Fantastic Reviews Blog

Amy's bookshelf :: Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:55:00 +0000

This week's featured book is Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover, book one of The Black Sun's Daughter series. The paperback's cover, showing a leather-clad woman with a tattoo on her back and a sharp weapon in her hand, proclaims that this is another urban fantasy. But what makes this book different, and what grabbed my attention (in addition to Denver being mentioned in the back cover blurb) is that Unclean Spirits was written by Daniel Abraham, author of the excellent fantasy The Long Price Quartet: A Shadow in Summer, A Betrayal in Winter, An Autumn War, and The Price of Spring. (You can see Aaron's positive review of A Shadow in Summer on Fantastic Reviews ).

I bought Unclean Spirits a couple weeks ago at MileHiCon. Daniel Abraham was one of the authors attending the SF convention this year and I asked him to autograph the book. Apparently this copy of Unclean Spirits was already signed by "M.L.N. Hanover", but Daniel Abraham kindly added his signature below that of his pseudonym.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight by Cat Rambo

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:10:00 +0000

My story recommendation for this week is "Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" by Cat Rambo, the (almost) title story of Rambo's new collection Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight, from small publisher Paper Golem, with gorgeous cover art by Carrie Ann Baade.

"Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" is a beautifully constructed story, telling in hindsight of the battles for control of a war-torn kingdom, as glimpsed from the point of view of a young (at first) woman whose family's inn is an occasional meeting place of a group of rebels. The rebels include the enigmatic sorceress whose haunting eyes lend the story its poetic title.

The rebels' struggle defines our narrator's life, even though she sees almost none of the action take place. The danger in such a story is the reader may feel disappointed that the most interesting events are occurring offstage, but Rambo tells it in a way that suggests this is the real story, that the battles of great kings and warriors and wizards are important only for how they affect the lives of common folk.

"Her Eyes Like Sky, and Coal, and Moonlight" is quite short, like most of Cat Rambo's work -- only a few of the stories in Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight are over ten pages and none over twenty. Usually it is difficult to create a compelling tale in so few words, but Rambo is superb at providing a sense of depth, making you feel there is more to the story and characters, that you could fill in much of the rest of the story yourself from the hints she drops.

I'll try to get a review of the whole book up at Fantastic Reviews before too long, but for now I'll just say that Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight is an excellent collection by a most elegant writer.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Acacia by David Anthony Durham

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:15:00 +0000

The Book of the Week is Acacia by David Anthony Durham, which won Mr. Durham this year's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Acacia is the first volume is an epic fantasy series, the second of which, The Other Lands, was just released. This is the 2007 first edition, with cover art by Paul A. Romano.

It is a bit odd for David Anthony Durham to receive an award as a "new writer," since he is already an accomplished author, with three very well-received historical novels to his credit, Gabriel's Story, Walk through Darkness, and Pride of Carthage. But he was eligible for the award because Acacia was his first foray into science fiction and fantasy, and presenting Durham the Campbell Award certainly accomplishes one of the award's purposes, to introduce SF/F readers to excellent writers with whom they may not yet be familiar. I believe that Durham is only the second African-American to win the Campbell Award, after Nalo Hopkinson -- coincidentally, both Durham and Hopkinson are of Caribbean descent. (The Campbell Award wasn't around when Samuel Delany broke into the field, and I don't know how Octavia Butler was overlooked.) David Anthony Durham is a very welcome addition to the SF/F field.

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: Asimov's Science Fiction March 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:14:00 +0000

The Magazine of the Week is the March 2008 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, containing "Shoggoths in Bloom" by Elizabeth Bear, this year's winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novelette. For the details of this story, see my recommendation of "Shoggoths in Bloom" when I came across it last year.

This is Elizabeth Bear's second Hugo; she won Best Short Story in 2008 for "Tideline." This year she swapped places with Ted Chiang, who won Best Novelette in 2008 and Best Short Story this year. I'm not going to do a separate Book of the Week for Chiang's Hugo-winning short story "Exhalation" (believe it or not I don't have a copy of the anthology it appeared in), but for more about him see my Ted Chiang 2008 Hugo post. Next week, the winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Placa del Fuego by Tobias S. Buckell

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Inspired by Lev Grossman's controversial article denouncing plot-free modernist fiction, the story recommendation for the week is a very entertaining planetary adventure, Placa del Fuego by Tobias S. Buckell, from the July 2009 issue of Clarkesworld.

