365 Days of Sales, Day 2

Today's new item for sale is another selection from Arkham House.  This is a small (<100 pages?) collection of 3 stories from James Tiptree, Jr., published in 1986, reprinted here for the first time since their original publication in Asimov's and F&SF.

The book is near perfect, but has a slight flaw that I attempt to show in the bottom picture.  This is looking at the book from the top, and you can see that it is slightly "foxed," where the front cover is slightly pushed forward from the back cover.  This is a minor imperfection, but needs to be noted for the serious collector.

I'm asking $24.00 post paid for this book.  Contact me here by comments or through the usual channels (my email address can be found on the "about" page.)

The Bone Forest

The Bone Forest
by Robert Holdstock

Very good collection, mostly fantasy, yet treading the dark edge of horror, rather than adventure or whimsey. Mostly worth it for the title novella and "Thorn," but no outright clunkers. In detail:

• "The Bone Forest"--This is a prequel novella to Holdstock's Mythago Wood and Lavondyss, I believe. It stands alone fine. This reminded me of Jonathan Carroll--what his writing would be like if he allowed himself to lose himself within the fantasy rather than playing on the dividing line between fantasy and "reality" (I read recently that Nabokov recommends always enclosing the word "reality" in quote marks). The mythago idea is a powerful one, and provides plenty of material that Holdstock could work through for years. Yet, he seems to shy away from the epic, instead concentrating on individual stories--mano a mano with the wood. I have to admit that I think that I admire him for that.


• "Thorn"--Another powerful story, this time about a man led into a belief then believed betrayed. And, yet, was he? There's a sense of both here. That what the man was being led to was right; that what was being done to him was wrong. But was it wrong, or just different? It reminds me of some of the cultural anthropology that I've been reading recently--what is one group's delicacy is another's abomination. What is moral in one group is highly irregular, if not immoral, in another. Excellent story to bring that out.


• "The Shapechanger"--Nice, yet not as good as the others. First, the good things. Excellent use of pagan magic and relationship between the old shaman and young, inexperienced and somewhat reluctant apprentice. Sense of danger high and yet not silly. But then, as we learn more of the daemon--the child haunting the past from the future--the idea goes downhill. Not necessarily Holdstock's fault; battered children are, unfortunately, an overused element in today's fantasy and horror fiction. While this might have been fresh at the time it was written, it appears old hat to us now. Still, the writing and pacing are excellent, and worth reading.


• "The Boy Who Jumped the Rapids"--Didn't like this one so much...I think because it didn't seem to complete itself. The elements are all there and fine--conflict, action, meaning--yet it seemed less cohesive than it should. The central mystery, the horned stranger, is resolved, but the secondary mystery, Caylon's ability to ford the river, seems like it is resolved yet again doesn't. Maybe it's the interplay of the two, and trying to figure out what one theme does to the other.


• "Time of the Tree"--Very Borgesian. What it means, I don't know, but the style, the description, are interesting. The world on man? The Earth as man? Strange--also reminiscent of Garcia Marquez' story about the beached giant.


• "Magic Man"--Well done pre-history story. I tend not to like Clan of the Cave Bear stories, so it had to get over that bias of mine. Good description, good conflict, and nice twist at the end.


• "Scarrowfell"--Like "Thorn," a pagan fantasy/horror, playing with the modern reader's normal Christian assumptions, then removing the veil to show the true meaning. Much of Holdstock's work dabbles in the pagan--Mythago Wood makes a point that what we perceive as history is just the last link in a long chain of myths. It certainly differentiates his fantasies from those of others.


• "The Time Beyond Age"--This is science fiction; the rest of the book has been fantasy. Yet there's a similarity here with the fantasy. Again, the focus is on obsession and the need to study something and understand it (as with the title novella), but the very act of studying drives the observer into contact with the phenomena and, ultimately, ruins any chances for objective advancement of knowledge. Basically, it's the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle made fictive.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror:Sixth Annual Collection

edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Like the Dozois SF collection, the Datlow/Windling collection is the fantasy/horror short fiction collection to get if you only get one a year. I've been picking up both of these collections since they first started appearing, and I've never been disappointed. Due to the fact that I have not been reading the magazines in recent years, all of the stories in this volume (with one exception) were new to me, so what follows is a story-by-story discussion. That exception? Ed Bryant's "Human Remains," which I read in workshop.

• Emma Bull, "Silver and Gold"--Excellent fantasy, with touches of the fairy tale, but also a nice measure of reality--much like that of Tolkien, for whom this story was written as a tribute.


