The Clapping Hands of God

Novelette by Michael F. Flynn
Read for Starship Sofa by Mike Boris
2005 Hugo Nominee

Hassan leads a team of explorers through a gate onto another world. He is a devout Muslim, in charge of an international exploration/science team with a near-future level of technology. They don't really understand how the gates work, but they open semi-randomly onto many populated worlds. Basically they've developed an international Stargate program.

They set up camp on a mountaintop to study the indigenous people, following a prime-directive-like philosophy of non-interference. They observe the mid-19^th century-level aliens with stealth drones and microcameras. One day, the aliens' behavior changes suddenly, and Hassan is forced to wonder if they've been discovered, and how long they can afford to stay. It turns out he has a much more difficult decisions to make.

As someone mentioned elsewhere, it seems Hassan is a science fiction reader, as he encounters and avoids all the standard first contact pitfalls and idiot plots. Throughout the novelette, he reminds his team that the aliens are not human, and we can't ascribe human traits to them or jump to conclusions based on imagined narratives with scant evidence. All the team members are well drawn and interestingly differentiated, and Mike Boris provides different accents and voices for each of them. I was quite impressed with his talent for accents here.

Just as we think the story is going to wrap up in an expected way, the entire situation changes for the more complex. And just when that situation is about to wrap up, it doesn't go how we expect either. The last quarter of this story is excellent, some of the best first-contact storytelling I've ever seen. The whole thing reads like a deconstruction of the standard first-contact tale. The ending is sad, thoughtful, and pragmatic.

4 hands clapping out of 5.

Originally published in Analog, July/August 2004
Anthologized in Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction 22

Where the Winds Are All Asleep

Novella by Michael F. Flynn

A team of scientists descend deep into the earth through a series of caves and make some amazing discoveries. When they're done updating Journey to the Center of the Earth for a modern audience they get involved in a bit of a horror story and vow never to go back. But then the survivors have to go and present their amazing findings without evidence, refuse to get any evidence (wouldn't be tough), and resign themselves to telling the story in a bar. Now that is just bad science.

The central discovery here is a REALLY cool concept, and Flynn does an excellent job holding our attention with just the curiosity of Science. The reader can guess some of the science and still be surprised by the extent of it. Furthermore the action at the end of the story makes it impossible to stop reading. That said, this excellent story is bookended by scenes in Generic Irish Pub that detract from the whole and manage to add very little. The first bar segment had some funny bits that were more than canceled out by introducing characters who have absolutely 0 relevance to ANYTHING. The ending bar scene serves as a vehicle for wild, too-far speculation, trying to add additional horror elements that just aren't there to be had; and the central bar bits just distract from the action and save us a touch of As-you-know-Bob that I'm sure could have been worked in some other way.

Still, if we ignore the bar bookends this is one of the best stories of the year and there isn't enough good SF-horror out there anyway. This will definitely see a place near the top of my AnLab ballot. 4 out of 5 scientists could have that Nobel Prize if they would only go back and collect a little goddamn evidence.