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Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math
Structured around complex math problems, Aimee Picchi tells the story of a girl named Penny who dreams of escaping her life. For years she searches for a portal to another world, but she’s really looking for a way out of the meager existence she’s been confined to since a child. Will she spend the rest of her life waiting or will she take action and make a world of her own? You’ll have to answer all four math problems correctly to find out�
Unknown Binding
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About the author
Aimee Picchi
13Ìýbooks15ÌýfollowersI’m a business journalist who used to be a classical musician, and, when quite young, believed Narnia was a real place. I’m only sort of kidding about the last item.
My stories have appeared in Flash Fiction Online, The Colored Lens, Mirror Dance, and other publications. I have a story forthcoming in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.
I'm also a graduate of Viable Paradise, the workshop for SFF writers.
My nonfiction has appeared in the Boston Globe, Bloomberg Markets, MSN Money, and Daily Finance and CBS MoneyWatch.
My stories have appeared in Flash Fiction Online, The Colored Lens, Mirror Dance, and other publications. I have a story forthcoming in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.
I'm also a graduate of Viable Paradise, the workshop for SFF writers.
My nonfiction has appeared in the Boston Globe, Bloomberg Markets, MSN Money, and Daily Finance and CBS MoneyWatch.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 5, 2021
“She hopes to find a portal to a world with a warm patriarchal figure who will encourage her to spend long days in a library without any housework duties.�It’s a very short story presented as four vignettes showing Penny at different ages (13, 16, 20, 30), overlooked and unfairly judged for being a woman. She is hoping to find a portal away from the world that is not fair to her. At the end of each vignette there is a portal math(-ish) problem to ponder. How the last one gets solved is where the question is.
“Using only paper and pencil, estimate the equivalency of one pair of leggings to nylons and one lip balm to lipsticks, if l = lipsticks and n = nylons, and then calculate the nearest portal's location and extrapolate why Penny was unable to find it.�
Maybe it’s the extreme brevity of this flash fiction story that makes it impossible to convey much more than just a pointed message as there is no room for worldbuilding or characterization. It’s simplistic because it has no room to be anything else other than a creative moral lesson. A few more pages would have done it justice and added some flesh onto the bare bones.
2.5 stars.
Read it here:
—â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä�
A similar-ish concept, but done better: Probably Still the Chosen One by Kelly Barnhill: /review/show...
—â¶Ä”â¶Ä”â¶Ä”—â€�
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: /review/show...
July 3, 2021
This is more flash fiction than a short story.
Penny is confined to a life of disappointments, mainly because she’s a woman. In four paragraph’s the author shows us how she is searching for a portal to another world. At the end of each paragraph there’s also a fantasy math problem for the reader to solve.
Okay, so the author got a little creative with how she presents her story. And then there’s the message about gender inequality. In terms of plot, character development and worldbuilding you shouldn’t expect much. There’s no room for it.
Whether you like message fiction or not, well, you know yourself better than I do. I’m not a fan, when there isn’t much else. But I thought this story had a nice little twist at the end.
Overall, this equals 2.5 stars.
Can be read for free here:
2020 Nebula finalist for Best Short Story.
Best Novel
� by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
� by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
� by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
� by C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
� by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
� Network Effect by Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)
Best Novella
� by Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
� by Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
� Ring Shout by P. Djèlà Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
� by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
� by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
� by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing)
Best Novelette
� by Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
� by Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
� Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
� Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
� Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Shadow Prisons by Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as The Shadow Prison Experiment, Shadow Prisons of the Mind and The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Best Short Story
� Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
� A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
� The Eight-Thousanders by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
� My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
� by Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
� by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
� by T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
� by Jenn Reese (Holt)
� by Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
Penny is confined to a life of disappointments, mainly because she’s a woman. In four paragraph’s the author shows us how she is searching for a portal to another world. At the end of each paragraph there’s also a fantasy math problem for the reader to solve.
Okay, so the author got a little creative with how she presents her story. And then there’s the message about gender inequality. In terms of plot, character development and worldbuilding you shouldn’t expect much. There’s no room for it.
Whether you like message fiction or not, well, you know yourself better than I do. I’m not a fan, when there isn’t much else. But I thought this story had a nice little twist at the end.
Overall, this equals 2.5 stars.
