{"id":6836,"date":"2012-09-06T09:38:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T14:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=6836"},"modified":"2012-11-30T11:15:32","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T16:15:32","slug":"the-other-half-of-the-sky-table-of-contents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?p=6836","title":{"rendered":"The Other Half of the Sky: Table of Contents"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“\u2026they see women as radiant and merciless as the dawn\u2026” — Sem\u00edra Ouran\u00e1kis, captain of starship Reckless<\/em> at planetfall (Planetfall).<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I decided to whet appetites. Below is not only the TOC of the anthology<\/a>, but also the opening bars of each movement that’s part of this symphony. At the end of this post is a widget designed with great care and flair by Kate Sullivan, our publisher<\/a>, that displays the excerpts as a beautiful mini-book.<\/p>\n

I won’t say more, the snippets speak for themselves. [ETA: so does the cover<\/a>, which eloquently embodies the anthology’s contents.]<\/p>\n

The Other Half of the Sky<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Athena Andreadis, Introduction: Dreaming the Dark<\/p>\n

Melissa Scott, Finders<\/em>
\nAlexander Jablokov, Bad Day on Boscobel<\/em>
\nNisi Shawl, In Colors Everywhere<\/em>
\nSue Lange, Mission of Greed<\/em>
\nVandana Singh, Sailing the Antarsa<\/em>
\nJoan Slonczewski, Landfall<\/em>
\nTerry Boren, This Alakie and the Death of Dima<\/em>
\nAliette de Bodard, The Waiting Stars<\/em>
\nKen Liu, The Shape of Thought<\/em>
\nAlex Dally MacFarlane, Under Falna\u2019s Mask<\/em>
\nMartha Wells, Mimesis<\/em>
\nKelly Jennings, Velocity\u2019s Ghost<\/em>
\nC. W. Johnson, Exit, Interrupted<\/em>
\nCat Rambo, Dagger and Mask<\/em>
\nChristine Lucas, Ouroboros<\/em>
\nJack McDevitt, Cathedral<\/em><\/p>\n

Let the storytelling begin:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Melissa Scott, Finders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A thousand years ago the cities fell, fire and debris blasting out the Burntover Plain.\u00a0 Most of the field was played out now, the handful of towns that had sprung up along the less damaged southern edge grown into three thriving and even elegant cities, dependent on trade for their technology now rather than salvage.\u00a0 Cassilde Sam had been born on the eastern fringe of the easternmost city, in Glasstown below the Empty Bridge, and even after two decades of hunting better salvage in the skies beyond this and a dozen other worlds, the Burntover still drew her.<\/p>\n

Alexander Jablokov, Bad Day on Boscobel<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dunya stopped just outside Phineus\u2019s unit to calm herself down. Otherwise she would burst in and start screaming at him. That was no way to start a check-in meeting with one of her refugees.<\/p>\n

That gave her a chance to realize that she looked like hell. She\u2019d already had one fight that morning, with her daughter Bodil, and afterwards she had rushed out, unsnapped and unbrushed. It was hard enough to manage someone like Phineus, all Martian and precise, without giving him more ammunition about how lax things were here, among the asteroids.<\/p>\n

Nisi Shawl, In Colors Everywhere<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Trill walked home through the Rainshadow Mountains with Adia, her former mentor.\u00a0 Not alone.<\/p>\n

The sky had been high all day.\u00a0 Now, with evening, it came low, wetting them and their surroundings with mist.\u00a0 Silver beaded the fuzz beneath their feet.<\/p>\n

Adia was tough, though an elder.\u00a0 She walked steadily, without complaint.\u00a0 She ought to have been tired even before they started; she and Trill had spent the week teaching a cohort of tens-to-thirteens how to weave buildings.<\/p>\n

Sue Lange, Mission of Greed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the third week after gagarin123 landed on an unnamed planet sweeping through a solar system claimed by ValeroCorp, First Mechanic Bertie Lai\u2019s chance for fame slowly swirled down the shitter.<\/p>\n

And just yesterday things had been moving along swimmingly. Ren\u00e9 Genie, the mission biologist, had not yet found sentient life; the geologist, Aadil Alzeshi, had discovered beautiful 1.4.\u00a0 Specifically, he\u2019d hit some pitchblende with enough uranium in it for ValeroCorp to recoup the cost of this mission.<\/p>\n

Vandana Singh, Sailing the Antarsa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are breezes, like the ocean breeze, which can set your pulse racing, dear kin, and your spirit seems to fly ahead of you as your little boat rides each swell.\u00a0 But this breeze!\u00a0 This breeze wafts through you and me, through planets and suns, like we are nothing.\u00a0 How to catch it, know it, befriend it?\u00a0 This sea, the Antarsa, is like no other sea.\u00a0 It washes the whole universe, as far as we can tell, and the ordinary matter such as we are made of is transparent to it.\u00a0 So how is it that I can ride the Antarsa current, as I am doing now, steering my little spacecraft so far from Dhara and its moon?<\/p>\n

Joan Slonczewski, Landfall<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most college sophomores spent their summer running toyworlds while catching sun at air-conditioned disappearing beaches.\u00a0 Jenny Ramos Kennedy spent hers at the Havana Institute for Revolutionary Botany, which students called the Bot\u00e1nica<\/em>. At the Bot\u00e1nica<\/em>, Jenny worked with ultraphytes, Earth\u2019s cyanide-emitting extraterrestrial invaders. Could she discover how to engineer ultraphyte chromosomes–to control them genetically, before they poisoned the planet?<\/p>\n

