Strange Horizons, September 2007

In September, Strange Horizons offered four quite different stories.

I expect that some people will find the first, “All Kinds of Reasons” by Katherine Maclaine, a difficult read. Set in a near future where it is possible to predict the genetic deformities an embryo will possess, it focuses on two hopeful parents, Tony and Rhia. The many problems with Rhia’s genetic history, as well as a few problems on Tony’s side, make this prediction tool very important to them. But while Rhia is focused on choosing the least defective embryos, Tony becomes fixated on number 26:

“The baby had large eyes that tilted slightly upwards, a snub nose, fleshy cheeks, and an upper lip that split straight up to the nostrils. Its fingers were melded or missing entirely–lobster claws. The legs, attached together from hips to ankles, made a mermaid tail, and it had the beginnings of short, pointed teeth.”

Maclaine does not shy away from the questions such a prediction tool raises. Rhia’s desire for a healthy child is one that many people will relate to. Yet there is something compelling about Tony’s obsession with the fish-girl he cannot have; it is revealed that the child could have survived everything but the tail, and it is difficult not to wonder why a deformed child has any less right to be chosen over a “normal” one. At the same time, there is wisdom in the doctor’s words when he says: “But if you’re talking about purposefully choosing children with the possibility of serious problems . . . there’s nothing helpful in that.” This is fiction to chew over, and I expect that different readers will come to different conclusions.

Helen Keeble gives the notion of elemental magic a fresh view in “In Stone.” Those children who show a talent for the magic do more than control an element; they become a part of it, with serious consequences. Storn’s sister gave herself to the mountain as a child so that she could bring up the mountain’s treasure of silver for the mining town. Now Storn is a man and the mountain’s reserves have run low, and the council has elected to remove his sister from the mountain and take her to another so that a new town can be built and prosper. This requires the help of a fire elemental, to melt the stone encasing his sister.

This is the kind of fantasy I love the most: strange worlds and the strange events taking place within them, and utterly unflinching. What happens to the children is undeniably tragic, yet it is the firekin’s desire to have its body slowly but surely consumed by flame, and it is the stonekin’s desire to be imprisoned in a mountain. Their anchors in the human world—brother, mother—are forced to deal with this, because the practicalities of life demand it of them. Life does not present happy endings, only moments that are somewhere between wonderful and awful. Though “In Stone” required a second read for it all to fall into place, it was well worth it. I hope to read more stories in this world. Recommended.

“How the Little Rabbi Grew” by Eliot Fintushel is a parable of faith and human nature. Shlomo Beser is born to an isolated Jewish town in New York, and from a young age he shows divine gifts. He recites previously unknown holy names of God; he delivers a new testament. He climbs a hill to receive wisdoms from God and climbs down to share them with his Aunt Dora, who cannot bear to listen to the end. The old wise men of the town, however, become fixated upon the new wisdoms spoken by the prodigious child and grow increasingly insistent that Dora tell them what her nephew says.

The final revelation of God’s highest mystery lacked the full resonance for me, an atheist, which I expect it will have for those of faith (and not necessarily Judaism). However, I agreed with the sentiment of it: it seemed right that this simple, core thing should be more important than the details that the old wise men obsessed over. And as a moral tale about greed, “How the Little Rabbi Grew” works very well. I enjoyed it.

“Minghun: Unlikely Patron Saints, No. 5″ is one of several stories that Amy Sisson has written about unlikely saintly figures, and after reading this one, I would like to read the others. Minghun is a broker who comes to the place where the spirits of the dead wait, bringing news to the spirits that their parents have found a marriage partner for them to be buried with, so that they might know companionship in the afterlife. Qiu Liu is one of these spirits, waiting like the others. And then she meets Yan Lianghui, another spirit, who encourages her to think about her unfinished life and about the lot of some of their fellow spirits. Sisson’s tale is touching and lovely. In a short space she manages to convey Qui Liu’s confusion at being dead, her desire for companionship, and her need to act. Though there is sadness underpinning the story, there is happiness and hope at the end. Recommended.