"wet and full of life"
January 17, 2025 8:59 AM Subscribe
Two short speculative stories in which pairs of women figure out some things about their relationships. "Twenty Thousand Last Meals on an Exploding Station" by Ann LeBlanc, published 2021 in Mermaids Monthly: "Riles Yalten has approximately thirty minutes before she dies, and that’s just enough time to try the new gravlax place on level sixteen." "The Freedom to Decide" by W. L. Bolm, published Nov. 2024 in Small Wonders: "Thus begins an audit of all the little kindnesses each had attributed to the other." (Disclaimer: Bolm is a friend.)
Twenty thousand last meals is excellent! Just wanted to log that mem-backup now in case I don’t get to the second story anytime soon.
posted by ejs at 10:45 AM on January 17 [1 favorite]
posted by ejs at 10:45 AM on January 17 [1 favorite]
The second one is a delight!
posted by demi-octopus at 11:23 AM on January 17 [1 favorite]
posted by demi-octopus at 11:23 AM on January 17 [1 favorite]
Much of the comfort of post-apocalyptic fiction comes from the fact that there’s no need to save the world, or even large systems, because those things have already failed. If there’s anything to be salvaged or rebuilt, it’s on a much smaller scale. This is not that, but Riles’s conclusion that saving the station is impossible leads her into a similar state of doomed contentedness. I liked that it subverted that doom but also affirmed that Riles wasn’t wrong, she just needed outside help (and enough time to negotiate with that help in a more healthy fashion). Very economical world-building allows the room for mouth watering food descriptions. I want to seek out more by this author!
On to the second link!
posted by rikschell at 11:42 AM on January 17 [5 favorites]
On to the second link!
posted by rikschell at 11:42 AM on January 17 [5 favorites]
I love getting these links to stories I would otherwise miss. These posts are a highlight of Metafilter for me.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:49 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:49 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]
OMG, you buried the lede, she has a novella about a cheese heist in space!
posted by rikschell at 11:49 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 11:49 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]
Both stories are perfectly the-thing-they-are, and in totally different ways. The first is tart-spicy ceviche with spherified lavender syrup on a quinoa crisp, and the second is a homemade apple cider caramel.
posted by #11eaea at 12:30 PM on January 17 [3 favorites]
posted by #11eaea at 12:30 PM on January 17 [3 favorites]
These are terrific. I was particularly struck by the first one, which was unsubtle in a way I appreciated—metaphors for being trans, for being sick of trying to help in Trump’s America.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:04 PM on January 17 [2 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 1:04 PM on January 17 [2 favorites]
Caveats: Ann's a friend of mine, and I'm co-editor of Small Wonders. But that's just proof of my exquisite taste, because both of these stories are excellent! I love stories where people work through aspects of their relationships, either to each other or the world around them, or ideally both. One nice side-effect of SFF is that you can design the situation and world to reify aspects of the relationships, something that both of these stories do to great effect.
The aforementioned cheese heist novella of Ann's is The Transitive Properties of Cheese, which is also excellent. It's about transhumanism and copying yourself and being in queer community and a bunch more things, too. She was kind enough to let me interview her about the novella, if you want to get a feel for the novella without too many spoilers. Plus she had great recommendations for queer spec fic at the end.
brainwane, I love these posts and how they make my to-read list keep growing.
posted by sgranade at 1:57 PM on January 17 [4 favorites]
The aforementioned cheese heist novella of Ann's is The Transitive Properties of Cheese, which is also excellent. It's about transhumanism and copying yourself and being in queer community and a bunch more things, too. She was kind enough to let me interview her about the novella, if you want to get a feel for the novella without too many spoilers. Plus she had great recommendations for queer spec fic at the end.
brainwane, I love these posts and how they make my to-read list keep growing.
posted by sgranade at 1:57 PM on January 17 [4 favorites]
Really enjoyed the first, space culinary odessy!
posted by socky_puppy at 2:37 PM on January 17 [1 favorite]
posted by socky_puppy at 2:37 PM on January 17 [1 favorite]
20000 last meals reminds me a bit of Sunrise, sunrise, sunrise by Lauren Ring. Her short story is a very touching time loop friendship interrupted by a supernova.
posted by autopilot at 2:52 PM on January 17 [1 favorite]
posted by autopilot at 2:52 PM on January 17 [1 favorite]
That's a fun idea for a time loop doomed to die scenario! I'm not sure what happened to fix it at the end, though? They just hurled the reactor far away?
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:37 PM on January 17
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:37 PM on January 17
And I just bought the ebook about the cheese heist :) Thank you for posting!
posted by lepus at 9:49 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
posted by lepus at 9:49 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
Thank you, branewain! Great stories :)
posted by bunderful at 9:57 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
posted by bunderful at 9:57 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
Mod note: [Added to our roundup of short works currently featured on the site!]
posted by taz (staff) at 4:54 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 4:54 AM on January 27 [1 favorite]
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