| Title | : | Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 124, January 2017 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 150 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2017 |
| Awards | : | Hugo Award Best Novelette for "A Series of Steaks" (2018), Nebula Award Novelette for "A Series of Steaks" (2017), Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award "A Series of Steaks" (2018) |
"The Ghost Ship Anastasia" by Rich Larson
"A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
"Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities" by Lettie Prell
"Interchange" by Gary Kloster
"Milla" by Lorenzo Crescentini and Emanuela Valentini, translated by Rich Larson
"Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance" by John Kessel
"The Shipmaker" by Aliette de Bodard
NON-FICTION
"The Evolved Brain" by Benjamin C. Kinney
"A Collective Pseudonym and an Expanding Universe: A Conversation with James S.A. Corey" by Chris Urie
"Another Word: Dystopias Are Not Enough" by Kelly Robson
"Editor’s Desk: Stomp Stomp Stomp" by Neil Clarke
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 124, January 2017 Reviews
-
The newest twist on artificial beef and 3-D printing.
A solid short that contains a world, solid characterization, and a decent, if seemingly innocuous plot. I'd love to read more about Helena and Lily.
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa...
Four-and-a-half steaks, rounding up. -
Well, that was different! Thank you, Karen!
Read it free here:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa...
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾 -
4.5 stars. This excellent (and fun!) Nebula and Hugo award nominated novelette, by Singaporean author Vina Jie-Min Prasad, is free online
here at Clarkesworld magazine. Definitely recommended! Review first posted on
Fantasy Literature:
In this near-future SF novelette, 3-D printing has become so advanced that a “bioprinter” can mass-produce copies of food. In any criminal forgery case, the best forgeries are the ones that never get noticed, and Helena Li Yuanhui of Splendid Beef Enterprises, a one-woman business in Nanjing, China, is an expert at it. She keeps her business small and the quality of her gray market meat forgeries high, hoping to gradually earn enough to start a new life and make a complete break with her past.
Unfortunately for Helena, but not for our story, her past is discovered by a businessman, who blackmails her into secretly mass-producing 200 T-bone steaks ― a job far beyond Helena’s current capabilities. Among other complications, the 200 steaks need to be individualized with marbling, etc., so that they don’t look like carbon copies of each other. In desperation, she hires a perky but suspiciously capable assistant, Lily Yonezawa. Helena’s luck begins to turn as she and Lily become closer while working on this massive project, despite her anonymous blackmailer’s increasingly creepy threats.
Vina Jie-Min Prasad combines humor with a sharp eye for detail. The discussions of the technical difficulties involved in mass-producing T-bone steaks gave "A Series of Steaks" a realistic grounding, and the two main characters are easy to cheer for despite their iffy forgery business. It’s a lively, charming story.
Merged review:
This 5 star review (4.5 stars, actually, but rounding up for fun times!) is just for Vina Jie-Min Prasad's Nebula award nominated novelette "A Series of Steaks." You can read it free online
here at Clarkesworld magazine. Definitely recommended! Review first posted on
Fantasy Literature:
In this near-future SF novelette, 3-D printing has become so advanced that a “bioprinter” can mass-produce copies of food. In any criminal forgery case, the best forgeries are the ones that never get noticed, and Helena Li Yuanhui of Splendid Beef Enterprises, a one-woman business in Nanjing, China, is an expert at it. She keeps her business small and the quality of her gray market meat forgeries high, hoping to gradually earn enough to start a new life and make a complete break with her past.
Unfortunately for Helena, but not for our story, her past is discovered by a businessman, who blackmails her into secretly mass-producing 200 T-bone steaks ― a job far beyond Helena’s current capabilities. Among other complications, the 200 steaks need to be individualized with marbling, etc., so that they don’t look like carbon copies of each other. In desperation, she hires a perky but suspiciously capable assistant, Lily Yonezawa. Helena’s luck begins to turn as she and Lily become closer while working on this massive project, despite her anonymous blackmailer’s increasingly creepy threats.