Can be read for free here:
2020 Nebula finalist for Best Short Story.
_________________
2020 Nebula Award Finalists
Best Novel
� by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
� by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
� by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
� by C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
� by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
� Network Effect by Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)
Best Novella
� by Yaroslav Barsukov (Metaphorosis)
� by Nino Cipri (Tordotcom Publishing)
� Ring Shout by P. Djèlà Clark (Tordotcom Publishing)
� by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora, Aurelia Leo)
� by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon)
� by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom Publishing)
Best Novelette
� by Leah Cypess (F&SF 5-6/20)
� by Meg Elison (Big Girl, PM Press)
� Burn or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny 5-6/20)
� Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com 6/17/20)
� Where You Linger by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Shadow Prisons by Caroline M. Yoachim (serialized in the Dystopia Triptych series as The Shadow Prison Experiment, Shadow Prisons of the Mind and The Shadow Prisoner’s Dilemma, Broad Reach Publishing + Adamant Press)
Best Short Story
� Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse by Rae Carson (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Advanced Word Problems in Portal Math by Aimee Picchi (Daily Science Fiction 1/3/20)
� A Guide For Working Breeds by Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, Solaris)
� The Eight-Thousanders by Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 9-10/20) (Asimov’s 9-10/20)
� My Country Is a Ghost by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 1-2/20)
� Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots 6/15/20)
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
� by Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
� by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
� by T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
� by Jenn Reese (Holt)
� by Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)
February 10, 2023
Come again, what's the point of this story and what's so special about it other than the creative format and super heavy-handed misogyny?
May 15, 2021
Penny is looking to escape her unfair life, and via portals, escape to a better place.
Read it here:
After you're done, here are some better ones (in the same vein):
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow
and Probably Still the Chosen One by Kelly Barnhill
Read it here:
After you're done, here are some better ones (in the same vein):
A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies by Alix E. Harrow
and Probably Still the Chosen One by Kelly Barnhill
June 7, 2021
Very, very short, more of a flash fiction than short story, and probably never written with ambitions for any kind of award - so some of the flak it gets now might be because of the Nebula nomination. It's mildly fun and very flimsy; more of a set of four vignettes from the protagonist's life, than a story, focused on showing the gender inequality in a non-accusing way.
June 28, 2021
Lo leà porque es una historia corta nominada a los premios Nebula
Me encanta la intención (feminismo) pero no me gusta la ejecución. Esta bien que se llame historia corta pero esto se pasa de corta, con un poco más creo que podrÃa haber quedado mejor. Son 4 pequeñas viñetas de la vida de una mujer en un mundo patriarcal buscando una especie de portal mágico que la ayude a salir de las injusticias diarias.
Me encanta la intención (feminismo) pero no me gusta la ejecución. Esta bien que se llame historia corta pero esto se pasa de corta, con un poco más creo que podrÃa haber quedado mejor. Son 4 pequeñas viñetas de la vida de una mujer en un mundo patriarcal buscando una especie de portal mágico que la ayude a salir de las injusticias diarias.
July 3, 2021
Very good
April 14, 2022
4/5
Super unique feminist story told through maths problems!
Super unique feminist story told through maths problems!
November 4, 2021
I liked the concept of this story, but I felt it hit its targets like shooting fish in a barrel. That Penny, the protagonist, is mistreated is a given, and simply because of our horrible gender stereotypes and norms, and I feel like I’m back to reading ’s and getting sledgehammered with the point that this is unfair to women, which I already know, thank you. The openness of the ending is nice, where you are left wondering, along with the test taker, about the option Penny chooses, but overall, I felt this was too obvious and on the nose.
January 4, 2022
The story makes its point and I thought the word problems were kind of interesting. The first couple, anyway. No good deed goes unpunished, particularly for those whose survival interest is in doing good deeds. Makes one sigh.
July 27, 2022
(3,5*?)
A take on gender inequality that might be unsubtle as a short story, but good enough as flash fiction.
A take on gender inequality that might be unsubtle as a short story, but good enough as flash fiction.
May 20, 2021
3.5 Will review at Fantasy Literature.
December 5, 2021
I love the idea here. It's great and harkens to a much more rich world than is presented. I think more could have been done with it. I also think it lacks subtlety. Good but not great.
April 13, 2022
Nebula 2021 Nominee. Read it here:
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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