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).