Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water by Vylar Kaftan

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water 

by Vylar Kaftan 

Macmillan-Tor/Forge 

Tor.com 

Sci Fi & Fantasy

Abeja and Chela have been crawling around in caves, forever on the run. They are telepaths who have been imprisoned because they killed thousands aboard a starship. They've been given a chip that will knock them out if they ever try to use their talents. Large robots patrol the outside and Chela and Abeja only have each other.

Except Abeja senses a presence, a voice calling her telepathically. Chela warns it is a telepath in league with the government. But the voice is familiar, and Abeja wants to connect.

This parallels Philip K. Dick territory, but veers into something else. It's quite intriguing although it bogs a little in the middle. Definitely worth your time. It wouldn't surprise me to see it on award ballots.

"I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno" by Vylar Kaftan

First appeared in Lightspeed. Up for the Nebula award. Online. Interview.

Note: This is not a story that is spoiled by revealing the plot's events. However, it is available online, so read it first if you are concerned with spoilers.

The narrator falls for a man who keeps eluding her--from her perspective, almost purposefully despite being attracted to her. First he flies off at relativistic light speeds, so she marries a German who dies and when her lover returns, he marries her despite the difference in relativistic ages.

She, then, takes off on her own relativistic journey, which may or may not be spite, but her reason for leaving is otherwise unclear.

Despite life-extension, she gets a disease that requires cryogenics. Later, she uploads her personality and still waits for her lover to join her.

Although these characters seem confused about their attraction, they are not especially unreliable, except for this:

" 'I’ll marry you,' you said once, 'if you can’t find anyone else.' I laughed because I thought you were kidding. You couldn’t even propose right."

At first she's humored, perhaps a shade incredulous or flabbergasted. She believes that there is a proper way to propose "you" did it incorrectly, yet she recognized it was a proposal, which should be flattering.

There are a few reasons why someone might say such a thing:

1. Lack of self-confidence.
2. Belief that the other person is superior or too good for him.
3. Long shot: A complimentary put-off. However, the lover appears to return to her, even when she is relativistically thirty years his senior, which erodes this possibility.

Later, she writes:

"If I can’t find anyone else. That’s a terrible proposal. It makes a woman feel like you’re just putting up with her.

This makes the narrator unreliable. That's not really explicit or implicit in the statement. More likely, it's justification for marrying someone else--lies a person tells herself to break off interest in someone she cares for. Maybe that's the point of the story: How we unnecessarily confuse ourselves in matters of love. As silly as many romance-based sit-coms are--usually some stupid misunderstanding arises that could be clarified with a sentence or two--they may be nearer reality than one would suppose.

Nebula Nominee: Vylar Kaftan's "The Weight of the Sunrise" from Asimov's

This is a current Nebula nominee which first appeared in Asimov's. The pdf for the story can be found here.

Lanchi Ronpa, grandson of an English expat, has lived in the Incan Empire. He is called on to translate between an American and the god-emperor himself. The American claims to ave a cure for small pox and is willing to give it in exchange for 4,000 times his weight in gold, the weight of the sunrise. What he doesn't know is that the Incans don't see gold as money but as spiritual. They will have to sacrifice 1200 to appease the gods for this trade.

Loddington's goal is political and multi-pronged. He wants money to fund the American independence war against Britain. He wants to create peace between the Incan empire and the newly independent American colonies, and finally, he wants equality, a brotherhood of men. But the irony is that he carries with him a slave who is his half-brother but does not consider the boy an equal.

Negotiations are difficult, and the first pox trials succeed. They sign, but little else will go according to plan, including a revolution fomenting within the Incan Empire, not to mention other double-crossers who want to ensure the safety of their family and other citizens.

This well illustrates how humans often claim to hold one value though we truly do not--at least not in all cases.

"Through the Cooking Glass" by Vylar Kaftan

First appeared in Raven Electrick. It was up for the 2007 WSFA Small Press Award. Toasted Cake "reprinted" it for audio.

This poignant tale's so short, you might as well read it before I spoil it for you.

Mrs. Wallace makes gingerbread cookies that come to life in her oven. She blushes when they procreate, but watches fascinated as they build homes. When they start to burn, they try fruitlessly to escape. Mrs. Wallace simply seals the stove and opens the windows, apparently afraid of their intrusion on her life, what that might mean. This makes for a nice parallel to our own lives: What do we do when we can make someone's life better?

Great title.