A Fantasy Medley 3 - Yanni Kuznia

A Fantasy Medley 3, edited by Yanni Kuznia, is a short anthology published in the last day of 2015 by Subterranean Press. They were kind enough to provide me with an e-arc. While I haven't seen the finished product, I don't doubt it will be as gorgeous as the rest of their publications. Subterranean tends to pay at least as much attention to the design of their books as it does to the content. This anthology contains four original pieces of short fiction. They are all probably at the low end of the novella range in wordcount. Authors Kevin Hearne, Laura Bickle and Aliette de Bodard each contribute works tied to their novels. Jacqueline Carey's story is unrelated to anything she published before. As with all anthologies, I liked some stories more than others but on the whole A Fantasy Medley 3 is a good read.

Kevin Hearne opens the anthology with his story Goddess at the Crossroads. The title is a reference to Hecate, the Greek goddess associated with, among other things, witchcraft and crossroads. It is part of his Iron Druid Chronicles, which consists of seven novels and various pieces of short fiction. An eighth novel will be released in January 2016. The story is set between the fourth novel Tricked (2012) and the novella Two Ravens and One Crow (2012). It is essentially a camp fire tale in which the druid Atticus tells his apprentice the tale of how he met Shakespeare and how that encounter led to the inclusion of witches in Macbeth.

I must admit that his story did very little for me. I guess it could have worked as a comedy, since Atticus got a lot more than he was bargaining for in this story and the poet himself insists on getting them even deeper in trouble. I didn't think the humorous part of the tale worked all that well though. Most of the plot revolves around Atticus being a badass druid, something the witches find out to their regret. There is a lot of interesting source material in this novella. Shakespeare's play and Celtic and Greek mythology for instance. Hearne doesn't really manage to use those to give the story a bit more depth. It is entertaining but little beyond that. This novella didn't inspire me to seek out the novels it is tied to.

Laura Bickle submitted Ashes,  a novella tied to her Anya Kalinczyk series. There are two novels in this series, both published in 2010. I have no idea where this story fits into the series but it is set in contemporary Detroit where fire-fighter/demon hunter Anya Kalinczyk has a run in with the mythical creature Nain Rouge. Where Hearne doesn't manage to make the story more than a collection of references to history and mythology, Bickle is much more successful. There is a good balance in this tale between the need to catch this menace  before he slips away again for another year and the necessity to provide the reader with a bit of background on the characters and the creature they are hunting. Bickle slips in just enough information about the main character to interest the reader in trying to find out more. It still strikes me as a fairly standard urban fantasy story, but a well written one for sure.

The third story, The Death of Aiguillon, is written  by Aliette de Bodard. It is part of her Dominion of the Fallen setting. One novel has been published in this setting this year, with a second one in the works. The House of Shattered Wings was definitely one of the best releases in fantasy in 2015 and in this shorter piece De Bodard manages to capture that same sense of magic and tragedy that makes the novel so beautiful.

The story is set some sixty years before the novel and deals with the fallout of the destruction of the House of Aiguillon. A kitchen maid of Vietnamese origin loses the protection of the House and has to make her own way in a city at war. On her way out, she helps one of the fallen angels tied to the house to escape a certain death at the hands of scavengers. His body parts would have sold for high sums at the the black market because of the magic they contain. He is grateful for her help and promises to be back for her once he has recovered. As time goes by, the kitchen maid begins to realize it may have been an empty promise. Or a dangerous one.

De Bodard packs a lot into this story. Loss is a very obvious theme in a city that is about to hit rock bottom at the end of the magical war. The main character is faced with a decision in the novel. She has lost her place in the world and has to find a new one. The temptation of taking the easy way out is present throughout the story. It is always tugging on the main character. But there is an alternative. One that may be less certain but more rewarding. The dilemma of the main character is laid out in beautiful prose in The Death of Aiguillon. It is a very good introduction to the Dominion of the Fallen setting. Carey gives De Bodard a run for her money but in the end, this one is my favourite of the collection.

The final story in the anthology is One Hundred Ablutions by Jacqueline Carey. We see the story through the eyes of a young girl of the Keren people. Their valley was overrun by the Shaladan some three centuries ago and they have been serving their masters ever since. The main character is the daughter of a fruit picker, not generally worth the attention of the Shaladan. When the flux takes away a lot of higher class girls in her year, she is selected to serve them anyway. Everything she once hoped to get out of life is taken away from her in exchange for a life of service and celibacy. Life is unfair, she lashes out at it.

There is a fine bit of character development in this story. The main character is angry, disappointed and resentful at the beginning of the story. As it progresses, the emptiness of her life weighs on her and when the opportunity comes to strike at her oppressors she seizes it. There is a price to be paid though. What I liked most about this story is that it very vividly shows how her choices affect her emotional state. Not being tied to any other work, this story is by necessity the most self-contained. Carey manages a good balance between characterisation and showing us enough background of this fantasy world to fully appreciate what the main character is going through. No mean feat in such a relatively short text.

A Fantasy Medley 3 is an anthology with a weak start but a strong finish. On the whole, I think it is well worth reading. I enjoyed the stories by De Bodard and Carey in particular.  This third volume in the series is the only one I have read but I like the format a lot. Fantasy and short fiction are not always a successful combination for me but Kuznia's selection is an interesting one. Unfortunately the first two volumes are all sold out and as far as I am aware there is no digital edition. If a fourth volume should appear I will definitely read it though. Recommended for people who feel good fantasy doesn't necessarily need a ten book series.

Book Details
Title: A Fantasy Medley 3
Editor: Yanni Kuznia
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 152
Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: E-arc
ISBN: 978-1-59606-767-7
First published: 2015

All About Emily - Connie Willis

All About Emily is one of those gorgeous little books Subterranean Press likes to publish. It is a (shortish) novella length work, published in a small hardback format, with great attention paid to the cover art and interior artwork. The artwork for this novella was done by J.K. Potter.  They are pricey but they are also very pretty. This one was published in December 2011 and also appeared in Asimov's that month.  I did read it back then but never got around to reviewing it. Since I haven't quite managed to finish David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas yet, I reread it on Friday.  Some readers might be expecting one of Willis' trademark comedies. This story is not one of those. All About Emily aims to touch the heart. 

Claire Haviland is an ageing actress on Broadway. She fears her career is coming to an end but then her manager arranges a media appearance with Claire's greatest fan, an innocent looking girl named Emily. She is not a regular fan however. Emily is a very lifelike robot, one who seems quite capable of becoming an actress. One who never forgets her lines, never makes a mistake and never ages. Claire does not like this development one bit.

Willis writes the entire story from the perspective of Claire in the first person. She is an experienced actor, well acquainted with Broadway's darker side. She is quite cynical about her manager, the parts she'll be able to get and the prospect of being replaced by a robot. And yet, despite knowing that Emily is designed to do just that, the girl works her way into Claire's heart.

Plays, musicals and classic movies crop up in Willis' writing quite often. In this story the movie All About Eve (1950, starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter), in which a younger, upcoming actress manages to get away with an established actress' career and almost her husband) plays an important role.  Claire fears she has met her own Eve, but Emily turns out to have her heart set on another career. She wants to be a Rockette. With their dependence on perfectly choreographed routines and superficially identical appearance, a robot is even more threatening to them than she is to Claire.

There are lots of details about Broadway and Hollywood in the story. Some of them are references to existing works but Willis also makes a few of them up. The story is set in the future, about a generation after it was written probably, and the world of entertainment clearly has developed in those years. Claire's contempt for some of the younger, and in her opinion only marginally talented stars, is quite clear. Willis frequently uses Claire's manager, who doesn't seem to have seen any play or movie Claire mentions, to make sure the reader doesn't get lost in the references to plays, musicals and movies. Which was nice for a reader like me, I was unfamiliar with almost all of what Willis mentions in the story, but for readers who are more experienced in these matters, it may feel a bit like being spoon-fed.

