Fast Ships, Black Sails, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
The introduction to Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s new anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails, says it all:
From Caribbean intrigue to pirate cooks, from unlikely romance to blood-thirsty attacks, Fast Ships, Black Sails has something for everyone.
And indeed they have. The book opens with “Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, a space pirates story. […]
Weird Tales #350
As Ann VanderMeer says in the preface of Weird Tales #350, the stories in this issue are all about change. But that’s not all there is to it; this issue is unusually full of flash and short fiction—some very poetic—but not every one of them succeeds at being a really original, moving story.
“All In” by […]
Analog, October 2008
The October issue of Analog has plenty of creative stories, most of which (but not all) share a common trait: intriguing storytelling that ends abruptly.
In “The Meme Theorist,” Robert R. Chase presents us with Theo Pelerin, a scientist who suddenly starts seeing dead people—dead scientists, to be more accurate. When the story begins, he wakes […]
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Even though Kelly Link’s collection, Magic for Beginners, was published in 2006, it still deserves acknowledgement. Link’s stories are surprisingly original and beautiful, and one thing that stands out is her choice of words. The way she savors language is not unlike John Crowley’s writing, such as in his novel Little, Big. She cares about […]
Continue ReadingAnalog, September 2008
The September, 2008, issue of Analog is more balanced than the July/August issue was; it’s full of good, insightful stories, even if some of them are predictable and bordering on cliché.
In “The Fourth Thing” by Stephen L. Burns, a woman called Noelle is visited by a presence in her head which urges her to come […]
PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by Robert T. Jeschonek
In his introduction, Mike Resnick sets the tone for PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by comparing author Robert T. Jaschonek to R. A. Lafferty, “possessor of the most unique and idiosyncratic voice of his era.” For Resnick, Lafferty and Jeschonek are much alike “because nobody sees the world quite the way Robert […]
Continue ReadingSteampunk, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
The VanderMeers’s anthologies seem to be establishing a new landmark for the oughts with their mixture of fiction and non-fiction pieces. After not only publishing articles in The New Weird, they also published (for the first time in an SF anthology, as far as I know) a web discussion list thread in order to get […]
Continue ReadingAnalog, July/August 2008
The July/August 2008 issue of Analog is a roller coaster: full of ups and downs—more ups than downs, but a bit frustrating all the same. It barely manages to keep a delicate balance between the scientific infodump and the storytelling, often resulting in the science overwhelming the fiction. It’s not a return to Hugo Gernsback […]
Continue ReadingWeird Tales #349
Weird Tales #349 is a special edition: it celebrates the magazine´s 85th anniversary. And it begins in great style, featuring a classic name and a regular contributor to Weird Tales since its resurrection in the 1980s: Tanith Lee.
Lee’s story, “Heart of Ice,” tells of Nirsen, an orphan betrayed by the people he lives […]
Weird Tales #348
Weird Tales #348 begins with W.H. Pugmire and M.K. Snyder’s “The House of Idiot Children,” a rather solemn but effective story. Samuel Shammua is a Hebrew teacher who has a very special student, an autistic child who can manipulate language as if it were a virus. The solemnity comes from the obsessive, almost religious attitude […]
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