Book 38: Deadline (The Newsflesh Trilogy, Book Two) by Mira Grant, isbn 9780316081061, 608 pages, Orbit, $9.99
The Premise: (from the back cover): "Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn't seem as much fun when you've lost as much as he has. But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news -- he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead. Now, Shaun hits the road again to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun."
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: At the end of my review of FEED, I said, "I can also say (and I doubt anyone would be surprised) that FEED is the first of a trilogy. I'm not sure how quickly I'll rush out to pick up book two, DEADLINE. I think FEED stands well enough on its own that I don't necessarily feel the need to see the story continued; I guess my decision will rest solely on how much I miss the surviving members of Team Mason by the time the new book hits the stands."
Obviously, I missed the surviving members of Team Mason far more than I thought I did. I bought DEADLINE the moment I saw it on the shelf. It took me another week or two to get around to reading it, and it's been over a week since I finished reading it, but I don't regret snapping it up as soon as I saw it.
Any complaints I had about the first book, in terms of characterization or the same-ness of the different characters' blog entries, are pretty much gone in this book. The pacing is excellent. The new characters (or the old supporting characters with increased importance and screen-time) fill out the cast nicely in the wake of the main characters lost in FEED. Becks, Mahir, Alaric, Kelly -- all add more depth to a story told entirely through the lens of Shaun Mason's slowly increasing insanity.
Yes, Shaun is going insane thanks to what happened in FEED. No doubt about it. The other characters know it, and any reader who writes it off as hyperbole or as some clever trick of the author -- no, sorry. He's nuts. He knows he's nuts. He's functioning (barely, some days) but he's nuts. Actually, I take that back -- there is a clever trick on the author's part. The trick is in making us understand that Shaun is almost certifiable and yet still making us believe he can solve whatever problems the team is faced with as he tries to dig deeper into the conspiracy that has effectively ruined his life and is quite possibly going to ruin the world.
I described FEED as a "zombie political thriller ala ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN." I've been describing FEED to people as a "zombie medical thriller ala Robin Cook's books." Once again, while the zombies are the every-day problem the characters need to deal with, it's the medical conspiracy Kelly brings to the team's attention that is the main focus of the book (just as the political campaign intrigue was the focus of FEED). And I think this is why I'm enjoying Mira Grant's books far more than any other print zombie story I've ever read -- because the zombies are there, but the focus is on a bigger story than just "let's try to survive while undead creatures try to eat us."
Once again, I find I can't say too much about what really makes the book work for me without spoiling major events. So it'll have to suffice, I suppose, if I say that the events at the close of FEED provide the major momentum for the events of DEADLINE, and the last 20 pages of DEADLINE will provide the momentum of the final book in the trilogy, BLACKOUT. And this time, there's no doubt in my mind: I will be picking BLACKOUT up the week it hits the stands, and probably reading it that quick. I need to see how this whole thing wraps up.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Review of Challengers of the Unknown
Book 37: Challengers of the Unknown by Ron Goulart, isbn 9780440113377, 155 pages, Dell, $1.50 (1977 cover price)
The Premise: (from the back cover) Deep in the South American jungle, a real and sinister menace lurks in the shadows of the supernatural... In a remote lake, a legendary monster, incredibly vicious, surfaces after a sleep of centuries. Acting to protect its oil stake, the U.S. Government calls in... The Challengers! Men with young faces and old memories move mysteriously in the area, speak in low tones about the capital city. The country's president alerts... The Challengers! A dying man names a desert fort, many miles away... bizarre mechanisms keep the curious away... Unseen enemies... Strange accidents... Strong-arm assailants... A hair-raising test of the celebrated ingenuity of the Challengers of the Unknown."
My Rating: 3 stars
My Thoughts: Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for pulp adventure, and just about any pulp adventure I read is going to end up with around 3 stars: they're not always great literature, but rarely are they disappointing either.
Anyone who knows me knows I also have a soft spot for secondary (and tertiary) DC comics characters like the Challengers of the Unknown. I loved collecting the out-of-print original run of comics from the 60s, I loved the revival in the late 70s. I remember reading this novel (the only one written featuring the Challs) back in high school. I lost that copy, but found another not long ago in a Half-Price Books somewhere (probably Pittsburgh, but might have been Dallas).
Sadly, I cannot say it was as good as my teenage self thought it was. But it was still a rollickin' good pulp adventure.
What I didn't like about the book can be summed up with two words: Characterization. Dialogue. Aside from Ace Morgan and Red Ryan, the Challs feel "off" somehow. Prof. Haley in this version is a rabid womanizer, sort of a brainiac young Hugh Hefner. Rocky Davis is a wrestler rather than a boxer (I seem to recall in the comics he was ret-conned to have been trained by the great Ted Grant), a health-food nut (that I can accept). June Robbins comes across far ditzier than she should (and if it's meant to be an act for her reporter cover story, that's never stated in the book). And the dialogue -- I'm not saying the Challs have to have stereotypical speech patterns that fit their roles (Ace as gruff ex-AF, Red shouting "hey rube," Prof sounding like a thesaurus, Rocky sounding addled from too many blows to the head), but they should at least sound consistent throughout the book. There were points where I was jarred out of the book because something Rocky said was written in Prof's style, etc. Ron Goulart is a good writer with a strong sense of pulp history -- I was disappointed that he seemed to drop the ball on dialogue.