• Jack Cady, "The Tinker"--Fantasy? I don't think so. Very southern type fiction--like Faulkner or O'Conner--where the most important things are the ones not said. Not to my taste, although I can see its appeal for the literati.


• Craig Curtis, "Queequeq"--Cute concept, although slightly reminiscent of Ellen Guon's "Stable Strategies for Middle Management." And for all its "telling," what comes across is the "showing." This may be because when the first person narrator tells, he is doing it through "show." This is probably why first person is so easy to do, yet so hard to do right.


• M. John Harrison, "Anima"--As everything I've ever read by Harrison, I find myself interested by the writing, but bewildered by the concepts. I really don't know how anyone call sell anything so subtle--or is it me? Am I just dense? No. Harrison is subtle, and I don't care to pick him apart to understand him.


• Steve Rasnic Tem, "Skin (poem)"--A couple of good images, but the whole didn't coalesce for me.


• Reginald McDwight, "Homunculus"--Not as subtle as the Harrison, but still too much for me to want to read it again and try to find out what the point was. Now, I'm not against working with a story, but these writers, I feel, ask too much. There's a fine line between rewarding insight and punishment by obscuring. Either that, or I'm just losing patience.


• Christina Peri Rossi, "The Annuciation"--The style is magic realism, or maybe I just perceive Latin American fiction that way. The story is sort of interesting, and I loved the last line, but it felt like there was way too much that went before to get to that point, and the unanswered questions were left dangling much too high.


• Charles de Lint, "The Bone Woman"--de Lint writes well, with grace and fluidity, but I've never really like his short stories. For some reason, they seem dainty and fey--things "real men" shouldn't read or write. Which is funny coming from me, because I love fairy tales.


• A.S. Byatt, "The Story of the Eldest Princess"--See, I told you I liked fairy tales, for I loved this one. It looks like Byatt can do no wrong (for me, that is), so I'm going to have to search out more of her work. This is an excellent post-modern "once upon a time" tale, that both conforms to the traditional fairy tale motifs and also goes beyond them with a meta-meaning (the Princess realizes that she is caught in a story) and a subtle meaning (I took the tale to be a "state of women's modern lives"). Excellent.


• Poppy Z. Brite, "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves"--So this is the story that caused Dan Simmons to write a story for Still Dead? I can see what affinity he might have for it, given his Song of Kali, but it seemed to...not obscene, I don't really believe in that word, but, too...much. But then, maybe that's the point. However, I've been told how nasty Calcutta is so many times now that I'm little impressed by another rendition.


• Jessica Amanda Salmonson, "In the Looking Glass, Life is Death (poem)"--I don't get it.


• Scott Bradfield, "The Parakeet and the Cat"--Ah, a wonderful little story full of talking animals and metaphysics. Bradfield's style is clean and crisp as well--a real joy to read.


• Nicholas Royle, "Glory"--Spooky, which, in today's horror glut, is quite a compliment. It reminds me a little of the film version I once saw of Richard Adams' The Girl in a Swing. And, nicely, it's just as ambiguous and yet clear. It's almost too ambiguous, surprising me that it saw print like that. Ah, well--those are the Brits for you, not needing to spell it out.


• Neil Gaiman, "Murder Mysteries"--I really like the tale inside the story of the murder in heaven and the instigation of Lucifer's downfall. It's the kind of thing Carroll would write if he wrote "real" fantasy. (Do you get the feeling that I idolize Jonathan Carroll? I do. He's not perfect, but his way with words and stories somehow strikes the perfect chord with me.) The outside tale I wasn't as fond of--something like what Bret Easton Ellis might write if he wrote horror (ok, I haven't read American Psycho to know if this comparison is truly apt). But, this is Gaiman, so it also reads a bit like "Sandman"--lots of people sitting around talking about the weirdest things, with some ambiguous twists. Not my pick for a "great" story, unless I give extra points for "intriguing."


• Steve Rasnic Tem, "Hungry"--Wugh. That's about the grossest thing I've read recently. Reminds me of something like in Clive Barker's Books of Blood. Not to my taste anymore, if you'll pardon the pun.


• M.R. Scofidio, "Playing With"--Short and okay. Cute play with title, but really not getting anywhere.


• Robert Silverberg, "It Comes and Goes"--Not bad. The quiet type of horror so loved by the Charlie Grant school. Unfortunately, quiet often means boring. (Loud often means boring and disgusting, so that's really not the answer.) While Silverberg's piece isn't necessarily "boring," it still doesn't have the same intriguing characteristic's of Gaiman's nor the chill of Royle's.