Singaporean author Vina Jie-Min Prasad combines humor with a sharp eye for detail. The discussions of the technical difficulties involved in mass-producing T-bone steaks gave "A Series of Steaks" a realistic grounding, and the two main characters are easy to cheer for despite their iffy forgery business. It’s a lively, charming story. This one and Sara Pinsker’s
Wind Will Rove are my clear favorites of the Nebula novelette nominees. -
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
boilerplate mission statement intro:for the past two years, i’ve set december’s project aside to do my own version of a short story advent calendar. it’s not a true advent calendar since i choose all the stories myself, but what it lacks in the ‘element of surprise’ department it more than makes up for in hassle, as i try to cram even MORE reading into a life already overcrammed with impossible personal goals (live up to your potential! find meaningful work! learn to knit!) merry merry wheee!
since i am already well behind in my *regular* reviewing, when it comes to these stories, whatever i poop out as far as reflections or impressions are going to be superficial and perfunctory at best. please do not weep for the great big hole my absented, much-vaunted critical insights are gonna leave in these daily review-spaces (and your hearts); i’ll try to drop shiny insights elsewhere in other reviews, and here, i will at least drop links to where you can read the stories yourselves for free, which - let’s be honest - is gonna serve you better anyway.
HAPPY READING, BOOKNERDS!
links to all stories read in previous years' calendars can be found at the end of these reviews, in case you are a person who likes to read stories for free:
2016:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2017:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
scroll down for links to this year’s stories which i will update as we go, and if you have any suggestions, send 'em my way! the only rules are: it must be available free online (links greatly appreciated), and it must be here on gr as its own thing so i can review it. thank you in advance!
DECEMBER 21
As Helena’s drifting off, something occurs to her. “Lily? What happened to those people? The ones who tried to blackmail you?”
“Oh,” Lily says casually. “I crushed them.”
MEATCRIMES! okay, this lists as a novelette, and during this project i have been trying to keep to the shorter of the shorts because of time management and hubris and all that, but this one was SO worth reading and it didn't feel too long, even though i had several interruptions while reading it that extended my reading time past my good intentions. but still - totally worth it. funny and unusual and sharp and fast-paced (except for some of the technical 3d printing stuff that dragged for me, because i lack imagination) and i love a world in which there is a criminal underworld built on MEAT! i dug it.
because i am not doing in-depth reviews for anything i'm reading for this short story advent calendar project, please allow me to pass you on to
tadiana night owl's review, because she does things right.
read it for yourself here:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa...
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come to my blog! -
This is a review for the short story Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad.
Another short totally worth the time to read! Strange, offbeat, quirky, and intense! To the end you have no idea how it is going to go, but the author doesn't disappoint! The scary part - despite it being mostly science fiction, it dances tightly on the edge of reality...
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa... -
A Series of Steaks
— by VINA JIE-MIN PRASAD
After reading this story, I’m seriously thinking not to eat beef anymore, lol.
Besides that, we get clever tech worldbuilding which, unfortunately, sounds very plausible in the very near future, a nice wrapped up plot, two badass women and a witty ending. 30 minutes well spent.
Can be read here:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa... -
***A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad***
This story was nominated for Best Novelette for both, the Hugos and Nebulas in 2018.
Helena wanted to study art in university, but that didn’t work out for spoilery reasons. She had to leave Hong Kong and does now design artificial beef for a company in Nanjing, using a false identity.
When she accepts a job by an anonymous client and hires a help for work, her past is catching up with her.
This is very well written short fiction with good worldbuilding, great characterizations, entertaining dialogue and impressive atmosphere.
Storywise it could have done with a little more meat to it (pun intended). But otherwise I was very impressed and would have preferred this one to win the Hugo instead of Suzanne Palmer’s
The Secret Life of Bots. Though I liked that one as well.
You can read it
here.
