Yarn Theory by Marie Vibbert (Clarkesworld Magazine; Issue 224—May 2025)
I started the month with Yarn Theory by Marie Vibbert. This was a story about math, first contact, and knitting. At first glance, it seemed like a random assortment of things tossed together, but Vibbert’s story is quiet but interesting —and spent a good chunk of it with the character’s internal monologue. And I found the solution (the decoding/translation) of the alien message a fun take on first contact. I almost wish it had been longer than it was, just because I liked it so much.
Commonplace by Naomi Novik (Buried Deep and Other Stories)
Then I moved on to Buried Deep and Other Stories. This one was called Commonplace, Novik’s take on Irene Adler, a character from Sherlock Holmes. The story takes place when news of the famous detective’s apparent death has reached Irene Adler, and basically follows her complicated emotions and subsequent actions in response to what happened, during a period of her life that I would describe as relatively quiet. While not my favorite story of the collection, Commonplace was still pretty good, and I mostly appreciated it for Novik’s choice to center the narrative on Adler instead of any other character from the Sherlock Holmes canon.
Seven by Naomi Novik (Buried Deep and Other Stories)
I also read a second story from Buried Deep and Other Stories in May. This one was called: Seven. The beginning read like a love letter to a fictional city, explaining part of its history, as well as where, like the place, the story took its name. But, it was mostly about pottery/ceramics; the process of creation, the cost/toll of art, the way a master’s work can influence those who come after them—or someone could (or at least wanted to) carve their own path. I like stories about art. And I like stories that are about artists. And Seven is a little bit of both, with its focus, Kath, even if the story is largely told from Grovin’s perspective. Kath was one of my favorite parts of this one, and I liked how she happened into “clay-shaping” in the wake of a drastic change in not only her life but for her children as well. And though the story was from Grovin’s perspective, it was about Kath in the end, how her artistry and reluctant participation in the city’s longstanding tradition of statue making—with a particular and dangerous clay— disrupted his assumptions and forced him to change his ways (or at least to view the situation from someone else’s perspective). Seven was a great story.
