Jeremiah Tolbert

I’m pretty slow in catch­ing up with my read­ing for Lightspeed Magazine—sorry, John.  But I recently took the time to sit down with “Arvies” by Adam Troy Castro.  I’ve been strug­gling with what to cover on Inspiration Tuesday this week, but my inde­ci­sion was set­tled half-​​way through this great, great story.

If you enjoy sci­ence fic­tion that chal­lenges and sat­i­rizes cul­ture, then “Arvies” will be right up your alley. Some might try to argue that it’s a pro-​​choice story attack­ing pro-​​lifers. Others might argue the exact oppo­site.  Don’t let that stop you. It may take some of its inspi­ra­tion from argu­ments on both side of that touchy issue, but it goes far beyond it into fas­ci­nat­ing ter­ri­tory.  Harlan Ellison him­self called it:

Remarkable. And in the purest inten­sity of the word: powerful.

Delany’s lessons on struc­ture and plot come to mind again when I read this one.  It has a really clear struc­ture, bro­ken up into sec­tions with head­ers such as “VEHICLE SPECIFICATIONS” and “INSTALLATION.”  The for­mat almost mim­ics an aca­d­e­mic paper with its Statement of Intent and Content sum­maries.  However, it’s not writ­ten in the lan­guage of an aca­d­e­mic paper, which would be dry at best. 

Get ahead on next year’s “Year’s Best” read­ing and read it now.  It’s a sure con­tender for all the collections.

Share This:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tags: adam-troy castro, fetus, lightspeed magazine, Science fiction