FF Friday

I am so happy rmc28 has recommended more of Sharma's writing. I've loved everything I've read by her, and I'm happy to have more short stories, as I wait for library holds to come in.

All Archana wants to do is get married to her fiancee, Lupita. Instead, she has to contend with meddling extended family, and being separated from her wife-to-be before the nuptials, along with a hefty dose of exhaustion and introvert shock. Her little sister, Chandni, who happens to be a ship's AI, as rmc28 has mentioned, does her best to help, but the fact that she takes to traditional Indian culture much more easily than the human Archana doesn't help in this particular case. The sisters' relationship is very believable, and the relationship between Archana and Lupita is sweet, if not the focus of the story. I would love to know more about how Chandni wound up being adopted (or designed?) by Archana's family. Sharma seems to have a love for sentient, feeling AIs, and she does a wonderful job writing them.

You can find the short story here.

This is a short story published by Strange Horizons, and can be found here.

On an isolated space colony, Sara Lobo, newly elected to the local government, contends with squabbles over sewage maintenance, her Nana Julia's failing health, and worry over Light, her partner, who also happens to be the embodied A.I. of the generation ship Sara and the other colonists had arrived on.

The writing is wonderful, moving and unobtrusively lyrical. The characters feel real and affecting. The story is ultimately quite bittersweet, but there's enough hope and love in it, I wouldn't consider it to go over the depressing line.