Besides thinking about her career, Claire also gives a lot of thought to artificial intelligence in the novel. What Emily doing is, according to Claire at least, mimicking emotions she isn't feeling. In fact, she is probably incapable of feeling them. Which makes what she is doing very close to acting. There are some very sharp observations about Emily in the story, but towards the end Claire finds herself examining her own behaviour towards Emily.

Willis has produced a large number of award winning short fiction in her career and that she knows how to write a good story at this length shows in All About Emily. It is well paced, pretty lean and yet manages to create a well developed character. I did think the ending of the story is rather abrupt. Not that when we reach that point there is much more to say but it is not the most graceful way to end a story. That being said, All About Emily is a very decent read. I don't think Willis quite reaches the level of some of the stories in The Best of Connie Willis: Award-Winning Stories but it is well worth the time it takes to read.

Book Details
Title: All About Emily
Author: Connie Willis
Publisher: Subterranean
Pages: 96
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-452-2
First published: 2011

Jacaranda - Cherie Priest

According to Priest, Jacaranda is the final work she will write in her Clockwork Century setting. The series consists of five novels, one short story and, including this one, two novellas. I've had great fun with the previous entries in the series, even if they are not the most challenging works in the Steampunk genre, so I really wanted to read this one as well. Like the previous novella in the series, this one was published by Subterranean Press and like pretty much everything they publish, it is a beautiful little book. Great attention has been paid to the design and artwork. Subterranean books are not cheap but they always make sure you know that you paid for quality. The number of hardcovers is very limited so if you want one, better be fast.

On an island off the coast of Texas a hotel built with the finest technology the late nineteenth century has been making a name for itself. The place is thought to be haunted. Two dozen people have already died under mysterious circumstances. The authorities can't be bothered to investigate the deaths anymore and so an unlikely crew of a nun, a Texas ranger and a Mexican priest gathers at the hotel to investigate. As a hurricane barrels down on them, the terrible truth about the Jacaranda Hotel slowly reveals itself to them.

Jacaranda is set in the Clockwork Century but it is only very loosely tied to the rest of the stories. There is a reference to the rotters, the zombie-like victims of an addictive substance introduced in opening novel  Boneshaker, a few references to the alternate version of the American civil war the series covers and a reference to one of the major characters on Ganymede, the third novel in the series. That is all there is to be found of the Clockwork Century really. With a few minor bits of rewriting the whole thing could have been completely separated from the Clockworld universe. As a consequence, it can be read independently without missing much of what is going on. Jacaranda is not a novella meant to close of any dangling threads or answer any remaining questions. The climax of the series is clearly the final novel Fiddlehead.

In essence, Jacaranda is a haunted house story. The plot is not all that original and so the success of the story depends on the execution. Such stories need a certain atmosphere, a buildup of tension at just the right place, revelations at the right time. Priest realized this and paced her story accordingly. Where her first Clockwork Century novella Clementine felt constrained by the need to keep the word count under a certain number (it was intended for Subterranean but for contractual reasons Priest would have had to offer it to Tor first if it got above a certain word count), this one feels about right in length. In fact, take out a few of the plentiful descriptions of a storm approaching and it might even have been a bit shorter.

Atmosphere is important to the story though, Priest uses the approaching hurricane to ramp up the tension. The gradually darkening sky, the preparation for the storm, the subconscious nervousness caused by a rapidly dropping air pressure and the ever prescient threat of the hotel all  add to the sense of dread in the story. People die in it of course, but there is no need for buckets of blood or dozens of bodies. Like in a good horror movie, what you don't see is scarier than what is explicitly shown. It will not surprise the reader that in classic horror tradition, the climax of the story coincides with the climax of the hurricane.

Priest uses another element in her story pops up often in horror movies: guilt. Who gets to die and who is involved in the story in the first place is decided by often peculiar notions on who is deemed guilty and who is considered innocent and free of sin. The visitors of the hotel all bear the burden of guilt until it is too late. While none of them can actually be touched by the law of morals, each of them has broken a vow or a promise that weighs on their conscience. It is what draws them in an keeps them from running. At some level, the guilty want to be punished and the hotel is ready to extract a kind of justice from them. I guess guilt is not a surprising theme in a story where two of the main characters are Catholics who dedicated their lives to god. Especially later on in the novella, this biblical view on sin and guilt becomes more important. I can't say that was my favourite part of the story.

I must admit that this book was not quite what I was hoping for. It certainly doesn't deliver what I read the Clockwork Century books for. The hotel has  few gadgets but they are not important to the story, nor is the alternative history Priest has laid out. Haunted house stories are not really my thing either. They tend to be so stuck in horror clichés that they rarely make for challenging or interesting reading. Putting my personal preferences aside for the moment, I do see a story that is well executed. Some readers may not be entirely convinced by the climax but it worked well enough for me. Jacaranda was entertaining reading, but as a postscript to the Clockwork Century, it is essentially unnecessary. Read it if you enjoy a good haunted house story or if you can't stand to leave a series unfinished. If those two don't apply to you, there are more interesting book out there.

Book Details
Title: Jacaranda
Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 181
Year: 2015
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-684-7
First published: 2015

Book of Iron - Elizabeth Bear

One of the most exciting Fantasy trilogies published in the last few years is Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy. In fact, I am so impressed with Bear's attempt to show what epic fantasy could achieve if it lets go of the Tolkienesque heritage that still weighs heavy on the genre, that I am willing to make this statement before the third book appears. Steles of the Sky is scheduled for April and it is one of those must read books for 2014 for me.

To accompany the trilogy, Bear has written two novellas, both published by Subterranean. The first one, Bone and Jewel Creatures, was published in 2010. I missed it at the time and as usual with Subterranean novellas, it is almost impossible to get your hands on a new copy without paying an arm and a leg. I would settle for a digital copy only there appear to be geographical restrictions in that edition. In short, I haven't read it. Fortunately it isn't necessary to have read either the first novella, which I understand is set some 80 years later that Book of Iron, or the trilogy to enjoy it.

The story is set some four centuries after the events described in the trilogy. Technology has advanced to the level of the early twentieth century, with all sorts of modern technology making an appearance. Magic is not gone from the world though, and the sky still changes when one enters a realm where other gods are worshipped. The main character Bijou, works for the second prince of  Messaline. She is an artificer, animating dead bones and creating creature studded with jewels out of them. One day a delegation from a nation further north appears seeking the aid of the prince. It is the start of an adventure that will take Bijou and a select group of adventurers to the cursed city of Erem to keep a dangerous wizard from making a terrible mistake.

In a mere 124 pages Bear doesn't have the space to get into the details of this world but I do think she manages to work in enough to make it a fascinating glimpse into what the world introduced to me in Range of Ghosts grew into. The mix of modern technology and wizardry works surprisingly well. Bear creates the sense of a rapidly changing world where technology is pushing its boundaries ever further outward but where magic shows no signs of being replaced.

The story itself is mostly set in the otherworldly Erem. It's a location that is visited in the trilogy as well and it is a hellish place. Several of its suns kill people in minutes and the  creatures that have managed to make it their home are not the ones you'd want to meet face to face. The party has great trouble fending them off or forcing them to do their bidding. Something that is further complicated by the fact they know almost nothing about each other's abilities.

