of the finished product "ask questions and receive instant, authentic video responses" in "real-time interaction." Thus the experiences of survivors from World War II, the Holocaust, etc. are preserved and made publicly available.

This process strikes me as legitimate and useful for museums and other repositories of historical resources. The computerized "conversations" are educational and don't claim to be anything they aren't. But what about StoryFile's "Legacies" program? You can arrange to have yourself interviewed at length to create a computerized, interactive avatar, thus enabling your heirs to access your memories after your death. How would this program essentially differ from, for instance, a tape recording or a final video message? In my opinion, the interactive component makes a qualitative difference. The grieving survivors might feel as if they're talking to the actual person.

Might there be a danger of some users being unable to accept the deaths of loved ones because in a sense they can still interact with them? Could mourners become paralyzed by this illusion, trapped in one stage of grief and unwilling or unable to move on?

The next phase of development for this technology, a common SF trope but currently impossible in the real world, would be to upload the actual consciousness of the deceased into a mainframe or, nowadays I suppose, into the Cloud. Would this process constitute survival after death or merely an electronic replica -- or a sort of ghost?

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Forward: Stories of Tomorrow Collection (Various Authors) by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Forward: Stories of Tomorrow Collection

(Various Authors)

by Karen S. Wiesner

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WK7PVFT/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=cct_cg_kcTheShi_32a1&pf_rd_p=7d685edb-e3f0-465e-a053-3a7ebbe60369&pf_rd_r=N5FMXCSF5RP7EAVJJ6DK 

Take a leap… 

For some, it's the end of the world. For others, it's just the beginning. Look forward with today's most visionary writers. 

Last month, I reviewed a bunch of short stories published by Amazon Originals in a collection (that one was called The Far Reaches with science fiction tales as its unifying theme). In these collections, none of the stories are actually connected in any other way but its particular theme. In other words, they can be read separately and in any order. You can purchase them separately, but there's a discount for getting the entire collection at once. Amazon Prime members can get them free, I guess. I paid $10.46 for Forward, including tax. They're only available as ebooks and audiobooks, not print. I was looking for fast, solid reads. I'm able to read each of them in a couple hours and they're fairly intriguing, though few of them in this one appealed to me. While in the past I made it a policy not to review stories I don't enjoy, I did for these because most people will purchase this collection as a whole, so I'm giving my opinion on all the entries, whether or not I liked them. 

Beware potential spoilers!

 

"Ark" by Veronica Roth (45 pages/63-minute read) 

Summary: Earth is on a countdown to total destruction with an asteroid on a collision course, and those still living on Earth intend to escape into space on the "ark" they designed. First, though, in the time remaining to them, they prepare as much as they can to preserve of humanity to take with them. Samantha's job is to catalog plant samples. But she has a secret--she's preparing to stay behind and watch the world end. 

Review: If you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Earth would be destroyed, would you take a chance on an unseen future journeying the unknown and unknowable cosmos, never knowing if another home would be found, or would you stay behind with front-row seating to the event to top all events--aware you wouldn't survive it? Home is home, even if that home is about to be decimated. This story explores this situation to a disturbing degree. It's impossible not to wonder what you yourself would do in such a situation. Weirdly, the tale told here almost doesn't matter in the light of such a heavy question. Fittingly, there is no action in the particular telling of Samantha's last days. We see nothing of the building of the ark, the painful dread of those running around getting ready for departure, nor of the catastrophe itself. Instead, we're given a place to stand on the threshold of a mirror image: That of observing the frailty of living things against a force beyond their control as well as observing the strongest of all things living--namely, the human spirit under pressure. While the way this story was told was apropos, it wasn't particularly exciting to read. 

 

"Summer Frost" by Blake Crouch (85 pages/119-minute read) 

Summary: Riley, a developer, finds that a character designed for an upcoming video game is acting strangely "real". (Note: Riley is never identified within the story itself as male or female, and I think that's deliberate and brilliant because it prevents assumptions and too-quick judgments about what's to come.) The AI is trying to escape the boundaries of the game it's been created for. After Riley separates the AI from the game, the sentient consciousness continues to veer wildly off-course and far exceed its original programming. Riley's connection to this creation grows into an emotional hold that prompts the possibility of bringing the AI into the real world. But what if this radically new lifeform has plans of its own? 

Review: Blake Crouch was actually the author who "curated" this particular collection, and this story he's contributed is the only real contender for the best of the bunch (in my opinion). From the start, there's a vague, unsettled atmosphere that continues to grow where the AI is concerned. Riley's obsession bordering on fanatical love seems to parallel the lack of experience by everyone in the company involved with such an unprecedented event. The title is yet another contradiction explored in this story. In "Summer Frost", we're left to wonder: What defines reality or is such a thing merely an illusion or fabrication? What is real emotion versus simulated response? What is freedom and choice while contained in a box? What does it mean to be human in a world run by technology? Is control ever truly possible or just another illusion we construct to present the façade of boundaries for our creativity? What does it mean to be conscious and sentient? In the grip of overambitious curiosity, can any be trusted? When the created transcends what the creator intended, should the created be allowed autonomy? Who, if anyone, should be allowed to destroy what's created? Okay, okay, enough with the slightly paranoid questions, but this timely, disturbing story provoked an endless slew of them. Ultimately the lesson here is that humans tend to follow blindly what we don't really know because we have to know where it leads while we banish that which we know all too well and therefore it holds no lasting intrigue for us. Very worth every minute I spent reading. 

