Fiction
The Best of Subterranean, ed. William Schafer. A number of the stories, especially at the beginning, are hard to distinguish from realistic fiction, but there is also more conventional horror/fantasy/sf. Michael Marshall Smith has a quirky story about saving the earth from destruction by aliens through home shopping. Rachel Swirsky, Kage Baker, Cherie Priest, Joe R. Lansdale, Daniel Abraham (a sort of Sherlock-Holmes-with-vampires pastiche), Karen Joy Fowler, Catherynne Valente, Kelly Link, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Robert Silverberg (old-fashioned sf), George R.R. Martin (script that is an unfilmed Twilight Zone episode), John Scalzi (excised chapter from The Last Colony), Kelley Armstrong (truly disturbing story about changelings), Harlan Ellison (a mess), K.J. Parker (smaller version of Parker’s usual exquisite machineries of people harming people), and Ted Chiang (a fascinating take on the effects of writing and recording on human memory and relationships) are also represented.
Urban Enemies, ed. Joseph Nassise: Stories about villains from the urban fantasy genre, some more sympathetic than others (and mostly not in the midst of committing sins against innocent victims). Jim Butcher’s was the only universe I was fully familiar with, and I enjoyed his take on Marcone’s handling of a small problem under the Accords. Other participants: Kelley Armstrong (Hounded), Jeff Somers (not bad take on blood magic), Craig Schaefer, Lilith Saintcrow, Kevin Hearne (Loki meets Lucifer, which goes about as well as you’d expect), Caitlin Kittredge, Joseph Nassise, Carrie Vaughn, Jonathan Maberry, Faith Hunter, Jon F. Merz, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Steven Savile, Domino Finn, Seanan McGuire (October Daye, from the perspective of a cuckoo, who beguiles people to do whatever she wants-the only one who really harmed innocents in front of the readers), and Sam Witt.
Claudia Grey, Defy the Stars: Noemi is a soldier from low-techGenesis, which is at war against Earth because the used-up Earth is trying to take over Genesis’ resources. Preparing for a suicide mission, Noemi stumbles upon Abel, an advanced mech from Earth. A quirk in Abel’s programming forces him to obey her, and they set out to try to destroy the Gate between Genesis and Earth. But Abel is more than his programming, and Noemi is more than her mission… A nice star-crossed lovers story, with some moments of humor (my favorite is when one person says “no one can find us now” and the door immediately bursts open, leading Abel to ponder how he’s not going to let humans make plans any more).
Women of Futures Past, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Rusch wrote a very second-wave feminist introduction, disavowing all this identity stuff, partly in order to justify her selection of stories that didn’t have female protagonists but instead showed off the variety of women writers who’ve long worked in sff, but are often left out of histories (as Rusch herself was in F&SF’s own list of its editors!). Featured: Norton, McCaffrey, Bujold, Cherryh, Brackett, Kress, Le Guin, Zenna Henderson (new to me), Cadigan, C.L. Moore, Tiptree, Willis. Brackett’s The Last Days of Shandakor was probably the most interesting of the ones I’d never read, because it did seem to encapsulate a certain mode of “Earth man explores alien culture he doesn’t understand.”
Leta Blake & Indra Vaughn, Vespertine: Nicky is a rock star trying to recover from addiction; Jasper is the priest who broke his heart when they were both kids. When they reconnect, it’s clear their love never died. But will they overcome the obstacles of Jasper’s Catholic faith and Nicky’s addiction, as well as the resulting public pressures? Well, it’s a romance, so. I don’t know quite how to think about the Catholic stuff, since I’m not; based on what I’ve seen from the edges, it seemed a little unrealistic that Jasper didn’t encounter more hatred as an openly gay, celibate priest and that Nicky never tried to pressure him to leave the Church-though the latter was also nice, because he didn’t ever come across as that much of a jerk.
Seanan McGuire, Down Among the Sticks and Bones: Jacqueline and Jillian-never Jack and Jill-are raised by parents who see them as accessories, not people, and when they find a set of stairs where no stairs should be, they end up in a fairy-tale land of vampires and mad scientists. McGuire’s trademark repetition works for the fairy-tale morals and settings, and we learn more about the world from which Jack and Jill (met in a previous book) came, though I’d like to see more of them reentering mundane reality.
Cherie Priest, Chapelwood: Priest returns to Lizzie Borden’s fight against the Lovecraftian horrors from beyond the stars. Thirty years have passed and Lizzie has to head down South to investigate another series of axe murders. It was okay, but I didn’t feel like it was necessary to Lizzie’s story.
Sarah Kuhn, Heroine Worship: Aveda Jupiter is struggling to be a better friend to her no-longer-sidekick Evie; it’s not easy when the world wants one lady to be the bad one and the other to be the good one, and they’ve picked Evie for the good one. Still, they have other problems, like a troubling resurgence of demonic puppy incursions-this time, invisible. Not to mention Evie’s upcoming wedding. Both my daughter and I enjoyed this, especially the strong female friendship that didn’t take a back seat to the romance. She thinks it was awesome! Also, bonus: the cover artist clearly read the whole book.
Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep: My favorite of Grant’s work in a while-killer mermaids! Totally filmable, this horror book follows the second expedition into a remote area of the ocean, following the first that ended in tragedy years before, leaving only footage that most people wrote off as fake. The second expedition is better prepared-or so they think. After a lot of setup, the invasion of the killer mermaids is still really scary, and there’s enough science to make the necessary leaps of faith acceptable.
Seanan McGuire, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day: Short book about Jenna, who misses her dead sister Patty, even though Jenna is dead herself. Trying to earn her way to whatever comes next, Jenna works at a suicide prevention hotline, until one day she finds out that the other ghosts of the city are starting to disappear. Working with a corn witch, she learns she has to return home to find answers (though this part was more plot convenience than that claim would lead a reader to expect). I found it very slight.