• Grozdana Olujic, "The Bewitched Burr"--Nice, but the ending doesn't fit the implied moral message of the fairy tale, at least not to me. And given that this is coming from the former Yugoslavia, where it is hard to imagine where the "happily ever after" is going to appear, that isn't too surprising.


• Charlotte Watson Sherman, "Swimming Lessons"--Nice short short of the rural south that speaks a great deal about children everwhere.


• Garry Kilworth, "Memories of the Flying Ball Bike Shop"--What a wonderful story! I'm a sucker these days for stories set in other cultures, because for me humans are the alienest of aliens. When another culture is mixed with a heart-rending story of character, what emerges is pure delight. I've liked some of Kilworth's previous work, but now I'll really be looking for it.


• Diane de Avalle-Arce, "Bats"--Another story set in a different culture, this time Guanujuarta, Mexico. Wonderful hook paragraph about how shoeshine boys tortured bats leads into a nicely told tale. The basic plot is not that startling. What lives on in memory is the setting and the characters, so well drawn from just a few lines.


• Nancy Farmer, "Origami Mountain"--Simplistic mystery, supposed to reveal something about the Japanese character. I had a hard time ignoring the sentence structure and the weird dialogue of the policemen.


• James Powell, "Ruby Laughter, Tears of Pearls"--Fun little story, mainly for humor. Strangely, it was originally published in a mystery magazine. Guess it provided a pleasant change of pace (it couldn't be just because the author is a well-respected mystery writer, right?).


• Judith Tarr, "I Sing of a Maiden"--So? Okay, it's a nice conceit--lady writer brings Thomas a Beckett back from the past, and, yes, Tarr gets to throw in a bunch of that there fancy book learning. But so what? Nothing here is that touching, that interesting, to warrant inclusion.


• Cliff Burns, "Also Starring"--Since I'm not a film buff, most of the character references went over my head. What was left was only mildly amusing. Luckily, it was short and didn't take long to read.


• Christopher Fowler, "On Edge"--Okay, I'll admit its disgusting. It might even be disturbing, depending on your personal fear of dentistry. But what's the point? Yes, the "patient" was an asshole. His arrogant demand for service can be seen in almost any customer-related/oriented business. And his barging in to find a dentist adds a touch to the logic of the story. But after--even during--the operation, I can't help to repeat, what's the point? Are we supposed to take this as a moral tale: this is what happens to line-jumpers? Or are we just supposed to wince vicariously at the dental work? So far, this has to be the poorest pick for this volume.


• Joyce Carol Oates, "Martyrdom"--I seem to be having this trouble with horror--supposedly the Year's Best--in that I just don't get it. Oh, I get the disgusting aspect of it. In the war between "quiet" and "loud" horror, splatter seems to be winning. Every story seems to try to top the one before in the savage viciousness of it all. But for what? Maybe my horror filter, when finally overloaded a couple of years ago, still hasn't been renewed. Whatever. All I know is that stories like this do not make me any eager to read more.


• Haruki Murakami, "The Second Bakery Attack"--Well, here we go again; I didn't get it, but this time I liked it. Obviously I've shifted more towards fantasy in these last few years. And, while I didn't get it, I at least felt there was something to be had here. I especially enjoyed the narrator's "voice," the descriptions (one-liners perfect for their analogies), and the structure (intro, break into story of first attack, then interlude, followed by second attack). I wonder if I would "get" his longer work?


• Lucius Shepard, "A Little Night Music"--I haven't lost my taste for all horror. Or, maybe, what I've lost is the horror, but I don't mind the dark fantasy or whatever Chizmar calls it. Even though the fantasy part of this tale is science fiction, it merges with horror because it is about death. But that's just an underlying premise here. The real story is as old as the hills--the mainstay of TV and Updike fiction, that is the jealous husband. Datlow says in her introduction to the J.C. Oates story that the best writers blur or merge the genres. Yeah, I'll agree, although I tend to like the style of Shepard over Oates.


• Jo Shapcott, "Tom and Jerry Visit England (poem)"--Cute idea, with some great description. I didn't really follow the ending, but liked enough of the whole to be amused.


• Stephen Gallagher, "The Sluice"--As much a "mainstream" story as any (given the ambiguous, yet understandable, nature of the slight bit of fantasy), it achieves what it sets out to achieve. There's nothing unworkmanlike here, but, at the same time, there was nothing spectacular either.


• Brian Aldiss, "Ratbird"--From the new incarnation of the famous new wave magazine, New Worlds, this story reads like it came from the pages of the old incarnation. Which is not a compliment in my book. Like Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories, this is full of instance and experiment, and I canna make head nor tails of it.


