Friday, March 9, 2012

Postmen, Spies, and Chinese Medicine

Greetings again. I hope all of you have had a nice time since the last we met. I have had quite a busy week and haven't had much time to do the things I want to do. However, who really does?

Anyways, it's Friday, and that means I have another three stories for you. Like it has been lately, two of the stories that I have for you this week are newer while the other is quite aged. The newer stories are Ken Liu's "The Five Elements of the Heart Mind" and Margaret Ronald's "Sunlight Society." The older story this week is Robert Silverberg's "Postmark Ganymede."

The Five Elements of the Heart Mind by Ken Liu -- Lightspeed Magazine

I had a hard time getting into this story, however, I am glad that I stuck to it. It's a little longer than the other two, but is well worth the read.

It begins with a sole survivor of some sort of space accident drifting through space on an escape pod. She lands on a planet which is inhabited by humans who, as we learn later, have landed there maybe a thousand years previous to her landing. They lost much of their technology and lived a much simpler life than the main character and the rest of her society. I think I want to leave it at that with the plot. There are some elements of wuwei in the story that the story is quite dependent on, and it would be easier for you to probably read it than for me to tell you about it.

Sunlight Society by Margaret Ronald -- Clarkesworld Magazine

Though this story may not draw the reader in with much attention-grabbing flare, it is still pretty fun. With spies and viruses and heroes and villains, what more could you ask for from a story? It's not really that long, and if you like comics, I know you'd likee to read this one.

Postmark Ganymede by Robert Silverberg

Here's the older story of the week. It starts off with a patrolman who feels like he has been demoted because he has been repositioned to work as a postman. I'll just say that this is the pulp story of the week. No guns this time, but we still have a hero who walks away standing tall with a fire blazing behind him.

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