Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

So, I figured Kress was published, this was free, and I might be able to fit it into my mega-long reading challenge.  (Listed alphabetically, Jhiaxus is character 539.)   And I was right, because it's all about genetically altering people, both in fetal stage, and also long after they've become adults.   

Add to this the theme of unrequited love - which does come up at least three times, one of them being the narrator's story.   There's another possible argument for a fourth couple, but I only really saw three myself.   On top of this, there's the fear of the unknown, explored not only through genemods, but also because the narrator, Barry, is a dwarf.   He experiences disgust and fear, and he ends up marrying a woman who accidentally gets pregnant - with a normal sized child.   Also Barry claims he wants to mod the child to be a dwarf because he won't admit that being a dwarf is anything that needs to be cured, nor add to the cultural attitude that there is something wrong with being a dwarf, but the truth is quite different.   A normal sized child is not something he's ready to handle; the house he's built for himself, and for his wife Leila, is built to accommodate dwarves.   He doesn't like the thought that his child will be taller than him, possibly making him uncontrollable.   

And this is where the story shines.   While the general plot is fairly simple, it's not the reason to come to this party.   It's the fact that the particulars of the characters - their genetics, their backgrounds - make this story about a lot more than genetically modifying someone.   It pokes and prods at the most basic fears a person can have, and it treats them with subtlety and nuance.   Never is it said that the genemods are good, never is it said that they're bad.   Instead, you're presented with a character, Barry, who has had enough experience with modifying people via genes that he can see more of the picture than most.  

I would argue that given the general perception, this story is skewed towards live and let live, but it doesn't go into the biased condemning of the practice.  

Also, the fact that it presents the possibility of genetically modifying people so their gentler and nicer?   I got chills.   I think I know people who would love that to happen, and it silences a lot of voices, a lot of the blunter voices that tell the truth.   Basically, I wouldn't be able to say: 

]

Or: 

Or... call Age of Extinction Transformers 4 because that drives Bay nuts.   (Please, please, please let people start calling this TF4 en masse.   Because suck it, Bay.)

Because I would see those GIFs, or think about telling Bay why and how he fucked up the TF universe and I would feel bad.  I wouldn't be able to critically review art - including books - because I would weep for the poor, poor authors who can't write.

And here's the thing.   I was thinking about this, and snorting out loud to myself, because this seems to mirror a lot going on in the book blogging community right now, but written years before I became involved with it heavily.   Years before it became the norm, even.  Kress can write, boy can she write, and she can write well.  Not only is her writing amazing, but it makes you think. 

Why not a five star, then?   

For a short story, there were lots of editing errors.  I didn't highlight them, and they weren't the kind of funny errors; they were missing words that mind boggled you because this was mostly really good writing.   Not only that, I got the distinct sense that this was something that wasn't present in the original story.   (I can't confirm or deny; it was mostly gut instinct, added with the fact that the grammar tends to be correct.   It all added up to me thinking someone had scanned/typed this, and not edited for typos after.)