• Gene Wolfe, "The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun"--Interesting, but confusing as well (a frequent comment of mine after a Wolfe short story). I like the idea of explaining the appearance of the monkey in an old document (a real document?), but it seems like a long way to go for it. Also, a nice, underlying moral, but almost too subtle, and seems easily displaced by all the other going on.


• Rick Bowes, "On Death and the Deuce"--What at first seems an interesting take on gritty magic realism, and started off with flare, ended up seemeing only as exciting as any mainstream story about an alcoholic. I can't even say it was poor execution, just execution not to my liking.


• Harlan Ellison, "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore"--Huh? Like his earlier "Eidolons," I just don't get it. I wish Ellison would go back to writing stories with beginnings, middles, and endings, because when he did, he was a hell of a writer. This type of story is hellish, as well, but in quite the opposite connotation. Ah well, this is the type of thing that gets you in the Year's Best (did this one make the American Best volume as well?).


• Joe Haldeman, "Graves"--Nice little war story, full of disgust turned natural, and seemingly natural turned hellish. Haldeman writes about war and death as if he knows of what he speaks--which I guess he does. Neat and short.


• Ed Gorman, "The Ugly File"--We're on a roll now, up to two-in-a-row that I've liked. There's nothing fantastic about this story--just a quiet little piece of true pathos. I wouldn't even term it horror; unfortunately, it's just life.


• Midori Snyder, "Elfhouses"--Gah! Pleack! Bleah! My gosh, it's a pagan Sunday School story. Combining the worst elements of reality, new age mentality and a slight bit of fantastic in a confection of unbearable sweetness, it's no wonder that this tale was first published in "Mothering" rather than a genre magazine. Why it's included here is a mystery to me.


• Sue Ellen Sloca, "Candles on the Pond"--Not bad. Might even be very good. Yet this type of story--anthropological sf?--doesn't sit well with me; it's just not my normal interest. The writing's good, though, because it kept me reading.


• Grania Davis, "Tree of Life, Book of Death"--Nice little fantasy tale, using Jewish motifs mixed with a semi-modern style. Nothing fantastic, but a solid, likable story.


• D.R. McBride, "Puja"--Another Calcutta story, although this one has it only as the protagonist's memory, still it's an integral part of the story. A quiet type of horror tale, with an inscrutible (to Americans) idea. Still, it was interesting. With all these Calcutta stories, wonder if Dozois and Dann could do a KALI! anthology--or maybe Dozois and Resnick's Under Indian Skies?


• Clive Barker, "Hermione and the Moon"--A surprisingly sugary tale from the goremaster of horror. Short and to the point; any longerand it might have turned as saccharine as the Snyder tale.


• Graham Masterson, "Absence of Beast"--Following Herr Goremaster is Lt. Tag-a-long, with a typical tale of love and death with the requisite (1) child's fear, (2) family squabble, and (3) bloody denoument. Sigh. This is best of the year?


• Steve Rasnic Tem, "Rat Catcher"--Gross, but in the Stephen King way--so you know that the grossness has a purpose beyond itself. And that purpose is to blind you from the real horror here, the slow descent into, and quick removal from, the abyss of fear. Excellent story, even though it's not really to my taste.


• Jane Yolen, "Will (poem)"--A blank. I see the possibility of an idea, but nothing more.


• Jane Yolen, "The Question of the Grail (poem)"--A little better, but still.... Why does poetry have to be so obscure? Maybe I should start a Post-Eliot Fellowship and call for clearer meaning in poetry?


• John Brunner, "In the Season of the Dressing of the Wells"--Great story, although somewhat simplistic. But then, what's wrong with being simple? Asimov made a career out of being as simple as he could with difficult material, and while I really don't believe his fiction to be any great shakes, I'm in the minority. Brunner's story here is pleasing and enjoyable, yet also with purpose and feeling. Hard to fault that.


• Sara Gallardo, "The Blue Stone Emperor's Thirty-Three Wives"--Overlong for the concept, but this might be a factor of the translation. I like the concept, and, for the most part, its execution. In the city, there are a million stories, one for each person. In the harem as well.


• Angela Carter, "Alice in Prague, or the Curious Room"--I really don't get it, unless Carter's trying to be as surreal as Dali or as dadist as Ionesco. Glints of interest, but like coming upon a shattered glass animal.


