I read this online in preparation to know and judge which nominated novella should win the Hugo in 2017, fully prepared for just about anything.Luckily, I really enjoyed this surprising little tale of alien abduction. Sort-of abduction. :) Well, either way, the end was surprising and quite amusing and the whole concept of conscious vs unconscious thought processes as a difference between us and an entirely different alien species was really fascinating.OR, you might as well read this as a roadtr...

"Winter's Wife" by Elizabeth Bear was just as engaging the second time I read it. "Balin" by Chef Qiufan, "Old Friends" by Garth Nix, and "Cedar Grid" by Sara Saab were all decent. The premise in "Touring with the Alien" really stuck with me, I found myself arguing with the aliens (and the humans) about the merits of consciousness--a fascinating story. The only subpar work in the issue was (unfortunately) the longest "Bridge of Dreams" by Greg Feeley. Way too verbose--and didn't really go anywhe...

“Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman - Really liked the extremely alien aliens, the quasi-alien human translator, and the examination of consciousness. However, I can't quite wrapped my head around the choice that the protagonist makes at the end.“Balin” by Chen Qiufan, translated by Ken Liu - On one hand, a classic tale of a young man striking out on his own instead of following the traditional path laid out by his father. But also, an unflinching look at how inhumane humans can be.

Strong entry: the concept is original and interesting and I liked the lead character, she gave a perspective on the story that I thought worked really well. Slight twist ending, too.

“It’s your conscious mind that’s the slave master, always worrying about control. Your unconscious only wants to preserve you.” Many Alien domes have landed on Earth, but no one knows what the visitors want. Until they send traslators – humans, abducted as children and now grown up. One alien hires Specialty Shipping’s driver, Avery, to take him on a tour.There is a lot to like about the story – the world-building, explaining how aliens function, the ideas of consciousness, the way Av

My favorite of this year's Hugo nominated novelettes. For my complete roundup of the stories in this category, visit https://1000yearplan.com/2017/06/29/s...

Strange aliens visit the earth nobody has seen them, yet ... an interesting exploration of what consciousness is or how an alien race might do without it. I managed to read this in one sitting ... good pacing and novel (for me at least) ideas.

This first-contact story is delightful. The alien is refreshingly different from most of the aliens in science fiction. The theme of the story involves a rather deep examination of consciousness and how that affects human behavior. I think the ending could have been just a bit stronger, but it does leave the reader with much to contemplate.

**** Carolyn Ives Gilman - Touring With the AlienA bit of a different twist on the alien invasion story. It reminded me in more than one aspect of Tade Thompson's 'Rosewater,' (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) which was also recently published. I guess it's the zeitgeist...Here, after 'touching down' in impenetrable domes, the aliens send out seemingly-human 'translators,' possibly abductees. One of those, through the FBI (?), hires a long-haul trucker used to unusual jobs, to fulfill t...

“They wanted to be left alone. Nobody believed it.”Intriguing take on an old science fiction saw. Nice voice. A fun read. Good character and story development. 2017 Finalist for 2017 Hugo Award novelette. “It’s your conscious mind that’s the slave master, always worrying about control. Your unconscious only wants to preserve you.”Quibble: There is no way an RV could surreptitiously approach, load, and depart an alien structure in the District of Columbia. Dozens--no, hundreds of private, corpora...

Rating for “Touring with the Alien” only. The title said the plot. What made it worth the read is the discussion about consciousness in this novelette. I don't see a satisfying conclusion from the author, unlike my previous read Things With Beards. At the ending, there was a sudden supposed-to-be-thrilling-climax, but I didn't get it.

Another disappointing story. It had promise, from the first few sentences, but the main premise is no longer that original (except, why did the aliens only visit the US? This fact is stated but never addressed) and the secondary premise was interesting but not explored in enough depth. A shockingly egregious quarantine violation near the end really annoyed me and wasn't even used to show something interesting about character, like I half-expected.The story wasn't badly written aside from the lac...

Rating and review only for "Touring with the Alien” by Carolyn Ives Gilman: Like a bad version of Story of Your Life or Childhood's End. Too many build ups and scattered internal musing. The concept of consciousness could have been more developed.

Touching and original SF of my favorite kind - placing it among The Story of Your Life/Arrival, Torchwood: Children of Earth, and Blindsight - but there's potential for a longer text here. Still, it's brilliant already as it is.

Review solely for “Touring with the Alien”, by Carolyn Ives Gilman:2017 Hugos nominee for Best Novelette. It starts strong, with an examination of consciousness and the very alien differences between humans & extraterrestrials, and the adorably off-kilter culture shock of a human abducted by aliens now trying to adjust to life on Earth, and empathy and the bridge between species... But it completely falls apart at the end, imo.

Pretty good story. Listen for free at Clarkesworld:http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/audio...

Enjoyed this! Very retro-style SF about mysterious aliens landing on Earth, but also with fresh, non-retro themes about consciousness akin to Peter Watt's Blindsight.I also liked that the sense-of-home for the main character is provided by a gay couple, which is pretty rare in SFF. Happy, content gay relationships are nice to find!Cutting off a star because I wasn’t totally convinced by the emotional motivations behind some of the main character’s actions. Still, this was really good; it’s going...

A story about aliens that landed their ships on Earth and use human translators (abducted some 20 years or so ago, for exactly this purpose) to secretly communicate with the government. It kind of reminded me of Story of Your Life (the story on which the movie Arrival was based on), especially the ships, that seem to be taken from the movie. Even if it lacks action, I found it interesting and it poses some interesting question about conciousness and life experiences.

This is certainly one of the better Hugo nominees. I had a great time reading about the world Gilman set up and the alien is very strange, very weird, and very believable. Almost everything works and it makes for a great read.The only thing that took down one star for me was the ending. (view spoiler)[I wasn't a fan of how accepting the protagonist was that the alien was going to take over the world. She just shrugged at that. Everything else made sense, that didn't. (hide spoiler)] It's still a...

Very much enjoyed the stories by Carolyn Ives Gilman and Elizabeth Hand. Underwhelmed by the rest.