____________________________
2018 Hugo Awards Finalists
Best Novel
•
The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (Tor)
•
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
•
Provenance by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
•
Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
•
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Orbit)
•
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Best Novella
•
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
•
And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
•
Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
•
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
•
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
•
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
Best Novelette
•
Children of Thorns, Children of Water by Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny, July-August 2017)
•
Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com, February 15, 2017)
•
The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer (Clarkesworld, September 2017)
•
A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld, January 2017)
•
Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny, May/June 2017)
•
Wind Will Rove by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s, September/October 2017)
Best Short Story
•
Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2017)
•
Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand by Fran Wilde (Uncanny, September 2017)
•
Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny, September/October 2017)
•
The Martian Obelisk by Linda Nagata (Tor.com, July 19, 2017)
•
Sun, Moon, Dust by Ursula Vernon, (Uncanny, May/June 2017) by Ursula Vernon, (Uncanny, May/June 2017)
•
Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex, August 2017)
Best Related Work
•
Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate by Zoe Quinn (PublicAffairs)
•
Iain M. Banks (Modern Masters of Science Fiction) by Paul Kincaid (University of Illinois Press)
•
A Lit Fuse: The Provocative Life of Harlan Ellison by Nat Segaloff (NESFA Press)
•
Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal (Twelfth Planet Press)
•
No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
•
Sleeping with Monsters: Readings and Reactions in Science Fiction and Fantasy by Liz Bourke (Aqueduct Press)
Best Graphic Story
•
Black Bolt, Volume 1: Hard Time written by Saladin Ahmed, illustrated by Christian Ward, lettered by Clayton Cowles (Marvel)
•
Bitch Planet, Volume 2: President Bitch written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, illustrated by Valentine De Landro and Taki Soma, colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick, lettered by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
•
Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood written by Marjorie M. Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
•
My Favorite Thing is Monsters written and illustrated by Emil Ferris (Fantagraphics)
•
Paper Girls, Volume 3 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image Comics)
•
Saga, Volume 7 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Best Series
• The Books of the Raksura, by
Martha Wells (Night Shade)
• The Divine Cities, by
Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway)
• InCryptid, by
Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Memoirs of Lady Trent, by
Marie Brennan (Tor US / Titan UK)
• The Stormlight Archive, by
Brandon Sanderson (Tor US / Gollancz UK)
• World of the Five Gods, by
Lois McMaster Bujold (Harper Voyager / Spectrum Literary Agency)
___________________2017 Nebula Award Nominees
Best Novel
•
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly (Tor)
•
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss (Saga)
•
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (Knopf; riverrun)
•
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
•
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Orbit US)
•
Jade City by Fonda Lee (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
•
Autonomous by Annalee Newitz (Tor; Orbit UK 2018)
Best Novella
•
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)
•
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (Tor.com Publishing)
•
And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 3-4/17)
•
Barry’s Deal by Lawrence M. Schoen (NobleFusion Press)
•
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
•
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Best Novelette
•
Dirty Old Town by Richard Bowes (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 5-6/17)
•
Weaponized Math by Jonathan P. Brazee (The Expanding Universe, Vol. 3)
•
Wind Will Rove by Sarah Pinsker (Asimov’s 9-10/17)
•
A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Clarkesworld 1/17)
•
A Human Stain by Kelly Robson (Tor.com 1/4/17)
•
Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time by K.M. Szpara (Uncanny 5-6/17)
Best Short Story
•
Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Uncanny 9-10/17)
•
Welcome to your Authentic Indian Experience™ by Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex 8/17)
•
Utopia, LOL? by Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons 6/5/17)
•
Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand by Fran Wilde (Uncanny 9-10/17)
•
The Last Novelist (or A Dead Lizard in the Yard) by Matthew Kressel (Tor.com 3/15/17)
•
Carnival Nine by Caroline M. Yoachim (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 5/11/17)
Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
•
Exo by Fonda Lee (Scholastic Press)
•
Weave a Circle Round by Kari Maaren (Tor)
•
The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller (HarperTeen)
•
Want by Cindy Pon (Simon Pulse) -
'18 Hugo nom for a shorter work!