Now, for what I did like: pretty much everything else. The plot is classic pulp adventure: Challs get sent to South America to deal with a supernatural menace and end up encountering a human menace that is as bad or worse. Straight-forward action segues into trippy 70s supernaturalness with just a dollop of Lovecraftian mythos. The Challs, like their peer Doc Savage, overcome sometimes ridiculous odds to beat both menaces. Extra bonus: Wold-Newton Universe fans don't have to dig very far to make connections to Farmer's works and world.
Three stars for pulpy goodness -- grab this for a light, fun read (I read it on one short plane flight). Maybe someday someone will write more Challs novels with these original five characters. If any secondary DC characters could carry a tv series (SyFy at least, preferably HBO) or movie series, it'd be the Challs.
The Premise: (from the back cover) Deep in the South American jungle, a real and sinister menace lurks in the shadows of the supernatural... In a remote lake, a legendary monster, incredibly vicious, surfaces after a sleep of centuries. Acting to protect its oil stake, the U.S. Government calls in... The Challengers! Men with young faces and old memories move mysteriously in the area, speak in low tones about the capital city. The country's president alerts... The Challengers! A dying man names a desert fort, many miles away... bizarre mechanisms keep the curious away... Unseen enemies... Strange accidents... Strong-arm assailants... A hair-raising test of the celebrated ingenuity of the Challengers of the Unknown."
My Rating: 3 stars
My Thoughts: Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for pulp adventure, and just about any pulp adventure I read is going to end up with around 3 stars: they're not always great literature, but rarely are they disappointing either.
Anyone who knows me knows I also have a soft spot for secondary (and tertiary) DC comics characters like the Challengers of the Unknown. I loved collecting the out-of-print original run of comics from the 60s, I loved the revival in the late 70s. I remember reading this novel (the only one written featuring the Challs) back in high school. I lost that copy, but found another not long ago in a Half-Price Books somewhere (probably Pittsburgh, but might have been Dallas).
Sadly, I cannot say it was as good as my teenage self thought it was. But it was still a rollickin' good pulp adventure.
What I didn't like about the book can be summed up with two words: Characterization. Dialogue. Aside from Ace Morgan and Red Ryan, the Challs feel "off" somehow. Prof. Haley in this version is a rabid womanizer, sort of a brainiac young Hugh Hefner. Rocky Davis is a wrestler rather than a boxer (I seem to recall in the comics he was ret-conned to have been trained by the great Ted Grant), a health-food nut (that I can accept). June Robbins comes across far ditzier than she should (and if it's meant to be an act for her reporter cover story, that's never stated in the book). And the dialogue -- I'm not saying the Challs have to have stereotypical speech patterns that fit their roles (Ace as gruff ex-AF, Red shouting "hey rube," Prof sounding like a thesaurus, Rocky sounding addled from too many blows to the head), but they should at least sound consistent throughout the book. There were points where I was jarred out of the book because something Rocky said was written in Prof's style, etc. Ron Goulart is a good writer with a strong sense of pulp history -- I was disappointed that he seemed to drop the ball on dialogue.
Now, for what I did like: pretty much everything else. The plot is classic pulp adventure: Challs get sent to South America to deal with a supernatural menace and end up encountering a human menace that is as bad or worse. Straight-forward action segues into trippy 70s supernaturalness with just a dollop of Lovecraftian mythos. The Challs, like their peer Doc Savage, overcome sometimes ridiculous odds to beat both menaces. Extra bonus: Wold-Newton Universe fans don't have to dig very far to make connections to Farmer's works and world.
Three stars for pulpy goodness -- grab this for a light, fun read (I read it on one short plane flight). Maybe someday someone will write more Challs novels with these original five characters. If any secondary DC characters could carry a tv series (SyFy at least, preferably HBO) or movie series, it'd be the Challs.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
review of THE FALLING MACHINE
A friend described THE FALLING MACHINE to me as "part Sherlock Holmes, part Justice League of America, all Steampunk." I think he hit the nail on the head. I'm not a huge steampunk fan -- as a genre I have no problem with it, but I don't tend to be drawn to it -- but this premise intrigued me. And the author's appearance on the #sffwrtcht thread on Twitter a few weeks back helped cement my decision to read it.
It is both a fast read and a good read. I was immediately pulled into the world Mayer has obviously lovingly created. The attention to the details of 1880s New York City pays off in a number of places, from the opening sequence on the still-incomplete Brooklyn Bridge to a visit to the infamous Five Points district. Mayer, sometimes in just a sentence of two, conveys both the shining hope and dirty underbelly of "the greatest city in the world" at that period in time, name-dropping real life personalities like Thomas Alva Edison and inserting his steam-powered super-heroes fairly seamlessly into the real history. He even manages to drop a comment or two about why the existence of steam-powered super-heroes hasn't appreciably changed history ... yet.
Sarah and Tom (The Automaton) are the most full-realized characters in the book, as it should be since they are the focus. Sarah is a great central heroine -- and even better, she's not perfect. She makes mistakes, gets herself into scrapes, and needs the help of friends to get out of some of them. In other words, she's a very real person dealing with out-of-the-ordinary situations... just what I like in my fiction.
