Samantha Mills

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

A unique science fiction setting provides the backdrop for winged warriors and religio-political intrigues in Mills's fantastic debut.

Zenya is in her forties. Constant aches and pains plague her, but even more, she's left bitter and disillusioned by decades of war on behalf of her mecha sect. When she extends mercy to a worker with an illegal religious icon, she's caught and quickly persecuted, stripped of her beloved wings and her very identity. Her 'rescue' by a band of rebels seems more a curse than a blessing as she's asked to betray everything she hold dear. Chapters alternate between the present and the past, highlighting the heartbreaking contrast between a young, hopeful Zenya and her embittered present self.

I could praise the depth of worldbuilding here and the gorgeousness of the winged battle scenes, but the most brilliant aspect is the psychological manipulation and warfare that is depicted through the book. Zenya is, truly, taken in by a religious cult with a charismatic leader, and is groomed to be a war machine who commits truly horrific deeds. There are a lot of books that depict the redemption of someone young, but that difficult path feels more real, more tragic, more beautiful, when through the eyes of someone who is older and utterly broken.… (más)

[Name change before publication]

Announced by author, pre-publication record.

Told in two timelines, following one woman's rise to power and fall from grace, as she gives up everything to serve a charismatic leader and then unravels the truth of what really happened, in a city whose gods have got to sleep after bestowing technology like magic, leaving their followers struggling to understand why.

Screengrab from author's newsletter: rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://gyazo.com/b578dc2dbea6f85f4caa89c5db427eb4… (más)

Author summary "–In which a time-traveling fisherwoman is struggling to get home to her children, and keeps landing on the right shore, at the wrong time."

That was a 5* story for me!
"Fisherwoman Mika Sandrigal was lost at sea." is how it opens. We come to learn she is a mother entering timeslips from her boat trying to get back to her time and her children. Each time she leaves the timeslip she ends up on the same beach at different time. She barters for supplies with items from the sea from other time periods. She attempts to avoid detection from authorities but the "fisherwoman" is known and watched for by those that want info about the future.

I listened on a podcast by Podcastle. The narrator wasn't the best and it took me a bit to get my own bearings in the story, I kept restarting it. That is not completely unusual for me though.

The author said this about the story and it made me love it even more.
"I wrote this story during the first sleep deprived months after my second child was born. I had a note jotted in my idea file for years "kid in a time traveling boat?" but it didn't come together until I realized it was really about a mother and she didn't actually want to be traveling. I'll let you in on a secret. I'm not the mother in question. My mother is. She would have gone to the ends of the earth for us and this story was my way of working through the question, "she would do it, but could I?". Am I strong enough? Brave enough? Will I ever be any good at this? I don't know if I answered that yet but I know that this story made her cry so take that mom."

Visual: http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/strange-waters/ (I personally found the warnings on that site for the story ridiculous. ymmv)
PodCastle: https://podcastle.org/2019/08/13/podcastle-587-strange-waters/… (más)