And surprisingly enough for me, I've already read this one. :)
A great con-game story including fake designer meat that's printed out and a whole underworld of shady dealings, blackmail, and a bit of revenge. :) I do like this one a lot. -
Review for Shipmaker by
Aliette de Bodard
5480 words, short story
“Ships were living, breathing beings. Dac Kien had known this, even before she’d reached the engineering habitat—even before she’d seen the great mass in orbit outside, being slowly assembled by the bots.“
Poetic and harsh. I really liked Dac Kien‘s internal conflict and was worried about her potential decisions in her effort to safe a ship and its mind.
Free here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/debo...
Or here:
https://www.aliettedebodard.com/short...
+*+*+
Review for A Series of Steaks by
Vina Jie-Min Prasad
7900 words, novelette
And the winner for odd titles goes to... a very meaty story. Fun. Humorous. Odd. I am not entirely sold on the concepts behind the story, but the world building and characterizations were top-notch for such a short piece.
2017 FINALIST: NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVELETTE
2018 FINALIST: HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVELETTE
2018 FINALIST: THEODORE A. STURGEON MEMORIAL AWARD
Story can be found here:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa...
I didn‘t like her other Hugo Award nominee quite as much, it was just ok: Fandom for Robots. Unfortunately this is one of the cases where GR deleted a single entry for a short story and I mixed up my review with another story. Anyway, it can be read for free here:
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/artic... -
Ok, I want more Helen and Lily.
Terrific short story on printing meat, blackmail, forgery, and friendship. -
Loved, loved, loved this story. Everyone should read it. I don't want to discuss details because it is short and should be experienced for yerself. It can be found for free online and in audiobook formats on Clarkeworld Magazine by
clicking this link. Arrrr! -
Review and rating for "A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
Online at
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prasa.... Nebula and Hugo nominee 2018, for best novelette. Then-new author Vina Jie-Min Prasad had a very good year in 2017. Her "Fandom for Robots" was also nominated for 4 major awards. Google to find it: still online, I think.
"Steaks" is an excellent story. I'm bumping it up to 4.5 stars after my 2020 reread. Here's Tadiana's full review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2022 re-read: I'm a bit tired of it, or reread it too early -- likely the latter. Reset to 4 stars.
Note that the reprint of "Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance" (2009) by John Kessel is another first-rate story in this issue, picked for Best of Year by at least 3 editors. Still online here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kess... Strong 4 stars, by memory. Don't miss!
And I really should read "The Ghost Ship Anastasia" by Rich Larson.... -
That does it. Vina Jie-Min Prasad is my new favorite author. Knowing she's Singaporean is awesome since I could actually meet her one day. Definitely someone to watch in the upcoming years. And what a year for her so far! I loved her Fandom for Robot story and this novelette is as good and entertaining. I like that she likes to touch upon current issues and weaves it into a fun specfic narrative. This novelette is about someone who forges meat. Yes, fake food. Definitely not too farfetched since most of the food sold in our supermarkets are not really food - they are basically 'edible food-like substances' - this hits too close to home.
-
You can get mad AND get even
I am reviewing only the story "A Series of Steaks", by
Vina Jie-Min Prasad which you can find
here. 7900 words, so either a long short story or a short novella. Clarkesworld calls it a "novellette".
"A Series of Steaks" is about a forger, Helena, who forges beef. That is, she makes artificial meat that looks like it came from a cow (or steer, more likely) and sells it to clients who pass it off as real beef. This is forgery and is definitely illegal. Helena is a disgraced student of Hong Kong Scientific University, where she learned how to print animal organs. Helena is the main character, but there is a second, Lily. I'm not quite sure where Lily comes from -- she feels to me like a character who might have been introduced in a previous story, but since this was the first thing I had ever read by
Prasad, she's new to me.