I also have to give credit to Mayer for creating a pair of secondary characters I want to know far more about. It would have been easy to let the steam-powered members of The Paragons be mostly one-note riffs on whatever their individual theme happened to be, but he's given almost all of them some deeper characteristic (almost all ... the Submersible feels like a stereotype, and Nathan/Turbine does as well) to make them stand apart. The two secondary characters I really wanted to see developed (and this being the first book of a trilogy, with a rich history to be explored, there's plenty of time) were The Professor and The Sleuth. Their relationship is at first implied, and then outright commented on, derogatorily, by their peers. Gay-bashing was just as much a part of 1880s life as it is now, if not moreso, and while many of us would like to imagine our super-heroes would be more accepting than real people are the fact that Mayer includes some queer-baiting among the team's conversations feels more realistic to me, especially considering this book takes place during Oscar Wilde's lifetime. Still, I hope we'll get to see more of The Professor and The Sleuth's history in subsequent books.
If there's any downside to this book, it is that it explicitly IS the first book in a trilogy, and it makes no apologies or concessions. If you get to within 50 pages and you're wondering, "wow, how is Mayer going to wrap all of this up," don't be surprised that he doesn't. He wraps some of it up, but the book ends with a fat old cliffhanger that has me wishing book two was already on the stands.
It is both a fast read and a good read. I was immediately pulled into the world Mayer has obviously lovingly created. The attention to the details of 1880s New York City pays off in a number of places, from the opening sequence on the still-incomplete Brooklyn Bridge to a visit to the infamous Five Points district. Mayer, sometimes in just a sentence of two, conveys both the shining hope and dirty underbelly of "the greatest city in the world" at that period in time, name-dropping real life personalities like Thomas Alva Edison and inserting his steam-powered super-heroes fairly seamlessly into the real history. He even manages to drop a comment or two about why the existence of steam-powered super-heroes hasn't appreciably changed history ... yet.
Sarah and Tom (The Automaton) are the most full-realized characters in the book, as it should be since they are the focus. Sarah is a great central heroine -- and even better, she's not perfect. She makes mistakes, gets herself into scrapes, and needs the help of friends to get out of some of them. In other words, she's a very real person dealing with out-of-the-ordinary situations... just what I like in my fiction.
I also have to give credit to Mayer for creating a pair of secondary characters I want to know far more about. It would have been easy to let the steam-powered members of The Paragons be mostly one-note riffs on whatever their individual theme happened to be, but he's given almost all of them some deeper characteristic (almost all ... the Submersible feels like a stereotype, and Nathan/Turbine does as well) to make them stand apart. The two secondary characters I really wanted to see developed (and this being the first book of a trilogy, with a rich history to be explored, there's plenty of time) were The Professor and The Sleuth. Their relationship is at first implied, and then outright commented on, derogatorily, by their peers. Gay-bashing was just as much a part of 1880s life as it is now, if not moreso, and while many of us would like to imagine our super-heroes would be more accepting than real people are the fact that Mayer includes some queer-baiting among the team's conversations feels more realistic to me, especially considering this book takes place during Oscar Wilde's lifetime. Still, I hope we'll get to see more of The Professor and The Sleuth's history in subsequent books.
If there's any downside to this book, it is that it explicitly IS the first book in a trilogy, and it makes no apologies or concessions. If you get to within 50 pages and you're wondering, "wow, how is Mayer going to wrap all of this up," don't be surprised that he doesn't. He wraps some of it up, but the book ends with a fat old cliffhanger that has me wishing book two was already on the stands.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Review of TEETH
I don't think there's a single bad story in this collection. There were one or two that didn't work for me quite as well as the rest (Cecil Castellucci's "Best Friends Forever," and Suzy McKee Charnas' "Late Bloomer") and I'm always honest about the fact that I struggle with poetry even at the best of times (and thus, Neil Gaiman's "Bloody Sunrise" and Emma Bull's "My Generation" were not highlights for me personally), but even the stories that didn't totally click still had some aspect I lilked (in Castellucci's story it was the ending; in Charnas' it was the twists on the way there).
My favorite stories in the collection? The lead-off by Genevieve Valentine, "Things To Know About Being Dead" and the closer by Tanith Lee, "Why Light?" prove why Datlow and Windling are such great editors -- they know how to start strong and end strong. The stories are very different in tone and text, but both leave a strong impression. Steve Berman's "All Smiles" introduces us to a possible new YA series protagonist who happens to be gay, and by the end of the story I absolutely wanted to see and know more about Saul. Nathan Ballingrud's "Sunbleached" felt like a lost chapter from Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot; coming from me that's high praise indeed. Garth Nix's "Vampire Weather," Delia Sherman's "Flying" and Ellen Kushner's "History" were also high on my favorites list.
My favorite stories in the collection? The lead-off by Genevieve Valentine, "Things To Know About Being Dead" and the closer by Tanith Lee, "Why Light?" prove why Datlow and Windling are such great editors -- they know how to start strong and end strong. The stories are very different in tone and text, but both leave a strong impression. Steve Berman's "All Smiles" introduces us to a possible new YA series protagonist who happens to be gay, and by the end of the story I absolutely wanted to see and know more about Saul. Nathan Ballingrud's "Sunbleached" felt like a lost chapter from Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot; coming from me that's high praise indeed. Garth Nix's "Vampire Weather," Delia Sherman's "Flying" and Ellen Kushner's "History" were also high on my favorites list.
More Short Story Thoughts
I'm back! I've been juggling too many balls the past few months -- reading short stories has suffered, and thus so has my attention to this community. I'm going to use this as a catch-up post, so my thoughts may not be as in-depth as usual, but hopefully this will get me back on the horse!
