Home › Writing › My Writing › Reacting to Numbers

Reacting to Numbers

Posted on Posted in My Writing, Writing Tagged with , ,

Reading By Numbers, my first SFWA-level published story has garnered some nice feedback.

Fantasy Magazine interviewed me about the story.  After reading the interview, quite a few people (including computer programmer friends) realised they’d missed the hidden codes in the story.

Sean Wallace, Fantasy Magazine’s publisher wrote: “Here at FM we like to occasionally run something really strange and wonderful,
and you don’t get stranger than with Aidan Doyle’s “Reading By Numbers”:
http://oldcharliebrown.livejournal.com/287013.html

Molly Tanzer, the magazine’s assistant editor describes it as “weird, creepy and beautiful.”
http://paperfruit.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/newsfeed/#more-557

Readers left some very nice remarks in the story’s comments section.  The most common reaction seemed to be that the story was “creepy.” One reader even went as far as saying “This is the most enjoyable story I’ve read all year.”
http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/11/reading-by-numbers/#comments

Language Computeer writes: “any number of you mathematico-linguistic slipstream fiction fans might enjoy this story: Reading by Numbers, by Aidan Doyle.  If you like math or horrorish SF — and especially if you like both — you’ll probably enjoy it.”
http://trochee.livejournal.com/2009/11/24/

My fellow Clarionite and Queen of Wrongtown, Angela Slatter graciously plugged the story, writing: “This story has a higher IQ than I do.”
http://angelaslatter.com/2009/11/23/reading-by-numbers/

The most awesome Tessa Kum, a Clarion Souther from 2005 describes the story as “naaaaasty”
http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/12/see-these-other-horns-lo-i-blow-them.html

Lois Tilton at The Internet Review of Science Fiction gave it a recommendation, saying: “the narrative is original, fresh and engaging.”
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10609

Rich Horton describing Fantasy Magazine’s fiction for 2009 says: “Other good work came from Catherine J. Gardner, Ari Goelman, Paul Jessup, Megan Arkenberg, and Aidan Doyle.”
http://ecbatan.livejournal.com/87459.html