The story starts when Helena gets an order that she wants to refuse, because it is beyond the capacity of her business. But the man commissioning it knows Helena's real identity and blackmails her. Helena hires Lily to take some of the load of this huge order. I can't really say any more without spoiling, so I'll leave it there.
It's a fun story with a delightful ending.
Blog review. -
Solid collection of great writing. Interesting essays by Kelly Robson and Benjamin C. Kinney, cool interview with James S.A. Corey (who isn't actually one guy?! Who knew :P) and some excellent, thought-provoking fiction.
Clear standouts for me are:
— "
A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, which approaches the neocrime of food forgery from every possible angle, while creating compelling characters and wrapping up charmingly.
— "
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities" by Lettie Prell is a part-Kafka part-satire exploration of ways in which justice may be doled out using different systems of imprisonment and freedom and ways that different cultures may perceive different types of crime and the reasons people might commit them. Fascinating kaleidoscopic story with the clear message that every system has its flaws.
Though I think it's clear that Clarkesworld is a sci-fi fan's magazine. I'm finding the same with
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One, that many stories are for those readers who already know who the authors are, and know of the worlds they've crafted in which the stories take place. If you're new to the author, you get exposed to a high quantity of jargon per page, which can be difficult (but of course not impossible) to navigate. And if these writers have carved out their niche, why should they take a step back and explain themselves to newbie browsers, I guess. Just writing about my own exprience :)
2017 Leo is trying to stay on-topic but the eternal part of him wants to ramble. I'll give him a paragraph and spoiler it, b/c this isn't even about Clarkesworld specifically.
It's amazing you can read this online for free! I'll be a Patreon supporter soon for sure. I'd subscribe to the ebook if I'd ever honestly managed to read an ebook in the last year, or to the paper magazine version if anything got fucking delivered to Norway ever ever.
Check it out!! -
“All known forgeries are failures.”
Hilarious short story about a bio-forger in way over her head. Help comes from an unlikely addition to her “staff.”
“The trick is to not get ambitious.”
Well-developed short story with the reader learning bits as the plot progresses.
“There are so many ways for a forgeries to go wrong, and only one way it can go right.”
(2018 Hugo Award short story finalist. Illustration is cover of magazine in which story appeared; has nothing to do with story.) -
This novelette was short-listed for Hugo Awards 2018
An artist has to leave her studies in Hong Kong due to the unspecified threat and move to Nanjing. She took bio-printer with her and now she is creating fake beef that looks almost like the real thing. And now the threat catches up with her...
Quite interesting story with a punch line -
Review for “A Series of Stakes by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, with thanks to C for pointing it out to me. Review below.
I love this author. I was glued to every word and most of it was about making fake meat! Short freebie. 5 stars! -
A caper story, in which the caper involves forging artificial steaks. Entertaining, not deep, but with nice detail work and some sharp writing.
-
A great issue. As always Neil Clarke selects some pretty amazing stories for this issue.
The Ghost Ship Anastasia - It's the space trope no character is ever wise to - you DO NOT inspect a distress call on a space ship!
So of course things go pear-shaped. The specifics of this story involve ships run by AIs and an experimental Bioship in which the ship is partly metal and partly living matter.
A Series of Steaks - Very, very great fun story. This one by it self is worth the price of the issue. Depicts a future in which meat can be 3D printed cheaply (or cheaply enough that's it's not just universities doing it). It's a blackmail-based story. The characters were fun and the so was the conclusion to the story.
Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities - Explores a bunch of different ways we could orient the justice system if we were to start from scratch. Some are mere glimpses and some attack the straw man arguments that prop them up. This seems like it would be a great story to give first year law students as a reminder that our way isn't necessarily the only or best way, it's just the one we've ended up with.
Interchange - A group of workers upgrading a highway get into a time forwarded chunk of space to work on a stretch of highway without interrupting traffic. To the outside world, the highway will be upraded one second later. There's a glitch and the story takes off from there. Just like space miners, the blue collar folk end up in a terror situation so everyone else can profit from their labor.