Set on the same harsh world as Buckell's novel Sly Mongoose, "Placa del Fuego" follows young pickpocket Tiago as he confronts in quick succession a powerful android, a resourceful female crime overlord, and a vicious alien beast. Typical of Buckell's fiction, the story is fast-paced and high-octane, yet also slips in some food for thought. In particular, "Placa del Fuego" raises the question whether the idea of free will has any meaning to someone as downtrodden as Tiago.

Tobias S. Buckell's related novels Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose were all well received, but "Placa del Fuego" demonstrates that his style also works well at shorter lengths. You can find most of his short fiction to date in Tides from the New Worlds from Wyrm Publishing.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 04:41:00 +0000

Inspired by the film version released last week, the Book of the Week is The Time Traveler's Wife (2003) by Audrey Niffenegger. This is the signed limited edition with cover art by Niffenegger, who is a visual artist as well as a writer, which I prefer to the standard cover with the empty shoes.

One of the strengths of science fiction is that it can be used to tell traditional kinds of stories in new ways. The Time Traveler's Wife effectively uses science fiction to tell a romance story. The unpredictable nature of time travel creates difficulties for the story's lovers, while also offering a metaphor for problems people encounter in more mundane relationships. Audrey Niffenegger was not the first to use time travel to frame a love story -- see for example, Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson (filmed as Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour) -- but The Time Traveler's Wife is one of the best science fiction romances of recent years. It drew a very large readership, including an awful lot of people who enjoyed it but somehow still think they don't like science fiction. Some will even argue whether it is science fiction at all, even though the SF element is stated right in the title of the book.

Next week we will get back to honoring this year's Hugo Award winners.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:44:00 +0000

The story recommendation of the week is "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" by John Langan, an original novella from the vampire anthology By Blood We Live, edited by John Joseph Adams.

By Blood We Live is mostly a reprint anthology, with just two original pieces, but they are two good ones, "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" and "Foxtrot at High Noon" by popular Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko. While the other tales are reprints, they come from a remarkable array of talented authors and John Joseph Adams has drawn from quite diverse sources. (I had only read one of the 33 stories before, Stephen King's "One for the Road.") Themed anthologies can sometimes become tiresome but -- as he did in his anthologies Seeds of Change, Wastelands, The Living Dead, and Federations -- Adams avoids that pitfall by his knack for combining excellent stories with varied approaches to the theme.

"The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" is a great example, putting a memorable spin on the vampire legend. A group of American veterans first encountered the creature at the heart of the story while in the midst of combat in Iraq, and have since been plagued by a strange telepathic connection with it. The thing drinks blood and has the other key traits of vampires, but oddly inverted or distorted, for example it can only emerge in daylight and the soldiers believe it sleeps in an orbital chrysalis.

The best horror fiction creates a sense of dread from everyday sights and sounds. By having his monster appear out of an open sky and return to a lair above our heads, Langan manages to make the sky itself a source of dread:

Davis had stared at the sky before--who has not?--but, helpless on his back, his spine a length of molten steel, his ears full of Manfred whimpering that he was gonna die, oh sweet Jesus, he was gonna fucking die, the lieutenant talking over him, insisting no he wasn't, he was gonna be fine, it was just a little paper cut, the washed blue bowl overhead seemed less sheltering canopy and more endless depth, a gullet over which he had the sickening sensation of dangling. As Manfred's cries diminished and the lieutenant told--ordered him to stay with him, Davis flailed his arms at the ground to either side of him in an effort to grip onto an anchor, something that would keep him from hurtling into that blue abyss.

John Langan's first novel House of Windows is forthcoming from Night Shade Books, and his collection Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters was a Stoker Award nominee this year. Look for "The Wide, Carnivorous Sky" on horror award shortlists next year.

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:54:00 +0000

The Magazine of the Week is the October/November 2008 issues of Asimov's Science Fiction, which contains this year's Hugo Award winner for Best Novella, "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress. (The cover is retro, classic pulp art by Virgil Finlay.)

"The Erdmann Nexus" follows Henry Erdmann, an aging physicist in a nursing home, who is suffering strokelike incidents. He learns that others in the home are having similar episodes, and gradually comes to realize that they are all undergoing a remarkable transformation. Nancy Kress has been a regular fixture on the Hugo ballot, with eleven nominations since 1990, and "The Erdmann Nexus" is her second win (after the novella "Beggars in Spain," later expanded into a Hugo-nominated novel, about a new technology that allows folks wealthy enough to afford it to forgo sleep). She has also won four Nebulas and a host of other awards. She will be a guest of honor at MileHiCon here in Denver in October.