• Lisa Tuttle, "Replacements"--Funny, but this reminded me of my own "Going Mobile"--something strange happens that shows the differences between the sexes. Tuttle's version is much, much darker than my own, and her world-view seems much more pessimistic (I, at least, showed a gleam of hope). Still, it seems effective; I hope that mine was as much so.


• Peter Straub, "The Ghost Village"--Very readable, incredibly interesting, yet obscure and ambiguous in the way that Straub tends to be. What does it say? That cultures handle their monsters in their mists differently? That people do so? Why? I think this story asks "why" and gives no answer. Interesting, yes--but rewarding?

I noticed that a large selection of stories came from Dennis Etchison's Metahorror, which seemed to be the 1992 horror anthology (much like his earlier Cutting Edge was). Seems like I liked about half-n-half, with it fairly even split between the fantasy and the horror.

Meeting in Infinity

Meeting in Infinity
by John Kessel

A short story collection, including:

• "The Pure Product" -- Interesting, filled with some wonderful details, but confusing. In the future people will be much the same as they are now? Ok, but why go to such lengths? I don't connect the implied meaning with the nihilism of the character.


• "Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner" -- Read this originally in Asimov's, as well as re-read it in Kessel's first solo novel, Good News from Outer Space. Wonderful story, about not necessarily wanting what one wishes for.


• "The Big Dream" -- I haven't read the "post-modern" classics, like Barthelme, Barth, or Coover. What I tend to term "post-modern" may not match up with the generally accepted use, so I'll define the way I see it here post-modern fiction is about itself, or, more generally, about fiction itself. This may leave the door open for works before 1960, for example, Tristram Shandy? Gargantua and Pantagruel? In any case, this story by Kessel fits my definition--it revolves around Raymond Chandler--the real RC? I'm not sure, not knowing anything about his personal life. But it definitely is loaded with criticism of his work. Maybe that's the "fuller" definition of post-modern it's fiction that criticizes fiction. I like it, but I can see where it might have a limited audience. Most people read a story for the story; some people read a story for what it might mean; only writers and critics read a story about a story. Kessel could probably have written this as straight criticism of the non-fiction type (maybe he has?), but I found this style much more fun. (Is William Goldman's The Princess Bride post-modern? A criticism of fantasy tropes? Hmmmm.)


• "The Lecturer" -- This one isn't post-modern, yet it has that same feeling of criticism as "The Big Dream." Here, Kessel as professor is criticizing teaching, whereas, in "The Big Dream," it was Kessel as writer criticizing writing. SF as criticism is nothing new; most utopia/dystopia fiction deals in implied, if not overt, criticism. The difference that Kessel brings to it is that he doesn't even attempt to answer the criticism. For him, the point is to point out the problems.
  "Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine" -- This is the powerful kind of character driven SF that made Kessel's reputation (and Asimov's SF, as well, under the editors McCarthy and Dozois). A simple idea erasing memories. The flip side of Phil Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale." But why would someone want to erase a memory, and what if the trouble went deeper than memory? Emotional, yet logical. A wonderful story.


• "Faustfeathers" -- I believe this is the lone original story to this volume, which is not quite true, because a version of this is in the wonderful Kessel/Kelly collaboration, Freedom Beach. Basically, this is a humor piece--and what a piece, but not a peace, it is. Faust is played by Groucho Marx. Chico and Harpo are hired by the villain to get evidence that Faust is in league with the fiend; Zeppo is Faust's "favorite" student. And then there's Helen.... Simply imagine the story of Doctor Faustus as a Marx brother's movie and you won't be far off. I'm glad to see this here. When NOVA Express interviewed Kessel in 1988 (was it that long ago?), we expressed an interest in publishing this story, but never got past the purely talking part. Ever since Kessel told me about this tale, I've been anxious to read it. It was well worth waiting for.


• "A Clean Escape" -- Aiee! Oh, well...here's another story about someone with Korasov's Syndrome, done very well and interesting reading. In fact, this reminded me a lot of the best of Phil Dick's work. Why I screamed is because I've been working on a story related to someone with Korasov's, and when I workshopped it, one of the things that kept coming up was "I read a story similar to this wherein...." I guess this type of disease is tempting to the SF writer. If you would like to be tempted, too, the best place I've found that talks about disorders of this type is Dr. Oliver Sack's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. (Actually, I think the appeal of these disorders goes even farther than SF writers--there was an opera based on Sack's book a couple of years back.)


• "Not Responsible! Park and Lock It!" -- Okay, you can take this literally--like 60s SF (and 70s, and some of the rest, as well), this may be the future, but it's not the future that is probable, nor possible. Okay, so let's read it as allegory, and that's where it works. It's not Milton (Thank, God), and it can be read straight (although I think if you read it only straight it wouldn't be much of a story). I think this style of SF is fading, being replaced by the even more fantastic style of people like James Morrow. This was Kessel's first published story, and has aged fairly well.