Book of Iron could easily have turned into a fairly straightforward adventure but Bear works in a lot of hints about the relationships between the characters that add a deeper layer to the text. There is mistrust in the story but also friendship, a sense of loneliness and regret but also hope and attraction. All of this is shrouded in just enough mystery to keep the reader trying to read between the lines. It's very cleverly written really. I'm fairly certain she is not done with Bijou yet, or at least she is leaving herself more than enough room to add to the story of this character. I guess I'm going to have to see about getting my hands on Bone and Jewel Creatures one of these days.

Book Details
Title: Book of Iron
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 124
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-474-4
First published: 2013

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - Ted Chiang

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is one of the three stories by Ted Chiang I hadn't read yet. The other two are What's Expected of Us, a flash piece published in Nature in 2006, and  his most recent story Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny (2011), which can be found in the anthology The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer. Missing out on this story was not for lack of trying, but the only paper edition I'm aware of, was published by Subterranean in 2007 and is pretty much unavailable unless you are willing to sacrifice your child's college fund. So a while ago I caved, figured out a way to avoid the region restrictions and got myself the kindle edition. Chiang has published only thirteen stories in since 1990, he likes to take his time and polish them to perfection. This novelette is no exception. I can see why it got him both the Hugo and Nebula.

The story is set in Baghdad and Cairo. Chiang doesn't mention a date but it has the feel of the Abbasid Caliphate at the height of it's power, some time before the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. It is the story of the fabrics merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas who finds himself at the court of the Caliph to tell his unlikely story. A tale that involves alchemy and time travel.

I must admit I don't particularly like time travels stories. Mainly because they always manage to twist themselves into some kind of strange paradox. Chiang realizes this too and his story is basically built around the premise that it is impossible to change the past. Or as he puts it, we can only get to know it better. According to Wikipedia this story is an example of the Novikov self-consistency principle, a theory proposed in the 1980s by Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov that solves some time travel paradoxes in general relativity. Not sure if that was Chiang's inspiration but given the scientific themes in may of his other stories it would not surprise me at all.

The story doesn't concern itself with science though, but makes its point through three short tales, all told by Abbas. In fact, one could easily read it as a reflection on matters like fate, destiny, and determinism. Compared to many other works by Chiang it is a surprisingly light but sophisticated bit of writing, with some complicated questions hidden in the simple structure of the merchant's storytelling. As usual, the story is very polished. The prose is beautiful and Chiang carefully avoids overdoing the courtly rhetoric. The merchant speaks eloquently but not beyond what one would expect of him.

I don't think this story packs the punch of some of Chiang's other stories but it is very well written. Every time I read one of his stories I wish he was a bit more productive but maybe this kind of storytelling takes a while to be properly transferred to paper. It is amazing how someone can have such a huge influence on the genre. The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is a gem and after reading it, I am even more annoyed it to me so long to get hold of a copy. Maybe I should have considered listening to the free online audio version that can be found here.

Book Details
Title: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
Author: Ted Chiang
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: e-book
ISBN: 978-1-596-06446-1
First published: 2007

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince - Robin Hobb

It's a good year for Robin Hobb fans. This month Blood of Dragons. the final installment in her current series the Rainwild Chronicles, appeared and on top of that The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince,  a new novella also set in the Realm of the Elderlings, was released by Subterranean Press. I'm currently reading Blood of Dragons but when This beautiful little book arrived I couldn't help myself an read that one first. As usual the people at Subterranean did an great job of making the book look pretty. It's a nice little hardcover with with a cover and two full colour interior illustrations by Jon Foster. This book is almost worth the price just for the looks.

Robin Hobb is mostly comfortably writing the long form. Her novels tend to be very big books. In her debut under this pseudonym in 1995, only six pieces of shorter fiction have appeared. Five of them are tied to the Realm of the Elderlings in which most of her novels are set. I've read three of these pieces, collected in the Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm collection The Inheritance (2011). Of those I thought only Homecoming, a story that serves as a prequel to the Liveship Traders trilogy, can live up to the standard Hobb sets in her novels. She just seems to be more comfortable with novel length works.

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince is a 38,000 word novella, even Hobb's short fiction is long. The story that reaches back to the Farseer trilogy. The legend of the Piebald Prince surfaces several times in those books as an illustration of the prejudice and outright hate people with eh Wit encounter in the Six Duchies. The details of the story are scarce though, and most of it is portrayed as legend rather than history. In this novella, we get an eyewitness account. It is told in the first person and Felicity, the woman who recounts the events, does make it clear that it deviates from official history in a few crucial details. The truth of the matter is for the reader to decide I guess.

Felicity is a servant and wet-nurse in service of the Farseers. She is the playmate of the 'willful' princess Caution and her son the Piebald Prince. The story is told in two parts. She first recounts the story of the princess Caution and her own youth by her side and how the young princess met a certain Chalcedean stable hand possessing the Wit. In the second half of the tale she moves on the Caution's son and the heir to the throne of the Six Duchies. Their lives will bring the Six Duchies to the brink of civil war and change the line of the Farseers forever.

Some reviewers feel this novella is a good entry point into the wider Realm of the Elderlings. I disagree with that. Hobb only touches lightly upon the Wit and the Skill and the significance both kinds of magic have for the Six Duchies. The real significance of what is going on will likely be lost on readers who haven't at least read the Farseer trilogy. The context of that story enriches the novella to the point that is becomes more than a well-written fairytale. Personally I think I would have found it only mildly interesting without having read the rest of the series.

The first person point of view Hobb chooses fits that of the rest of the Farseer books. I thought that was a nice detail. The way the story is split in two halves doesn't work nearly as well though. Essentially it is a tragic repetition. Both the Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince manage to wreck their lives under the influence of the Wit and in both cases it is like watching a train wreck. Hobb's novels are often tragedies and her characters are generally no strangers to self destructive behavior. To fit two of them in less than 200 pages is a bit too much in my opinion.

That being said, it is written with skill. I rarely come across an author who masters the first person point of view like Hobb does. Throughout the tale you feel Felicity's fear of being released from service and having to return to her live of poverty that her mother worked so hard to escape. It's the personal challenges amid events of nationwide significance that make the story come to life. It's the reason why I lived the Farseer trilogy so much and why I have devoured every book Hobb has published since. The novella is perhaps a bit too short for this technique to achieve its full effect but in a way Felicity is a more interesting character than either the Princess or her son.

So is The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince worth the price Subterranean is asking? For a fan of Hobb's work I'd say yes. It is a well crafted tale about a key point in Six Duchies history. It enriches the series as a whole and will keep the experienced Hobb reader turning pages. For a fist time reader I think I'd be better just to pick up a copy of Assassin's Apprentice and start at the beginning. A full novel will be a more rewarding read. That is, if you can find a copy of this book at all. As I understand it Subterranean is almost though the second print of this novella already. Who says this type of work won't sell? I'm glad I got my copy on time, time to head back to the Rainwilds and finish Blood of Dragons now.

Book Details
Title: The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
Author: Robin Hobb
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 184
Year: 2013
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-544-4
First published: 2013

Journeys - Ian R. MacLeod

I always have trouble not giving too much of the plot away when reviewing short fiction. This review is no exeption, it may be a bit spoilerish.
 

Journeys by Ian R. MacLeod is one of the books I received when I bought one of Subterranean's book bags earlier this year. So far I have only read two others of that stack: John Scalzi's The God Engines and Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Ammonite Violin and Others. My copy of Journeys is a signed and numbered edition. Number 708 of a print run or 750. As always with Subterranean editions, it looks stunning. I love the cover art done by Edward Miller. The original painting is for sale on his website, should anyone be interested. It is a tad above my budget though. The collection contains nine stories, ranging from a few pages to novella length, all of them first published between 2006 and 2010. Personally I feel the longer pieces work better.

