Mid-March Group Read - Frozen Witness, by L. Shelby
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1LShelby
Announcing the 2nd Hobnob Group Read
This time the chosen work is Frozen Witness, by L. Shelby which can be read for free at http://www.lshelby.com/Cultivator/FrozenWitness.php
This ~5000 word futuristic murder mystery first appeared in the science fiction anthology Polaris: A Celebration of Polar Science, edited by Julie E. Czerneda, which was marketed to Canadian High Schools as a science curriculum supplement. L. Shelby has been a member of LibraryThing since 2006.
The discussion officially opens on March 16th.
(Authors, don't forget that if you want to be eligible to have one of your own works chosen as a Hobnob Group read, you need to participate in the previous discussion thread.)
This time the chosen work is Frozen Witness, by L. Shelby which can be read for free at http://www.lshelby.com/Cultivator/FrozenWitness.php
This ~5000 word futuristic murder mystery first appeared in the science fiction anthology Polaris: A Celebration of Polar Science, edited by Julie E. Czerneda, which was marketed to Canadian High Schools as a science curriculum supplement. L. Shelby has been a member of LibraryThing since 2006.
The discussion officially opens on March 16th.
(Authors, don't forget that if you want to be eligible to have one of your own works chosen as a Hobnob Group read, you need to participate in the previous discussion thread.)
2Spaceface
I'm going to leave the actual story and its resolution to whoever posts next because I've just never really found crime fiction very interesting. What I loved about Frozen Witness though was Fenris itself: the local fauna, the meteorology (if this is taking place in the 'temperate zone', what in the world must the polar regions be like?), hints of its past (is it entering an ice age?) and so on. As with Dune, I don't care who murdered who or why, what I want to know is lots more about the setting - are there further stories? And the piece posted in the recent Snippet thread, was that set on Fenris too?
The other thing I've been impressed with so far (from both amysisson and LShelby) is, simply, the quality of the writing: clear and readable prose, without knots and tangles.
The other thing I've been impressed with so far (from both amysisson and LShelby) is, simply, the quality of the writing: clear and readable prose, without knots and tangles.
3elenchus
Mmmnn ... I like the ambiguity of it, lends itself well to a mystery. There's lots that contributes to that ambiguity: the unfamiliar setting; the dialogue between Grusti and Pataco, not only begun mid-conversation but indeed part of a longer relationship between the two, yet unclear whether they always have been partners; just which case or cases the pair are investigating, and how Stephi's situation is related to the clethari carcass (body?); the larger implications of Dr Wysorickovitz's labwork.
I'll leave my comments at that, for now, but I'm also interested in what others have to say about the plot, the central murder mystery. It's short enough, indeed abbreviated enough to encourage others to read it before reading any comments on it.
I'm also interested to know if there are further stories in this setting! Spaceface, how did you know the place is called Fenris? (Like that allusion, the white wolf of Norse mythology, right?)
I'll leave my comments at that, for now, but I'm also interested in what others have to say about the plot, the central murder mystery. It's short enough, indeed abbreviated enough to encourage others to read it before reading any comments on it.
I'm also interested to know if there are further stories in this setting! Spaceface, how did you know the place is called Fenris? (Like that allusion, the white wolf of Norse mythology, right?)
4Spaceface
There are lots of Fenrises: a giant white wolf in Norse mythology, yes; also an elven warrior who can pass through solid objects...or a planet (the homeworld of the Space Wolves Marine Chapter)...or something to do with Marvel Comics...
Myself, I like LShelby's Fenris without assocations just as it is: mind-numbingly cold, a world with its ecology poised at the limit of what is possible - ideally I'd like photographs, diagrams and maps, I wish I could go there to see it for myself. In comparison, the all-too-familiar relationships, greeds and general grubbiness of its human inhabitants are what I read science fiction to get away from.
