Nicholas Whyte – Eugene Fischer

January 9, 2016

Latest Love for “The New Mother”

A few more people have been publicly kind about “The New Mother” recently.

On the Tangent Online 2015 Recommended Reading List, Bob Blough gave “The New Mother” the maximum three stars. I’d like to meet Bob someday, he’s been consistently supportive of this story.
In the Strange Horizons 2015 Year In Review, Carmen Machado named it as one of her three favorite pieces of short fiction.
Nicholas Whyte put it on his nominations list for the BSFA second round.

As ever, my thanks for spreading the word.

November 2, 2015

Kind Words From Walton and Whyte

Two of my all-time favorite reviewers of science fiction have chimed in about “The New Mother,” and they had good things to say!

I’ve been reading Nicholas Whyte since my early twenties, when I discovered his historical reviews of works that won both the Hugo and Nebula. His taste nearly always matches up with mine, and his critical articulation often clarifies my own. (The structure of his negative review of Asimov’s The Gods Themselves is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of that book.) Over on his LiveJournal he’s been doing a roundup of Hugo-eligible short fiction, and writes:

There are only two issues of Asimov’s to consider here, April/May being a double, but I found it by far the best hunting ground. Again, the very first story, “The New Mother”, by Eugene Fischer really impressed me, and I’m a bit surprised not to see it more widely recommended (other than by Amal El-Mohtar).

I’ve written of my enthusiasm for Jo Walton’s reviews before, and never tire of reading and rereading her thoughts about genre fiction. So I was agog when I saw she’d tweeted this:

The New Mother https://t.co/ikBrnlzeGG excellent novelette about reproduction by Eugene Fischer.

— Jo Walton (@BluejoWalton) November 2, 2015

July 13, 2009

Stuff I’m Doing and Reading: A Miscellany

So I’m paying hosting costs for this site, right? I bought a domain name and everything. I should do something with it. Here’s what I’m doing right now:

Tiny Hamburgers

I’m in a bar, lurking in corners with my laptop and munching tiny hamburgers. Creepy and delicious! Even more exciting than what I’m doing right now: things on the internet that I have recently enjoyed.

First up, Leonard Richardson’s story “Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs” just went live on Strange Horizons. The story is precisely what it says on the tin, and the world is a better place for it. I haven’t met Leonard, but he was one of the editors of Thoughtcrime Experiments, which has been pretty awesome every time I’ve dipped into it. I should note that this is a story written in the infernokrusher idiom, the description and discussion of which at the link are supremely entertaining reading in their own right.

Next, a review of Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Nicholas Whyte. He is one of my favorite sources of thoughtful writing about science fiction, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has been one of my favorite SF novels for years. It’s one of those books I buy copies of to give away. Nicholas’s review almost perfectly reflects my own thoughts about the book, except if I were writing it there would probably have been a little gleeful gushing about the awesomeness of people hurtling between planets in jury rigged tin cans. But then I think I’m more of a gusher than he is.

Just got word that there is a birthday party I need to be at.

Exuent.