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The Girl-Thing Who Stepped Out for Sushi
Jul. 24th, 2013 08:35 pmNext on the list it's Pat Cadigan's The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi. Set in orbit around Jupiter a few hundred years in the future, it imagines a universe where people can opt to change their bodies into something better adapted to space — the sushi of the title — giving rise to a tense relationship with base-line humanity — whom the sushi refer to as two-steppers.
Told from the perspective of a Arkae, an octo sushi, the story is catalyse by a two-stepper, Fry, who decides after breaking her leg in an accident to go out for sushi. The transformation isn't simple — Fry was a brain box & a beauty queen back on earth and her decision to reshape her body triggers all sort of legal and social objections back on Earth — and while Arkae is waiting for her friend to change, she and her gang find themselves being rushed around Bg J in an attempt to get various projects finished before a comet, Okeke-Hightower, is expected to impact the gas giant.
The world Cadigan creates, with its different types of sushi — so-called because they're modelled on various different forms of marine life, from octopi to crabs to puffer fish to nautili — and the tensions that exist both between the sushi and the two-steppers, and within the sushi themselves feels well realised. The story takes in issues of political representation, the power of corporations, and ubiquitous surveillance — a necessity when attempting to survive in a deeply hostile environment — before ending on an intriguing note that casts a new light on Arkae's account of preceding events.
Told from the perspective of a Arkae, an octo sushi, the story is catalyse by a two-stepper, Fry, who decides after breaking her leg in an accident to go out for sushi. The transformation isn't simple — Fry was a brain box & a beauty queen back on earth and her decision to reshape her body triggers all sort of legal and social objections back on Earth — and while Arkae is waiting for her friend to change, she and her gang find themselves being rushed around Bg J in an attempt to get various projects finished before a comet, Okeke-Hightower, is expected to impact the gas giant.
The world Cadigan creates, with its different types of sushi — so-called because they're modelled on various different forms of marine life, from octopi to crabs to puffer fish to nautili — and the tensions that exist both between the sushi and the two-steppers, and within the sushi themselves feels well realised. The story takes in issues of political representation, the power of corporations, and ubiquitous surveillance — a necessity when attempting to survive in a deeply hostile environment — before ending on an intriguing note that casts a new light on Arkae's account of preceding events.