Myself, I like LShelby's Fenris without assocations just as it is: mind-numbingly cold, a world with its ecology poised at the limit of what is possible - ideally I'd like photographs, diagrams and maps, I wish I could go there to see it for myself. In comparison, the all-too-familiar relationships, greeds and general grubbiness of its human inhabitants are what I read science fiction to get away from.
5LShelby
I'm afraid this is my only story set on this world. So far.
I created Fenris as the home world of some characters whose adventures were interstellar in scope. So, when I first met them they were away from home, and they haven't managed to get back yet. (My fault, I keep having plot happen to them.)
When I got the invite to the "polar science" anthology, I went through my mental files looking for snow or cold references, and remembered that a mention of wood frogs in Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival had led to some Fenris worldbuilding, that I had not yet had a chance to use. It seemed like a suitably polar-ish and scientific a subject, so I decided to see what I could do with it.
>4 Spaceface: "In comparison, the all-too-familiar relationships, greeds and general grubbiness of its human inhabitants are what I read science fiction to get away from."
I love worldbuilding, but for me people are a part of the package.
I'm a kinesthetic imaginer. That is, when I build a world, I don't "see" it in my head, I "feel" it. I "experience" it. That means I'm usually putting myself into the place of someone who is there. So it just comes naturally to me to have someone be there.
For example, if I read about how a "magnetic moon" can create a hole in a planetary magnetic field, causing auroras to appear around it, I don't just "see" a world with a moon that wears an aurora like a cloak. Instead, I imagine a person looking up into a sky with a moon surrounded by a dancing halo. I imagine how their breath catches in their chest at the sight, and how they feel the cool night wind on their face as they stand staring, and the crick they get in their neck from looking upward for so long.
And the next thing I find myself wondering is who they are, and what they are going to do next.
I created Fenris as the home world of some characters whose adventures were interstellar in scope. So, when I first met them they were away from home, and they haven't managed to get back yet. (My fault, I keep having plot happen to them.)
When I got the invite to the "polar science" anthology, I went through my mental files looking for snow or cold references, and remembered that a mention of wood frogs in Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival had led to some Fenris worldbuilding, that I had not yet had a chance to use. It seemed like a suitably polar-ish and scientific a subject, so I decided to see what I could do with it.
>4 Spaceface: "In comparison, the all-too-familiar relationships, greeds and general grubbiness of its human inhabitants are what I read science fiction to get away from."
I love worldbuilding, but for me people are a part of the package.
I'm a kinesthetic imaginer. That is, when I build a world, I don't "see" it in my head, I "feel" it. I "experience" it. That means I'm usually putting myself into the place of someone who is there. So it just comes naturally to me to have someone be there.
For example, if I read about how a "magnetic moon" can create a hole in a planetary magnetic field, causing auroras to appear around it, I don't just "see" a world with a moon that wears an aurora like a cloak. Instead, I imagine a person looking up into a sky with a moon surrounded by a dancing halo. I imagine how their breath catches in their chest at the sight, and how they feel the cool night wind on their face as they stand staring, and the crick they get in their neck from looking upward for so long.
And the next thing I find myself wondering is who they are, and what they are going to do next.
6reading_fox
I enjoyed this. It worked well as a crime story it had a good blend of moral ambiguity and realism, especially how the inspector rapidly realised that dealing with crime on a frozen world had it's own set of particular problems. I loved the enigmatic frozen alien, that was a great touch, the blinking eye a perfect way to end a short story - just hint to say see it's not all as you expect, and make you think.
The world building was well balanced with the story. We saw enough to see and understand how it all worked together - that the background details had all been thought about - without being overloaded by it. I find this something that too few authors can do - get the balance right to my satisfaction. Either they skimp all the details, and feature just appear where needed, or else they go overboard in explaining all the research they've done to support why this feture is here. I need that research to have been done, so that it feels right, but I don't want to read about it in a novel. Even for a short story like this, it works much better than many others I've read.
I've mentioned elsewhere that I have enjoyed LShelby's other works that I've read. I'm just waiting for her to get published, or at least have them available to buy from her webite!