We'll get to the Hugo-winning novelette next, but first a science fiction novel that recently hit the big screen.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Wedding Gift by Jacqueline West

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:04:00 +0000

My story recommendation this week is "The Wedding Gift" by Jacqueline West, from the June 2009 issue of Ideomancer.

I loves me a good ghost story, and for me the key is a light touch by the storyteller. "The Wedding Gift" is a ghost story, but Jacqueline West tells it with great subtlety. The tale builds tension quickly, even though no supernatural element ever appears but for some strangely behaving birds. Equally subtle is the characterization, delicately hinting that our protagonist Drina's relationships with her cold fiancé and her well-meaning but domineering grandmother have left her vulnerable to the visitation that occurs.

Jacqueline West has published over three dozen poems, including two Puschcart Prize nominees, but only six pieces of short fiction to date; here's hoping there is much more to come from her. Ideomancer has been around since 2002, publishing such excellent authors as Christopher Barzak, Samantha Henderson, Ted Kosmatka, Yoon Ha Lee, Sarah Monette, Ruth Nestvold, M. Rickert, Rachel Swirsky, and Greg van Eekhout. Leah Bobet is editor and has taken the reins as publisher this year, by all indications without missing a beat.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 04:33:00 +0000

The Book of the Week is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, which over the weekend won the Hugo Award for best science fiction or fantasy novel of 2008. The novel had already won this year's Newbery Medal for young adult fiction, making it the first novel ever to win both prestigious awards.

The Graveyard Book follows Nobody Owens, raised from infancy by the (mostly) friendly ghosts of the local graveyard after his parents were murdered. The Graveyard Book is a wonderful showcase of Neil Gaiman's witty and charming voice, and is certain to be enjoyed by readers young and old for a great many years to come, especially if Hollywood does a good job with the film version currently in production. This is Neil Gaiman's fourth Hugo Award, his second for best novel (the first was for American Gods) and his second for a work of young adult fiction (after "Coraline," also adapted to film earlier this year).

The Book of the Week is a stated first edition (library binding) -- note the absence of the Newbery seal which appears on later copies of the book. I believe this is the true first edition, slightly preceding the British edition and the Subterranean Press limited edition. The cover and interior illustrations are by famed comics illustrator Dave McKean, who often worked with Neil Gaiman earlier in his career, when Gaiman was primarily known for his graphic novels, particularly the popular Sandman series. While it's not worth a fortune just yet, I am expecting the BOTW to appreciate significantly in value over time, as copies are snatched up both by science fiction collectors, who like to have firsts of Hugo winners, and by YA fiction collectors, who covet firsts of Newbery books.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Blighted Heart by Aliette de Bodard

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:58:00 +0000

This week's story recommendation is "Blighted Heart" by Aliette de Bodard, from Issue #22 (July 30, 2009) of e-zine Beneath Ceaseless Skies (cover art by David Renn).

"For years my city gave the hearts of maidens to the corn-man to awaken him," the story begins. Our narrator is Metlicue, chosen for this sacrifice by the village priests, who proceed unaware that in defiance she gave her virginity to a soldier the night before:

I felt the first cut like a violation. Pain burst in my chest, would not cease. I screamed and screamed until my voice was raw. No. No. I never asked for this! I saw a priest lift out a bloody, pulsating thing dizzyingly high above me, and a sensation of emptiness spread from the hole in my chest and swallowed me.

The priests placed my heart, still beating, in the mouth of the effigy. One of them spoke the healing spells over me. I rose, shaking, numb all over, stared at the corn-man.

His eyes opened.

Metlicue is left without a heart, her emptiness a wonderful metaphor for the alienation felt by those who have been molested or traumatized, but the story only builds from there. For Metlicue's act of defiance has in turn destroyed the innocence of the corn-man, on whom her people depend for good fortune and plentiful harvests, and Metlicue will have to face him again. "Blighted Heart" is a powerful, beautifully written story, and a great example of why de Bodard was the runner-up for this year's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, losing out very narrowly to David Anthony Durham.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet, but it has been publishing some excellent authors, such as David D. Levine, Yoon Ha Lee, Marie Brennan, Holly Phillips, Stephanie Burgis, Richard Parks, among many others. It pays professional rates, has held strictly to its publishing schedule (a two-story issue every other week) for nearly a year, and provides audio versions of many of its stories. Check it out!

