Adventures in reading
This is Kat Howard’s first published story, and very fine it is, too. The five-page tale of a woman who finds herself being literally written into her boyfriend’s fiction (and being pushed out of her own life in the process). It succeeds because of the elegant way it conveys the underlying horror of the situation. On the basis of this piece, Howard is a writer to keep an eye on in future.
Rating: ****
Elsewhere
Kat Howard’s blog
A rather chilling study of Arlette, an elderly woman who has been jealous of her sister Yvonne (apparently more introverted, but luckier in love) since both were young. Meeting the handosme Arthur on a cruise may be just what Arlette needs to come out on top once and for all. Parkhurst’s tale is neatly done, with Arlette’s character emerging stringly from her voice as well as her actions.
Rating: ***½
Elsewhere
Carolyn Parkhurst’s website
Wolfe is one of the greats of science fiction, but I found this story only averagely satisfying; it feels curiously old-fashioned to me. The tale focuses on the three surviving members of a six-person crew sent to explore an alien planet. One of the crew, Leif, is outside the ship as we join the story, and apparently hallucinating. On his return, Leif claims to have brought birds aboard ship with him; his crewmates, Ena and Brennan, doubt him – but soon have reason to question their assumptions.
‘Leif in the Wind’ revolves around the question of whether or not Leif is actually hallucinating; there’s some ambiguity along the way, but not enough, I don’t think, to sustain the story. And I don’t really feel the claustrophobic atmosphere for which the tale seems to be aiming.
Rating: ***
A woman living alone becomes fixated on the case of a girl’s murder, which turns into a resolution to find the body, which the killer claims to have buried. I think O’Nan is aiming to present his protagonist’s search for the body as a search for purpose in life; her obsession is conveyed effectively, but I don’t find the central parallel to be drawn as strongly.
Rating: ***½
Elsewhere
Stewart O’Nan’s website
It’s a skilled writer who can indicate the broad arc of her story within a couple of pages, and not leave the reader feeling short-changed for having that knowledge. Diana Wynne Jones is, of course, a highly skilled writer, and achieves the feat with flair in ‘Samantha’s Diary’.
Our story begins on December 25th, 2233, as well-to-do Samantha returns home to find an unexpected present waiting for her – a Christmas tree, complete with its own bird. Samantha has to look the bird up on the Net, discovering that it is a partridge – and we know, long before she does, what will arrive at Samantha’s door in the coming days. But we don’t know exactly how it will play out, which is what maintains our interest. I won’t say more, except that it’s very funny indeed.
Rating: ****
Elsewhere
Diana Wynne Jones official website
My first experience of reading Palahniuk – and what an experience. ‘Loser’ is a portrait of a student who, according to fraternity tradition, has gone along to a recording of The Price Is Right, taken some acid – and is invited to come on down. Palahniuk’s telling is intense, conveying the disorientation of his protagonist, who can’t remember the name of the show but knows it’s not that one, and is surprised to see bread in its raw state, before made into sandwiches. It may take a moment to return to reality after reading ‘Loser’ – and the story has left me intrigued to read more of Palahniuk’s work.
Rating: ****
Elsewhere
Chuck Palahniuk’s website
I find Jeffrey Ford to be a reliable writer of interesting (by which I mean good) fantasy. This story is a fine example of his talent, as what appears at first to be an evening out for a couple in love proves instead to be more of a nightmare – and the price of escape is high. Ford leaves his readers to piece together exactly what is happening in ‘Polka Dots and Moonbeams’, and I think that’s the key to the tale’s affect, as the real tragedy of the situation emerges gradually from the happiness.
Rating: ****
Elsewhere
Jeffrey Ford’s website
Block’s protagonist calls himself as a catch-and-release fisherman, but what he goes after most often is not fish, but women — he used to kill the women he caught, but now he lets them go (without their necessarily even knowing that they were ‘caught’), and instead imagines what he would have done to them. But perhaps it’s time for a change…
Naturally, this character’s mind is a deeply unpleasant place to be, making ‘Catch and Release’ disturbing to read. But the story achieves its effect well, as Block maintains the suffocating (for the reader) focus of his protagonist’s viewpoint, and ramps up the tension as the tale moves towards what may be (though one hopes not) the inevitable.
Rating: ***½
A relatively short piece about a young guru named Spencer Mallon, who is travelling in India with his spiritual leader Urdang, when he discovers that his genuine powers of healing may not be the unalloyed blessing he thinks they are. I wasn’t sure what to make of this story when I read it — it was well-enough told, but it didn’t seem to have much in the way of consequence.
Since then I’ve discovered that the character of Mallon features in A Dark Matter, Straub’s latest novel, which may help to explain things somewhat — I wonder if the story would work better for me if I’d read the novel and knew more about Spencer Mallon’s life. But, really, I’d prefer stories that are presented as stand-alone to actually stand alone, and ‘Mallon the Guru’ doesn’t do that very well.
Rating: ***
Elsewhere
Peter Straub’s website
Reading Michael Swanwick tends to remind me that I should read him more often, and that’s what happened with this story.
‘Goblin Lake’ has the atmosphere and style of a folktale, but with a metafictional twist. During the Thirty Years’ War, a soldier named (of course) Jack is, for a prank, thrown into a lake whose waters are said to change anything they touch. Beneath the surface, Jack finds a whole other world where time passes rather differently, falls in love with the king of the lake’s daughter, and so on.
Except it’s not ‘and so on’, because the world is not as Jack thinks, and he has a decision to make. This is a beautifully told tale, which engenders a frisson of that true fantasy feeling towards the end as one allows oneself to consider, just briefly, what it might mean if the story were true. Yes, I must read more Swanwick…
Rating: ****
Elsewhere
Michael Swanwick’s blog
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