Journeys is an appropriate title for this collection, MacLeod takes you to unexpected places with his stories. In many of them, the setting is familiar, often historical, but with a few crucial changes. The collection opens with The Master Miller's Tale, one of the longer stories in the collection and a good example of the changes the author weaves into his tales. It is set during the early stages of the industrial revolution. A master miller is trying to keep his wind powered and song magic maintained mill in business against the more powerful steam devices that are starting to appear. It mixes nostalgia and admiration for the skill of a master of the trade with the inevitable demise of such occupations. MacLeod makes it even more tragic by adding a personal dimension to this development. I very much liked this story.

A few of the stories are told as the life and extraordinary times of character such and so. That definitely goes for the third story in the collection The English Mutiny, which is an interesting reversal of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. In this alternative history, the British bit of more than they could chew in colonizing India and were conquered by the Mughal Empire some time in the past. It's told from a first person perspective by someone who plays a small but important part in the rebellion. Although the story pretty much unfolds like one would expect, I absolutely love it for the premise and execution. It is a premise that could easily be the basis of a novel really.

Elementals is another tale where we get an eyewitness account of an extraordinary event. It appears to be set in late Victorian times, and features a man of the mad scientist type doing research into harnessing elementals as a perpetual source of power. In sharp contrast with The English Mutiny, where the outcome is pretty much inevitable, this story takes an interesting turn when it turns out that elementals are a bit more complex than initially thought. The idea of people who's influence is waning, literally become less visible is an interesting one. I thought the ending was a bit cynical. The narrator doesn't seem to have grasped the implications.

The Camping Wainwrights is the odd one out in this collection I guess. It contains no fantastical, science fictional or supernatural elements in the story. In the end, I thought this story was a bit predictable. The author tries to make the reader doubt some of the events in the story but it is never really convincing. It is humorous in a way. Many people will recognize the antics of the Wainwrights on their camping trip. I've been on a few my self where I had to wonder what the fun part of the trip was.

The Hob Carpet is the longest piece in the collection with the most complex premise. The setting is a world that is rapidly moving towards a new ice age, where humans are used to a warmer climate use the labour of another sentient series, the Hobs, to live comfortably. A way of living that no longer seems sustainable. You can choose to interpret the setting as a fantasy one I suppose. Or see it more like an alternate history where humans still coexist with Neanderthals. MacLeod's description of the Hobs reminded me of Jean Auel's description of Neanderthals in her famous novel The Clan of the Cave Bear (which has proven quite inaccurate in recent years). There is often more than a little ambiguity in MacLeod's stories but in this case the ethical problem this civilization faces is more than clear. The treatment of the Hobs is shocking and the story contains a number of disturbing scenes. Interesting about it, is that the realization eventually comes through what the reader will recognize as Darwin's theories on natural selection but even the man who figures that out, is far from innocent. I think this one is my favourite of the collection but opinions on it will probably be divided.

The collection contains a number of shorter pieces as well. Most of these didn't do much for me. I guess the ones I liked least are Taking Good Care of Myself, which is just too short for the author to really develop the premise, and On the Sighting of Other Islands, which is so ambiguous that even after a second reading I still have no idea what the author wanted to do with that story (which, admittedly, may not be the author's fault). I enjoyed the  other two stories, Topping off the Spire and The Second Journey of the Magus, but they didn't really stand out in this collection.

Journeys is my introduction to MacLeod's work and he strikes me as an author who is very comfortable with writing short stories. With the notable exception of Taking Good Care of Myself, the stories feel neither constrained by the word count or padded and especially the first is a problem one frequently encounters in short fiction. Although not all stories in the collection hit the bullseye, this story shows that a lot of the more exiting, experimental and innovative writing in genre fiction is still being don in the short form. MacLeod experiments to his heart's desire and more often than not, it pays off.

Book Details
Title: Journeys
Author: Ian R. MacLeod
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 231
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-297-9
First published: 2010

Troika - Alastair Reynolds

With the space shuttle program almost concluded there seems to be a sense that that window of opportunity for the human exploration of space is closing. There is no successor for the Space Shuttle, NASA's budget is shrinking, the US is dependent on other nations to get people up to the International Space Station and exploration of the solar system has completely shifted to robotic probes and Mars rovers. The premise of whole libraries of science fiction novels appears to be increasingly unlikely and that clearly worries a lot of people in the field, including former ESA astronomer Alastair Reynolds.

Personally, I think the drama over the last space shuttle missions is rather US-centric. It can't be denied that the space race between the USSR and the US is over and out competing the other super-power no longer gives the US space industry a boost, but there is a lot going on in other nations. In a multi-polar world, the nature of space exploration has changed. Interest in space exploration won't disappears overnight, even if the US is no longer the leader of the pack. Whether or not we can spare the resources in the long run is another matter. In a way, Reynolds deals with both these matters in his Hugo-nominated novella Troika.

In the near future the USSR has made a comeback. It is once again one of the leading nations in space exploration and when a mysterious alien object appears in the solar system, it is one of the few nations capable of investigating it. The structure of the object and the way it suddenly appeared in the solar system baffle the scientific community. When probes have discovered everything they can, there is only one way left to find out more. Go out and have a look. Three Cosmonauts are sent out on a long mission to explore the object. A mission that will face its share of problems.

There are two main story lines in this novella. The first introduces us to a man recently escaped from an institution for the mentally unstable, which in this second USSR includes people who say things the government would rather not hear. He is on his way to the nearest city where he hopes to find a disgraced astronomer. This story line is a classic example of an unreliable narrator, carefully designed to make you doubt whether or not he has lost his mind.

The significance of what this man tries to achieve is mostly worked into the second story line. This one takes us back a number of years to the manned mission to the alien object. This part of the story, Reynolds approaches as classic of the science fiction genre, a Big Dumb Object story. I use approaches here, because unlike classics like Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, we do eventually find out the purpose of the object's visit to the solar system and its message is alarming.

There is a tremendous sense of loss and missed opportunities in this novella. Especially in the story line dealing with the escaped patient, it appears to be completely irrelevant whether or not his mission succeeds. He knows nobody is interested in his message. He is mostly doing it for his own piece of mind. It's not surprising he doesn't like Prokofiev's Troika playing on the radio. Too much of an upbeat composition. Prokoofiev's music and the plot of this novella contrast in interesting ways.

The more cynical reader will probably consider this novella a bit of propaganda for space programs in general, and manned space flights in particular. It's warning us that turning our backs to space, despite the economics of its exploration, is a serious mistake. As the Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky once put it: "The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever." Whatever your opinion of the matter, it won't settle the question whether or not space exploration is worth the billions invested in it, especially since there is plenty of work still to be done on Earth.

Troika certainly provides food for thought along those lines and it does so in style. This novella is carefully crafted and works to an interesting twist in the plot at the end of the story. It's well-written and most certainly well-timed piece of writing. It's a novella that celebrates sense of wonder science fiction but also wonders if that drive to explore, through science as well as fiction, has perhaps passed. For me, Troika worked very well, both as a warning and a piece of literature. It faces some stiff competition for the Hugo but I think it would make a fine winner.

Book Details
Title: Troika
Author: Alastair Reynolds
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 114
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-376-1
First published: 2011

The Ammonite Violin and Others - Caitlín R. Kiernan

A while ago, I bought a number of books in a Subteranean Press clearance sale. Eleven books with a huge discount but I didn't know what I would be getting. As it happened, the package contained a lot of short fiction collections, mostly of authors who's work I'm not too familiar with. Until now, I've only read and reviewed one, The God Engines by John Scalzi. The Ammonite Violin and Others by Caitlín R. Kiernan is the second of this batch. I had read one a few short stories by Scalzi but Kiernan is completely new to me. The Ammonite Violin and Others turned out the be a beautifully written collection of very dark short stories.