• "Man" -- Whoa. Another powerful story, this one on the order of "Hearts Do Not in Eyes Shine." This is the new SF style--the style of the 90s? Basically, something weird occurs (it starts raining fish, the dead rise, penii detach, strange animals appear) and while this is recognized by the characters as something different, they do not panic. Roll with the changes, don't rock the boat. Maybe it will go away. The important thing is not the change, but how the characters are affected by change itself, individually as well as in groups. Here, a man moves into the protagonist's basement, as if the man was a rat or termites, yet not, because he also can interact with the characters. Getting rid of him by killing him is one accepted solution, yet the protagonist can't bring himself to do it--not because he considers it murder, but for a more undefinable reason (ennui?). Then the situation is compounded. I also sensed a vague autobiographical nature to the story, but I may be reading to much into it (that's always the danger of readers thinking a story is about you the writer, rather than the characters).


• "Invaders" -- Another piece of meta-fiction. Three separate settings, yet interconnected. One, the Spanish invasion of the Incas. Two, Kessel in the now. Three, the future, where aliens invade the earth like the Spanish invaded the Incas (well, not quite, but the effect is the same). This is a comment piece, underlined by Kessel's straight- to-the-reader essay section. Again, this is as much about science fiction as it is science fiction. Whether or not you agree with Kessel, it makes for interesting reading.


• "Judgement Call" -- Like "Mrs. Shummel Exits a Winner," I read this when previously published and also as part of Kessel's novel. It is an interesting story, about truth, and honor, and ethics. Excellent.


• "Buddha Nostril Bird" -- Well, I don't get it. I like the weird societal set-up, especially Athenian (Socrates, Protagoras), vaguely buddhist (the Zen like proverbs, the ending). Yet the events do not take shape for me. I'm as lost at the end as I was at the beginning-- that's vaguely Zen-like, isn't it?

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection

edited by Gardner Dozois

Dozois does the best summation for the year, and his selections for the best short fiction, while not always matching mine, often encompass mine because of the shear volume of his collection. And, I have to admit, I find it hard not to be biased; Gardner's been acknowledging me for some slight help I might have given him for the last several years, and I find myself pleased to be even the smallest part of the preparation of these volumes. Although I've cut down on my short fiction reading in recent years, this volume was old enough to overlap with many stories that I had already read before, so my comments are limited to the stories that were new to me.

• Nancy Kress, "Beggars in Spain"--Great story, that, while reminiscent of some of the classics of SF (Odd John, More Than Human), stands firmly on its own, and states something new. Kress is interested in the tensions between the two groups--one modern analogy for her story is the tension between conservatives and homosexuals. But what I'd like to have seen her spend more time on (and maybe she does in the novel version) is this perverted (in my humble opinion) desire of parents whose children must be their own genetic makeup, and must have all advantages possible. A reflection of evolution? How can that be exaggerated any more than it already is?


• Alexander Jablokov, "Living Will"--Excellent story about a man facing Alzheimer's and deciding to do the "best" for his family and friends. I'm not sure I agree with Jablokov's conclusion--I think I'm more optimistic or something--but at least he made me think about it.


• William Gibson, "Skinner's Room"--The idea is interesting, just a passing speculation, but there's no story here. Yes, there's characterization, but absolutely zero plot. And a story without a plot isn't much of a story, really.


• Greg Egan, "Blood Sisters"--This one's got a plot; in fact, it's got a lot, but I still didn't find that it excited me all that much. Was it because for all the seeming passion that the narrator felt, the very fact and manner of the narration led to it feeling very passive? Things that occurred weren't surprising. You know the narrator didn't die because she's narrating (although that gives me a great idea for a ghost story, although it's probably been done before).


• Karen Joy Fowler, "The Dark"--I'm pretty much in the dark with this story. I think I follow it--Karen's writing is very clear and informative--but when the ending comes, I'm lost. Very much like her novel, Sarah Canary, where there's some great information, which I can't connect with her plot. O, well.


• Ian R. McLeod, "Marnie"--The concept isn't new, but McLeod does the characterization better than it's been done before. In fact, the authentic romance reminded me of the best of Jonathan Carroll (like the first third of Bones of the Moon), no small compliment coming from me. The characterization was so good that I was disappointed that the concept wasn't. If the concept had matched the characters, this would have been the best story I've read since Lucius Shepard's "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter" or Brad Denton's "The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians."


