SFF review: imagination and annotation in “The Sentry Branch Predictor Spec: A Fairy Tale”

“The Sentry Branch Predictor Spec: A Fairy Tale”, John Chu, at Clarkesworld (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/chu_07_16/)

I imagine that everyone involved in SFF circles has by this point seen the programming for World Fantasy Convention, and the very merited backlash to it. There are a number of issues to address, of course, but one of the conversations I was quickly drawn into on Twitter was how much incredible SFF is being created by Asian writers, all ignored for the sake of an offensive in-joke. This blog has covered several of these stories, but there are countless more. In the face of the implication that Asian SFF writers and the work they produce matters less than someone’s tired and unfunny “joke”, I reject this narrative. Asian authors are producing some of the most beautiful, innovative, exciting speculative fiction right now, and I want to highlight their work. So today I’m discussing John Chu’s “The Sentry Branch Predictor Spec: A Fairy Tale”.