The collection contains 20 short stories as well as an introduction by Jeff VanderMeer (which, unless you have previous experience with Kiernan's writing, I recommend you read after finishing the stories, he lost me halfway through the first time). As usually Subterranean packaging is wonderful, a very nice high quality hardcover with plenty of attention to the coverart. I like the author picture (taken by Kathryn A. Pollnac) on the back of the book in particular. It contains too many stories to review individually but there are some comments I'd like to make on a few of them and the collection in general.

Subterranean calls these stories dark fantasy but I have a hard time pinning them down. Some of them could be horror, some have post apocalyptic feel to them, some borrow heavily from Greek and Celtic mythology. Kiernan herself does not feel she is a horror writer but some of the details from her stories do show influences of Edgar Allen Poe for instance (although H.P. Lovercraft is also frequently mentioned in discussions of Kiernan's work). A Child's Guide to the Hollow Hills for instance, shares some of his obsession with death and decay. The stories also often display a sense of helplessness and inevitability. Characters being intellectually aware that they are heading for disaster but unable to help themselves.

Most of these stories are very brief pieces, the entire collection is only 230 pages long. They are snapshots of a moment or event crucial to the character but, as VanderMeer points out in the introduction, containing very little action. Kiernan presents a lot of them as riddles to the reader. She generally leaves a lot of room for the reader to interpret the story. There's no coddling the reader, you have to actively give meaning to the images she presents. It makes these tales fascinating, sometimes mysterious, and not something to be read cover to cover in one sitting.

The stories are written in a beautifully descriptive style. Long, flowing sentences and lots of imagery mark many of these stories. To give a random example:

It's not a wild place - not some bottomless, peat-stained loch hidden away between high granite cliffs, and not a secret, deep spring bubbling up crystal clear from the heart of a Welsh or Irish forest where the Unseelie host is said to hold the trees always at the dry brittle end of autumn, always on the cusp of a killing winter that will never come.
Opening sentence of Bridle

With this one sentence Kiernan conjours up an image that completely contrasts with the urban setting of the story. Kiernan goes on to create a synthesis of the classic Kelpie myth in a modern setting. The power, glamour eroticism of this mythological creature combined with a decaying corpse in an abandoned park in the city. This coupling between the mythological and horrific returns in many of these stories.

The story that gave the collection it's name is something different entirely though. The Ammonite Violin (Murder Ballad No. 4) combines two other elements that return in the stories in this collection often: fossils (an occupational hazard given her education in palaeontology) and the sea. In fact, I don't think I know of any other writer who uses the word brine as much ad Kiernan does. The main character in this stories considers himself a collector. His two collections consist of Ammonites and suffocated women and now his is looking for a way to combine his two passions. It's incredibly creepy how he discusses these collections without any sense of guilt or regret. Despite this lack of emotion in the main character, the story has a very emotionally charged ending.

The type of work Kiernan writes is not material I read a lot. Although I try to read a decent amount of short fiction, most of it is science fiction and however you choose to label Kiernan's work, science fiction most likely isn't it. I had absolutely no idea what to expect of this collection, I guess you could say it was a bit of a gamble. One that paid off handsomely. I very much enjoyed reading The Ammonite Violin and Others. I may have to check out one of Kiernan novel length works. I would be interesting to see how Kiernan's approach would work for a longer piece. I can feel that to read stack growing again.

Book Details
Title: The Ammonite Violin and Others
Author: Caitlín R. Kiernan
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 235
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-305-1
First published: 2010

The God Engines - John Scalzi

Subterranean had a big sale a while ago. I bought one of their bookbags containing eleven titles, without knowing what would be in them before they arrived. Pretty much all of it is short fiction, which is a good thing, I have been neglecting that particular form lately. I'll be reviewing a couple of those later in the year. It also included John Scalzi's 2009 novella The God Engines. It was nominated for both the Nebula and Hugo awards in the novella category. As usual with Subterranean publications, the book itself looks gorgeous. A very nice hardcover with cover art and interior illustrations by Vincent Chong. The care this publisher takes with even the more modestly priced editions is just amazing. While the physical object is very pretty, I am conflicted about the text itself.

The God Engines is set in a universe where gods are at war with each other. Long ago, one of them managed to subdue most of its competitors and become the single most worshipped creature in a universe united in their faith in him. The vanquished gods are taken prisoner and serve on the fleet of starships of the scattered colonies of humanity. Carefully controlled by the crew, these gods provide the means of travelling the stars. Captain Ean Tephe serves on one of these ships. Lately, the god powering his ship has become increasingly rebellious. It appears he is not the only one. When the captain has his ship recalled for new orders, it becomes clear that there is trouble ahead. The kind that will test his faith mightily.

Religion is the main theme of this novella. The all conquering god seems the be very much in control, with his church running the affairs of humanity. They rely completely on their god to provide travel between the stars and although it is known to the priesthood that humanity once possessed the technology to power spaceships, that knowledge appears to be lost. In fact, not much science is in evidence in the story. Perhaps this is why the publisher chose to market it as dark fantasy rather than science fiction. Most people in the novel behave more or less like the ideal flock, their faith is firm, not all that surprising given the level of dependence and the regular affirmation the faithful receive. The ruling god was careful enough the have history sanitized for his own purposes and his church is careful to keep a few other secrets for him. A theocratic dystopia. Rather depressing really, and in my opinion, presented in a heavy handed way.

I guess it shouldn't have come as a surprise that resistance does not come from people who would like a bit more control over their own destiny but from those worshipping one of the captured gods. Imagine his gratitude on being freed from eternal slavery. Apparently there is only one way to stay in power against such opposition, lying, keeping secrets and generally being the meanest son of a bitch around. In a universe where faith does not (in part) depend on believing in something unseen, finding out your god is not that nice a fellow is a bit of a shock. Ean Tephe doesn't like it at all in fact, but his struggles with his conscience don't really convince. Scalzi manages to make a starship captain look a wee bit naive here.

There were parts of the novella I liked better. The relationship with the "Rook", a mix of councillor, prostitute and secret agent, Shalle Thew is particularly interesting. Although most readers will assume Shalle is female, nowhere in the story is this actually mentioned. The temptation to use particular or possessive pronouns must have been overwhelming for Scalzi but he manages to avoid them. Even the illustration Chong provided could be either. So easy to assume, I almost missed it. It would have been nice if this part of the story had been a bit more detailed, Shalle is quite important in the final part of the story but since we see the action form Tephe's point of view, her motives remain a bit nebulous. Then again, the whole character is a bit mysterious so perhaps that is for the best.

The idea behind The God Engines is intriguing but in the end the novella didn't work for me. Parts could certainly have used a bit more subtlety and the story as a whole could have done with some more words to mature. The main character never really convinced me. I guess I'm not surprised that it didn't win those awards it was nominated for. I understand it is a bit of a departure from Scalzi's other works, which tend to be science fiction of the military kind. Perhaps one of those would work better for me.

Book Details
Title: The God Engines
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 136
Year: 2009
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-299-3
First published: 2009

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Wiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed - Patrick Rothfuss

Like the past few years I once again made the resolution to review all books I read this year. Last year I got close, 90 out a total of 91. This year, I am determined to make is 100%. But then I came across this book. The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Wiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss, illustrated by Nate Taylor, is something quite out of the ordinary. For one thing, it is not a children's book.. The creators are quite clear about that right from the start. Despite their clear intent to spare the innocent psyche of children these books are usually meant for, I can't help but wonder where Rothfuss found the guts to publish something like this.