Aaron's Book of the Week :: West of Eden by Harry Harrison

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:23:00 +0000

The Book of the Week is West of Eden by Harry Harrison, in honor of Mr. Harrison, who this year was named Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Harry Harrison is equally at home writing serious science fiction, such as his famous cautionary tale of overpopulation and ecological decline Make Room! Make Room! (filmed as Soylent Green), and humorous tongue-in-cheek adventures like The Stainless Steel Rat and Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers.

The Book of the Week is a signed first edition of West of Eden, my personal favorite Harrison novel, published in 1984. It is an alternate history, the subgenre of science fiction that asks what if some historical event had happened differently. Typically the branching off point is in the recent past -- What if the Nazis has won World War II? What if the North and South had reconciled at the beginning of the Civil War and joined forces to fight against England (Harrison's Stars and Stripes Forever!) -- but in West of Eden history branches off 65 million years ago, the time when an asteroid or comet is believed to have hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. West of Eden shows how the world might look today if that had not happened, with newly evolved human beings struggling against the intelligent descendents of the dinosaurs.

The Hugo Awards will be presented this weekend, so our next BOTW will pay tribute to one of the big winners.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Curandero and the Swede by Daniel Abraham

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:25:00 +0000

My story recommendation for the week, and possibly for the month since I'm off my pace recently and I don't much expect to read a better story this month anyway, is Daniel Abraham's "The Curandero and the Swede: A Tale from the 1001 American Nights", a novelette from the March issue of F&SF.

"The Curandero and the Swede" begins with a young man nervously introducing his Yankee fiancée to his traditional Southern family, but proceeds from there into a series of nested yarns retold by his eccentric uncle. The stories are each enjoyable independently, but blend together to make some fascinating points about the American experience and about the importance of storytelling.

With his Long Price Quartet -- the final volume of which, The Price of Spring, is just out -- Daniel Abraham has emerged as one of the strongest voices of 21st Century SF/F. His last short piece, "The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics," was a Hugo nominee, and "The Curandero and the Swede" is every bit as good, if not even better.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Arslan by M.J. Engh

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:49:00 +0000

The Book of the Week is Arslan by M.J. Engh, to honor Ms. Engh, named this year's Author Emerita by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Next week we will see this year's new Grand Master.

I'm mostly not crazy about the "Author Emeritus" award, since it seems a backhanded compliment: dear author, you're pretty good but not quite good enough to be a Grand Master. I think it is appropriate for Engh, however, since her science fiction is of the highest quality but too small in quantity for her to be named Grand Master. In a career that began with a short story (under the pseudonym Jane Beauclerk) in 1964, Engh has published only three science fiction novels, Arslan, Wheel of the Winds, and Rainbow Man, and a children's fantasy, The House in the Snow. Engh also publishes historical non-fiction under her full name Mary Jane Engh, notably In the Name of Heaven: 3000 Years of Religious Persecution.

The BOTW is the first printing, paperback original of Arslan, published in 1976. Written in the middle of the Cold War, Arslan tells the story of a dynamic, brilliant leader from a third-world country who schemes his way to control of both the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the novel takes place after he has taken power, and shows his relationship with the small-town folks in Illinois where he randomly decides to settle. Disturbing and rather graphic for 1976, Arslan is best remembered for Engh's ability to simultaneously portray the title character as profoundly evil yet oddly sympathetic.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:05:00 +0000

BOTW has been on hiatus, I think in part because too many great authors have passed away in recent times, and BOTW's unplanned conversion to an authors' obituary page got depressing. What I've decided is that BOTW will go back to emphasizing authors who are living (or died sufficiently long ago that it's no longer sad) and if we wish to honor a recently departed author we will do that in a supplemental tribute.

With that in mind, the Book of the Week is a recent find, the first edition of No Enemy But Time by Michael Bishop. Published in 1982, No Enemy But Time won the 1983 Nebula Award for Best Novel. First editions of major award winners tend to appreciate significantly in value, so I was delighted to find this copy at a reasonable price. The cover art is by Vincent DiFate, who is one of the all-time top SF/F illustrators, although this cover unfortunately follows an embarrassing genre tradition: the cover obscures the fact that the book's protagonist is African-American.