The world building was well balanced with the story. We saw enough to see and understand how it all worked together - that the background details had all been thought about - without being overloaded by it. I find this something that too few authors can do - get the balance right to my satisfaction. Either they skimp all the details, and feature just appear where needed, or else they go overboard in explaining all the research they've done to support why this feture is here. I need that research to have been done, so that it feels right, but I don't want to read about it in a novel. Even for a short story like this, it works much better than many others I've read.
I've mentioned elsewhere that I have enjoyed LShelby's other works that I've read. I'm just waiting for her to get published, or at least have them available to buy from her webite!
7elenchus
OK: an embarrassing admission to make, I'd originally read far less than the complete story. Not sure if my browser just didn't pull up all pages, or if I'm just an idiot. Parsimony suggests I shouldn't dig any deeper.
In any case, now that I've read the whole tale, I must say I like it even more. Clearly the world-building is certainly more evident, though I rather enjoyed the elliptical image I'd received originally.
My first reaction is: the dialogue is really strong, natural delivery both in how things are repeated the way we do in conversation, and not always in complete sentences. So, too, the inner dialogue. That made for an enjoyable read, utterly apart from the plot or mystery.
I also quite liked Pataco's name: kept thinking sympatico, perhaps helping build empathy for him. But the guide, too.
Did I interpret right the timestamp from Pataco's query on the blood sample: it's in year 4700? Always interested when a specific date is chosen for so far in the future. How to decide what's far enough, what's too far? Iain Banks likes to deal in deciaeons, which raises the same questions for me.
In any case, now that I've read the whole tale, I must say I like it even more. Clearly the world-building is certainly more evident, though I rather enjoyed the elliptical image I'd received originally.
My first reaction is: the dialogue is really strong, natural delivery both in how things are repeated the way we do in conversation, and not always in complete sentences. So, too, the inner dialogue. That made for an enjoyable read, utterly apart from the plot or mystery.
I also quite liked Pataco's name: kept thinking sympatico, perhaps helping build empathy for him. But the guide, too.
Did I interpret right the timestamp from Pataco's query on the blood sample: it's in year 4700? Always interested when a specific date is chosen for so far in the future. How to decide what's far enough, what's too far? Iain Banks likes to deal in deciaeons, which raises the same questions for me.
8LShelby
>6 reading_fox: I'm just waiting for her to get published, or at least have them available to buy from her webite!
Er... oops. ::clears throat:: I, uh, have this adventure trilogy set in an imaginary world that just recently went up on Amazon, that I guess I havn't got around to telling you about yet. Please forgive me, for the lapse. This whole self-publishing thingy is being a serious lot of crazy all happening at once. I kind of expected it to be slower, and, well, mostly rather boring really. The average self-published book sells what, 100 copies total, EVER. Including the twenty copies your Mom bought. I didn't expect anyone to even notice I'd put something up on Amazon. Instead I got a fantasy author I don't even know posting a five star review almost immediately, and I was just told today that they're talking about it over on Goodreads, !?!
... If I had known this would happen, I might have chosen a different time to try start up group reads here in Hobnob. ::rueful::
>7 elenchus: "Always interested when a specific date is chosen for so far in the future. How to decide what's far enough, what's too far?"
I need to have dates for my own use, so that I can track when things happen. And sometimes they're handy to have inside the story too.
But I confess, that last question you asked stumps me entirely.
