mostly harmless books

Thanks to the lovely BoingBoing and Cory Doctorow, I occasionally end up on a podcast/audiobooks website and download all the cool-sounding fiction I can get my grubby virtual hands on. I’m not really into podcasts, but I’ve found a couple of nice places - StarShipSofa and EscapePod, plus SFFAudio which has links to many places. And, for someone who loves accents, listening to Starship’s Tony Smith is very fun (like a puzzle! “now what did he say here?”)

So yesterday, finding myself without a bus book, I listened to stories - one from EscapePod, several from StarShipSofa.

First up was Elizabeth Bear’s Tideline. It’s about death and mourning and new life. And a robot and a kid. Chalcedony is the last of her (human) plutoon, a broken down battle robot that devotes the rest of her existence to creating a memorial to her dead companions and, unexpectedly, protecting a young boy. Another story of the robot-that-develops-a-heart? Yes and no. Every action can be explained by the laws of robotics - Bear’s, if not Asimov’s. A robot protects humans. A robot learned how humans honor their dead. A robot learned about the importance of remembering.

I wasn’t expecting to like a robot story so much, but I did. And although Arthurian myth might sound out of place, it fits right in.

Second, the SSS podcast.

Poetry: Greg Betty - Bottles
I didn’t even realize this was a poem, I thought it was a very short story. A bit of a different take on the “ships in bottles” idea.

Flash Fiction: Atalanta Pendragonne - Moon Over Baton Rouge
Another different take, this time dealing with vampires. A fun little story I enjoyed a lot. (But, really, that name?! Why?)

Article: Matthew Sanborn Smith - Jim Sawgrass
I never had any particular interest in genealogy or genetics, but this guy has a lot of free time on his hands and the short overview of how we’re all really related and how no family is really older than each other and how migration influences genealogy was really fascinating. He’s also funny, which made it even better.

Main Fiction: Paul Di Filippo - Bad Beliefs
I’d heard about Paul Di Filippo, never read anything by him as far as I can recall, and I got this podcast for the Jeff Carlson bit, so I had no particular interest in the fiction. But… boy was it cool. I never got what memes were (except for those annoying tags on blogs), but in here they’re personifications of… ideas? There’s “Drunk driving is safe” and “I’ll never die” and “Fuck the police” and another dozen or so embodiments of good and bad beliefs. Mostly bad, like the title says. The idea might be old, but it was new and exciting for me. I hope I’ll be able to track down a text copy of this, because I kept drifting off and I missed some parts, which is too bad for such an interesting and fun story.

On The Sofa With Jeff Carlson
This actually wasn’t as interesting as I was hoping. I’m sort of currently reading Carlson’s Plague Year and I was curious about the author, but I’d already read his bio so there was nothing really new. I might listen to it once I finish the book(s), because it might be better learning about his sources of inspiration after I finish reading.

And since we’re on internet stuff, Afterworld is an awesome post-apocalyptic animated series which can be watched online (on on AXN if they have it in your country).

To finish off on a positive note, my boyfriend informs me that Big Bang will happen again in 9 days and I should read Forever Peace. Plus: we won’t have to go to work anymore. Minus: we won’t get to go on holiday. I really want to go to Spain, so I hope the Large Hadron Collider doesn’t kill us all. At least not before October 4th.

Picking up where I had left off… Part 1 here.

Laird Barron - Proboscis. “The most common usage is to refer to the tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates like insects, worms (including proboscis worms) and molluscs.” That’s what wikipedia has to say about the title of this story. If I had known what a proboscis was, I might have gotten this story. I didn’t, so I didn’t. A group of bounty hunters get a pair of fugitives who are then let go. Then I think the strange things are supposed to start happening, something about an X chromosome and the proboscis, but I was so lost I missed the point. Something takes over some of the characters? Some sort of being who sucks their souls out? I might re-read it one day, but if anyone’s willing to explain the plot to me now I’ll appreciate it. (I first read Laird Barron in The Del Rey Book of SF&F and I liked the story in there, The Lagerstätte, better. He does seem to have a penchant for naming his stories with weird/foreign words.)

Elizabeth Hand - Kronia. I don’t think this is a story per se. It doesn’t seem to have a beginning, an end or a plot. “Alternative personal histories”, the short intro says. Maybe it’s a dream, maybe it’s people with bad memories, maybe denial. I liked it, and yet I missed something. I’ll love it if it turns out the apparently disjointed memories make something coherent. To reread. It mentions the short movie La Jetée, which I’ve had for years and never watched to the end, so I’d better get to that.

Elizabeth Bear - Follow Me Light. Elizabeth Bear seems to be in all the anthologies I read lately :) She has a story in Wastelands, and then in The Del Rey Book of SF&F. I liked the first one, the second was about a topic that doesn’t interest me one bit (boxing). This third one is great, again. Not to give the plot away - because, even though at some point you start to get it, it’s more fun putting the clues together - I’ll just say it’s about running away from something (water/the ocean, in this case) and the cost it comes with.

Jeffrey Ford - Boatman’s Holiday. I’d read it in Ford’s Empire of Ice Cream and I remembered it, which is rare for me, so it impressed me a lot back then. Charon is a very interesting character and I’ve liked most interpretations of his story I read. So, here he decides to take a holiday to an island resort. Well, not really a resort, but an island which might or might not exist. Making the ferryman of Hades into a likeable guy is not easy, but Ford does it perfectly.

