Overall, I think Shoes-to-Run (Asimov's, July 09) is being well received.
Suite 101 gives the story a "Recommended" and has this to say:
'Shoes-to-Run' by Sara Genge marks her third appearance in Asimovs. This time its the story of a girl who feels like a boy trapped in the wrong body, living outside a domed Paris of the semi-distant future. When Shai-Shai sees her first menstrual blood she makes a desperate gamble and asks to join the men in a hunt, for it is hunting that defines a man. Recommended.
NotfreeSFreader is rarely thrilled with my work but gives me a 3 out of 5.
Over at Garbled Signals, Matt highlights Shoes-to-Run as well as R. Garcia y Robertson and Ian McHugh's stories (yes, I love being in this bunch) and says this:
Sara Genge’s “Shoes to Run” presents another well-developed alien society, this time here on Earth, in the shadow of a future Paris, in fact. Here, environmental disaster has made it impossible for European natives to survive in the open, and even the ethnic Africans who lived in the Paris suburbs required genetic modification for protection from the elements and radiation. Among the descendents of these former immigrants, we meet Shai-Shai, a boy on the brink of manhood, but born in a girl’s body. From this, Genge develops a strong human story about Shai-Shai’s struggle to be accepted as a hunter, and of the survival of humanity by a return to its earliest customs.
Lois Tilton rarely likes my writing, but always has insightful comments on what didn't work for her, find them here:
The world has changed drastically. A dome covers Paris to protect it from the radiation, but the tribes, probably nano-engineered, survive outside as hunters. But such matters as radiation don't concern Shai-Shai today, when she has discovered that, despite all her efforts, she seems to have become a woman.No, she couldn't be a woman. Not after all she'd gone through, not after all she'd prayed. Girl she could live with—it was temporary anyway. Woman was permanent.
The story of Shai-Shai's hunt could have been told of just about any tribal hunter in Earth's history. The well-told tale of the hunter's bond with the prey may or may not have been the product of nano-engineering, but I could easily accept it without. This leaves Shai-Shai's story only tenuously connected to the SFnal matters of dome and nano and the fact that there are kudu herds just outside Paris. I wonder where the tribes are going to find their shoes, now.
So far, that's all I've been able to find out there. I can't wait to read the other stories (in particular, I've liked Kit Reed's stuff in the past and "Sleepless in the House of Ye" sounds good) but I haven't received my complimentary issues yet which is in no way unusual thanks to the average workings of the Spanish Postal System (aka: submission nemesis). Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer.