Consider, after years of painful therapy you have carefully transformed the thing under the bed from a lurking monster to a warm and comforting presence in the bedroom. Like having the cat sleep at your feet or having a loving parent look in on you while you sleep. And then, after finally managing a good night sleep without having to suppress the urge to check for monsters under the bed, Mr Rothfuss comes along and pulls a stunt like this. HOW DARE YOU! How do you think you'll EVER be able to explain this to Oot? This calls for mass book burnings and voodoo dolls I tell you! As if our lives are not already filled with horrors, you have to add princesses and teddy bears to the list! Why do you think people seek refuge in fantasy anyway? Thank to YOU and your accomplice Mr. Taylor, do not for a moment think your part in this crime will be forgotten, I will have to check under the bed again! You know, just to see if it is still there...

I'm not the only one who does that right?

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In other words, I kinda dig their sense of humour ;)

Book Details
Title: The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Wiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed
Author: Patrick Rothfuss
Illustrations: Nate Taylor
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 69
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-313-6
First published: 2010

The Khaim Novellas - Tobias S. Buckell and Paolo Bacigalupi

I keep an eye out for everything Paolo Bacigalupi publishes ever since reading his marvellous collection of short fiction Pump Six and Other Stories in 2008. When news reached me that Bacigalupi teamed up with Tobias S. Buckell to write a set of paired novellas in a shared fantasy world, I was quite excited about the project. Unfortunately they were meant for release as audio book on audible.com. There is nothing wrong with audiobooks of course, but I happen to prefer reading over listening so this was a mild disappointment. Fortunately Subterranean Press picked up these novellas and released them in hardcover with some very good artwork and interior illustrations by J. K. Drummond.

The novellas are set in a world where magic exists but comes at a high price. With every use of magic, a new bramble sprouts somewhere near. These plants are almost impossible to kill, poisonous and rapidly overrunning entire cities. Everybody feels use of magic ought to be curtailed but there is always the lure of solving some problem with magic that would lead to disaster otherwise. What's one extra sprout somewhere near weighed against the life of a sick child? Draconian laws are put in place, religious orders preach against using magic and still the bramble spreads... Apparently Bacigalupi came up with the bramble idea, it looks like he took his inspiration from the tragedy of the commons.

The Executioness - Tobias S. Buckell

In this story we meet Tana. She middle-aged, mother of two sons and burdened with an alcoholic husband living outside Khaim. Her family can barely make ends meet on the income of Tana's father who is one of the city's executioners. Tana's father is very ill however, and soon the day comes when he can no longer perform his duty. To ensure the family's income, Tana sees only on option, she will have to take his place. When she returns for taking the head of someone caught using magic, she learns that raiders have struck the city. Her husband is dead, her father dying, her children taken. Carrying the executioner's axe, Tana sets out to get her children back.

I enjoyed both novellas a lot but I think The Executioness is the weaker of the two. The story was partly inspired by the question why there are so few middle-aged women as major characters in modern fantasy. Which, in itself, is an interesting question of course, truth be told I couldn't name that many. Tana's role is that of a mother protecting her children. Everything she achieves in her search for her children are means to an end, she is ready to give it up in a moment if it means getting her children back. This is a very powerful motivation of course, but not one that will win Buckell many feminist fans I suspect. Not until the very end of the novella is Tana forced to adjust her view a bit.

Tana's travels do give us a brief view of the world this story is set in. Buckell, who's published work is mostly sciece fiction, quickly finds out why epic fantasy is ...well... epic. Worldbuilding takes time and Tana's story itself could easily have been novel length. In short, the author has some trouble fitting it all into a hundred pages. He manages, but it left me with the feeling that the world was a but underdeveloped. Despite my earlier comments, I did grow to like Tana a lot. Her story may be a bit of a fantasy cliché, it is a well-written fantasy tale.

The Alchemist - Paolo Bacigalupi

The city of Khaim has been trying to control the use of magic, and thus the spread of the bramble, by making unauthorized use of magic punishable by death. Not everybody is ready to give up magic, death penalty or not, so the bramble keeps spreading. In his laboratory alchemist Jeoz is working on a mixture that will kill the bramble and makes sure it stays dead. He has sacrificed his wealth for this, selling just about every bit of furniture in the house. Jeoz has an additional motive for his project, without the use of magic, he cannot keep his daughter alive. She is suffering from consumption and will surely die without magical intervention. When Jeoz hits the jackpot and finds a formula that will work, he rushes of to the authorities to show his invention to them. Khaim's mayor does not intend to deliver the world from the poisonous bramble, he sees the means to reinforce his monopoly on the use of magic. And if Jeoz doesn't care to comply, well, the major has the perfect incentive to make him.

So instead of a mother trying to protect her sons, we have a father protecting his daughter. How is this story different from The Executioness? What makes it work better? For one thing The Alchemist does not have the wide scope of Buckell's story. It is focussed on what happens in Jeoz' household for the most part, making it more intimate, less dependant on a large cast and events in the wider world to make the story work. It feels to me like Bacigalupi's story fits much more comfortably into the novella format.

What I also liked about this story is the gradual way in which the motives of the key players are revealed. It is clear what Jeoz tries to achieve from the first but there is much more to his household than is immediately apparent. Bacigalupi carefully times the moment when the mayor's ideas on Jeoz' invention become clear. When it comes to pacing and time key developments this novella work very well indeed. In a way, The Alchemist is not that different from Buckell's effort but I think I can see why Bacigalupi got the Nebula nomination.

The Executioness and The Alchemist form an intriguing set of novella's. On Suberranean's website a new story in this world written by Buckell appeared. I wonder if he and/or Bacigalupi intend to develop this world further. There's definitely room for more stories in this setting.

Book Details:
Title: The Executioness
Author: Tobias S. Buckell
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 102
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-354-9
First published: 2010

Title: The Alchemist
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 95
Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-353-2
First published: 2010

Starlady and Fast-Friend - George R.R. Martin

I am making this Subterranean week retrospectively I guess. I wrote a review of this book right after it was published in 2008. Reading it earlier this week I decided it was crap so I reread the two stories and rewrote the entire thing. Enjoy!

In July 2008 Subterranean published this book containing two novelettes by George R.R. Martin, both of which were originally published in 1976. Subterranean has chosen an interesting format to publish these stories. They are presented in a similar fashion to the Ace Double novels of the 1950s and 1960s. In his collection Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective, a publication I have realized that is central to Martin’s work, he mentions them as some of his earliest exposures to (written) science fiction. Stories that took him to “walk beneath the light of distant stars” as he puts it himself. Like the Ace publications this book has two covers and is printed back to back and upside down. I was born too late and on the wrong continent to have been exposed to any of these double novels myself but I thought it an interesting idea anyway. Martin has carefully selected two stories that were not included in Dreamsongs: A RRetrospective. They were probably included in some of Martin’s earlier collections (most of which are out of print) but I had not read them before.

Starlady is set in the same universe as Martin’s first novel Dying of the Light and a number of other short stories. Other than a few references to places, events and alien species, the story does not seem connected to any of these. It is set on Thisrock, a place where life is cheap, justice hard to find and anything is available for a price. Janey Small, or Starlady as she will be known, and her companion Golden Boy find this out the hard way. Raped, robbed and stranded on the planet they are taken in by the pimp Hairy Hal. Hal sets Starlady straight on the facts of life. It is either work for him or take their chances outside. Not much of a choice in truth. Life with Hairy Hall is not enough to quell Starlady’s ambition and need for vengeance.

I guess many people would see Starlady as the central character of the story. For me Hairy Hal was more interesting though. Martin has never been afraid of showing the dark side of human nature and he certainly does not shy from it here. Hairy Hal is not a very nice man. He's a pimp, makes a living by exploiting other people's bodies and he's a shameless opportunist. But, and that is probably the brilliance in this story, he is also very afraid. This single fact and the way Martin reveals it manages to create just a little bit of sympathy for the loathsome man he certainly is in the reader. It's what makes this story work for me.