All of the following stories are from TEETH: Vampire Tales, edited by![[info]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vI4UtpMoCgapHeKXovwrZ2TtuJ5_b0Hl_2dJRKN5cl74E8BsiRNf2WySCedl707gwAhFhV9w_wpkEFze0OF_1o0I9zgBexkeI0YPJttXYug9uroUWQ=s0-d)
ellen_datlow and Terri Windling. I reviewed the first story in the collection,glvalentine's Things to Know About Being Dead, in a previous post. So I'm picking up with story #2....
71. All Smiles by Steve Berman I was recently lamenting the fact that there don't seem to be any Harry Dresden-style urban fantasy series with a gay private investigator at the center. This doesn't quite fit the bill either, but it's the closest I've come in a while. Berman's young Saul is a character I'd like to see more of, and I can easily see him, in adulthood, growing into a Dresden-like character. First, of course, he has to survive his teens. He's flawed, he's in a difficult situation ... but he's also an honest character who knows he's not perfect and tries to find solutions to his situation that won't make it worse. I absolutely hope Steve will write more stories of Saul and his encounters with the supernatural world.
72. Gap Year by Chrisopher Barzak Vampires are the impetus for this story but not the focus. The two female main characters have been best friends forever, but when vampires come to speak out at their school, will their relationship stand the strain of differing opinions? I could definitely relate to growing apart from a friend over a guy.
73. Bloody Sunrise by Neil Gaiman Another short, beautiful poem by Gaiman. I always feel awkward commenting on poetry.
74. Flying by Delia Sherman Sherman asks the eternal question: if you were terminally ill, what would you do to stay alive? A young girl's circus aerialist career (and thus, the career of her parents) is cut short by illness. She convinces her parents to take a break from the monotony of home life by going to see an old-fashioned traveling show. As a cancer survivor, I really felt for the lead character and understood (even if I didn't agree with) the choices she makes.
75. Vampire Weather by Garth Nix A number of the stories in this anthology take place in timelines where vampires are an acknowledged (and accepted, in some cases) subset of society. Garth goes in a different direction: society knows vampires are real -- but normal humans can get vaccinated against them. Unless, of course, you're a part of an Amish-like culture like the hero of this story. Like Flying and Gap Year, what makes this story work is that the author concentrates on real-world emotional issues (in this case, not fitting in with your family) and allows the vampire angle to add dimension to the story.
76. Late Bloomer by Suzy McKee Charnas Everyone wants to fit in somewhere. The protagonist of Charnas' story just wants to be as creatively talented as the rest of his family, but he just can't seem to get it right. Then he becomes the temporary thrall of a vampire / antique collector passing through town. Will the experience open up his creativity or stifle it further? And will he survive the experience to find out? There's a decent amount of suspense that kept me moving even when I felt the main character was getting a bit whiny about his lot in life.
77. The List of Definite Endings by Kaaron Warren It's natural that the concepts of vampirism and the terminally-ill go together well. What I'm thankful for is that each of the authors who touch on the combination in this anthology do it differently. Warren's story looks at the terminally-ill from a vampire's perspective, and also touches on her relationship with a man who has continued to age while she's stayed young. It's a very bittersweet tale, in my opinion, and very well done.
78. Best Friends Forever by Cecil Castellucci Another tale of vampires and the terminally-ill, this time looking at the possibilities for friendship between the two, and what might draw two such individuals together before they even know each others' secrets. For some reason, I had a harder time relating to the characters in this story, but even so the very end made me tear up.
79. Sit the Dead by Jeffrey Ford Like Steve Berman's tale, Ford's introduces us to a possible male Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but with a couple of neat twists that I don't want to spoil. Ford's action sequences are possibly the most actually action-filled in this anthology. It's a nice break from the stories that are more introspective and relationship-based, and as such it is perfectly placed at the mid-point of the book. I went back and reread the action sections, that's how much fun I had with them.
80. Sunbleached by Nathan Ballingrud I hope Mr. Ballingrud takes this comment as the compliment it's intended to be: halfway through reading this story, I stopped to make sure I hadn't put down TEETH and picked up my copy of 'SALEM'S LOT instead. This is a throwback to what vampires were meant to be: not eternally-suffering lovers or sympathetic foils, but downright EVIL predators. I could see the ending coming, kept hoping I was wrong, and couldn't stop reading until I got to the end. Again, perfectly placed near the mid-point of the book. The Ford, Ballingrud and Koja stories are so different from what precedes them that they can't help but shine.
81. Baby by Kathe Koja Another very different look at how vampires relate to the mortal world. The actual vampire in this story never says a word, but the narrator's words are more than enough to convey a very skin-crawling icky feeling about the symbiotic relationship between vampire and narrator. I wanted to look away but couldn't.
82. In The Future When All's Well by Catherynne M. Valente In a world where turning into a vampire is almost as easy as sneezing or having a black cat cross your path, how would it feel to watch your friends turn and not turn yourself? It's no secret I love most of Cat Valente's work, and she doesn't let me down here. I could feel the main character's denial turned ambivalence turned ache. Wonderfully done.
83. Transition by Melissa Marr Not a bad story, but not one of my favorites. Marr questions the rules for vampires siring other vampires, and asks a good question: what if you couldn't directly harm the vampire who turned you, but you could no longer stand to be in that person's presence? To what lengths would you go? A good concept, but the story suffers a little bit from what feels like an inconsistent tone. Still, I was intrigued enough to keep reading.
