Promising Series

I have read all of Robin Hobb's previous books, preferring the Liveship Traders to the Fool and Assassin books. I approached the first of the Soldier Son trilogy with some trepidation because it was a first-person narrative like the Fool and Assassin books. Also I'd heard they were quite a different to Hobb's previous work.

I should not have been nervous. Shaman's Crossing was quite different, with a much slower pace, but still excellent. In many ways, it is the tale of unintended consequences. A father, concerned that his soldier son will be a good officer, hands him over to a conquered enemy for a lesson he believe the boy cannot learn from an ally. When the boy is returned gravely wounded, his father realises his mistake, though he has no idea how far it extends.

I thought the book provided an intriguing look at both cultural and gender differences, as well as the kind of shenanigans that go on in all-boys environment. It reminded me a bit of the Song of the Lioness books that I read when I was younger and I enjoyed it a great deal. I definitely intend to read the rest of the books, though I have to say Hobb did not seem leave any clues as to the direction future books will take.

Another first book I have recently devoured is His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik. I had heard good things about Novik's books and a friend, knowing I like fantasy, had bought me one of the books from the series as a birthday gift. So when suvudu.com offered the first book in the series for free, I downloaded it. Despite the headaches reading on a computer screen gives me, I devoured the book in short order. If the intention of making the first book freely available was to whet the appetite for the rest of the series (which I have no doubt it was), then it has amply succeeded.

Set in an alternative history where dragons are real and important component of any fighting force, it is the story of a British naval officer thrust into the life of an aviator when he captures a French ship carrying an about-to-hatch dragon egg. Aviators live apart from the rest of society, let alone other fighting forces, and he has to adjust to a strange new life aided and abetted by his new companion Temeraire.

I loved the story and the concept. I thought the characters were well-constructed and the plot well-balanced. It is probably one of the best books I have read in quite some time and I look forward with great eagerness to reading the continuing adventures of Laurence and Temeraire.

Shiny and New

As I'm currently living in the UK, I decided to get out a subscription to Interzone. I read a lot of short fiction, mostly online, and beyond the anthologies I buy don't really make much of a contribution back. So I figured this was my chance.

My first Interzone arrived today (#220) and I must admit to being excited. I love the cover and it has that glorious smell of printed paper. It reminds me of when I was younger and my subscription of Cricket used to arrive. Anyways, so I'm feeling very excited about digging into Interzone. Hopefully, it will live up to my expectations as I've taken out a year's subscription!

Putting Down the Masters

Severian is an apprentice torturer with a perfect memory who runs into trouble when he falls in love with one of his guild's 'clients', as they are euphemistically known.

I picked up Gene Wolfe's collected works which make up the "Book of the New Sun" with great excitement after very much enjoying his award-winning novella "Memorare". But I must admit to being gravely disappointed.

The book is touted as a classic work of science fantasy in particular and speculative fiction in general. And it is well-written and has many subtle quirks. The worldbuilding is grand in scale and the ideas are intriguing. But, for me, examining a society where torturers have a guild and executioners seen as some kind of artists, is bait, not meat.

I found the jargon invented for the world alienating, rather than immersive. The plot twists and turns like an out of control snake and while all of these diversions may serve some higher purpose, perhaps thematic, it didn't hold my interest.

And the primary thing that I loved in "Memorare" is absent in "The Shadow of the Torturer". Gene Wolfe's characters and their interactions were so true-to-life and real in "Memorare" but in the book, it always felt like I was separated from them by a wall of water. I don't 'get' Severian or anyone else he interacts with. Possibly with the exception of Severian's initial infatuation with Thecla, I found the romantic interludes dull. Everything in the story felt unfamiliar.

And maybe that's the point and what other people love about the book. Recently, I came across a study group which is month-by-month reading these books of Gene Wolfe. And I would take nothing away from him as a writer - his prose is incredible and he clearly is some people's cup-of-tea.

But he's not mine. All the same, it's been hard to put the book done - not because I was engaged, but because I felt guilty. Putting down literary classics that bored me (like Dickens) has never really bothered me but there's something about putting down a speculative fiction classic that bothers me. This is supposed to be my genre.

Then I remember how many books there are that I'll never get around to reading. How many classics there are and how many I do enjoy. It's alright if there are some authors (or in this case, books) that I don't enjoy and whose work I can't get through. Even if they are good.