How does one decide what's far enough and what isn't? I don't know. If I could prophesy what would in happen in the future and when, I'd be making a killing on the stock market. Instead I just know enough to know that whatever I guess will be wrong. (And I hate being wrong.) :(
So I cheat. (Maybe I shouldn't admit this.) Fenris mostly has a human population, due to the climate, but the larger political setting features multiple alien species living together. So the dating system being used has nothing to do with Earth's dating system. (But, not entirely coincidentally, the actual numbers they end up using do still give the impression of a far distant future.) ;)
Er... oops. ::clears throat:: I, uh, have this adventure trilogy set in an imaginary world that just recently went up on Amazon, that I guess I havn't got around to telling you about yet. Please forgive me, for the lapse. This whole self-publishing thingy is being a serious lot of crazy all happening at once. I kind of expected it to be slower, and, well, mostly rather boring really. The average self-published book sells what, 100 copies total, EVER. Including the twenty copies your Mom bought. I didn't expect anyone to even notice I'd put something up on Amazon. Instead I got a fantasy author I don't even know posting a five star review almost immediately, and I was just told today that they're talking about it over on Goodreads, !?!
... If I had known this would happen, I might have chosen a different time to try start up group reads here in Hobnob. ::rueful::
>7 elenchus: "Always interested when a specific date is chosen for so far in the future. How to decide what's far enough, what's too far?"
I need to have dates for my own use, so that I can track when things happen. And sometimes they're handy to have inside the story too.
But I confess, that last question you asked stumps me entirely.
How does one decide what's far enough and what isn't? I don't know. If I could prophesy what would in happen in the future and when, I'd be making a killing on the stock market. Instead I just know enough to know that whatever I guess will be wrong. (And I hate being wrong.) :(
So I cheat. (Maybe I shouldn't admit this.) Fenris mostly has a human population, due to the climate, but the larger political setting features multiple alien species living together. So the dating system being used has nothing to do with Earth's dating system. (But, not entirely coincidentally, the actual numbers they end up using do still give the impression of a far distant future.) ;)
9amysisson
Just finished reading. I am always drawn to cold weather settings and survival situations! No idea why, but it's an immediate pull for me. :-) (I remember enjoying The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, and I've read some books about teachers and nurses going up to work in frontier Alaska.)
I enjoyed this. It read very quickly, and I thought Grusti's character in particular was nicely rounded out. I felt an empathy for the girl even though we don't see her onstage. I liked the emphasis on biology, and feel that it's no coincidence that this ended up in an anthology edited by Julie E. Czerneda -- that woman writes some amazing alien biology herself! (I adore the first book in her Webshifters series.)
I have to admit I was a little troubled by the fact that footprints were visible at all with the wind and the swirling snow, but that was minor and did not detract from the "atmosphere" (no pun intended!) of the story.
Unrelated, I poked around your website a little and really liked your cover for "Across a Jade Sea".
Thanks for sharing this!
I enjoyed this. It read very quickly, and I thought Grusti's character in particular was nicely rounded out. I felt an empathy for the girl even though we don't see her onstage. I liked the emphasis on biology, and feel that it's no coincidence that this ended up in an anthology edited by Julie E. Czerneda -- that woman writes some amazing alien biology herself! (I adore the first book in her Webshifters series.)
I have to admit I was a little troubled by the fact that footprints were visible at all with the wind and the swirling snow, but that was minor and did not detract from the "atmosphere" (no pun intended!) of the story.
Unrelated, I poked around your website a little and really liked your cover for "Across a Jade Sea".
Thanks for sharing this!
10reading_fox
>8 LShelby: " I didn't expect anyone to even notice I'd put something up on Amazon. Instead I got a fantasy author I don't even know posting a five star review almost immediately, and I was just told today that they're talking about it over on Goodreads, !?!
"
Congratulations! That's great news. You need to work on this publicity thing though and provide a link! (And also to somewhere that has an Epub copy!)
"
Congratulations! That's great news. You need to work on this publicity thing though and provide a link! (And also to somewhere that has an Epub copy!)
11elenchus
>9 amysisson: I thought the footprints leading away from the shelter were seen prior to the storm ... but were quickly obliterated. But maybe there was a lapse in logic there.
