This Chance Planet by Elizabeth Bear
My rating: 4/5 cats
This is how women sometimes turn into witches. We come home from work one day too many to discover our partners curled up on the couch like leeches in a nice warm tank, and we decide it’s better to take up with a hut with chicken legs.
another fantastic tor short, and this one makes elizabeth bear 2 for 2, which i am taking as a sign from the universe to read something full-length from her. perhaps her new one, which also seems to be a sign directed at me: Karen Memory
thanks to miriam for the heads-up.
i liked this one slightly, only slightly less than The Horrid Glory of Its Wings, but it still kicks the ass of many of the other tor shorts, and many other books in general.
it takes place in a near-future moscow where a girl who is smart enough to know better is in a relationship with a slouchy black-haired leather clad wanna-be rock star. the allure of the slouchy wanna-be rock star is strong, and we’ve all been there, despite knowing with the parts of our brain that aren’t confusing us with raw animal desire that they’re not gonna contribute financially or exhibit any sort of loyalty, responsibility, or sobriety. and they’re probably not going to make it big.
We were coming up on my stop. Soon, I would get off and walk to my job. Ilya would continue on to his “band” practice: with “Blak Boxx,” his “band.” Which was more or less an excuse to hang out with three of his closest frenemies drinking and playing the same five chords in ragged 4/4 time.
You know which five chords I mean, too: nothing more complicated than a D major.
Fortunately for “Blak Boxx,” most of rock and roll is built on the foundation of those five chords. Unfortunately for “Blak Boxx,” to play live music you still need to be able to change between them without looking at your hands.
but, damn they do look good in those tight black jeans.
and ilya looks good. so although petra knows better and can see that ilya is a waste of time, she puts up with his bullshit and also endures the roving hands of customers as she cocktail waitresses herself closer to her goal of saving enough money to take classes towards her engineering degree. she’s not happy or complacent—she knows that what she has isn’t necessarily what she wants, but it takes ilya’s newest get rich quick scheme and meeting a dog on the metro to give her the push she needs to change her life.
ilya begins pressuring her to become an incubator—to use her body to grow stem cell organs for wealthy sickly folk who will pay handsomely for the service. she refuses, as a sensible lady would, but ilya is insistent:
“You don’t understand,” he said. “We need this money to pay for the tour. For the band.”
which is pretty ballsy, even for a freeloading musician. and he knows all the angles.
“Help me change our lives,” he whispered. “You know I’m doing everything I can. I just need you to believe in me.”
His breath shivered on the fine hairs behind my ear. He found my shoulders with his hands and massaged.
I was too tired to be angry, and anyway, he smelled good. I leaned back against his warm, hard belly. I let him smooth my hair and lead me to bed.
wow. the “I need you to believe in me” line. hard to stand your ground against that one without looking like a faithless bitch.
luckily, a dog intervenes. a wonderful, wonderful dog.
the story is great—it’s funny and sad and true. there are so many great lines, mostly in its quiet moments—she has a real knack for dropping a phrase that is perfect and then casually moving on. the futuristic elements are frequently subtle, and she doesn’t go out of her way to explain them. they are just added texture to the story, which could take place at any time, anywhere.
it’s a nice tight little story, and the only awkward part is a little info-dump about dogs and evolution, but the info itself is well-chosen for the story.
i definitely need to read more from her.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/10/th…
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