In Fast-Friend, a story that as far as I can tell does not share it’s universe with any of Martin’s other stories, we see a human civilization that is struggling to escape from the solar system. The first expeditions into interstellar space have found life, to their amazement and ruin, and one of these species holds the key to breaking the speed of light. Darks as they are called are creatures that convert matter, any matter, into energy. They travel the vast emptiness of space at incredible speeds. Spaceships are food to them, they are very dangerous, there is simply no outrunning them. By merging human and dark however, Fast-Friends can be created. These creatures are the link between humanity’s far-flung colonies. The only way to communicate effectively. Brand, the main character of our story, and his lover Melissa had the chance to become a Fast-Friend. Melissa took it but fear got the best of Brand. He now infinitely regrets the lost opportunity.

This story is more emotionally charged than Starlady. Martin wrote a number of those in the 1970s and one of them, A Song for Lya (1974) is probably among his best know short fiction. Brand's struggle to be reunited with his love is touching but does not quite have the same impact as some of his other short stories. I very much liked the bitter-sweet ending of the story however. Fast-Friend one of those stories that could very easily have been ruined by giving it a happy end. Fortunately that is not Martin's style.

Martin's success in recent years with his fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire has eclipsed most of his earlier projects. At the same time it has also created opportunities to reissue some of his older works. I've read quite a few of Martin's short stories and all of his other novels by now and I think some of his best writing is in his short fiction. Whenever I read one Martin’s short stories I am amazed by how much he can put into so few words. Starlady and Fast-Friend is not a particularly cheap book, it is listed for 20 US$ at the Subterranean website, but for that you do get two stories by a master of the craft as well as a good quality hardcover with good artwork by Martina Pilcerova (who did some fine Ice and Fire artwork as well). I don’t think I ever read anything by Martin that disappointed me and these stories are no exception. Good stories, interesting format, good artwork, what more could we ask for?

Book Details
Title: Starlady and Fast-Friend
Author: George R.R. Martin
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 37+34
Year: 2008
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-175-0
First published: 2008

The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang is a remarkable author. He has only twelve published stories to his name, none of them exceeding The Lifecycle of Software Objects in length, in the space of twenty years. What's even more remarkable is that he's won an astonishing number of awards for them. Chaing is the winner of four Nebulas and three Hugos as well as a number of other awards. I would not be surprised if this novella ended up on the nominations lists next year as well. I've only read one story by Chiang, Exhalation, which is available online here in various formats. Exhalation is one of Chiang's award winners and deservedly so. Still, one story is not a solid basis for any kind of expectation so I was not quite sure what to expect.

The novella is inspired by a quote of Alan Turing, the man who invented the Turing test, an idea that frequently surfaces in science fiction. The quote itself is on the front flap, which should be read before starting the actual story. It puts the novella in a very different light. To quote from the front flap:

What's the best way to create artificial intelligence? In 1950, Alan Turing wrote, 'Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English. This process could follow the normal teaching of a child. Things would be pointed out and named, etc. Again I do not know what the right answer is, but I think both approaches should be tried.'

The second approach is what interests Chiang. In the novella the development of pieces of intelligent software named Digients, being raised by their human owners. The creators made sure they are docile and built in a lot of fail safes to prevent abuse but the Digients are able to learn and nobody knows exactly how far they'll develop. The Digients sell like hotcakes for a while but soon interest fades and new projects swallow the attention of companies and consumers. A small group of people, including some of the developers keep on taking care of their Digients for various reasons. None of them know how far they can take the development of these creatures.

Last week I reviewed another Subterranean publication and again I am very impressed with the looks of this book. Despite it's 150 pages, The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a novella length work. Part of the page count comes from the beautiful illustrations in the book created by Christian Pierce and Jacob McMurray. Some of them are depictions of robots in various states of (human) development, others are roadmaps linking components of behaviour and intelligence.

The first thing I thought when I finished the novella is why the hell isn't this a full novel? Chiang gives us a taste of a fascinating subject but he could have easily put a bit more flesh on the bones of this story. The Lifecycle of Software Objects covers about ten years in all and we make great jumps though the development of the Digients and their owners. The developments in wider society are covered briefly, there is barely a hint about the characters' pasts. The story is very focussed on the idea of creating artificial intelligence and letting it develop in an almost organic way. As such it reminded me very much of some of the older science fiction I've been reading, although I rarely come across a novel in which the central concept is so sophisticated.

The development of the Digients themselves is marvellously done in this novella. Early on in the story the Digients are toys to most people (Elizabeth Bear refers to the Tamagochi in her review on Tor.com), with only a small number realizing they can be more than that. Gradually the view changes from pets, to small children, to adolescents and finally... to adults? There are quite a few things in this novel that a parent would recognize. Chiang touches on issues like financial responsibility and even sexuality in a fairly direct way. At the same time, the Digients are not (digital) people. They have their own problems, limitations and challenges to deal with and since they are the first generation, dealing with them is often trail and error. There are many unknowns, including their legal status.

The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a very interesting little work. It raises a lot of questions for which no simple answers exist, as the ending of the novel clearly shows. Despite the brief descriptions of the various episodes in the development of the Digients I thought this novella a very interesting read. There is no doubt some people will be put off by the fact that it is such a focussed work. Even if it concentrates on the project of teaching software as you would a child, this book leaves the reader with plenty to think about. How much of the Digient's personality is due to the upbringing it receives and how much of it is simply programming? Does it matter that some of the characters form an emotional attachment to a piece of software? How sophisticated an intelligence does it have to be for that be be considered normal? At what point does the Digient become something more than a smart program? What are the consequences of that? The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a thoughtful tale and a peculiar one. I think it might be one of those love it or hate it stories. Personally, I loved it.

Book Details
Title: The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Author: Ted Chiang
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 150
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-317-4
First published: 2010

Leviathan Wept and Other Stories - Daniel Abraham

Daniel Abraham must be a busy man. He's currently writing under several pseudonyms in several (sub) genres of speculative fiction and his output is impressive. Vicious Grace, an urban fantasy novel is scheduled to be released in November under the name M.L.N. Hanover, with another book in the same series expected in 2011. In June 2011 his first science fiction novel is expected, a collaboration with Ty Franck under yet another pen name: James S. A. Corey. He also has a new epic fantasy series in the works for Orbit under his own name. I haven't been able to find a publication date (unless you wish to trust Amazon) for the first part in this series, The Dragon's Path, but the announcement of the book deal was made last year so I would not be surprised if that book surfaced in 2011 as well. I'm a great fan of Abraham's Long Price Quartet, which unfortunately didn't do as well as publisher Tor hoped. That's a real shame, it is one of the better fantasy series of the first decade of this century. I currently only have a review for the final part in the series, The Price of Spring, available on Random Comments but I intend to change that sometime soon.

Abraham also has quite a few short stories to his name but until now they had not been collected. Subterranean Press has released nine of his short stories in a very handsome hardcover edition. I own a number of their books and I have to hand it to them, they know how to make a book visually stunning. Unfortunately they omitted adding the publication history of the stories so I am not entirely sure if this collection contains any new work. Looks like all of them are reprints except A Hunter in Arin-Quin. Leviathan Wept and Other Stories is a bit of a strange collection. It clearly shows the various styles and sub genres that Abraham writes in but the strongest stories are all in the first part of the collection. Not that there isn't more than enough to enjoy in the later part of the book but I couldn't shake the feeling it would have worked better if they changed a couple of stories around. I'm going to mention a few I particularly enjoyed.