• Kim Newman, "Ubermensh!"--Newman seems determined to make his name as an alternate fictioner. Here he gives quite a unique twist to the Superman legend, and it works just as well as his excellent alternate take on Dracula in Anno Dracula. I could probably get tired of this after awhile, but at the moment I'm inclined to give Newman three thumbs-up.


• Robert Reed, "Pipes"--I liked it, but I don't know. I mean, it's almost too simplistic; not elegant enough. Everything fits together, like a jigsaw puzzle, and like a jigsaw puzzle, everything fits together too nicely, and the very fact that I notice the seams at all is disturbing. And while the plot may be original, it isn't all that exciting. So, I like it--with reservations.


• Paul McAuley, "Gene Wars"--A nice little condensed "Shaper" story. Yes, a mix of Sterling and Ballard. Neat. Wonder what weird combinations you could make with other authors? The ideas of one author through the style of another. Naw, too close to the recent rash of "tribute" stories. The story has to come out of it rather than being forced through the gimmick.


• Kristine Kathryn Rusch, "The Gallery of Her Dreams"--While this story reminded me of some of the others that I've read by Kris, there's something different--better--here. It may be the very realistic portrayal of Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, or the verisimilitude in descriptions of place, or something that I can't express. It is a moving story, and worthy of being included here.


• Geoffrey Landis, "A Walk in the Sun"--Here's the problem with "hard science" fiction--Landis may have all the science in this story perfect, but for me to know this, I have to have a lot of knowledge of the moon myself. That is, the story works on specialized knowledge. The audience with that requisite specialized knowledge shrinks as the amount of that knowledge increases. In 1950, the SF audience could follow along with most SF concepts. In 1990, they can't. Thus the growth of "soft science" and "science fantasy" fiction. The soft sciences allow an "intuitive" understanding, and science fantasy deliberately isn't based on actually occurring science. Take away the scientific premise to Landis' story, and it isn't anything new.


• Rick Shelly, "Eyewall"--Of course the next story would have to prove everything differently. "Eyewall" is also a hard science story from Analog that works for me. Maybe it's because Shelly takes the time to explain his science more fully, or that Shelly understands that SF stories aren't about the science per se, but people's reactions to that science. There's some info-dumping here, but it's not too odious, and the ending was a little predictable, but for the most part this is a fine story.


• Greg Egan, "The Moat"--I like Egan, but this is one of the poorest stories I've seen by him. Problems: a major amount of info-dumping, and a fairly boring info-dumping procedure. And the end is simply tacked on; what supposes to stand for the climax seems to have little to do with the rest of the story, and then to tie up the story, Egan adds a "told" section that reads like a "where are they now." The idea wasn't bad, but the execution was very poor.


• Jack Dann, "Voices"--How many times is Dann going to write about the Big Bopper, Holly and Valens? It's not the major focus of this story, although it's a major presence, and I seem to recall Dann writing about them before, maybe twice ("Touring" in collaboration with Dozois?). Maybe it isn't Dann personally, but all of the writers of his age. "The day the music died" seems to have quite an effect on that age group, as Kennedy's assassination, or Nixon's resignation, or the Challenger explosion, has or may have on later groups. I'm just tired of it. The story wasn't science fiction, either, although it was well-written.


• Brian Aldiss, "FOAM"--Nice little twist story, in which the twist is something much larger than the story. The story itself, as twist stories go, isn't much to think on or read; the twist, however, is one of those universals that it never hurts to underline.


• Connie Willis, "Jack"--An excellently researched story, as was her novel Doomsday Book, that reminded me a bit of the Dann & Dozois story, "Down Among the Dead Men." Superficially, it's the same idea. If vampires were real, what would they have been doing in WWII. Dann & Dozois gave us the German version; Willis gives us the English. This is also a clever story, incorporating many references to Dracula, most notably in the names of the characters. In fact, it was almost distracting. Still, Willis is a wonderful writer, and always best at the short form.


• Chris Beckett, "La Macchina"--Neat story about one possible future populated by robots. Becket accomplishes a lot in a little, and that's good writing to me.


• Mike Resnick, "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals"--The prequel to Resnick's Kirinyaga series, it contains the same strengths and weaknesses of the other stories in the series. Unlike other critics of this series, I'm not bothered by what Resnick may or may not be saying about technology; the weaknesses I see are in the writing--simplistic characterization, woody dialogue, etc. Resnick overcomes this by intriguing ideas and a strange mixture of legend and future.