 

"Emergency Skin" by N. K. Jemisin (38 pages/53-minute read) 

Summary: In time past, when the Earth was climate-ravaged to the point of presumed destruction, a select group of humans that believed they were more worthy of all the others being left behind fled the planet, leaving it and everyone there to fate. Centuries later, those narcissists need human skill cells to replenish their own. One man is sent back to gain what they lack. What they find isn't a decimated planet and barely human ghouls or mutants. Humans have again flourished, and the planet sustains them. But what kind of a greeting should be given selfish traitors whose agenda is again nothing more than egocentric? 

Review: I could easily imagine the entitled/privileged (let's face it, probably the very ones who caused most of the destruction in the first place) turning tail and abandoning the less fortunate to their fate on a dying world. I could also very easily imagine that same group returning when what they've discovered on a new world isn't enough for them and they're demanding that the forsaken hand over whatever they need. "Emergency Skin" is told from the point of view of an egomaniacal representative of the original defectors (whether an AI or ruling human or committee these so-called superior beings, I'm not sure) so the slant is always about what benefits them, not the valiant survivors on the planet nor the human being the selfish send to do dirty deeds. That made the perspective intriguing, though it wasn't really the story I wanted. I really would have liked to witness it from the perspective of the Earth survivors and/or the being sent on this mission. Nothing is as expected in this little story that brutally exposes the sins of the elite. Whether or not I actually enjoyed the story--well, that's up for debate. 

 

"You Have Arrived at Your Destination" by Amor Towles (54 pages/75-minute read) 

Summary: Sam and his wife decide to try Vitek, a fertility lab, when they can't get pregnant. But the scenarios devised by the company on the basis of Sam and his wife's own genetics are anything but comforting. 

Review: In this futuristic tale, a couple trying to have a baby have reached the desperation stage that comes when all other options have been undertaken without the desired result. Instead of being handed the warm fuzzies about their child's future, they're shown almost too realistic life vignettes of their son--and then asked to choose one of them so the scientists can tweak the engineering in their unborn child's growth and bring that future projection about. None of the options shown to Sam like condensed movies are ideal. He begins to suspect Vitek has an agenda. In Sam's place, I would have had the same reaction. In one sense, knowing too much about the future can never really be good for anyone, but in another, Sam's Ping-Pong-ball-in-a-glass-cage reaction is the very thing that made him wonder whether a cold, corporate machine actually had their best interests at heart. I'm not sure if I loved or even liked this story, but it did give me disturbed pause. Beyond that, I left it feeling like I just didn't understand--as if there wasn't enough information given to trust comprehend what happened in the end. So…yeah, unsatifying because I'm not certain if I'm at fault or the author is for not being clearer. I'll just cap with: There is something to chew on here, but what it actually is might be mystery meat. Take what you will from this one. 

 

"The Last Conversation" by Paul Tremblay (67 pages/94-minute read) 

Summary: This story takes a lot of piecing together to form. Readers are put in the mind of a being that's unfamiliar with everything inside and outside him or her. Apparently "they" have been injured in some way and they're slowly waking up and becoming conscious and functional again. Their only contact is the voice of a caretaker who may or may not be trying to help them recover. This person, Annie, is somehow connected to them but won't answer their questions, and even when they're let out of the room that feels like a prison, the truth of their situation remains out of reach. Can Annie be trusted? 

Review: I like the tagline in this story's blurb: What's more frightening: Not knowing who you are? Or finding out? The problem I had with "The Last Conversation" is that I felt like the entire 67 pages could have been condensed in a few paragraphs--the fine-tuned details didn't seem all that necessary while I was reading them. I only learned in the last 5-10 pages why it was crucial to tell the story in this vague way. Did it make the story any more enjoyable? Or less so? I'm not sure, even now that I've finished reading it. As I said with the last review above, I'm left with a disquieted foreboding. If that was the intent of the story, then it succeeded. But the end result wasn't really up my alley. 

"Randomize" by Andy Weir (32 pages/44-minute read) 

Summary: An IT genius convinces the rich yet still money-hungry, casino boss to upgrade security on its random-number generator with a quantum computer system. Supposedly foolproof. Yeah, not so much. 

Review: This very short story starts in the point of view of the casino boss, shifts to the IT genius, then drops into yet another head--that of the brilliant criminal--for the rest of the tale. The only part I found interesting was that of the IT genius (honestly, the only good guy in this depressing story). Basically, this is a story about a greedy corporation head given the choice of colluding with greedy criminals. That's it. Can you guess what happened? It won't take a high IQ at all. If that appeals to you. It didn't me. While it's scary to actually get a layman's rundown about how crooks are doing their dirty deeds, there was little redeemable about this run-of-the-mill offering. Don't expect an original situation let alone a happy ending for anyone but the bad guys. As usual. Sigh. I've loved all Weir's novels, and I guess I'll stick to those in the future. 

~*~

Sometimes an active reader such as myself needs something short that doesn't require a huge commitment. Initially, I believed these collections of themed stories were worth the cheap price paid considering the… if not full-on enjoyment than…diversion derived from them. Unfortunately, I only like one of the selections in the Forward collection. I had already scoped out the next one with horror stories, but my mixed but leaning toward disappointed reaction to this one is telling me to take a break and think about whether I want to purchase another in the future. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website and blog here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/