mostly harmless books

[Part 1]
I stopped just before this story for a reason: it was the reason I got this anthology and, like I suspected, it turned out to be my favorite. It started out (for me) on Larry’s blog, where I learned of another reviewer who had a… let’s say “less than positive” opinion of Margo Lanagan’s The Goosle. Apparently the anthology was aimed at a young public (why? just because some stories feature kids?) and a retelling of Hansel and Gretel with some gay forced relations in it makes it somehow not worthy.

Personally, I thought the story was very well done. I have a soft spot for retold fairy tales, I admit it, and this was a particularly good one. Hansel and Gretel gone bad, without Gretel but with an abusive (older?) man, plus a grim realization concerning the “real” fate of Gretel (what reality means when we’re comparing make-believe stories… I don’t know). One of the “complaints” was that, in one particular fragment, the author supposedly suggests sexual abuse might be ok, or that it was put there purely for shock value. The quote is over on Larry’s blog so I won’t paste it here again. Shock value? Well, it is shocking, but it does add to the story. A lot. Sexual abuse ok? Uh, if a person questions whether the abuse might be a normal thing it’s not saying it is normal. What about all those battered women who think it’s “a part of life”? Does that make it ok in any way?

So, long story short, since I have a bunch of other stories I want to write about: The Goosle rocks and everything fits perfectly.

Lavie Tidhar - Shira. Seeing as it’s been a month or so since I read the book, the details are fading. I do rememeber that the story didn’t impress me that much, though. It wasn’t a bad tale by any means, just… it didn’t stay with me. I did read it in a fitting moment, though. A story about travel read while traveling.

Barry N. Malzberg - The Passion of Azazel. One word: weird. Since I don’t know much about golems (the only related book I read was a Discworld novel…) or anything else Jewish for that matter… I won’t comment much. It was interesting but I failed to see the point, in the end.

Laird Barron - The Lagerstätte. One of the best stories in the antho, even if it might not even be speculative fiction, depending on how you look at it: woman delusional from grief or woman who can perceive more than other people? The story is half-told through the therapist sessions of Danni, who lost her husband and child in a plane crash and starts to believe there is a way she could be reunited with them. There’s no end, so we never do find out what ultimately happens. And that’s alright.

Anna Tambour - Gladiolus Exposed. Fantasy? Science fiction? No. What’s it doing in this book? Don’t know. A good enough story about a failing relationship, but I kept expecting the supernatural occurence and it didn’t show up. The gladiolus is a bone, by the way. And the writer has a beautiful name.

Jeffrey Ford - Daltharee. Ford is one of the few writers in here I had read before, so I knew what to expect. Naturally, my hopes were met: Daltharee is science fiction with a fantasy feel, and it’s damn good. Ships built in bottles are fascinating, but Ford builds a city inside one. Or rather his scientists do. Then they screw it up a bit. One of the best parts of the story are the fragments where we get to see the lives of the people in Daltharee. Almost like us, but not quite.

Pat Cadigan - Jimmy. This is probably my second favorite, even though I can’t put my finger on the “why”. Maybe because I wasn’t expecting to like it. Pat Cadigan says “cyberpunk” to me, and I don’t like that. Jimmy, however, isn’t even remotely close to cyberpunk. It’s about one of those kids who go from foster family to foster family and never quite fit in, and the one person who is his friend. But here the explanation isn’t the environment or abuse or education: it’s supernatural and it’s very cool.

Paul McAuley and Kim Newman - Prisoners of the Action. The best way to describe this is “fun”. It’s got the Army and aliens and tinfoil hats and a main character who never seems to get enough sleep and lots of bullets. It doesn’t take itself seriously and it’s just awesome.

A friend was saying that judging by the first part of my not-really-review it didn’t look like I enjoyed the book so much… well, it’s because all the best stories were at the end.

Lots of thanks go to Ellen Datlow who sent a book to some girl on the internet and impressed the hell out of her :)

You might also be interested in:

• Same cover, more stories
• Some great stories and an ugly cover
• The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy