EP408: Immersion

[eytanz]

Not quite sure why this got a Hugo nomination.  For me, it was a bit forgettable, predictable, and repetitive.  

Heh. The Hugos can't win with you, it seems.

[Talia]

I am many months behind in all my podcasts, but I just had to chime in here to say how much I enjoyed this story! I think it largely got to me because I found myself empathizing with the "trapped" wife. So for me it was a big deal when she got that first glimmer of hope, real hope, of some sort of future, of a way out at least to a small degree. The story of the other two girls was interesting and all, but it was the wife's tale that really moved me. I see it didn't win (haven't listened to Mr. Liu's story yet - but knowing his other stuff, I'm not surprised he did win..), but it surely deserved to.

[Unblinking]

I found the two sides in the story a bit interesting too. Both seemed Asian, it mentioned the Mandarin exam as having been failed, but the locals seemed much more traditionally Asian. I'd have loved to know more about the cultures on both sides.

Will comment more, but just wanted to point out that Aliette has published other stories in the same universe (which she calls the Xuya universe).  You can find her bibliography with subsections here, where each story in the Xuya universe is labeled as such:
http://aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/

I think the only other Xuya one that I've read was under the Novels section, On a Red Station, Drifting, a Novella Hugo nominee this year.  I hated that one, but it does have more space to go deeper into the culture.

[Unblinking]

Oh, didn't even notice til now that she has a separate biblio section just for Xuya which has a pretty extensive explanation of the setting basis along with the biblio for those stories:
http://aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/the-universe-of-xuya/

The first paragraph:

Xuya is a recurring universe in my alternate histories, the premise being that China discovered the Americas before the West, and that the exploration of this new continent prevented China from sinking inwards (not to mention being invaded by the Manchu, who later founded the ill-fated Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty). - See more at: http://aliettedebodard.com/bibliography/the-universe-of-xuya/#sthash.YnBrxuKS.dpuf

I didn't realize these were alt-hist.  I thought they were just a future where China dominates space colonization.

[Unblinking]

Another one I'd reviewed as part of Hugo reviews, so pasting that here:

A very interesting setting, set in Longevity, a world which has been recently conquered by a galaxy-spanning Empire.  The war is over, but the conflict continues as the Empire sends tourists through to absorb the culture.  The biggest element of this absorption is a technology called an immerser, which all of the Imperials use heavily to interact with their world, acting at its most basic level as a translator but altering perceptions of reality in everything you do.  To deal with Imperials at all, the locals have to user the immersers as well.  It’s  a battle to maintain your own beliefs and perceptions in the face of reality overlays.

This was published in Clarkesworld, where I first heard it on their podcast.  It’s a solid story, well written.  The worldbuilding in this one was especially good.


I voted:
Immersion
Mono No Aware
No Award


I wouldn't say Immersion was anywhere near my favorite story of the year.  It probably wouldn't have even made my top 10 or 20.  But it was by far the best of these three, I thought.  For me it seemed a little flat on the first hear, and I did have some POV confusion, but once I got that sorted out and really separated the character with the Immerser-demolished-mind I really related to her and I applauded her decision to help fight at the end.

[CryptoMe]

Still slowly catching up on my backlog, both in listening and in forum posting.

I found this story okay. But I'm surprised to see so little discussion here about how horrifying the immerser technology is - at least to me. That is *not* something I would want to try, ever.

[hardware]

I liked it more than Mono No Aware, and found it more well written than most stories, but would not elevate it higher than 'good'. For the POV shifts, it took me a llittle while to figure out, but the confusion kind of helped me focus on the story...