The Nebula Award is presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, who also honor two authors each years as Grand Master and Author Emeritus. Beginning next week, we will pay tribute to this year's honorees.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Blue Joe by Stephanie Burgis

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:20:00 +0000

After a couple months dead air at Fantastic Reviews, we'll try to get back into the swing of things with a recommendation for an excellent story, "Blue Joe" by Stephanie Burgis, from Issue #10 of Shimmer magazine, which is available as a free download.

Josef Anton Miklovic, Blue Joe, was twenty-one years old and playing the sax in a nightclub in Youngstown, Ohio, when he met his father for the first time.

That first line leads us quickly into a fantastic opening scene, in which Blue Joe's father somehow freezes time to introduce himself to his son (who did not know his mother's husband was not his father) right in the middle of a concert. We immediately see that Blue Joe's father has amazing powers, yet "Blue Joe" addresses its fantasy elements with a nicely understated tone.

"Blue Joe" is not about all the incredible things the father can do, it is about how that kept him away from his son for so many years, and both men's regrets and resentments. Beyond that, it is about the regrets each of us inevitably has over the choices we make——it is no coincidence that the protagonist plays the blues.

For ten issues, Shimmer has been making a home for stories like "Blue Joe," which is the kind of quiet tale that lacks the fireworks the major magazines are looking for but ultimately makes for very rewarding reading. Stephanie Burgis has appeared in Strange Horizons, Lone Star Stories, Flytrap and other publications, and the first volume of her YA trilogy The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson is due out in 2010.

2009 Hugo Award nominees :: Best Novel

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:54:00 +0000

This year's Hugo Award nominees for Best Novel

Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK)
Saturn's Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer :: Aaron's Book of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:20:00 +0000

Continuing our tribute to Philip Jose Farmer, the Book of the Week is the first paperback printing of Farmer's most famous novel, To Your Scattered Bodies Go.

In To Your Scattered Bodies Go, everyone who ever lived on Earth has been resurrected by an unknown power on another planet. Everyone awakes simultaneously on the banks of a huge, world-encircling river. The novel's title is taken from John Donne's 7th Holy Sonnet, concerning resurrection:

At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go.

This fascinating premise allowed Farmer to bring together whatever historical figures he found most interesting in a single story. Farmer explored the concept through four further volumes, collectively called the Riverworld Series. To Your Scattered Bodies Go won the Hugo Award for Best Novel of 1971.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Eros, Philia, Agape by Rachel Swirsky

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:47:00 +0000

My story recommendation of the week is for "Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky, (illustration by Sam Weber) published on-line at Tor.com.

In our world, it is usually futile for women to try to change the basic nature of the men in their lives. But what if they could? In "Eros, Philia, Agape," Adriana purchases a male robot whose consciousness is programmed to shift to create a personality that best meets Adriana's desires. The program works very well. Despite her emotional scars from an abusive childhood, Adriana soon falls in love with, enancipates, marries, and begins a family with her ideal man.

It is no surprise that things don't turn out quite as Adriana intends, yet the flow of the story is subtle. Swirsky is not using her science fictional set-up to hammer home any particular message; rather, she is giving us a new framework to consider universal issues about identity and love and marriage and family and parenting.

This is a story Isaac Asimov might have written, if only he had been an amazing prose stylist. "Eros, Philia, Agape" is beautifully written throughout (once you're past the slightly pretentious title anyway) and I strongly recommend it.

I first encountered Rachel Swirsky with her powerful story "The Debt of the Innocent" in Glorifying Terrorism. She has only been publishing fiction for some three years, but in that time has appeared in Weird Tales, Interzone, Subterranean and Fantasy among other publications, and has already built up a solid body of work. Check her out!

Aaron's Magazine of the Week :: Startling Stories August 1952

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:11:00 +0000

We begin our tribute to the late Philip Jose Farmer with his first published story. The Magazine of the Week is the August 1952 issue of pulp magazine Startling Stories, containing Philip Jose Farmer's "The Lovers" (cover art by Earle Bergey). This copy was signed by Farmer on the story's 50th anniversary, the party for which a book club buddy was able to attend.

"The Lovers" caused an instant sensation, and garnered Farmer a Hugo Award for Most Promising New Talent (a short-lived Hugo category, since replaced by the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer). "The Lovers" was influential because it was one of the earliest works of science fiction to address issues of sexuality in an open and frank matter. This story was thus an important step in the development of the SF genre into a mature branch of literature (even if not everybody yet recognizes it as such).