84. History by Ellen Kushner Kushner asks another question that authors of vampire fiction (and tales of other immortals, like the Highlander) should have long-since asked: if you could live virtually forever, would you really want to remember all of the history you experience? Telling the story at a remove (through the eyes of a human girlfriend rather than the eyes of the ages-old vampire) gives the story a quiet quality. The characters' May-December relationship also feels very real.
85. The Perfect Dinner Party by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black Sibling rivalry doesn't go away just because you're both undead. Clare and Black craft an interesting story that leaves much unsaid but chugs along with a strong sense of detail while attempting to reconcile the Victorian image of vampires with the modern day romantic image. It's an experiment that mostly works despite the narrator's initial snobbish delivery.
86. Slice of Life by Lucius Shepard When you've got a reputation, even the undead want to take advantage of you. As with most of the successful stories in this anthology, Shepard concentrates on character first -- a poor girl with something of an out-of-control mother who is just trying to find her way in the world -- and then takes things into the supernatural realm by making the girl's would-be rescuer a vampire. Again, nicely done.
87. My Generation by Emma Bull Another nice poem with some beautiful language.
88. Why Light? by Tanith Lee Another author who never fails to impress. If Nathan Ballingrud's story reminded me of 'Salem's Lot, then Lee's story reminds me of Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling. What if hidden vampire societies were working towards breeding young who could survive, and perhaps even thrive, in sunlight? Lee's story takes a slightly different direction than Butler's, and while shorter still manages to touch on ideas Butler's didn't. Still, I'd say they are excellent companion pieces, and that this story is a great choice to end the anthology with. I'd love to see Lee expand this into a longer piece, or return to this world in other stories.
All of the following stories are from TEETH: Vampire Tales, edited by
ellen_datlow and Terri Windling. I reviewed the first story in the collection,glvalentine's Things to Know About Being Dead, in a previous post. So I'm picking up with story #2....71. All Smiles by Steve Berman I was recently lamenting the fact that there don't seem to be any Harry Dresden-style urban fantasy series with a gay private investigator at the center. This doesn't quite fit the bill either, but it's the closest I've come in a while. Berman's young Saul is a character I'd like to see more of, and I can easily see him, in adulthood, growing into a Dresden-like character. First, of course, he has to survive his teens. He's flawed, he's in a difficult situation ... but he's also an honest character who knows he's not perfect and tries to find solutions to his situation that won't make it worse. I absolutely hope Steve will write more stories of Saul and his encounters with the supernatural world.
72. Gap Year by Chrisopher Barzak Vampires are the impetus for this story but not the focus. The two female main characters have been best friends forever, but when vampires come to speak out at their school, will their relationship stand the strain of differing opinions? I could definitely relate to growing apart from a friend over a guy.
73. Bloody Sunrise by Neil Gaiman Another short, beautiful poem by Gaiman. I always feel awkward commenting on poetry.
74. Flying by Delia Sherman Sherman asks the eternal question: if you were terminally ill, what would you do to stay alive? A young girl's circus aerialist career (and thus, the career of her parents) is cut short by illness. She convinces her parents to take a break from the monotony of home life by going to see an old-fashioned traveling show. As a cancer survivor, I really felt for the lead character and understood (even if I didn't agree with) the choices she makes.
75. Vampire Weather by Garth Nix A number of the stories in this anthology take place in timelines where vampires are an acknowledged (and accepted, in some cases) subset of society. Garth goes in a different direction: society knows vampires are real -- but normal humans can get vaccinated against them. Unless, of course, you're a part of an Amish-like culture like the hero of this story. Like Flying and Gap Year, what makes this story work is that the author concentrates on real-world emotional issues (in this case, not fitting in with your family) and allows the vampire angle to add dimension to the story.
76. Late Bloomer by Suzy McKee Charnas Everyone wants to fit in somewhere. The protagonist of Charnas' story just wants to be as creatively talented as the rest of his family, but he just can't seem to get it right. Then he becomes the temporary thrall of a vampire / antique collector passing through town. Will the experience open up his creativity or stifle it further? And will he survive the experience to find out? There's a decent amount of suspense that kept me moving even when I felt the main character was getting a bit whiny about his lot in life.
77. The List of Definite Endings by Kaaron Warren It's natural that the concepts of vampirism and the terminally-ill go together well. What I'm thankful for is that each of the authors who touch on the combination in this anthology do it differently. Warren's story looks at the terminally-ill from a vampire's perspective, and also touches on her relationship with a man who has continued to age while she's stayed young. It's a very bittersweet tale, in my opinion, and very well done.
78. Best Friends Forever by Cecil Castellucci Another tale of vampires and the terminally-ill, this time looking at the possibilities for friendship between the two, and what might draw two such individuals together before they even know each others' secrets. For some reason, I had a harder time relating to the characters in this story, but even so the very end made me tear up.
79. Sit the Dead by Jeffrey Ford Like Steve Berman's tale, Ford's introduces us to a possible male Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but with a couple of neat twists that I don't want to spoil. Ford's action sequences are possibly the most actually action-filled in this anthology. It's a nice break from the stories that are more introspective and relationship-based, and as such it is perfectly placed at the mid-point of the book. I went back and reread the action sections, that's how much fun I had with them.