The collection opens with The Cambist and Lord Iron, a story takes the form of a faerie tale in which the Cambist (money-changer) has the face three challenges by the dangerous and notorious Lord Iron. He is to value the unusual commodities in strange currency. Once for his job, twice for his life and finally for his soul. Publilius Syrus' well known maxim "Everything is worth what is purchaser will pay for it" proves useful but certainly not the answer to all of these challenges. Stories like these is why I find myself reading more and more short fiction. It's unusual, has a strong central theme and has the potential to make the reader think about how we value certain aspects of our lives. The form Abraham uses to tell his tale contrasts nicely with some of the questions it raises. This story is available under a creative commons licence here.

Flat Diane is the second story in this collection and probably one of his better known short works. It got Abraham a Nebula Award nomination. I guess this is a horror story about a father and a daughter trying to deal with the departure of the mother from the family. One of the things tries to cheer Diane up is create a paper outline of her and to send it around to friends and family with instructions to have their picture taken with it. Soon signs that Dianne knows things that only Flat Dianne can know begin to show up. This becomes a real problem when Flat Diane falls into the wrong hands. It's a very creepy story. The fear in Diane is very well done but the suspicion the father faces when people start thinking he is doing horrible things to his daughter himself really elevates it about the rest of the collection. If I had to pick one, this story would be my favourite.

Self-help books, a phenomenon that is not quite as big on our side of the Atlantic but not entirely unknown. In The Support Technician Tango random advice from a mysterious book that apparently belongs to no one wreaks havoc on in a lawyer's office. When everyone from the system administrator to the lawyer himself starts to follow these bits of advice misunderstandings, reset priorities, suspicion and unrequited love plunge the office in chaos. At times slightly satirical, sometimes touching and lacking a clear speculative element, this story is not something most readers would expect Abraham to produce. What I thought interesting about it, is the importance a lot of the characters seem to give to superficial things and above all appearance to measure their success in life. What's even more interesting is the way they clean up the mess without anybody getting hurt.

The final story I want to mention is A Hunter in Arin-Quin which gives Flat Diane a run for it's money when it comes to the emotional power of the story. At the beginning of the story we meet a woman in a state of exhaustion and panic. Her trade is slaying monsters but all her hard earned knowledge and experience seems to vanish when one of the monsters she usually hunts turns the tables on her and abducts her daughter. Completely unprepared of a long hunt though winter weather she tries to catch up with the monster. Abraham weaves a second story line into the tale composed of flashbacks of the training she received by her father and how it ultimately lead her to the mess she is in. A Hunter in Arin-Quin set in a secondary world with distinct Asian influences. I very much liked it for the setting but also of the way Abraham uses non-verbal communication in this story. It's different from what he does in the Long Price Quartet but no less effective.

The collection also includes the stories The Best Monkey, Leviathan Wept, Exclusion, As Sweet and The Curandero and the Swede all of which have their moments. I think I need to read that final story again sometime. Not entirely sure what to make of that one yet. All in all Leviathan Wept and Other Stories is a varied collection of excellent short fiction. The breadth of Abraham's writing is showcased here. What each and every one of these stories have in common is the attention to the characters. Abraham uses very different characters in these stories, men or women, old or young, all of them are very well drawn in the limited space a short story offers. Like his novels the characterization is exceptional. So far I have only read Abraham's fantasy. From this collection it is quite clear he is capable of much more. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for that some of his other books. I guess his science fiction début Leviathan Wakes has just placed itself on the to read list for next year.

Book Details
Title: Leviathan Wakes and Other Stories
Author: Daniel Abraham
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Pages: 277
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-265-8
First published: 2010

Clementine - Cherie Priest

Last year, Priest's novel Boneshaker (Tor, October 2009) took the Steampunk sub genre by storm. Her novel about an alternate history Seattle, poisoned by a mysterious gas and plagued by zombies was very well received and is one of the novels still in the race for the Hugo Award. With that kind of success more stories in this Clockwork Century setting were to be expected. Earlier this year Subterranean already published to story Tanglefoot online (it can be read here) and this month they added the novella Clementine to it. I understand that Priest has also sold a number of other Clockwork Century novels to Tor. Her second full length novel in this setting, Dreadnought, is expected in September.

Clementine is probably set shortly after the events in Boneshaker. It features a number of minor character form the novel but you do not need to read it to enjoy this book. Set in an alternate version of the US where the civil war has dragged on for two decades, both sides are looking for something that can break the stalemate and enable them to strike a decisive blow. Somehow the dirigible Free Crow of smuggler, pirate and sometimes bank robber Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey is central to the plans of one of the parties. His honestly stolen ship is taken by a party colleagues, hastily renamed Clementine and taken east with unknown cargo. Hainey is about to let this theft go unpunished.

In the mean time southern spy Maria Isabelle Boyd, finds that the worst that could possibly happen to a spy has occurred. Her actions on behalf of the Confederacy has gained her a level of fame that makes further covert operations almost impossible. To make matters worse her loyalties are questioned. Cut loose from her employer, Boyd tries her luck in the north where the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency has offered her a job. Her first assignment is to make sure a certain dirigible arrives on schedule and delivers goods to a Sanatorium. It looks innocent but reading between the lines Boyd get the impression the cargo is deemed vital to the Union war effort. Will old loyalties prevail over pragmatism?

It's quite unusual to have works in the same setting published by two different publishers without getting into an argument with one of them. Tor seems to prefer books of novel length though, I don't think they've published anything recent that is under a hundred thousand words in quite a while. At 201 generously spaced pages Clementine is well below that although I would not be surprised if it pushes the word limit for novellas. That being said, it is quite a different creature than the novel Boneshaker. It has a higher density of action scenes, including some very interesting areal combat and a number of gunfights.

Priest picked a couple of very unlikely heroes for this tale. Hainey is an escaped slave and criminal who doesn't have any moral objections to blowing whoever happens to be in the way of him regaining his beloved dirigible away with an absurdly large gun named Rattler. He's wanted in both the Union and the Confederacy and he's very much aware of how that limits his manoeuvrability. Boyd on the other hand has been fiercely defending the cause of the Confederacy, a state that allows slavery, and seriously considers capturing Hainey and deliver him to her old employer to get back in their good graces. She is also not above shooting people if it means getting the job done. Neither of the main characters are suitable as role models to say the least. Personally I can appreciate a bit of moral ambiguity in a novel but some readers will no doubt be more comfortable with Brair and quest to get her son back.

Characters willing to do a little damage achieve their goals do make for an action-packed novel. Where in Boneshaker the dirigibles were mostly part of the scenery, we get to see quite a lot of them here. I must admit I fail to see the wisdom of a combination of steam engines and hydrogen filled balloons, or mounting them with guns for that matter. Predictably, large explosions are the result. On the whole I liked this more condensed version of the Clockwork Century better than Boneshaker though. The novel is a fine piece of writing but it does contain a fairly straightforward story. Perhaps not enough to justify the length of Boneshaker. Clementine is more tightly written. The pace is relentless but Priest does manage to flesh out the two main characters well enough to make them interesting.

Do not expect a very complex story when reading this. Clementine is a fast and exciting read. Something the whet the appetite before Dreadnought hits the shelves. Personally, I don't understand why Tor let this one pass. It is bound to appeal to readers who liked Boneshaker. Thankfully there are still publishers interested in work that doesn't conform to the big fat fantasy novel standards. Subterranean did a wonderful job on the cover art (by Jon Foster) and design as well. For those of you who have not been able to get your hands on a hardcover, I hear they are almost sold out, there will be a paperback edition sometime next year. Now or next year, if you do see it in a book store don't hesitate, Clementine is a very good read.

Book Details
Title: Clementine
Author: Cherie Priest
Publisher: Suterranean Press
Pages: 201
Year: 2010
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-59606-308-2
First published: 2010