With a short fiction collection edited by Ellen Datlow (think The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, in its many editions), it’s hard to expect anything but the best. The collection doesn’t disappoint; it’s beautiful, not only in its individual stories, but in the elegant collection of the whole. Ms. Datlow knows how to create a collective where each story supports the other.
That said, it should be noted the title is a little misleading; don’t expect any hard science fiction here, and expect the fantasy to range from so subtle you could miss it to brutally dark. And that’s not the only irregularity; whether it’s more of a trend than we’ve noticed before or whether it was Ms. Datlow’s choice, there’s an unsettling note of open-endedness that occurs story after story. In fact, it’s almost startling how much, despite their exceptionally varied styles and content (speculative fiction on subjects from volcanoes to fairy tales) the stories feel of a kind.
That isn’t to say, of course, there aren’t distinctive stories, or the occasional letdown. “Shira,” Lavie Tidhar’s story that begins with wonderful promise in an alternate world after “the Small Holocaust” falls flat at the end with a fairly typical story-within-story setting. It seems included more for variety of geography and style than anything else (which is, admittedly, one of the greatest pleasures of reading this collection). “Sonny Liston Takes the Fall,” on the other hand, is a remarkable piece, the story of a boxer’s bygone days. In a genre where white men have sometimes seemed like the only characters (and sometimes the only players as well), Elizabeth Bear continues to impress with heartbreakingly real characters of all types – and all types of stories, as well. Would that we had more Ms. Bears.
Other exceptional stories include the opening story, “The Elephant Ironclads,” where two young Navajo boys try to make a little money off tourists, only to end in dangerous circumstances; the ending story, “Prisoners of the Action,” where aliens are causing their guards to go a little insane, in a bizarrely comedic (though still dark) story that plays on uncomfortable memories of Abu Ghraib crimes; Lucy Sussex’s “Ardent Clouds,” the magical story of a photographer with a love for volcanoes at their worst; and the (really) twisted fairy tale, “The Goosle,” troubling in the best, most satisfying and goose-pimply sense.
In short, it’s another fantastic collection, and should be jumped on. Enjoy.
To buy a copy of this book, click here
If you liked this book, check out:
The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection
Black Juice
Hammered, by Elizabeth Bear
Scardown, by Elizabeth Bear
Worldwired, by Elizabeth Bear