80. Sunbleached by Nathan Ballingrud I hope Mr. Ballingrud takes this comment as the compliment it's intended to be: halfway through reading this story, I stopped to make sure I hadn't put down TEETH and picked up my copy of 'SALEM'S LOT instead. This is a throwback to what vampires were meant to be: not eternally-suffering lovers or sympathetic foils, but downright EVIL predators. I could see the ending coming, kept hoping I was wrong, and couldn't stop reading until I got to the end. Again, perfectly placed near the mid-point of the book. The Ford, Ballingrud and Koja stories are so different from what precedes them that they can't help but shine.
81. Baby by Kathe Koja Another very different look at how vampires relate to the mortal world. The actual vampire in this story never says a word, but the narrator's words are more than enough to convey a very skin-crawling icky feeling about the symbiotic relationship between vampire and narrator. I wanted to look away but couldn't.
82. In The Future When All's Well by Catherynne M. Valente In a world where turning into a vampire is almost as easy as sneezing or having a black cat cross your path, how would it feel to watch your friends turn and not turn yourself? It's no secret I love most of Cat Valente's work, and she doesn't let me down here. I could feel the main character's denial turned ambivalence turned ache. Wonderfully done.
83. Transition by Melissa Marr Not a bad story, but not one of my favorites. Marr questions the rules for vampires siring other vampires, and asks a good question: what if you couldn't directly harm the vampire who turned you, but you could no longer stand to be in that person's presence? To what lengths would you go? A good concept, but the story suffers a little bit from what feels like an inconsistent tone. Still, I was intrigued enough to keep reading.
84. History by Ellen Kushner Kushner asks another question that authors of vampire fiction (and tales of other immortals, like the Highlander) should have long-since asked: if you could live virtually forever, would you really want to remember all of the history you experience? Telling the story at a remove (through the eyes of a human girlfriend rather than the eyes of the ages-old vampire) gives the story a quiet quality. The characters' May-December relationship also feels very real.
85. The Perfect Dinner Party by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black Sibling rivalry doesn't go away just because you're both undead. Clare and Black craft an interesting story that leaves much unsaid but chugs along with a strong sense of detail while attempting to reconcile the Victorian image of vampires with the modern day romantic image. It's an experiment that mostly works despite the narrator's initial snobbish delivery.
86. Slice of Life by Lucius Shepard When you've got a reputation, even the undead want to take advantage of you. As with most of the successful stories in this anthology, Shepard concentrates on character first -- a poor girl with something of an out-of-control mother who is just trying to find her way in the world -- and then takes things into the supernatural realm by making the girl's would-be rescuer a vampire. Again, nicely done.
87. My Generation by Emma Bull Another nice poem with some beautiful language.
88. Why Light? by Tanith Lee Another author who never fails to impress. If Nathan Ballingrud's story reminded me of 'Salem's Lot, then Lee's story reminds me of Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling. What if hidden vampire societies were working towards breeding young who could survive, and perhaps even thrive, in sunlight? Lee's story takes a slightly different direction than Butler's, and while shorter still manages to touch on ideas Butler's didn't. Still, I'd say they are excellent companion pieces, and that this story is a great choice to end the anthology with. I'd love to see Lee expand this into a longer piece, or return to this world in other stories.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Catching up on short story commentary
I've fallen way off the pace on my "a short story per day" goal, but here's the latest batch, a bit of a mixed bag of sources and genres.
62. Going For A Beer by Robert Coover, from the March 14, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. It reads like flash fiction -- if it's over 1,000 words it can't be by much since the story is one magazine page long -- and I'm afraid to say I just didn't get it. A whole life squeezed into one page, it seems to be a treatise on how fast life goes and how we don't really notice or remember most of what we do, but I couldn't figure out if all of this was really happening, or if it was the main character's fever dream after too much beer and a bad one night stand. And I found that, ultimately, I really didn't care what happened to the main character.
63. Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I've got a goal of reading all the Holmes stuff in the next year or so (minus the stories I read last year), so I'm picking up the next short story collection. Silver Blaze is a horse-racing related mystery. The titular horse goes missing two nights before a big race, and the trainer is killed. Holmes and Watson come to investigate. I was actually invested in this and was gratified that I figured out the "who" before Holmes revealed it, although I got there a little differently than he did.
64. Fang and Sting by Win Scott Eckert, from The Green Hornet Chronicles Win Eckert crafts another bit of extended Wold-Newton universe fun, putting the Hornet in a difficult situation: an Asian mastermind is framing the Hornet for crimes he is committing, and claiming to be partnership with the Hornet. Britt Reid and Kato have to figure out who the mastermind is, where to find him, and how to stop the crimes and somewhat clear the Hornet's name. There's also a nice bit at the end that fills in what I suspect is a question that has long bothered Hornet fans. I'm not as well-versed on the Hornet's history as some are, but I appreciated the little nod.
65. Zorro's Rival by Win Scott Eckert from More Tales of Zorro Likewise, I'm not as well-versed on the history of Zorro as some. (One of these days, I intend to read that collection of original Zorro stories by Johnston McCulley that's been sitting on my bookshelf for ages.) Once again, Eckert puts together a really fun story about Zorro meeting El Halcon, who also seems to be working for the benefit of the downtrodden people Zorro usually helps. There are the usual Eckert Wold-Newton winks and nods; I'm sure I didn't pick up on all of them. Eckert captures all of the chivalrous derring-do we associate with Zorro thanks to the tv series.