After the success of "The Lovers," Philip Jose Farmer went on to publish over 75 books. BOTW has featured him twice before, for Fire and the Night and Venus on the Half-Shell. Next week, we will continue our tribute to Farmer with his single most famous book.

Aaron's Books of the Week :: The Centaur and The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 03:00:00 +0000

The Books of the Week are the first paperback printings of The Centaur and The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike (1932-2009). A couple weeks back, before being sidetracked by flu, strep, and other distractions, BOTW raised the question whether recently deceased award-winning author John Updike had ever dabbled in science fiction and fantasy. Regular readers of this column knew better than to doubt it.

Updike wrote science fiction on at least two occasions, The Poorhouse Fair (1959) and Toward the End of Time (1997). More important to his career were Updike's fantasies. Several of Updike's books included elements of fabulation and mythology, notably National Book Award winner The Centaur. While one may debate whether to call a book like The Centaur "fantasy," there is no doubt that the label applies to The Witches of Eastwick, in which three modern-day women develop magical powers with the help of a diabolical figure (delightfully played by Jack Nicholson in the film).

Beginning next week, we will pay tribute to one of my all-time favorite authors, Philip Jose Farmer, who passed away February 25, starting with his first published story.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World by Catherynne M. Valente

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:37:00 +0000

Sometimes when I'm reading, a passage is so elegantly written that I feel the need to stop and reread it out loud. Tolkien makes me do this occasionally. Ursula LeGuin often does. I just came across a story by Catherynne M. Valente, "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World", which I felt compelled to read out loud the entire way through.

That makes for an automatic and immediate story recommendation of the week, even if I've already done one this week. (I need to make up for a couple weeks I missed with flu and strep anyway.) Catherynne Valente thus becomes the second author to garner two different story recommendations, joining Paolo Bacigalupi.

"The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" originally appeared in Spectra Pulse, a promotional magazine issued by Bantam, which it supposedly gives away at conventions, although I've never seen a copy. Thankfully, "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" is now available through Valente's web site.

"The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World" illustrates the strengths of Valente's writing, particularly her amazing use of language and her wonderful knack for the story-within-story framework, which she successfully employs here in only a couple thousand words. The framing story tells of a remote archipelago where women inscribe a story on their bellies during pregnancy. The story-within-a-story is that ritual tale, about a woman harpooner "who had known both of the sorrows which are deepest" -- which Valente never identifies -- who travels to the upside-down archipelago at the bottom of the world, where "the dead and the unborn dance together in the blue and black shadows, hand in hand."

Read "The Harpooner at the Bottom of the World," fall in love with it, and then go buy Valente's new novel Palimpsest.

Aaron's Story Recommendation of the Week :: Jaiden's Weaver by Mary Robinette Kowal

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:54:00 +0000

This week's story recommendation is "Jaiden's Weaver" by Mary Robinette Kowal, the reigning John W. Campbell Award winner for best new writer.

"Jaiden's Weaver" appears in Diamonds in the Sky, an on-line anthology of science fiction stories illustrating concepts of astronomy, which Mike Brotherton assembled on a grant from the National Science Foundation. A few of the stories are reprints but most are original, and the original tales come from an impressive list of contributors including Kowal, David Levine, Wil McCarthy, Jerry Oltion, Alma Alexander, Jeffrey Carver, and Daniel Hoyt. Because the stories are meant to be instructive to students, several of them have a young adult feel.

"Jaiden's Weaver" falls in that category, and it is as good an example of YA science fiction as has seen print since Robert Heinlein was still with us. Set on a habitable ringed planet, "Jaiden's Weaver" illustrates the concept of planetary rings. The rings come into play, but the story is mainly about a young woman, Jaiden, desperate to acquire her own teddy bear spider. Her earnestness will put veteran SF readers in mind of Kip from Have Space Suit--Will Travel, yet the tale feels fresh, particularly when Jaiden starts giving parental advice, and should appeal to contemporary young readers.

I enjoyed "Jaiden's Weaver" from start to finish, and now I can't wait to read it to my daughter.

Mini-Review :: Empire by Orson Scott Card

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Tor hardcover - 340 pages
Copyright 2006
Rating: 4/10
(Not Bad, But Not Recommended)
Mini-review by Aaron Hughes

I didn't get around to doing a full review of Orson Scott Card's Empire when it came out late in 2006, but in my recent review of Ender in Exile, Card's latest novel, I mentioned in passing that I thought Empire was marred by Card force-feeding the reader his political views. As someone who is generally a great admirer of Card's work, I wanted to explain this negative comment more fully.