Milla - Someone is exploring a new planet and encounters an alien AI. Things go interestingly.....
Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance: A SF story in which a monk undertakes an espionage mission. Pretty neat backstory is hinted at. Just about the right level of intrigue for a short story.
The Shipmaker: A story of a designer of ships that have a cyborg birthed to command them. The ship's design needs to be perfect Feng Shui, but the next cyborg to be born is coming early. A beautiful story and one that takes place in a very interesting universe.
The Evolved Brain: A neuroscientist discusses the way the brain works: so dedicated to movement, and what the consequences of a better understanding of the brain has for SF.
A Collective Pseudonym: James SA Corey: An interview about working together. This Clarkesworld is a few months old, but I just heard JSAC on a recent episode of Sword and Laser. After reading this, moved Leviathon Wakes up in my To Read Queue.
Dystopias are not enough: A Call to authors to use SF to show us a way out of our current some-what dystopic society. -
Ok. Wow. I think that I've found a new favourite author! <3
This is wholly different from
A Guide For Working Breeds, as this was written as a proper story, albeit with a speculative fiction bent. Helena has been involved in creating forgery steaks for a fair while now, and it takes artistry to create the marbling, and understand how the meat should look and break apart. She was contacted by a threatening Mr Anonymous one day, who blackmailed her into creating T-bone steaks, and from there, the short story takes off at a cracking pace.
I think that I'm going to have to find more of Vina Jie-Min Prasad's works, as she writes incredibly well, and her stories have thus far been incredibly entertaining!
Merged review:
I'm plenty annoyed that my previous review of this story got deleted, but I was happy that I got the opportunity to read it all over again!
There's an amazing level of detail and imagery of the skill involved in creating fake meat (the level of moisture, the structure of the meat and the marbling of fat through a good cut of steak), as well as a beautifully satisfying ending - I love a good comeuppance! -
4ish stars.
-
A Series of Steaks (Chuỗi bít tết): Là chuyên gia về in 3D các vật phẩm sinh học, Helena Li Yuanhui cung cấp những miếng thịt bò giả đắt tiền cho các nhà hàng mờ ám. Phương châm của cô là đừng quá tham vọng, chỉ nhận đơn hàng đơn giản và gắn bó với một nhóm khách hàng thân thiết. Nhưng tất cả đã thay đổi khi một ngày nọ, cô nhận được một yêu cầu đặc biệt khó khăn, kèm theo lời đe dọa, từ một kẻ giấu mặt.
Có gì đó đơn giản mà rất hiệu quả ở truyện ngắn này. Các nhân vật được xây dựng vừa đủ và hòa hợp với thế giới của họ; cốt truyện không cua gắt rẽ ngang nhưng vẫn hấp dẫn. Các khuôn mẫu sẵn có được biến tấu và thêm thắt chút gia vị mới lạ thu hút. Chính nhờ sự tiết chế ở những yếu tố trên mà phần khoa học viễn tưởng mới thực sự tỏa sáng.
Đối với đứa không biết mấy về công nghệ in 3D sinh học như mình, phần khoa học trong truyện vừa đủ độ "cứng" mà vẫn trong ngưỡng tiếp thu. Các chi tiết công nghệ được giải thích tường tận, tạo ra cảm giác chân thực đến độ mình phải thắc mắc không biết đâu mới là yếu tố viễn tưởng, vì mọi thứ dường như đều thực tế và khả thi. Ngoài ra, ta có thể thấy được ảnh hưởng của công nghệ này lên thể giới trong truyện, nhất là trong lĩnh vực ẩm thực hay y học.
Về tổng quan, "A Series of Steaks" là một câu chuyện tươi vui hài hước với những khía cạnh khoa học công nghệ được miêu tả sinh động. Mình cực kỳ "cảm" hai cô gái và tình bạn đáng yêu giữa họ. Nhân vật phản diện có phần hơi lố, nhưng có lẽ như vậy mới hợp với màu sắc của truyện? Tác giả Vina Jie-Min Prasad còn có truyện ngắn "A Guide For Working Breeds" cũng rất nhộn.