66. If Only To Taste Her Again by E. Catherine Tobler, from Historical Lovecraft. I was intrigued by the concept of the anthology: extending the themes and background of Lovecraft's Chthulu Mythos beyond early 20th century New England. I found out about the anthology through Tobler's LJ (greygirl ) so I read her story first. Set in Ancient Egypt, it hits all the right Lovecraftian notes: a hapless human who slowly becomes aware of the creeping oddness and insanity surrounding him, lots of sensory detail and that feeling that reality has shifted under the narrator's, and the reader's, feet. Returning from a diplomatic mission to a far-away land, the narrator knows that something is not right with the gifts he has brought back for Pharoah Hatshepsut but can't quite vocalize what is wrong. This might be one of my favorite "new Lovecraft" stories ever.
67. The Yellow Face by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Watson starts out this tight little story by noting that it describes one of the few times when Holmes' deduction about a case was wrong. A married man comes to Holmes for advice on the gap that has grown between him and his wife. The hints are all laid out in the man's story, to the point where I (who have never read this story before) called the conclusion ... and yet Holmes gets it wrong. Perhaps Doyle was trying to prove something about his character, but it seems odd to me that this relatively simple case is one of the few where Holmes is wrong ... he not only makes deductions based on what's he's told without investigating in person but he also ignores his own oft-stated maxim about not jumping to conclusions before all the evidence is in. I have to say, while I liked the story's flow, I took no joy in outsmarting The Great Detective.
68. Jefferson's West byjaylake , from Boondocks Fantasy. For this anthology of "urban fantasy gone rural," Jay Lake goes not just rural but remote and historical. What if there was more to the Lewis and Clark expedition than just finding the west coast? What if at least one of the team leaders had a secret agenda? And what if President Jefferson had a premonitory dream about it? Lots of what-ifs that could fill an entire novel. Lake gives us an intriguing story and strong character work in both Lewis and Clark. I won't spoil the twist, but I can say I didn't see it coming (despite well-laid hints) and was pleasantly surprised. I'd actually love to see Jay turn this into a novel (if he hasn't turned into a longer story already).
69. Things To Know About Being Dead by Genevieve Valentine from Teeth: Vampire Tales. Valentine gives us the tale of a young girl who dies in a car crash and comes back as a vampire, as per the traditional Asian myths about where vamps come from and how they behave. This is a side of vampire lore we don't see often -- the focus is usually on the European version. The main character's voice is authentic, and her confusion and anguish really comes through ... as does the personality of her grandmother (despite having very little dialogue) and the other major character who appears. A quiet but really satisfying story for the lead-off spot in anellen_datlow & Terri Windling anthology.
70. Herman Wouk Is Still Alive by Stephen King, from the May 2011 issue of The Atlantic. Right after I read this story, I tweeted: "Devastating. Beautiful and Horrific." And days later, I stand by that. You know from the get-go that this is a story about a car accident, and you're pretty positive you know how it's going to end. But the short journey to that place is emotional and beautifully rendered. The story also has a bit of that old "road disaster tv movie of the week" feel -- we meet several characters whose lives will intersect at the fateful moment, but King puts his own emotional stamp on the trope. And, for those who say "I can't read King because I'm not into supernatural stuff," this is one of his stories that has not even a hint of the ghosty-vampy stuff. It's just a good, solid, punch-to-the-gut story that I can't stop thinking about.
62. Going For A Beer by Robert Coover, from the March 14, 2011 issue of The New Yorker. It reads like flash fiction -- if it's over 1,000 words it can't be by much since the story is one magazine page long -- and I'm afraid to say I just didn't get it. A whole life squeezed into one page, it seems to be a treatise on how fast life goes and how we don't really notice or remember most of what we do, but I couldn't figure out if all of this was really happening, or if it was the main character's fever dream after too much beer and a bad one night stand. And I found that, ultimately, I really didn't care what happened to the main character.
63. Silver Blaze by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I've got a goal of reading all the Holmes stuff in the next year or so (minus the stories I read last year), so I'm picking up the next short story collection. Silver Blaze is a horse-racing related mystery. The titular horse goes missing two nights before a big race, and the trainer is killed. Holmes and Watson come to investigate. I was actually invested in this and was gratified that I figured out the "who" before Holmes revealed it, although I got there a little differently than he did.
64. Fang and Sting by Win Scott Eckert, from The Green Hornet Chronicles Win Eckert crafts another bit of extended Wold-Newton universe fun, putting the Hornet in a difficult situation: an Asian mastermind is framing the Hornet for crimes he is committing, and claiming to be partnership with the Hornet. Britt Reid and Kato have to figure out who the mastermind is, where to find him, and how to stop the crimes and somewhat clear the Hornet's name. There's also a nice bit at the end that fills in what I suspect is a question that has long bothered Hornet fans. I'm not as well-versed on the Hornet's history as some are, but I appreciated the little nod.
65. Zorro's Rival by Win Scott Eckert from More Tales of Zorro Likewise, I'm not as well-versed on the history of Zorro as some. (One of these days, I intend to read that collection of original Zorro stories by Johnston McCulley that's been sitting on my bookshelf for ages.) Once again, Eckert puts together a really fun story about Zorro meeting El Halcon, who also seems to be working for the benefit of the downtrodden people Zorro usually helps. There are the usual Eckert Wold-Newton winks and nods; I'm sure I didn't pick up on all of them. Eckert captures all of the chivalrous derring-do we associate with Zorro thanks to the tv series.