Some Winning Stories

Oceanview Publishing is an independent publisher of mystery, thriller and suspense novels. In 2008, they launched their first short story contest and assembled a star-studded cast of judges. Now the judges have made their decision and the three winning stories have been posted. Enjoyable stories all, I preferred the winner and first of the winning finalists - they both had my favourite thing about a good short story, which is a killer ending. (I did find it interesting, though, that none of the stories really fit into the genres that the company focuses on. But then their parameters were pretty broad.)

The first-prize story, "Mississippi Pearl" by Joel Arnold, is the story of a family drama - the things that tie people together and the things that ripple down the years. The characters jump off the page, so vivid in their details, and the imagery is carefully appropriate.

After reading it, I needed a bit of a laugh to cheer me up and that's exactly what I got from "Me and the Bank" by K.G. McAbee. A clever little story that looks at those friendships you can't ignore and the assumptions that can lead you into trouble. The voice of the story wore a little on me about half-way through, but the ending was worth pressing through for.

The second winning finalist, "Heavenly Chorus" by Karen Pullen, seemed the weakest to me. It didn't seem as well-written as the others. I also didn't particularly like the change in tone from serious to silly. It struck me as a bit disrespectful. Also, the change in direction in the story at one point didn't seem properly motivated. However, it is a clever idea and some will enjoy this irreverent story.

Considering the overall quality of the stories, I do hope Oceanview turn the competition into an annual fixture.

An Old Tale, A New Story

I loved the Disney "My Little Mermaid" when I was a little girl. Not quite as much as I loved "Sleeping Beauty", but still. I could sing all the words to "Unda da Sea". But I also loved the dark, dismal original. I don't remember ever reading it (though I probably did). I remember hearing it. As a girl, my parents surrounded me with audio tapes to send me to sleep (the choice to give me the original fairy tales to lull me to sleep was possibly not the most well-thought through idea on their part). I remember the agony when the mermaid gets her wish and the horrid despair when she becomes just on the waves.

So when I read Alethea Kontis's story behind the story of "Blood and Water" on the editor of IGMS's blog it really resonated with me. I wanted to read the story -- but I didn't have a subscription to IGMS and, at the time, no way of getting one. So now that the story has become freely available on the IGMS website, of course I've read it. And I was not disappointed. Kontis answered all the questions she posed in the blog entry that had originally intrigued me and added a very unique twist to the old fairy tale.

The story starts off from the perspective of the "witch", a witch who seems at odds with herself over whether to grant the mermaid's witch but who ultimately gives in. And so begins the story of a mermaid who grows two legs but still isn't quite human. Picked up by a pirate ship, she has to come to terms with her new nature, confusing surroundings and the question of how to find her prince.

In Place of the Book I Left Behind

I'm not sure quite where I first came across Marie Brennan. I remember reading reviews of Midnight Never Come so perhaps that's where it started, though I normally discover authors through their short stories. What drew me into buying the book was that it combined two of my major obsessions as a tweenager: fairies and the Tudors. Plus I read the first chapter in a bookstore and I decided it sounded right on target. And so far so good. However, I have now gone and left my copy of the book on the other side of the world and in all likelihood will not see it for another six months. Grrr!

So anyways, to make it up to myself (and because I stumbled over her website today), I have decided to read the short fiction she's made available. The first story I read was "Calling Into Silence". It took me a little while to get into it because the story "felt" quite familiar. And I'm not really a nomadic-tribe-short-story kind of person. However, I liked the main character and there were some nice stylistic effects in the story. It wasn't a jump-up-and-bite-me or remember-forever sort of story, though it has a good pedigree.

"For the Fairest" and "Silence, Before the Horn" are both short retellings of old stories. Each with their own Marie Brennan twist. I preferred the humour of the former to the despair of the latter. Similarly, "A Thousand Souls" is another flash story that builds on an old legend. It also has a sad feel to it, but I'm not sure if it's as good as the two previously mentioned in this paragraph.

"Such as Dreams are Made Of" is the story of a building contractor, ruthless and ready to do battle with anyone who comes between him and his plans. However, when he finds himself assaulted by a man that no-one saw and the CCTV has no record of, he discovers he has opponents that not even he can exercise control over. This story of a contractor moving with the times opposed by those who want to retain fragments of the past is again a familiar one, but Marie Brennan's strong writing style and careful subversion of what the reader expects give the story its own flavour. Enjoyable, particularly the ending.

The theme through all the stories seems to be to take something familiar in a new direction. Which I suppose is what Midnight Never Come also does, though on a bigger scale. All in all, I'm not sure that I liked any of the short stories freely available as much as I'm enjoying the book and reading them has only made me more irritated with myself for leaving it behind. However, what I have also discovered on the website is that Marie Brennan has another series. So perhaps I'll give that a try... (or, at least, put them in my Amazon basket while I scrape together the pennies to buy them).

