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aspyre's review
4.0
Mermaid Astronaut is a lovely, lyrical re-imagining of a fairy tale that hits all the right notes.
nataliya_x's review
3.0
This is a review for Hugo Awards-nominated short story “Mermaid Astronaut” by Yoon Ha Lee. (Adding review here in case individual entry for that story gets deleted.)
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It’s a spacefaring retelling of Andersen’s “Little Mermaid”, I guess — and despite my ambivalence of fairytale reimaginings, it’s actually alright. But the problem is — unlike it’s earthly inspiration, this one has no real stakes. It’s sweet and pleasant and comforting, but that’s it. It needs something else there, something to give just it a bit of a bite.
It’s a story full of kindness, compassion, understanding, biological AND found family, and the dangers and threats hinted at early on do not have a payoff. There’s a price to pay sometime in the future, perhaps, but it’s hidden comfortably under layers of wondrous sweetness. I doubt I’ll remember it tomorrow, let alone months or years later.
Too easy, too sweet. Nothing wrong with it, but I suspect Hans Christian Andersen would have disapproved.
3 low-stakes unimpressed stars.
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Read it free here: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-mermaid-astronaut/
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299
———
It’s a spacefaring retelling of Andersen’s “Little Mermaid”, I guess — and despite my ambivalence of fairytale reimaginings, it’s actually alright. But the problem is — unlike it’s earthly inspiration, this one has no real stakes. It’s sweet and pleasant and comforting, but that’s it. It needs something else there, something to give just it a bit of a bite.
“That’s not the kind of difficulty I meant,” the witch said. “I can give you two legs like the humans, that you might walk on land, or upon the deck of a starfaring ship for that matter. The rest, though—the rest is up to you. For there’s more to starfaring than having legs. You’ll have to familiarize yourself with their alerts, read oxygen gauges, watch out for toxic atmospheres and flesh-eating pathogens, and that’s just the beginning.”
It’s a story full of kindness, compassion, understanding, biological AND found family, and the dangers and threats hinted at early on do not have a payoff. There’s a price to pay sometime in the future, perhaps, but it’s hidden comfortably under layers of wondrous sweetness. I doubt I’ll remember it tomorrow, let alone months or years later.
Too easy, too sweet. Nothing wrong with it, but I suspect Hans Christian Andersen would have disapproved.
3 low-stakes unimpressed stars.
———————
Read it free here: https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-mermaid-astronaut/
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3701332299
sunnybopeep's review
4.0
Four very goob sci-fi fantasy stories. I particularly liked the speculative fiction piece about the insect-human society. That one was my favorite, even though the author doesn’t have any other published works really?? The Aliya Whiteley story had a good concept, but I feel like it could have been fleshed out more. Mermaid Astronaut was very feel-good. The glassblower one was somewhere between interesting and boring.
thegoblinempress's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
3.0
Science Fantasy is a blended genre I'm still dipping my toes into - the most successful example so far for me has been Gideon the Ninth - so I have to be honest when I say I spent the majority of this issue slightly confused. There was nothing I actively disliked, though!
'The Mermaid Astronaut' by Yoon Ha Lee - 4 stars
The main reason I read this issue is for this story, which has been nominated for a Hugo Award, and I'm happy to say it was the most successful story for me, probably because I felt like it leaned a little more into fantasy than it did sci-fi, so I was in more familiar territory. In a way it's a very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid, but at its core is a lovely relationship between two sisters whose bond quite literally spans space and time. I really enjoyed the way it was written, too!
'The Spoils' by Aliya Whiteley - 3 stars
I was fascinated by this story, but to be honest I spent the majority of it with absolutely no clue what was going on. I'm looking forward to reading more by Whiteley, though!
'My Sister's Wings Are Red' by Christine Tyler - 3.5 stars
I enjoyed this rather bittersweet story, another story that had sisters at the heart of it, and I think I'll still remember these characters in a year's time, which is always a sign for me that a short story has been written well. I'll definitely try more of Tyler's work in future.
'The Glassblower of Galilei' by Katrina Smith - 3 stars
This was another odd one for me. It was a fairly short read and kept me intrigued, but I think its short length is what made this story just 'fine' for me when, with a little more fleshing out, I think I would have loved it.
'The Mermaid Astronaut' by Yoon Ha Lee - 4 stars
The main reason I read this issue is for this story, which has been nominated for a Hugo Award, and I'm happy to say it was the most successful story for me, probably because I felt like it leaned a little more into fantasy than it did sci-fi, so I was in more familiar territory. In a way it's a very loose retelling of The Little Mermaid, but at its core is a lovely relationship between two sisters whose bond quite literally spans space and time. I really enjoyed the way it was written, too!
'The Spoils' by Aliya Whiteley - 3 stars
I was fascinated by this story, but to be honest I spent the majority of it with absolutely no clue what was going on. I'm looking forward to reading more by Whiteley, though!
'My Sister's Wings Are Red' by Christine Tyler - 3.5 stars
I enjoyed this rather bittersweet story, another story that had sisters at the heart of it, and I think I'll still remember these characters in a year's time, which is always a sign for me that a short story has been written well. I'll definitely try more of Tyler's work in future.
'The Glassblower of Galilei' by Katrina Smith - 3 stars
This was another odd one for me. It was a fairly short read and kept me intrigued, but I think its short length is what made this story just 'fine' for me when, with a little more fleshing out, I think I would have loved it.