Stiff Upper Lip:Life Among the Diplomats

by Lawrence Durrell

A while back on rec.arts.books, someone asked for any recommendations of authors like P.G. Wodehouse. In the ensuing responses, this thin little volume by Durrell was mentioned. I recognized Durrell's name from my research into travel literature, and thought I'd give his humor a try. These are short stories, told to an unseen chronicler (and fellow diplomat) by an older collegue named Antrobus. The service is foreign, in a generic country name Vulgaria (a cute little dig at snobbish English diplomats). While the language is quite pleasant, and some of the situations quite amusing, what Durrell is missing is that sense of plot known as the conclusion (or, as a character says here, "the pay off"). Durrell tries, but never seems to get it right. I enjoyed it as a brief diversion (the book is less than 90 pages), but doubt I'll be looking for more.

Homicide Trinity

by Rex Stout

A collection of three novellas featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. After awhile, there's not really much one can say about Stout's mysteries. They are always well done--I remember reading someone saying that Rex Stout never wrote a bad sentence, and I have yet to prove that false. But there really isn't much here that distinguishes these novellas from any of the other collections.

Novelty

by John Crowley

A collection of four novellas from John Crowley, perhaps best known as the author of Little, Big. I admire Crowley's writing, although, like Howard Waldrop's, I often don't follow everything that's going on. In particular in this volume, I was lost in the time travel story, "Great Work of Time." History was never one of my strong suits, so I guess I shouldn't wonder why I'm not that attracted by alternate history. "In Blue" and "Novelty" were both reminiscent of stories that I had previously read in SF, but done with an artistic frame of mind.

For me it was "The Nightengale Sings at Night" that made this collection worthwhile. One of the hoariest cliches of SF is the Adam and Eve story, and although "Nightengale" has Adam and Eve in it, it is nowhere near the cliche. That's because the starting point of this story is the creation--that same moment in Genesis--whereas the cliche ends at the creation. Crowley, although "explaining" an aspect of the creation myth here, is also being slightly satirical in his exploration of it. In all, it makes for a wonderful story.

The Muddy Fork and Other Thigns:Short Fiction and Nonfiction

by James Crumley

Crumley's an original who doesn't write enough. Like the characters of his books, he's a hard drinker, and it unfortunately affects the output. But would he be the same writer if he wasn't the same drinker? We'll never know, so we'll just have to enjoy what precious little escapes. In The Muddy Fork there's a little bit of everything, most of it illuminating on Crumley, as well as on the slightly seamy side of the West. This is the modern Western, warts and all, as unlike John Wayne as cyberpunk is unlike Asimov. My favorite stuff here is the non-fiction, but the short fiction and the brief interview is worthwhile. The novel excerpts (from uncompleted novels) I could have missed, at least while Crumley is still alive and the possibility remains that he may finish one of these.

The Year's 25 Finest Crime & Mystery Stories

selected by the Editors of Mystery Scene

Chalk another one up to synchronicity. Ever since reading Colloquium on Crime, I've been toying with the idea of trying my hand at mystery short stories. Although I read a lot of mystery novels, my experience with the short stories has been limited to Conan Doyle and Rex Stout, so I thought to check out a "Best" collection, and regretted that there wasn't a mystery collection to rival the SF collections edited by Dozois and the horror/fantasy collections edited by Datlow and Windling. I was telling Doug Lewis about this at the Little Bookshop of Horrors, and he pointed out this volume. It looks like the very thing I was hoping for: a large compendium of stories with an summation of the field in the front packaged by Jim Frenkel. I'm glad to see this volume, and I hope "First Annual Edition," isn't just wishful thinking, although I must note that the production qualites of this volume (especially the number of typos) are nowhere near as good as the St. Martin's collections. How about the story selection? It centers mainly on reprints from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, although there are 10 or so from original anthologies, and one selection from Amazing Stories. I was surprised to not see any selected from Alfred Hitchcock's. Is there a bias against Hitchcock's, or is Ellery Queen's just that much better? And the stories? I enjoyed every one, and didn't think any as a true dud. However, I tended to enjoy the stories that went beyond the bounds of what we consider a traditional mystery more than the others (with the exception of Kris Rusch's time-travel mystery; Rusch is a talented writer, but all I seem to get from her stuff is a feeling of technical mastery, rather than actual interest). My favorite story was Edward D. Hoch's "The Detective's Wife." Although it contained a mystery, the story was really about the relationship, or deterioration of the relationship, between a police detective and his wife. My least favorite story was James Kisner's "Mother Tucker," a poor revenge/horror tale that was unsurprising.