The Things One Discovers in Anthologies

In reading "The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy" edited by Mike Ashley a few months ago, I discovered a story that I really enjoyed: "Cup and Table" by Tim Pratt. A dark story in an anthology of dark stories. Yet somehow I (not a major fan of all things scary and dark) enjoyed it. The characters were so well-rounded, the form of the story was so perfectly suited to its substance and the ending, ah, the ending, I just loved it.

So I've been following his LiveJournal since then. I've considered buying his Marla Mason books but while they sound excellent, I'm still not quite sure if I'd be able to finish a whole book of occultic material (whether fictional or not). I also considered subscribing to his 'zine Flytrap but it's just closed and I'm a starving student.

Today on his LiveJournal, he posted about his stories that are eligible for various awards. Now being the starving student that I am, pitching in the subscription for an Anticipation membership is probably not (okay, definitely not) going to happen and thus I won't be able to vote. But I thought I'd read and then blog about his stories. Which probably also won't help but it gives me a valid excuse to read them (and given that I really should use my time productively for the essays hanging over my head I need an excuse).

The first one I read was "The Dude who Collected Lovecraft" which he co-write with Nick Mamatas. Given all the allusions I did pick up in "Cup and Table", I imagine there are a whole bunch more allusions that I'm missing in this story seeing as I'm not much of a horror-reader and have never read Lovecraft. Despite my painful awareness that I was probably missing a whole lot, I thought it was well-written and it definitely gave me the chills (will have to listen to calming music before I go to bed). I particularly liked the way the authors evoked the different voices in the story. The ending didn't seem all that strong (but I may have missed the punchline not being familiar with the subgenre). I don't know what it's up against for the Stoker Awards but I'd give it a thumbs-up.

The second one was "The Frozen One" and I just loved it. Absolutely beautiful. Totally made up for how spooked-out I was feeling after the last one. Again (like in "Cup and Table"), the way the story was told was just right. And the voice was very distinctive: poignant somehow. I loved the way it was all mixed-up between sounding like a fantasy world and like ours. For example:

"This one bar they liked was called The Frozen One, because there was a giant block of magical ice right in the middle of the room—the bar had been built around it, because the owner realized having a giant block of magically unmelting ice meant he could keep his beer really cold for free."

I also got the allusions in this one, being more familiar with the Bible and, well, the other main allusion which I won't spell out here. But one of the things that kind of tickled me about the second allusion is that the research done was by game theorists, which is a branch of economics (which is what I do, mainly) and I remember reading about the research in a textbook . That might not seem an entirely appropriate reaction given what the allusion is but yeah...

The third I read was "The River Boy". Not quite as powerful as "The Frozen One" but poignant in its own way (I think poignant is a word I probably over-use in describing Pratt's work but oh well). It also had its own voice and style, being more like a myth or a fairy tale. A cute little touch was that the boy in the story has the same name as Pratt's own son - a touch that only added to the poignancy (yes, again, I kn0w).

Anyway, the last two stories made me feel quite sad (which is heaps better than scared) but what me saddest is what Pratt said in his post about the fact that stories published in small presses don't have much of a shot at the Hugos. Not only did that make me sad because I loved the stories but because Clarkesworld Magazine and Lone Star Stories are two of my favourite places on the web (and off) to read stories. So many of the stories that I've read in these two venues have talked to me and surprised me and made me feel so many things (not scared, I mostly avoid stories that look like they might go in that direction). I seldom go through the archives of online 'zines but I have dipped into both their archives. I've even seriously considered buying Realms (it's in my Amazon basket - admittedly, things sit in there for months while I try and justify buying them).

So I'm not quite sure how to end this post. So I'll end it by linking the title and the point. I discovered short fiction by buying some anthologies at the bookstore. Some of the anthologies had sections about the authors which mentioned their websites. I visited their websites, signed up for their blogs and then discovered the online short fiction venues. And one day when I've graduated from student to proper academic I will have the money to donate money to online short fiction venues and get memberships to organisations that allow me to vote for the authors and venues I've fallen in love with. Which is part of the reason I believe in short fiction and science fiction and web 'zines no much how much doom and gloom I've read in blogs. I used to be just someone who dipped in and on out of sci-fi and fantasy but now I know there's a whole world more of it out there. (And now that I've managed to make this post neither scary nor sad I will stop).