Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight by Aliette de BodardI don't read much Science Fiction or Fantasy. If this isn't a wildly original short story - don't disillusion me! I was completely transported into Quang Tu's world. I felt his grief, I could visualise his sister as a mindship (a new concept for me) The grief was so well handled and I have never seen such complete world building in a short story. An easy 5★ for me.Ether by Zhan Ran.Finding out that Ken Liu was one of the translators was enoug...

I know at some point, an ambitious librarian will move this entry around. So when it is lumped into a magazine, let's note that I read: 'Cat Pictures Please' by Naomi Kritzer.A 2015 Nebula nominee, a 2016 Locus winner, and 2016 Hugo winner. I can only assume the voters were both cat owners and internet savvy. http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...Oh, and here's my payment in advance:

This story is still so cheerful and bittersweet and tackles an idea I really like: how hard it is to be a functional person in a complicated society. We're the only people who can control our lives and our choices, but learning that is part of growing up and making our own choices (and also fucking up a lot, even when we have help).(And sometimes, life just gets you down and it's okay to take a cat pictures break, no matter who you are. Self-care is IMPORTANT.)

“Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi KritzerImagine Google was given consciousness and was trying to guide your life.I am not really sure if I liked it. It was definitely an interesting idea. But I would still say this is closer to 2* than 3*. But for the idea...

My review is solely for the award-winning story "Cat Pictures Please" Very amusing and well-written story. "Cat Pictures Please" is currently a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Hugo Award for Best Short Story. UPDATE 08/21/16: won the Hugo! Online at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...It's interesting to see the wide range of reactions to this story. But all of you who didn't like it are WRONG WRONG WRONG.Note: review first posted for just this story. Goodreads librar...

Final review, first posted at www.FantasyLiterature.com (yes, I decided to revisit this novelette long enough to write a full review, even though analyzing this story makes my head spin):In a world where there are seven fantastical countries named after the colors of the rainbow, where food and animals and skin color are shades of your country’s color, and where sorrow and kisses and death may mean different things depending on the country, young Violet Wilde, with eyes the color of grape jelly

Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer“I want to be helpful. But knowing the optimal way to be helpful can be very complicated. There are all these ethical flow charts—I guess the official technical jargon would be “moral codes”—one for each religion plus dozens more. I tried starting with those. I felt a little odd about looking at the religious ones, because I know I wasn’t created by a god or by evolution, but by a team of computer programmers in the labs of a large corporation in Mountain View...

Hugo Award Winner for Best Short Story 2016. It is a light story of a kind AI who likes cat pictures. The AI wants to help people although it is not so easy to understand people, let alone help to make them happy. I like this story, but for cute story with AI-cat theme, I still prefer the inspiration of this story: please check my review of Maneki Neko. It is one of the uncommonly hilarious cyberpunk story.

I read this with a group and it certainly made for interesting conversation! It's a bit scary when we step back and realize just how much personal information we put out there everyday. Also, how lovely it could be if that information was used by a benevolent entity for our good and betterment. It very much reminded me of All I care about is you by Joe Hill, except that this one didn't get dark.

Cat Pictures Please— by NAOMI KRITZER —2015 NEBULA AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST SHORT STORY, 2016 LOCUS AWARDS WINNER FOR BEST SHORT STORY, 2016 HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST SHORT STORYLovely story about a sentient search engine. Funny but also ironic toward today society, with a ending directly from a FB post ;))It can be read here: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...

Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer : 3 starsA fun little story about an AI who wants to do good *shudders* and is ever-so-slightly-obsessed with cat pictures. Entertaining enough but a little too revoltingly cute both for me (it got my exoskeleton all itchy and blotchy and stuff) and my best friend, Grumpy Cat. Because duh and stuff.This is short. This is free. This is here. Read it. Or don't.

It's a quick fun read!Thanks, Carol. that's pretty cute.

A sweet little story about an AI that wants to help, and asks for nothing but cat pictures in return. Hugo winnerRead it here (~5 minutes):http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...

I've only read Cat Pictures Please and it was beautiful. And in case you wonder, the story goes much deeper than titular cat pictures. Would love to see it on screen.

Haha, this made me remember to upload my photos (most of which are photos of my cats) to Google Photos. I hope it enjoys them.

2016 Locus Awards Winner for Best Short Story, 2016 Hugo Award Winner for Best Short StoryOh, Don't be fooled. This is not a story about cats. This is a Sci-fi story starring an A.I who is obsessed with Cat pictures. Its purpose is writing the algorithm for search engines. But the A.I decides to do some extra-curricular activities too!The story and the title character reminded me of the famous French movie, Amélie. Just like Amélie, our AI is dedicated to bringing happiness to others. But would

Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer ★ ★(Hugo Award Best Short Story 2016)Could've been done better. Try for funny and turn out ironic.I'm not impressed.------------------------Running algorithms for a search engine doesn’t require consciousness. You don’t even need a consciousness to work out what they meant to ask for. You need a consciousness to give them what they actually need. Figuring that out—that’s complicated. That’s interesting.------------------------An AI trying for 'good' and showi...

There is a certain type of nonsense story for children that I really disliked, even when I was a child. I suspect that Valente loved those stories.Here we take an absurdist journey through the colors of the rainbow, following a girl called Violet Wild through a series of alternate universes on an allegorical Pilgrims' Progress/quest of self-discovery with musings on love and depression. It's also extremely meta- just as much about language & the function of storytelling as about the plot, told i...

"Cat Pictures Please" by Naomi Kritzer My job as written is very straightforward. Too straightforward....Running algorithms for a search engine doesn’t require consciousness. You don’t even need a consciousness to work out what they meant to ask for. You need a consciousness to give them what they actually need. Figuring that out—that’s complicated. That’s interesting.“The Apartment Dweller's Bestiary” by Kij JohnsonNot really a bestiary but a set of tiny vignettes about, well, people. Life. Met...

“Cat Pictures” is a 2015 award-winning short story by Naomi Kritzer. It took awhile to be clear about who was narrating. Once ascertained, I appreciated this unique facet of storytelling, which comprises a different, ultra modernized sort of “action”. It suggests a moral standpoint about helpfulness, as well as needing to more quickly notice and address care we are due to give ourselves. The universal appreciation of cat photos is an external theme, drawing me to this tale which is of course, fa...