Howard Waldrop - The Horse of a Different Color (That You Rode in On). It’s a story about vaudeville, and this is something very out of my culture. I’m starting to understand things a bit only now, with my friend Wikipedia’s help. The Horse… is written in the form of an interview with Manny Marks (as the reporter says the interviewee likes to spell his name) who is Manfred Marx of the famous brothers, who in our world died as an infant. But however interesting this tidbit is, I never saw the Marx Brothers, I’ve never read about them (until now), I have no clue about vaudeville in general and frankly I don’t really care. There is an interesting plot twist at the end, but you have to understand the world to enjoy this fully.

Adam L. G. Nevill - Where Angels Come In. Scariest story in here, tied with Northwest Passage. Maybe even a bit scarier. It’s the classic “haunted house on the hill” tale - the local kids decide to explore it, feel there’s something wrong but pride doesn’t let them back off, and then bad things start to happen. The plot is not new or important. The things in the dark are. The atmosphere is. And their combination makes you jump at every noise and start seeing white faces in the dark corners. Taking an age-old “cliche” story and making it exciting (as in “heart beating faster”) and damn frightening takes skill, so congratulations.

Albert E. Cowdrey - Twilight States. Confusing (in a good way). You read and you feel things make sense, even though there’s obviously something strange in the other room. Things start making even more sense… until the authors goes “haha, it’s actually the other way around!” and you have to rearrange everything in your head again. But if you pay attention while you read, all the hints are there.

To conclude: judging by the hit/miss ratio, the best antho I’ve read so far. Actually, because I don’t think you can apply good/bad notions to literature, the anthology I liked best. If you’ve got similar tastes to mine, run to get it.
(Actually, one or two friends have already said they’re getting it based on my review, so go me!)

The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy almost missed its encounter with me, thanks to the incompetents at the post office. Fortunately, after postponing a trip and pleading with a lady, my precious envelope was rescued from the “to be returned” pile.. and boy, was it good timing. I was about to embark on a long train ride, so any book would’ve been welcome; but this proved to be more than “any book”.

I haven’t exactly read many anthologies, but most have been half-hit, half-miss. In this case, the misses were just a few.

The customary story by story review/opinions follows.

Jason Stoddard - The Elephant Ironclads. This seemed to require some knowledge of US history and geography, so I don’t think I got it all, and since I don’t want to give the plot away I won’t say much. Dinetah is a small country (?) somewhere on the border between the US and Mexico, which became independent with the aid of the legendary Elephant Ironclads. Two local (Native American) boys want to make a better life for themselves. I liked the glimpses of culture you could get - for example, the Dine gods live in the earth and look to the sky.

Lucy Sussex - Ardent Clouds. Not really fantasy, unless you consider two events connected; nevertheless, I enjoyed the story very much. My favorite aspect was probably the new love the main character (almost) finds (although it might shock some people, I think it’s very well potrayed). Plus, chasing volcanos sounds like a very interesting job.

Christopher Rowe - Gather. This is a weird one. I’m not sure I liked it. It’s incomplete. I read it twice and found new clues. It’s frustrating to not learn any answer. But… it’s part of a series of stories of a reconfigured Kentucky; I am dying to read more and I haven’t been able to find any. The story itself didn’t impress me that much, but the world seems absolutely fascinating. When Rowe publishes a collection of stories set in this world, I am so buying it.

Elizabeth Bear - Sonny Liston Takes the Fall. I don’t care about boxing, I’d never heard of Sonny Liston before, I don’t feel like re-reading the story. Not my cup of tea at all.

Nathan Ballingrud - North American Lake Monsters. Even though it does have a supposed monster, it’s a tale of relationships - father-daughter, husband-wife. I didn’t really understand what the monster had to do with anything, and what happened in the end.

Carol Emshwiller - All Washed Up While Looking for a Better World. Weird. In a bad way. I’d read her novel Carmen Dog before and I had the same reaction. I can’t put my finger on it, but I didn’t like any of them - but didn’t dislike them either. It’s probably the unusual mix of the real world with something that looks familiar, but isn’t, with no attempt to explain it. A woman wants to run from her life and go to a remote island, but what she finds there is not what she was expecting. The character acted in ways I just didn’t get.

Maureen F. McHugh - Special Economics. The only story set in China, a country I don’t find particularly interesting. It reminded me of Geoff Ryman’s Air, probably because the Asian setting and two characters that shared a similar profession. This vague resemlance aside, the story is very… rewarding. Two girls screw the system without any special skills. I just wonder how speculative it is… I can see most of the events happening today.

Richard Bowes - Aka St. Mark’s Place. A bit confused about this one. A guy whose work involves tracking down runaways. A boy who can partially see the future. And a girl, of course. Plus the way their lives keep intersecting. Interesting, but something was missing.

[Part 2]

[Part 1]
[Part 2]

Nancy Kress - Inertia. Beggars in Spain (the short story) was one of my first SF reads and; this year, when I read Beggars and Choosers, I wasn’t expecting much, but I loved it. Inertia… not so much. I’ve seen reviewers name this as their favorite and I can see why: original idea, moral dilemmas… But something was missing for me, I can’t put my finger on it. I didn’t care about the characters or their fate, and the dilemma wasn’t interesting enough to make up for it.

Elizabeth Bear - And the Deep Blue Sea. “Reminiscent - without being derivative - of Roger Zelazny’s Damnation Alley“ would have been enough to convince me to read it. (more…)