"Tất cả các vụ giả mạo được thiên hạ biết đến đều là những phi vụ thất bại." -
"A Series of Steaks" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad and it was absolutely brilliant! I loved the idea about meat forgery with 3D printing technology. 5/5
"The Shipmaker" was a strange mixture of the futurism and the rigid Asian culture. The idea of the spirit of a living ship being the outcome of a pregnancy that have to be carried by a woman was mostly just creepy, and not in a good way. 3/5
"The Ghost Ship Anastasia" was genuinely scary. The mixture of a machine and a living organism, the plunge into the unknown space, knowing full well that something went extremely wrong there, the strange evolution… The meaty, pulsing surfaces made me think about the Atlantis from Tomb Raider 1. The story was creepy, but this time in a good way. 4/5
"Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance" was the story I enjoyed the least. It was rather dull, full of washed out and ridiculous ideas and I didn't like the sexist and religious undertones. 2/5
"Interchange" had a very strong start and in the interesting idea, but the quality of execution dwindled a bit towards the end. 3/5
"Milla", the tale about searching for a new planet for the humanity, was striking and memorable for such a very short story. 5/5
"Justice Systems in Quantum Parallel Probabilities" was fascinating. I enjoyed reading about different alternatives to the existing justice systems. 4/5 -
Just about A Series of Steaks by Vina Jie-Min Prasad, available here:
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pras...
My daily dose of recent sf/f short fiction continues and I am definitely skimming the cream by going straight to often mentioned and multiple award nominated stuff but I will enjoy it while it lasts.
This was fantastic (as were other short stories of hers I have read), in a future China a steak forger is blackmailed to provide lots and lots of forged steaks (T-bones to be precise). And while its tone is light and upbeat and easily related, the universe, the future, the science is fantastically credible and rich in its smallest details and thought provoking. But without overtaking the characters or their relationship which is the point and like any good short story, it goes somewhere.
Very very good. -
This was one of five finalists for Clarkesworld magazine’s 2017 Reader’s Poll. My story “Who Won the Battle of Arsia Mons?” was also a finalist. As soon as I read “A Series of Steaks,” I knew I was likely to lose. A woman in China agrees to make counterfeit beefsteaks for a client, then the deal starts to go sour. Three things impressed me: the quiet desperation of the main character, the philosophical musings about the art of forgeries, and the thoroughly satisfying ending. I voted for this story for the Nebula Award.
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2018 FINALIST: HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVELETTE
2017 FINALIST: NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVELETTE
Very fun short story giving a glimpse into the near future of a master forger of synthetically produced, bio-engineered protein sources and her dealings in the gray market for artificial meat. Highly recommended! -
Now I’m hungry...
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Helena Li Yuanhui of Splendid Beef Enterprises is an expert in counterfeiting real beef with 3D bio-printed one. Her printed beef is perfect in texture, color, scent, and flavor. She is working hard to try to raise enough money to change her identity and escape from the past she is so hard trying to escape from... until one day, someone learn about it, and decides to blackmail Helena...
The world building is sublime: Helena's world is credible, futuristic, yet it contains many of the horror and the contradictions of our present world. This is definitely another good contender for the Hugo Award for best novelette. -
Great SF thriller, written the way a short story should be. There's not a lot of boring description, but the world pops anyway. Life is tough & not always fair, but some people can get by with a little help from their friends & hard work. Loved the way the forgery theme was worked in. Even though it was obviously coming, it still packed a punch.
I'm going to have to pay more attention to Clarkesworld. I got this as a free podcast, but if they do this sort of thing regularly, I'm going to support them. I haven't been too enamored of the latest SF & find the various awards a very poor guide for my own reading, but this story & author have my attention.