Empire is a near-future thriller about the outbreak of civil war in the United States, a war fought not between geographic areas but rather along ideological lines. Special Ops Major Reuben "Rube" Malek and Captain Barholomew Coleman struggle to hold the country together through a crisis, including the assassination of the president and the invasion of Manhattan, precipitated by hatred between American conservatives and liberals. (The novel ties into a video game, but the only indication of this in the text are a few graphics-friendly elements such as the two-legged mechanized tanks that occupy New York; the story appears to be Card's creation.)

Empire is capably written and features engaging characters in an exciting story, punctuated by plot twists you will not see coming. Yet the book is a failure, because it is impossible to enjoy if you do not share Card's political views, and difficult to enjoy even if you do. The book is far too burdened with Card's contempt for modern liberals, especially the media and academics:

The media has forbidden us to remember the falling towers. They don't allow us to see the footage. It's like their slogan is, "Forget the Alamo." I'm tired of being obedient to their decision to keep us blind.

Either directly through the narration or indirectly through his mouthpiece Rube, Card continually expresses disdain for the Left:

Princeton University was just as Reuben expected it to be -- hostile to everything he valued, smug and superior and utterly closed-minded. In fact, exactly what they thought the military was.

Even though I agree with many of Card's political points, taken together they undercut the purported message of Empire, that liberals and conservatives should stop viewing each other as the enemy and find common ground.

At times Card attempts to be even-handed, but he can't get his heart into it. So he shows an ultra-right general spouting pig-headed, homophobic rhetoric, but we soon learn he was only feigning bigotry. Card emphasizes that Rube's wife is a Democrat, but she never actually says anything that reflects a liberal viewpoint. (The closest she comes is to chastise Rube for denouncing left-wingers too harshly.)

It is all too obvious which characters' politics mirror Card's. The most telling giveaway is the novel's plot. At every turn, conservatives try to hold the country together while liberals gleefully help to break it apart. Two days after the assassination of the President by terrorists, a military force seizes Manhattan and slaughters the NYPD. Incredibly, Card shows American liberals supporting these invaders, merely because they call themselves "progressives" and denounce the 2000 election. How could anyone who experienced 9/11 believe that would be the prevailing reaction?

Through the story of Empire, Card is doing exactly what he claims to be counseling against: demonizing his political opposition. Card wrongly views the American Left as the enemy, nor does he understand his enemy very well.

Amy's music :: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Fantastic Reviews) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Counting up, as opposed to a countdown, NME's #4 album of 2008 is Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weeekend. Rolling Stone magazine rated this as the 10th best album of 2008. It was released little over a year ago.

Vampire Weekend are from New York. They met at Columbia University and produced this, their debut album, after graduation. The band members are Ezra Koenig (lead vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboard, guitar, vocal harmonies), Chris Tomson (drums) and Chris Baio (bass guitar).

The New York Times in a review called Vampire Weekend "Preppie Afro-pop". The band label their own style as "Upper West Side Soweto". To me music seems a mix of genres including Afrobeat, ska-punk, and calypso.

In their music there are repeated sequences of notes on guitar, pulsing keyboards, and racing drums. Various songs feature harpsichord, violin, cello, mellotron, and hand drums.

Notable songs off the album are "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma", "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Mansard Roof".

"A-Punk" is a catchy tune, clocking in at a mere 2:17. Musically it's like ai!-ai!-ai! punk, but lyrically it's from a different world. Here are the first two verses:

Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on his honor's finger
oh-oh-oh
A thousand years in one piece of silver
She took it from his lilywhite hand
Showed no fear - she'd seen the thing
In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering

"Oxford Comma" begins with these lyrics:

Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?
I've seen those English dramas too
They're cruel
So if there's any other way
To spell the word
It's fine with me, with me

Other song lyrics mention such things as Pueblo huts, Louis Vuitton, the Khyber Pass, Darjeeling tea and Peter Gabriel. There is nothing about vampires.

It's difficult to dislike Vampire Weekend. Their music is upbeat and listenable. Yet I wasn't truly hooked by their mixed-genre music or their quirky college-boy lyrics. Nonetheless, I'll admit it's a likable album.