The Old Woman in the Young Woman, by Gene Wolfe.  Illustrated by Emily Tolson (scroll link to bottom of page).

Short Review:

The kind of story that sticks in your brain, and maybe you find yourself mentioning to a friend or coworker.  Has a few small kinks in the plot which I go into below, but it’s definitely a story I can recommend.

The illustrations by Emily Tolson were superb, and greatly enhanced the story.  I’ll leave any further critique to the artists out there, but I was impressed not only with the quality of her art, but its creative contribution to the story.

Long Review:

Okay, first let me say that I feel a bit presumptuous even rating Gene Wolfe.  But setting that aside, I felt that the ending did not tie up as nicely as it could have.  Once again (as with All the Things You Are) the summation in the end felt a bit rushed to me.  I didn’t fully understand what the girl’s trick with her voice was supposed to have accomplished, or how that got the villagers off their trail.  From the pov of a villager, it didn’t/wouldn’t make much sense.

In fact, it seems to me that if a village was open-minded enough to let an old woman farm her girlish counterpart for body parts, they’d be open minded enough to see the value of keeping around the young woman with the old woman’s knowledge.  And what’s more, why did the old woman not just transfer her knowledge and understanding to her own younger self, if that level of understanding was possible between them, as the story implies?  That way she could live on, complete, in the young body.

I’m still giving it two thumbs up for overall readability, however, because these nitpics only occured to me as I spent time thinking over the story; and if a story has me mulling it over after I’ve finished the tale, it has therein demonstrated its worth.

 

Every Hole is Outlined, by John Barnes

Short Review:

This is not an action piece, and more of an idea story than a character sketch.  As such, it was well told and engaging.

Long Review:

The truth is, this story is way outside my realm of writing experience, so even the long review will be brief.  I can’t imagine attempting a story were so little happens.  That said, it held my interest and drew me in just as the scent of great cooking draws one to the kitchen.  The ship people’s dilemma as to slavery was interesting, though I’m not sure how realistic the swift psychological recovery of, Xhrina, the pov slave, was.  I also found the math concepts interesting, despite being a non-mathematical person myself.  I especialy like the thought of defining a hole by its outline.

Still, if otherwise occupied, I can ignore a tantalizing aroma from the kitchen much easier than, say, a fire alarm.  Had I not being reading for review, I might have put the story down and wandered off.