12TimSharrock
>10 reading_fox: see http://www.aircastle.org/?product=across-a-jade-sea-box-set (I bought the separate volumes - both epub and mobi available)
13amysisson
>11 elenchus:
I do believe you're right, that the storm didn't happen until after they left the murder scene, but I thought there had been several references to wind and swirling snow all throughout, from when they got off the ship. I could be wrong, though.
I do believe you're right, that the storm didn't happen until after they left the murder scene, but I thought there had been several references to wind and swirling snow all throughout, from when they got off the ship. I could be wrong, though.
14LShelby
>9 amysisson:
Julie E. Czerneda is an awesome author and a delightful person, and I agree with you about her aliens. I am honored to have had a chance to work with her. :)
My own major was Ecology. (I didn't get to finish a degree, though. Health issues.)
>13 amysisson:
The snow I describe blowing about is a kind I associate with severe cold. It's very fine, very light, and very "dry" (which means it's not sticky), and there tends not to be very much of it. (Very cold air, by the laws of nature, cannot be wet air.) I've never seen it manage to fill in a footprint, not even after days of blowing around, let alone a few hours.
Most of the snow on the ground would be a denser, heavier kind of snow. It doesn't blow about (at least, you hope it doesn't because it has scary ice crystals and they HURT if they get blown at you), instead the light dry snow blows across the top of it, creating a "hissing" or "whispering" sound as it goes.
Then the storm started dropping a different kind snow, which also blew about, and which was entirely capable of completely obliterating footprints in mere minutes.
I guess the plethora of snow types was kind of confusing. Sorry!
...
Besides being a Canadian with some personal experiences with cold weather, I did read a couple books about travelling through/living in Antarctica before writing this. I can't promise I got everything right, because nobody ever does, but I did my best.
Also, for whatever its worth, in order to get published in the Polaris anthology, the story had to pass a screening by a panel of "polar scientists". (The only thing they objected to was me having one character described as being a "leading expert" in two different scientific fields. Julie consulted with me over this, and we decided to drop her down to being only an "expert" in one of them. This satisfied the panel, and the story was officially accepted into the anthology.)
>10 reading_fox:
Clearly I still haven't figured this promotion stuff out yet. :(
>12 TimSharrock:
Thanks for filling in for me. :)
Julie E. Czerneda is an awesome author and a delightful person, and I agree with you about her aliens. I am honored to have had a chance to work with her. :)
My own major was Ecology. (I didn't get to finish a degree, though. Health issues.)
>13 amysisson:
The snow I describe blowing about is a kind I associate with severe cold. It's very fine, very light, and very "dry" (which means it's not sticky), and there tends not to be very much of it. (Very cold air, by the laws of nature, cannot be wet air.) I've never seen it manage to fill in a footprint, not even after days of blowing around, let alone a few hours.
Most of the snow on the ground would be a denser, heavier kind of snow. It doesn't blow about (at least, you hope it doesn't because it has scary ice crystals and they HURT if they get blown at you), instead the light dry snow blows across the top of it, creating a "hissing" or "whispering" sound as it goes.
Then the storm started dropping a different kind snow, which also blew about, and which was entirely capable of completely obliterating footprints in mere minutes.
I guess the plethora of snow types was kind of confusing. Sorry!
...
Besides being a Canadian with some personal experiences with cold weather, I did read a couple books about travelling through/living in Antarctica before writing this. I can't promise I got everything right, because nobody ever does, but I did my best.
Also, for whatever its worth, in order to get published in the Polaris anthology, the story had to pass a screening by a panel of "polar scientists". (The only thing they objected to was me having one character described as being a "leading expert" in two different scientific fields. Julie consulted with me over this, and we decided to drop her down to being only an "expert" in one of them. This satisfied the panel, and the story was officially accepted into the anthology.)
>10 reading_fox:
Clearly I still haven't figured this promotion stuff out yet. :(
>12 TimSharrock:
Thanks for filling in for me. :)
15amysisson
Wow, I had no idea about what different kinds of snow would and wouldn't do! (This could be because I spent the three years I lived in North Dakota... inside!) :-)
