Stories of Your Life

Some believe that different languages change the way you perceive the world. In “Stories of Your Life”, by Ted Chiang, an alien language can change your perceptions even more profoundly. You can tell something is up from the beginning:
Your father is about to ask me the question…. “Do you want to make a baby?”

Standards

Told as the rejection letter from a science journal, Standards, by Richard K. Lyon, is full of deft hints of adventure and dry put-downs of the sort of mad genius who submits patents for perpetual motion machines and trisects angles in his sleep. And I think that sentence is almost as long as the story. [...]

The Cambist and Lord Iron

Olaf Neddelson is a humble cambist, a money changer, whose life is changed when the notorious Lord Iron comes to his exchange window. Lord Iron demands that he exchange convertible guilders from the Independent Protectorate of Analdi-Wat for pounds sterling. If Olaf fails to do so within 24 hours, his license could be reviewed under [...]

The Merchant and The Alchemist’s Gate

The story I have to tell is truly a strange one, and were the entirety to be tattooed at the corner of one’s eye, the marvel of its presentation would not exceed that of the events recounted…
A lovely salute to the storytelling girl in The Orphan’s Tales, and a big claim to make. At turns [...]

The Fiddler of Bayou Teche

Come here, cher, and I tell you a story.
The opening lines of “The Fiddler of Bayou Teche,” by Delia Sherman establish an intimate narrative voice, so clear you can hear her speaking inside your head. Better yet, read it out loud.
Cadence is an albino girl who lives out in the swamp with her Tante Eulalie [...]