Haunted Nights, ed. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton: This Halloween anthology features stories by, among others, Seanan McGuire (bad kids learn why the haunted house hasn’t been trashed by the bad kids before them), Jonathan Maberry, Garth Nix, Kelley Armstrong, and Pat Cadigan. Some nicely creepy stories using various legends and tropes.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.
Urban Enemies, ed. Joseph Nassise: Stories about villains from the urban fantasy genre, some more sympathetic than others (and mostly not in the midst of committing sins against innocent victims). Jim Butcher’s was the only universe I was fully familiar with, and I enjoyed his take on Marcone’s handling of a small problem under the Accords. Other participants: Kelley Armstrong (Hounded), Jeff Somers (not bad take on blood magic), Craig Schaefer, Lilith Saintcrow, Kevin Hearne (Loki meets Lucifer, which goes about as well as you’d expect), Caitlin Kittredge, Joseph Nassise, Carrie Vaughn, Jonathan Maberry, Faith Hunter, Jon F. Merz, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Steven Savile, Domino Finn, Seanan McGuire (October Daye, from the perspective of a cuckoo, who beguiles people to do whatever she wants-the only one who really harmed innocents in front of the readers), and Sam Witt.
Claudia Grey, Defy the Stars: Noemi is a soldier from low-techGenesis, which is at war against Earth because the used-up Earth is trying to take over Genesis’ resources. Preparing for a suicide mission, Noemi stumbles upon Abel, an advanced mech from Earth. A quirk in Abel’s programming forces him to obey her, and they set out to try to destroy the Gate between Genesis and Earth. But Abel is more than his programming, and Noemi is more than her mission… A nice star-crossed lovers story, with some moments of humor (my favorite is when one person says “no one can find us now” and the door immediately bursts open, leading Abel to ponder how he’s not going to let humans make plans any more).
Women of Futures Past, ed. Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Rusch wrote a very second-wave feminist introduction, disavowing all this identity stuff, partly in order to justify her selection of stories that didn’t have female protagonists but instead showed off the variety of women writers who’ve long worked in sff, but are often left out of histories (as Rusch herself was in F&SF’s own list of its editors!). Featured: Norton, McCaffrey, Bujold, Cherryh, Brackett, Kress, Le Guin, Zenna Henderson (new to me), Cadigan, C.L. Moore, Tiptree, Willis. Brackett’s The Last Days of Shandakor was probably the most interesting of the ones I’d never read, because it did seem to encapsulate a certain mode of “Earth man explores alien culture he doesn’t understand.”
Leta Blake & Indra Vaughn, Vespertine: Nicky is a rock star trying to recover from addiction; Jasper is the priest who broke his heart when they were both kids. When they reconnect, it’s clear their love never died. But will they overcome the obstacles of Jasper’s Catholic faith and Nicky’s addiction, as well as the resulting public pressures? Well, it’s a romance, so. I don’t know quite how to think about the Catholic stuff, since I’m not; based on what I’ve seen from the edges, it seemed a little unrealistic that Jasper didn’t encounter more hatred as an openly gay, celibate priest and that Nicky never tried to pressure him to leave the Church-though the latter was also nice, because he didn’t ever come across as that much of a jerk.
Seanan McGuire, Down Among the Sticks and Bones: Jacqueline and Jillian-never Jack and Jill-are raised by parents who see them as accessories, not people, and when they find a set of stairs where no stairs should be, they end up in a fairy-tale land of vampires and mad scientists. McGuire’s trademark repetition works for the fairy-tale morals and settings, and we learn more about the world from which Jack and Jill (met in a previous book) came, though I’d like to see more of them reentering mundane reality.
Cherie Priest, Chapelwood: Priest returns to Lizzie Borden’s fight against the Lovecraftian horrors from beyond the stars. Thirty years have passed and Lizzie has to head down South to investigate another series of axe murders. It was okay, but I didn’t feel like it was necessary to Lizzie’s story.
Sarah Kuhn, Heroine Worship: Aveda Jupiter is struggling to be a better friend to her no-longer-sidekick Evie; it’s not easy when the world wants one lady to be the bad one and the other to be the good one, and they’ve picked Evie for the good one. Still, they have other problems, like a troubling resurgence of demonic puppy incursions-this time, invisible. Not to mention Evie’s upcoming wedding. Both my daughter and I enjoyed this, especially the strong female friendship that didn’t take a back seat to the romance. She thinks it was awesome! Also, bonus: the cover artist clearly read the whole book.
Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep: My favorite of Grant’s work in a while-killer mermaids! Totally filmable, this horror book follows the second expedition into a remote area of the ocean, following the first that ended in tragedy years before, leaving only footage that most people wrote off as fake. The second expedition is better prepared-or so they think. After a lot of setup, the invasion of the killer mermaids is still really scary, and there’s enough science to make the necessary leaps of faith acceptable.
Seanan McGuire, Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day: Short book about Jenna, who misses her dead sister Patty, even though Jenna is dead herself. Trying to earn her way to whatever comes next, Jenna works at a suicide prevention hotline, until one day she finds out that the other ghosts of the city are starting to disappear. Working with a corn witch, she learns she has to return home to find answers (though this part was more plot convenience than that claim would lead a reader to expect). I found it very slight.
Haunted Nights, ed. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton: This Halloween anthology features stories by, among others, Seanan McGuire (bad kids learn why the haunted house hasn’t been trashed by the bad kids before them), Jonathan Maberry, Garth Nix, Kelley Armstrong, and Pat Cadigan. Some nicely creepy stories using various legends and tropes.
comments on DW | reply there. I have invites or you can use OpenID.