66. If Only To Taste Her Again by E. Catherine Tobler, from Historical Lovecraft. I was intrigued by the concept of the anthology: extending the themes and background of Lovecraft's Chthulu Mythos beyond early 20th century New England. I found out about the anthology through Tobler's LJ (
greygirl ) so I read her story first. Set in Ancient Egypt, it hits all the right Lovecraftian notes: a hapless human who slowly becomes aware of the creeping oddness and insanity surrounding him, lots of sensory detail and that feeling that reality has shifted under the narrator's, and the reader's, feet. Returning from a diplomatic mission to a far-away land, the narrator knows that something is not right with the gifts he has brought back for Pharoah Hatshepsut but can't quite vocalize what is wrong. This might be one of my favorite "new Lovecraft" stories ever.67. The Yellow Face by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. Watson starts out this tight little story by noting that it describes one of the few times when Holmes' deduction about a case was wrong. A married man comes to Holmes for advice on the gap that has grown between him and his wife. The hints are all laid out in the man's story, to the point where I (who have never read this story before) called the conclusion ... and yet Holmes gets it wrong. Perhaps Doyle was trying to prove something about his character, but it seems odd to me that this relatively simple case is one of the few where Holmes is wrong ... he not only makes deductions based on what's he's told without investigating in person but he also ignores his own oft-stated maxim about not jumping to conclusions before all the evidence is in. I have to say, while I liked the story's flow, I took no joy in outsmarting The Great Detective.
68. Jefferson's West by
jaylake , from Boondocks Fantasy. For this anthology of "urban fantasy gone rural," Jay Lake goes not just rural but remote and historical. What if there was more to the Lewis and Clark expedition than just finding the west coast? What if at least one of the team leaders had a secret agenda? And what if President Jefferson had a premonitory dream about it? Lots of what-ifs that could fill an entire novel. Lake gives us an intriguing story and strong character work in both Lewis and Clark. I won't spoil the twist, but I can say I didn't see it coming (despite well-laid hints) and was pleasantly surprised. I'd actually love to see Jay turn this into a novel (if he hasn't turned into a longer story already).69. Things To Know About Being Dead by Genevieve Valentine from Teeth: Vampire Tales. Valentine gives us the tale of a young girl who dies in a car crash and comes back as a vampire, as per the traditional Asian myths about where vamps come from and how they behave. This is a side of vampire lore we don't see often -- the focus is usually on the European version. The main character's voice is authentic, and her confusion and anguish really comes through ... as does the personality of her grandmother (despite having very little dialogue) and the other major character who appears. A quiet but really satisfying story for the lead-off spot in an
ellen_datlow & Terri Windling anthology.70. Herman Wouk Is Still Alive by Stephen King, from the May 2011 issue of The Atlantic. Right after I read this story, I tweeted: "Devastating. Beautiful and Horrific." And days later, I stand by that. You know from the get-go that this is a story about a car accident, and you're pretty positive you know how it's going to end. But the short journey to that place is emotional and beautifully rendered. The story also has a bit of that old "road disaster tv movie of the week" feel -- we meet several characters whose lives will intersect at the fateful moment, but King puts his own emotional stamp on the trope. And, for those who say "I can't read King because I'm not into supernatural stuff," this is one of his stories that has not even a hint of the ghosty-vampy stuff. It's just a good, solid, punch-to-the-gut story that I can't stop thinking about.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Review of Water For Elephants
I vacillated between 3 stars and 4 for this, but after our office book club discussion I settled on the 4. Water For Elephants is a memorable book, and I would recommend it to almost everyone. Being a fan of the science fiction and mystery genres, I wasn't as thrown off by Gruen's alternating time-periods as some would be; most of the novel is told in flashback and the jumps between times are fewer and farther between as the novel progresses. What happens during Jacob's time with Benzini Brothers is the real story here and the modern sequences are simply framing and used to heighten tension. So if the modern scenes had been cut, would the novel have been as effective? I personally think so. While the modern scenes flesh out Jacob's character and do add the secondary tension (how did he get from his life with the circus to a miserable retirement home?), I think they could just as well have been done without. Gruen creates more than enough tension in primary, secondary, and even tertiary storylines surrounding the circus. She does this not only through the four main characters (Jacob, Marlena, August and Rosie) but also by letting Jacob interact with secondary characters (like circus owner Big Al, Walter the dwarf, and Camel the roustabout) and even tertiary characters (Carl, Pete, the other animal handlers and the other animals) and letting their own problems influence Jacob's actions. Two major scenes near the end pull most of these characters together magnificently. And Gruen's descriptions of the world of the traveling circus are terrific -- she gives us all the pomp and circumstance and color we expect from a circus setting, but also brings in the miserable living conditions and dirt around the edges that the workers and animals dealt with. Her ability to mix the colorfulness of the musical BARNUM with the bleakness of the Showtime series CARNIVALE so perfectly really impressed me.
My only real complaint would be in how patly everything wraps up for Jacob after the major events of circus portion of the book -- the explanation of how he got from circus to nursing home feels a little too perfect, a little too "let's wrap everything up and have no loose ends." That might be what keeps me from giving the book an even higher score; to explain further would be to risk spoilers for those who haven't read the book (or seen the movie) and intend to.
My only real complaint would be in how patly everything wraps up for Jacob after the major events of circus portion of the book -- the explanation of how he got from circus to nursing home feels a little too perfect, a little too "let's wrap everything up and have no loose ends." That might be what keeps me from giving the book an even higher score; to explain further would be to risk spoilers for those who haven't read the book (or seen the movie) and intend to.
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