Terry Boren, This Alakie and the Death of Dima<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Dine Paloan asked this woman, Alakie, to leave before destruction arrived, she refused at first.\u00a0 She had trained to be Paloan\u2019s pilot, but this Alakie had never thought she would be leaving without Dine.\u00a0 So instead of accepting the Dinela\u2019s wishes, this Alakie helped to send Paloan\u2019s other tokens back to Cassin, and she stayed.<\/p>\n

Aliette de Bodard, The Waiting Stars<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The derelict ship ward was in an isolated section of Outsider space, one of the numerous spots left blank on interstellar maps, no more or no less tantalising than its neighbouring quadrants.\u00a0 To most people, it would be just that: a boring part of a long journey to be avoided–skipped over by Mind-ships as they cut through deep space, passed around at low speeds by Outsider ships while their passengers slept in their hibernation cradles.<\/p>\n

Ken Liu, The Shape of Thought<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cat\u2019s Cradle turns into Painted Handkerchief turns into Dish of Noodles turns into Manger turns into Fishing Net.\u00a0 These are but the first of the Two Hundred Variations developed by bored human children on the Long Journey.<\/p>\n

I was once one of them.<\/p>\n

Young Ket hums as zie holds up zir hands, the string wound tight around the fingers. Zie glances at me and I wave back. Zie has the same long graceful neck and bulbous body as zir parent, Tunloji. Watching zem is like watching a younger version of my lover.<\/p>\n

Alex Dally MacFarlane, Under Falna\u2019s Mask<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mar-teri broke her confinement to burn alsar for her dead sisters.\u00a0 Under thin moonlight she stepped out of the unmarried adults\u2019 caravan for the first time in two months–stones crunching under her feet, chives brushing against her bare ankles–carrying the bunch of alsar she was supposed to burn in her caravan. As if honouring them from afar could be enough.<\/p>\n

The opening lines of Falna\u2019s song slipped into Mar-teri\u2019s head. Such a fierce song, when the woman wearing Falna\u2019s mask channelled generations of anger–how Mar-teri had longed to wear that mask!<\/p>\n

Martha Wells, Mimesis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jade spotted Sand as he circled down from the forest canopy, a grasseater clutched in his talons.\u00a0 She said, “Finally.”\u00a0 It would be nice to eat before dark, so they could clear the offal away from the camp without attracting the night scavengers.<\/p>\n

It was Balm who said, “I don’t see Fair.”<\/p>\n

Jade frowned, scanning the canopy again.\u00a0 They were standing in the deep grass of the platform they had chosen to camp on, and it was late afternoon in the suspended forest and getting difficult to hunt by sight.<\/p>\n

Kelly Jennings, Velocity\u2019s Ghost<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hate planets.\u00a0 Filthy, heavy, smelly, and this one was leaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rain,\u201d Rida said.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not a leak, it\u2019s part of their exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s snow.\u201d\u00a0 Tai lurked just up corridor, close enough that I could hear him both hard and via the uplink.\u00a0 \u201cRain is the wet one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is wet,\u201d Rida objected.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we focus?\u201d I demanded.\u00a0 \u201cRida?\u201d<\/p>\n

Braced on the rim of the rock pool by the bistro hatch, Rida flashed me a capture of his desk screen, with the vid of our target unshifted.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s still talking, boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

C. W. Johnson, Exit, Interrupted<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Door wasn’t so much heavy as reluctant to move<\/em>, as if they were carrying it, one at each end, through molasses.\u00a0 “Why is it like this?” Saiyul asked as she leaned into the resistant thing.<\/p>\n

Ashil shrugged the best he could with his hands full. “How should I know?”<\/p>\n

A bead of perspiration slid down Saiyul’s face, right into the scar on her cheek. It had healed, mostly, but it itched where her oxygen mask rubbed against it.<\/p>\n

Cat Rambo, Dagger and Mask<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you had asked Eduw if he loved Grania, he would have been indignant. Naturally he did. He loved all his targets.<\/p>\n

Not at first, of course. He was put off. That scar that marred her face, it hurt to look at. It wasn\u2019t an uncommon condition, despite what the meddies said. Some people rejected plas-flesh. It didn\u2019t take, didn\u2019t renew lost skin, didn\u2019t rebuild damaged features. For some it even seemed to make things worse.<\/p>\n

Christine Lucas, Ouroboros<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The dead philosopher came out of his cavern only when both the moons of Mars were below the horizon.\u00a0 Or so the legend claimed.<\/p>\n

Under a clear sky over the Martian wilderness, Kallie focused her hearing and sought the faintest sound that might confirm his existence.\u00a0 Nothing. The nanobots lining her auditory nerves redoubled their efforts. Still nothing. Yet. She turned her attention towards the base at northeast, under the shadow of Olympus Mons. No alarms, no sirens, no one on her trail. They hadn\u2019t noticed her absence. Yet. But they would, and they\u2019d unleash the Enforcer.<\/p>\n

Jack McDevitt, Cathedral<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Matt Sunderland gazed at the Earth, which was just edging out from behind the Moon. From the L2 platform, Luna, of course, dominated the sky, a vast gray globe half in sunlight, half in shadow, six times larger than it would have appeared from his Long Island home. Usually, it completely blocked the gauzy blue and white Earth. On the bulkhead to his left, the Mars or Bust <\/em>flag still hung, its corners fastened by magnets.<\/p>\n

Mars or Bust.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n
\"www.bookbuzzr.com\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Image:<\/strong> Girl under the Milky Way, by Babak A. Tafreshi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“\u2026they see women as radiant and merciless as the dawn\u2026” — Sem\u00edra Ouran\u00e1kis, captain of starship Reckless at planetfall (Planetfall). I decided to whet appetites. Below is not only the TOC of the anthology, but also the opening bars of each movement that’s part of this symphony. At the end of this post is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,13,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology-and-culture","category-science-fiction","category-space-exploration","category-writing-and-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}